Q & A with Ed Smith

1. If you could live during any time period and in any place, when and where would you choose?

Right now! I can’t think of a more challenging and inspiring time to be alive! Of course, I’d like to be twenty years old at the same time!

2. What kind of music do you listen to?

Practically everything. On my night shelf, my going-to-sleep music includes featured pop music from the ’60s and ’70s, country hits from the same period, light opera, folk songs, Nana Mouskouri, Willie Nelson, several Broadway shows, Andrew Lloyd Webber songs, and so on and so on. I have to confess with shame and embarrassment that I’m not overly fond of most Newfoundland music. Exceptions are Buddy Wassisname and the Other Fellas and Phyllis Morrissey.

3. What is your favourite food?

Jiggs dinner, pea soup, and fishermen’s brewis.

4. What is your favourite movie(s)?

Two very old ones: Sergeant York and High Noon. Also, Waking Ned Divine and Fargo.

5. Who is your favourite author(s)?

Bernice Morgan, Alastair MacLean, Bishop John Spong, and me.

6. What was your favourite book(s) when you were a child?

The Hardy Boys and R. L. Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses.

7. What other jobs have you had besides being a writer?

Not counting summer jobs: teacher, high school and college principal, and student minister.

8. When do you like to write (time of day, day of week)? Where do you do your writing (location)?

I prefer afternoons and evenings. Unfortunately that’s when the phone and the doorbell ring most often. I do practically all my writing at home because my quadraplegia keeps me more or less tied there. Finding time without interruption is a constant challenge.

9. What was your first piece in print (book, review, or article, etc)?

My first printed article was in the Newfoundland Quarterly and I received second prize for an essay with the original title, “How I Spent My Summer Holidays.” The second place money was $10. I was somewhat chagrined to learn later that mine was the only entry submitted. I suppose I should be thankful I didn’t get the third prize of $5.

10. Make a question of your own and then answer it.

What has satisfied me most about my professional life?

That I have had the privilege of being two of what I consider to be the three most noble professions: healer, teacher, and writer.