In like a Lamb

Wally Lamb doesn't hesitate to admit he's like his father.

'Ask him the time and he'll tell you how to build a clock,” he says as an example of how his father's answers to questions tend to be drawn out.

Attendees at the New York Times best-selling author's talk - part of the Metro Library Network's Out Loud! Author Series - on Friday night may hear a few of Lamb's own tales.

He will appear at the Kirkwood Hotel at 7 p.m. on Friday and plans to read from his latest book - 'We are Water” - as well as talk about his career, including what it's like to get the call from Oprah, twice in fact.

'Getting the call from Oprah changed my life,” he says.

He'll also share his thoughts about the movie in the works for his book 'Wishin' and Hopin: A Christmas Story.” Lamb is serving as executive producer for the film that will premiere on Lifetime this Christmas season.

'I've always been fascinated by movies and I always wanted to be on the inside. So this is partly fun, partly work and partly educational,” he says

This will be his first visit to Iowa. And he's looking forward to it.

The question and answer portion of the evening will inevitably be his favorite part, he says.

'I love that part the best because I'm always interested in what readers want to know. And I learn stuff about my own work by listening to the observations of readers.”

Lamb also wants people to know that despite some of his more serious subject matter in his books, he has a pretty good sense of humor.

'I like to kid with readers and tease them.”

Lamb says that unlike some writers, he's comfortable in front of a crowd.

'For me it's very relaxing and I have a good time. When I'm with an audience and we are going back and forth I draw on my teaching experience. I enjoy that interchange.”

Lamb taught high school for several years before becoming and author.

In fact, 'She's Come Undone” - which was chosen as an Oprah Book Club selection in December 1996, bringing millions of readers to Lamb - was greatly influenced by his years spent teaching high school students, particularly troubled teenage girls.

While he no longer teaches in the school system, Lamb has volunteered his teaching time for the last 16 years at a writing workshop for incarcerated women in Connecticut's only maximum security prison.

'These women are hungry to learn what they can about writing. They have been exciting students to work with.” He has worked on two anthologies with them in fact.

Working with the women has also influenced his writing.

'Being on the receiving end of their stories has set into my fiction,” he says. 'Really different books are influenced by different things. I put my radar up and whatever piques my interest is what I work from. Then I create a network of lies from there and here comes a novel.”

'We are Water” is a prime example. In crafting the story, Lamb put together two childhood memories - a devastating flood when was 11 years old and two boys who were rescued from the waters by their parents and the story of an African American outsider artist who lived in his hometown of Norwich, Conn., yet died under mysterious circumstances.

'The only thing those two events had in common was the town. I just made them have something to do with each other for my story.”

Lamb's own story as a writer got started much later than most.

'I was 30 years old when I sat down and wrote my first short story,” he says. 'I actually wrote the first sentence the same day our first kid was born.”

Now well into his career, Lamb knows he's been blessed professionally and personally. He and his wife Christine celebrated their 36th wedding anniversary last week.

'I've had a really good life, supportive parents and a wonderful family. Not everyone gets those breaks,” he says. 'And I had such a rare thing happen as a writer. There are so many good writers out there and I thought why did Oprah call me? And then she called again. So I decided if the universe was going to give me this then I'm trying in my own small way to make the world a better place.”