Q: In one sentence, tell me something that describes you as a person?
A: Driven. Now that I’ve decided to write, I live it.
Q: How many books have you written? How many of those are published?
A: I’ve self-published two works; Inhumanum came first, and then the sequel, Made Men. I’m currently working on a tragicomedy titled By Vardo Mostly and have planned a separate tragicomedy.
Q: Do you have an upcoming release? If yes, tell me the title and impending release date.
A: I’ll have the first draft of By Vardo Mostly finished by August 1st,. I lucked into a talented editor, so my release date will depend on her availability. I’ve found that my best writing comes in my third draft. I find the back-and-forth mail with my editor so satisfying! Then, once edited, it will be off to my posse of clever Beta readers. Although I am an “Indie” author, it takes a crowd to build a good book. If that crowd is into the process, if they dig it and want to roll around in it and complain a bit, I won’t rush them. If they aren’t into the process, and hyped about a product I am going to use up people’s precious time with, I’ve failed. Best guess? November 1.
Q: If you could “create” your own genre of what you write, what would you call your books?
A: Great question! I find that I resent the idea of a genre. I’m mad at genres, if you will … the marketing infrastructure, however, that is available to independent authors very much depends upon what genre one has plunked a book into. To be found? One must plunk, or lob your work into the vastness of the literature category, where it will promptly sink to the electronic depths unless supported by a traditional publishing house. When going it alone? You pick a genre and then play the game via that genre’s rulebook. It’s very limiting. One reviewer (and I’m thankful for all reviews) wrote that my first novel was “more satire than thriller, as the author intended.” And I thought: “Great! I love satire!” In fact, I need to put words in sequences that work on multiple levels; satire being one of them … Then I thought, “and how does that person know what I intended to do?” And so I stuck a Q-tip deep, deep (whoops, too deep) in my ear to see if I could fish the little fellow out, but didn’t find him in my brain … OF COURSE he didn’t know my intentions. Yet his comment really opened up the idea of genre for me. With a tragicomedy, I can write something heartfelt, clever, sorrowful, hilarious, and full of puns. I want, first and foremost, to write things that are entertaining to read. We’ll see if I can pull that off. So I want to thank that reviewer for writing what he did … to paraphrase, my book (as a thriller) was a 3/5 but (as a satire) was a 5/5. Did he enjoy reading it? He said he did. Even laughed out loud. So I’m pleased. Genre shouldn’t be a bento box separating one’s emotions into an egg compartment which can’t touch the diced cucumber department; expectations of this vs: that enjoyment of a product, which is what a book is. Expectation of enjoyment should not be pre-defined by a word so weak. The word genre isn’t that strong! Say it: GENRE. It sounds like you’ve yawned while trying to keep a stolen matchbox car from falling out of your mouth as a middling professional golfer in Great Britian. Now say a bad-assed word. Hunger. Feel yourself snarl a bit? You did. Another? Here’s one … Fiction. Clap them out. They are two syllables each. Your mouth could have done a dozen dirty things with that first syllable of Fiction. None of those were benign.
Now I do think there is a place for genres: fetishists. There are some folks that are motivated to find their book-flavor quickly, because they have some serious business to attend to. Me? I like to browse. If I find a cover I like? I’ll read the back. I keep my head low so I can’t see the section I’m in.
In approaching my two “thrillers” I had things to say. I had statements to make, and I made them. I believe the human condition to be divinely ridiculous if taken too seriously, yet am very protective of loved ones in my personal life, so I used that. I was a nurse for 20 years, and life and death becomes different for those who work at the ragged edges of both experiences. We aren’t regular people, and don’t have usual outlooks on life. We can’t be normal and do what we do.
Q: Without quoting your back cover synopsis, tell me about the last book you published.
A: Made Men is a book about human beings and what is most important to them, even for the two (most) main characters, who are only partially human. Then, for fun, I made the partial-human beings the most humanitarian. I wrote it hoping to spur readers to question what matters to them: is it freedom? Is it comfort? Is it your family? And if something threatened what mattered to you, how far would you go to protect it? There is such fun in exploring the outlandish what ifs, and since I have a penchant for research and access to experts in several fields, I used Made Men as a playground for one of the biggest Sci-fi what ifs this side of true artificial intelligence—gene splicing. Although there is daily news about GMO this and Genome that, the more easy to digest news is gobbled up by most public while the truly mind-blowing stuff is mostly ignored; it takes work to understand that news; to figure out what that news means to you, for you, and how you feel about it.
Some will say Made Men is Sci-fi. I say someone has done what my bad, bad scientist did, and there are “made men” out there. If the University of Wyoming (Go Pokes) can splice spider genes into goats (they have, in fact) then the genetic aberrants I came up with would be easy … so to make it challenging, I backed my timeline up to just post WWII, and viola, who would want to splice a gene more than a mad Nazi scientist? No one, that’s who. Nazis love gene splicing more than Pringles.
Q: Tell me something about yourself that is separate from writing.
A: I am a natural recluse, yet I’ve somehow made friends who know how to draw me out of my cave. The perplexing thing? I don’t know how I made such devoted friends in the first place. I’m a lucky weirdo.
Q: Who is your favorite Author?
A: Mark Twain with a caveat: he and Kurt Vonnegut have been arm wrestling in my head for so long that their hand-skin has grown together and they can—as a loophole—be counted as one author. Although I believe Twain to be the more clever of the two and perhaps physically stronger, I suspect Vonnegut would cheat via tickling.
Q: What is the last book that you read? (Not counting anything you wrote)
A: Last finished book? Playing with Fire by Tess Gerritsen, and I did find it entertaining. I like Dr. Gerritsen’s formula; it works, and she’s prolific. I want to develop a formula, then serially not follow it so my readers never know what hit them. (Sorry, readers, must hit your never-know-what(s)). Currently, I’m reading The Devil’s Lieutenant by Shervin Jamali, as well as a Eudora Welty collection, and a non-fiction title, Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet. I seek books that challenge me; not just scorching plotlines, but authors who are honest and taking risks and making mistakes. I want to watch those who’ve made big, huge, terrible mistakes cry, and then cuddle them all better.
Q: When writing, do you have a system or something you plan, or do you just write?
A: Yes. I have a system and a plan, and I just write. The plan is for days where I have nothing but a half-cup of cold coffee and toddler boogers on my jeans. Those days I work on my book covers or search for clichés to avoid. I research word counts by (GOLFER YAWN WITH MATCHBOX CAR) and by publisher and trend what authors first, second, third book’s word counts are. To me, writing isn’t just writing. I’m new at this … this sharing thing, and so I want to know what works, what is accepted; what is expected … the hows and whys and when to strikes.
Yes, I’m doing this for fun. And because I am passionate about it … but I’m also practical. Writing is what I DO now, so when I’m not actually typing a paragraph, I’m marketing or querying or reading blogs on how to be better, and not just a better writer. If I can’t market my work? I’ll never be read. It’s a balance. You’re an agent? Why didn’t you say so! The phone lines are now open…
It’s a big job(s)! The creative parts? They just come to me. I put it down and polish it, and on the BEST days, where I get an AHA-Moment, or riddled by them, I use the Find key like a madman to make my plotline sing.
Q: Why do you write?
A: I always have. Poems, kids books, country songs … I’ve just kept them stashed away. Why did I leap to write full time? Because my wife believes in me when I don’t. And since I believe in her, I must be OK.
Q: Any final thoughts that you want to give to your fans or even future authors?
A: I’d love to thank anyone who has taken time to read my work. If you did, I hope it meant something to you.
For future authors? My best advice is to diversify; don’t just be a writer—plan your business of writing. Your brand. Your platform. Pop a die-cast Corvette Stingray in your maw and taste it’s yucky tang. (Made myself yawn.)
The old adage “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” is really sweet, however until you become known, you’ll need a plan to buy food. If you are starving, your plotlines will suck. Glucose: afford it, steal it, hunt and gather it if you must. Let yourself get hungry, (See, you snarled again) but not weak-hungry. Don’t give up the dream to write … just plot your own life in such a way that you can afford to.
And if you’re REALLY good, and REALLY lucky, you’ll see your book on a shelf someday; and then you will sneak it to the best-seller section and caress it’s fine cover and traipse away whistling as though you were only putting it back. And yes I will do that and put it on youtube.