Authors Answer: Michael Pepper
Authors Answer Q&A #517
Author interviews almost always focus on questions regarding an author’s latest publication (and that’s great because it’s how readers discover new books!) but sometimes it’s fun to ask authors to talk about their lives beyond the book they’ve just written. Authors Answer (started as a blog in 2020, moved onto Substack in 2025), is an attempt to give authors space to wax eloquent about the other influences on their writing. The questions posed here move beyond the formulaic classics like, “What books are on your nightstand?” or “What book inspired you to be a writer?” and even “You’re having a dinner party….which three authors (dead or alive) do you invite?” There are 20 standing questions. Authors pick FIVE that they want to answer.
Are you an author? Visit the Questions page to learn more about participating.
Today’s post features Michael Pepper
Michael’s website bio says: I grew up in Lincolnwood, Illinois a suburb just north of Chicago. The neighborhood was filled with families of the Greatest Generation and their Baby Boomer children. The schools and sports fields were simply wonderful. The teachers were positive and encouraging. My father had a wholesale produce business, waking up at 3am every weekday morning to make the trip to the South Water produce market. My mother practiced and encouraged reading and studies of the arts; music, painting, sculpture. Along with two sisters and over twenty-five cousins everyone in the family enjoyed gatherings with good food and much laughter.
I graduated from Princeton University in 1971, where I majored in architecture and urban planning. Along with all the regalia of graduation I, like many other men in my generation, became subject to the Vietnam War draft. After two years in limbo, I began my career and never looked back. I enjoy the art of designing, developing, and constructing tall buildings - these days as principal of Pepper Development Services.
My work has taken me from the shores of Lake Michigan to the sands of Waikiki, from the quarries of Italy to the mountains of South America, working with architects, engineers and developers and pushing the envelop of their dreams. I taught at both Kellogg and Booth Graduate Schools of Business and, with their wonderful Swiss-America mother, I helped to raise three incredible daughters.
My year after graduation with Elizabeth Lourie, recounted in Royal Edge, remains one of the greatest influences on my life.
What is your favorite non-reading activity?
I greatly enjoy planning and taking long multi-day hikes in country locations like England, Ireland, Scotland, Netherlands and Spain, stopping at bed and
breakfasts along the way and meeting locals and fellow hikers.
What’s the difference (for you) between being a writer and an author? How do you shift gears between the two?
An author creates and owns the creation. A writer describes and does not necessarily create. Yes, they call for different gears.
Do you have another artistic outlet besides writing?
I have spent my career in managing the design and construction of large building projects. My work has involved the art of design and balancing
that art with building function, business, politics and marketing.
If you could create a museum exhibition, what would be the theme?
I recently visited a new and incredible museum in Las Vegas where the latest visual technologies are used to exhibit amazing historic works of art in a most beautiful way unlike anything seen before. ‘L’Arte'. I could see using similar technologies to bring poetry to more people. 'La Poesie’.
What brings your great joy?
I enjoy long hikes in nature. Bust mostly I love time spent with family and longtime dear friends. I am lucky to have all of that in my life.
Endnotes!
This newsletter is a passion project started by me, Elizabeth Rynecki, to try to help shine a light on new-to-me authors. I am also an author (and a documentary filmmaker and podcaster) and if you want to learn more about me, you can visit my website or read my personal newsletter, Ink Trails: A Chronicle in Creativity.
I’ve never made Authors Answer specific social media accounts, but you can find me on Instagram, Threads, and BlueSky.