Local Author Talks Process, Publishing at Indian Prairie

Author Kevin Guilfoile always wanted to be a writer, but never thought he would be a writer.

“I always thought writers were other people,” he said.

But after emailing author Dave Eggers about how to get a copy of Eggers’ literary journal McSweeney’s in Chicago—and getting a personal response—Guilfoile said he decided to send him some short humor pieces.

Eggers published them, and soon The Morning News and Salon.com were publishing Guilfoile’s work too.

Now with two novels under his belt and a third in the works, Guilfoile can unquestionably call himself a writer—and he shared stories about his process, as well as the publishing industry during a talk Thursday at . 

Rather than abide the cliché “write what you know,” Guilfoile, who lives in the western suburbs, said he’s more interested in writing about what intrigues him. 

Guilfoile’s second novel, The Thousand, originated in his curiosity about the intersection of art, music, math and philosophy—how thousands of years ago intellectuals considered them the same discipline, while today the deep knowledge of each has pushed them apart.

A conversation with a former professor from his college years at Notre Dame convinced Guilfoile to integrate into the story elements from the Greek philosopher Pythagoras.

Pythagoras’ ideas about numbers and their connection with the universe were incredibly far ahead of his time, yet they make up the foundation of just about, well, everything, Guilfoile said. (Except, ironically, the Pythagorean theorem, which Pythagoras did not actually devise.)

Guilfoile does most of his writing in the morning, when his two young children are in school. He quit his full-time job in advertising to concentrate on writing after he sold his first book, Cast of Shadows, to publisher Knopf in October 2003.

Incidentally, his friend John Hodgman connected him with an agent. Then primarily a writer, Hodgman is now known as the PC Guy in the infamous Mac commercials and also appears regularly on The Daily Show.

Guilfoile said he hopes to complete his third novel by the end of the summer. The book, tentatively titled Nevermore, tells the story of how a woman’s disappearance in Chicago’s western suburbs affects the people of her town.

“A common theme between The Thousand and the book I’m working on now is I keep coming back to the theme of imperfect information,” he said. “People constantly have to make important decisions when they only know a small percent of the truth.” 

Angela McGreal and members of her book club attended Thursday’s talk after recently having read The Thousand. She selected the novel after reading a positive review in the Chicago Tribune.

“He was featured as a Chicago writer, so I thought, why not?” McGreal said.

Though she selected it on a whim, she said the story enthralled her. 

“[Guilfoile] weaves a story but doesn’t connect the dots,” McGreal said. “I’m more accustomed to books that connect the dots. You really have to think.”

Mieko Fujiura, who works in the library’s circulation department, said she enjoyed the chance to hear an author speak about his work in such a conversational way.

“It’s always interesting understanding an author’s viewpoint,” she said.

Guilfoile, too, spoke of the connection novels intrinsically make between their authors and their readers.

“Every reader reads a different book,” he said. “The author brings his experience and bias, and the reader brings those too. The alchemy happens when the reader and author’s experiences meet.”