The Write Stuff: Mark Abramson on the Importance of Sensible Conservatives

The Write Stuff is a series of interview profiles conducted by Litseen, where authors give exclusive readings from their work.

Mark Abramson was a San Francisco bartender during the worst years of the AIDS crisis. He was also involved in several of the major fundraising events of the times, from gay bars to street fairs to the waterfront piers and theaters in between. He is the author of the new memoir For My Brothers that recounts those years and the best-selling Beach Reading mystery series, set in the present day Castro neighborhood.

When people ask what do you do, you tell them... ?

I tell them I'm a writer. I always have been, but it took the publication of my first few books to be able to claim that for myself.

What's your biggest struggle -- work or otherwise?

Finding enough hours in the day for everything I want to do plus take naps.

If someone said I want to do what you do, what advice would you have for them?

Read a lot. Figure out what kind of writing you relate to and read even more of that genre. Then write. Don't be afraid to copy another writer's style at first. You'll develop your own. Read some more. Write some more.