"As the younger brother takes my picture, he asks why the newspaper is doing a story on me. 'Oh, I'm a writer,' I tell him. I'm too embarrassed to say I'm running for Congress. I make sure he digitally fixes my turkey neck and softens my wrinkles before we e-mail the photo to Folio Weekly in Jacksonville."
That's just one unvarnished moment from author Richard Grayson's epic political memoir for McSweeney's magazine--a first-person look at how it feels to be steamrolled by a political machine, Diary of a Congressional Candidate.
Besides being a Five Easy Questions graduate, Grayson's career has already included more hats than most writers wear in an entire lifetime: lawyer, political candidate, activist, and teacher.
Today he weighs in with some very level-headed advice for young, frustrated writers. I know many of you have felt these pressures to find a more lucrative career, but Grayson reminds us that those are dangerous impulses.
"Do not go to law school because you are frustrated with your writing "career." You should go to law school only if you have gained a realistic sense of what to expect from law school and from a legal career and considered and ruled out other fields," he writes.
Check out Grayson's bid for Congress, another step in a life full of suprises. Let's see how his new political adventure turns up in his writing.