Author of "As Time Goes By"

January 08, 1999

Author Michael Walsh who discusses his book "As Time Goes By" (the sequel to "Casablanca"), re-creating the legendary story of Rick and Ilsa, and the trials and tribulations of the writing process.

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NetCafeLive: Welcome to Borders NetCafeLive. We host authors and celebrities throughout the month. Thanks for joining us! For more information on upcoming chats, new authors and to sign up for the Borders.com Newsletter please go to www.borders.com/netcafe/index.html. Borders NetCafeLive is a joint production of Borders.com (tm) & Talk City (tm), a Talk City, Inc. Production. Tonight's Special guest is Michael Walsh, author of "As Time Goes By". Please help me welcome Michael Walsh to Talk City.

Michael Walsh: Good evening everyone I'm glad to be here.

NetCafeLive: Good evening Michael welcome to Talk City, we are very pleased to have you here with us this evening.

Michael Walsh: Thank you NetCafeLive this is a new experience for me, an online interview.

NetCafeLive: How did you come up with the idea of a sequel to "Casablanca" Michael?

Michael Walsh: NetCafeLive the publisher, Warner books suggested the project to me and after thinking about it for a while I took it up.

Ky1: Michael how did you become involved with being the editor and publisher of the German-language magazine "Munich Found"?

Michael Walsh: Ky1, actually that was my wife that was the editor and publisher of that magazine, so I had very little to do with that. We were living in Germany at the time.

KAT-KAT 19: Are they the same characters? I mean, will the characters be the same as it was before in "Casablanca"? Or is it like, their sons/daughters will be the main people?

Michael Walsh: Yes. They are the same characters, but they go through a much greater transformation then they did in the movie.

KAT-KAT 19: So, they'll be old?

Michael Walsh: It takes place between 1931 and 1942, so they really won't be that much older.

Romalove: Did you have permission from whoever owns the rights to the original "Casablanca"to do the sequel?

Michael Walsh: Yes romalove. This book was published on October 7th and has been released.

NetCafeLive: Did you have any fears about writing a sequel to a classic movie like "Casablanca"? What may they have been?

Michael Walsh: Basically, to do justice to the characters, and to expand the story without damaging it in any way.

Shoobydoowap: How long did it take you to write the sequel?

Michael Walsh: It took about two years from discussing it with the editor to the final publication.

Romalove: Is there a movie already planned for the book, and will you be writing the screenplay?

Michael Walsh: The movie rights belong to Warner Brothers, Romalove.

Prezzi: How does it feel like being an author? Where did you get your ideas from and how you start off a book/novel? What is the most difficult thing? And last, what is your BEST advice to improve someone's writing skill?

Michael Walsh: The best way to improve your writing is to write a lot --and read a lot. I read everything I can get my hands on, including fiction and on-fiction. Being an author is a lot of fun if you enjoy sitting alone in a room and typing 10 hours a day with no family or friends to interrupt you and no -- NO -- television! Finally, you never know where ideas come from -- if we knew it would make life a lot easier.

Prezzi: Oh . . . so what will your best advice be to improve your writing skill as an author?

Michael Walsh: As I said, you have to write a lot -- and spelling counts! A lot of people say they want to be writers, but there's a lot of work involved that you might not think about off hand -- research, for example.

Gail38: When you started writing this book, did you know exactly what you wanted to do, and where to go with the characters beforehand or did you start writing and let the ideas come to you as you go along?

Michael Walsh: Let me amplify the movie deal -- the rights belong to Warner Bros., which assigned them to Warner Books, which is how they came to me. Now they've gone back to the studio, which can make a movie if it wishes to. In answer to gail38 -- you always know where you're going with a story, both in a broad outline and in some detail. Sometimes things happen that surprise the author (it happened to me in my first novel "Exchange Alley"), but you MUST know the beginning and ending of your story in order to write coherently.

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