Interview With Author C.J.S. Hayward
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am an Eastern Orthodox author with a main contribution to the conversation being study of how we can live a human life in a technologized world.
A Pack of Cigarettes for the Mind represents a collection of my very best work and an introduction to the topic.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
A Pack of Cigarettes for the Mind was built to win a Pulitzer, and is no a Pulitzer nominee. After working on large collections, this was chosen to be simpler and cut straight towards the very best of a very large collection.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
In my works, especially earlier works but including some recent entries, I try to work out what to say and what genre in which to say it. (I've written in a lot of genres.) The writing process is a sort of wrestling both to master the work and get myself out of the work's way so it can be processed as it should be.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
C.S. Lewis, for starters, and G.K. Chesterton. I was much affected by Madeleine l'Engle in my youth but now I have been drawn through other authors. I am presently reading through the whole collection of St. John Chrysostom ("Chrysostom" is Greek for "Golden Mouth").
I haven't read all that's out there, but I have read most critiques of technology out there, with the exception of Ted Kazynski, because I don't want to read someone whose claim to fame is sensational murder. I wrote on one series description:
Have you read Amusing Ourselves to Death, Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television, The Plug-in Drug, The Shallows, etc.?
This book is different. It doesn't just analyze the problem; it works for strategies and solutions, and it draws on the full resources of a great spiritual tradition, that of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
What are you working on now?
Right now I'm working on reading through St. John's collection. He is a masterful writer.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
My main website at https://cjshayward.com has a very long reach. It has about five thousand unique visitors per day, and individual works have a link to be able to buy the collection it belongs to.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
My best works are nothing that I can summon by simply deciding to write. Instead something comes to me half-formed, and I try to sound out what it is and how to say it, as articulated above.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
For writers, probably that writing is an excellent second job. A very few authors have writing pay for itself; for the rest of us, you can be a great author with excellent impact without having writing work as a sole income.
What are you reading now?
One of St. John Chrysostom's commentaries.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Collecting all the newer works on my website into my C.J.S. Hayward: The Complete Works collection. My signal contribution to the conversation is writing about Orthodoxy, technology, and life, but that's only about 20% of what I've written.
The Best of Jonathan's Corner is a Swiss Army Knife of a collection that collects much of my best writing across the board.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
The New Testament and Septuagint, preferably in an English-Greek parallel version.
The Philokalia and the works St. Isaac the Syrian. I'm not reading them right now (I'm working on more basic reading), but stranded with a lot of time, they'd be invaluable.
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