He says he had hoped that the completion of his first book would make writing an easier process for him, but he has since been disappointed.
“I think that when I wrote Confessions, I thought [the struggle with writing] would be over,” he says, “and that’s not true.”
But the work has helped Alson earn an honest living.
“I made enough money off of it to give me a few years,” he says. “It gave me some legitimacy as a writer. I’m now ready to take advantage of that.”
But legitimacy has not come without a price: Alson says Confessions has made his love life more difficult than it had been.
“My current girlfriend, Alice, actually had the misfortune to request to read the book early on in our relationship,” he says. “That’s a mistake I won’t make the next time—if there is a next time.”
—Staff writer Alexander J. Blenkinsopp can be reached at blenkins@fas.harvard.edu.