Who: Larry Specht
Where: Washington, DC
What: Larry has just completed a novel: Now Appearing in Baghdad. It’s a black comedy about an American software salesman who winds up in Baghdad a year after the US invasion. He figures he is the ultimate hip war profiteer, but pretty quickly he’s in way over his head and consequently looses it.
A chapter from the novel was published as the short story The Cat Came Back in Fifth Wednesday Journal. You can read it here on Larry’s site.
When he’s at his day job, Larry’s an organizer in the international department of a major American union running several projects in the Middle East.
In His Words:
What do you consider most valuable about your time at La Muse?
Time enough to write for once in my life.
AND: The beauty of the place - the buildings that make up La Muse itself, the tiny village, the name of which I will never be able to spell or pronounce, and the narrow, forested valley where the village perches - gave me a kind of energy and enthusiasm that is decidedly lacking in Washington.
AND: The owners, Kerry and John, who are discreet and charming; wonderful raconteurs; sources of wisdom, literary and practical; and wizards in putting together compatible groups of creative people.
AND: Our fellows at La Muse who were fascinating dinner and hiking companions, but all of them were at La Muse to work and they mostly disappeared during the daylight hours. The chance to talk with them at the end of the day was a treat that my companion, Judith, and I looked forward to every day.
Larry’s currently working on a second novel set in Lebanon.
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