“I’m still trying to be a novelist,” PBS’s Jim Lehrer tells USA Today‘s Craig Wilson. Lehrer’s 19th book — Oh, Johnny — debuts today.
“At the time of my 10th book, I thought, ‘I am now a writer,'” he says. “But no, I’m still the TV guy. I’ve always felt it was a little bit bragging to say you’re a writer, to say ‘I’m a novelist.'”
Johnny tells the fictional tale of a World War II soldier, Johnny Wrigley, who falls in love with a woman he meets at a train station in Wichita, Kansas.
Lehrer, a Wichita native, says he frequently stays in a hotel back in his hometown to do his writing. “I know. Some people go to the beach. I go to Kansas.”
Lehrer tells Wilson he’s finished his next novel — #20 — and plans to “just keep going. I’m feeling great after my last operation [heart surgery]. It’s going to happen (retirement), but when?”