Welcome
to Strange Candy Reviews Noah, thank you for stopping by.
Can
you give us a little information about your book/s?
I
have three titles available. First, I have a novella called The White
Hairs. It’s an unusual story about a white furry creature named
Farshoul. The story begins with him participating in a ritual with
his people. He is learning how to leave his body and travel in the
wind and the snow. When he returns to his physical self, despite what
he has experienced, he is told that he failed. He never left his body
at all. Farshoul is left with no choice. He has to discover the truth
of his experiences on his own, without any help from his society.
It’s a gently moving philosophical story.
I
then published a short story called The Song of Ballad and Crescendo.
It’s available for free on Smashwords (99 cents everywhere else.)
This is a love story and a fable. It takes place in a mythical
forgotten time when the sky used to be covered with stone and
everyone had to whisper so that massive rocks wouldn’t fall and
crush them. The story is illustrated with a series of my photographs.
Luminous
and Ominous is my first full-length published work. It’s an end of
the world horror and science fiction story. Henry Willingham gets
three days warning that an alien vegetation has invaded the world. He
has to decide which friends he saves and what supplies he gathers.
There isn’t enough time. Some terrible decisions get made. Then,
after a year or so underground, Henry and two other survivors walk
through the transformed ruins of upstate New York, past alien trees
and alien animals trying to survive.
When
did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
Early
on, I think I saw all arts as one. When I was a child, there was no
real difference between drawing a picture or telling a joke or
writing a poem. By the time I got to high school I wanted to write
and draw comic books. But I reached a point when I discovered that my
real talent, and my real passion was for writing.
I
started with comicbook plots, then poetry, then I sang in some bands
in Boston and wrote all of my own lyrics. Then eventually I started
writing short stories, then movie scripts, and then finally novels. I
see my work as having really evolved from fully-gilled fish to woolly
land walker. My hope is that the next stage will be when my work
starts to glow in the dark.
How
long does it usually take you to write a book?
I’m
not yet at the point when I have written enough books to know what
normal is. I wrote my first novel in a month. My second took two
years. I then started and abandoned a few. Luminous and Ominous took
me a few months. Since I published that, in late November, I have
been hard at work on two novels and a novella. When I’m “in the
groove” I think 3,000 words is a decent day.
What
was the hardest thing you've had to research?
Without
competition, that was my senior project in college. I went to Bard
College, in upstate New York. I graduated with a multidisciplinary
degree in Philosophy and Creative Writing. My senior project was on
the expression of experiences.
That
said, I do a considerable amount of research for my writing. I am
working on a science fiction novel about magicians now. To prepare
for this I have read about the Hermetic magicians, the alchemists,
Emperor Rudolph II of Prague, John Dee and Edward Kelly’s
communications with angels, etc, etc. I’ve read several books on
the history of stage magic. I don’t approach a book about magic as
a Dungeons and Dragons-esque opportunity to just make up a story off
of the top of my head. I take it seriously.
What
is your work schedule like when you're writing?
Far
more chaotic than I wish it were. Life isn’t simple. I do also
teach. I have a lot of other responsibilities. Also, the fact that I
do do so much reading and research for my books means that a large
portion of the time that I spend on my stories doesn’t immediately
result in any pages at all. But, all of that being the case, I am
still hoping to publish four books in 2011.
Do
you think you have an interesting writing quirk?
“Quirk?”
I don’t think of my work as quirky. I hope that there’s a lot
about the way I approach my work which is interesting, at least. One
thing that readers might want to know is that I do give a lot of
thought to the symbolic meaning of the events in my stories. The
symbolism is never the point. The plot must always be paramount, but
if you see a snake in my story, I will have considered what snakes
represent on the psychological level and how this symbol relates to
the others in the story.
Where
do you get your information or ideas for your books?
I
put a lot of intentional work into inspiring myself. I carefully
select the books I read, movies I watch, music I listen to. The walks
in the woods, the drives across the country, the hours spent walking
through the streets, the time I spend abroad… It’s all intended
to generate ideas.
There
is a myth that authors and creative people are simply gifted their
ideas like Christmas presents which require no work or effort. There
is nothing harder than keeping the fire burning.
What
was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your
books?
That
I could have a single coherent thought which went on for hundreds of
pages.
What
do you think makes a good story?
Ha!
Is that all you want to know? I’ll tell you what I aspire to. I
like to be imaginatively competitive. However original my ideas have
been in the past, I always want to surpass them. Whenever I read a
book or watch a movie and the ideas amaze me, I see that as a
challenge to be more original than they are. I never steal anyone
else’s ideas because my stated goal is always to try to outdo them.
I wouldn’t be satisfied with any work wherein I wasn’t at least
trying to accomplish this.
But
of course, writing is even harder than that. We need to make people
care. We need to move them. We need to be of psychological use. We
ought to be honest. AND we have to catch all the typos…. I’m
telling you, writing is hard!
Why
did you choose to take the self published route?
I
did seriously consider submitting Luminous and Ominous to agents and
publishers. Here’s why I didn’t. If I were to submit the book, I
could expect to wait 6-9 months for a reply. IF I were lucky enough
to find someone right off the bat who was interested in my book, I
could then expect to wait another year or more to see it actually
published.
Instead,
I published the book with very little delay. It’s done. It’s in
the world. More than 500 people have read the book in a little over
four months. I have moved on and am working on a sequel and other
works. I’m getting a modest check every month. I continue to own
all of the rights to my work and I enjoy 100% creative control. I
have begun to build an audience, and I have earned a 4/5 star average
of reviews on Amazon.com with 26 reviewers. I’m off to a good
start!
Do
you have any advice for others who are thinking of self publishing?
Edit.
Take the time and catch all the typos. Also, spend some time thinking
about if the book is the best it can be.
Then
do it.
Name
five things you can't live without.
Input: Movies, music, books,
ideas, conversation. Deep thought.
Output. I need to write and
create.
Friends and animals.
Rain.
Cheese.
