David Gilbert Reading
David Gilbert reads from his novel entitled The Normals. During a brief question and answer session, Gilbert explains the research he conducted for his novel, where he visited a facility where healthy individuals take part in drug trials for medical research purposes. He explains that these “human guinea pigs” are part of the “Phase One” of many phases of drug testing. Gilbert points out that he performed just enough research so that he could take the concept and stretch it a bit farther, instead of creating a more truthful account.
Gilbert goes on to detail his process in writing The Normals, explaining that during his writing he developed an obsession for which he sought professional help. He explains how he had become obsessed with the spacing of words and margins while typing, and began to write so that each line of his novel was the perfect length. Gilbert humorously claims that, after seeing a psychologist for his problem, it was ultimately solved when he purchased a new computer which had an auto-hyphenate feature on the word processing program.
In: "Live from Prairie Lights" Audio Archive | Fiction
Authors: David Gilbert
Date Recorded: October 19, 2004
Works Read: The Normals by David Gilbert
Program: Live From Prairie Lights
Format: reading
Contributors: Introductions by host Julie Englander as well as Paul Ingram from Prairie Lights Books.
Topics: research process, short story writing, obsessive behavior