Q & A with Paul O'Neill

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

I usually write in the morning and afternoon and rarely, if ever, at night. There was a small bedroom in my house which I turned into an office. It has a large computer desk which fills a corner, two filing cabinets, and a bookcase wall filled with all Newfoundland books which I have handy for research,, as I constantly refer to one or other of them.

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

I wrote my first five novels when I was in grade nine about a girl amateur sleuth named Sadie Young each filling an exercise book and with Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys type stories. I was the class valedictorian in 1948. In 1942 the R.C. church paper The Monitor published an article I sent from London where I was living. My first published book in 1968 was a self-published book of poetry. My first professionally published was Legends of A Lost Tribe (imaginary folk tales of the Beothuck Indians), which McClelland & Stewart published in 1968.

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

I was a producer and afterwards an executive producer with CBC radio and television for over thirty years.

4. What are you reading now?

At the moment I am reading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins which I find fascinating.

5. Who is your favourite author(s)?

My favourite author is difficult to name as I have several—Robert Nathan, Han Suyin, Walter Lord, and Rummer Godden are the front runners.

6. What kind of music do you listen to?

I enjoy classical and opera.

7. What is your favourite movie(s)?

I think I would have to say I Know Where I’m Going, which starred Dame Wendy Hiller (then plain Wendy Hiller), as I was in high school at the time in the mid-1940s. Egad, that was 60 years ago!

8. What do you like to do in your free time?

I like to entertain a few friends, listen to music, read, and go for quiet drives around the countryside.

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

This is difficult as there have been so many exciting times in history, but I am truly glad to have lived as an adult from 1950 to 2000. I believe they were truly golden years for the arts.

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

Why do I have such an interest in writing history?

My father, who was born in 1883, used to tell me many stories from history when I was a boy. I remember sitting in his lap at night in the 1930s and listening to his tales, which fascinated me. The stories ranged from the Boar War in 1898 to the riots at the Colonial Building in 1933. He infected me with his love of history.