Welcome to Author Cameron Stracher.
Bio:
Cameron Stracher was born and raised in Roslyn, Long Island. At a young age, he wanted to be a writer, and had his first play produced while an undergraduate at Amherst College. After college, he retreated to Woods Hole, Massachusetts, where he tried write the Great American Novel. Failing miserably, he enrolled at Harvard Law School, where he still managed to take a writing workshop from Mary Robison at Harvard College. He returned to Woods Hole after earning his J.D. degree, and was the only waiter at the Coonamessett Inn who was also admitted to the New York State bar. Finally, succumbing to parental and financial pressure, he got a real job at Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C., where he lasted for one year before fleeing for the Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa.
He spent four years in Iowa City, studying under Frank Conroy, James Salter, Marilynne Robinson, Meg Wolitzer, and Deborah Eisenberg. More important, he met his wife, Christine Pakkala, a poet, while she was serving cheese samples at the food co-op. After Christine graduated, the couple moved to New York City where Cameron practiced law at Friedman & Kaplan, and then became in-house counsel at CBS, handling libel, privacy, copyright and other claims for the network. One of the highlights of his career during those years was getting Dan Rather out of jury duty.
Cameron won a fiction fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts in 1994, and his first novel, The Laws of Return, was published by William Morrow in 1996. His non-fiction account of his life as a law firm associate, Double Billing: A Young Lawyer's Tale of Greed, Sex, Lies, and a Swivel Chair, was also published by Morrow in 1998. He left CBS in 1999 and joined the media law firm Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz, where he became partner and helped open the New York office. In 2001, he began teaching at New York Law School, and eventually became the Publisher of the Law Review and the Co-Director of the school's new Program in Law & Journalism. His second book of non-fiction, Dinner with Dad: How I Found My Way Back to the Family Table, was published by Random House in 2007. This summer Cameron left New York Law School to spend more time writing and with his family.
At present, he is Of Counsel to Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz, and has his own private practice where he counsels media clients like Hybrid Films, producer of the hit TV series Dog the Bounty Hunter, and Al Roker Entertainment, on newsgathering and publishing risks. He also handles all pre-publication review for Star magazine and all litigation for other American Media publications.
In addition to his books, Cameron has written for The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The American Lawyer (where he is a contributing editor), and many other publications. He is an avid runner, and is currently working on a book about the running boom and the 1970s for Random House, as well as on several YA projects. He lives in Westport, Connecticut, with his wife and two children, Simon and Lulu, for whom he wrote his YA debut novel, The Water Wars.
Interview:
If you could have any superpower what would you choose?
I would definitely choose invisibility because I would want to see and hear what people were saying about me.
What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?
My favorite thing is probably a cheese omelette with mushrooms and carmelized onions, but nearly every day I have 1/2 a peanut butter sandwich because I am a creature of habit, and I'm old enough to start worrying about my cholesterol.
Night owl, or early bird?
Used to be a night owl, but thanks to the miracles of caffeine I am now an early bird.
What was your favorite book when you were a child/teen?
My favorite book was Dune because I loved the world Frank Herbert created, and its mythological and political structure.
What's one piece of advice you would give aspiring authors?
Read! Too many people want to write who don't have time to read. If you don't read, you can't write.
What is your favorite Quote?
"A foolish consistency is the hobgobblin of little minds."
What's the craziest writing idea you've had?
I wanted to write a book about the end of the universe. And so I am.
What's the best advice anyone has ever given you?
"Keep you day job."
How do you react to a bad review?
"Very badly."
What do you do in your free time?
Right now I am training to run a marathon in Vermont with my friend Keith. It will be the first marathon I've run since 1991, and only my third marathon ever. I hope I can finish.
If someone wrote a book about your life, what would the title be?
"Caffeine is My Only Friend."
How did you celebrate the sale of your first book?
I bought a car. A green Volkswagen Passat.
What TV show/movie/book do you watch/read that you'd be embarrassed to admit?
The Hannah Montana show.
The Water Wars by Cameron Stracher:
Welcome to a future where water is more precious than gold or oil-and worth killing for
Vera and her brother, Will, live in the shadow of the Great Panic, in a country that has collapsed from environmental catastrophe. Water is hoarded by governments, rivers are dammed, and clouds are sucked from the sky. But then Vera befriends Kai, who seems to have limitless access to fresh water. When Kai suddenly disappears, Vera and Will set off on a dangerous journey in search of him-pursued by pirates, a paramilitary group, and greedy corporations. Timely and eerily familiar, acclaimed author Cameron Stracher makes a stunning YA debut that's impossible to forget.
Giveaway Details:
1 copy of The Water Wars
Open to US only
Ends 5/24
