My mini-review of James Michener's The Novel

I read this in the mid-nineties in Philadelphia when I first started seriously writing fiction.  The Novel sounds like a fictionalization of Michener's own life and publishing history as a writer. 
I liked it, and though the story is quiet, many of the thoughts and images still remain with me, such as the old apple tree forced into productivity by having a stake driven into its old trunk.  Even by the 90s when this book was published, the relationships between editor and writer had much changed, I am sure.  I don't remember him mentioning an agent.  But what it did teach me was that basically a writer writes - He described Yoder's(his) typical writing day - get up, comb my hair and sit down and write.  Now (2013) that advice is still helpful to me, though as a woman, lacking a "wife" like Tolstoy's - one must needs also do the correspondence, make the doctor's appointment, look for an agent, cook, clean and pay the bills all alone.
And he described Yoder's afternoons, when  he did wood work to rest from the brain work of writing.  Unconsciously, I have replicated his work ethic, I hope, by writing and painting, or doing housework, in turns during the day.  I've weaned myself more or less from Facebook, blogging and twitter - In reading the acknowledgements in Chesapeake, I was surprised at how many people he spoke to, while living full time in the Chesapeake area for two years.
I read some of Michener's other books such as Hawaii, in Burma.  My mother borrowed it from her friend Mrs Hummel.  I still remember the story of the leper colony.  And when I arrived in the USA in the early 80s, and all my MA/Ph.D. course work was done,I caught up on all my reading by buying books second hand in Princeton - Thank you my friend AMSP for taking me to all those yard sales.  There I found and read Poland, which I enjoyed too, as I was 8 months in Warsaw in 1969-70.  Now, in celebration of my new American life, I have bought Chesapeake and Texas and look forward to real treats soon.