I once read an interview with a guitar player-can’t remember who, maybe U2’s The Edge-who said that he could tell the difference between the kind of solos he played after a full day of travel and the kind he played after having a day off to read great books and partake of great art. Pete Peterson wrote a blog post a couple days ago about this same concept, something he learned from Stephen King’s book On Writing, one of my favorite books about writing.

In Stephen King’s book On Writing, he refers to the creative force behind his work as the little gnome that he keeps in the basement. When King sits down to write, the gnome, if he’s been treated well, passes his stories up through the cracks in the floorboards and, a page at a time, a book begins to take shape.

If you haven’t read On Writing, you should. It’s a great book, both a memoir and a manual. One of the most enduring things that I took away from it was this concept of the gnome in the basement, a grimy little guy down there in the dark that’s slaving away at all hours, stockpiling his little tales, and essays, and notes so that when the lazy tenant upstairs comes knocking, he’s got something to offer up. The key to the keeping of the gnome is that the little guy needs to be well-kept.

Read the rest of Pete’s post.

A couple weeks ago on a flight to Seattle, I read Pete’s debut novel The Fiddler’s Gun (published by the Rabbit Room Press) cover to cover, starting when I boarded the plane in Nashville and finishing shortly before we landed in Seattle. I’m planning on writing a proper review at some point in the near future to talk about how much I loved it, but for now I’ll say that if you haven’t read it yet, you really should. You can find out more about it on Pete’s website.