5a.m. Flash 211212 – Kenny Johnston’s ‘Always Smiling Through the Tears’ fundraising 21 Dec to 31 Jan

I often run 5a.m. flashes to highlight free eBooks and today is slightly different. Kenny told me…

From Friday 21st December to 31st January 2013, all profits from the book will go to three charities (Suicide Prevention, Domestic Violence and the Samaritans). I’m looking to raise over £10,000 to divide between the three charities. I’ll be working with the Grassroots Suicide Prevention and Hull Samaritans in January 2013 and most of the year.

Also, for Twitter and Facebook followers of the book, there will be exclusive opportunity to obtain the book as an e-book on Boxing day and New Years Eve, by PM the book’s Twitter account (@ASTTT_Book) or Facebook page (search ‘Always Smiling Through the Tears’ on Facebook).

As it is Christmas and bearing in mind, the value of things nowadays. If you could ask your followers or those interested in donating but unable to purchase the book, if they could ask their local bookstore or Library to stock the book, as it has been praised for being a very inspiring and motivational book for those suffering with Depression, Domestic Violence and having Suicidal thoughts to know, that they can overcome their situations and have a friend in the Author, who is willing to stand in front to protect them, behind them to motivate them and beside them as a friend, every step of the way.

If you require further information please feel free to contact me via Twitter or by email at alwayssmilingthroughthetears@gmail.com.

Also, see the Press Release for the book at http://www.theopenpress.com/press_release.php?year=2012&aid=159253.

For a preview of the first few chapters of the book, please press the book cover on Amazon Kindle at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Always-Smiling-Through-Tears-ebook/dp/B00ANNA4DM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1355742209&sr=8-2.

Thank you very much, Kenny. I hope it does really well.

***

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words (and post stories of up to 3,000 words). Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts, then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

 

Author interview no.586 with multi-genre writer Barbara Morrison

Welcome to the five hundred and eighty-sixth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with memoirist, poet, non-fiction and fiction author Barbara Morrison. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello, Barbara. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.

Barbara: I’ve been a passionate reader ever since decoding that first Golden Book and began writing while still in school, mostly stories and plays that I forced my siblings to put on. I didn’t start writing poetry until I was in my twenties.

Morgen: I’d love to have had a sibling (my brother) do that. You write non-fiction, how do you decide what to write about?

Barbara: While sometimes my non-fiction is about writing and publishing, I mostly write about poverty and women’s issues. Part of my mission as a writer is to show the real lives of people living in poverty, having myself been on public assistance as a young, single mother and felt the stigma of all those hurtful stereotypes.

Morgen: That’s a wonderful idea. People like JK Rowling, formerly a struggling single mother, are inspirations. What have you had published to-date? Do you write under a pseudonym?

Barbara: I’ve published two poetry collections, Here at Least and Terrarium, and a memoir, Innocent: Confessions of a Welfare Mother. I’ve also had work published in magazines and anthologies. I write under the name B. Morrison.

Morgen: You’ve self-published, what lead to you going your own way?

 

Short Story Saturday Review 018: Samantha and the Cockerel by Maggie Harris

Welcome to the Short Story Saturday slot and the eighteenth review in this series. This week’s review is of one of the short stories of a collection, ‘Canterbury Tales on a Cockcrow Morning’, by poet, short story author, memoirist and interviewee Maggie Harris.

The first sentence launches us into Samantha’s world and the dilemma of the noisy cockerel. With Samantha being a newcomer to the village we know this is going to spell trouble. We know it’s set in modern-day times by the 4×4 and new-build house, and from the off, the language is very rich with such phrases as ‘was wheedled into her turquoise gaze like a fisherman fighting a large tuna’. The tone is very friendly, as if the reader is sitting by a fire being told this tale, and the dialogue authentic, which adds another layer. There are touches throughout the piece that give clues as to Samantha’s lifestyle; the signed copy of Nigella’s latest book, the Hunter wellingtons and Home & Gardens magazine. We can’t help but take to the characters, good and bad, and feel every increasingly sorry for Gareth, although when he doesn’t defend Samantha as she expects him to do, our sympathy does switch slightly.

Samantha’s not going to win fans of Primark shoppers but that’s the great thing about fiction; we can have our characters being as horrible (snooty in Samantha’s case) as we’d like them to be.

I loved the twist when she goes into the local shop then when her plans are even more scuppered when we find out that her neighbour is involved in something Samantha has her sights on. But then events change again and we have the climax to the story which will definitely raise a smile.

This story is just one of fifteen so if they are as enjoyable as this one, you won’t be disappointed.

Thank you, Maggie, for inviting me read to your story.

Canterbury Tales on a Cockcrow Morning is a collection of short stories; 15 tales of modern-day Canterbury. From a homeless girl to a Chinese take-away owner who likes Country and Western, from a run-away schoolgirl who wants to be in a music video to a tale of two friends who meet up through the years: the stories link new migrants to Canterbury through their own voices, the voice of the storyteller and the city itself. Published by Cultured Llama in August 2012, the book will be launched and performed during the Canterbury Festival in October.

Maggie Harris has published five collections of poetry, and a memoir Kiskadee Girl. Her first collection, Limbolands won The Guyana Prize for Literature 2000. Her short story collection, Canterbury Tales on a Cockcrow Morning was published in August 2012, and launched during the Canterbury Festival. Her website is www.maggieharris.co.uk, she’s on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/maggie.harris.984786) and LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/maggie-harris/27/540/217).

Canterbury Tales on a Cockcrow Morning is now out and had a successful launch in the Kent towns of Canterbury and Thanet, with more than 100 people coming along to the events. Maggie says, “I have struck oil with my current publishers, Cultured Llama, who are the most hard-working, hands-on, friendly, fair and helpful publishers.” That’s great news. Congratulations, Maggie.

The blog interviews will return as normal tomorrow with erotic writer and author marketing adviser Lucy Felthouse – the five hundred and eighty-third of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, biographers, agents, publishers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words (and post stories of up to 3,000 words). Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts, then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

 

Author interview no.580 with Benedictine Oblate monk and non-fiction writer James Bishop

Welcome to the five hundred and eightieth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with non-fiction author James Bishop. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello, James. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.

James: Hello Morgen. My name is James Bishop. I grew up in southern California and now live in northern California. I’m a bit of a “nerd” and a great lover of mathematics and computers. I also have synaesthesia, and write about it occasionally.

Morgen: I grew up with an older brother so I had no chance of escape nerdiness or techieness – I’m grateful for the latter. You write non-fiction, how do you decide what to write about?

James: I’ve written two non-fiction works, both completely different. The first, A Way in the Wilderness, is a commentary on the Rule of Benedict, and I wrote that on the insistence of a friend. My second non-fiction book, Rocket Man, is my autobiography, and my decision to write that was mostly based on personal catharsis. I needed to get it all out in the open, so to speak.

Morgen: I keep saying to my mum that she should write hers (amongst other things she was a groom for racing driver Stirling Moss’ sister and photographed several of our royals at show-jumping events). You’ve self-published, what lead to you going your own way?

James: I was very fortunate with Wilderness. It was picked up by the first publisher to whom it was offered, and I was delighted. When I finished Rocket Man, the publisher said it was not their genre, so I looked into self-publishing as an option and liked it very much. It just seemed easier at the time.

Morgen: I’ve seven eBooks and it’s really not that scary once you know how, or done one – I have a ‘how to guide’ on http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/ebooks/how-to-create-an-ebook. Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?

 

Author Spotlight no.144 – Jill Dobbe

Complementing my daily blog interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the one hundred and forty-fourth, is of memoirist and travel writer Jill Dobbe.

Jill Dobbe has been an educator for 25 years and an overseas educator for 18 of those years.  She has also recently become an author of a travel memoir.  Jill grew up in a small town in Wisconsin, USA, and has always been interested in travelling.  After earning a BS in Education she dreamed of going off into the world to become a teacher.  However, not long after college, she met her husband and found herself married and pregnant with her first child.  Her dream of travelling did not end however, and after two children, she and her husband, also an educator, moved from their small town across the world to an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  The life of teaching and living abroad began on that island and continued on for ten years.  Jill and her husband eventually moved to four different countries during those years.  Their children grew from toddlers into worldly teenagers, while all together they experienced safaris in South Africa, typhoons on Guam, and the Chinese New Year in Singapore.  Eventually, Jill returned to the U.S. with her family after literally moving around the world in those ten years.  As they settled back into American life, reverse culture shock set in and once again, they found themselves having to get used to another culture-the American culture.

Jill and her husband continue to live overseas and presently work at an American school in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.  Their two children are now adults and their son has gone on to medical school and their daughter has followed both of them into overseas education.  She also currently works in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

And now from the author herself:

I have always loved to read and always packed a suitcase full of paperbacks when we moved.  I never considered writing my own book though, until my husband suggested it.

I wrote HERE WE ARE & THERE WE GO: Teaching and Traveling With Two Kids in Tow, a travel memoir about our ten years of living, working, and travelling overseas together.  I had a lot of stories to tell that were somewhat crazy, humorous at times, and even a little scary.  I wrote my memoir as a way to explain why we enjoy this crazy lifestyle, but also to advise couples who have children, that you really can travel with your kids and learn a lot more about the world than you thought you would.  Anyone can find something to relate to in my book; educators who are currently teaching overseas or those who are considering it, travelers with and without children, even the armchair travelers.

My book was really a labor of love for me as my family and I reminisced together about all of our adventures during those ten years, both good and bad.  We talked, laughed, and reminded each other of what we all went through, while I continuously wrote everything down transforming it into a travel memoir and dedicating it to my lifelong travelling companions, my husband and kids.

You can find more about Jill and her writing via…

• www.facebook.com/JillDobbeAuthor
• http://www.amazon.com/Here-Are-There-Traveling-ebook/dp/B008PV3N9G/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1345660089&sr=8-2&keywords=jill+dobbe
• http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/jill-dobbe?keyword=jill+dobbe&store=allproducts
• http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/10090875-jill-dobbe

***

The blog interviews will return as normal tomorrow with non-fiction author James Bishop – the five hundred and eightieth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts, then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

 

Reader feedback wanted and offered

** LIST UPDATED 15 DEC 2012 – CLICK HERE FOR LATEST LIST **

Can you offer an author FREE feedback? Would you like to receive that feedback?

I came up with the idea for this page during a mini-break at a ‘pitch to the panel’ event at the Festival of Romance, Bedford, mid-November 2012. I know there are many writers out there who, for one reason or another, don’t have enough (or any!) readers / writers willing to give them FREE feedback on their works-in-progress so they can make it as good as it can be before they submit it. Could you give that feedback? Would you like that feedback?

NB. You can be on both lists – it doesn’t have to be one or the other. :)

** Because almost everyone has contact details against their name, I shall leave it that you contact each other. Obviously any enquiries I receive will be passed on but I would ask that you visit this page from time-to-time to check whether I have added anyone who is willing to read your genre or that an author is looking for feedback that you offer. Thank you again everyone for taking part. I hope to build this page into a really valuable (if not monetary!) resource for all concerned. **

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READERS (see below for readers offering feedback)

• Do you like reading novels, short stories, non-fiction or poetry (anything else?) and are willing to give free, honest feedback?
• Can you read them quickly (within a month)?

I’m looking to list first readers on this page (below) so please either email me or leave a comment below (and I’ll paste it into this page) with the following information…

• Your name:
• Your email address: (via me if preferred)
• Your website (if you have one, if not I can design you one!):
• Genre preferred:
• Format (novel, short stories, poetry, non-fiction):
• Maximum length of work to be read (___,000 words / ___ lines for poetry):
• Lead time preferred (ideally no more than a month please):
• Do you write? (yes/no):
• Any other relevant information:

Thank you so much in advance. Writers can never have too many first readers and feedback more than “that’s good” (or otherwise) is invaluable to us and you get a free read!

NB. Don’t be under pressure to give a lengthy, detailed feedback (but it would be great if you could). You’re doing this for free so just what you can would be so gratefully appreciated. You can discuss this directly with the other author.

Readers listed here (alphabetically for now)…(note the ‘at’ in the email address should read @, with no spaces, but formatted like that to try and avoid them getting spammed! If you click on the links they should work OK)

• Aaron Fuller (email c/o Morgen): Genre preferred: anything except romance! Novel synopsis and individual chapters only, not whole ones! Otherwise any. Max count: 10,000 words. Lead time: 2 weeks. Do you write? Yes. Thank you, Aaron!
• Aaron Roark (aaronroark9 at gmail.com): Aaron is a writer (listed below) who would also like to give feedback, preferably fantasy or horror (no non-fiction or romance). He needs at least two weeks lead time depending on the length of the work. (50,000 words max). Thank you, Aaron!
• Claire Maycock (formerly Marriott) (claire at nibenon.com, new blog coming soon at www.clairemaycock.com) Genres: non-fiction (home, garden, crafts, personal development), fiction (historical). No maximum length. Lead time to be agreed on receipt of file but will typically be three to four weeks. Do you write? Yes. Thank you, Claire!
• David Ferretti (edf at wildblue.net): I write crossover fantasy (no cursing/sex). I have two finished manuscripts of my trilogy; the first is edited and has been read by several beta readers that caused me to make changes. I am the only person to read the second. I will be glad to exchange finished manuscripts with anyone who writes in the same genre. My manuscript is 119,000 words long and readers have told me that it is a fast read. If your manuscript runs <120,000 words then give me two weeks to review it. Greater length manuscripts will take a little bit longer. I prefer Microsoft Word docx or doc files. Thank you, David!
• Elaine Spires (hello at elainespires.co.uk / www.ElaineSpires.co.uk): Genre preferred: all except sci-fi, horror and poetry. Do you write? Yes (several plays, a TV series, three books, presently working on fourth). Thank you, Elaine!
• Hersilia Press publisher Ilaria (ilaria) Meliconi (info at hersilia-press.co.uk / http://www.hersilia-press.co.uk) is willing to offer feedback on crime novels but timescale dependent on existing workload. Grazie Ilaria!
• James Munroe (MunroJim at twitter.example.com): I will read any novel set in the medieval period, and if it is good, post a review on MedievalMysteries.com, or otherwise send a brief critique direct to the author by email. Thank you, James!
• Jeanne E. Rogers (echidna at gmail.com / http://warriorechidna.blogspot.co.uk/p/contact-me.html): I really like this idea, Morgen, with an ‘e.’ I would like to participate on both sides of this coin. I am a writer of middle grade fantasy, focusing on highlighting endangered animals in my stories. I would like to read fantasy, not necessarily for young people (timescale dependent upon workload – please enquire first), and I would like to have my new book, which is not complete at this point, read for some thoughts / opinions. Thanks so much! Thank you, Jean!
• Kay Millward (kay.millward at yahoo.co.uk / http://www.kay-millward.com/contact-us.php): Any genre. Feedback usually within the month. Do you write? Yes.
• Laurence French (laurencefrench92 at yahoo.co.uk): Hi, I’d be happy to read other authors’ works and give them feedback. I’m a published author in the UK (fiction and non-fiction), as well as having a number of articles published. I like all genres and, if the author wishes, I can do a complete proofread of their work as well. I would have to charge for that though as I work freelance. Otherwise I’m willing to read and give a critique, with suggestions and constructive comments. Thank you, Laurence!
• Morgen Bailey (morgen@morgenbailey.com / http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/red-pen-critique): short stories (any family-friendly fiction genre) up to 3,000 words or novel extracts of a similar length (with synopsis) for this blog’s Red Pen Critique slot, although the story / extract are posted on the blog so only be happy with that before offering me your writing.
• Nikki Dudley (nikkisdudley at hotmail.co.uk / http://ellipsisandnovels.blogspot.com / https://twitter.com/nikkidudley20): I would like to go on both lists please! As a reader, I am interested in mystery, thrillers, crime, young adult and general fiction. I am happy to read most lengths but lets say not over 100k. I can get back in a month, maybe less. I write fiction and poetry myself. I also co-edit an online magazine. As a writer, I am writing a young adult dystopian novel set in the future. It centres around natural energy. It is around 90k words. Just looking for general f/b. Can give more info on contact. Thanks! Thank you, Nikki!
• Ralph Scott (info at credittheedit.com / http://www.credittheedit.com) If it might accent the above, the staff at Credit The Edit, LLC provides detailed, complementary Test Edits on up to five pages of almost any fiction or nonfiction manuscript. Though five pages does not allow for the examination of everything that is solid or is in need of an overhaul in an author’s manuscript, it’s quite impressive just how much those five pages reveal about the merits and hurdles of the project. So feel free to tap us at least for that. That’s very kind of you, thank you, Ralph.
• Rebeccah Giltrow (rgiltrow at gmail.com / http://rebeccahgiltrow.blogspot.co.uk): Any sort of fiction (novel, short story, poetry, script/play, lyric). Max. length: 50,000 words for prose, any number of lines for poetry. Lead time: 3-4 weeks. Do you write? Yes. Thank you, Rebeccah!
• Robin Greene (bodicea77 at yahoo.com). Genre preferred: Fiction, anything except romance. Format: Novels or short stories. Max length: 80,000 words. Lead time preferred: about a month, probably less. Do you write? (yes/no): some have said that, yes.  Thank you, Robin!

Websites where authors can put their work online for feedback include Authonomy (known as HarperCollins’ unofficial slush pile), YouWriteOn – with these two you have to critique to be critiqued, ABC Tales, Absolute Write, Chapteread, Critiquecircle, Fiction Press, Figment (aimed at teens), Scribd, Webook, Worthy of Publishing, Writers, Writers’ Cafe, StoryLane (more about you than your fiction) and Wattpad (I’m on the latter two). Ken Weene recommends http://authorsinfo.com and http://cowbird.com.

I also have a list of reviewers on this blog’s Reviews page. I offer feedback on short stories or novel chapters on my blog’s Red Pen Critique page going live (the story / extract then my feedback) every Sunday evening.

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WRITERS (see below for writers wanting feedback)

Are you looking for free feedback? If so, please either email me or leave a comment below (and I’ll paste it into this page) with the following information…

• Your name:
• Your email address:
• Your website (if you have one, if not I can design you one!):
• Title of your item:
• Genre of your item:
• Format (novel, short stories, poetry, non-fiction):
• Word count (___,000 words / ___ lines for poetry):
• Brief synopsis of item (50 words max!):
• NB. Please list items separately if wanting feedback on more than one.
• When you need the feedback by:
• Any other relevant information:

Thank you and good luck with your works-in-progress! Please remember that the readers will be offering to do this for free so feedback will be as detailed (or otherwise) as their time allows.

Writers listed here… (note the ‘at’ in the email address should read @, with no spaces, but formatted like that to try and avoid them getting spammed! If you click on the links they should work OK)

• Aaron Roark (aaronroark9 at gmail.com): My book is called The High Grass. It’s a horror story. Only the first chapter is complete, but it will be a novel. About 1100 words. Synopsis: It’s the story of a fifteen year old boy named Jimmy. He lives on a farm in north Texas with his mother and father. The farm is adjacent to a large field that no one owns where the grass is about five feet high (hence the title). There is something evil in the field that is after Jimmy. I would also like to give feedback. Need at least two weeks lead time depending on the length of the work. (50,000 words max). Thank you, Aaron.
• David Ferretti (edf at wildblue.net): I write crossover fantasy (no cursing/sex). I have two finished manuscripts of my trilogy; the first is edited and has been read by several beta readers that caused me to make changes. I am the only person to read the second. I will be glad to exchange finished manuscripts with anyone who writes in the same genre. My manuscript is 119,000 words long and readers have told me that it is a fast read. If your manuscript runs <120,000 words then give me two weeks to review it. Greater length manuscripts will take a little bit longer. I prefer Microsoft Word docx or doc files. Thank you, David.
• Ethan Holmes (ethanholmes-at-ethanholmes.com / http://www.ethanholmes.com): I certainly wouldn’t mind some feedback or reviews. I have five titles ranging from short story collections to science fiction to my latest title which turned out to be a self-help book I didn’t know was going to be one. You can visit my site and tell me which one(s) you would like to read. Thank you, Ethan.
• Gary Showalter (gary at garyshowalter.com / http://www.garyshowalter.com): A Primer on Roses (gardening, rose care). Non-fiction. 53 pages. Rose care – from choosing a location to plant, how they grow, how to prune, how to select tools, etc. Feedback wanted: as soon as possible. Additional information: “The pamphlet is available on Amazon now, but feedback is always welcome and changes will be made where necessary, based on feedback, with credit provided for valuable feedback. I will send a PDF file with the text to first readers.” Thank you, Gary.
• Gina Charles (ginacharles at earthlink.net / http://ginacharles.com). Title of item: Shift Happens, A Laypersons Guide To Awakening. Genre of item: Self-help. Format: non-fiction. Word Count: 31,289. Brief Synopsis: Know that you already have all the tools you need to experience that shift into a more peaceful, abundant, and enjoyable life. Shift Happens lights the way on the journey back to Self. Feedback: At earliest convenience.
• Jason Fink (jasonfink88 at yahoo.com): Jasmine Cowl and the Salagi Talking Stick (contemporary fantasy novel, first of a potential seven-book series). 78,000 words. Jasmine Cowl is p*ssed.  Fifteen years ago, the African American woman and her friends saved the world.  Stuck in a boring life, even though she works for the CIA… the other one.  Saddled with family, a job, and the PTA, she’s found something new. Disgruntled gnomes & talking islands force themselves into Jasmine’s life while she hunts for a powerful wand.  She’s fighting for more than the world. This time she’s fighting for her kids. Feedback wanted: no real timeframe, finished it up about 3 months back. Any other relevant information: Thanks for taking a look – I’d like to know if it’s an ok read, or if it’s… not. Honesty is always appreciated! Thank you, Jason.
• Jeanne E. Rogers (http://warriorechidna.blogspot.co.uk/p/contact-me.html): I really like this idea, Morgen, with an ‘e.’ I would like to participate on both sides of this coin. I am a writer of middle grade fantasy, focusing on highlighting endangered animals in my stories. I would like to read fantasy, not necessarily for young people, and I would like to have my new book, which is not complete at this point, read for some thoughts / opinions. Thanks so much! Thank you, Jean!
• Kenny Johnston (alwayssmilingthroughthetears at gmail.com): Always Smiling Through the Tears (biography / memoir) 111,000 words. Synopsis: In October, 2010, Kenny put 2 nooses round his neck in the garden shed. Twice. This is his story, a story of a broken home, mixed race children, racism, adversity and heartbreak. Suicide is all too common in our broken society, and here you see it revealed from the inside, to find what actually drives somebody to the point where the pain of death is seen as preferable to the pain in life. Kenny says, ”For those, who provide feedback/reviews, I will post a free copy of the book, signed by me, if they like!” Thank you, Kenny.
• Lae Monier (laemonie at aim.com / http://laemonie.wordpress.com): Wanted (psychological crime). Novel (67,147 words). Feedback wanted: two weeks from the time they get the WIP. Thank you, Lae.
• Laurence French (laurencefrench92 at yahoo.co.uk): ‘Waiting for Dark’ (war / personal relationships). Novel. 80,000 words. Synopsis: A severely injured soldier from WW1 is looked after by a French nurse who takes him back to the battlefield at Ypres to lay the ghosts of his past and to rid him of the guilt he feels about the loss of his pals. No specific timeframe. Thank you, Laurence!
• Nikki Dudley (nikkisdudley at hotmail.co.uk / http://ellipsisandnovels.blogspot.com / https://twitter.com/nikkidudley20): I would like to go on both lists please! As a reader, I am interested in mystery, thrillers, crime, young adult and general fiction. I am happy to read most lengths but lets say not over 100k. I can get back in a month, maybe less. I write fiction and poetry myself. I also co-edit an online magazine. As a writer, I am writing a young adult dystopian novel set in the future. It centres around natural energy. It is around 90k words. Just looking for general f/b. Can give more info on contact. Thanks! Thank you, Nikki!
• Robin Greene (bodicea77 at yahoo.com): Nothing Good From Secrets (“women’s fiction, I guess”). Novel (c. 79,000 words). Synopsis: Carys’ best friend PamLynn is keeping something from her. She goes through finding out PamLynn’s father has Alzheimers, that her mother has been having her followed, and that the man she thought was her father isn’t her biological father. PamLynn is more than a friend, she’s actually her sister. Blurb: (I think) Not everyone who loves you tells you the truth. Carys’ best friend has a secret. Her mother has a huge secret. Carys even has one of her own. How does a near 40 year old woman, who wants a successful career, to live a few of her dreams, oh yes and someone to share all that with, help her friends, understand her mother, and most of all help herself? When you need the feedback by: Not in a huge rush, but as soon as possible. Thank you, Robin.

Websites where authors can put their work online for feedback include Authonomy (known as HarperCollins’ unofficial slush pile), YouWriteOn – with these two you have to critique to be critiqued, ABC Tales, Absolute Write, Chapteread, Critiquecircle, Fiction Press, Figment (aimed at teens), Scribd, Webook, Worthy of Publishing, Writers, Writers’ Cafe, StoryLane (more about you than your fiction) and Wattpad (I’m on both). Ken Weene recommends http://authorsinfo.com and http://cowbird.com.

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Author interview no.549 with memoirist Rosemary Sabet

Welcome to the five hundred and forty-ninth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with memoirist Rosemary Sabet. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello, Rosemary. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.

Rosemary: I am based in Cairo, Egypt, where I have been living for 37 years as I am married to an Egyptian.  I began to write a blog during the Egyptian revolution, and upon retiring in June 2011, decided that it should become a book.  I combined it with anecdotal memoirs.

Morgen: It sounds wonderful. What have you had published to-date?

Rosemary: This is my first book, which is self-published.

Morgen: What lead to you going your own way?

Rosemary: I felt that this was the best route to take in order to get it in print while the Egyptian revolution was still topical.

Morgen: Ah yes, another upside to self-publishing is the quick turnaround. Is your book available as an eBook? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?

Rosemary: Yes, my book is available as an eBook.  No, I don’t read eBooks, I love the smell and feel of books.

Morgen: Most authors I’ve spoken to have said the same, I read both, and it’s great having the choice. Did you choose the title / cover of your book? How important do you think they are?

Rosemary: Both the title and the design of the cover are my own.  The cover was designed by a friend who is a graphic artist.

Morgen: A handy person to know. What are you working on at the moment / next?

Rosemary: I want to write a novel, which would take place in various countries, but particularly Egypt.

Morgen: They say to write about what you know and I’d have said living somewhere as exotic (or certainly exotic to someone living in currently-damp middle England) it would be a perfect location. Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?

Rosemary: I did not suffer from writer’s block with ‘From Trafalgar to Tahrir’ but suspect that I will when writing my novel.

Morgen: Let’s hope not. Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?

Rosemary: I did a fair amount of editing but, indeed, as the book went on my writing became more fully-formed.

Morgen: Ah yes, it’s all about practice. Do you have to do much research?

Rosemary: Yes, I did quite a bit for my present book.

Morgen: Do you have an agent?

Rosemary: I do not have an agent but may well look for one for the novel.

Morgen: I’m sure they do help. If a good agent can get you a better deal than without when then that’s got to be worth their commission, plus they’re often a great sounding board. How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?

Rosemary: I did my own marketing in Egypt but I have employed someone to do it for me in England.

Morgen: What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life? Has anything surprised you?

Rosemary: I thoroughly enjoyed writing the book and surprised myself by actually engaging in the project and finishing it.

Morgen: The fact that you enjoyed it says it all. What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Rosemary: Just sit down and do it.

Morgen: That works for me. If you could invite three people from any era to dinner, who would you choose and what would you cook (or hide the takeaway containers)?

Rosemary:  Robert De Niro, Audrey Hepburn, Jodi Picoult.  I would cook fettuccine with cream and mushroom sauce, topped with grated parmesan as a starter; my main dish would be lemon veal escalopes with cooked mixed vegetables served cold with a lemon and olive oil dressing, and lemon sorbet for dessert.

Morgen: That sounds delicious, and a great choice of guests. You mentioned earlier that you write fiction. Are there any differences or similarities between writing non-fiction and fiction?

Rosemary:  I am about to start writing fiction and I think that the main difference and challenge will be creating the characters and plot as opposed to writing about existing situations and characters.

Morgen: But potentially such fun when you go off in various directions (unless that’s just me). What point of view do you find most to your liking?

Rosemary: Having written my memoirs and a record of the revolution in the first person, I feel that the novel has to be in the third person.

Morgen: It does tend to be easier, and the most popular. Are you involved in anything else writing-related other than actual writing or marketing of your writing?

Rosemary:  I am in the process of updating my blog.

Morgen: Blog’s are very popular (thankfully ). What do you do when you’re not writing?

Rosemary:  I go to the gym and then swim five mornings a week, I read (a lot), I play the guitar.

Morgen: I read far too little (note to self: read more). Are you on any forums or networking sites?

Rosemary: I am. I’m on Twitter and Facebook.

Morgen: They’re great, aren’t they. LinkedIn’s great too, especially if you have a specific query or something you want to share. What do you think the future holds for a writer?

Rosemary: I am not sure and I believe that it is difficult to judge.  There are many works being self-published, like mine, because publishers have become conglomerates and are often more interested in books that they are sure will sell millions or whose film rights they can sell.

Morgen: They probably do, although they do take on smaller authors, it’s just that they have the multi-sellers to fund those ‘risks’. Where can we find out about you and your writing?

Rosemary:  On my website – www.rosemary-sabet.com.

Morgen: Is there anything you’d like to ask me?

Rosemary:  I would really like to know how to market a book or publish it in the normal way.  I have had some excellent reviews on amazon.co.uk and am, probably like thousands of authors, hoping that someone will ‘discover’ me!

Morgen: I’m still working on that. You mentioned a blog and although they can be time-consuming (mine is full-time and then some – I post six items a day on two blogs!) they are great for getting your name out there. Twitter and Facebook are great as long as you talk about other topics 90% of the time and your books 10% of the time – touting is the quickest way to get de-followed / de-friended. As Harper Collins’ Scott Pack said to me a few months ago, “you’re doing all the right things, you just have to keep doing what you’re doing.” Thank you, Rosemary.

I then invited Rosemary to include an extract of her writing…

As I sit on a beach on the Sinai coast in the shade of my bamboo hut, with the water gently lapping onto the sand some ten metres away from me, it is easy to forget that I am in Egypt and that the country has been in turmoil for some time now. As I lift my pen and raise my eyes from my notebook, I can see the mountains of Saudi Arabia in front of me and, farther to my left, those same mountains become Jordan. If I walk north, to the end of the beach, I can just see part of Israel. Everything appears superbly tranquil. The water is as still as a lake, its pale, turquoise hue interrupted in places by the darker blue shadows that indicate the presence of coral and, in the near distance, an even darker stretch where the end of the coral reef drops into the deep blue. Behind me, the mountains shimmer in the heat of the afternoon.

A group of olive-skinned Egyptians chatter and laugh with their usual bonhomie whilst a Swiss family babble in their particular brand of German. I can hear the soft sonority of tongues from the South of France and my favourite language, Italian, being mangled by a small bevy from Calabria. Children splash and laugh in the sea, twittering in a variety of languages.

The Egyptians’ olive skins are turning nut brown while some of the Europeans are beginning to turn a painful shade of pink. Some resemble a patchwork quilt with blobs of white interspersed with pink where the factor-50 sun block missed its mark.

As I take a break in this paradisiacal eco-lodge, called Basata, meaning ‘simplicity’, I have a yen to write, and for the first time in decades, I am doing so with pen and paper. Upon my return to ‘civilisation’, I will transfer my scribbles to my computer. I believe the word ‘civilisation’ is something of a misnomer. I cannot think of a more civilised place than that in which I find myself, yet I sleep in a bamboo hut with no electricity, communal toilets and showers, and the evening meal is served and eaten in the main hut where one sits on cushions at low tables, each of which accommodate twelve people.

The seating arrangements are random, and one meets people from all over the world, many of whom, like me, speak two or more languages. Amiable conversation ranges from art to literature to religion and politics amongst multi-cultural groups, and one cannot help but wish that the rest of the world were listening in and learning. However, the prevailing topic at present is the Arab Awakening—more particularly the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 and the country’s fragile future.

As I sit in front of my hut I begin to reflect upon my life and wonder at the twists and turns of fate. Did destiny determine that one day I would become Egyptian and that I would be heavily embroiled in my adoptive country’s politics, or did I unconsciously give fate a helping hand?

*

and a synopsis of her book… the following is the back cover text –

In this intriguing memoir, British born Rosemary Sabet moves back and forth between her past as a child growing up in post war London and her present involvement in the Egyptian revolution.  The events in Tahrir Square, Cairo, trigger her memory as she questions what quirks of fate brought her to participate in such an unprecedented, momentous uprising.

As we follow the twists and turns and churning uncertainty of Egypt’s revolution from its outset on January 25^th 2011 until the ambivalent celebration one year later the author, fuelled by passion, recounts her personal involvement in the uprising, in which she experienced periods of great fear and disappointment intermingled with moments of courage and triumph.

In a series of anecdotes, the reader is taken on a nostalgic journey of the author’s carefree childhood, to her unconventional experiences abroad as a young girl in the fifties.  With raw and honest insight, Sabet remembers London’s swinging sixties and reveals some of her wickedly funny amorous escapades.  We follow her to Rome during the era of the dolce vita where she eventually meets and marries her Egyptian husband.  They move to Southern Yemen where she begins to encounter the cultural challenges so imbued in the Middle East, and from where she is propelled to nearly four decades of Egypt’s turbulent history.

**

Rosemary Sabet was born in London in 1943 and spent most of her childhood training as a ballerina but, unfortunately grew too tall.  After completing her schooling, she worked in advertising and then for a woman’s magazine.  In 1967, she moved to Rome where she worked for the FAO of the United Nations.  She met and married her Egyptian husband there and they moved to Southern Yemen for 18 months.  In 1974, her husband decided that, having been away from Egypt 12 years previously, after his father’s family business was sequestered by Abdel Nasser, he would like to return to Egypt and set up a record company, which he successfully did.  In 1978, and with two children, Rosemary decided to follow her great love for ballet and retrained as a dancer and dance teacher.  This led to the offer of a job with the British International School, Cairo where she eventually also taught Drama. In 2001 Rosemary gained an MA in Drama and Theatre and ended her career in 2011 as Head of Visual and Performing Arts.  She is now a freelance writer and blogger, has travelled extensively and speaks five languages.

***

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.

If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.

Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).

The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:

Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Author interview no.536 with non-fiction writer Frank C. Newby

Welcome to the five hundred and thirty-sixth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with non-fiction author Frank C. Newby. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello, Frank. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.

Frank: I live with a wife, a dog and a cat on the high deserts of New Mexico just 30 miles from the Mexican border.  On a cold winter night sitting at a kitchen table on my farm in Southern Indiana, in 1994, I decided that I should write an autobiography for my grandchildren before I left this earth.  The first manuscript was written on everything I could find from notebook paper to envelope backs, and scraps of advertising with a clean back.  Before long I had a drawer full of scraps of information so I decided it was time to go to town and buy a typewriter.  Had never considered the computer.  The man told me that typewriters were passé so I came home with a computer. The rest is history.  Taught myself to use the computer, got my memoirs all tucked away and printed for my grandchildren and discovered that I had done a marvelous thing.  I had written a book.

Morgen: What a great idea. I keep telling my mum she should do the same (although she has plenty of lined paper – she won’t buy a computer but I can type it up) as she’s had a really interesting life; working for racing driver Stirling Moss’ sister for a few years, amongst other things. You write other non-fiction, how do you decide what to write about?

Frank: Living on the border, we are daily surrounded with the violence, and mayhem occurring just beyond our front door.  Three years ago I started writing a daily border report for my friends back east who did not know what was happening in Mexico.  I had written six books before I started my trilogy, which is now on the market.  My first real published book was an exploration of the man called Jesus and it began my love for research.  I branched out to the farce of the televangelist with “Evangelism: The Fleecing of the Flock.” and eventually wrote another autobiography under an assumed name called “His Name Was Amy Mable”. The trilogy traces the path of the drug cartels from the violence in Mexico, to the turmoil and poverty which it has created in Central America and ultimately to the water highways of the drug routes in the Caribbean.  I have an eclectic mind.  I watch everything and comment on the ridiculous or fascinating.

Morgen: I love ridiculous or fascinating. What have you had published to-date? Do you write under a pseudonym?

Frank: A Lifetime of Dreams; Jesus: Myth or Reality* (under pseudonym Ian Curtis); Rx For Education-Using Ockham’s Razor; Evangelism: The Fleecing of the Flock; His Name Was Amy Mable; Mexico: Drug Merchant to the World; Banana Republic; Secrets of the Caribbean; and Caldron of Anarchy.

Morgen: You’ve self-published, what lead to you going your own way?

Frank: I tried the first four books, two with xLibris and two with iUniverse and spent a lot of money and got nothing in return except a few soft cover books.  No support, no marketing and constant bombardment for advertising which wasted my money.  I discovered Kindle and then Smashwords.  Have sold pretty well so far with minimal advertising.  I will not publish again with any of the self-publish houses.  I get better royalties with no cost this way.

Morgen: I’ve looked at various options and have done the same. Many authors are, although I wouldn’t rule out traditional publishing if it was right for me. So are all your books available as eBooks? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?

Frank: I have eight of my books on Kindle and am attempting to reformat to fit Smashwords criteria which will put them on all available electronic readers.

Morgen: I have a page on the blog called how to create an ebook and shows examples of both formats. I went the other way and formatted for Smashwords first (which I found slightly easier) because they provide a free ISBN. Did you have any say in the titles / covers of your books? How important do you think they are?

Frank: I make all of my own title and cover pages with Word 2010.  I think they must be attractive and colourful but not as important as the designers would like to believe.

Morgen: They may be biased. Covers are a hot topic online because they’re so small but they have to catch the eye (as you say, be attractive) then if the blurb is enticing… What are you working on at the moment / next?

Frank: I am taking a few weeks off from the last book “Caribbean” and going back to my second love of exotic woodworking Intarsia.  May do a painting or two before resuming writing. Write a book and then six weeks of R&R before starting the next. My next book will be about the drug cartels and their members and connections with international Mafia.

Morgen: Wow. You’re not shy with your topics. Do you manage to write every day? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?

Frank: I write at least four hours every day, 7 days per week.  Lose track of thoughts if much delay.  Try to maintain 1500 words of copy daily.

Morgen: That’s almost a NaNoWriMo novel a month (I’m embarking on my fifth on Thursday). Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?

Frank: I have to edit very little from original copy.  My problem is typing.  I type extremely fast but have many typos.  Grammar lapses occasionally but easily corrected.

Morgen: That doesn’t matter for a first draft. The important thing is getting it down and as long as the ideas come (it sounds like you’re like me as almost have too many to cope with) you can plough through the manuscript and deal with typos and grammar later. Do you have to do much research?

Frank: I do a tremendous amount of research.  I would estimate at least a third of time is spent on research and two thirds on writing.

Morgen: I’d say that’s more important with non-fiction. Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?

Frank: I do many monographs and articles for daily comment which will probably never be recorded or published.  I place some of that material on the blog site: “Before It’s News”.  I have a friend who publishes Federal Observer and “Nostinking amnesty” websites.  He picks up some of my stuff and publishes it.

Morgen: Do you pitch for submissions and / or are you commissioned to write?

Frank: No, I do not pitch for submission because I really do not know who to pitch to and the attempts I have made usually met with no response or rejections.  I find agents and critics to be elitist and snobbish.  Have never even considered commission writing.  Won’t lower myself to their restrictions or structures.

Morgen: They don’t suit everyone. I have a page of 50 or so non-fiction submission opportunities and most are direct so you’ll probably find them more user-friendly. Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?

Frank: Had a few in the beginning.  Didn’t like the responses or lack of same.  I am a self-confident person.  Don’t need the approval or disapproval of anyone. I write for myself and try to make it appealing to anyone else.  If I fail then it is my problem.

Morgen: You should write for yourself because there will always be people like you out there, and plenty of others who aren’t. If something is well-written then it’s never a failure. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?

Frank: No and no.  Perhaps a million-selling author needs an agent but they are too self-centered and picky for my tastes.  If I met the right one and felt I was getting value received I would consider it.

Morgen: Me too. How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?

Frank: 100%

Morgen: What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life? Has anything surprised you?

Frank: It takes a great deal out or me psychologically.  At the culmination of a book I feel drained and rather lost.  Its like I have just suffered a death of something.  Rather than feeling the birth of a new book I feel alone.  My friend has left me.

Morgen: That’s the great thing about fiction. You can write a series and have the characters stay around for as long as you liked. What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Frank: Leave your ego and feelings at home.  It’s a cruel world and the critics will devour you if you can’t stand the rejections and criticism.  It is humanly impossible to satisfy all people with one book or picture or other art form.  That’s why there are so many of us.  Don’t take it personally.

Morgen: Absolutely. Two of comments of my free eShort April’s Fool were polar opposites, where the first said there was too much detail then another said that it was too skimpy… out of the two I would agree with the former and do wonder if other chap had read it. If you could invite three people from any era to dinner, who would you choose and what would you cook (or hide the takeaway containers)?

Frank: I would invite Jesus because I don’t personally believe he exists.  If he showed up then my questions would be resolved.  I would like to have known Charles Darwin.  His thinking changed the world and thirdly, I would invite my wife because she is one of the wisest and most knowledgeable people I have ever known.  I enjoy her companionship anytime, anywhere.  I would invite them to my favourite restaurant, I don’t cook.

Morgen: What a lovely thing to say. I don’t cook either (my kitchen’s too small for a cooker and storage so I have a combination microwave and portable stove – it works for us). Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?

Frank: Lives of great men all remind us,
We can make our lives sublime,
And in parting leave behind us
Footprints on the sand of time.

Morgen: And our writing. Do you write fiction?

Frank: I have never tried fiction.  I live in reality most of the time.

Morgen: Do you plot your books or do you just get an idea and run with it?

Frank: I plot it in my head and know where I am headed.  In between there are many crooks in the road so I remain flexible and run with the flow.  In the beginning I never know exactly where the ending will come.

Morgen: I’m the same with mine and most of the authors I’ve spoken to have said the same. What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? Have you ever tried second-person?

Frank: I have never thought of writing in second person.  It might make a fascinating study in style.  I’ll tuck it away for future reference.

Morgen: Oh yes, do. It can be real enjoyable.

Frank: I tried my autobiography in first person but couldn’t maintain the ‘I and me’ format. I eventually created an alter ego and used my grandfather as my surrogate.  I wrote under the name of “little Raz” and titled the book “His Name Was Amy Mable.”  Fascinating story of a little boy who grew up ploughing with a team of horses and a walking plough, drafted in World War II and spent most of his life in education.  Started writing at 75 and never looked back. Every fact in the book is true and my life story but the character has another name.

Morgen: Are you involved in anything else writing-related other than actual writing or marketing of your writing?

Frank: Daily Border Report to about 500 readers.

Morgen: What do you do when you’re not writing?

Frank: I do exotic woodworking in the Intarsia style, I paint in oils and I am an avid gardener.  In my younger years I climbed mountains in Colorado and Wyoming.  These help me maintain my sanity between writing bouts.

Morgen: And gave you plenty of time to think. Have seen pictures of Wyoming, I can see why Annie Proulx writes about it. Are there any writing-related websites and / or books that you find useful?

Frank: Smashwords, IBot, and Internet Explorer.

Morgen: I don’t know IBot, I’ll have to look into that. Are you on any forums or networking sites? If so, how valuable do you find them?

Frank: Just joined the IBot Toolbox site.  It looks very promising.  It is new and not well-tested yet.

Morgen: They sound wonderfully techie. What do you think the future holds for a writer?

Frank: The future is unlimited. The world population grows every day and most people will always read.  Information must be disseminated and we cannot rely on commercial sources since they are biased and short-sighted.  The world will be a pitiful place in a couple of generations if we rely on CNN and the local networks to supply our information and knowledge.

Morgen: More people are reading now (I think anyway) because of the formats available. Where can we find out about you and your writing?

Frank: My books and profile information are on my page on Amazon.com.

Morgen: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Frank: I try to be an optimist and think things will get better but the short sighted attitudes of our politicians and the lack of education that is evident in our young today makes me worry.  We are at the end of the normal life of most historic governments.  Will it be possible to find enough intelligent people to return our governments and religions to sanity and work together instead of as opponents?  Are we going to allow selfish interests and religious superstition destroy our civilized world? Finally, I think what you are doing is marvellous.  We search diligently for any outlet that will allow us to be heard.  Thank you very much.

Morgen: You’re very welcome. Thank you for joining me today. Is there anything you’d like to ask me?

Frank: I finally realized that you might be in the U.K.  Is that correct?  I know I have sold a few books through Amazon Kindle in the U.K. branch.

Morgen: I am, in ‘middle England’. Your author page for the UK for those of us living here is http://www.amazon.co.uk/Frank-C.-Newby/e/B005015H7U. Congratulations… I’ve sold more in the US than here but then most of my blog traffic is from the U.S. Thank you, Frank.

I then invited Frank to include an extract of his writing…

Border Report – Tuesday, April 17, 2012

The murder of young women in Juarez continues at an unabated pace. During January and February, authorities uncovered the graves of 12 young women, at least six between 15 and 19 years old. The records indicate that the death toll of young females in Juarez between 2006 and 2011 is now at 7640. No one seems to have any definitive reasons for this phenomena but the maquiladoras and the flaunting of the patriarchal society by Mexican females are given as possibilities. When young females left the safety of home and family to work in the factories and live in the Colonias and barrios which sprang up, they were deemed to be loose, promiscuous and fair game for the predators. They leave for work before light in the morning and return home after dark at night to shanties with no electricity or running water and sanitation. They are unprotected and vulnerable. The Mexican male with a high libido and no moral background, is a volatile animal who seizes what he can find. If it’s easy and vulnerable it becomes a target. Juarez seems to be the focal paint of this phenomena and it might be because of the concentration of gangs and cartel members who are perpetually on an adrenaline rush as they prey and pursue their enemies. The drug war has become a deadly game and the young macho male is drawn like a moth to the flame. Combine ignorance, danger, drugs and alcohol and you have the concoction from hell. There may be no reasonable answer to this plague which the world has spawned with its demand for mind-altering substances.

I then invited Frank to include a synopsis of his book…

Mexico: Drug Merchant to the World is a story of how, when, where and why the drugs flow from South and Central America, through Mexico and to the bodies of our American citizens.  It is a story of the poverty, ignorance and religious superstition that fuels the inhumane and insane, mass mutilation and desecration of so many human beings.  It has information about the content, processing, and distribution of drugs from the depths of the Sierra Madre mountains to the nightclubs of the world.  It is the story of country that has suffered 50,000 deaths in a few short years to fuel the insane demand of Americans.  This is our repeat story of Prohibition, same plot, different merchandise.

***

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.

If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.

Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).

The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:

Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Author interview no.529 with multi-genre writer Rolly A Chabot

Welcome to the five hundred and twenty-ninth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with multi-genre author Rolly A Chabot. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello, Rolly. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.

Rolly: Hi Morgen, first allow me thank you for the privilege of working with you on this project.

Morgen: <laughs> Thank you for being here.

Rolly: I live in Canada, the Western region near the great Canadian Rocky Mountains, which has become a playground for the avid Fly Fisherman, Photographer, and outdoor kid in me. I left home at an early age and have travelled and worked throughout North America. I have spent the better part of my life in the North. The most memorable was in the Yukon that is located well above the 60th Parallel. It was here I suppose the idea of writing first started to form as I used to journal a great deal of my time there.

Morgen: You write non-fiction, how do you decide what to write about?

Rolly: The first seven book series I wrote is non fiction and somewhat of an autobiography of my time in the Yukon and the many adventures and people who came and went from my life. This was an incredible time of healing and rediscovering the man in me that had been lost for several years. Writing about those years seemed to come easy as I lived them and wanted to share some of my past and experiences with others who may be on the same journey.

Morgen: It’s interesting to say that you rediscovered yourself. It’s great that writing can do that. What have you had published to-date? Do you write under a pseudonym?

Rolly: In total I have written 14 books the first seven were in a series called “Quiet Reflection”. After they were completed I changed genre and slipped into Christian / Fiction and Fiction in general. Of the other seven books I have completed they are of a series called “Checkers Corner”. Two in another series called “Smoothwolf” and two singles. I do write under my own name. I had given a fair amount of consideration to write under a pseudonym but felt I wanted closer contact with the reader and chose to stay with my own name.

Morgen: You do have a distinctive name and it’s all about having a ‘brand’ that people can recognise / remember. You’ve self-published, what lead to you going your own way?

Rolly: That is a loaded question. The first publisher I dealt with from the USA turned into a yearlong nightmare and a fair amount of lost money. I learned far into our dealing that he was not a man of his word, never once meeting any of his obligations for me. It nearly cost me the desire to write and it took me on a soul-searching mission of what the industry was all about. Many have been caught up in much the same. I chose to publish first in the eBook format with Amazon and market my own work and it has been rewarding as sales have proven to be wonderful.

Morgen: eBooks are great because if there’s anything you want to change you can just tweak the Word document and reupload. Are all your books available as eBooks? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?

Rolly: I chose to publish first in the eBook format with Amazon and market my own work and it has been rewarding as sales have proven to be wonderful. I suppose the drawback being that you are out there on your own and it requires a great deal of time to market and promote your work on many different social media sites.

Morgen: Congratulations. Out of the 500+ other authors I’ve spoken to only one said that their publisher does all their (her) marketing but she’s still very active on Twitter and Facebook which these days is a big chunk of networking. It’s also the most common answer to ‘what’s your least favourite aspect of your writing life’. Did you choose the titles / covers of your books? How important do you think they are?

Rolly: All part of the learning curve. I had dealt with a few aspects of having covers etc. done and in the end I chose to go through my own photo gallery and design and produce all of my own. As an avid reader, when a book cover catches my eye it is the first step in my buying experience. I do think it is the first step in making the sale for any author.

Morgen: I agree. Apart from the synopsis, they’re what we have to represent our books. The Quiet is my favourite of yours. What are you working on at the moment / next?

Rolly: Presently I have a few novels on the go. One is nearly complete. It is called The Fallen Barn and it is primarily about a man who served a number of years in prison and who has found his way back into society again and all the challenges that poses. I do like to keep a few on the go at the same time. I find it gives me a little variety and a challenge for those days when the creative brain decides it wants a rest in one or the other.

Morgen: As it does. Do you manage to write every day? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?

Rolly: I do write every day. I have set a goal of 3-5000 words a day and have it to be comfortable. Writers block is something I have never really struggled with as I manage to keep busy with variety in writing and marketing.

Morgen: That’s some word count, like two NaNoWriMos (which is coming up in November, and will be my fifth). Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?

Rolly: I generally edit as I go and then once completed I run through it three or four times to check for mistakes etc. I work on a MacBook Pro and use a great writing product. It is incredible program that allows me to have all the tools on one page, Character map, main writing area, a place for notes, previous chapter and a place to record references. The spell check and grammar check have proven to be invaluable. One benefit I love about the Mac is having the computer read back to me and it is amazing what you can hear which sounds out of place.

Morgen: I have a Pro too – it’s great. And reading aloud does make all the different. I tend to read it aloud myself but have ‘Vicki’ tell me my alerts so it would be interesting to have her read my writing. Good plan. Do you have to do much research?

Rolly: No, not really as fiction is a genre that allows you to be creative. If any research is done it might be on a location where the story takes place as I do think you want to accurate when naming cities etc.

Morgen: Because there will always be someone out there who knows where you’ve set it and would only be too happy to tell you where you’ve gone wrong. Again the joy of eBooks is that you can change any inaccuracies so easily. Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?

Rolly: We all do. For me I keep a relatively comprehensive filing system of things that I have written and found never really fit and I file them away and hopefully someday can use them.

Morgen: I’m the same and like to think that I have the experience to see where they need improving. Do you pitch for submissions and / or are you commissioned to write?

Rolly: I did at one time but I found the industry to be a bit cut throat towards the writer. When you reach a point of pennies a word I thought it better to invest in myself in book form. The family of a man, who was a rather colourful character, has recently approached me to write his life story. It has peeked my interest, as I do love a good life story.

Morgen: That sounds exciting, and really interesting. Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?

Rolly: Yes I have and they are a good way to test your marketability. Whenever I make a submission I generally will ask the Editor if he will do a brief critique. Often they are invaluable to the writer. Rejections are part of the writing world and should be viewed in a positive sense.

Morgen: They are indeed. A ‘good’ or ‘bad’ is not very helpful, we want to know why something’s one or the other. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?

Rolly: Not at this time. I have looked at a few and yes I think they are something that is needed. Again I would caution anyone looking into an agent to do his or her homework and be sure of whom you are having representing you and your work. An Agent can certainly be an asset to a writer.

Morgen: I do think when you have one that they earn their keep, although I have heard mixed reports from the authors I’ve spoken to. http://pred-ed.com/pubagent.htm has a great list of good and bad agents. We mentioned marketing earlier, how much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?

Rolly: I do a great deal of marketing through social media and friendships I have formed in the writing community. We do a fair amount of marketing for each other through placing ads and promotions on each other’s websites. Networking can generate a great deal of traffic.

Morgen: It certainly can, and is an author’s friend for sure these days. What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life? Has anything surprised you?

Rolly: The favourite without a doubt is the writing. Creating a character and building around him or her and the many who come and go. Building a story around them is exciting. The least favourite would have to be editing. Surprising aspect I think is watching the finished project coming together and the responses you get from the reader of how what you have written has touched them.

Morgen: I’m not a fan of editing either. What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Rolly: Continue to write, hone your skill and learn from your mistakes and most importantly back up your work regularly. There is nothing more disheartening or devastating than to lose all your hard work at the touch of a wrong key.

Morgen: Absolutely. I have backups of backups, and a memory stick on every key ring. If you could invite people from any era to dinner, whom would you choose and what would you cook (or hide the takeaway containers)?

Rolly: Benjamin Franklin, John F. Kennedy, Stephen King and Jane Karon.  It would be a simple meal, all from the land. These are people of the people and it would be a great evening of learning more about them and what motivated them.

Morgen: I don’t know Jane Karon but she’s a writer so a great choice. Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?

Rolly: I have over the years adopted a quote and not even sure who penned it “Limits exist only in your mind.” It has been with me for years and I do appreciate it.

Morgen: According to Yahoo it was Lee Jung Tao in 1174, in China. You mentioned earlier that you write fiction. Do you have a favourite of your books or characters? If any of your books were made into films, who would you have as the leading actors?

Rolly: A favourite I think would have to be the three book series called “Checkers Corner”. I think the favourite actor to play the part of Len Jefferson would have to be Dennis Quaid because of his morals and standards he sets in the roles he plays.

Morgen: Dennis is really good. One of my favourite films is Frequency (I’m also a fan of Jim Caviezel) although most people have never heard of it, which is a real shame. Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?

Rolly: I rarely plot. They seem to appear as I write. I often find my characters going places I would have never thought. I guess that is the beauty of fiction.

Morgen: I’m the same although I might do a bit for this year’s NaNoWriMo, especially as there’s just over a week to go and I’ve not decided what to write about yet. Do you have a method for creating your characters, their names and what do you think makes them believable?

Rolly: No real method they just appear and I build around them. Names are easy I do think a good name can create the character. Your explanation of your main character can generate all sorts of emotions in the reader’s eye. I like to make them as real as possible and yet leave a little room for the imagination. I recent received an email from a reader that stated “As good as what you have draw a picture of Wes I created my own.” She then gave me a description of who Wes was in her eyes.

Morgen: It’s always good, as you say, to leave room for the imagination, and is perhaps why most people say they prefer the book to the film version of it, because they have their idea of what the characters look like and it’s usually not who portrays them on screen. What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? Have you ever tried second person?

Rolly: The first seven books were all written in the first person. I found it easy as I had lived all I wrote about and yet it was a challenge. Now I right all in the third person and find great freedom in doing so.

Morgen: It does allow you to expand more on each character. Are you involved in anything else writing-related other than actual writing or marketing of your writing?

Rolly: I do blogs and many social media sites and answering emails from people who have purchased books. I so love to hear from people and have formed several friendships just through email exchanges. I have learned much about what people like to read. People are the greatest gifts in this sometimes solitude life.

Morgen: Many of the authors I’ve interviewed have become email friends, it’s great. Apart from having a wonderful research network, we’re so lucky having the interaction we do these days. What do you do when you’re not writing?

Rolly: I have become an avid Fly Fisherman over the years and love the sport. Photography is a pleasure and attempting to capture the perfect photo. Hiking back into some remote location and enjoying the piece and quiet of nature is a must for me. The solitude is something I love and take it whenever I get the chance.

Morgen: Which makes you ideal as a writer. Designing my own eBook covers has made me more aware when taking photographs; the composition and leaving space for title / name. Are there any writing-related websites and / or books that you find useful?

Rolly: Three books can be found on my desk at any given time, they have become a great resource for me:

• The Elements of Style by Strunk and White
• Grammatically Correct by Anne Stilman
• Student Writing Handbook by Sharon Sorenson

Morgen: Strunk & White’s book has featured regularly in these interviews. Are you on any forums or networking sites? If so, how valuable do you find them?

Rolly: I have tried a few and have since backed away from them as often they are not the most positive places to be. I do read several forums though but choose to stay back.

Morgen: I think most sites can have their good and bad points, and although they can be very time consuming they can be effective in getting yourself known. What do you think the future holds for a writer?

Rolly: I think that is up to the writer. With the advent of the computer and the Internet it is a hard career choice for people. The writer has the key to success if he decides to seek out his niche of readers. I do see a trend going in the direction of the eBooks as more and more people are purchasing readers and phone where they can read on these devices.

Morgen: Oh so do I. Where can we find out about you and your writing?

Rolly: I think of four places online will take the reader to where I have work.

• My Personal Website: http://web.me.com/woodcarver2009/Site/About_Me.html
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Rolly-A.-Chabot/e/B005HFAYGI
• http://hubpages.com/profile/Rolly+A+Chabot
• https://www.facebook.com/RollyAChabot
• My email is woodcarver2009@me.com

Morgen: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Rolly: No. I would say that you have done a great job of asking all the right questions.

Morgen: Oh thank you very much. Is there anything you’d like to ask me?

Rolly: Where do you find the time and the energy to do all of this plus write.

Morgen: <laughs> The ‘time’ by not having as much sleep as I should and the ‘energy’ by being passionate (some would say obsessed) by all things writing, but give me a deadline and I find the time. Thank you, Rolly.

I then invited Rolly to include an extract of his writing…

The Yukon is a captivating place for those who care to reach deep to probe the secrets she holds tightly to herself.

It is not a land for the fainthearted. If you choose to you can close the door on your past and live according to the elements you are surrounded by.

Fear has claimed many lives in the backcountry I have written about. I have shared some of my fears when I often found myself completely isolated with my closest friend Tannis, a rescue dog, who understood the true meaning of pain, suffering and rejection.

I will take you, the reader, through a process of 12 years of personal healing. God brought many people into my life, who, unbeknownst to me, had an impact upon His intervention and the love He has for me.

As I have written this series God has reminded me of the power of sharing our faith with the lost and the impact it can and will have on their lives.

As you read, I encourage you to hear what the Father wants you to hear as He has spoken it to me.

Be blessed on your adventure with Tannis and me.

Update January 2013: “I have added another five novels since the interview and the sixth is being edited and have two more completed in an exciting series I have started based in the high Arctic of Canada. Sill in the process of waiting on a publisher who has shown interest here in Canada to put some work out into print.”

***

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.

Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.

If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).

The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:

Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Author interview no.483 with humorous novelist and memoirist Jade Heasley

Welcome to the four hundred and eighty-third of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with humorous novelist and memoirist Jade Heasley. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello, Jade. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.

Jade:  My name is Jade Heasley and I’m an American author from central Pennsylvania, which is in the north eastern part of the United States.  I’ve written four books.  I have always loved books and I remember thinking about the age of five or six that it would be really cool to grow up and see my name on the cover of a book.  I began writing creatively as a hobby when I was a teenager and decided at the age of twenty-two to seriously pursue a writing career.

Morgen: You’re so lucky (fortunate); it took me nearly 40 years to realise that I could have my name on the front of a book. What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?

Jade:  Typically I prefer to write humorous fiction, but I’ve actually written books in a few different styles.  How to Rule the World and Bratty Becky and the Firecracker Kid are humorous novels, The Incorrigible Dreamers is novella, and the other is 1980s Kid, a humorous memoir about being a child during the 1980s.  It’s ranked as one of the Top Ten Best Books about the 1980s.

Morgen: Wow. Humour’s really hard. Are your books available as eBooks? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?

Jade:  All of my books are available in paperback and as e-books on the Amazon Kindle.  As far as my own reading habits, I love the feeling of a book in my hand, but I have an e-reader and I really like the fact that I can download almost any classic book for free.  One advantage of an e-reader is that when you come across an obscure word or term that is no longer listed in a standard dictionary, you can use an e-reader to find the meaning on the internet within a few seconds.

Morgen: You can, that’s very true. I’ve just bought an iPad 2 and just love the Kindle app on it – getting two pages on the screen is fantastic… like a real book. Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?

Jade:  I get an idea and I run with it.  Sometimes when an idea strikes it’s only a few words or an image of a character’s facial reaction to something.  I like to write longhand and see what the story turns into.  Truthfully I’ve never plotted out a book from start to finish, and sometimes I don’t even write the story in chronological order but I patch it together when all of the clarifying details of the story emerge.  I make sure that the book flows into a smooth plot when I’m editing it together, so my process can seem to be a bit scattered to some but it is very effective to create a whole little world which is what I feel a good novel should be.

Morgen: It’s my favourite part. Many writers say that the characters take over the story, do you have a method for creating your characters, their names and what do you think makes them believable?

Jade:  My major characters usually come into focus for me as a whole person, but to really make a character realistic I like to get an idea of their background and what has shaped them into the person they are, and ultimately, who they will choose to become.  When I’m choosing a character’s name I like to look up baby names and give the character a name with a meaning that reflects something in their personality, and something that’s appropriate to the time period in which the character lives.  I also pay careful attention to the character’s dialogue and manner of speaking.  Speech is a powerful method to convey a person’s values, level of intelligence, education, and attitude.

When I create minor characters, I usually decide on what that character’s dominate personality trait will be and then I mold the character around the personality trait.  This method seems to work well because readers will often ask me who the minor characters are based on in real life, and truthfully they are purely fictional characters but they seem so lifelike because of the personality trait method that I use.

Morgen: That’s what writing is all about – having reader wanting to know more… I love that. Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?

Jade:  I really do believe that my writing keeps improving over time, but any book that is publishable will undergo a lot of editing from the first draft to the final product.  Part of my creative process is writing a lot of back story so I know where the characters are coming from, but the excessive details can weigh the story down if they are not essential to the plot so I usually end up cutting a few chapters worth of material before the manuscript is finished.  I don’t believe in wasting the reader’s time with excessive words that don’t ultimately play into the book for a real reason.  Readers are smart people who will quickly figure out if a book has unnecessary fluff and will grow bored and stop reading.

Morgen: Absolutely. Do you have to do much research?

Jade:  For historical fiction books, yes, I do research because I want the books to be as authentic and realistic as possible.  I enjoy the process because I love history, so it can be a lot of fun.

Morgen: History was my worst subject at school and I write very little historical… perhaps why I’m not a fan of research, although I do like scouring the internet. What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person?

Jade:  I love writing in the first person narrative and have used that style for How to Rule the World, and Bratty Becky and the Firecracker Kid.  I think it’s a great way to immerse a reader into the character’s world.  I used third person narrative to write The Incorrigible Dreamers because I felt that due to the book’s unusual premise that it would be more effective to allow the reader to absorb the situation from an objective point of view before they became fully engrossed in the world as the characters begin to tell of their own experiences.

My memoir was written in the first person, for obvious reasons.  But it also helped the reader connect with the way a child’s mind works and how they see the world.

Morgen: They both work well for the right story. I’ve had some writers tell me that they’ve written whole novels in one pov but it hadn’t felt right so they switched and it made for a much better story. What do you do when you’re not writing?

Jade:  I love being outside, spending long afternoons in bookstores and coffee shops, and going to antique shops.

I also play the drums.  My favorite styles are swing and rock-and-roll.

Morgen: I always fancied the drums out of everything but I think my mum’s probably glad I didn’t take it up. Are you on any forums or networking sites? If so, how valuable do you find them?

Jade:  I have a fan page on Facebook which I find is very handy for keeping my fans updated.  I am also on Twitter and I welcome e-mails from my readers.  I can be reached at jade@jadeheasley.com and I do my best to answer e-mails from fans as soon as possible.

Morgen: Where can we find out about you and your writing?

Jade:  I have a website at www.jadeheasley.com and the page has links to all of my social networking sites.  It also allows readers to sample the first few chapters of each one of my books. I’m also on Twitter (@JadeHeasley). Here is link to my work on Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Jade+Heasley

Morgen: Lovely, thank you Jade.

I then invited Jade to include an extract of her writing…

I remember a lot of things from my last summer as a teenager quite vividly, but maybe that’s true for anyone during those few precious years of transitioning into adulthood. For most people, those years of the late teens and early twenties often set the course for the rest of their lives, and in my case, that was certainly true. I think that for all of us, those years are filled with soaring highs and some crushing lows, fiery determination and sheer exhaustion, and more dreams and ambitions than most people can achieve in a lifetime. But it’s the thrill of chasing those dreams that adds so much color and meaning and depth to life, rescuing us from the monotony of day-to-day routine that so many people seem to get lost in. When you’re young, you’re determined that you won’t ever be someone who gets trapped in a dead-end job or that anything in your life will ever be less than total excitement. During young adulthood the days have a tendency to fly by at a dizzying pace, filled with thrilling anticipation and hope for the future that you will be one of the few who can grab ahold of everything you ever wanted.

At the age of nineteen I knew exactly what I wanted out of life, although I wasn’t entirely sure of how to attain it. Nonetheless, I was fired up and ready to go after my dreams just the same.

What I remember most about that time of my life is that summer, when I came up with the best scheme I’ve ever dreamed up, and even though I was nineteen it was like one last, grand childhood caper. That stunt was like the gateway that led to adulthood in one singular event, when a girl with a goody-goody reputation shook up an entire town with an infamous act and the subsequent aftermath . . .

And to include a synopsis of her book…

When 19-year-old Wendy Sloane comes home from college in May to work in her family’s bookstore, she’s expecting a slow, predictable summer. After an unexpected event and the aftermath shake things up in her small town, Wendy is inspired to create some chaos of her own. With the help of her wise (and wisecracking) mom and grandpa, Wendy attempts to pull the biggest stunt her little town has ever seen. In her quest at attempting the impossible, Wendy accidentally discovers the power to rule the world.

Jade Heasley is an author and speaker who keeps readers and listeners laughing about her true tales of her happy childhood during the magical time known as the 1980s, and challenging them to chase their dreams and think outside the box.

During her childhood, she developed a love of books and from early on began dreaming of seeing her name in print. Although she assumed that becoming an author was unlikely, she couldn’t let go of the idea and chased her dream. Her humorous memoir, 1980s Kid was published in 2008, followed by her first novel, Bratty Becky and the Firecracker Kid in 2009.

In 2010, she debuted her novella entitled The Incorrigible Dreamers, her first book that wasn’t a humorous story. Audiences were intrigued by the book’s unusual premise, and it resulted in radio interviews on both internet and traditional broadcast radio shows from Connecticut to California.

Heasley’s fourth book, How to Rule the World is a novel mixing her humorous style and some serious themes to tell the story of a college student whose summer break turns into an unexpected journey of pursuing dreams and ambitions, and disillusionment.

Some time between her birth in Pennsylvania and the publication of 1980s Kid, Heasley earned degrees from Valley Forge Christian College and Lock Haven University.

***

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.

If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.

Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).

The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:

Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Author interview no.480 with non-fiction writer Don Darkes

Welcome to the four hundred and eightieth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with non-fiction author Lawrence de Robillard aka Don Darkes. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello Lawrence, or should I call you Don?

Lawrence/Don: Guten morgen Morgen! (Sorry I couldn’t resist that – a little international pun eh?…) Thank you for inviting me here today.

Morgen: Guten morgen (and it is morning here in the UK). You’re very welcome. Please tell us something about yourself, and how you came to be a writer.

Lawrence/Don: I was born in ’54 as Lawrence de Robillard and reborn on June 6th 2012 as the Writer Don Darkes.

Morgen: We’ll go with Don… my father’s name (whose birthday was June 7th). I also have an uncle Lawrence… well, Laurence… and I have a really small family!

Don: My choice of pseudonym is due partly to the fact that I am penning a Biographical Memoir entitled, Darkes Life of Crime. The memoirs of an intriguing man, the original Don Darkes, who was marked with this pseudo identity, at birth in order to maintain a dark secret and the fact that like him, my given name is also an accident of birth concealing my true heritage. The irony tickles my love of the bizarre and my sense of the ridiculous.

Following more than forty years killing myself at exciting and successful careers in the Building, Manufacturing, Information Technology, Franchising industries I find myself at this point combining them all into my new role as a Writer and Author.

I repudiated my Psychology degree in the mid-seventies prior to serving my mandatory National Military Service in a top-secret Electronic Warfare unit, clandestinely deployed in Rhodesia, (Now Zimbabwe) a horrendous episode in my life, for which I later received a medal. (The subject of a novel in progress, Scrambled Eggs.)

During the eighties, at the height of apartheid, together with (then) illegal “non-white” partners I built a successful manufacturing company. Following a series of traumatic events I sold it and opted-out to buy the yacht upon which I was shipwrecked together with my wife, our five year old son and four year old daughter at a remote part of Madagascar. After returning destitute to South Africa I rode a ripple in the dot.com wave and sold my Internet start-up in order to distribute rare organic chocolate and to research a challenging historical novel exploring an intriguing link between the Jewish Holocaust and Madagascar. This book will be entitled Bread From Air.

Currently, together with my wife, son and two daughters we reside high off the ground amongst the branches of a Casuarina tree whilst my fantastic family works together to build another yacht, our family ark, and a tribal-canoe-concept catamaran. When we launch our boat, Sea Shoes, it will be temporarily moored at Richards Bay in magnificent KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, whilst we get to grips with it before setting off again. At the same time I am working on several books sharing the common denominators being; my love of history, first hand experiences and my belief that fact is stranger and far more interesting than fiction.

I came to be a writer as the result (literally – no pun intended) of having a loaded pistol, cocked and placed against my head.

Morgen: Wow. That’s a whole galley of book content there. You write non-fiction, what do you decide to write about?

Don: I have been fortunate to have a varied and exciting life and met, and continue to meet interesting and unique people. My first book, Pisces and the Sailfish, relates the True story of my Family Adventure and Disaster that was the best thing that ever happened to me. So it was a natural first choice. This memoir is called Pisces and the Sailfish because of the curse that was placed upon the vessel. She was originally cursed, when she was originally named Pisces (the Star-sign), and possibly had added curse -kudo’s, karma or debt, when I symbolically renamed her by painting a Sailfish outline over her launch name, effectively renaming the boat, which is considered bad luck by sailors… http://piscesthesailfish.wordpress.com

Morgen: I’ve heard that (and have a sailing / writing friend – hi Tony!). What have you had published to-date? Do you write everything under your pseudonym?

Don: I have only two published works, the first things I ever wrote, based upon opening chapters of Pisces and the Sailfish, written almost two decades after the actual events. They were written for a True Short Story Competition. See http://www.witness.co.za/index.php?showcontent&global[_id]=1609 The Tortoise the Sailfish and the Duck. For twenty years I could not bring myself to write the entire story for reasons that will become apparent in the book. I was waiting for someone to die- or worse. When the readers of my first short story begged me to tell them more – I partially relented and wrote a harmless (to my psyche anyway) additional opening chapter and submitted it in the following year’s competition. This was the second piece I have ever written. It reached the finals again. See http://www.witness.co.za/index.php?showcontent&global[_id]=19351 Fly on the Wall. I wrote both of these pieces under my own name.

In May 2012 I read a long awaited obituary and something released inside of me. The Ultimate Revenge is Outliving your enemies and of course Revenge is a Dish Best Eaten Cold!

Thus fortified I wrote the entire story, sitting in our tree-house, only mildly pestered by cheeky monkeys, tiny ants and bat-eating squabbling horn-bills, over a six week period. For a number of reasons, some mentioned already, I decided to write under a pseudonym, Don Darkes. Suddenly the pain went away – it was not really me any more. You would think my Psychology training would enable me to understand this – but it remains mute.

Morgen: Life is one big mystery. Douglas Adams said the answer is 42 and all we have to do is find the question. I understand you plan to self-publish, what lead to you going your own way?

Don: Initially I was absolutely against self-publishing, seeing it as vanity and ego polishing. This was not helped by the slick proposals I received from several on-demand publishers. Whilst I can understand they have their place, they were not for me. Then I met a visionary. Mark Coker. He had suffered this route too and written a book that no-one would publish. He refused the ego trip implied by pay to print. So he started Smashwords, an eBook publisher. Rather than attempt to paraphrase him, perhaps you should check him out. I guarantee you will be inspired when you understand his good clean honest common sense approach. http://www.smashwords.com

I shall be publishing Pisces and the Sailfish on Smashwords as soon as I complete the editing and polishing. (Or sooner if I can find a Guardian Angel Editor to help me do it.)

Nevertheless, and this is where I hope this interview may help me. Building on my experiences gained in my last career, Internet and the Information Technology sector, I shall be relying heavily on beta-testers. Like Microsoft or other great companies, I know the job is never done, the work is never perfect. The first impressions of a trusted group of users will be heard and used to make the product better. Therefore I shall be offering a free pre-release copy of Pisces and the Sailfish for download, to anyone who contacts me via my website at http://www.dondarkes.com or my email at don@dondarkes.com and agrees to review the book.

Morgen: If you come across anyone willing to review books generally could you point them in my direction (morgen@morgenbailey.com) and I’ll gladly list them on my Reviews page. Are your books available as eBooks? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?

Don: “Thankfully eBooks are immortal.” (Quote Mark Coker) I believe Mark when he says it’s a great way to find your audience. Once I find my audience and they start to spread the word, only then shall I consider it is time to fell a forest and go to paper and Print. There is a paradox here which intrigues me. With my professional background in long term document archiving for banks, governments and insurance companies I learnt that paper records and hard-copy original documents are regarded by them as sacred and eternal and that electronic documents are regarded as ephemeral and temporary. They believe that only paper lasts, Paper rules in their worldview. The realities of commercial publishing today see unsuccessful book titles quickly making their way to the recycling plant to be made into toilet paper if they don’t earn their keep in a very short space of time on the limited and expensive retailers shelf space. By this yardstick many writing legends of the past would have vanished down the toilet. Ebooks on the other hand are not only resurrecting long forgotten authors and making their works live again, but since eBooks are never removed from the cheap and infinitely expandable book retailers shelves, an author can wait until his audience is born instead of vice-versa. Suddenly pixels are forever and paper is history. I love it! So for me, and I suspect the future of publishing, it is eBooks first because they last forever and Paper is last because it doesn’t. You can quote me on that!

Morgen: I have a quotes page. I’ll have to add you to it. Did you have any say in the titles / covers of your books? How important do you think they are?

Don: The titles and covers are critical. I am still working on mine. I shall have all the say. Well, excepting for the opinion of my wife, and my son… oh and both my daughters. Well my wife of course… Oh, and the feedback I get from my beta- readers. Oh yes can you see (thumps chest) I am the boss!

Morgen: What are you working on next?

Don: The next book on my drawing board (if you can call a stream of consciousness connected via a keyboard to a pixel generator -a board.) is the Sequel to Pisces and the Sailfish, Second Time Lucky. This book is being written now, literally as it happens, with most of the same main characters, plus a new daughter and a cat, -only it takes place twenty years later. It records our family’s journey from another gun-at-head incident, this time involving all of us, to where we are now, the Casuarina Tree in Zululand, where we slept high up in the branches, for over a year and follows our journey onward, encountering amazing people, animals and bizarre experiences as we work toward being able to sail away from the urban madness again. (Phew if you can work out what I just said – please explain it to me)

I have another nine books on the drawing board. Its as if a log was jamming up the river finally worked itself free when I got the Sailfish off my chest. I am not sure in which order I shall complete them but possibly the third one will be another non-fiction work, the memoir of my alter ego- Don Darkes. It will be entitled either My Life of Crime or by (you guessed it) Don Darkes- written by me, Don Darkes, as told to me Don Darkes by the real Don Darkes. Oh boy I am getting confused.

Then I have a trilogy, not sure yet they will be entirely Non-Fiction, Historical Fact-based Fiction (is there such a genre?) or if I will chicken out and write it as pure fiction. The first book in the trio named, Bread from Air, explores the fascinating links between the Jewish Holocaust and Madagascar and some of the incredible women who disappeared through the cracks in history’s floor. After that is a non-fiction (but maybe not) memoir covering (or rather uncovering) my (until recently) top secret time spent performing my compulsory National Service, waging electronic warfare, wearing another countries uniform, and shi**ing myself in a foreign country with a price on my head. The title for this one is provisionally Scrambled Eggs.

Morgen: My goodness. With so much to write about, do you manage to write every day? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?

Don: I am terminally lazy and ill disciplined. I don’t manage to physically write every day. I shall have to change. Knowing this my family herds me into the cubicle every morning, hatch and goes off to have fun mixing epoxy, sawing wood, laying fibreglass and seeing the sunshine reflecting off the sapphire blue sea. Serves them right! Jokes aside, I believe that an author is always writing. Even if a scribe is falling (with a chute) from an aeroplane or digging a ditch he is writing – with and in his mind. Therefore the act of connecting consciousness to keyboard is not writing – it’s transcribing an (e) book.

Morgen: I agree. When we’re not actually writing we’re thinking about writing… I know I am. Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?

Don: Er? Editing. That’s not writing. That’s work. Hard work, editing. Did I mention that I am desperate to find an editor. I agree wholeheartedly with Mark Coker when he says “Writers should spend their time wisely and Write and Editors should Edit!” Sorry Mark I got a bit carried away with the creative misquote- but I think I got the gist of what you said. Experience and practice and practise help too.

PS. Did I tell you I am desperately seeking an Editor?

Morgen: I edit at reasonable prices. Take a look at my editing and critique page. Do you have to do much research?

Don: Probably too much. Every day I live and breathe its research, and research and yet more research. Reading on the other hand is not research, it’s plagiarising, unless of course you steal the works of many other writers and that’s research! When I am reading that is the only time when I am not writing. For the Bread from Air book (perhaps books) I have already ploughed through over two hundred, heavy, boring, non fiction history tomes and the complete works of Winston Churchill. (ZZZZZ!)

Morgen: History was my worst subject at school (I seem to recall getting 2% in one test… I may be wrong) so I’m right there with you but a lot of writers adore history and do very well writing it (and I’ve had agents tell me they want more of it!). Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?

Don: So far that describes all of them. I spent most of my life writing something and then tearing it up the next day. Of course with digital it’s so much easier to tear up and with fewer paper cuts!

Morgen: It is, although I keep everything because you never know. Do you pitch for submissions and / or are you commissioned to write?

Don: I pitched my work to twenty Agents and one publisher. I don’t think my writing or grammar is good enough to be commissioned to write. But who knows, Pigs can Fly you know?

Morgen: It’s all in the writing – if they see something underneath that shines then the grammar doesn’t matter so much. I’ve heard writers say Dan Brown isn’t a great writer (and the same about the EL James and her Fifty Shades of Grey Series) but the story hooks people (there are more readers out there than writers) so that’s what matters. Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?

Don: Yes, a lot. Cowboys don’t cry so I grab an angle grinder and work on the boat. In actual fact, when I get a rejection – even if it’s a Cockroach Letter (is there time to tell that joke? – ok – another time?) I embrace it. At least it’s a response. I am alive and someone replied to my plaintive cry to be heard. Far worse are the six weeks waiting for the bomb to go off, waiting by the email box impatiently and then nothing happens except silence. Is that rejection or dejection?

Morgen: Do you enter any non-fiction competitions? Are there any you could recommend?

Don: I did, once, and the so and so’s never awarded the prize money. I know that ’cause my son built their website and saw what was going on. I don’t know of any others but will not enter any if they ask an entry fee because my son and I know what a great business it can be. (We prepared a serious Internet based business plan and put down a deposit on our own island, -based on the prospects)

Morgen: I’m sure there are scams out there but in the main they’re legitimate. A writing group I chair runs the yearly H.E. Bates Short Story Competition and we charge (£4 / 3 for £10) because we have to pay the judge (this year we have crime writer Stephen Booth), rent the hall for the prize giving and of course give prize money. I avoid competitions that charge an disproportionate fee to prize money or only have a PO Box with no website. I have a competitions calendar and try to check out the information I put on there but I do have a disclaimer that I’ve not entered most of them so can’t guarantee their legitimacy. It’s a shame that there are people out there who will rip people off but that’s life… sadly. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?

Don: I do have an Agent. It’s my incredible wife and she loves me too much to tell me the truth. I would love a less gullible or lovable Agent. Of course I would love a real Agent in my corner, one that knows what they are doing, but I am not holding my breath waiting for the stampede.

Morgen: I don’t think anyone is and I’ve heard even agents are becoming publishers so it’s a tough time to be one right now. How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?

Don: I know I will have to do the marketing and creating and growing the brand myself. Hooray for Morgen with an e – she has offered to interview me and kick start the process!

Morgen: Happy to oblige. What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life? Has anything surprised you?

Don: Favourite. The awe on my family’s faces when they saw me print the first couple of hundred pages on the ink-jet printer we keep under a tattered tarpaulin under the boat.

Least favourite. The sweat-inducing, back breaking, bottom-numbing work doing all that research! Never mind the self-doubt and angst. Darn I would rather be mixing epoxy or sanding fibreglass.

Morgen: I’m not a fan of research either but at least we have the internet. What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Don: Get a real job!

Morgen: Oops. I gave mine up in March (and don’t regret it) and swapped it for two lodgers. If you could invite three people from any era to dinner, who would you choose and what would you cook (or hide the takeaway containers)?

Don: Hoo boy. I lay awake all last night on this one. Bill Clinton, Xaviera Hollander and the Pope accept my invitation to dinner. No, No, that’s not it. Can I tell a funny story now? Terribly sorry (Can we edit this out?) – covers keyboard so the readers cant hear either of us frantically typing and editing it out.

Adolf Hitler, Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin join us for lunch around a South African Braai. It’s like a barbecue but with real meat and glowing aromatic hardwood charcoal. (No hamburgers and no fire-lighters!) We pass around the mampoer (like moonshine only stronger and made from Maroela Fruit- You know?- The devilish little yellow wild fruit that gets Elephants tipsy after they fight off the greedy monkeys and horny mouthed bush pigs to slurp up the rotten ones from the forest floor.)

Winston on the other hand does not bat an eyelid as he puffs on his cigar. His completely at home here under the African stars around a crackling fire. Heck! We should have shot him when we caught him spying for the British army when he was skulking around the veld here during the Anglo-Boer war. But then I suppose that Ghandi would have put down his stretcher and refused to eat in support of his bosses – the British Army.

‘Dolf and Joe are going to squirm when I serve the Puff-Adder boerewors. Our ten foot long, thick farmers-sausage filled with mashed up herbs and liberal fragrant spices and a lot of ground up deadly snake meat. South Africa’s answer to Japanese blow-fish – but with a lot more bite.

I shall hold my breath in anticipation when I ask them, “Why did you cosy chums not tell anyone what you discussed, when you all met together in that dark room, that stormy night so long ago in whimsical Vienna. (rubs hands with anticipation and laughs like a maniac)

Morgen: That does sound like fun… I’ll hope they say “yes” and that I can join them. If you had to choose a single day to re-live over and over, what day would it be and why?

Don: Tomorrow. Because I have lived and loved today already. Despite my identification with a chameleon, I don’t believe in looking over my shoulder. I live in the moment and regret nothing, not even my many, many mistakes.

Morgen: There’s nothing we can do about the past, is there… other than write about it. Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?

Don: I can sleep when I am dead.

Morgen: I keep telling myself that when I go to bed at midnight and have to get up at five (to take the lodgers to work). Do you write fiction? If so, are there any differences or similarities between writing non-fiction and fiction?

Don: I have yet to write my first work of fiction, other than some (lies all lies) tax returns. Can I plead the Fifth?

Morgen: You could but I’m in the UK so it wouldn’t mean anything to me. I should Google it, shouldn’t I? Do you have a favourite of your books or characters? If any of your books were made into films, who would you have as the leading actor/s?

Don: The Heroine of my Pisces and the Sailfish and Second Time Lucky books, my wife Anne (soon to be reborn as Dianne Darkes (shh!) is my favourite character in the books, as a person in real life and as my best friend, mother of my children, wife, lover, confidante, and anchor.

I would love her to play herself but I fear that someone will fall in love with her and kidnap her for himself. If I was forced to choose an actress to play her it would be Meryl Streep, Helen Mirren or Pauline Collins as she was in Shirley Valentine.

To play Don (That’s me?) First choice Ian McShane, as he was in HBO’s Deadwood or a Young Richard Burton, Peter o” Toole or Sean Connery. (I wish!)

My son, Bill Darkes, a young John Lithgow. My Daughter Morgan Darkes (with an A!) the British Garden show actress, dogsbody and fearless woman Charlie Dimmock.

My youngest and darkest daughter, Luna Darkes, is the most difficult of all as she transforms and grows daily and surprises me all the time. Blond and wickedly, satirically intelligent with a biting wit and a heart of gold. What actress would you choose- I have not found any that comes even close to the real thing. Can she play herself?

Morgen: Great choices. I’ve been a fan of John Lithgow since he appeared in the airplane section of The Twilight Zone movie. He was brilliant in 3rd Rock from the Sun (he’s brilliant in anything he does). I’ve not seen Deadwood but loved Ian in Lovejoy (but hated the book!). Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?

Don: I lack education so I just crank out the story as it happened. I have been told (by an agent rejecting my submission) that I have an honest voice. Sheesh I wrote to him- we never spoke on the phone!

The beauty of Non-fiction is it’s easier to tell it like it is, er was… er, happened…?

Morgen: That’s true although the facts have to be even more accurate, but then you’re writing from your experience so that would be easier (although you did say how much you love research). Do you have a method for creating your characters, their names and what do you think makes them believable?

Don: The characters remain pretty much as I found them. Sometimes I may use a composite of nuances and inspirations from other people. Names I sometimes change in order to protect the innocent. Given that I always create the new name encoded in such a way that they know and I know who they are. (I have a lot of dirty washing to air innocently)

Morgen: What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? Have you ever tried second person?

Don: Hah? I mean I beg your pardon? I have absolutely no idea what the second person is. I enjoy the first person point of view, especially when I can be someone else though.

Morgen: Second person is ‘you’ rather than ‘I’, ‘he/she’. It’s not easy to pull off – I explain it (and give an example of it) on my blog’s second person page. Are you involved in anything else writing-related other than actual writing or marketing of your writing?

Don: I am building a boat, an Ark really, together with my family and I am working with a group of previously disadvantaged South Africans to build a writers group. We want to write a Rosetta Stone series of books about life in the cauldron that is Africa and particularly South Africa. I dare not tell you more about the Rosetta Stone concept until we can get it copyrighted.

I also have a younger daughter that is completing here education via “Home-Schooling” using the UK’s Cambridge System. I spend as much time as I can with her to make up for the lack of social interaction that she suffers as a result of not being at the conventional systems for destroying individuality and creativity, (er I mean)… conventional Schools. With the little time that is left I try to catch up on my breathing and sleeping.

Morgen: They are both useful. What do you do when you’re not writing?

Don: I am a keen cyclist (won the biggest amateur cycling event in the world some time back) a scuba diver, sky diver (broke my leg and have 22 stainless steel screws to remind me every time I pass through an airport) Sailor, boat builder and I love cooking. (almost as much as I adore eating.)

Morgen: I’ve never been a fan of jumping out of planes and less so now… Are there any writing-related websites that you find useful?

Don: One revolutionary has influenced my thinking. Mark Coker the founder of Smashwords.

Morgen: He’s opened up a wonderfully big door, hasn’t he? I actually prefer Smashwords to Amazon (but don’t tell Amazon that!) and have sold more there too, although what I have (only a short story collection and writing guide so far – currently working on the novels) went up on Smashwords first (late last year vs April this year). Are you on any forums or networking sites? If so, how valuable do you find them?

Don: The linked-in http://linkedin.com sites are incredible, and I participate (to the detriment of my writing time) in a number of the Writing, sailing, Home Schooling, Ecology, Off-the Grid, Travel and Publishing site that I can.

Morgen: LinkedIn’s great isn’t it; so helpful whenever there’s a query and keeps me more than topped up with interviewees. What do you think the future holds for a writer?

Don: Thankfully Ebooks are immortal. Did I say that already? Killing forests is soon going to be a thing of the past. Epublishing, and electronic publishing is going to change the way writers write, market, promote, sell and update their books. I am known as a visionary on these things (I was giving lectures to the boards of large companies three years before the Internet changed the world as we knew it – forever). I will be blogging (and participating) in the coming eBooks Revolution with all virtual pens blazing.

Morgen: Oh me too. I think all authors would like to see their books in print (I would) but eBooks are where the future is. I’ve only had a handful of interviewees say they wouldn’t read them. Where can we find out about you and your writing?

Don: I have a website http://www.dondarkes.com and a blog at http://seashoes.wordpress.com of course you can call me also on Skype at don.darkes and we can chat and you can see my boat and my tree-house, that is if the monkeys, crocodiles, hippos, fish eagles, snakes, and our pet dolphin don’t distract you.

Morgen: They would, I’d love to see them. Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Don: Yes. Thank you for asking. I am a new writer and Literary agents tell me, “have yet to find your voice”. I also need to better understand my audience and find them. My first manuscript is poised at a crossroads, it’s short (50,000 or so words in its raw state) humorous and written as vignettes that allow it to be read easily without having to understand a complicated plot or lose the thread of the story. But I feel it lacks something. Thus the crossroads. I would like to explore one of the major themes- but fear it might alienate those that wish to be entertained, and not challenged. I would like to go forward, to cover more than the crisis but fear it may not be interesting for readers who only wanted a good escapist yarn and to know who and why I tried to murder someone.

I come from a background of software development and the birth of the Internet. We learnt the value of beta-testers to test drive new software even if it meant giving it away for free. So I need some unnamed genre, Memoir, Family Adventure Book beta readers. If you, the reader would be willing to be my guinea pig (can we edit that out?) … er a beta-tester, please contact me and I shall arrange for your free copy if you will tell me warts and all what was good and bad about it.

Morgen: Please do folks (and I’m sure they don’t mind being called guinea pigs). I’d review books if I had another 12 hours in my day (I do review short stories). Is there anything you’d like to ask me?

Don: Yes! How did you come up with and develop this excellent facility and where do you see it taking you?

Morgen: Thank you very much. I’d heard that creating a blog was a good thing to do. I used to have a Blogspot blog (I do again now, http://morgensauthorinterviews.blogspot.co.uk, but it just replays the – currently earlier – interviews) but did nothing with it so had 372 visitors in a couple of years. I deleted it when I’d met philosopher Nigel Warburton when I was volunteering at the Oundle Literature Festival last year who had over 2 million visitors and an average of 1,000 a day so within two weeks (31st March 2011) this one was born. A couple of months later I was interviewed on another blog and found it such fun that I started doing them and the rest, as they say (in France), is histoire. Thank you, Don… Lawrence. My regards to Dianne.

I then invited Don to include an extract of his writing…

6612 Cold Sweet Revenge

I have waited impatiently and very bitter for almost twenty years to write the final chapters to this story. Whilst I have often fantasised about revenge and what I could or should have done, it is only recently that I realised that I should have forgiven and forgotten a long, long time ago. Nevertheless I have to admit that I experienced intense pleasure and a sweet release in being able to enjoy, with relish, the truth in two of my favourite old saws about revenge when I recently read a long awaited obituary. ‘Revenge is a dish best eaten cold!’ And, ‘There is no sweeter revenge than outliving your enemies!’

6792 Jamais vu

Jamais vu (from French, meaning “never seen”) is a term in psychology which is used to describe any familiar situation which is not recognized by the observer. Often described as the opposite of déjà vu, jamais vu involves a sense of eeriness and the observer’s impression of seeing the situation for the first time, despite rationally knowing that he or she has been in the situation before. (Wikipedia)

As the first rays of sunlight began to peel away the darkness at dawn on June seventh I could see that it was low tide and that the pounding waves were crashing some way off from where I sat huddled with my shivering family. A silver flash of reflected sunlight summoned me from where a shimmering object lay within the expanse of sand exposed by the receding ocean. “Wait here.” I ordered as I stood up and stepped sleepily onto the glistening beach ignoring the protests from the hardy villagers who had shared our all-night vigil. At first I did not notice how my footsteps filled up and sank then vanished behind me as I single-mindedly drew each foot from the sucking white sand and staggered doggedly forward to stand exhausted above my glinting steel objective. Puzzled and perplexed I scratched my head, wincing absent-mindedly as warm blood oozed afresh from the wound on my aching skull as I struggled to recognise at what I was looking. As I sank up to my hips in the cloying muck I recognised with dismay what the all too familiar shape sticking out of the quicksand in front of me was.

and a synopsis…

Pisces and the Sailfish is a Family Adventure and Travel Memoir follows the first part of my young family’s adventures after we abandoned our secure, comfortable and meaningless existence in suburbia to follow our dream. This often humorous account, relates how we unwittingly bought a jinxed yacht, watched it smash itself to pieces and with no prior experience, skills or training rebuilt it, sailed away, rediscovered paradise, punished betrayal, found ancient treasure and how we survived sharks, lemurs, walruses, a lynch mob, a curse, gas, flaming epoxy and quicksand. It also relates how in answer to my prayer, we lost everything and experienced heart-breaking generosity that altered our lives and welded our family even closer together. This book also reveals for the first time how and why I tried to commit murder. If I rewrite it the Synopsis will look a little more like this

This book, a frivolous, humorous, deliberately flippant and self-indulgent memoir, is an exorcism and catharsis. It covers how, after having a gun to my head I opted-out, sold up, bought a yacht and together with my young family sailed away. (To where we were going – I have yet to find out. Worse still -we never arrived.) Then we were shipwrecked and had to return, in chains, to “civilization”. The book may possibly be named Curse of the Sailfish – referring to the Jekyll and Hyde nature of what I have come to believe was a cursed boat.

Either way I intend to self publish it once I find a editor/ mentor and guide that I can work with (and afford – in every sense of the word – although I believe I cannot afford not to have this facility) who will be prepared to partner with me as I write the other nine or so, mainly “non-fiction” books that I wish to write.

***

Lawrence de Robillard writes as Don Darkes. This choice of pseudonym is due to the fact that he is also writing a Biographical memoir provisionally entitled, Darkest Africa My Life of Crime, or Darkes Africa, the life story of an incredible man, Don Darkes, who was given this identity, at birth, in order to keep a secret and the fact that like him, Lawrence’s given name is also an accident of birth concealing his true heritage. He is fifty-something and has been ecstatically married for over three decades to his incredible wife Anne who bore him three miracle children.

After repudiating his Psychology degree in the mid-seventies he served his mandatory National Military Service in a clandestine, top-secret unit stationed in (then) Rhodesia – for which he received a medal. (The subject of a novel in progress) During the eighties, at the height of apartheid, together with (then illegal) “black” partners he built a successful manufacturing company which he sold to buy the yacht upon which he was shipwrecked together with his wife Anne, their five year old son and four year old daughter.

After returning destitute to South Africa he rode a ripple in the dot.com wave and cashed in his Internet start-up in order to distribute rare organic chocolate and to research a challenging historical novel, Bread From Air, which explores an intriguing link between the Jewish Holocaust and Madagascar. Currently, together with his wife, son and two daughters they reside high off the ground amongst the branches of a Casuarina tree as the family works together to build another yacht whilst Lawrence also works on several books that have as a common denominator, his love of history and his belief that fact is stranger and far more interesting than fiction.

***

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.

If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.

Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).

The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:

Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Author interview no.478 with travel writer Thirza Vallois

Welcome to the four hundred and seventy-eighth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with travel writer and spotlightee Thirza Vallois. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello, Thirza. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.

Thirza: I am based in Paris (and also in London). It seems that I always wrote, even a play aged 10 that the teacher thought was worthy of being put up by our class and shown to the public. I never thought twice of it. Children are naturally creative. I never intended to become a writer. It just happened spontaneously because I felt the urge to express myself about things I really cared about. It happened to be Paris because it’s a place I have always had “issues” with. My readers think I’m in love with Paris because I am across as such. In fact, I have a complex relationship with the city. It is unique and irresistible, but also exasperating, a place shrouded in a mystique that is often so far from the reality. Why is Paris so superlative?  Why is there such a mystique around it? I was intrigued, I was compelled, and I had to explore, dive in and find out. A task that took me fifteen solid years, resulting in a 3-volume series, Around and About Paris, basically the biography of the city through walks (that I encourage people to take, though many of my readers, I know, are armchair readers). A task that isn’t really finished…. There is so much more to discover and understand.

Morgen: I’m sure all capital cities have their good and bad points, and we can say that for wherever we live (it’s certainly true of where I am). I described you earlier as a ‘travel writer’, do you write other genres?

Thirza: So far I have only written travel books, all about France. And I also write articles about France, on a regular basis.

Morgen: What have you had published to-date?

Thirza: The three above mentioned: Around and About Paris, From the Dawn of Time to the Eiffel Tower; Around and About Paris, From the Guillotine to the Bastille Opera; Around and About Paris, New Horizons: Haussmann’s Annexation; Romantic Paris and Aveyron, A Bridge to French Arcadia.

Morgen: Do you write under a pseudonym?

Thirza: No. I write under my proper name. But who knows? Perhaps some day I’ll write something I won’t be brave enough to bring out to the world under my own identity? So far, I have no such project.

Morgen: They certainly have their uses. Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?

Thirza: Yes. Many thought my books were long and not commercial enough. I persevered because I believed they were unique and that they would be a great gift to those who really care about French culture. I would never want to write something for the sake of being published, or my ego. I felt I had something important to pass on, and to do so in an engaging way that would bring the past alive.

Morgen: I like to think that’s how every writer feels but I’m sure some have published just for the money (which, given how little writers earn, I can’t say I all together blame them). Have you won or been shortlisted in any competitions?

Thirza: No. The recognition came only from my readers and the reviewers who discovered my work.

Morgen: That’s just as rewarding, I know. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?

Thirza: I had several well-known agents but they got me nowhere. It was probably quite vital to have an agent in the past. Today the publishing world is undergoing a revolution, and nobody quite knows how it’s going to evolve.

Morgen: It is, especially in the electronic direction. Are your books available as eBooks? Were you involved in that process at all? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?

Thirza: Two of my books are available on Kindle. The others will follow eventually. I think it’s the inevitable way the publishing world will go. Paper may survive in parallel. Perhaps it will disappear altogether at some point. There is no telling at this moment of history. I myself am an older person, quite conservative, and it takes me long to get used to a new technology, any technology. I do not read ebooks at this stage, but I am not critical of them either. They are problematic when you write the kind of work that needs to be indexed.

Morgen: Given how many people (most) have said they still read both formats I can’t see paper ever going. How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?

Thirza: A lot in the old days. Not much now. It is draining in the long run, and leaves you little energy for your own writing. It is difficult to strike a balance. Your publisher will do little for you, unless you are writing a bestseller.

Morgen: Most don’t have the budgets unless, as you say, you bring in plenty of money for them. If any of your books were made into films, who would you have as the leading actor/s?

Thirza: My books have been used for documentaries, however, PBS in the US, BBC in the UK and others. I even caught a comment in Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris straight from my book Romantic Paris. I once started writing fiction, and I felt that it would make a fantastic filmscript if carried through. Unfortunately, although it was a very powerful story, I lost the motivation and never completed it. At the time when I cared, and visualised it as a movie, I imagined Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson in the lead roles.

Morgen: They’d make a great pairing. Did you have any say in the title / covers of your book(s)? How important do you think they are?

Thirza: Not in the case of Romantic Paris. It actually damaged my relationship with the publisher. I was very angry. The cover he chose was lovely in the hands, useless in bookshops.

Morgen: Oh dear. How interesting that they were so different. What are you working on at the moment / next?

Thirza: I usually refrain from talking about my projects until they are well advanced.

Morgen: No problem. Do you manage to write every day? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?

Thirza: Because I write a lot of articles, I do write every day (unless I’m “on the road”), but not necessarily writing for a book every day. I am very disciplined but it’s a matter of making time. When I wrote Around and About Paris it was a full-time commitment. I wrote all day long (unless I was out walking Paris or researching).

Morgen: I’d find patches of weeks where I’d not write a thing then I started writing a story a day during May and I loved it so much that I started 5pm fiction on 1st June and have now written over 90 stories (albeit mostly flash fiction). It’s amazing how you find the time when you have to. Do you plot or do you just get an idea and run with it?

Thirza: It depends. Usually the plot happens and takes shape as I am running.

Morgen: Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?

Thirza: Yes, I do a lot of editing. Obviously, one becomes more experienced as time goes on, but in general I think my writing is spontaneous, very identifiable readers tell me, and I just let my inspiration carry me along.

Morgen: And you clearly know France well. Do you have to do much research?

Thirza: In view of the nature of my work, I do A LOT of research.

Morgen: What point of view do you find most to your liking?

Thirza: Oh, it really depends on the nature of the book. No preference. My book Aveyron, A Bridge to French Arcadia, is largely in the first person, because it’s my own discovery of the area and the reader is led to see it through my eyes.

Morgen: Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?

Thirza: The one I mentioned earlier. It’s really a shame that I didn’t do it when I cared, ten years ago. It’s lost its momentum.

Morgen: Oh dear. Maybe it’ll come back. What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life? Has anything surprised you?

Thirza: What surprised me was how difficult the promotion and marketing would be, and how exhausting. I have done so many author’s tours in the US. I loved it, but it was a killer, and not that productive in terms of sales.

Morgen: Now that is a shame. To go to all that trouble, at least you enjoyed it. Being online gets you in front of so many people at once (if they’re paying attention). Marketing is usually the answer to ‘least favourite’ so I’m not surprised you said it’s difficult. What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Thirza: To go there cautiously with their eyes wide open. To be aware that there is a lot of talent around, a lot of competition, a difficult market, probably rejections. One mustn’t feel inadequate when one is rejected (which is easier said than done). In short one has to be brave and realistic.

Morgen: One does, perseverance helps. If you could invite three people from any era to dinner, who would you choose and what would you cook (or hide the takeaway containers)?

Thirza: Three would be difficult… Shakespeare, Colette, Proust. Am not sure what I would cook. It would have to be gastronomic. Certainly something French. Both Colette and Proust were great gourmets, and I am sure Shakespeare would appreciate such dishes.

Morgen: I’m sure he would. Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?

Thirza: Lots of them, but off the top of my head, possibly, If music be the food of love, play on; give me excess of it.

Morgen: I love that. Are you involved in anything else writing-related other than actual writing or marketing of your writing?

Thirza: A lot of lecturing on French culture and art.

Morgen: What do you do when you’re not writing?

Thirza: Spend time with family and friends, go to the cinema, theatre, concerts, museums, spend time reading, spend time in the countryside, eating out, etc…

Morgen: Great people-watching opportunities. Are there any writing-related websites and/or books that you find useful? (please include links where you can)

Thirza: I am sure there are, but I have never investigated. Recently, I started getting involved with some linkedin groups, a bit accidentally, which is how I found you actually.

Morgen: Ah, yes. LinkedIn is great. I’d started running low on interviewees, put a shout-out, and have been inundated ever since. Regarding networking sites, how valuable do you find them?

Thirza: It’s too early in the day to tell whether they are valuable. I do enjoy some of the discussions.

Morgen: What do you think the future holds for a writer?

Thirza: Very difficult to say at this moment of history and in such a changing world. But people will always want to be informed (therefore non-fiction), and people will always want to hear stories (therefore fiction). These are basic needs in man. What shape and form it will take, we know not. In the Victorian age there were no radios and televisions, so people read serialised novels. I don’t know how Dickens would have fared in years to come.

Morgen: Some modern authors serialise their work on podcasts so I’m confident he would have been OK – there are plenty of readers who love historical so he wouldn’t even need to update. Where can we find out about you and your work?

Thirza: On my website: www.thirzavallois.com, on google and the other search engines, by typing my name, on amazon.com which is my first seller outside France. On facebook, linkedin and twitter.

Morgen: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Thirza: Yes, how much I appreciate the fact that you are giving us fellow writers a platform. It is a very considerate and kind gesture.

Morgen: You’re so welcome. It’s great to have you back. Is there anything you’d like to ask me?

Thirza: What motivates you to help promote writers? Is it the love of the art?

Morgen: Absolutely. I’ve been asked before to sell whatever it is that makes me do what I do and I just say that it’s Eau de Passion. Now if I could bottle time, that would be priceless. Thank you, Thirza.

I then invited Thirza to include an extract of her writing…

a)      A Journey into the depths of Paris is what this book is all about, an invitation to scratch beneath its surface of dazzling vistas and imposing monuments and to probe into the souls and lives of the restless people, both high and low, who throughout the ages have never ceased to shape it and reshape it. For Paris is a city of perpetual change, a hectic building site of destruction and reconstruction, of restoration and renovation, a city in perpetual motion whose rounds of pleasure are periodically broken by maelstroms of social fury and whose throbbing pulse has always exerted a magnetic power on creative minds from far and wide who have bequeathed to the world great schools of art and thought.

b)     The Easter weekend was drawing to a close. We gathered at the Mas de Salel for our final dinner and were barely seated when the young student opposite me asked what I had thought of the 35-hour working week. Before I knew it, a heated discussion had sprung up about the upcoming presidential elections, whilst Christ stepped back discreetly, leaving the floor to the terrestrial agitation of an impassioned political debate, left, right, centre.

I feel very strongly about giving you this last excerpt that closes my book, Aveyron, A Bridge to French Arcadia because a) we are now at the eve of the same scenario in France, five years later, and because I was even aware of the implication of left, right, centre to Christianity as I was writing that sentence. My oldest (Irish) friend pointed this out to me when I told her about this typically French incident.  Also, and this can be useful to writers, when I went to Mas de Salel, specifically for the Easter celebrations that I wanted to close my book with, I was very worried about the conclusion of my book. I was going to stay there indefinitely, till I finished the book. This incident happened suddenly and unexpectedly. I rushed to my room, took out my laptop, and typed out this paragraph in one go and in less than 5 minutes. It seems that the muses just deigned hover over my head.

***

Thirza Vallois is an expert on all things Parisian and lectures worldwide on Paris and France. She has lived in Paris  most of her life and holds several post-graduate degrees from the Sorbonne, including the most prestigious agrégation. She is the author of the internationally acclaimed Around and About Paris series, Romantic Paris Aveyron, and A Bridge to French Arcadia, as well as the Paris entry of the Encarta Encyclopaedia. Thirza Vallois has appeared on PBS, BBC, the Travel Channel, the French Cultural Channel, Discovery and CNN, has spoken on radio in the UK, the US and France, and has worked as a consultant for the BBC. She contributes stories regularly to the international press.  Her award-winning Three Perfect Days in Paris story was published in United Airlines’ Hemispheres and aired on their international flights. You can read her author spotlight here. Photo of Thirza by Theodore Robinson.

***

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.

If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.

Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).

The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:

Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Author interview no.477 with multi-genre writer Micki Peluso

Welcome to the four hundred and seventy-seventh of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with multi-genre author Micki Peluso. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello, Micki. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.

Micki: I became a writer as a catharsis for grief, when my fourteen –year–old daughter was struck down by a drunk driver. A short story of the tragedy was accepted, which led to a writing career as a staff writer for one newspaper and freelance journalist for two others. I now live on Staten Island, New York and have recently published, . . . ‘And The Whippoorwill Sang’, a funny, sad, poignant family memoir of love, loss and survival.

Morgen: I’ve often heard of writing as being a great therapy (I’ve written a story that was). What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?

Micki: I write well in first person, and enjoy writing slice of life stories, especially humour. I taught myself to write short fiction and non-fiction in every genre except script writing.

Morgen: I wrote a 102-page script for the now defunct Script Frenzy and it really isn’t for me (too bitty) but gave me a respect for scriptwriters. What have you had published to-date? Do you write under a pseudonym?

Micki: I wrote under a pen name for one newspaper, but the rest of my work is in my own name. Most recently I’ve written Op-Ed pieces for my daily newspaper and short stories for on-line magazines and contest, such as Skyline, Cold Coffee and the Northesian.

Morgen: Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?

Micki: I was inundated with rejection slips when I submitted to magazines, but newspapers changed all that, and in 20 years I’ve never received a rejection from any of them.

Morgen: Wow.

Micki: I was initially hurt and discouraged by rejection, but came to know that most times when one is rejected, it is because they don’t print that type of story. A hand-written rejection is actually a compliment as the editor took the time to write it.

Morgen: It is, absolutely. Just the right thing for the wrong person and to have any feedback is a huge deal as they rarely have time. I was on a course with an author who received feedback (I think from People’s Friend) but took it as an out-and-out rejection and the story stayed on her computer. I’ve seen her work in print since then so it didn’t put her off. Have you won or been shortlisted in any competitions?

Micki: Yes, I’ve won or placed several time in ACW Club, a writers site, Skyline magazine in print and on-line, the Northesian magazine, and Cold Coffee magazine. I’ve also won many times in the Writer’s Den, a critique site on-line.

Morgen: Congratulations. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?

Micki: I was fortunate enough to have a publisher whom I knew, ask for my book, so an agent wasn’t necessary. She also taught her authors the secrets to successful marketing so I never needed a publicist.

Morgen: Now there’s a guest blog topic I’d love you to write for me. Are your books available as eBooks? Were you involved in that process at all? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?

Micki: My book is available on my publisher’s site, LSPdigital.com as a printed book, e-book and Kindle. I do read e-books, but prefer the printed books, especially in my job as a book reviewer.

Morgen: Ah yes, I have you on my reviews page. How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?

Micki: I do all my own marketing on-line, at book signings in book stores, but most successfully at community fund raisers and affairs.

Morgen: Live events do seem to be a great way to have dedicated audiences. Do you have a favourite of your books or characters? If any of your books were made into films, who would you have as the leading actor/s?

Micki: Since my book is a family memoir, I’m quite fond of all my characters. Years ago, when the book was half done, I had a cast of actors for my book, but that would be outdated now. Glenn Close could play me.

Morgen: She’s a great choice. Did you have any say in the title / cover of your book? How important do you think they are?

Micki: I was lucky in that I picked my title and I told my publisher what I wanted as a book cover and her cover artist made me an exquisite cover—exactly what I wanted.

Morgen: Excellent. What are you working on at the moment / next?

Micki: At present, I am directing my energies to marketing my book, since it was / is a deathbed promise to Noelle. I write book reviews for New York Journal of Books and Readertoreader, plus freelance reviews to keep my writing sharp while I’m involved in marketing.

Morgen: Do you manage to write every day? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?

Micki: I manage to write something each day, even if it’s a grocery list. When I suffer writer’s block, I move on to another story and come back to that one later.

Morgen: It’s the way I work too, clear the brain of it usually does the trick. Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?

Micki: I tend to panzer the short stories and write solely by ear. After writing my only book with little organization, I will outline better with the next one.

Morgen: But the characters will probably take over. Do you have a method for creating your characters, their names and what do you think makes them believable?

Micki: Since I’m not as good with fiction, I usually give my characters the names of my family and friends to feel close to them. My characters are believable because I draw my readers into my stories.

Morgen: Do you write any non-fiction, poetry or short stories?

Micki: Yes, I write all three and have published all three.

Morgen: Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?

Micki: It is more fully formed, since I edit for others, but no writer should ever edit their own work solely, but have professional editors go over the final drafts.

Morgen: Absolutely not. There was a chap on LinkedIn who said he didn’t need a second opinion and was (rightly so) shot down in flames. He was adamant so I wouldn’t be surprised if his eBooks were out there unedited. Do you have to do much research?

Micki: I only need a lot of research when doing commentary for newspapers, although I dis research in my book, as we lived in so many places and I needed the feel of the each place.

Morgen: What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? Have you ever tried second person?

Micki: I favour first person and write it better than the other tenses. I practice third person for fiction and have done second person, but it works best in short, short stories. It’s both difficult to do and difficult to read.

Morgen: I love writing second person but I agree, short definitely works best. Jay McInerney’s ‘Bright Lights, Big City’ is only 100+ pages long but I’ve never finished it. It’s very dark and gritty, which I normally love but yes, very wearing. Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?

Micki: I keep everything I write, because when it doesn’t fit one story, it may at some point fit another. Many will never see the light of day but I can’t bear to throw them away.

Morgen: My heart sinks whenever an author says they’ve destroyed something they didn’t like. I’ve gone back to old stuff and most of it surprises me (pleasantly). Has anything surprised you about your writing life?

Micki: Everything about writing surprises me—readers loving stories I thought were terrible and not liking ones I considered great. I’ve finally learned that to sell my work, I need to sell myself first.

Morgen: What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Micki: It’s been said often but remains true. Learn the rules before you deliberately break them. Keep writing and never take rejection seriously. Whether you sell what you write or not, you are still a writer.

Morgen: You are. If you could invite three people from any era to dinner, who would you choose?

Micki: I would be far too intimidated to invite any of my favourite writers, plus I’d have to hire a hall to hold all of them.

Morgen: I’d fly to the US for that. Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?

Micki: “There is nothing to writing. All you need to do is sit down at the typewriter and open a vein.”

Walter Wellsey Smith.

Morgen: I’ve heard a variation and it’s true. I write a story every Saturday from a one-word prompt and am constantly amazed at what comes out from just one word. What do you do when you’re not writing?

Micki: I am a law assistant for my daughter who is a real estate attorney. I spend time with family and friends, read a great deal, do crosswords and puzzles of all types and spoil my grand kids.

Morgen: That’s what grandparents are for. Are you on any forums or networking sites? If so, how valuable do you find them?

Micki: Again, way too many to fit here and I find the support invaluable.

Morgen: Writers are very appreciative aren’t they of how much of a struggle it is to get published and make a living. What do you think the future holds for a writer?

Micki: There have been writers since cavemen drew story pictures on cave walls. There will be writers as long as there are people. Writers chronicle the past, present and future.

Morgen: Absolutely. Where can we find out about you and your work?

Micki: LSPdigital.com, Amazon.com, AuthorsDen.com and http://mallie1025.blogspot.com.

Morgen: Thank you, Micki.

I then invited Micki to include an extract of her writing…

Happy times, a sunny day, a driving drunk—eight lives forever changed.

It was a day like any other, except that the intense heat wave had broken and signs of an early fall were in the air. The dining room table was filled with my kids and three of their friends—greedily gulping down a chicken dinner. When the last morsel was eaten, they all took off in different directions, except for the youngest, who was ten-years-old.

The one whose turn it was to do the dishes impishly offered me the sum of one dollar, to cover the chore. I laughed and caved in to that deceptive smile.

The last one ran out the front door, calling out, “Bye Mom,” as the door slammed shut. And then the nightmare began.

I then invited Micki to include a synopsis of his latest book…

From the bizarre teenage elopement with her high school sweetheart, in a double 
wedding with her own mother, to comical family trips across country in an antiquated camper with six kids; Micki and Butch leave a path of chaos, antics and destruction in their wake.   

Just when their lives are nearly perfect, tragedy strikes—and laughter dies. A terrible accident takes place in the placid valley nestled within the Susquehanna Mountains in the town of Williamsport, Pennsylvania. 

In a state of shock, Micki muses through their delightful past to avoid confronting an uncertain future—as the family copes with fear and apprehension.

One of her six children is fighting for her life in Intensive Care. Both parents are pressured by doctors to disconnect Noelle, their fourteen-year-old daughter. Their beautiful girl, funny and bright, who breathes life into every moment, who does cartwheels in piles of Autumn leaves, who loves to sing and dance down country roads, and above all loves her family with all her soul. How can they let this child go?

The family embarks upon yet another journey, to the other side of sorrow and grasps the poignant gift of life as they begin . . . to weep . . . to laugh . . . to grieve . . . to dance. . . ‘And The Whippoorwill Sang’.

From the beaches of Long Island, New York to the glitter of Las Vegas, Nevada–from the majestic Pennsylvania Susquehanna Mountains to Staten Island, New York, Micki’s stories travelled with her. She writes fiction and non-fiction often based upon her family life. Her greatest achievement is her children and grandchildren. Just ask them.

Micki Peluso has twenty-five years’ experience as a freelance journalist for three major newspapers: The Staten Island Advance, The Staten Island Register, (staff writer) and The Princeton Women’s Magazine. She’s been published in Victimology: an International Journal, The Bronxville Women’s Magazine, Writer’s Digest School’s monthly magazine, Skyline Magazine in print and  as e-zines, The Northeasterner Magazine, The Hudson Review Magazine, and others, poetry anthologies, and is a winner of many on-line contests. She reviews for Readertoreader, and The New York Journal of books. Her first book, . . . ‘And The Whippoorwill Sang’, is a funny family memoir of love, loss and survival. Micki’s website is http://mallie1025.blogspot.com.

***

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.

If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.

Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).

The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:

Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Author interview no.472 with non-fiction writer Peggy Mullins

Welcome to the four hundred and seventy-second of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with non-fiction author and columnist Peggy Mullins. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello, Peggy. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.

Peggy: My name is Peggy Mullins and I live with my husband and a wonderful family of animals on a small farm in the foothills of the Shenandoah Mountains in Virginia. I am an avid horseback rider and have a deep love for horses and dogs.  We have three horses and our dog Ika whom my new book Everybody Loves Ika: One Woman’s Memoir of Her Dog, an American Pit Bull Terrier is written about.

I have always loved to write and was first published at the age of fifteen. I have had newspaper columns and written many articles for magazines. Everybody Loves Ika is my first book and is getting rave reviews even though it has been out only a few short weeks.

Morgen: Congratulations, that’s fantastic. You write non-fiction, how do you decide what to write about?

Peggy: I find true to life stories are everywhere around us and are so much more interesting than fiction. Often they are more unbelievable because they are true.

This book is the true story of my dog Ika, how he was saved from a dog fighting facility and how he came into my life. It is also the true story of my own life and how it parallels Ika’s in many ways. It is a book about an abused childhood and the healing power a devoted animal can have in one’s life.

I also write fiction and my next book Dinkyy the Donut Horse will be released within the year.

Morgen: Oh, sweet. What have you had published to-date?

Peggy: I have had many newspaper columns the latest was with the Fauquier Times Democrat. I had a weekly human-interest column entitled Just Horsin Around. A selection of these articles will appear in my third book by the same name. I have written articles, both non-fiction and fiction for magazines also. In addition, I wrote and published a thesis in the American Psychological Association Publication.

Morgen: You’re self-published, what lead to you going your own way?

Peggy: I didn’t even try to submit my manuscript to a major house. Self-publication was easy and affordable. In addition, the process went quickly. I understand the major houses take up to three years from start to finish.

Morgen: I’ve certainly heard a year or two but it can be frustrating however long. Are your books available as eBooks? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?

Peggy: My book is available on Kindle but I personally prefer paper with the author’s signature.

Morgen: Margaret Attwood signs eBooks remotely (http://electricliterature.com/blog/2012/07/09/margaret-atwood-launches-fanado) but most authors I’ve spoken to say that they prefer paper (although most read both, I do). Presumably you had the say in your title / cover of your book? How important do you think they are?

Peggy: The title of my book was my idea however, the cover and the sub title happened quite by accident. When I had Ika’s pictures (all 248 of them) done by a professional photographer, we dressed him up in many outfits. The one on the cover of him wearing an American flag bandana and his “All American Dog” hat fit beautifully with the subtitle: “One Woman’s Memoir of Her Dog, an American Pit Bull Terrier”.

I think the title and cover of any book is the most important thing about a book. If the title of the book is boring or the cover unattractive no one will buy it.

Morgen: That’s very true, although I bought James Patterson’s ‘The Quickie’ which I think is an awful title (but then it was co-written by Michael Letwidge whose collaboration ‘Step on a Crack’ was fantastic – I’ve still not read ‘The Quickie’ yet – so it was his name that drew me. What are you working on at the moment / next?

Peggy: I am finishing the last few tweaks on my next book Dinkyy the Donut Horse and will send it off to my editor shortly.

Morgen: Good luck. Do you manage to write every day? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?

Peggy: I do write every day but writer’s block really isn’t something I have had a problem with. Sometimes I get tired from sitting at the computer for hours but the ideas and words never stop.

Morgen: Me too. Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?

Peggy: My writing has definitely changed over the years. It also changes with the topic I’m writing about. If I am working on a serious piece that will have a different ring than a humorous one. If I am writing something technically correct that too will be different. A newspaper article will be more direct and to the point due to the limited amount of space I have to work in while a book will have a more descriptive flavour.

I do a LOT of editing and rewriting. When I think it is the best I can do, I send it off to my editor and hope she doesn’t yell too much at me.

Morgen: Do you have to do much research?

Peggy: This depends on what the topic is. However, even in a fictional work I often do a lot of research. For example, my next book, even though it is fictional, has a lot of information about horse breeds which took a lot of research.

Morgen: It’s worth it though because there will always be an ‘expert’ out there. Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?

Peggy: Oh yes, many. Sometimes I just write for descriptive purposes with no intention of incorporating them in anything. I have a lot of articles that are not good pieces and I will never submit them anywhere.

Morgen: Oh dear. Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?

Peggy: Yes, I have had many rejections over the years but far less as time goes on. I think it is because I am more experienced at what I send out to a particular publication. I’ve learned not to send an article about alligators to a magazine whose focus is flowers. Live and learn! I am disappointed, of course, with rejections but that is just part of the industry.

Morgen: It is, sadly, but I can see how a floral publication wouldn’t want reptiles. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?

Peggy: Years ago I had an agent in the New York City area but she did not get any of my work published. She was just starting out and soon realized she would starve if she had to depend on her ability to sell.

As far as an agent being vital to success they aren’t if they can’t sell your work. In addition, if the work isn’t very good an agent won’t be of any help. I don’t have an agent and I consider myself a success. Not a very rich one but I’m happy with what I’ve accomplished.

Morgen: That’s the most important thing. How much marketing do you do?

Peggy: I do a lot of marketing and since that is my background I have had great results. In just a few weeks I have four book signings set up (one of which has already happened), four shops are carrying my book and I have had to replenish several of them.

Morgen: Wow, that’s fantastic. Maybe you could come back and do a guest blog for me on marketing – it’s usually the answer to the second part of my next question. What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life?

Peggy: I think my favourite aspect of writing is the freedom to be creative even in a non-fiction story. The least favourite is when I am not at my best and my writing suffers from it.

Morgen: What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Peggy: Don’t give up if this is your passion! Practice your writing skills and fine tune them continually. For example, I sometimes pick a subject and dissect it with my writing. Then I give it a closer look and work really hard at details. Next, I throw the whole thing out and start from a different angle on the same subject. It will amaze you just how creative your writing can be about something as simple as a twig.

Morgen: Absolutely. I write a story a day and every Saturday is a one-word prompt. Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?

Peggy: My favourite word is obstreperous. A close second is eclectic.

Morgen: I love those. Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?

Peggy: I do both. Often I combine both techniques in one piece. I may start with an idea that just comes to me but eventually direction and focus must be applied to the things I write.

Morgen: Do you have a method for creating your characters, their names and what do you think makes them believable?

Peggy: Most of my characters are people / animals I know in real life. Even in my fictional work most of the characters are based in a real life person / animal I know. I look for, or make up, interesting names for them.

Believability in a character, whether fiction or non, is how the author “sells” the character. I try to use reality in every character. For example, if I am writing about a particular type of animal I research the behaviours, characteristics, etc. of that type of creature so the character has a “reality” about it to the reader.

Morgen: Again the research is all important. What do you do when you’re not writing?

Peggy: I am an avid horseback rider and spend many hours a week riding/training my three horses.

Morgen: How lovely. I rode a tiny (by comparison) horse called Bracken when I went on holiday to Devon in my pre-/early teens and loved it but haven’t really been on horses since, which is surprising (I guess) considering my mum (and her twin, my aunt) used to be a groom for racing driver Stirling Moss’ sister. I should have been horse-mad, but then I grew up with an older brother so am technology mad. What do you think the future holds for a writer?

Peggy: As long as there are people and communication there will be a need for writers.

Morgen: I agree. Where can we find out about you and your writing?

Peggy: Please go to my web site: www.peggymullinsauthor.com. I am also on facebook, twitter and my blog: http://everybodylovesikadogbook.blogspot.com.

Morgen: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Peggy: Morgen (with an e) I would like to thank you so much for inviting me to participate in your blog. I have enjoyed answering the questions.

Morgen: I’m so glad and you’re so welcome. It really wouldn’t be what it without all my guests. Is there anything you’d like to ask me?

Peggy: Where did you get the idea for this blog? It is wonderful and so helpful for writers.

Morgen: Thank you very much. I’d heard it was a good idea and was inspired by another having met another blogger (philosopher Nigel Warburton) when I was volunteering at a literary festival in Oundle in March last year. I started mine a couple of weeks later and it took off from there. Thank you, Peggy.

I then invited Peggy to include an extract of her writing…

I put the new miniature horse, Dakota, next to Tauri’s field so they could acclimate. They lunged at each other. The fence held as they slammed into it to attack each other. Both did their best to get past the fence. Tauri was a large horse. Dakota was small. Both could do a lot of damage to the other. They battled all day.

The next morning I took Ika to the barn. I wondered if the referee fence was standing. It was. When Dakota saw Ika, he tried to attack him. The referee, which Ika and I were on the other side of, held.

Two weeks later, horse battles continued. Usually that’s plenty of time to acclimate horses. I didn’t let Ika get close to the mini because he could easily kill my dog.

One day the mini was just staring at Ika. He didn’t offer to attack him. Ika was sitting on the other side of the referee looking back.

I got busy in the barn and forgot about my dog. Horrified, I saw him in the middle of the mini’s field. The horse approached my dog. Ika just sat there. As the horse drew closer, he lowered his head. The mini was stalking the dog.

What should I do? If I called Ika, his attention would be diverted. If I didn’t, the horse could kill him as I watched. I was frozen with indecision. Then my worst nightmare came true.

The mini stomped his front feet. It was a warning. It shouted, Get out of my field! Ika was inches away from hooves that could end his life. He was wagging his tail.

Ika took off. The mini was after him. Should I call Ika now? They stopped. They touched noses. The mini hightailed it across the field with Ika chasing. They stopped. Again, their noses touched. Ika took off, with the speedy horse after him. Stop. Noses. The mini ran fast. Stop. Noses. Ika ran faster.  “They’re playing,” I whispered

Exhausted, they walked over together to where I was standing by the fence. Ika was smiling.

***

Peggy Mullins grew up in a hellish adoptive home with distant, abusive parents who found every opportunity to damp out the tiny glimmers of happiness Peggy managed to cling to in such a cold environment. Ika, a beautiful Pit Bull pup, was spared at the last moment from being born into a similar hell. Though his mother and many of his siblings didn’t make it out of their gruesome home alive, Ika survived thanks to the skilled and compassionate work of a quick-thinking vet and a few big-hearted volunteers.

In time, Ika found his way to Peggy, who would give him a loving permanent home in which he would thrive. In return, Ika would teach Peggy the kindness, patience, and unconditional love that had long been absent from her life. Along with the surprising affection of a special man and a spectacular family of animals, Peggy’s book poignantly guides readers through her difficult journey toward healing and peace.

Peggy’s website is www.peggymullinsauthor.com and her blog is http://everybodylovesikadogbook.blogspot.com.

***

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.

If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.

Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).

The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:

Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Author interview no.468 with writer Maria McCutchen

Welcome to the four hundred and sixty-eighth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with multi-genre author Maria McCutchen. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello, Maria. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.

Maria: I live in Winston-Salem, NC.  I became a writer because for many years, writing was my passion, so I found a way to incorporate it into my every day life.  Writing was just something I felt compelled to do.  Then after I went through my medical problem of being diagnosed with a brain cyst and ultimately had brain surgery, followed by many complications, I decided to write my story.  I wanted to create an awareness to the many problems I live, with along with the awareness that doctors need to listen to their patients.  I thought writing my story – my book, was a good way to reach others.  This then lead to me writing articles and more.  But for me, my book is my most cherished accomplishment.

Morgen: I think it is for most authors but surely none more so than writing something so personal. I’ve described you in the introduction as ‘multi-genre’, what genre do you generally write?

Maria:  I love to write fiction, so writing my memoir was stepping out of my norm.  I am also currently working on a book about children and divorce.

Morgen: What have you had published to-date?

Maria: So far just my memoir, “It’s All in Your Head”, is all that has been published.

Morgen: I love that title. Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?

Maria: Yes, I have had plenty of rejections.  At first it was hard to take.  I took it personally.  Now, I look at it as: Hey, I’m trying.  And the rejections are my proof that I have been trying.  They make me more determined, most times.

Morgen: Determination is good and I’m glad you don’t take it so personally now as inevitably it was the right thing for the wrong person. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?

Maria:  I do not have an agent but have thought seriously about it.  I still may look into getting an agent.  I think they can be a real positive influence in the world of publishing.

Morgen: They’ve worked wonders for a great number of writers and most of us try to get one before going the self-published / eBook route. Are your books available as eBooks? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?

Maria: Yes, my book is available as an eBook.  Typically when I read, it is with a regular, paper book.  But for those who find eBooks more convenient…. they are a good thing.

Morgen: I think only a couple of authors I’ve spoken to have said they only read eBooks; most (including myself) still love the feel of paper. How much of the marketing do you do?

Maria:  I do a lot of the marketing.  I am very involved with it and my publisher expects that their authors be very involved with the process.

Morgen: They generally do, even the large ones, because they just don’t have the budgets or staff any more (crime novelist Ann Cleeves and I were talking about this very subject at the weekend’s St Hilda’s crime & humour writers’ conference. Do you have a favourite of your books or characters? If any of your books were made into films, who would you have as the leading actor/s?

Maria:  I am currently looking into having my book made into a movie.  I have thought about it before – which actors I’d like to see be in the movie and because I have heard many times over the years that I resemble Michelle Pfeiffer, I think I’d like her to play me.

Morgen: She’s a great actress. In the past I’ve been told I look like Daryl Hannah and Steffi Graf and I’d be happy with either of those. Did you have any say in the title / cover of your book?

Maria:  Yes, I played a role in the cover and title of my book.  I titled my book and was able to communicate what I envisioned as the cover.  Their art department then drew up some samples according to my ideas, and I got to make the ultimate decision on the cover.

Morgen: That’s very fortunate. Many authors, especially with large publishing houses, have very little say and some aren’t happy with the end result but you do hope that they are the experts. What are you working on at the moment / next?

Maria: I am currently writing articles and working on a book about children and divorce – interviewing children of all ages about their experience with the divorce of their parents.

Morgen: That must be really emotional… and I’m sure will make a great book. Do you manage to write every day? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?

Maria:  Yes, I write every day… weekdays / weekends, every day.  I do get writer’s block sometimes… it’s par for the course.  I usually just walk away from the piece I’m working on and do something else for a minute to clear my head.  Usually works.

Morgen: It does whenever I get stuck on anything, fortunately not often as I write a story a day. Going back to your fiction, do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?

Maria: Most times I just run with it.  I do “try” to plot my stories, but more times than not, as I’m writing… the story will unfold as I’m writing and I just go with it.

Morgen: That’s my favourite bit, especially when the characters take over. Do you have a method for creating your characters, their names and what do you think makes them believable?

Maria: I create characters as I see them in my mind.  I will get a picture of them, and I can even picture another character call, or say their name, and it will many times – stick.  I try to give them their names according to what I hear in my head, or see in my mind.

Morgen: And some names just don’t fit do they until you find the right one. Do you write any poetry? If so, why do you think it’s such a difficult market to break into? Are there any tips you could give to someone wishing to write poetry?

Maria:  I do write some poetry but not as much as other types of writing.  It is a very hard market to get into and that is one reason I haven’t put much time or effort into it.  Sometimes I think of poetry as futile.  Maybe it’s because I’m just not as good with it as fiction or other types of writing.  I don’t know.

Morgen: A lady after my own heart, as the saying goes. I write very little, usually for writing group prompts, for the same reason; that I’m a prose writer through and through. Do you write short stories?

Maria:  I do write short stories.  Short stories are a challenge for me.  I love to try to get a good plot going in a short amount of time.

Morgen: That’s the trick, isn’t it. I find my daily fiction turns out more snippets of someone’s life rather than a start, middle and end but then doing one a day leaves me little time to write much more than two or three hundred words. Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?

Maria:  I do some editing, but yes, the longer I’ve written, I’ve found that there is typically less editing to do.

Morgen: That’s great! It’s all about the practice. Do you have to do much research?

Maria:  For my articles, yes… lots of research.  For my books, it varies.  It depends on what I’m writing… do I need to know more about an area or place I’m trying to create?  As far as writing in general – I don’t think there are many types of writing that “don’t” require some form of research.

Morgen: I agree and I often double-check facts on the internet. <bows down in reverence to Google and Wikipedia> What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? Have you ever tried second person?

Maria:  No, I haven’t done much 2nd person writing.  Typically I write in first or third person.  One big reason is because those two just come more natural to me.

Morgen: Second is my favourite but I do think first and third are a more natural form of writing. There are very few of us around (Stella Deleuze is another second person fan). Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?

Maria:   Sure.  There are some children’s books that will probably never be read by anyone and it is a hard pill to swallow sometimes.  But that is just par for the course with writing.  I try to concentrate and focus then, on the pieces and manuscripts that I think have the most potential.

Morgen: That’s a shame. Some see writing for children’s easier than for adults but in the main it’s not is it. Like writing novels vs. short stories; they have to be honed with almost each word being chosen very carefully. What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life? Has anything surprised you?

Maria:  Well, because I do a lot of freelance work, that is tough.  It can go through some real dry spells and that is hard to live on – dry spells.  It can be depressing at times and frustrating and I have been working on working through that – find ways to keep the work flowing.

Morgen: I left my job in March so I know exactly what you mean, although I spend the majority of my day on blog-related emails and uploading content so actually submitting work would be useful. What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Maria:  Do it because you love it.  If you find and feel like writing is in your blood, give it a try.  But don’t leave your day job until you have a good, strong and lucrative business going.  Not being able to pay your bills is way more frustrating than just being at a loss for words.

Morgen: Oops. I went about the “good, strong and lucrative business” a different route; by renting out two of my bedrooms. Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?

Maria: I cling to the words: “And this too will pass,” a lot.  It’s a fitting phrase for me, because during my medical drama, I said those words a lot, whether it was for the pain I was feeling, an uncomfortable test… whatever.  Now, with writing it’s fitting… if I have a block for a few minutes or few days… I know it will eventually pass.

Morgen: It does. I keep saying to myself that things will work out eventually and they do, until life throws something else at me. Are you involved in anything else writing-related other than actual writing or marketing of your writing?

Maria:  I belong to many online groups as well as a writer’s club.  We read our work to the group and critique each other’s writing.  It’s a good way to get good feedback.

Morgen: I belong to four writing groups and they’re great for different reasons. Two are purely critique and whilst there’s not much time to read much more than a chapter it’s often a real eye opener when someone comes up with something I’d never have thought of (or I have already but it doesn’t come across in my writing). What do you do when you’re not writing?

Maria:  I have two boys that keep me busy in my non-writing hours.  I try to get things done around the house, errands, whatever needs to be done.

Morgen: I’m lucky, I only have a dog so I tend to write my daily shorts while I’m out with him (or I read writing magazines). Are there any writing-related websites that you find useful?

Maria: I like: http://www.freedomwithwriting.com, Copyblogger.com and writer’s digest.com.

Morgen: I know Writer’s Digest but not the other two so thank you for those. Are you on any forums or networking sites? If so, how valuable do you find them?

Maria:  Yes, I belong to forums and networking sites… Linkedin, Magazine Group Members, Advertising Copywriting Forum, The Freelance Writer’s Connection and more.

Morgen: And there seem to be new ones popping up all the time to eat into our time, but often providing invaluable advice and support. What do you think the future holds for a writer?

Maria:  I think the future is good.  Information is always needed in some form.  I think as long as you keep an open mind and willing to put in the work, you will always be able to work… to write.

Morgen: Absolutely. I do think eBooks are the making of writers; much more freedom and flexibility than before. Where can we find out about you and your work?

Maria:  You can read more about me and see my work at www.creativewriternow.com, www.arachnoidcystsupport.blogspot.com, and http://Linkedin.com, and http://www.facebook.com/braincyst.

Morgen: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Maria:  If you have a dream of writing… go for it.  You don’t have to give up your day job to write.  You can start doing it on the side, but do go for it.  You never know how well you can do something until you give it your best effort. Also, with as many books as there are available on writing and freelancing, you are sure to learn whatever it is you need to know to get started.

Morgen: Stephen King’s ‘On Writing’ is a great one to start with, and the most recommended in these interviews. And I would recommend writing every day; 300 words a day is a 100,000 word novel in a year, and even if that’s not possible (because life does take over) there’s the likes of NaNoWriMo (50,000 words in 30 days) to top up or kick-start your word count. Is there anything you’d like to ask me?

Maria:  How long have you been at it?  And what exactly are your areas of expertise?

Morgen: I started writing at a college evening class seven years ago and was hooked, although it wasn’t until the last couple of years that it took over my life (especially when I started the blog late March 2012). My expertise (great question) I think really is (are?) my short stories because I’ve written so many of them (must be over 300 over the years). I also love blogging (and with over 1,200 posts have had plenty of practice) and recently set up a cheap blog design service for anyone who’s daunted by the prospect. (Anyone thinking of going it alone, I’d definitely recommend WordPress over Blogspot, and I do also have a blogspot blog but it drives me nuts!).Thank you, Maria.

I invited Maria to include an extract of her writing…

From “It’s all in Your Head:   “Like any stay-at-home mother of young children will tell you, life is very busy. There is never a good time for a mother to get sick, not even with a cold. So in 2004, with a three-year-old son and a six-year-old son, to be told that I had a rare brain disorder was nothing less than devastating. How will I fit that into my schedule?

It snuck up on me so slowly, clever and cunning, that I wasn’t even sure there was anything really wrong with me. Maybe it’s just stress, I thought. Maybe I’m over tired, or I’m imagining things. But when a trip to the grocery store, where I’d shopped a thousand times before, left me in a sheer panic because I couldn’t find the dairy section, I knew that it had to be more than stress.”

and a synopsis of her book…

Maria McCutchen did not have time to be sick. With a husband who had just lost a job, two young sons, and a cross-country move on the horizon, who had time to be sick? Maria didn’t have time for a common cold, let alone a major medical condition. But one day while shopping in the grocery store where she had shopped hundreds of times before, she couldn’t find the milk. It was then she knew what she was feeling was more than just stress or exhaustion. There was something very wrong.

After consulting a few doctors, Maria discovered she had a rare brain cyst known as a posterior fossa arachnoid cyst—a very large brain cyst. Hearing these cysts were normally asymptomatic was of little comfort, especially because she felt her mind and body slipping away more and more every day. Normal mental and physical functions were becoming harder to control. Even if the doctors didn’t believe the cyst was a problem, she knew it was. It would take months of living inside a shell of a person that she’d become, living in a mental fogginess and sometimes even physical pain, before she would finally get the medical attention she needed. 

Maria McCutchen lives in North Carolina with her two boys. She has been writing for many years; and for the past three years, she has been freelancing, writing articles for web content. She is an activist for those with brain cysts, speaking out and trying to help others by starting a following for arachnoid cysts on EmpowHer.com, starting a blog on www.arachnoidcystsupport.blogspot.com, writing articles about the condition, and educating others about this rare brain disorder.

***

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.

If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.

Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).

The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:

Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Author interview no.466 with non-fiction writer and poet Jasha Levi

Welcome to the four hundred and sixty-sixth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today is my birthday (which I’m spending at a crime & humour writing conference… woo hoo!) and I’m delighted to bring you my interview with non-fiction author Jasha Levi. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello, Jasha. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.

Jasha: I now live in Hightstown, New Jersey, USA, a small square mile surrounded by East Windsor. In my native Sarajevo, I wrote love poems and later in Belgrade newspaper articles, and I composed a few books on foreign affairs, but I was 89 before I published my non-fiction report on my life.

Morgen: Wow. I started writing in my late 30s and kept thinking that if Barbara Cartland can write in her 90s then I have plenty of time, and Mary Wesley (of The Camomile Lawn, amongst others) was 74 when her first book was published – you’re an inspiration to any new writers reading this. You write non-fiction, how do you decide what to write about?

Jasha: My youthful ambition was to write the big European novel, but all I could master was a good turn of a journalistic phrase. I became a star reporter and commentator at an early age.

Morgen: What have you had published to-date?

Jasha: In addition to several books on foreign affairs written in my native Serbo-Croatian in the first third of my life, I have written in English “The Last Exile – Tapestry of a life”, “Requiem for a Country – A history lesson”, both available across platforms: in print and digital form. A week ago, I released a Kindle Select book, “Blood Without Honey”. They are all described on my website: www.jashalevi.com.

Morgen: Ah, I’m thinking of going with Amazon’s Select option for a couple of my novels – you’ll have to let me know how you get on. So you’re self-published, what lead to you going your own way?

Jasha: As a celebrity journalist back in Yugoslavia 1945-1956, I had publisher go after me to let them print my next book. I had no problem getting assignments from Parade, Saturne and other periodicals, as well as with a popular / scientific contribution for a Cambridge U. Press textbook. But by the time I decided to write my memoir in 2009, the publishing industry has been turned upside down. After receiving a cold shoulder from agents, most of them without even reading the manuscript, I went, as you say, my own way.

Morgen: It’s happening to many, many authors and we’re so lucky (fortunate) to have that option these days. Presumably you chose the titles / covers of your books? How important do you think they are?

Jasha:  The blame is totally assignable to me. I did ask a few friends what they thought. Friends never turn you down if they want to stay friends. But it is hard to buttonhole strangers on the street to see what they think of your title; the tenor on the street is such, that someone may turn you in to the police as scammer, stalker or worse.

Morgen: They say more and more people are reading these days so you would have been unlucky to be carted off. What are you working on at the moment / next?

Jasha: I am very much engaged in supervising the translation of my works into Italian and Serbo-Croatian. It helps a great deal that I know both languages and can discuss the fine points of the manuscript with some intelligence.

Morgen: I have a very nice lady (http://librini.wordpress.com) who translates some of these interviews and puts them on her blog. Do you manage to write every day? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?

Jasha: In my experience, deadlines have always cured me of it. I write something, often several things every day. Today, I finished the Prologue to the Serbo-Croatian edition of The Last Exile.

Morgen: One of my favourite quotes is Douglas Adams’ “I love deadlines; the sound as they woosh by” but I’m like you – tell me when I have to do something by and I’ll do it (sometimes only the day before but invariably I get it done). The worst thing anyone can do it say there’s no hurry (although I’m grateful when I’m stupidly busy but it does tend to go to the bottom of a very deep pile). Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully formed?

Jasha: My essays and short articles tend to be fully formed, except for a tweak here and there. My full-length book have been re-written several times and professionally edited into a dozen versions before they are released.

Morgen: That’s not a bad thing. You do want them to be as good as they can be. Do you have to do much research?

Jasha: For my memoirs, yes. Time does ravage memory.

Morgen: I’m only 45 (today ) but I know the feeling. Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?

Jasha: My novel a clef.

Morgen: Do you pitch for submissions and / or are you commissioned to write?

Jasha: Neither anymore. At 91, I write because of an irresistible urge to beat the inevitable.

Morgen: Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?

Jasha: Somewhere in the papers I misplaced, there are rejections. I stopped collecting them after the first dozen.

Morgen: A lot of writers do. Do you enter any non-fiction competitions? Are there any you could recommend?

Jasha: I don’t enter competitions. Polemics, yes.

Morgen: Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?

Jasha: I don’t have an agent. Had one showed up when I first sought to be traditionally published, I’d probably still be saddled with one.

Morgen: Oh dear, I guess that answers the second part of that question. How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?

Jasha: After at first rejecting selling my “product”, I ended up pretty savvy in marketing, if I may say so. Marketing isn’t my cup of tea, but I decided that I am at least as intelligent as many self-promoters.

Morgen: You do sound it. What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life? Has anything surprised you?

Jasha: I have no complaints, none whatsoever, as far as writing is concerned. I grumble a lot about everything else.

Morgen: What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Jasha: If it is in you, let it out. But don’t forget to learn to write the best way you can. Read everybody else, and first master the classics both for their excellence as writers as for their mastery of language.

Morgen: Reading is the most recommended tip in these interviews and we all work so hard that it’s essential R&R. If you could invite three people from any era to dinner, who would you choose and what would you cook (or hide the takeaway containers)?

Jasha: The table would have to be much bigger to accommodate my role models from the ancients to this day. I’d serve them lamb on a spit with an eggplant dish on the side.

Morgen: I’m sure we can find you a table with extendable leaves… I’d love to know why they’re called ‘leaves’… anyone? Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?

Jasha: “If you don’t have an enemy, your mother will give birth to one.”

Morgen: I love that. And if your mother doesn’t, most writers will come up with them. Do you write fiction? If so, do you have a favourite of your books or characters? If any of your books were made into films, who would you have as the leading actor/s?

Jasha: My life sounds like fiction but isn’t. Once a writer made a special for NBC inspired by a party at my NY home, but I disliked the actor they cast to play me.

Morgen: That’s a shame. Do you plot or just get an idea and run with it?

Jasha: Wish I had an imagination to plot and invent. As it is, I have enough material from reality to last me seemingly forever.

Morgen: What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? Have you ever tried second person?

Jasha: I have tried every narrative method, but my strength is reporting.

Morgen: What do you do when you’re not writing?

Jasha: Gardening.

Morgen: It’s very therapeutic. My study overlooks my back garden so I see every day how rarely I go out there and blitz it. Are there any writing-related websites and / or books that you find useful?

Jasha: Due to the type of stuff I write about, I consult Wikipedia and dictionaries.

Morgen: I’m a big fan of Wikipedia, especially when interviewees mention people I’ve never heard of. What do you think the future holds for a writer?

Jasha: Everything. It is an immortal profession, regardless of the philistines which are trying to steal into it.

Morgen: It is and doing these interviews has made me realise how many writers there are out there. Even with eBooks becoming as popular as they are, I still believe paper books won’t disappear – too many people love reading them. Where can we find out about you and your writing?

Jasha: My website www.jashalevi.com, my blog http://krpara.blogspot.com, discussions all over the LinkedIn spectrum of threads on writing or WWII.

Morgen: Thank you, Jasha. Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Jasha: Watch out, it might give me ideas. As we say in Bosnia, I am full of those as a bitch of fleas.

Morgen: <laughs> Is there anything you’d like to ask me?

Jasha: Have you gotten used for so many people unable to read your name as Morgen?

Morgen: I have, although it’s a tad annoying when it’s mentioned twice in my email address (morgen@morgenbailey.com) and people still get it wrong in emails… and/or call me Mr when there’s a picture of me on my blog (both happen surprisingly often) but hey, I’ve been called worse. Thank you, Jasha.

I then invited Jasha to include an extract of his writing and this is the Prologue to the forthcoming Serbo-Croatian edition of The Last Exile…

“It was a lamentable fact that virtually no supplies had been conveyed by sea to the 222,000 followers of Tito. (…) These stalwarts were holding as many Germans in Yugoslavia as the combined Anglo-American forces were holding in Italy south of Rome. The Germans had been thrown into some confusion after the collapse of Italy and the Patriots had gained control of large stretches of the coast. We had not, however, seized the opportunity. The Germans had recovered and were driving the Partisans out bit by bit. The main reason for this was the artificial line of responsibility which ran through the Balkans. (…) Considering that the Partisans had given us such a generous measure of assistance at almost no cost to ourselves, it was of high importance to ensure that their resistance was maintained and not allowed to flag.”—Winston Churchill, 24 November 1943

It seems only fitting to start the introduction to this edition with the quotation from the leader of Western European resistance to Hitler.

Its date coincides with the time Mussolini fell in Italy, and I was fleeing Asolo, where we were confined as enemy civilians since November 1941. By the time I reached Rome, to hide in it for another 9 months from the Nazi’s and Black Shirts, the Allies have established a beachhead at Anzio and were  fighting to break through the Gustav Line at Monte Cassino.

Thanks to Churchill’s change of heart and his decision to finally acknowledge the realities on the Yugoslav battleground, Tito’s recruiting station was established in Rome as soon as the Allies liberated it. I joined to restore the opportunity which, in Churchill’s own words, they missed in Dalmatia.

Thus, this most apt of quotations marks the two crucial parts of my life: survival as a Jew in WWII Italy, and my journey into the building of the new Yugoslavia. My new, optimistic life, lasted 10 years before — disillusioned in false promises of democracy — I disassociated myself with the country of my dreams.

I wanted to be a writer since the early days of my youth in Sarajevo in the ‘salon” we held on banks of the Miljacka. I studied architecture in Belgrade because, as a Jew in Hitler’s Europe, I had to make a compromise between my love of art and a more practical way of making a living.

I never became an architect. The Germans make sure of that when they attacked Yugoslavia in April 1941. As to writing, I experienced a meteoric rise as a newsman in Borba, where they had no openings, but admitted me in bookkeeping. I started free-lancing and became famous (locally, of course) as a newsman, in good part owing to my knowledge of languages.

And a synopsis of his latest book…

The Bosnian conflict of the 1990s was only the latest of the barbaric fratricidal wars which have plagued my beloved hometown in my former homeland.

After finally uniting in 1918, following the assassination of Crown Prince Ferdinand in Sarajevo which served as a pretext for WWI, the South Slavs were torn apart by the German invasion in 1940s, which inflamed a religion-driven genocide. The country was made whole again, thanks to the Partisan war of liberation and the strong hand of Tito’s “fraternity and unity” movement, but after his death the country disintegrated.  The sons and daughters of Yugoslavia fought In the 1990s against each other and divorced in the flames of a cruel genocide. Their marriage had lasted less than three quarters of a century.

The irrationality of the atavistic Balkan conflicts makes it hard to explain. The recent movie Land of Blood and Honey tried to do so and in the eyes of Sarajevo witnesses of the infamous three-year siege failed.

A native son, uprooted by the first Bosnian genocide in WWII, witnessing the second from abroad, I tried to make sense of it all in my two books, The Last Exile and Requiem for a Country. To further help me explain the inexplicable, Blood Without Honey now brings in the witness of my newly “found” niece, Inga Geko, a mother of a young child, herself a victim who endured the infamous three-year siege by sectarian forces in the once most tolerant of the cities in Europe.

***

Author of Requiem for a Country, The Last Exile, Blood Without Honey, and several books in Serbo-Croatian, Jasha Levi was born in 1921 in Sarajevo. He studied architecture at the University of Belgrade and in 1941 participated in the overthrow of the pro-Nazi regime. Civilian internee of war 1941-43 in Italy. Fought for liberation of Dalmatia 1944-45.

Correspondent, Paris Peace Conference, 1946; editor, BORBA on the Tito-Stalin rift, 1948; reporter, Korean Peace Talks, the US and the UN.

In 1956, took asylum in NY in support of the Hungarian Revolution.

Retired Director of Recording for the Blind and In Touch Networks. Founder of The IndiePENdents.org.

***

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.

If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.

Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).

The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:

Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Author interview no.462 with writer Julius Babyetsiza

Welcome to the four hundred and sixty-second of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with autobiographer Julius Babyetsiza. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello, Julius. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.

Julius:  I am Julius Babyetsiza. I am a Ugandan by nationality, living and working in Kampala. “Destined to Triumph” – my published book by CreateSpace, Amazon’s own publishing house, is my first shot at writing a book. The only writing experiences I had had are nine exciting newspaper articles that I wrote in the Uganda’s state owned leading daily, the New Vision, during the period between August 2009 and February 2010. The articles were classified as politically sensitive and I was demanded to stop writing them. The dismay to continue writing the articles in the New Vision is one of the things that inspired me to write “Destined to Triumph”. I pinpointed this out in the book’s prologue.

Morgen: I’m so not a fan of red tape and it’s a such a shame that we can’t say what we like but I guess there has to be a line in most cases. What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?

Julius: Biography – Autobiography. I am considering venturing into inspirational and educational genres.

Morgen: They’re very popular. Please tell us more about your book.

Julius: “Destined to Triumph” is a wisdom cache of tough life experiences of an African child, Julius Babyetsiza, who has seen it all. In this deeply-moving autobiography, I give a presentation of highly engaging snapshots into the turbulent life twists and turns that I have waded through as an African Child.

Morgen: It’s a well-known fact that fiction has to be gripping but it’s the same, isn’t it, for non-fiction too or they won’t be page turners. Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?

Julius: Yes. It is understandable given that rejections constitute around 97% of all the submissions that traditional publishers receive.

Morgen: At least that, I’d say, yes. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?

Julius: No. I am an independent author. Yes, if the book has the mantle, I think having an agent would greatly improve the chances of the book to be a bestseller.

Morgen: I’m sure you’re right. You’ve used Createspace to publish your book, is it available as an eBook? Were you involved in that process at all? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?

Julius: Yes, on Amazon. And yes, I was involved in the process of their making. Yes, I do read e-Books.
Morgen: How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?

Julius: I think I have done a fairly good deal of marketing my book and my other writing works as well as myself. This is essentially using and through social networking websites, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Yahoo and Google as well as within the enclaves that I mingle into.

Morgen: It seems to be the way to go nowadays, doesn’t it. What do you like to read?

Julius: My favourite writer is China Achebe. Forest Whitaker is my favourite actor – his performance as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in ‘The Last King of Scotland’ was an enchanting.

Morgen: It was brilliant (and the first time I really noticed James McAvoy, I think). Presumably you had full say in the title and cover of your book, how important do you think they are?

Julius: Yes, I chose my book’s title and covers. I take this to be very important.

Morgen: What are you working on at the moment / next?

Julius: Marketing “Destined to Triumph”.  I have also started on my next book, tentatively titled “People’s Beatitudes” as in Jesus’ Beatitudes.

Morgen: Do you manage to write every day? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?

Julius: No, I find it difficult to write every day. Yes, and I think that it is not unseriousness to suffer from a writer’s block.

Morgen: I’m sure even those who say they don’t (myself included) get stumped within individual projects and either have to do something completely different or move on to another project so we see the original one with fresh eyes. Do you plan your books or do you just get an idea and run with it?

Julius: I have just [virtually, since 2010] ventured into writing and, I think I need to take a training in the same, but in the meantime, I just get an idea and run with it.

Morgen: It is a craft that needs to be learned (like painting and playing the piano) but practice plays a major part and at least you’re writing. Do you write any poetry?

Julius: No. Not yet, may be in the future.

Morgen: I dabble, but to write a genre or format you have to have an interest in the medium and read it and (sorry any poets reading this), I don’t. I do have two poets in my writing group who write little else and love it. Wouldn’t life be dull if we all liked the same things? Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?

Julius: Yes, I do a lot of editing, which I think depicts writing amateurism and, therefore, I need to grow.

Morgen: All writers, I think without exception, would look back at their early work and either cringe (I know I have) or see where they would make changes, like anything we do, we become more practiced and confident. I’d say for anyone starting out, it’s better that they do plenty of editing as it means they want it to be as good as it can be but also that they can already see where they are going ‘wrong’ is a great thing. Do you have to do much research?

Julius: Oh sure. One needs to do a lot of research; else he/she would discover what is already discovered.

Morgen: That’s true. What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? Have you ever tried second person?

Julius: First person. If I have tried second person, then still it is rare.

Morgen: It is, and certainly an acquired taste. I love it but many people don’t (and really don’t!). Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?

Julius: No, not yet.

Morgen: Excellent. Let’s hope that continues. What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life?

Julius: So far my early life account is my favourite aspect of my writing life.

Morgen: What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Julius: In the field of writers, it is as tough as in the field of upcoming musicians, but the tough can get going.

Morgen: Absolutely. A successful writer is one who didn’t give up. If you could invite three people from any era to dinner, who would you choose and what would you cook (or hide the takeaway containers)?

Julius: The Bible’s books writers, Chinua Achebe and Adam J. Jackson. I would cook for them dishes from Ugandan / African garden because theirs are not genetically modified crops and, while I am with them on the table, I would share with them Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge …” – which is what is killing Africa.

Morgen: Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?

Julius: Yes, I love quoting Bible scriptures.

Morgen: Are you involved in anything else writing-related other than actual writing or marketing of your writing?

Julius: I am strategising to do a doctoral research degree [PhD] on a topic, where I would have written my second book – The Critical Analysis Of The Impacts Of Higher Education In Uganda In Localising Employment Creation In Rural Communities And Transforming The Country’s Rural Economy.

Morgen: What do you do when you’re not writing? Any hobbies or party tricks?

Julius: I do reading if I am not doing other work. Internet, reading, watching TV and jogging are my hobbies.

Morgen: Reading is so important to a writer, a form of research at, for me anyway, it’s most enjoyable. Are there any writing-related websites and/or books that you find useful?

Julius: Yes – HarperCollins’s facility for writers, http://authonomy.com has inspired me a lot.

Morgen: Is it a great site. I was on it for a while but didn’t have time to do all the critiquing (unfortunately). Are you on any forums or networking sites? If so, how valuable do you find them?

Julius: Yes, including Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. I am on forums of LinkedIn Authors, Writers, Publishers, Editors, & Writing Professionals. They are great marketing channels for one’s works as well as one’s self as a brand. They can offer solutions to one’s challenges, issues and problems.

Morgen: They are great. There always seems to be someone who can help. What do you think the future holds for a writer?

Julius: Since e-books trends are growing faster, I think the future writer needs to watch keenly the e-books’ space.

Morgen: They do… I am. Where can we find out about you and your work?

Julius: http://destined-to-triumph.blogspot.com
https://www.createspace.com/3586687
http://www.amazon.com/Destined-Triumph-Mr-Julius-Babyetsiza/dp/1461035791
http://www.amazon.com/Destined-to-Triumph-ebook/dp/B005V0JIHA
http://destined2triumph.tripleclicks.com
http://www.monitor.co.ug/artsculture/Reviews/-/691232/1290286/-/52x38z/-/index.html

Morgen: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Julius: It is natural for a mother to think that her daughter is gorgeous. However, “Destined to Triumph” is a truly exciting book. The Monitor [the most popular non-state newspaper in Uganda] in its 17/12/2011 press review release of “Destine to Triumph” commended the book saying, “The book is written passionately; with the author going beyond his personal life to expose the ills crippling the land. It is a commendable attempt at opening the eyes of the people of Uganda to quit goofing and rise above the mediocrity and build knowledge and technology-driven economies to overcome graduate unemployment, poverty and backwardness”.

However, Ugandans only stopped at reading about “Destined to Triumph” in the 17/12/2011 Saturday Monitor newspaper press review release. Up to now I have failed to avail copies of the book in Uganda’s local book outlets! I have been facing financial difficulties since March 2010, when I resigned or rather was discontinued from a job that I was doing at that time as can be read in the Prologue of “Destined to Triumph”. Nonetheless, being laid off is what inspired me to write “Destined to Triumph”, after being faced with conditions to stop writing what they classified as politically sensitive newspaper commentaries.

Morgen: Motivation is a wonderful thing. Is there anything you’d like to ask me?

Julius: Do you know the most inexpensive books shippers that I can use to ship “Destined to Triumph” to Uganda from US’s CreateSpace?

Morgen: I don’t unfortunately, my books are only eBooks and I’m based in the UK (where postage is pretty expensive). Perhaps someone reading this can help? Or perhaps you could start a LinkedIn thread? Thank you, Julius.

I then invited Julius to include an extract of his writing…

Uganda Gifted By Nature

So, with Toro’s amazing stalagmite and stalactite caves – the Amabere-ga-nyinamwiru, the excellent scenery of rolling hills and the Rwenzori Mountains, good weather, favourable climate and fertile soils, the Batoro should not be crying of poverty. I do not think Batoro have any justification for the wide-spread poverty, much as Jesus said:

‘The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want.’ Mark 14:7, NIV.

However, the time has been long overdue. With reeds seen growing naturally everywhere in Toro, which is proof for high soil fertility, there is a level below which the local people should not be living. In Ankole such fertile soils are found in Kigarama Sub-county, Sheema District. Batoro leaders need to visit Kigarama and see, listen and learn from success stories there.

Equally, I challenge all peoples and communities in Uganda that we have no excuse for remaining this poor. Every area of Uganda is ‘gold’ in terms of abundance of natural resources, including fertile soils, beautiful land sceneries, fresh waters, favourable climate and more – on the basis of which the British Premier, Church Hill, called Uganda the Pearl of Africa. These are not my own words, but they are enshrined in the third stanza of Uganda’s National Anthem. Sing it with me:

Oh Uganda! The land that feeds us

By sun and fertile soil grown.

For our own dear land,

We’ll always stand:

The Pearl of Africa’s Crown.

We only have ourselves to blame.

Morgen: I then invited Julius to include a synopsis of his latest book…

“Destined To Triumph” is a wisdom cache of tough life experiences of an African child, Julius Babyersiza, who has seen it all. In this deeply-moving autobiography, Babyetsiza gives us highly engaging snapshots into the turbulent life twists and turns he has waded through, which leave us convinced about his belief that he can only be surviving through the omnipotent protection of the “Hand of God”.

“Destined To Triumph” poses a universal question as what is the return on investment in education in Uganda / Africa given that the continent has remained crawling technologically when the rest of the world is running. He sounds an oracle to Uganda’s political and university leaders to build knowledge-driven national economy; else “History catches them on the wrong side”. Woe, however, “The falcon cannot hear the falconer. One of the hallmarks of “Destined To Triumph” is the suggested new leadership paradigm shift that will enthrone universities / university leaders as the guardians of political and socio-economic accountability.

***

JULIUS Babyetsiza is a Ugandan. Having lost his father who had already divorced his mother at a very young age, Babyetsiza owes his survival and ability to continue his education to his elder brother, Francis Tamwine, who sacrifices his own primary education to assume parental responsibility and fend for his two younger brothers and two sisters. From then on, Babyetsiza had to settle for a life of uncertainty, tilling the land to supplement the support from his brother, relatives and friends for his education, which leave us convinced about his belief that he can only be surviving through the omnipotent protection of the ‘Hand of God’.

After his A’ Level, he won a scholarship through the Government of Uganda’s Ministry of Education, to study in the former USSR’s Ukraine at Odessa Institute of National Economy and Odessa State Economic University where he obtained a degree of Bachelor of Science in Economics with Statistics (1993) and degree of Master of Science in Economics with Statistics (1996) respectively.

Update December 2012: Developments an milestone since the interview that I may enlist viewed by visiting the following links:

• https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B7oSF5PMvI_LdmNURy1VWGR6UnM
• http://youtu.be/XEEvsWWrVIk
• https://www.facebook.com/Destined2Triumph/posts/374637122627001
• http://destined-to-triumph.blogspot.com/p/harpercollins-authonomists-comments.html

As well as featuring satisfied books lovers, the likes of Richard Davison who intimates, on September 30, 2012 thus: Richard Davison Received your book in the mail from CreateSpace.com and find it very interesting and good. Destined to Triumph, The Hand of God in The Life Twists and Turns of Julius Babyetsiza is an excellent book to have. I hope your many friends and others will be purchasing it like I did. It comes in the mail quickly!

***

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.

If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.

Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).

The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:

Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Author interview no.444 with memoirist, non-fiction and fiction writer Johnnie Johnson

Welcome to the four hundred and forty-fourth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with memoirist, non-fiction and fiction author Johnnie Johnson. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello, Johnnie. Please tell us something about yourself.

Johnnie: Hi Morgen. I live in Eastbourne, a very pleasant seaside resort on the south coast of England. But you probably know that already!

Morgen: I did, although I’m not sure I’ve ever been (but heard good things), but only around a third of visitors to this blog are from the UK so always handy to know. How did you come to be a writer, Johnnie?

Johnnie: My writing has been through three major phases. I was at my prolific best in the 1930s when, as an eight- or nine-year old, I began a series with RinTinTin, the wonder dog, as my hero. He was actually a star on silent films and I guess that I must have heard about him from my father or mother. My RinTinTin got about all over the place. He caught criminals in China. India and Mexico and perhaps other places though I can’t remember the precise locations. But I do know that he leapt at the villains’ throats when he apprehended them but I’m not sure now if he handed the criminals over to the proper authorities. Sadly, time has erased the whole RinTinTin canon from my mind. I don’t imagine that he did much in-depth investigation and I don’t recall if he was accompanied by anyone so his travel arrangements are obscure. Nevertheless he did cross continents and never failed to get there in time. I probably wrote a dozen of these stories, each about 400 words, something of that order. And I did try my hand at another genre. These were westerns and the background came from the cinema – Buck Jones and Tom Mix were great cowboy stars of that period – as well from my father’s reading which included writers such as Zane Grey.

When I got to grammar school I packed up writing. Truth to tell, at the same time I more or less gave up reading, save for comics. We had the wonderful comics in those days, all with several short stories and only a minimum of illustration. We actually read a lot and we used to swap copies with each other. Funnily enough, girls had fewer comics aimed at them and it’s rather odd as they were much more inclined to read than the boys.

We had the Adventure on a Monday and the Wizard on a Tuesday; I don’t think there was anything on a Wednesday but on Thursday there was the Rover and on Friday, the Hotspur. Until 1940 there was the Skipper and when that closed I used to buy the Champion. I can still remember several of the major characters in these comics: Strang the Terrible; the boys at Red Circle School; Rockfist Rogan; Joe Cover and Middle Wicket Mulligan. I’m sure if I tried I’d remember others. All great stuff and although there were villains aplenty, fairness and justice always conquered. What remarkable writers produced these stories, week after week. Can you imagine churning out adventure after adventure, always struggling to find a new angle?

At my grammar school our English teachers were not enthusiastic about literature. They spent rather more time on clause analysis which I never understood and which I believe was a waste of time. When people yammer on about grammar these days I’m unsure what they are talking about: do they want a return to those dead exercises or do they simply mean parts of speech? Sorry, Morgen, I’m getting carried away.

Morgen: No apology needed, I’m enthralled.

Johnnie: To move on, my second phase as a writer was in my 40s when I started a novel but I was so busy at work that I could write only at weekends. After a long time plodding on, I regularly forgot what I’d written in the preceding weeks and months and so very often spent time re-reading the narrative, attempting to find out who was who and what they were doing. Eventually I gave up.

Phase three began when I retired at the age of sixty. Since then, I’ve written about twenty-five books. Some fiction, some non-fiction. Most have been conventionally published, others self-published. Most are on paper but there are three e-books.

Morgen: Wow, what a memory you have, to remember the days the magazines came out. Let’s start with your non-fiction, how do you decide what to write about?

Johnnie: I’ve always enjoyed reading and studying crime and disorder. I read history at university and it always struck me as odd that they never touched on crime as a major feature of the human story.

As a consequence I’ve written a lot of true crime, commissioned by publishers such as the History Press and Countryside Books and there have been other companies I’ve done stuff for. I’ve been commissioned to write about ghosts and disasters as well. I’ve self-published a book on superstition. That’s another area which tells us so much about out forefathers. It’s absolutely fascinating.  These are the footnotes of history but they are most revealing.

My most recent book, A Virgin in the Philippines, is really based on a collection of emails sent to friends in the UK and the USA. In a sense it’s the easiest book I’ve written as I wasn’t aware that it was going to be a book.  But last winter when I was in the Philippines it struck me quite out of the blue that here I had all of this great material just waiting to be published. And it’s in e-book form only but it seems to be selling pretty well. I have to do all the marketing which I dislike.  But I expect you’re going to ask me about marketing later.

Morgen: I have a writing friend, Lae Monie, who’s a big fan of true crime… and marketing, yes, we will be touching on that ‘necessarily evil’. So you’ve written both fiction and non-fiction, do you write under a pseudonym?

Johnnie: When I write non-fiction I am WH Johnson. I stick to WH because I’m dissatisfied with my parents’ choice of first names. If only they’d called me Clint or something like that. My two published novels (one of which is in e-book form only) I wrote as Allen Makepeace, taken from the maiden names of my grandmothers.

Morgen: Ooh, I’m going to have to work out what the W stands for now… I have a couple of ideas. You’re self-published, what lead to you going your own way?

Johnnie: When you reach a certain age – and I long ago reached a certain age – it seems foolish to hang around for publishers and agents to make up their minds. There just isn’t time for that.

Morgen: I’m only 45 (three weeks tomorrow ) but went the eBook route (after a dozen agent rejections). You mentioned that three of your books are available as eBooks…

Johnnie: Yes, the two novels, And Such Great Names as These and Winter Hunt and the travelogue, A Virgin in the Philippines. Perhaps I ought to say that And Such Great Names is also in paper form. Oh yes, and The History Press has brought out my Sussex Murders as an e-book.

Morgen: Great… I love crime fiction and will be spending my birthday weekend at a crime / humour conference. Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?

Johnnie: I tend now to read e-books. And I have my newspaper delivered to my Kindle so I don’t even have to get out of bed to pick it up off the doormat. What a wonderful invention.

Morgen: Isn’t it great and I love the text size increase function (the downside of staring at a screen all day). Did you have any say in the titles / covers of your books? How important do you think they are?

Johnnie: I have complete control of my self-published books for the cover and title. And yes, the cover is very important. Years ago I showed a publisher one of my self-published books and he laughed. It was principally white with a one-inch strip in bright red down the left side. I thought it rather arresting but he was less enchanted. It was the white he was laughing at. It would discolour sitting on the shelves, he said. And, he went on to tell me that the title was too small as well. Until then I don’t think I’d realised how important a cover is.

Nowadays I see the most wonderful covers. When I go to Goodreads and sites like that there are the most wonderful covers and I have to admit some brilliant pieces of writing too. But what normally alarms me when I go on sites like that is how confident everyone is on the marketing side. They are so young and they are really slick at these tasks.  Of course, they have the advantage over me as I have never completely mastered the computer.

Morgen: The internet is great at elusions – maybe they octogenarians too but just act like youngsters. Sorry, you were saying…

Johnnie: Earlier this year, when I was working on A Virgin in the Philippines, I went into an art shop in Cabantuan in Luzon and asked if they knew anyone who might do me a cover. Within a few days I was in contact with an artist, Leonardo Malgapo. We met and my nephew translated what I wanted and Leonardo took a photograph of me and off he went. A week later he turned up with the cover as you see it here. Actually that’s not absolutely correct. He didn’t put in the title. I had to have that added by a printer. But it was all much easier – and cheaper – than it would have been in the UK.

I wonder what you think of the title, A Virgin in the Philippines. I thought it was pretty snappy. I thought that those interested in porn might be interested as well as those who were keen on travelling and Asia. It’s quite a humorous book.

Morgen: <laughs> What are you working on at the moment / next?

Johnnie: I seem to be spending so much time marketing A Virgin that there’s little time for writing although at present I am negotiating with a former underworld figure who wishes me to write his biography.

Morgen: Wow, that sounds like it could be fun. Do you manage to write every day?

Johnnie: I do something writing related every day. By that I mean I either blog or perhaps do a review but most likely I’m trying to flog my books.

Morgen: But not a hard sell, hopefully. Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?

Johnnie: No, never. I don’t understand it.  In the novels particularly, I’ve sometimes stopped and wondered where to go next but I don’t stay stuck for long. I just continue writing, going on wherever the path takes me in the hope that the problem will work itself out. It’s like being lost in the woods and you don’t know where you are. Well, I just go for the path I fancy and it’s remarkable how often I get on track again.

Morgen: I’m the same but then I don’t have the luxury of so much spare time that I can dawdle. Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?

Johnnie: Well, the basic edit is proof reading and I’d say that it’s well worth getting someone to proof-read for you because you’ll miss your own errors. My late wife used to proof-read and she was a wizard at it and she picked up the slightest little typo. Well, they’re not all typos. Sometimes there are missing words. You read through your manuscript two or three times and you never notice things like that, missing words, I mean.

When I wrote the novel Winter Hunt I dished out the draft to five people whom I trusted. They really did go at it conscientiously. But one found forty errors; another only ten. Somebody who came up with about sixteen found three mistakes that the first reader, the one who found forty errors, hadn’t seen. So, it’s not easy, this proof-reading bit. The other day I was looking at book I wrote some years ago and saw on the first page that the word ‘the’ appeared as ‘he.’ After all this time it just jumped out at me. Perhaps I lost potential readers, browsers, through that one error in such prominent place. Course, a spell-checker doesn’t pick up that kind of textual flaw. I suppose what I am saying is simply that you have to comb through your writing very diligently, then get some help and accept the fact that you may still have something awful slip through the net.

Morgen: It’s interesting how different people find different errors, perhaps showing how differently our brain works… although forty errors in a whole novel sounds pretty good to me. Do you have to do much research?

Johnnie: Most certainly. My two novels – one set in 1807 and the other in 1916 – required a deal of research though my history training did help. My non-fiction books always require research. I was once asked to write a ghost book and there was some urgency about it. The original author had dropped out and the publisher was anxious to replace him. But, I was told, you have sixteen weeks to get the proofs in. As I knew little about ghosts it meant a scramble for information. Fortunately I use Viavoice recording so that I can dictate straight to the screen from books and newspapers and other printed source material. I use it solely for putting down my notes and it really speeds things up and means that, once I have all of my material recorded, I can very quickly put it in some kind of order and then write up a decent draft. Viavoice has been very useful. Oh, had I better say that there are many other equally good recording programmes?

Morgen: You don’t have to, although I’ve used Dragon and I know it’s a very popular system. Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?

Johnnie: Only a few. I seem to have been rather cavalier with three novels which were never published and I’ve no idea where they are. Two of them were never even sent to a publisher so I suppose that it now matters little where they are. They may be on one of those unlabelled disks in my desk but I’m no longer interested in them. That’s not to say that I don’t lift bits and pieces from abandoned work if I can find a suitable place for them in a new book.

Morgen: I like to think that everything has a place. Do you pitch for submissions these days or are you just commissioned to write?

Johnnie: I used to pitch for submissions but most of my writing has been commissioned.

Morgen: It sounds like that keeps you busy enough. Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?

Johnnie: In recent years I haven’t submitted much but I used to get rejection slips. When I had articles rejected I’d send them to another publisher. I’d try a rewrite sometimes but if they came back again and again I got the message.

Morgen: Oh dear. Do you enter any non-fiction competitions? Are there any you could recommend?

Johnnie: I used to enter competitions and had some success. I won several short story competitions and one for a novel and another for an article but I haven’t entered any for many years.

Morgen: I haven’t for a few months but am kept busy elsewhere… I do plan to submit work for payment (I’m a lodger short at the moment) so competitions will probably keep to the bottom of the pile, although I love writing for themed competitions as it gets me writing something new. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?

Johnnie: No and no. But if tomorrow I wrote a book which was highly successful – you know what I mean, a real humdinger of a book, a Fifty Shades of This, That and the Other, that kind of book – then I’d get an agent.

Morgen: How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?

Johnnie: Me as a brand? I haven’t done that. I’m not sure how it’s done but I fancy it requires a degree of self-proclamation and a ton of confidence. What I have done is gone to reviewers and invited them to read the book and comment. They don’t all respond because they’re inundated with requests but those who have replied have given me much encouragement. I’ve done it only with the novel And Such Great Names as These and the Virgin travelogue and they have had very positive reviews.

I do the marketing for my self-published stuff but otherwise I leave it to the publisher though there is a strong body of opinion that authors need to put their shoulder to the marketing wheel even when their books are traditionally published.

Morgen: They do, yes. I’ve only had one author say she does no marketing but she’s very active on Facebook and Twitter so she still does. What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life? Has anything surprised you?

Johnnie: Least favourite? Marketing. Favourite? Having someone say they’ve enjoyed a book. By the way, for the vast majority of us writers, I’d say that was a rare event. When I walk along our seafront at Eastbourne where people are sitting reading their books in the sun, I sometimes glance at the covers, just hoping that one of my titles will be there. But that’s never happened.  I even know what I may say to someone who’s reading one of my books. Course, I’ll have to assume a modest demeanour to carry it off. But what a thrill it must be when that happens. At talks I’ve given, people have come up to me and told me they’ve read my stuff, but I’d love to find just that one reader on a seaside bench.

Morgen: What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Johnnie: Aspire as long as you can. Go on hoping. But, I rather think that this quote from Lillian Hellman is quite apt here. She says: If I had to give young writers advice, I would say don’t listen to writers talk about writing or themselves.

Morgen: If you could invite three people from any era to dinner, who would you choose and what would you cook (or hide the takeaway containers)?

Johnnie: Elmore Leonard, a crime writer whom I greatly admire; Sigmund Freud and Jack the Ripper. We’d have beef, I fancy. Underdone, of course.

Morgen: Ew no, I’m a medium / well-done steak eater (though not often). If you had to choose a single day from your past to re-live over and over, what day would it be and why?

Johnnie: In 1943 I scored 58 not out (eight 4s and a 6) in a House cricket match at school. That was a great day. I was so proud of myself and at the end of term I was awarded Second XI colours.

Morgen: Ahh… Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?

Johnnie: I’m heartened to know that many of us are in good company with Clarence Darrow, the great US advocate, who wrote: Some day I hope to write a book where the royalties will pay for the copies I give away.

Morgen: I have the Kevin Spacey film ‘Darrow’ but never watched it, I’m going to have to dig it out. You mentioned earlier that you write fiction, are there any differences or similarities between writing non-fiction and fiction?

Johnnie: Non-fiction is easier, I think.  Do your research. Sort out your material. Write it up.

In fiction there are always problems, little ones such as the heroine’s eyes changing colour between pages 73 and 97. And the time factor: the story’s great. It just falls down a bit when you realise that your villain has to get from Inverness to Penzance in forty-five minutes. And when your dialogue isn’t working out and it clunks and sounds as if it’s being delivered by a machine: when it just refuses to come out as you wish it to.

Morgen: Continuity is hard in novels. I’ve written four and a bit and am so used to short stories that I have to be so careful with the longer pieces (not that I wouldn’t anyway). Do you have a favourite of your books or characters? If any of your books were made into films, who would you have as the leading actor/s?

Johnnie: I’d have Sean Bean as my deserter-hero in And Such Great Names as These and in Winter Hunt I’d have Benedict Cumberbatch as the dashing ex-army officer (he’s been cashiered) on the run with a young girl, seeking to escape a criminal gang and its leader, the psychopath Teddy Kellett, played by Tom Hardy.

Morgen: Great choices. Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?

Johnnie: No. I’ve never plotted a story, neither for the novels nor for any short story. I’m not recommending this. It’s just that it suits me. But my non-fiction, I do plan.

Morgen: Most of the authors I’ve spoken to are “pantsers”, as am I – my favourite aspect of writing is not knowing what’s going to come out. What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? Have you ever tried second person?

Johnnie: My short stories in the collection The Macaroni Dancers were all told in the first-person. The narrator was an 11-year-old boy. It worked well but for a novel it can be tricky to use the first-person. Unlike when the author tells the tale, there’s so much that your ‘I’ character can’t know. But even so, some of the finest stories are written in the first person, aren’t they.  It’s just that you’re not quite in the God the Creator position when it’s told in the first-person.

As for writing in the second-person, how do you do that? Or do you mean simply employing ‘thou’ and ‘thee’?

Morgen: Not even that difficult, it’s “you” and feels as if the narrator is talking to the reader. It’s more like first person than third person as in that it’s a limiting point of view and most people don’t get on with it (or even try it) but I like it. I explain it on my second person point of view page. Are you involved in anything else writing-related other than actual writing or marketing of your writing?

Johnnie: Yes. I’ve been a member of writing groups since I retired, that’s twenty-four years. I’ve met some astonishingly good writers, many of whom have never even bothered to put their work forward for publication. I find that strange. I would say that the great virtue of belonging to such groups is that it sharpens your critical capacity. By that I mean that listening to other people’s work or taking it home to read, and then being asked to give a crit is a very good work-out and done regularly it does help in quite an unconscious way. I don’t often respond to other people’s observations on what I have written: I don’t go home and rewrite long swathes of work. That’s not the important element. What is important is poring over other work and drawing conclusions about it and this I am sure develops your writing muscle.

Morgen: I have brilliant writers in the four groups I run / belong to, one of whom has been approached by a publisher but lacks the confidence (that’s what I think anyway) to progress ‘talks’. What do you do when you’re not writing? Any hobbies or party tricks?

Johnnie: I used to be a keen cricketer and rugby player. Now I never go to watch a match but I do follow sport on the television. I also love watching films. And I still travel whenever I can. Last winter my wife and I went to the Philippines for four months and, DV, I’ll do the same this year. But a pal and I are going off to France this summer, just the two of us. Not a lot of party tricks at our age, you’ll understand, but we’ll have some fun. We are neither of us growing old especially gracefully.

Morgen: Glad to hear it. Are there any writing-related websites and / or books that you find useful?

Johnnie: I rather like Goodreads. It’s a classy looking site and full of interesting stuff.

Morgen: I’ve done very little on Goodreads other than accept friendships, although I should as I’ve had some tough reviews on there. What do you think the future holds for a writer?

Johnnie: Writers will be writers whatever happens.

Morgen: Absolutely. Where can we find out about you and your writing?

Johnnie: ebooks on Amazon Kindle and Smashwords

Website: http://www.johnniejohnson.co.uk

Blog: http://johnniejohnson.blogspot.co.uk

Morgen: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Johnnie: No, thank you, but this is a quite interesting exercise.

Morgen: You’re very welcome, I’m glad it wasn’t too painful. Is there anything you’d like to ask me?

Johnnie: Why do you do it? Why do you take on such mountain of work? Does it in any way inhibit / prohibit your own writing?

Morgen: It does but only because of the amount of emails I get (over 100 a day) but of course I’m delighted that it’s become so popular (it was a record day on Wednesday; 489 hits!). It’s why I started writing a story a day though, to make sure I write something and knowing it has to go live at 5pm is great motivation. Thank you, Johnnie. Congratulations on your recent nuptials, by the way.

I then invited Johnnie to include an extract of his writing and this is from A Virgin in the Philippines…

My early morning walk provides nothing new in the way of experiences: the country air is tainted by diesel fumes; the usual small heaps of swept-up burning leaves and twigs smoke on the verges and in gutters; there are friendly calls of ‘Hi Joe’; a man, gently cradling a fighting cock, walks across the road while a motorcyclist, steering with one hand, clutches his baby against his breast with the other, and two young boys – his sons? – share the pillion seat; the tufo vendor, two silver pails hanging from the yoke on his neck, calls out his wares as he does every day; a tractor pulls a wagon, its sole occupant a water buffalo, and it is cut up by an overloaded bus whose mud-flapped slogan simply says ‘Jesus Christ’, and the water buffalo’s look of disdain seems to echo those words; a woman sweeps dust into the unmade road, and continues her sweeping there, dust to dust, a thankless and pointless daily task, but she pauses and smiles, ‘Good morning, po,’ she says. I begin to wonder if I shouldn’t make more effort at home, try more often to smile agreeably but it might not be entirely welcomed there, such overtures to strangers.

I return to find Fay in the driveway, a green umbrella shading her face, shouting up at the overhanging trees. Two men have come to cut the trees and she is not over pleased with them.

‘They do not know how to sharpen their knives,’ she tells me. ‘I had to show them. I said to them, here am I, a woman, and I have to show you what to do.’

The men are armed with machetes, about a foot long, and they hack at the branches. It is not a pretty job, not the kind of finish you might hope for. Since their arrival, Fay has maintained a strict supervision accompanied by a barrage of requests or her version of helpful advice. Before my very eyes, she has transformed herself into an expert tree surgeon.

And a synopsis of the same book…

‘Three years ago I’d never have given a thought to visiting the Philippines. It wouldn’t have appeared in even my top hundred places to visit. Come to that, I’d never thought of re-marrying.’

So begins my travelogue, describing my marriage to a Filipina (by the way, we met through neither a dating agency nor ebay!) and my visits to the country. Lest there should be doubt, I am the virgin in question though only in a figurative sense. In fact I’m an 80++ year-old Englishman though I don’t feel a day over 65!

The book is an account of the greenest green of the rice fields; of nightmarish traffic; of traditional family reunions; of my being refused entry to a hotel room on moral grounds along with my 65-year-old nephew-by-marriage; of advertising hoardings the size of tennis courts; of the sale, after much peasant dealing, of one of Fay’s rice fields; of my election as Life President of the Husbands’ Escape Committee; of life in a country town; of visits to the family mausoleum; of locking myself in a mosquito-infested garage; and so on.

I love the Philippines, the place and the people, and hope it shows through my writing.

***

Johnnie Johnson, a graduate of the University of Durham, is a former headmaster and schools inspector. Since retiring in 1988 he has written twenty-one non-fiction books ranging from true crime, disasters and superstition to local history and the supernatural. The Macaroni Dancers, a collection of twelve short stories, included five competition winners.

Writing as Allen Makepeace, Johnnie has written two novels. And Such Great Names as These was acclaimed as the ‘best novel’ by the National Association of Writers’ Groups. Winter Hunt, a crime story set in the early nineteenth century, has been published only as an e-book.

A Virgin in the Philippines, his most recent book, is available only as an e-book.

Johnnie won the South East Arts Prose Prize, was a finalist for the Fenner Brockway Peace Prize for Literature and a runner-up in the international Alpha to Omega Short Story Competition. Other awards came from the Society of Sussex Authors and from the Writers’ Groups in Hastings and Torfaen.

Since 1990, he has been a member of Lewes U3A Writing Workshop.

Johnnie lives with Fay, his Filipino wife, in Eastbourne, East Sussex.

***

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on the main blog) is free.

If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.

Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have this blog, http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com, on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to the main blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

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As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).

The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:

Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Author interview no.431 with memoirist Yvonne Bornstein

Welcome to the four hundred and thirty-first of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with memoirist Yvonne Bornstein. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello, Yvonne. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.

Yvonne: Hello. I was Yvonne Weinstock (now Bornstein) when, on January 6, 1992, I landed in Moscow on a business trip. I had just left the airport when I was ambushed, kidnapped, tortured and held for ransom for 11 horrifying days in a dilapidated country house by a gang of Russian “gypsies” who were in reality far more cold-blooded conspirators in a sinister plot that joined the Russian Mob, ex-KGB agents and early al-Qaeda operatives looking to fund terrorism, no matter the cost of human life.

Against all odds, the FBI and Russian intelligence agencies joined forces for the first and only time in history. It took me more than ten years after the traumatic experience to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard.

I write from the heart about the devastating impact of the kidnapping on my marriage and my life, and share my new-found appreciation for the simple, meaningful things I had come to overlook in my drive to the top of the corporate business world lessons in life that apply to all of us.  I currently reside in Australia.

Morgen: Wow. They say truth is stranger than fiction and what a story you have to tell. What have you had published to-date?

Yvonne: “Eleven Days of Hell”, published by New Holland Publishers, Sydney, Australia.

Morgen: Is your books available as an eBook? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?

Yvonne: My book is available via Ebooks and Kindle. I generally prefer turning pages.

Morgen: Most authors I’ve spoken to say the same. I like both although I read paper books at home because I have so many… my shelves would look odd without them. Did you have any say in the title / cover of your book?

Yvonne: Yes, I chose the title and assisted with the cover of my book.

Morgen: Now you’ve written and published your book, do you still write?

Yvonne: I blog as often as I can, referring to different aspects of kidnapping and trauma along with the aftermath of such an experience.

Morgen: Do you do any research ongoing?

Yvonne: I am always researching comparative stories, utilising this information for cathartic purposes. Not a day goes by when I am not transported back to that ghastly event.

Morgen: You sound a very strong lady, I’m not sure many people could do what you’re doing. I’m not sure how relevant this question is but do you enter any non-fiction competitions?

Yvonne: Yes, I entered an Independent competition in NYC for which I became a finalist.

Morgen: Congratulations. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?

Yvonne: An agent is helpful, however, they often are mailed / emailed too many submissions with which to cope therefore brilliant writers often are pushed aside for the commercial read. I have an agent in NYC who is attached to Macmillan Publishers.

She approached me after I had written my biography and requested my permission to assist in writing a fictional novel based on “Eleven Days of Hell”. The book is titled “Burned” by David Hagberg who lives in Florida and has written more than 70 books. David is a former CIA military cryptographer.

I also have a movie agent who lives in California who has been attempting to sell my life rights which may lead to a feature film. My story is complex – it has an international flavour which would create an interesting plot.

Morgen: I’d say so, absolutely. You have a publisher and agent, how much of the marketing do you do?

Yvonne: I blog as much as I can, with limitations, however, I am often approached by documentary organizations. I have recently recorded an episode for the BIO Channel’s “I Survived” series which should air in the next couple of months. This could be the perfect conduit to the making of a feature film or mini series.

Morgen: What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Yvonne: Keep writing, keep searching for a publisher.

Morgen: As the saying goes, ‘a successful writer is one who didn’t give up’. If you could invite three people from any era to dinner, who would you choose and what would you cook (or hide the takeaway containers)?

Yvonne: Brilliant question…

Morgen: Thank you very much, it’s one of the most recent.

Yvonne: Oprah Winfrey (5 seconds in an interview with her would make a career complete)

The panel from “The View” – Barbara Walters is empathic beyond belief

Jon Stewart – “The Daily News” – he really does have a serious side

Dinner? All home made: Chicken soup for the soul, Gefilte Fish, Pavlova for dessert – it’s an Australian Icon!

Morgen: Being the other side of the pond, and not a watcher of much TV, I don’t know Barbara Walters or Jon Stewart but I’m with you with Oprah. Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?

Yvonne: “Never, ever, give up! I would not be alive today had it not been for that.

Morgen: What point of view do you find most to your liking?

Yvonne: I wrote my book “Eleven Days of Hell” in reportage style – it helped set each individual scene.

Morgen: Are you involved in anything else writing-related other than actual writing or marketing of your writing?

Yvonne: I have often thought about it, but have not ventured down that road.

Morgen: Not yet then. What do you do when you’re not writing?

Yvonne: Oil painting, singing – confidence abounds a plenty.

Morgen: That’s so great to hear. Are you on any forums or networking sites?

Yvonne: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn

Morgen: Me too (and a few others). I love ‘meeting’ so many people online, although I probably would have got more writing done pre-internet… but then the marketing would have been harder. What do you think the future holds for a writer?

Yvonne: The general public in the western world are addicted to a fine read. The future is plentiful if one has a fascinating product.

Morgen: Absolutely. Where can we find out about you and your writing?

Yvonne: www.yvonnebornstein.com.

Morgen: Thank you, Yvonne. I hope we ‘meet’ again.

I then invited Yvonne to include an extract of her writing…

As I walked to the Mercedes, I had an uncomfortable pang in my stomach that something was not quite right here. That feeling probably had a lot to do with Oleg, whom I found absolutely disgusting. Oleg, with his beady, slit-like eyes, just seemed to be full of hatred. Not wanting to sit next to him, I slid into the back seat. Grigory, the manager of our Moscow office, sat in the back seat to my left. My husband, Danny then climbed into the front passenger seat beside Oleg, who started the car and pulled away from the curb.

As we turned out to the exit road, I looked out the window at the landscape of Russia in winter. It was very different, very depressing. A veneer of steel gray replaced those bright colors of summer and autumn. It was not a terribly cold day, maybe around 30 degrees, but the wind was howling, the sky was pale, and patches of dirty snow littered the ground. Something else was different, too. I watched for the usual turn onto the main road yet Oleg bypassed it, staying on the outer ring road that took us in a different direction. On previous trips, we had driven right out into heavy traffic. Now, no other cars were on this road. Oh well, I thought, Oleg must know a shortcut. I sat back, my eyes closing. 

Some five minutes later, I heard Oleg mumbling something. I opened my eyes and saw his face in the rear-view mirror, wearing a look of concern. Although the ride seemed smooth, he was acting as if he were fighting the steering wheel. He said a few words in Russian to Grigory, who said there was a problem with a tire. Oleg yanked the car onto the right shoulder of the one-way road and stopped. 

Then, with not a shred of warning, our world was turned upside down. 

With dizzying suddenness, a long and baleful-looking black sedan, crept up behind us and screeched to a stop. By all appearances, it was a Zil – a Russian-made automobile that for many years were hardly ever seen except on the highways around Moscow, in the so-called “KGB lane,” that could only be used by KGB agents. Little wonder that the Zils send shudders down the spines of Russians everywhere. 

Now, the shudders went down my spine, more so when I saw five men inside the Zil who looked and dressed much like Oleg all jump out and come right at the Mercedes. One of them pulled open the unlocked door beside me and he and another man reached in. Too stunned to react, I felt myself being dragged out of the car by my arms like a rag doll. 

I was screaming now. I tried somehow to dig my heels into the asphalt of the road to break the momentum of my upper body but could feel myself being manhandled, my feet merely scraping the pavement as I was carried along and quickly forced into the back seat of the Zil. 

With no control of my body, it was as if I was a spectator watching myself in a movie. I could hear my voice pleading and crying, feel hands holding me down, but my brain couldn’t process it all fast enough to realize that this was actually happening to me. I could also see, as if through a tunnel, that Danny had been pulled from the front seat of the Mercedes and was now in the back, flanked by two men, one of whom had a vice-like grip on the hair at the base of his neck – and Oleg turning around in the driver’s seat and waving his fist just inches from Danny’s face. 

I tried calling out to him but nothing came out of my mouth. And in the next instant, the Mercedes had driven off with a great roar. I looked to follow its path down the road but almost immediately lost sight of it. 

I was alone. Danny was gone and all I could see were two grotesque men holding me down, all I could smell was their foul breath. What was going to happen to me? 

Was I about to be killed? Raped? Dumped on this isolated road? And why was this happening at all? What the hell was going on?

Yvonne Bornstein has been a corporate executive, a wife, a mother and a kidnap victim. She is an author of “ELEVEN DAYS OF HELL – A Terrifying True Story of Kidnap, Torture and Dramatic FBI and KGB Rescue” – her first book.  The book was published by New Holland Publishers, Sydney, Australia.

Yvonne has co-written a second book  – “BURNED” which has been published by Macmillan Tor/Forge in New York City. She has co-written with David Hagberg – a former CIA Military cryptographer and author of more than seventy books.

***

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.

If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.

Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).

The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:

Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Author Spotlight no.99 – Thomas Sullivan

Complementing my daily blog interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the ninety-ninth, is of humour author Thomas Sullivan.

Thomas Sullivan is the author of Life In The Slow Lane, a humorous memoir about teaching driver education to teenagers for a cut-rate company in Oregon. He was an In-Car Instructor who worked with kids on the road once their classroom instruction was completed.

His book was originally published as an ebook by Uncial Press, and was recently released in audio form by Cool Beat Audiobooks. Thomas’s other humor writing has appeared in a variety of online journals including The Short Humour Site and Bad Idea Magazine, among others. He has been an instructor in a number of vocational and educational settings and currently lives in Seattle.

And now from the author himself:

To use a bad driving pun, I began writing by accident. The company I worked for occasionally had a car die and busy students frequently missed lessons. Our scheduling was also erratic, so I often had a few hours between lessons. This created “down time” on the job that I used to write about the funny episodes that occurred while I was teaching students and interacting with my employer. Over time I assembled my collection of tales into a narrative about a year teaching great kids and working for a questionable employer.

I don’t think one needs formal training to be a good writer. But being untrained does mean that a writer needs to find a good editor and be very, very open to suggestions. I was fortunate to find a great editor (a gentleman in Virginia named Kevin Quirk) for the initial draft of my story. The editors working for my publishers revised the story even further. So my one insight to the process a writer goes through is that the stories we produce don’t belong solely to us. They are meant to be collaborations and openness on the part of the author is essential. This is often difficult to accept as an emerging writer.

You can find more about Thomas and his writing via…

Author website: http://www.thomassullivanhumor.com.

Audio sample: http://www.prx.org/p/71515.

The blog interviews will return as normal tomorrow with poet, biographical fiction author and political journalist Matthew Abuelo – the four hundred and twenty-first of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything… and follow me on Twitter where each new posting is automatically announced. You can also read / download my eBooks and free eShorts at Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore, Kobo and Amazon, with more to follow. I have a new forum, friend me on Facebook, like me on Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn, find me on Tumblr, complete my website’s Contact me page or plain and simple, email me.  I also now have a new blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.

Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them)  on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are weekly episodes, usually released Monday mornings UK time, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

 

Author interview no.416 with poet and memoirist Maggie Harris

Welcome to the four hundred and sixteenth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with poet and memoirist Maggie Harris. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello, Maggie. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.

Maggie: I’m both a poet and a prose writer, was born in the Caribbean and emigrated to the UK at the age of 17, in 1971. I lived in Thanet for more than 30 years before moving to Wales, but will be returning to Kent shortly. I started a diary at the age of ten which has been really useful in writing my memoir, KISKADEE GIRL.

Morgen: I’d not been to the Thanet area before but met you on a course (run by yourself and Jane Wenham-Jones), it’s a beautiful part of the world so I don’t blame you for moving back (although Wales is lovely too). I’m off to Jane’s ‘Prime Time’ launch party tonight so maybe see you there? Back to poetry, do you write poetry to form or as it comes?

Maggie: I have written poetry to form, but usually write as it comes, with editing done when I discover what the ‘voice’ of the poem is, who’s telling the story if it’s a narrative, or what perspective the poem is coming from.

Morgen: Do you generally write rhyming or free verse?

Maggie: I normally write free verse, but use quite a lot of rhyme when it’s needed. I’m a great lover of rhythm, and hip-hop.

Morgen: What have you had published to-date?

Maggie: I’ve had five collections of poetry published: Foreday Morning, Limbolands, From Berbice to Broadstairs, After a Visit to a Botanical Garden, Collected Poems. I’ve also written a memoir about growing up in the Caribbean called Kiskadee Girl, which is going digital on July 26th. I’ve also got a collection of short stories, Canterbury Tales on a Cockcrow Morning, being published in August by Cultured Llama, and launched during this year’s festival.

Morgen: An exciting summer for you. Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?

Maggie: I have had many rejections but worse than that have been ignored. Dealing with being ignored is worse than rejection, at least someone has taken the time to acknowledge you. I have a belief in my work, that’s what keeps me going. I also realise that there are thousands of good writers out there. Getting the public’s attention is very difficult.

Morgen: Isn’t it. I soon realised once I put the word out that I’d started this blog (back in late March 2011) how many authors there were all trying to be heard (and I think I’ve only just scratched the surface, as the saying goes). I think far more authors than I could possibly interview in my lifetime… maybe I should do two a day. Do you enter competitions? Are there any you could recommend?

Maggie: I don’t normally enter competitions, although I have entered one recently. I can’t afford them.

Morgen: Some can be really expensive. There’s one I learned off yesterday that charges £15. The top prize is £10,000 which would be lovely but I think it’s far better to charge a lot less (£3-4) and have a lower top prize. Do you go to poetry slams? If so, could you tell us how they work?

Maggie: I have been to a poetry slam and have organised one myself in Broadstairs.  Basically poets get up and perform and the audience votes for them by hand or head count. They then go into another round and the winner chosen. It’s not something I would have the nerve to do, but they’re very entertaining, and of course guided by the audience as to what they like.

Morgen: I’ve read out some of my prose at open mic nights (which was scary to start with) but there was no voting – everyone who went up was met with a round of applause so no ‘rejection’ as such. Do you deal with publishers directly or do you have an editor / agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?

Maggie: I have so far dealt with publishers directly. They have been mainly small presses. I wish I did have an agent, I have to do all my promotion myself, it’s a very difficult thing to do and of course you get ignored a lot of the time. Agents do not normally promote poets but some have started to do so, and agencies exist which promote poets. Now I am also a memoirist and fiction writer, hopefully I may be able to get an agent. I tend to give up too easily, I wrote to one three weeks ago and haven’t even had an acknowledgement so I haven’t bothered to try anyone else. I think you do need someone to help you negotiate the publishing world and get your work promoted.

Morgen: I guess three weeks isn’t a long time. I approached about 15 agents (12 by email and three in person) and all but one replied (the three in person obviously had to). The one who didn’t warned they might not so it wasn’t a surprise, although just a ‘thanks but no thanks’ is appreciated. You mentioned earlier that Kiskadee Girl is ‘going digital’ on July 26th, how involved were you in that process?

Maggie: The editor approached me at the book launch, and she and Kingston University Press who published the paper book, have liaised together.

Morgen: Do you think eBooks will change poetry?

Maggie: I think any addition to the way poetry is read is a good one. I’m sure it will advance in that direction. However I still most people would like to curl up with a book.

Morgen: Very few interviewees have said they’d stick with eBooks only. If they’re anything like me they have so many books dotted around the house that they won’t be giving up paper for sometime to come. What / who do you read? And is it via eBooks or is it paper all the way?

Maggie: I’ve recently been reading the new Bloodaxe anthology, Out of Bounds, a collection of Black and Asian writers responding to the British landscape.  I read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on Kindle.

Morgen: That’s some going… I listened to it as a 7-hour audiobook. I was emailed by one of Jackie Kay’s colleagues for the contact details of a poet I’d interviewed and they wanted including in Out of Bounds. I said I’d pass their email on and invited Jackie to an interviewee. As far as I know the poet was included (I can’t see her name on the list but she’s could be a ‘many other’ but I’m still waiting for my interview. I’m hoping she’ll endorse a new gay literature festival I’m helping with (because it’s where I live, and I live and breathe writing) so I’ll persevere. You said earlier how an agent would take the pressure off you doing so much of the marketing, what do you do to promote yourself?

Maggie: I try and organise as many readings as I can when I have a new book out, I also run workshops around themes. To be honest, not many of my publishers have moved beyond the initial marketing nor have they done any launches or promotion beyond publication and putting the book on a website. I have been the one to organise interviews, reviews, readings and sending out promotional material.

Morgen: Which takes time away from your writing (I think every writer knows how that feels). Do you have a favourite of your poems or topic to write about?

Maggie: My favourite is always the last one I’ve written! But I’ve written about my South American childhood, about women as powerful creatures, about love, and my family, about cultural difference. I’m interested in history and botany, in travel and ancestry, and creativity itself. I guess two of my favourite poems are one called ‘Mapping’ which is about all of these things, and another called ‘I, Breadfruit’ which tells the story of a breadfruit which was on the ship The Bounty bound for Jamaica. The character is funny and cocky, ironic and plays around with a mixture of old English language and creole.

Morgen: That sounds hilarious. Presumably you choose the titles of your poems – do you get to keep them or are you ever overridden?

Maggie: I choose all the titles. The only giving way I had to do was in the publication of my memoir, which was originally called ‘The Conch Shell’.

Morgen: I do like Kiskadee Girl. Do you show / read your poems to anyone before you submit?

Maggie: Sometimes my husband suffers a reading, my women’s group are more suitable sounding boards.

Morgen: What are you working on at the moment / next?

Maggie: I’m writing a novel.

Morgen: Ooh, how exciting. Do you manage to write every day? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?

Maggie: No I don’t write every day, although I’m finding that writing a novel needs a more consistent method of writing than I’m used to. No, I don’t suffer from writer’s block, the more you open yourself to creativity, the more it flows in. The hard part is getting it out there!

Morgen: It is indeed. I interviewed novelist Karen A Wyle yesterday who’s done NaNoWriMo and recommends it (I’ve done it four times and love it) so maybe that could be a motivation if you wanted to start another one in November. Why do you think poetry is such a difficult market to break into?

Maggie: Poetry is not a difficult market to get into, unless you mean will mainstream poetry publishers publish you if they don’t know anything about you. Poets need to be realistic and ask themselves what they want. Do they want to be read? If so do they read poetry, do they buy poetry? If not, they can’t expect there will be a willing and eager audience queuing up to buy their book! There are several fine poets who have already been published, and whose publishers will automatically consider them first. They need to know if a market exists for their work, because this is what the publishers will consider. However there are many other avenues of poetry promotion to be considered. Firstly, go out and read, locally or wherever else you can afford to travel. Find a poetry audience and slot in there. You will make friends, get feedback, and be supported. Poetry depends on audience as well as readership. You will also be supporting other poets who may be in a similar position. Secondly many publication markets are available to you through magazines, as well as online. Find those who are publishing the kind of work you’re writing. No point sending love sonnets to a sci-fi poetry publisher! You can enter poetry competitions, this will keep you writing. Read the winning poems, get a sense of what’s being regarded as ‘good’, although a lot of it is subjective! Practise writing in form, go to a workshop. Publish it online eg set up a Facebook Page. Go to festivals. It becomes a life!

Morgen: It’s certainly become mine. I love competitions that have themes because they get me writing something new. You said earlier that you write short stories…

Maggie: Yes, my short story collection is a modern-day Canterbury Tales, will be launched during this year’s Canterbury Festival. I’ll be reading a tale a night in 7 different venues in Canterbury supported by 7 poets who have responded to 7 different tales. I like the idea of treating the stories to a live audience much like Chaucer’s pilgrims might have, and like the storyteller perspective.

Morgen: What a wonderful event. Apart from your memoir, have you written any non-fiction?

Maggie: I have written short non-fiction articles about my work.

Morgen: Do you do a lot of editing of your poems or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?

Maggie: I do have to do some editing, sometimes the ideas for poems are a tease, you have to chase after them like a dream, trying to match the words to the images or unformed ideas. Sometimes it is not until the end of the process that you even know what it’s about! That’s why I advise poets to take time to play. I hate the way some teachers make children write telling them to use metaphors etc before they even start!

Morgen: I love the image of you chasing after your poems. I used to write a lot of 60-word stories and found the more I wrote the closer they came out to the word count. It’s obviously not a direct comparison but do you find your poems come out at similar lengths, or do they really vary.

Maggie: My poems really vary. It depends how much they have / need to say. I have a sequence called ‘Sugar’ which started out as a 14-line list poem (Sugar … baby, Rosetti locks / Sugar ….daddy, Yves St Laurent frocks)  Some time later I realised that each line had more of a story to tell, so I went on to write a sequence of 14 different poems!

Morgen: Wow. Do you have to do much research?

Maggie: I do research when I need to find out more about something. For instance when I was writing the Breadfruit poem I needed to know the facts about the Mutiny on the Bounty, and the historical connections. Likewise the poems in After a Visit to a Botanical Garden led me to research early botanic explorers, which was an amazing journey for me. I do a workshop called ‘Have Roots, will Travel’ based on these findings.

Morgen: Aren’t we lucky that we have so much information to-hand on the internet. Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?

Maggie: Oh yes! Loads!

Morgen: Oh dear. Still, I guess it’s all practice. What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life? Has anything surprised you?

Maggie: My favourite is the sense of discovery when you embark on new writing, the challenge it sets you, and the things you learn along the way (eg botany). My least favourite is the hard work of getting my work promoted. What surprised me early on was the disappointment in not being able to walk into a shop and see my books there, and the lack of follow-up by my publishers.

Morgen: Most organisations these days have few resources or budget. Out of all the authors I’ve spoken to only one has said their publisher does all their marketing but that author is very active on Twitter and Facebook so I’m sure that’s a huge chunk. If you could invite three people from any era to dinner, who would you choose and what would you cook (or hide the takeaway containers)?

Maggie: Pablo Neruda, Leonard Cohen and Martha Gellhorn.  Chilli and garlic prawns with lime and coriander, lamb shanks, fresh mango.

Morgen: Yum, yes please. Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?

Maggie: ‘Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.’

Morgen: However painful at the time, I totally agree. What do you do when you’re not writing?

Maggie: Gardening, sewing, arts & crafts, talking on the telephone, writing on Facebook, listening to Jeremy Vine.

Morgen: Lots of fiction fodder from him, I’m sure. Are you on any forums or networking sites?

Maggie: Facebook, Linked in, Twitter. Good for spreading the world.

Morgen: Aren’t they. I was running low on interviewees earlier in the year a put a shout-out on LinkedIn and I’m now booking into late February… and they keep coming. What do you think the future holds for a writer?

Maggie: You need a lot of self-determination and to be realistic. Balanced with your creative exploration, you need to have an idea of what you want to achieve and of the market. We can’t delude ourselves that we’ll write the next Harry Potter. I think obviously the digital explosion will gather force, how we can make money at it is anyone’s guess. There’s a lot of competition out there!

Morgen: There certainly is but as they say, ‘A successful writer is one who didn’t give up.’ Where can we find out about you and your work?

Maggie: www.maggieharris.co.uk.

Morgen: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Maggie: Oh I’ve written poems for children as well! On cd called, Anansi Meets Miss Muffet

Morgen: How sweet. Is there anything you’d like to ask me?

Maggie: Yes, I really admire what you do! How do you find the time? I also wouldn’t mind some advice about finding an agent!

Morgen: Thank you very much. Re. the agent, unfortunately I’ve only interviewed one to-date (Peter Cox, and would love to interview more) and I’ve tried a dozen myself and not succeeded so am no expert but I’d say the Writer’s & Artist’s Yearbook and Writer’s Handbook would be the places to start. There’s a list of 74 on http://www.pw.org/literary_agents but it’s an American site so I’m not sure how helpful that it. Some authors have been discovered online so I guess you just have to do everything you can… and get some writing done in between. Thank you, Maggie.

I then invited Maggie to include an example of her writing…

Blessings

Blessed be children and grand-children, clutter in my front room
Blessed by forty-year old sisters still borrowing frocks and shoes
Blessed be my mother and her Tescos carrier bags
Blessed be my lover swopping red wine for fags
Blessed be girlfriends especially those who cook
Blessed be fellow-writers plugging their books
Blessed be sunshine, a Caribbean fable
Blessed be ready meals from microwave to table
Blessed be holidays, gypsies on the hoof
Blessed be rain pinging on the conservatory roof
Blessed be this island, my South Coast retreat
Blessed be this England where I landed on my feet

And a synopsis of one of her books…

Canterbury Tales on a Cockcrow Morning is a collection of short stories; 15 tales of modern-day Canterbury. From a homeless girl to a Chinese take-away owner who likes Country and Western, from a run-away schoolgirl who wants to be in a music video to a tale of two friends who meet up through the years: the stories link new migrants to Canterbury through their own voices, the voice of the storyteller and the city itself. Published by Cultured Llama in August 2012, the book will be launched and performed during the Canterbury Festival in October.

Maggie Harris has published five collections of poetry, and a memoir Kiskadee Girl. Her first collection, Limbolands won The Guyana Prize for Literature 2000. A short story collection, Canterbury Tales on a Cockcrow Morning will be published in August 2012, and launched during the Canterbury Festival. Her website is www.maggieharris.co.uk, she’s on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/maggie.harris.984786) and LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/maggie-harris/27/540/217).

Update December 2012: “Canterbury Tales on a Cockcrow Morning is now out and had a successful launch in Canterbury and Thanet, with more than 100 people coming along to the events. I would also like to update my comment on publishers who don’t help you promote your work because I have struck oil with my current publishers, Cultured Llama, who are the most hard-working, hands-on, friendly, fair and helpful publishers.”

That’s great news. Congratulations, Maggie.

***

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.

If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.

Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).

The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:

Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Author Spotlight no.90 – Dale Stanten

Complementing my daily blog interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the ninetieth, is of memoirist Dale Stanten.

Many people have a single lifetime career. Not Dale. She is into her fourth. While raising her young family, Dale obtained her RN degree and practiced psychiatric nursing. She parlayed her medical and extensive sales experience to become CEO of her Destination Management Company which for twenty years organized conventions, corporate events, and meetings for national and international guests. Dale conducted numerous educational seminars and assisted in developing a tourism college degree program.  During her fourth career, she penned her memoir and has immersed herself in the marketing process. Through her speaking engagements, she hopes to help others overcome difficult circumstances based upon her own personal life experiences. She loves her life and is appreciative of all the good things that have come her way. Dale resides in Boston and Phoenix with her husband.

And now from the author herself:

In 1950s Jewish Boston, my mother established a home-based business as a prostitute to remedy her husband’s inability to provide for his family. At age six, I was answering the front door for johns. Neighbor children were forbidden to play with me and even the Girl Scouts asked me to leave. What a terrible irony, in a family with so many strange and twisted realities, my gay sister, “coming out” at age 16, was the only thing my parents focused on as contemptible.

My memoir, The Hooker’s Daughter – A Boston Family’s Saga, is a story of survival, driven by a strong will and an ability to extract positive qualities from a dysfunctional life, punctuated by immoral and illegal behaviors. I was able to reconcile the reality of my environment with what Iwished it to be. My resulting tenacity enabled me to cope with my terminally ill husband and widowhood at age 37. My unconditional love for my mother challenges the reader to examine beyond that which is socially acceptable and identify that which is universal.

This memoir could have been a dark book, “A Mommy Dearest.” But, instead of condemnation, this is a story of love, forgiveness, and triumph over one’s demons. To paraphrase the German philosopher, Nietzsche “What does not destroy me, makes me stronger.”

I grew up in Mattapan, a Boston suburb, which was a highly Jewish populated neighborhood. Like other first and second generation immigrant families, we clustered together embracing our way of life. There were the comforting landmarks and events:  lots of synagogues, kosher butchers, delis, bakeries, and holiday celebrations on Rosh Hashana and Passover. Yiddish was spoken on the streets and in homes. However, I felt terribly isolated, a misfit and without a support system

The Torah pasha, Lech Lecha, (Genesis) commands us to transcend ourselves to experience our “real self.” As I matured, the time came to “cut the psychological umbilical cord,” in order to discover what I was capable of.

One day, I read there was a writing group meeting in a back room of Panera’s bakery and decided to go. At first, I wrote the assignments that the leader gave the ten of us, but eventually I asked if I could write my own pieces instead. They were struck with my story and encouraged me to consider it as a serious endeavor to be shared with others.

I could have put my writings in the drawer but there was something more gnawing at me! I felt that I could offer something to people who are suffering and struggling.  I wanted to show that it is possible to overcome dire circumstances and inspire people not to be victims. As the Torah says: “If you save one person, you save the world.”

Many people have asked me about the process of getting my book published. My experience has been very positive and I had a great story to tell. It took me a number of drafts to understand that a memoir need not be a chronological listing. Instead it should absorb the reader like a good novel while maintaining the truth.

I had many discussions with my husband about what should or should not be in the book.  He said, “There is too much in there. No one will believe it. Decide what is important to make a point and leave the rest out.” But I said, “It happened to me. I am telling the story.” Well, it is very hard for an author, especially a memoir writer, to leave anything out. The final product left out a lot.

The growth of E-books and self-publishing has significantly changed the publishing industry. Today, a traditional publishing house requires the author to do the majority of the marketing and publicity. Unless you have a platform and your name is Clinton or Bush, it is difficult to obtain any assistance. Ultimately, I decided to self-publish. This gave me more control of the process.

Writing the book is only the beginning. Marketing can absorb a great deal of time and effort. I love marketing! I built my original business from nothing and understand that personal contact and follow thru is very important. What I didn’t know was that it should start at least 6 months prior to publication.

If you get published, I assure you, you will enjoy the journey. The activity will bring you rewards that you never anticipated.

I agree. The only thing that comes close to seeing your name in print is creating the work in the first place. Thank you, Dale. 

Print copies of Dale’s memoir are available on her website, www.TheHookersDaughter.com, from the publisher Infinity Publishing, and from Amazon.com. Ebooks are also available for Kindle, Nook, iBook from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iTunes and vendors such as Smashwords and Goodreads. Dale can be contacted by email at TheHookersDaughter@Gmail.com or on Facebook.

The blog interviews will return as normal tomorrow with Author and Crime Squad website creator / host Chris Simmons – the three hundred and eighty-ninth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything… and follow me on Twitter where each new posting is automatically announced. You can also read / download my eBooks and free eShorts at Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore, Kobo and Amazon, with more to follow. I have a new forum, friend me on Facebook, like me on Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn, find me on Tumblr, complete my website’s Contact me page or plain and simple, email me.  I also now have a new blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.

Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them)  on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are weekly episodes, usually released Monday mornings UK time, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

 

Author interview no.362 with memoirist T Laresca

Welcome to the three hundred and sixty-second of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with non-fiction memoir author Thomas ‘T’ Laresca. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello, Thomas. Please tell us something about yourself and how you came to be a writer.

Thomas: I am based in New York City here in the good old United States. I work as a foreign stock trader and have been on Wall Street for 25 years. I became a writer so that I could help people get through their struggles in life as I got through mine. Dealing with the possibility of having three months because cancer had spread to three parts of my body taught me a lot. Mostly about faith and God the same things I used to get through the terrible battle of depression. I know what I did will help others when faced with any trials or tribulations. The last thing that made me write this book was a night I was in intensive care fighting for my life. That night I experienced death and I tell what that was like. I know it sounds bizarre but what really makes it even more bizarre is that it came at the hands of the police, right in front of my own home. In my book I have included the lie detector test I took to help prove what I say about that night is true.

Morgen: Wow, what an experience. What genres do you generally write?

Thomas: Non-fiction. This book is the only book I have ever written.

Morgen: So far. If applicable, can you remember where you first saw your book on the shelves?

Thomas: My book, ‘I Want To Help’ is just getting out there so I haven’t seen it on shelves yet.

Morgen: How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?

Thomas: I have been doing radio talk shows about my book and that has been a real kick.

Morgen: I bet. I can talk for England but that sounds scary. I guess you just pretend you’re talking to just the interviewer and relax. Do you write under a pseudonym? Do you think they make a difference to an author’s profile?

Thomas: I just go under T. Laresca I was never crazy about my name Tom sounded too dull Tommy sounded like a kid plus my friends call me t

Morgen: Oh, I like Tom, but these days a lot of people go for non-gender names (I get called ‘Mr’ quite a lot ). Is your book available as an eBook? If so what was your experience of that process? And do you read eBooks?

Thomas: Yes my book is available as an eBook it seems a lot easier for people to order. I honestly don’t read much other than the Bible.

Morgen: How did you feel when you had your book accepted?

Thomas: It was thrill to be accepted by a publisher then a publicist but the real thrill will be when people are helped and when the truth about the police from that night gets out. I feel then I will be able to help a lot more people because they will know what I say is the truth that know about death and God. Then hopefully people will listen when I tell them God loves you and waiting right there to help and heal you.

Morgen: Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?

Thomas: No rejections yet so don’t reject me ok? LOL

Morgen: You’re here. I’ve had to put a content warning on a couple of posts but I haven’t rejected anyone yet. What are you working on at the moment / next?

Thomas: I am not working on anything else right now this book is taking up a lot of time with radio shows and writing things such as this. With a full time job and a family I have my hands full.

Morgen: Ah yes, the old day job. Do you manage to write every day? What’s the most you’ve written in a day?

Thomas: I don’t write everyday but lately I have been writing a lot more.

Morgen: I’m writing a story a day for http://storyaday.org (did it last May too) and it’s hard fitting it in but I’m going to keep going. In fact to make sure I do I’ve created a new feature on my blog called 5PM Fiction with a load of prompt (and I welcome suggestions ) so I have to write a story and post it at 5pm daily. I’m great with deadlines. I’ve done NaNoWriMo four times (I only found out about it in August 2008) and when you have to do something you just find the time, don’t you. But then for me there’s little better than the creating process so it’s not a hardship but like most writers, I do tend to find things to do first, intentionally or otherwise. What is your opinion of writer’s block? Do you ever suffer from it?

Thomas: I really haven’t had writers block before I write I read a chapter from the Bible then I pray a bit and ask for God’s guidance.

Morgen: A question some authors dread: where do you get your inspiration from?

Thomas: That’s easy I get my inspiration from God. I know God wants me to get his word out there his word is one of love, forgiveness and mercy. Actually that’s a few words, sorry, having a little fun with this.

Morgen: Please don’t apologise, it should be fun. Who is your first reader – who do you first show your work to?

Thomas: My sons get a kick out of reading what I write I also show it to my family and co-workers they all have seemed to enjoy it.

Morgen: With the events behind it, I’m not surprised. Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully formed?

Thomas: I usually don’t spend a lot of time editing I think you can drive yourself nuts over editing and changing things. I think you let it rip do the best you can and hope it comes out good.

Morgen: Absolutely. One of my Monday nighters (also a short story writer) admits to regularly spending a day tweaking a story only to spend the next day tweaking it back. I do three or four edits and let it go. Have you ever received feedback from your readers?

Thomas: I have received feedback that I am very proud of; I have had parents read my book and hand it to their kids I think that says a lot. Also kids have read it and given it to their parents it has helped open up lines of communication between them. I have also had numerous people tell about what they suffer from and that’s great because reaching out to someone when you are struggling is vital. It is terrible to go through things thinking you are alone in it.

Morgen: Wow. I’ve not met any of my readers but have received emails which is fantastic and I get excited every time Smashwords tells me of a review. I’ve only just put my eBooks on Amazon so no reviews yet but I live in hope. What is your creative process like? What happens before sitting down to write?

Thomas: My process is simple I read a chapter from the Bible like tonight I read from the Gospel of John and once again it made me feel God’s love. Then I pray and ask for God’s guidance then let it rip.

Morgen: Do you write on paper or do you prefer a computer?

Thomas: I used to hate the computer I was a one-fingered typer but now I am getting better I am using two. It is much easier this way I guess it’s about time I caught up to the times.

Morgen: Like anything, it’s only practice. Some writers like quiet, others the noise of a coffee shop etc. Do you listen to music or have noise around you when you write or do you need silence?

Thomas: I need quiet to concentrate or my mind gets too distracted.

Morgen: Oh me too. Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?

Thomas: I have other writings between me and God I think they’re just for me.

Morgen: What’s your favorite / least favourite aspect of your writing life?

Thomas: It takes up a lot of time but it is becoming more enjoyable because I am seeing results.

Morgen: Isn’t it great. If anything, what has been your biggest surprise about writing?

Thomas: Its a lot more work than I thought.

Morgen: It certainly is. What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Thomas: Write from your heart and don’t be afraid to put yourself out there or how you’ll come across just be true to yourself.

Morgen: I like that. What do you like to read?

Thomas: I love to read the Bible it has helped me in more ways than I can remember. I read a little book about positive thinking when I was young by Norman Vincent Peale it helped me mainly because it has two verses from the Bible that I repeated over and over till it stuck in my negative head and transformed me.

Morgen: Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?

Thomas: Oh yea the same two that were in his book from the Bible: ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me’ and ‘if God is for us who can be against us?’

Morgen: What do you do when you’re not writing?

Thomas: I love to play all sports and go to the gym with my wife and kids.

Morgen: That’s something you don’t see much of over here (but then I no longer belong to a gym) is a family going together. People usually go on their own after work. Are there any writing-related websites and/or books that you find useful and would recommend?

Thomas: The best thing I know anyone can read is the New Testament if you want new times I beg you pick it up and read just one chapter a night five minutes that’s all it takes and you will see it will change your life forever like it did mine.

Morgen: Where can we find out about you and your work?

Thomas: You can go to http://iwanttohelp1225.com.

Morgen: What do you think the future holds for a writer?

Thomas: For me as a writer I really not sure what the future holds I just try to follow God one step at a time and I know at the end it will all work for good.

Morgen: As long as you enjoy it. I can’t imagine doing anything else and it’s such a thrill when I know I’ve written something good (or that I like, anyway). If you could have your life over again, is there anything you’d have done differently (writing-related or otherwise)?

Thomas: I would have kept more pictures of myself when I had hair… sorry it’s getting late and I am getting silly. Really I would have probably liked to dedicate myself to just one sport to have had a better chance to be a professional. However I really have no regrets because this is where I am supposed to be in my life this is where God wanted me here to help others.

Morgen: I like silly. Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Thomas: I think that about covers it all. Wait now that you mention it in order to help prove what I say is true I am willing to put up all the money from this book if one of those police officers can take and pass a lie detector test about that night this way I can prove what I say is true. How do you like that?

Morgen: There’s a challenge. Is there anything you’d like to ask me?

Thomas: What’d you think? Thank you for your time and God Bless you and Cheers!

Morgen: It was very inspiring, Thomas. You’re very welcome, thank you for taking part.

Tom Laresca lives in New York with his wife and three children. Currently working as a foreign stock trader, he attended college at St. John’s University. Laresca enjoys playing sports and weightlifting.

I Want to Help: My Story About Cancer, Depression and God is his first book. You can visit his website at http://iwanttohelp1225.com.

***

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.

If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.

Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).

The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:

• Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group (http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com / http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189)
• Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group (http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com / http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934)
• Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group (http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com / http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017)
• Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group (http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com / http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445)

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Author interview no.361 with Christian author Deborah McCarragher

Welcome to the three hundred and sixty-first of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with Christian teacher, author and spotlightee Deborah McCarragher. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello again, Deborah. Please tell us something about yourself and how you came to be a writer.

Deborah: I grew up in a US Navy family and moved frequently as a child. I married my first husband right out of high school.  That marriage ended in divorce four years later. I then remarried in 1982 to my current husband.  We have been married for thirty years.  Seven years into our marriage, I gave my life to Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour. A few years later God impressed upon my heart the need to put into writing my journey of living in a spiritually mismatched marriage.  My husband and I reside in northeast Florida, USA.

Morgen: It’s early May and here in the UK it’s dull and grey. Could you send some sun our way please? What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?

Deborah: Mission Possible, a Christian non-fiction work is my first book.  I’ve not considered writing in other genres yet.

Morgen: You’ve picked (or maybe it picked you) a very popular genre. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?

Deborah: I do not have an agent due to the fact I am a true indie self-published author. I cannot gauge whether or not it would be beneficial to have an agent or not.

Morgen: I’m self-published (eBooks) too and am unsure whether I’ll ever have an agent. Never say never but I like the control of eBooking. Plus so many independent authors have wonderful experiences with small presses that it’s the way many are going. Are your books available as eBooks? If so what was your experience of that process? And do you read eBooks?

Deborah: Mission Possible is available as an eBook on Amazon, Smashwords, and other online retailers.  I believe having the book in electronic form is invaluable in today’s changing marketplace.  I personally have a regular Kindle and a new Kindle Fire.  I do read books on my e-readers occasionally.

Morgen: I’ve just upgraded from the Kindle 4 to the Touch for the audio and being able to make notes quicker. How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?

Deborah: I have been marketing my book and branding myself for about two years now.  It has been a learning experience to be sure!  However, using social media more aggressively is beginning to pay off.  In addition to that, sharing in person about my book has opened more doors for potential buyers.

Morgen: And isn’t it great getting their feedback directly. I love that. Do you write under a pseudonym? Do you think they make a difference to an author’s profile?

Deborah: No, I did not write under a pseudonym.  I don’t see any need to do so with a non-fiction book, especially when it deals with your own life’s story.

Morgen: That’s very true. Did you have any say in the title / covers of your book(s)? How important do you think they are?

Deborah: Yes, I was prompted by God to title the book “Mission Possible” and I had a mental image of what the cover was prior to its design and production.

Morgen: It’s a great play on words. What are you working on at the moment / next?

Deborah: I began another book, completely unrelated to my first book.  It is a book featuring various trees in Scripture and their spiritual significance.  It lists each tree’s scientific name, Hebrew name, and I envision it more as a “coffee table” book with illustrations.

Morgen: It sounds great. Do you manage to write every day?

Deborah: No, I don’t write daily, but I do maintain my Blog and write weekly inspirational posts.  I also work part-time in small business accounting, so I don’t have the time to commit to writing as I would like to have.

Morgen: <laughs> I left my job over a month ago and I still don’t. What is your opinion of writer’s block? Do you ever suffer from it?

Deborah: Sometimes I have difficulty in finding appropriate material for my Blog posts, but I generally don’t suffer from writer’s block.  When I am stuck, or need inspiration, I ask God for creativity and clarity.  Works every time!

Morgen: Do you have to do much research?

Deborah: The only research I did for my book was related to Bible study materials and using some external support sources.

Morgen: Some writers like quiet, others the noise of a coffee shop etc., do you listen to music or have noise around you when you write or do you need silence?

Deborah: I prefer to have quiet and solitude, but on occasion I have internet music or TV on in the background.  When I dive into God’s Word, I like to have no interruptions, and often I sit outside on my back patio with the sounds of nature surrounding me.

Morgen: I usually have classical music. I went to a coffee shop on Friday with a writing friend D Reeder for an eBook launch party (for two ) and although it was a little place it was pretty noisy. I don’t know how some people can write like that… and some prefer it! What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Deborah: My advice would be to follow your heart and promptings to write out your story.  Putting it on paper (or computer) gives it a life of its own.

Morgen: It does (and I love that) – you can’t edit a blank page. What do you like to read?

Deborah: I don’t have much time to read, but when I do I enjoy historical non-fiction, Bible studies, Christian non-fiction and biographies.

Morgen: Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?

Deborah: “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” ~ The Holy Bible (Hebrews 10:23)

“No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks.” ~Ambrose

Morgen: Are you involved in anything else writing-related other than actual writing or marketing of your writing?

Deborah: Yes, I maintain an inspirational Blog at http://www.Godmissionpossible.blogspot.com.

Morgen: Are you on any forums or networking sites? If so, how valuable do you find them?

Deborah: I am on several social media sites including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.  I believe networking on them and participating in various groups & forums has increased my blog visitors and book sales.

Morgen: I know it has for me too. I was running low on interviewees recently then put a shout-out on LinkedIn and am now booking into November! Where can we find out about you and your work?

Deborah: You can visit my website and purchase my paperback at http://www.Spirituallyunevenmarriage.com, view my blog at http://www.Godmissionpossible.blogspot.com. My ebook is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

Morgen: Thank you, Deborah.

Deborah McCarragher began her journey of creative writing soon after coming to know Jesus as her personal Savior in 1989 and enjoys using her spiritual gifts of encouragement and teaching as she shares her personal testimony with others. Deborah has been a small business owner for over 25 years and formed Alabaster Box Publishing several years ago as a vehicle for producing and promoting her Christian writing projects. She is a devotional contributor to the e-magazine Ruby for Women and Living Better at 50+, as well as for the print magazine An Encouraging Word. As well as the links mentioned above, you can reach Deborah on Facebook and Twitter.

***

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.

If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.

Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).

The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:

• Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group (http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com / http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189)
• Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group (http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com / http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934)
• Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group (http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com / http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017)
• Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group (http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com / http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445)

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Author interview no.345 with writer, publisher and editor Jill Muehrcke

Welcome to the three hundred and forty-fifth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with non-fiction writer, editor and publisher Jill Muehrcke. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello, Jill. Please tell us something about yourself and how you came to be a writer.

Jill: I remember writing my first poem at age five and my first story at age six. My mom would give me a sheet of paper and I would fold it into quarters, crease it really well, then tear along the creases to make a little book. I would put a cover on the front, a table of contents inside, and number each page. I don’t think I thought I would be a writer. I thought of myself as a “book maker”. I wanted to be in charge of everything – not just the writing! I suppose that’s one reason I started my own publishing company and self-published several of my books.

Morgen: I love that. I remember oddments but nothing as structured. What genre do you generally write?

Jill: Till now, most of my published books have been in the educational and nonprofit sectors. Most are nonfiction. I have written fiction, including a number of mysteries, but these are unpublished. Someday I may get back to that, as I adore mysteries, and I found writing them to be great fun. But my new book, Waking Up Happy: A Handbook of Change with Memoirs of Recovery and Hope, is my most personal book to-date, as it includes my own memoir plus the memoirs of my daughter and granddaughter. I doubt that it’s possible to write anything more personal!

Morgen: Three generations, that’s great. You mentioned that you’ve set up your own publishing company, what have you had published to-date?

Jill: In 1978, my husband and I co-authored the book Map Use and published it ourselves. Since then, it has been through seven editions and 14 printings. I loved the cover of the first edition, which was all in shades of gold and orange (my favorite colors!) I remember going to the printers as the book was just coming off the presses, and the whole giant room was aflood with orange and gold. I almost swooned I was so happy.

Morgen: “swooned” now there’s a word I’ve not heard in a while. How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?

Jill: I’m doing all the marketing for Waking Up Happy. It was the part of the publishing process I dreaded! But it has turned out to be the most fun of all. I am really enjoying connecting to people and talking about my book.

Morgen: Me too. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?

Jill: No, I don’t have an agent. I am very glad that I self-published so that I didn’t have to go through the process of finding an agent – although my husband and friends have been my acting agents and have been extremely helpful.

Morgen: I submitted to a dozen or so but self-publishing (albeit eBooks) has been great. Are your books available as eBooks? If so what was your experience of that process? And do you read eBooks?

Jill: Waking Up Happy is available as an eBook in all the popular formats. I made sure of that. I hired someone to help me through the process, and I’m glad I did. She did a wonderful job. Personally, I feel as though something is lost when reading an eBook. And Waking Up Happy is a handbook, so I do feel it is best held in the hand! It’s the kind of book you need to underline and write in the margins. It’s full of exercises that cry out for a pencil. But I know some people have both the eBook and the hard copy, and that makes sense to me. They can carry it around in eBook form to read whenever they have a spare moment and then go home and get out a pencil and do the exercises.

Morgen: It’s funny you should say that but I’ve never been one to write in a book… a magazine, no problem but not in a book. That’s why I love the bookmarking facility of the Kindle. What was your first acceptance and is being accepted still a thrill?

Jill: My first acceptance was getting a poem published at age eight. It was and is still a thrill.

Morgen: What a wonderful way to start. What are you working on at the moment / next?

Jill: I’m putting together a workshop that may turn into a full day of doing exercises from Waking Up Happy, discussing people’s results and insights, and sharing life stories. I’m very excited about how transformative such a workshop may be for people who are ready to embark on their journey of personal change.

Morgen: Do you manage to write every day? What’s the most you’ve written in a day?

Jill: Yes, I write every day. I don’t keep track of how many pages I write, so I can’t say what the most is that I’ve written in a day. I don’t think the quantity of pages written means much of anything. What’s important is to write something meaningful, even if it’s just one sentence.

Morgen: Absolutely. I only worked out recently that 300 words a day is 100,000 words in a year and that’s feasible for anyone (says she who doesn’t write every day). Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?

Jill: Of course there are times when the words don’t flow, but I simply keep writing. Or I go back and edit what I’ve already written, and that usually warms me up enough to write again. That is the cure. Just keep writing and editing, writing and editing, until something worthwhile takes shape. Reading an inspirational book like Waking Up Happy is also a good solution! That’s why I wrote it– to help people jog themselves out of a rut and move forward with energy and purpose.

Morgen: I have the purpose (this blog, writing generally) but I do lack the energy sometimes. A question some authors dread, where do you get your inspiration from?

Jill: I am a voracious reader, which fills my head with ideas. I also get a lot of my inspiration from my dreams. I wake up at night or in the morning and fill sheets of paper with ideas that have come to me. The most amazing breakthroughs of my life have come from my dreams. I talk a lot about this in Waking Up Happy and include exercises others can do to remember, interpret, and shape their dream lives.

Morgen: I love exercises. I set three every other Monday for my writing group and we come up with some amazing things (albeit fiction). Are you involved in anything else writing-related other than actual writing or marketing of your writing?

Jill: I’m in several writing groups, which I find invaluable. The members of these groups are my closest friends and supporters.

Morgen: I belong to four and they’re all great (I get different things out of each one). Who is your first reader – who do you first show your work to?

Jill: My husband Phillip.

Morgen: You’re lucky, I only have my dog and he loves everything I write which really isn’t helpful. Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?

Jill: I do a lot of editing! It’s the key to good writing. I find myself editing in my mind even when reading books. Not all books, of course, but it seems like so many modern ones lack the excellent editors who used to turn books into true masterpieces.

Morgen: Which is one of the hot topics surrounding eBooks at the moment (some have had no editors at all!). How much research do you have to do for your writing? Have you ever received feedback from your readers?

Jill: My research for Waking Up Happy included reading hundreds of books on related topics, such as change theory, which I used to create the motivational exercises in the book. I also interviewed dozens of people to create the 30+ memoirs that form the backbone of the book. I’ve been receiving the most amazing feedback from readers of Waking Up Happy. They tell me that the combination of memoirs of people who have changed their lives, paired with exercises that show readers how they can make the same changes for themselves, has helped them create new lives when nothing else has worked.

Morgen: Wow, that’s high praise indeed. Do you write on paper or do you prefer a computer?

Jill: I do most of my writing on my computer. But constantly throughout the day (and even the night, as mentioned earlier!) I am jotting down notes on scraps of paper.

Morgen: I used to send out morse code messages to my neighbours because I kept switching the light on and off as I came up with ideas. Now I go to bed so late and get up so early that I sleep right through. Some writers like quiet, others the noise of a coffee shop etc. Do you listen to music or have noise around you when you write or do you need silence?

Jill: Being a freelance writer and working at home while my daughter was growing up pretty much guaranteed that I would be able to write no matter what the distraction. However, I crave silence and seek it out whenever I am able. Many of the exercises in Waking Up Happy come back to the wisdom of finding pools of silence throughout your day.

Morgen: I share my house with a dog so I have plenty of that. What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? Have you ever tried second person?

Jill: In writing Waking Up Happy, I found that I loved writing in first person. All the stories in the book are true and told in first person. I also used a lot of second person in the book, since the exercises speak directly to the reader (e.g., here is what you can do to effect these same transformations in your own life). Writing in the third person can also be very useful and is the basis for a number of exercises in the book. One of the memoirists in Waking Up Happy describes how healing it was for her to write her autobiography in the third person. She was able to feel kinder toward the innocent child of her story than she ever felt for herself as an adult. Feeling empathy for herself as a little girl helped her forgive herself for her flaws and foibles. It’s a powerful exercise for anyone, and you don’t need to write your whole life story. Just think of a time you felt angry with yourself or ashamed of yourself or disappointed in yourself. Write about that experience in the third person, using he or she rather than I. Consider yourself a character in the story. Imagine it happened to someone else. Viewing yourself with a more objective eye is a good way to see yourself with more clarity and compassion. And reading your story to someone else is even more powerful. When you say out loud the things that are hardest to say, and find yourself totally accepted, it makes anything possible. That’s why doing exercises like these can lead to leaps forward in your growth.

Morgen: It’s interesting what you say about writing an autobiography in third person but then I guess some of the fiction we write has pieces of ourselves in it. What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life?

Jill: I’ve been amazed at how much I am enjoying the marketing part. Doing readings of Waking Up Happy, talking to readers about their responses to the book, and comparing answers to the exercises in the book with readers – these have been my favorite aspects of the whole process. I suppose what I like least is dealing with the constant computer crises. That’s the problem with working at home; my computer guru is my husband, and though he is a wonderful help to me and has the patience of a saint, I hate to interrupt him with the never-ending problems with my computer.

Morgen: I had a series of PC laptops that drove me nuts then, after many months of badgering by my IT guru (my Swiss-based brother) I finally bought an Apple Mac and love it. I get a spinning rainbow wheel occasionally but everything talks to everything else. If anything, what has been your biggest surprise about writing?

Jill: One thing I learned when I was very young was that if I lost something I wrote, I could rewrite it and it would be even better than the first version. That is very useful knowledge because I seem to be always losing my work, especially in these days of computer viruses. I don’t need to panic when my precious computer files are wiped out. Of course I may use a few bad words and pound my head against my desk, but then I just start rewriting, and it comes more fluidly, eloquently, and gracefully than the first time. That is the magic of writing, which is a never-ending surprise and delight.

Morgen: You have a better memory than me then as I’ve so often gone to write something down and forgotten what it was (especially annoying if I thought it was brilliant, at the time) but then I suppose if it’s come out once it’s been in your brain twice (if that makes sense). What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Jill: Take time to read and write for yourself. It’s the most important thing you can do as a writer, editor, and person. Read the great writers. Pay attention to how they use words and how they get their points across. Keep a journal. Allow your writing to be a living, daily part of who you are. Have patience; it will happen in its own time. Hold on to the knowledge that you’re in the right place, doing the right thing. Doing what you love.

Morgen: That’s me. Is there a quote you like?

Jill: There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. – Anais Nin

Morgen: Where can we find out about you and your work?

Jill: Visit my Website, www.WakingUpHappyBook.com

Morgen: If you could have your life over again, is there anything you’d have done differently (writing-related or otherwise)?

Jill: Although my life has been checkered with painful parts, and I have made some stupendous mistakes along the way, I wouldn’t do it any differently, because all that pain and error have made me who I am today – a woman who knows the joy of waking up happy! This is a theme in the memoirs in Waking Up Happy and the basis of many of the exercises in the book: Regret serves no purpose. All of us need to forgive ourselves for being flawed, imperfect human beings and move forward. We must learn to take the pain and re-integrate it into a story of triumph. No matter what we have endured, we can re-write our pasts so that we become the heroes of our own lives.

Morgen: Whenever an interviewee says they’ve always known they wanted to be a writer I’ve wished it hadn’t taken 30+ years for me too but then I remember I have 30+ years experience and I don’t mind. There are many who start this journey once they’ve retired… I’ve just taken that step 20 years early. Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Jill: First of all, I wrote my book Waking Up Happy: A Handbook of Change with Memoirs of Recovery and Hope to provide readers with the tools of change. As one reader told me, “The people in Waking Up Happy don’t just tell what happened to them. They tell what they did about it and how you can do the same thing to change your own life.” The memoirs tell the true stories of change, and the exercises throughout the book provide the tools to create those same transformations.  Although the storytellers in Waking Up Happy have all recovered from agonizing pasts, you needn’t have suffered to benefit from the book. We all need to keep changing. Constant evolution is what leads to a fulfilling life.

Second, I am donating half the proceeds of Waking Up Happy to the Recovery Foundation, which helps build new lives every day by providing scholarships to those who can’t afford to pay for treatment. So if you buy a copy, you will be helping to transform someone’s life!

Morgen: Please do, folks. Thank you, Jill.

I then invited Jill to include an extract of her writing and here’s a brief adaptation of the Introduction to ‘Waking Up Happy’:

There are many reasons why you may want to change your life. If you’re in a relationship that’s diminishing rather than enhancing your best self, or if you’re eating the wrong foods, hurting your body, or doing other self-destructive things, you know you can’t continue on that path. And as you pass through different phases in your life, adjustments are necessary.

Changing your life isn’t easy. It means creating yourself anew. Because you’re both the sculptor and the stone, it’s a wrenching task.

And yet every sculptor knows that the piece of art that’s meant to be already exists: It’s a matter of carving its essence from material that’s already there. When asked how the granite bear came to be, the sculptor says, “I just cut away everything that wasn’t a bear.”

Everyone’s life cries out for transformation. If you don’t change and grow, you die: Bit by bit, day by day, your innermost soul dwindles and perishes. The cost of not continuing to grow is ultimately feeling half-dead.

You’re the artist of your own life. All you need do is pick up the tools for change and begin to use them. Each false start is a carving crucial to the final piece of art, paving the way for you to sculpt your greatest creation: the beautiful self that lies within the stone.

Juliana (Jill) Muehrcke is the award-winning author of dozens of books, including her just-published Waking Up Happy: A Handbook of Change with Memoirs of Recovery and Hope. Founder and editor of the international magazine Nonprofit World (www.snpo.org), she has studied at the University of Colorado and the University of Michigan and has a BA degree, specializing in English literature, creative writing, and psychology, from the University of Washington. Jill is listed in Who’s Who. In her spare time, she enjoys teaching yoga and eating ethnic food. For many years, in several cities, including Seattle and Madison, she has written restaurant reviews. You can visit her website at www.WakingUpHappyBook.com and listen to Jill on the Joy Cardin Show.

***

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.

If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.

Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).

The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:

• Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group (http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com / http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189)
• Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group (http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com / http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934)
• Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group (http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com / http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017)
• Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group (http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com / http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445)

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Guest post: ‘Memoir Writing with a Purpose’ by Jeff Rasley

Tonight’s guest blog post, on the topic of memoir writing, is brought to you by non-fiction and thriller writer Jeff Rasley.

Memoir Writing with a Purpose

Most writers have kept a journal or diary during some period in their lives.  I started a diary when I was sixteen.  After two weeks I quit and burned the document out of fear my parents might find it.  There was too much incriminating evidence, and my strict Midwestern, Presbyterian parents would not have allowed me to take the Fifth to avoid self-incrimination.  I didn’t take up journal writing again until I became a serious adventure traveler.  (Serious in the sense that it was a favorite avocation since age 18.)

Some of my travel experiences seemed worth recording in photographs and in writing.  In some cases there was meaning to be interpreted from the experiences beyond the immediacy of the moment.  So, I began to try to turn some of my travel journaling into publishable articles.  Eventually I had enough material to write books, which were travel memoirs with a purpose.  In the journal I would record the facts of the experience and my reaction to it.  To turn the journal writing into a worthy article or book there had to be meaning beyond the experience.  There had to be an insight, lesson or wisdom which I could interpret from the experience and offer to others.  The next challenge was, of course, finding a publisher.

Creating an article worthy of publication meant going beyond mere biographical journaling.  If one is a person of historical or cultural interest, then autobiographical writing may be worthy of publication.  (No matter how poorly written the Paris Hiltons of our celebrity-obsessed culture will find a publisher.)  But, fortunately or unfortunately that eliminates ninety nine percent of the rest of us.  Journaling for one’s own pleasure, or to pass on to family and heirs, of course has value.  And social media has created the opportunity to bore the hell out of friends by posting the quotidian details of one’s life.  ["Here I am enjoying my first copy of coffee of the day looking out my window and a blue bird landed on the sill, blah, blah, etc."]

The personal essays, or memoirs with a purpose, I have been inspired to write are mostly about extreme experiences such as Himalayan mountain climbing or solo sea-kayaking.  I have learned, or had reinforced, great lessons about life from these adventures.  For example, I was inspired to write about the strength and beauty of the human spirit and the willingness to be self-sacrificial after witnessing a Nepalese guide and porter risk their lives to save and care for others who had been trapped by an avalanche.

Other writers have found meaning worthy of publication in more mundane experiences.  My sister-in-law, Cherri Megasko, writes for the Yahoo Contributor Network.  She uses personal experiences to write about topics of interest to homeowners, parents and a general readership.  For example, her article entitled “Groundhog Wars” is a delightfully humorous essay about the different approaches her and a neighbor applied to dealing with a resident groundhog.  Its wider application for animal lovers is how to deal with what some consider pests and others consider lovable critters.

Essential to making a memoir interesting and worthy of publication is to have a central theme that carries the narrative forward.  Without a thematic narrative, we are back to mere observation or a random collection of insights without a guiding light.  [And I know from hard won experience it is best to have a guide in uncharted territory and a light to see in the darkness.]  In other words, the piece should make a point.

The narrative must include factual details to make it interesting.  Without interesting, quirky or astonishing factual details, a personal essay gets placed in the folder labeled BORING.  Even hard core academic writing must include the important facts on which an argument is based.  A point made in the abstract is likely to be forgotten as soon as the magazine or book is closed or the reading device turned off.

The last point I cover when teaching a class about memoir writing is to consider carefully whether to identify or to change the identity of individuals, organizations or companies referred to in the piece.  Friendships can be damaged and libel / defamation suits can be filed.  It is easy enough to disguise an identity with a fake name and to attribute some intentionally misleading characteristics to protect the privacy or reputation of a person or organization.  Consider the consequences and choose wisely.

As to publication, well, much has changed in the last decade or so.  When I first began writing for publication in the 1980s, I would go to my neighborhood library and page through Writers’ Market looking for the magazines or journals interested in publishing the type of article I had written.  Now, the neighborhood library has probably closed.  Information about publishers is online, but many of the print publications have ceased to exist or been downsized.  The advent of the digital age and online publishing has created vastly more opportunities for publication than ever before.  And I don’t subscribe to the view that quantity has reduced quality.  Great writing still happens and is more accessible.  But there are fewer traditional publishers of successful magazines and books.

One significant consequence for writers of the traditional publishing industry’s decrepitude is that pay is harder to come by.  For several decades a writer could expect to be paid from $100 to $2,500, depending on the newspaper’s / magazine’s / journal’s prestige and circulation, for a feature length article.  And there were multiple publication possibilities for many different categories of articles.  While the multiplicity of online publications (especially blogs) has vastly increased the possibility of publication, the possibilities for remuneration seem to be much reduced.  Writing for “content farms” or guest blogging (thanks Morgen!) did not exist as opportunities in pre-digital history.  Unfortunately, the writing is often done gratis (damn!).

You’re very welcome… thank you for offering, Jeff, and for gratis!

Jeff Rasley is author of Light in the Mountains — A Hoosier Quaker finds Communal Enlightenment in Nepal, Islands in My Dreams, Nepal Himalayas — in the Moment, False Prophet?, Bringing Progress to Paradise and  Monsters Of The Midway:  The Worst Team in College Football. 

He practiced law for thirty years in Indianapolis, Indiana and was admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court Bar.  He has an outstanding academic record: graduate of the University of Chicago, A.B. magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, All-Academic All-State Football Team and letter winner in swimming and football; Indiana University School of Law, J.D. cum laude, Moot Court and Indiana Law Review; Christian Theological Seminary, M.Div. magna cum laude, co-valedictorian and Faculty Award Scholar.  Jeff is currently President of the Basa Village Foundation USA Inc. and U.S. liaison for the Nepal-based Himalayan expedition company, Adventure GeoTreks, Ltd.  He teaches classes for IUPUI Continuing Ed. Program and Indiana Writers Center.

For chairing the Indiana-Tennessee Civic Memorial Commission, Jeff received Proclamations of Salutation from the Governors of Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee and Pennsylvania and he was made an honorary Lieutenant Colonel Aide-de-Camp of the Alabama State Militia, a Kentucky Colonel and honorary Citizen of Tennessee.  He was given a Key to the City of Indianapolis for his report on the safety conditions of Indy Parks.  Jeff received the Man of the Year award from the Arthur Jordan YMCA.

Jeff has published numerous articles and photos in academic and mainstream periodicals, including Newsweek, Chicago Magazine, ABA Journal, Family Law Review, Pacific Magazine, Indy’s Child, The Journal of Communal Societies, The Chrysalis Reader, Faith & Fitness Magazine, Friends Journal and Real Travel Adventures International Magazine.  He gives programs about adventure travel and philanthropy to service clubs, community organizations and churches.  He is an avid outdoorsman and recreational athlete.  He leads trekking-mountaineering expeditions in Nepal and has solo-kayaked around several Pacific island groups.  Jeff also loves to read and considers completing Marcel Proust’s 3600-page Remembrance of Things Past as one of his most enjoyable accomplishments.

Married to Alicia Rasley, Jeff is a multi-published author, RITA Award winner, and University professor. He has kindly provided the following from ‘Chapter 1:  Home is a Resting Place’…

The first time I came home from Nepal I knew where my home was.  It was in Indianapolis, Indiana where I lived with my wife Alicia and our two boys.  I had not been sure of that before I left.

We were going through a rough patch in our marriage.  I felt trapped with a wife, kids, mortgage, and law office to run.  The American dream had come to feel like an Edgar Allen Poe nightmare.  Financial pressures and family responsibilities felt like walls closing in on me.

Work and responsibilities beat and fashion the adult American into a tool of production and consumption.   At the systemic level our society and economy value the acquisition of material wealth over all other values.  In succumbing to this cultural imperative we are conditioned to believe that our meaning and purpose is determined by job and profession rather than by love, family and enjoyment of life.  For example, after being introduced to a new acquaintance, the first question is, “What do you do?”  Materialism reduces our identity and humanity to a name and a job.  And our consumer culture determines our value by what we consume.

My high school history teacher in Goshen, Indiana, Mr. Slavens, liked to say, “The average American male, dead at thirty, buried at sixty.”  I don’t remember who he was quoting, but it haunted me.  At forty I was definitely feeling lost, if not dead.  I did not want to lose my humanity, but I felt life being sucked out of me as I measured out my days in six minute billing units at the office.

Alicia wisely and firmly told me to go traveling, to do what I loved.  Not just a weekend or week-long road trip; she told me I should go to the other side of the planet.  I should go trekking in the Nepal Himalayas.

You can find more about Jeff and his writing via his website www.jeffreyrasley.com. His latest book is Monsters Of The Midway:  The Worst Team in College Football and is available from Amazon.com.

If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about.

The blog interviews return as normal tomorrow morning with non-fiction author and editor Jill Meuhrcke – the three hundred and forty-fifth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me. You can also read / download my eBooks and free eShorts at Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore and Kobo. My eBooks are also now on Amazon, with more to follow. I have a new forum and you can follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, like me on Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn, find me on Tumblr, complete my website’s Contact me page or plain and simple, email me.

 

Author interview no.343 with non-fiction writer and autobiographer Abbie Lipschutz

Welcome to the three hundred and forty-third of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with non-fiction author and autobiographer Abbie Lipschutz. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello, Abbie. Please tell us something about yourself.

Abbie: 90 years old, handicapped, been writing for many years, published in four languages. Most recent memoirs, published August 2011, surprising success.

Morgen: You write non-fiction, how do you decide what to write about?

Abbie: I am a veteran of WW-2 and Israel’s Independence War 1948-’49, so I had a colourful life.

Morgen: Wow, hence the (surprising) success. You mentioned four languages?

Abbie: I have been published, both self published and published by publishers, in English, Dutch, Spanish and Hebrew.

Morgen: I speak two out of four. Are your books available as eBooks? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?

Abbie: Paper all the way.

Morgen: I love the title of your latest book, ‘Child of the 20th Century – growing up Jewish in Holland, Belgium, Palastine, Israel, America. And Texas’. How important do you titles they are?

Abbie: Definitely important.

Morgen: They grab me. What are you working on at the moment / next?

Abbie: Editing my Memoirs for a second printing. Collecting dozens of short stories.

Morgen: Ooh, I love short stories. Do you manage to write every day? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?

Abbie: No, but I have to hurry. I am 90. Was stopped for speeding. Officer asked, “What’s your hurry?” I am 90 and don’t have much time.” He laughed and let me go.

Morgen: I would have done too. Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?

Abbie: Both.

Morgen: Do you have to do much research?

Abbie: A fair amount.

Morgen: Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?

Abbie: Sure.

Morgen: That’s a shame. Maybe they will at some stage. Do you pitch for submissions and / or are you commissioned to write?

Abbie: Both.

Morgen: Oh great. Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?

Abbie: Shrug my shoulders.

Morgen: The best way – it’s only the right thing for the wrong person. Agents are the way to go for many writers, do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?

Abbie: Yes. I think agents can be helpful. Too many are full of themselves.

Morgen: How much of the marketing do you do for your published works?

Abbie:  My recent Memoirs have spread by word of mouth. Caused a sensation. Orders from all over the States and from Europe.

Morgen: I do think reviews are important. I received another for my short story collection on Smashwords (a very good review, which made my day) and I do think it’s how people are going to decide what to buy with so much on offer, although I can’t imagine many books like yours out there. What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life?

Abbie: Lack of time, mulling over details at night.

Morgen: Time is the devil to us all. What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Abbie: Persistence.

Morgen: Absolutely. They say a writer is one whom never gave up. If you could invite three people from any era to dinner, who would you choose and what would you cook (or hide the takeaway containers)?

Abbie: The late Isaac Babel, the late Saul Bellow, President Obama. I am talentless cook.

Morgen: Me too, although my mum says my flapjacks are better than hers. Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?

Abbie: Luck is a talent (my grandfather).

Morgen: I love that. If any of your books were made into films, who would you have as the leading actor/s?

Abbie: Nathan Englander, “What are we talking about when we talk about Anne Frank”

Morgen: You write some fiction as well, do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?

Abbie: My characters tell me where to go.

Morgen: So do mine, that’s got to be my favourite aspect of the ‘job’. Do you have a method for creating your characters, their names and what do you think makes them believable?

Abbie: Have certain persons in mind. Many are composites.

Morgen: What point of view do you find most to your liking?

Abbie: Both first and third person. Depends on distance from characters.

Morgen: Are you involved in anything else writing-related other than actual writing or marketing of your writing?

Abbie: Sure. Personal interchange. Sniffing out other’s intimate feelings.

Morgen: What do you do when you’re not writing?

Abbie:  Science; history; WW-2; Soviet history under Stalin.

Morgen: I was always more interested in arts at school. My physics teacher told my parents at my first secondary school’s parents evening that I should give up physics so I did at the first opportunity. Are there any books that you find useful?

Abbie: Contemporary Israeli fiction. French literature. Chekhov, Babel.

Morgen: Are you on any forums or networking sites?

Abbie: No.

Morgen: Very wise, they’re humongous time-suckers. What do you think the future holds for a writer?

Abbie: Go with the flow. Self-examination. My inner life is a museum exhibit.

Morgen: I love that. Where can we find out about you and your writing?

Abbie: My website is http://www.abbielipschutz.com and my book is available to buy there.

Morgen: It’s a very handsome looking book. Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Abbie: The secret of passionate love.

Morgen: My dog loves me passionate (especially when I have his bowl in my hand) does that count? Is there anything you’d like to ask me?

Abbie: Tell me where you come from.

Morgen: The short answer (because I’m very good at waffling): originally from south Buckinghamshire, at the end of one of London’s underground train routes then I moved to Northamptonshire 20 years ago (the grand sum off 55 miles north) and have lived in four different houses, the latest (my second house that I’ve owned) for 12 years. Thank you, Abbie.

I then invited Abbie to include an extract of his writing…

POLAND 1935

In 1935 my mother took me to Poland to visit the only one of her sisters still living there. We visited the city and then crossed the river into the little town where she was born.

I was too young to know it then, but we had arrived in a shtetl. The streets were crooked and dusty, women carried heavy loads from cramped shops, the men wore black caftans, the boys had long earlocks and wore yamulkes. Chickens ran in the streets. The sound of Yiddish around me was as strange as the sound of a gamelan orchestra. My aunt’s father, a dark and intense man with an absent look, measured and sold material in his small store, his mind on God.

On the second story of an old and leaning house lived my great-grandfather. The room was dark and smelled of gribbenes (rendered chicken fat). We stood on the balcony, Grandpa and I, his arm around my shoulder, looking down at the courtyard where yeshiva bokhrim in flowing frocks talked earnestly and boys from kheyder ran around, peyes flying, yarmulkes falling, as they shouted in high-pitched voices. Against the wall, old men sat and shook in prayer, reciting chapters from Proverbs. Chanting came from dark openings. A smile crossed the kind creases of Grandpa’s face as he turned his old and bent body to me, stroking his white beard. “See how we live here?” he said.

We left, my mother and I, and on the square we hired a droshky, a ramshackle horse-drawn carriage with a sleepy driver, who drove us to the cemetery. Over cobbled streets and then rutted country roads we went, a dull sky overhead, the horse breaking into a canter only when the balegole woke up long enough to give it a disinterested smack with his frayed whip.

We stood before the grave of the grandfather I’d never known. Old tombstones were alive with crowded Hebrew scribbling; small rocks on top left word they had recently been visited. My mother covered her face the way she did when lighting the shabbes candles. When she lifted her hands she was crying and dark memories flooded her eyes. I didn’t know I had glimpsed at the last flickers of an old tradition that day.

The rest of the summer we spent in the country at the foot of the forested Carpathians. The sun was warm and every glorious day I came to the swimming pool. Over the loudspeakers the latest hit played, “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.”

To reach the pool we took the train, then walked a mile from the railroad station. The station was Auschwitz.

I then invited Abbie to include a synopsis of his book…

I am a voyeur of Life. A Peeping Tom. I stand in the corner wondering with an open mouth about the strange and surprising things those adults around me are doing, recalling the astounding acts of the generations that have passed on, watching those of my own generation who are still around and those of their children and grandchildren in Israel who have moved eons away from the old roots in the shtetl.

For nine decades, Abbie Lipschutz has been a fighter, lover, writer, dilettante musician and classical music commentator. He is a clinically happy soul who possesses Offensive Charm and Unjustified Arrogance, qualities that have served him well over the years. He was a kibbutznik in Palestine in the early 40s, a veteran of the Dutch Prinses Irene Brigade in World War II, and a volunteer in Israel’s War of Independence, 1948-1949. By then he had long lost his beliefs in the Zionist-Socialist dreams. Nonetheless, he joined, feeling that 2000 years of persecution had been enough. Having made a living for 50 years as a wholesale diamond peddler throughout the American South, he discovered the vastness of our land, its Big Sky and its multi-colored characters. He ended his diamond career in 1999 after being held up at gunpoint. Seeing van Gogh’s painting, “The Potato Eaters,” at age 14 changed his life by turning him into a political radical, which he has still remained. Thoreau’s phrase,” Most men live lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them,” confirmed what van Gogh’s painting had conveyed to him years before. Husband, father, and grandfather, he has written a memoir filled with the sights, sounds, scents, songs and surprises of a soulful, vigorous life well-lived. His book connects the generations in one grand sweep of hope, love, and peace.

***

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.

If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.

Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).

The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:

• Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group (http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com / http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189)
• Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group (http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com / http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934)
• Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group (http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com / http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017)
• Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group (http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com / http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445)

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Author interview no.337 with biographical and general non-fiction writer Cyndee Schaffer

Welcome to the three hundred and thirty-seventh of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with biographical and general non-fiction author Cyndee Schaffer. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello, Cyndee. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.

Cyndee: I live in Northbrook, IL, a northern suburb of Chicago.  My project began in January 2008 when I left my job as an IT consultant at the City Colleges of Chicago.  My contract was up and I had a suitcase of letters that my mother wrote home as a WAC (Women’s Army Corps) stationed in Europe during WWII.  For some reason, her family did not throw out her stuff.  Included in that suitcase were lots of memorabilia—over 350 letters, photos, and newspaper clippings. My mother had labeled all of the pictures with names, dates and location.  Also peppered throughout the letters was the fact that my mother wanted to write a book. It happened but 65 years later!  I knew that I wanted to work on this project while my mother was still alive—and she was 92 at the time. I was living on borrowed time.

Morgen: I keep saying to my (80-year-old) mother that she should write her autobiography as she’s had an interesting life (including working for British racing driver Stirling Moss’ sister’s riding stables). What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?

Cyndee: I‘ve written in the non-fiction genre and am considering writing a screenplay or a fictionalized version of this book.

Morgen: What have you had published to-date?

Cyndee: I published an article entitled “The Letters of Mollie Weinstein:  Experiences of a WAC in Wartime Europe” in the fall 2008 edition of the Minerva Journal of Women and War.  I published “Mollie’s War, The Letters of a WWII WAC in Europe” in August 2010 by McFarland Publishers.

I’ve also edited and published several mathematics textbooks but that is another story.

Morgen: As the saying goes. Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?

Cyndee: I sent the proposal for “Mollie’s War” to many literary agents. I received replies from most of them—whether they were interested or not. They all thought the topic had potential.  Many times they would tell me how I should change my focus.  One person actually sent me a sample proposal which I then modified for my book.  I used it when I submitted it to the publisher who finally published my book.

Morgen: That sounds so positive. It’s pretty rare these days to get specific replies so you must be very proud. Have you won or been shortlisted in any competitions?

Cyndee: We won a Bronze Medal in the autobiography section at the 2011 Stars and Flags Book Award contest from Branson, MO. and we were a finalist in the Chicago Writers Association 2011 Book of the Year Award for non-fiction traditionally published. I’ve also just found out that “Mollie’s War” just won first place in biography / memoir at the 2012 Royal Dragonfly Book contest.

Morgen: Yay, well done. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?

Cyndee: I do not have an agent but I think they are essential if you want to get published by one of the larger publishing houses. Smaller publishers like McFarland Publishers who published my book, will accept manuscripts from unknown writers.

Morgen: That’s the impression I get and of course there’s eBooks. Are your books available as eBooks? Were you involved in that process at all? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?

Cyndee: My book is now available as an eBook and my publisher did all of the work. I have a Kindle, which my children gave to me for my birthday. I enjoy using the Kindle for travel but at home I prefer reading books.

Morgen: I’m the same. It’s great knowing I have 400+ books whenever I go somewhere. Almost all the authors I’ve spoken with have said they’d never give up paper books and I do think that both formats will run alongside each other. How much of the marketing do you do?

Cyndee: My book was published in August 2010 and since that time I have been on the road– most of the time I stay local. My publisher has not done much marketing for me but my book is listed on their website and is included in all their catalogues and brochures.

Networking is the most important tool in spreading the word about your book.  You have to constantly talk about the book. From members of the organizations to which I belong, I have booked speaking engagements and have had reviews and articles published about my mother and the book.  I took advantage of being an alumnus of Northwestern University and DePaul University and I’m mentioned in the class notes in the Alumni magazines.

As for self-promotion, my son developed my web site and then showed me how to post updates.  My husband is my official “schlepper” and tech support.  He attends all of my speaking engagements, setting up my presentation tables which includes books, my mother’s medals, copies of photos and letters, ample bookmarks and business cards—always important to be prepared, nothing is worse than running out — runs the video and takes pictures which we post on facebook and then on my website. I’ve also set up a facebook page for Mollie’s War and an author’s page on amazon.com.

Morgen: Wow, you’re organised. If your book was made into a film, who would you have as the leading actor/s?

Cyndee: I would like to make “Mollie’s War” into a movie. I would like Natalie Portman to play my mother, Mollie, Ellen Page to play Loddo, Jesse Eisenberg to play Coleman Bricker, Jake Gyllenhaal to play Alex Korody.

Morgen: Did you have any say in the title / cover of your book? How important do you think they are?

Cyndee: I believe the title and cover of a book make the first impression and, therefore, are most important to attract people to your book.  My book was designed totally by the publisher including cover and page layout although my mother and I suggested the picture that is on the cover.  I liked that my publisher placed the pictures in the book in the section where they belonged rather than all together.  I think it makes it easier for the reader to visualize the people in the book.  I gave the publisher a list of possible titles but ultimately the publisher chose the title. In my mother’s letters, she wrote of a title for her book—“G. I. Jane, Both Here and Abroad.”

Morgen: Well I hope she’s not disappointed (I like Mollie’s War). What are you working on at the moment / next?

Cyndee: I am thinking about writing a screenplay of the book.

Morgen: I wrote the beginning of a TV script for Script Frenzy 2010 and whilst I liked the story I found the script format really hard. I’m a prose writer, I just wanted to write the story rather than chop it up, but then others prefer script. Do you manage to write every day?

Cyndee: When I am writing, I do write everyday but I have not started the screenplay.

Morgen: Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?

Cyndee: I tend to write and then re-write so I am constantly editing my work.

Morgen: I think we could keep editing our work but I do three or four edits. As long as I’m happy with it I feel confident about sending it to my editor / first reader (who pull it apart anyway). Did you have to do much research for your book?

Cyndee: Writing a book based on letters from the 1940’s was a formidable task.  In order to actually be able to use these letters in a book, I needed to read them and to transcribe them—about 1000 pages typed. The actual letters were written in various formats—some were typed, some hand written and some V-mail—reduced in size and very difficult to read. I also needed to be familiar with the content for the book so I would have a general idea of what I could use and what I could cut out.  Thus began my serious project.  These letters had been stored in an old suitcase and they were not preserved in any kind of manner that they should have been but surprisingly they were in good condition.  I opened each letter and kept the envelope if it existed. I bought “sleeves” for preserving documents and placed each letter in a separate one when we finished typing it.  Small photos and newspaper articles were also placed in the “sleeves”. I transferred all of the memorabilia into a plastic box. Occasionally I got help from my husband, sister, daughter and son but the bulk of the work was mine.

Even as I was transcribing the letters, I began going to the Pritzker Military Library in downtown Chicago once or twice a week to do research and get help in my project. Teri Embrey, the head librarian, was most helpful in giving me guidance in terms of research and looking for publishers.  She would show me websites and places where I might get some ideas. I was constantly researching and requesting any books that had to do with women and the military in WWII.  Because of censorship, my mother could not write about her work or where she was located—many letters indicated somewhere in England, somewhere in France—she could only write about pleasant things, sightseeing, and boyfriends.  I had to investigate and put some history around the letters so that the book would put proper perspective of the events occurring around her at that time.

Morgen: It really has been a labour of love. What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Cyndee: I would tell young writers to keep reading and writing.  They should join groups and organizations for young writers, ask lots of questions and listen to the answers.  Joining these groups and organizations can be beneficial because it helps with networking and promoting themselves.

Morgen: Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?

Cyndee: “My mother wore combat boots.”

Morgen: I love that. Are you involved in anything else writing-related other than actual writing or marketing of your writing?

Cyndee: I am a member of several writers groups—MWA (Midwest Writers Association), CWA (Chicago Writers Association), MWSA (Military Writers Society of America), Puerto Vallarta Writers Group, and a women’s group, AAUW (American Association for University Women).  I write the monthly newsletter for the Midwest Writers Association.  MWA is a networking base for experienced, professional non-fiction writers. Members work across the media spectrum from magazines, newspapers, websites and corporate publications to books, trade journals, film, speech writing and texts. Their specialties range from arts and entertainment, family, health, history, home, landscaping, real estate, travel and sports to medical, technical and business writing.

Morgen: As you’re in Puerto Vallarta you might know Ted Druch. Are there any writing-related websites and/or books that you find useful?

Cyndee: As I surfed the net, I found a website that became my mantra. The website is called Writing-World.com. Mary Janice Davidson defines a successful book signing as one where you show up, your books are there, you have a place to sit and you sell just one book!!!! She claims that the purpose of a book signing is not necessarily to sell books but to sell yourself.

Morgen: That’s true. I’ve not done any yet (although I may be for a charity anthology I’m in, fingers crossed) so I have that to look forward to. Are you on any forums or networking sites? If so, how valuable do you find them?

Cyndee: I am on the “Write it Down” website from LinkedIn, a website for writers. This is where I found your blog.

Morgen: LinkedIn is great. I’ve ‘met’ so many great people through that site. I love technology. Thank you for finding me. Your turn; where can we find out about you and your work?

Cyndee: You can view my website: www.mollieswar.com.

Morgen: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Cyndee: As for the people who played a role in my mother’s life—-

It was an amazing journey as I connected with some of the people or their children who were around my age and we have become email “buddies” and even facebook friends.

Over the years, my mother corresponded with her four WAC buddies including Loddo, sending birthday cards, Xmas greetings and anniversary cards. But in October 2007, my mother received a letter from Loddo’s daughter that Loddo had passed away.  I think Loddo was the only other surviving member of my mother’s close WAC friends.  This gave me the impetuous to begin this project and see it through to the end while my mother was still alive.  So I then contacted Loddo’s daughter Cathy who lives in Hawaii and we have been in contact ever since.  She helped me fill in some of the blanks.

Out of the blue, one of my mother’s boyfriends from the war, Coleman Bricker, contacted her in the late 1990’s.  He found her on the internet.  He and his wife live in California.  My mother and dad lived in Chicago.  They started to send each other letters.  My dad passed away in 2000.  Coleman and his wife have been married over 64 years.  But as I started this book, Coleman and I became email friends and facebook friends and he had been most helpful.  He also filled in some of the blanks. I sent him many emails and he would answer the questions to the best of his memory. And, he was giving me leads for publishers.  I was very nervous as he read the book—but he thoroughly enjoyed it and said it brought back memories.  Coleman passed away in January 2011.  But now I email with one of his sons.

I contacted the Detroit Jewish News because my mother sent letters to them that were published by one of the columnists, Danny Raskin, who called my mother his overseas correspondent. To my surprise, he is still writing for the paper—68 years as a columnist. I sent letters to people who were in the book based on what I could find on the internet.  Some answered and some did not.

The book was published in August 2010.  Seeing the smile on my mother’s face when she held her book in her hands was priceless and made the entire project worthwhile!  My mother is now 95 and is always excited to hear about the success of the book.

Morgen: Well, I hope she enjoys this interview. Thank you, Cyndee.

Cyndee Schaffer, published author of “Mollie’s War” and editor of the monthly Midwest Writers Association newsletter, received a BS in math education from Northwestern University and a MS in curriculum development from DePaul University. Cyndee’s work experience has taken her into three divergent careers. First, she worked as a high school mathematics teacher in the inner city of Chicago. She co-wrote and edited several mathematics textbooks for McDougal Littel Publishers and Quantum Scientific Publishing. Her next career led her into the “human side of computers” as an IT consultant writing training materials, conducting corporate training and testing computer systems for the City Colleges of Chicago and other companies. In 2008, she changed careers again and collaborated with her 92-year-old mother writing a book based on the letters that her mother sent home to her family while serving as a WAC stationed in Europe during WWII.  “Mollie’s War” published by McFarland Publishers in 2010 is the result of this endeavor. Cyndee shares her mother’s story by speaking to various groups including veterans groups, libraries, senior living facilities, women’s groups, and Rotary clubs. She discusses the writing adventure from inspiration to publication.

“Mollie’s War” won a bronze medal at the 2011 Stars and Flags Book Awards and was a finalist in the 2011 Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year contest. For more information please visit her website: www.mollieswar.com

***

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.

If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.

Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).

The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:

• Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group (http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com / http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189)
• Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group (http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com / http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934)
• Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group (http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com / http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017)
• Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group (http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com / http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445)

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Author interview no.317 with novelist and autobiographer Leila Tavi

Welcome to the three hundred and seventeenth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with novelist and autobiographer Leila Tavi. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello Leila. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.

Leila: Ciao Morgen. I’m based in Rome, where I work for the University Roma Tre and as a freelance journalist. From 1991 to 2000 I lived and studied in Vienna, commuting between Austria and Slovakia. At the moment I’m finishing my Ph.D. in Pre-Revolutionary Russian history, therefore I often travel to Russia, especially Sankt Petersburg and Chelyabinsk (Urals Region), where I’m visiting professor at the University. In my opinion writing is an attitude, something in our DNA, but the assumption of being a good writer is being a “bookworm”; I could read a book a day when I was a child. My motto was: “A book a day keeps the doctor away”. It has worked indeed… now that I have less time to read, I get the flu more easily than before.

Morgen: <laughs> Oh dear. I’m fairly flu-free but then I read a lot of blog content, if that counts. What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?

Leila: My first novel Forbidden to think in colours (Vietato pensare a colori) is a sort of sophisticated comedy transposed into words, but I have also written an autobiographical book, East of the Danube (A est del Danubio), which has been published in monthly instalments by the Italian magazine “InStoria” (www.instoria.it). It is about my life experience in the Eastern European countries just after the collapse of communism. Science fiction stories with an international political background fascinate me, I’m also fond of historical novels like War and Peace or The Captain’s Daughter… I would like to set a story in the multiethnic Russian Empire under Catherine the Great with all the intrigues, the precious ancient stones she avidly collected, her lovers, her enemies, her conspirators.

Morgen: Wow, a real mixture. What have you had published to-date? Do you write under a pseudonym?

Leila: The last published novel is Forbidden to think in colours, but I’m already working on a new story. I won’t write under a pseudonym, because my name sounds already exotic to Italians: my first name has an Arabic / Jewish origin and my family name is unusual, too; it is the anagram of the Italian word “vita”, life, I couldn’t find a better pseudonym.

Morgen: It’s simple and I love that about your surname. You clearly have “vita” for writing. Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?

Leila: Not as a writer, but as a screenwriter I’ve collected a lot of rejections from movie directors and producers, too. My father, my grandfather and my great grandmother worked in the movie industry; I know well that for a single movie which can be shot, there are two hundred screenplays and two thousand synopses that lie down in dusty boxes. It’s the shooting system and one should not become demoralized because of that. It is for me a stimulus to invent new stories with appeal for the directors.

Morgen: Absolutely. Whenever I get nowhere in a competition I console myself (not a lot of that needed, I assure you) that at least I have the story I wrote for it. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?

Leila: After the social networks revolution? The web offers enormous opportunities for self-promoting. Being sponsored by an agent sounds old-fashioned and at the same time gives you the impression that you are a V.I.P., yeah… maybe after my third book, I’ll hire one for me.

Morgen: I’d never say never but for now am happy with the freedom eBooks give me. Are your books available as eBooks? Were you involved in that process at all? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?

Leila: East of the Danube will be republished as an eBook by the end of this year. My publisher simply asked me if I would agree or prefer traditional distribution channels. I usually read a lot of eBooks, mostly old books which Google Books provides for free on-line and which are useful for my researches about European travellers in Russia and Asia in the XVIII-XIX Centuries. I confess, I haven’t bought a contemporary novel as an eBook yet, but I have read plenty of them, because a dear friend of mine, a well-known Russian translator from Italian, always sends me the books she translates together with the official Italian version, and since receiving a parcel from Russia by mail could take months, we got used to share books via e-mail.

Morgen: It’s certainly made reading much more accessible and I do think more people are reading these days, especially short stories and as a short story author, I’m all in favour of that. How much of the marketing do you do?

Leila: I prefer to leave marketing strategies to my publisher, I’d rather concentrate myself on taking inspiration for good stuff.

Morgen: Ah yes, that’s the benefit of having a publisher. I have to do all my marketing (apart from a couple of lines at the end of each blog post I don’t do enough) but I’m starting to edit my novels next so it’ll step up a gear. Do you have a favourite of your books or characters? If any of your books were made into films, who would you have as the leading actor/s?

Leila: Yes, I do have a favourite character, Giulio Uberti, the main male character of Forbidden to think in colours, because this enfant terrible of the Roman high bourgeoisie synthesizes virtues and vices of three exceptional men I know: a lighting designer, an archaeologist and a movie director. I would choose Carolina Bang (Balada triste de trompeta, 2010) and Michael Stuhlbarg (A serious man, 2009), or Keira Knightley and Scott Speedman.

Morgen: Did you have any say in the titles / covers of your books? How important do you think they are?

Leila: Yes, I do. I was the first to have a photo on the cover; the publisher used graphic for the novels, but I let her change the idea. Regarding the title, before submitting the title to her, I always consult students at the University, they are young, they make the trend.

Morgen: A second opinion on everything is always a good idea. What are you working on at the moment / next?

Leila: I’m working on an idea related to the “emotional” interaction between human beings and the first robotic experiments. Our society forces us to alienation, but we are social beings and the paradox of this phenomenon is that we tend to create robots in our image; it seems to me that we want to create a better human being, because we have failed, somehow, in developing our species further. It is like, you know, the same old story of the gods in the Olympus treating human beings as puppets.

Morgen: Do you manage to write every day? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?

Leila: If I can’t write every day I keep in mind the idea or the situation so long I succeed in writing it down. I’ve never suffered from a writer’s block; on the contrary, I always have three or four ideas twirling in my mind at the same time.

Morgen: Oh, me too. Just a word will kick-start something. Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?

Leila: Normally I get an idea and run with it; of course for screenplays you do need to have a plot and eventually a subplot, or it won’t work by shooting.

Morgen: You mentioned Giulio Uberti, do you have a method for creating your characters, their names and what do you think makes them believable?

Leila: I get the inspiration from real people and I like to mix characters together: the result is very funny and prevents me from being accused of defamation.

Morgen: Do you write any non-fiction, poetry or short stories?

Leila: As a Ph.D. candidate I’ve written a bibliography and several papers; for magazines I’ve written about two hundred pieces. I would like to be able to write poems, it is the highest genre, but one needs to be “extirpated” from the frenzied environment which is gnawing us to enter the calm state of mind needed for poetry.

Morgen: I write very little poetry but then I have so many stories I want to write that I don’t feel guilty. Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?

Leila: I do a lot of editing, in primis by myself and then with my proof-reader, the dear Giulia, who is very patient with me. I should admit that I painstakingly read and re-read and read again.

Morgen: Do you have to do much research?

Leila: Yes, I need to take the more I can from the different facets which compose the background I’m describing; by writing Forbidden to think in colours I met several times Luciano Stignani, a well-known and excellent lighting designer, I’ve interviewed him and spent time in his atelier together with him and his team.

Morgen: What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? Have you ever tried second person?

Leila: I use a first person narrator only for autobiographical books. I never tried to write in second person form, but why not, maybe. I can’t think of anyone who has written a second person narration in Italian.

Morgen: I’ve written a lot in second person recently and love it. Ever since I realised it existed (a couple of years ago) I just fell in love with it. Apparently it’s used a lot in poetry. Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?

Leila: Yes, some ambitious synopses that couldn’t be shot with a low budget due to the economic crisis.

Morgen: Oh well, then maybe with the crisis is over? What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life? Has anything surprised you?

Leila: I do live a large part of my life through my characters and I find it negative. Yes, I do find it negative when I sit on the computer suffering from buttock numbness while my characters are having a kiss and a cuddle. The ability I have to create embarrassing tragicomic situations in my books always surprises me.

Morgen: What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Leila: To read a lot and to avoid banality.

Morgen: If you could invite three people from any era to dinner, who would you choose and what would you cook (or hide the takeaway containers)?

Leila: I would invite three great strategists: Caesar, Machiavelli and Napoleon in order to discuss with them feasible solutions for the current difficult international situation, not the “comatose” ones the politicians want to administer us. I would serve the “arzilla”, a traditional Roman fish soup made with race, carciofi alla Giudia (fried artichokes) plus rhubarb and strawberry crumble with custard.

Morgen: That sounds lovely… I love soup, and crumble. Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?

Leila: Festina lente, “make haste slowly”, the motto of Emperor Augustus. When I repeat this motto to me, I know that all my ideas soon or later will see the light.

Morgen: We have ‘more haste less speed’. Are you involved in anything else writing-related other than actual writing or marketing of your writing?

Leila: As I mentioned before, I work at University Roma Tre, I’m very involved in that.

Morgen: What do you do when you’re not writing?

Leila: I’m fond of horse riding, I go out with my daughter Denisa and we gallop in the beautiful country which still surrounds the neighbourhood where we live in the South of Rome. Our area has a romantic name “Castello della Cecchignola” (Cecchighola Castle), with an old tower, which is the soul of the neighbourhood. When I was a child I would always dream of entering the door of the castle and suddenly time would turn back… Few years ago an architect bought and restored the castle; he kindly invited the inhabitants to visit his estate… the castle was even more gorgeous as I could imagine in childhood.

Morgen: It sounds lovely – and a perfect location for stories. Are you on any forums or networking sites? If so, how valuable do you find them?

Leila: Yes, I am a member of several LinkedIn groups: American Independent Writers, Association for Writers, Books and Writers, Creative Designers and Writers, Fiction Writers Guild, Writer’s Café, Writers, Writum.

Morgen: Which is probably how we met. What do you think the future holds for a writer?

Leila: If a writer is able to bring his ambitions into the line with the degree to which they can be implemented, thanks to new media and languages, he will have a rosy future.

Morgen: Determination and passion, for sure. Where can we find out about you and your work?

Leila: I’m an Italian mother tongue writer and all the information you will find on-line is unfortunately in Italian; the official site of my book is sponsored by my publisher Ginevra Bentivoglio.

A personal web site for a single book is like our Italian old saying “To buy a saddle without owning a horse”.

Morgen: Book websites do strike me as a lot of work because you write another book and you have to start another site. Besides, it’s the author’s name a reader (hopefully) remembers rather than (or as well) the book. Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Leila: I like to write, it is my passion in life, but even if I stay the whole night active and frisky because I got the inspiration, I never deprive myself of a good long sleep, especially in winter, when it is good to stay in bed under a warm blanket.

Morgen: Ah… I’m terrible. Even having given up my day job (only last Friday admittedly) I’m still not going to bed before midnight – I’m home all day today so tonight maybe. Is there anything you’d like to ask me?

Leila: What does impress you about a writer at a first sight?

Morgen: Usually if they are passionate… and not just because you said it. The ones who say that they can’t imagine doing anything else – that’s me. Thank you, Leila.

I then invited Leila to include an extract of her writing…

Elisabetta is a student in Architecture, with a passion for lighting and vintage clothing. Determined to become a lighting designer, she has chosen an ambitious topic for her thesis: the lighting of the archaeological site of the Ludus Magnus, an ancient Roman palestra for gladiators near the Colosseum, that she is trying to enhance and “modernize” with an innovative light design in harmony with the contemporary urban landscape.
The enthusiasm of Elisabetta confronts the sudden mood swings of her professor, Palmieri, and the malicious jokes of Uberti, the owner of the lighting atelier where she works. Uberti is an upper-middle class enfant terrible, who changes girlfriend like socks: every morning.

He and Elisabetta have a completely opposite way of dealing with life and love, but they share the same passion for their work. In the night, the two rediscover the architectural beauties of Ancient Rome and wander the streets between Ostiense and Garbatella, two popular Roman neighborhoods full of gathering places for students. The light accompanies them during this trip, stressing the city’s architecture, tracing its routes, outlining the urban landscape. However, a sudden job offer comes soon after Elisabetta graduates and she has to move abroad… that would reverse the relationship between the two tête-bêche.

Leila Tavi was born in Rome; she graduated in Philology, then in Political Sciences. She has lived for ten years in Austria and Slovakia, observing how Eastern European totalitarian States collapsed and turned into democracies. Since 2008 she has been working as a freelance journalist; she is a Ph.D. candidate in Russian History and holds seminars in cultural and diplomatic relations between Pre-Unitarian Italian States and Russia at the Sankt-Petersburg State University and the Chelyabinsk State University. She is a member of “100 Autori per il Cinema”, which includes directors such as Bellocchio, Sorrentino, Virzì…; she is also a member of the Association “Donne di carta” (Paper Women), where she is a ‘Book-Person’ who learns by heart an excerpt of a famous novel and repeats it to other people. This group drafted a Reading Bill of Rights, which was awarded by President Giorgio Napolitano. Forbidden to Think in Colours is her second novel.

UPDATE MARCH 2012: you can read this interview in Italian at http://librini.wordpress.com.

***

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.

If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.

Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.

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See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

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As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).

The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:

• Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group (http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com / http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189)
• Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group (http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com / http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934)
• Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group (http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com / http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017)
• Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group (http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com / http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445)

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Author interview no.303 with writer Serge Lecomte

Welcome to the three hundred and third of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with poet and literary fiction author Serge Lecomte. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello, Serge. Please tell us something about yourself and how you came to be a writer.

Serge:  I grew up in Belgium and immigrated to the States with my parents in 1959.  I grew up in Philadelphia and Brooklyn until I joined the military in 1965.  I now live in Alaska.  I began writing when I was fifteen and won my first poetry contest in high school.

Morgen: Wow. So many authors recently have told me they’ve been writing all their adult life (or longer) – I’m so jealous. I fell in love with writing fiction in my late 30s when I went to a creative writing evening group (which I took over in 2008 and still run) but I guess it means I have more experiences to write about – I just have to write quicker to catch up. What genre do you write?

Serge:  I still write poetry, but I mainly write literary fiction.

Morgen: What have you had published to-date? Do you write under a pseudonym?

Serge:  I have published numerous collections of poetry, two of them in French.  I am still looking for an agent to represent my novels.  I will use a pseudonym for my novels.

Morgen: Authors do write under different names for different formats. I think it’s an especially good idea if you’re known for one style. Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?

Serge: Plenty of rejections, but they give me the strength to go on.  I love rejections.  I just get up and keep writing.

Morgen: I think you’re the first author to tell me they love them but yes, many have said it pushes them onwards which is great. I haven’t had a huge amount (27 or 28) so I’m still not enamoured but getting more used to them, certainly. Have you won or been shortlisted in any competitions?

Serge:  I have won numerous poetry competitions in Alaska.

Morgen: Well done. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?

Serge:  I have had a few agents but nothing came of it.  I think a good agent can open a lot of doors since publishers now seem to require writers to approach an agent.

Morgen: Apparently it’s more difficult to get an agent than a publisher but yes, a lot of publishers won’t take direct submissions and most agents earn their keep. I’ve tried (albeit not as hard as most) to get an agent but have gone the eBook route (with a freelance editor) as I get more freedom. Are your books available as eBooks?

Serge:  No, they’re not.  I have published two books on Createspace.  They print each copy on demand.

Morgen: I’ve heard good things about Createspace. How much of the marketing do you do for your published works?

Serge: I go out and sell my books door to door, do book readings and bookstore signings.

Morgen: That sounds like hard work but it must be thrilling meeting your readers face-to-face. Do you have a favourite of your books or characters? If any of your books were made into films, who would you have as the leading actor/s?

Serge:  Of my unpublished novels I would love to see Martin, a surreal story made into a film.  The leading actor would have to be an unknown.

Morgen: Presumably using Createspace, you get the say in the title / covers of your books? How important do you think they are?

Serge:  Yes.  I think titles are very important because they set the tone for the works.

Morgen: They have to be representative, don’t they. What are you working on at the moment / next?

Serge:  Right now I am resting from having finished a novel.  My mind, however, is working subconsciously on an idea that took root years ago.

Morgen: I love that; that our minds keep going even when we don’t. Do you manage to write every day? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?

Serge:  No, I don’t.  I have never suffered from writer’s block because I don’t write about me.  There are so any interesting people and characters.  How can any writer have writer’s block?

Morgen: I interviewed crime novelist Mark Billingham back in November and he equates writing to plumbing – plumbers don’t have plumbing block so we shouldn’t. Fair point but then I don’t suffer from it either so it is easy for me to say. Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?

Serge:  Plotting would ruin the writing for me.  I like my writing to surprise me.

Morgen: Me too. I plotted my first novel but it went off at a tangent (as I do) so I just let it and have been more or less like that ever since. I find it’s my characters that lead the way, do you have a method for creating yours, their names and what do you think makes them believable?

Serge:  Names are usually symbolic for me.  The characters come out of their names.  Are they believable?  That depends on the type of novel I’m writing.  Satirical novels usually have less believable characters than realistic novels.

Morgen: Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?

Serge:  I edit a lot, a friend then does it again and sometimes I employ a professional editor.

Morgen: It’s always worth getting a second (and third) opinion. Do you have to do much research?

Serge:  I write about what I know.

Morgen: Good plan. I’m not a fan of research but my first novel’s protagonist was a hitman so that would have stretched my knowledge a little too far. What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? Have you ever tried second person?

Serge:  First and third.  Never tried second person.

Morgen: It’s great. I’d recommend having a go, although it doesn’t suit everyone. For anyone tempted, Wikipedia explains it well. Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?

Serge: Quite a few since they are not commercial.  My most literary pieces are probably my best.

Morgen: Maybe the non-commercial ones could become self-published eBooks. I’m convinced there’s a place for everything (that’s good anyway). What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life? Has anything surprised you?

Serge:  My favourite aspect is getting up early in the morning and putting words on a blank page.

Morgen: Me too, I’m a morning person. What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Serge:  Go to work in the real work, fall in love, travel, see the world, react with it and the people in it.

Morgen: Then write about it. If you could invite three people from any era to dinner, who would you choose and what would you cook (or hide the takeaway containers)?

Serge:  Mark Twain, Anna Akhmatova and  Brigitte Bardot.  Salmon and salad.

Morgen: Nice. Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?

Serge:  Mens sana in corpore sano.

Morgen: A sound mind in a healthy body (thank you, Google). Are you involved in anything else writing-related other than actual writing or marketing of your writing?

Serge:  I used to edit a poetry magazine called Paper Radio.

Morgen: I love their website. I’d not heard of them before but they broadcast fiction and non-fiction so I’m definitely going to explore… thank you. What do you do when you’re not writing?

Serge:  I garden, build and fish.

Morgen: Where can we find out about you and your work?

Serge:  You can find Lauren at Two a poetry book about my daughter who died of bulimia on Amazon books under Serge Lecomte.  I also have a funny, satirical book entitled Letters of Misanthrope Dogood Goodman also on amazon books under S. Lecomte.

Morgen: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Serge:  I want to thank you for this interview.

Morgen: You’re so welcome. Thank you for accepting my offer. Is there anything you’d like to ask me?

Serge: When do you have time to write?

Morgen: <laughs> When I’m given a deadline. http://NaNoWriMo.org, http://StoryADay.org, Tuesday Tales and Indies Unlimited are great for getting me to knuckle down. I do write three or four exercises in my fortnightly Monday night workshops so overall probably a fair amount. I just tend not to write every day but I love writing more than pretty much anything else (just ask my friends!) and, like most writers, wonder why I don’t make more of an effort to write every day. Thank you, Serge.

I then invited Serge to include an excerpt of his writing…

Halloween night

The swans have left
on the frozen lake
images of summers
that may not come,
and it is that time of year again
when we are reminded of ghosts,
goblins, witches and saints
knocking at our door
for sacrifices for a trick
even though we have no neighbors,
or pumpkin lit like a severed head
on the snow.
Yet out here no man is an island,
and viruses do creep in
through the cracks of our cabin
in spite of the extra insulation.

You’re running a hundred and four
and climbing
like a comet burning up,
your tiny body so much like the fledgling
without feathers
fallen out of its nest this summer
when you and I nestled it on its branch
where it waited for its first flight.
Your mother’s mask of fear
wants to take you in,
while I still believe in saints to come,
the saints of my childhood
who will drive ghosts and witches back
underground where they belong
until next year.
Your smile reminds me of me,
your eyes heavy
and understanding what my father
must have seen before his deathbed,
what I fear for not seeing.
You seem willing to hatch out
into that netherworld
without hesitation
into the frozen lake.
I will not let it happen.
Prayers must still work
in these words that cannot be beautified.

Perhaps the day will come
when I can look into the lake
and see the swan
I once killed for Christmas dinner.
Smiling, I shall be ready
as you seem now,
to fly like a cygnet
on wings as white as light
and embrace It
as I would my mother
who too beckons in the distance
of this night.

Serge Lecomte was born in Wallonia, the product of a Ukrainian-Greek mother and a Walloon father.  He immigrated to the States in 1959. After graduating from Tilden H. S. in Brooklyn, he worked for New York Life Insurance Company. He then joined the Medical Corps in the Air Force and was sent to Selma, Alabama during the Civil Rights Movement.  There he flew helicopter rescue.   He received a B.A. in Russian Studies from the University of Alabama. Earned a Masters and Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in Russian Literature with a minor in French Literature. In 1988 received a B.A. from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in Spanish Literature. He has lived in Mexico, Spain, France, Russia, and even Texas. Serge worked as a language teacher at the University of Alaska (1978-1997).  He was the poetry editor for Paper Radio for several years. He has worked as a house builder, pipefitter, orderly in a hospital, gardener, landscaper, bartender in one of Fairbanks’ worst bars, and other jobs. He currently resides on the Kenai Peninsula.   He published in numerous literary poetry magazines: Oklahoma Review, Mairena (Puerto Rico), Chiron Review, Phoebe (George Mason University), Paper Radio, African-Hispanic Review, Permafrost (University of Alaska) and many more.

Poetry Books Published:
Crimson Rice (1990), Librado Press
Alaska The Last Frontier (1991) Limestone Press, Kingston, Canada.
Lauren at Two, (1991) Edwen Mellen Press
What Shall I Tell You, Nikos? (1993) Edwen Mellen Press.
Where do the Children Go? (1994) Kawabata Press, Cornwall, UK .
Mother Speaks (1997) Paper Radio, Portland, Oregon.

And others…
Poetry in Foreign Language:
Resurrection, French poetry (1993) Pensee Universelle, Paris.
Ou sont les femmes d’antan (1995)  St. Germain des Pres, Paris.
Letters of Misanthrope Dogood Goodman, Createspace, (2010)
Lauren at Two (originally published by Edwen Mellen Press) reprinted by Createspace (2010)

Translations from Russian to English:
Notes on Russian America by Kirill Timofeevich Khlebnikov  Limestone Press, Kingston, Canada, 1990.
The Biography of Fedor Litke, UAF Press, Fairbanks, Alaska, 1996.

Serge has also won several poetry contests with the Fairbanks Arts Association in Fairbanks.

***

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.

If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.

Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.

** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0

or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.

For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.

As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).

The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:

• Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group (http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com / http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189)
• Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group (http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com / http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934)
• Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group (http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com / http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017)
• Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group (http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com / http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445)

We look forward to reading your comments.