Writer's Notebook

Ladies and gentleman, welcome to this week's 3WW writers podcast. Our guest this evening is Clint Knowall, who has just published to great critical acclaim the first of what we hope will be many academic tomes from his illustrious pen. Clint will be talking to us about his life as a writer and also about this week's key words: grave, lithe and offend.

Q. Clint, what made you decide to become a writer?

A. To show my kid brother, there was at least one thing in life I could do better than him. All my life I've suffered from being compared unfavourably to him. It all began with his having been born some three years after me. Because of that he became known as the patient one, the one who would take his time and see things through to a good end. I was the impetuous one in the family. You know the kind; lots of ideas and no results. And ever since my parents were always telling me to try and become a little more like my brother.

Q. So, your brother is also a writer?

A. Of sorts. It all started one day I visited him at our lakeside retreat only to disover he was writing a novel. He'd actually been at it for some three months and all he had was a pretty sketchy plot plan, a character who vaguely resembled our dad (not an original in any sense of the word) and a few odd paragraphs which would fit somewhere into his work. I didn't day much as I didn't want to offend him but there and then, I decided I would show him how it is done.

Q. And you succeeded?

A. Of course, I succeeded. You almost sound like my parents. I'll have you know that success is the one word they'll write on my grave.

Q. So, how many works have you actually published?

A. Publishing is for authors like my brother. Me, I'm a true artist, and like all true artists I'm not recognised by the public at large. That also includes publishers. Most publishers today, do not know what genius is. They turn down the work of a true genius like me, and put some rubbish inside a lithe paperback cover and there you are.

Q. So, is that why you turned to academic writing?

A. Yes well, we all have to pay the bills somehow, even a genius like me. Academic writing was the one way I found to be able to do this without selling my sould.

Q. And what is the title of your latest work?

A. A study in the semantics of rejection letters. Not exactly a fascinating topic. In fact, I only chose it because my tutor insisted I work from original sources. And like all geniuses, I had plenty of material with which to work from.

Q. And finally, what do you think about our this week's key words?

Well, usually I'm as lithe as a snake in getting out of questions like these, but as I don't want to offend you, I'll gave you a truly grave answer.