Quite live, yo, and you can read the full interview at LitReactor here. You can also read an excerpt below. And, if you're even remotely interested in interviewing Marc about Memories Live Here, reviewing the book or supporting the promotion of the book yourself do let me know.
I look forward to digging into Memories Live Here with you, but first, I want to know what prompted you to launch this second career as a writer after your long time career in finance.
I think like many things in my life, the idea of writing as a second act, evolved. Even while I was still working in finance, I’d known for quite some time that I wanted to pursue something very different from what I had been doing in corporate America. But it really came out of an exploration of several areas. I volunteered my time with a few not for profits that helped underserved high school students. I became an advisor to start ups and joined some boards. But I also enrolled in a local writers’ workshop, wanting to see if I could recapture some of that feeling I remember from my high school years—back when I really thought I was going to become a writer. The workshop gave us a simple prompt—not even a complete sentence, and said, “Okay, for the next twenty minutes, write from that prompt—take it wherever you want.” And I was off to the races. Minutes later I sat there with two full pages in front of me, trying to bring myself out of this trance. It wasn’t just a mental trance, I also felt a physical transformation. What a rush! It’s hard to explain but it was like an energy was running through me. But it’s interesting, Ben. Memories Live Here came from one of those early prompt classes—a riff from that one sentence that kept going. It’s an unbelievable feeling that I’m already carrying into my second novel. So, I guess it’s less of a feeling that I’m "launching a second career" than just doing what I love to do, and I’m thrilled that my readers seem to “get" what I’ve been trying to convey in my work.