[Interview] Lauri Kubuitsile

Lauri Kubuitsile writes romances novels; crime fiction; books and stories for children and teenagers; and, literary fiction.

She was shortlisted for the 2011 Caine Prize for African Writing and has won awards that include the PanAfrican prize for children’s literature, The Golden Baobab Prize and the Orange/Botswerere Botswana Artists Award.

Her books include the collection of short stories, In the Spirit of McPhineas Lata and Other Stories (HopeRoad, 2011); and the novels, Signed, Hopelessly in Love (August 2011) Tafelberg, 2011) and Mr Not Quite Good Enough (Sapphire Press, 2011).

In this interview, Lauri Kubuitsile talks about her concerns as a writer:

When did you start writing?

I started writing 8 years ago, just when I was turning 40.

I actually became a published author almost by accident. My books in my Kate Gomolemo Mystery Series were actually all first published in a small newspaper I owned in Botswana. We were changing format and wanted to see what we could do to maintain our readership. I decided I would write a serialised novel, 1,000 words each issue.

When the first book finished in the newspaper, people called the office asking for parts they had missed. On a whim I sent the manuscript to Macmillan hoping that they might publish the book so that our newspaper readers could get the parts they’d missed. Macmillan agreed, and that was my first published book. It was published in 2005.

How would you describe the writing you are doing?

I write primarily popular fiction.

I have four published romances with the South African publisher Sapphire Press, an imprint of Kwela Books. I also have two detective series. I write for children and teens as well. And I write short stories, and occasionally, literary stories.

Who is your target audience?

To be honest I write for myself, my hope is that other people will enjoy my stories too.

In the writing you are doing, which authors influenced you most?

I have many influences. I love J. D. Robb, John Steinbeck, Margaret Atwood, Kate Atkinson… actually it’s difficult to mention all of them.

I do find that certain writers, though they may not come out explicitly in my work, they inspire me to write. For example, Steinbeck. I go back to his work often for inspiration. His simple solid sentences resonate with me and my hope is to someday be able to move a story along in such an honest way.

How have your own personal experiences influenced your writing?

I think there is hardly a story I have written that does not start with a personal experience. It might be something in my own life, something I witnessed, or something I heard.

What are your main concerns as a writer?

I think my concerns are like every writer, to write the story I need to write the best way that I can.

What are the biggest challenges that you face?

Well, I’m a full time writer living in Botswana, the toughest thing for me is to try to make a liveable income from my work. It is a constant challenge. I try different things, I try to keep abreast of what is happening in the industry. For example, I recently published three of my Kate Gomolemo Mysteries on Amazon. Two have been published traditionally before but I kept the ebook rights. I don’t know anything about self publishing but I’m learning. I just try to be adaptable.

Do you write everyday?

I’m a full time writer and I treat my writing as my work. I usually get to my office (which is separate from my house) at about ten. I attend to administrative work first and then get to work on whatever my day’s project is. I usually knock off about 6:30.

How many books have you written so far?

• The Fatal Payout (2005) fiction, first book in Kate Gomolemo Mystery Series, publisher Macmillan prescribed book by Ministry of Education, Form 1 
• Murder For Profit (2008), fiction, second book in Kate Gomolemo Mystery Series publisher Pentagon Publisher 
• Mmele and the Magic Bones ( 2009) children's fiction, Pentagon Publishers, Prescribed book for Ministry of Education, Standard 5
• Three Collections of Short Stories for Std. 5, 6, and 7 (2009) Pentagon Publishers co-written with Wame Molefhe and Bontekanye Botumile. All three prescribed books by Ministry of Education. 
• Lorato and the Wire Car (2009), Vivlia Publishers (RSA), a children’s book 
• Birthday Wishes and other Stories (2009) Vivlia Publisher (RSA), a collection of three short stories for children 11-14 
• Kwaito Love (April 2010) romance, Sapphire Press an imprint of Kwela Books South Africa 
• Can He Be the One? (August 2010) romance, Sapphire Press an imprint of Kwela Books South Africa 
• The Curse of the Gold Coins  (2010) Vivlia Publishers (RSA), a mystery for children 
• Anything for Money (third book in the Detective Kate Gomolemo series), third book in Kate Gomolemo Mystery Series, Vivlia Publishers (RSA) 2011 
• Signed, Hopelessly in Love (August 2011) Tafelberg South Africa, a humorous novel for teens 
• Mr Not Quite Good Enough romance July 2011 Sapphire Press an imprint of Kwela Books South Africa 
• In the Spirit of McPhineas Lata and Other Stories, ebook, HopeRoad London, Dec 2011, a short story collection, all stories set in Botswana 
• Love in the Shadows, Romance-thriller, April 2012, Sapphire Press 
• Murder For Profit, Anything for Money, Claws of a Killer, ebooks, May 2012 , self published at Kindle Direct Publishing

What is different about your latest books?

My latest books are the self published ebooks: Murder for Profit; Anything for Money and Claws of a Killer.

The series is set in Botswana and the books are fast paced mysteries. If you love mysteries, you’ll love these books! I know as a reader I’ve always loved series because you can follow the protagonist for some time, in different places. These books are like that. Kate’s life will change quite a bit from the first book to the last. I’ve received great feedback on the books. The first book in the series, The Fatal Payout, is currently read in all junior secondary schools in Botswana and I meet people everywhere who love the book.

Murder for Profit; Anything for Money and Claws of a Killer were self published at Amazon, Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), my first attempt at self publishing.

I wanted to try KDP and I was lucky to still have the e-rights for these three books.

What advantages and/or disadvantages has this presented?

The advantages are that you have complete control over the books - the covers, the design, the marketing. That’s also sort of the disadvantage too. You really need to put time into marketing. There are so many books published at KDP so you need to work hard to get some attention for your books.

My hope was if I published all three of them at the same time I might build a readership a bit quicker. I’m currently on a very steep learning curve.

Which aspects of the work you put into the books did you find most difficult?

The marketing is tough. Especially trying to get people to read the books and do reviews, and then to put the reviews up at Amazon. It takes a lot of time. Much more than I anticipated.

Which aspects of the work did you enjoy most?

I love starting a book. I work out the plot and character bibles by hand before I start writing, I like that part.

I also like writing the rough draft. I write very quickly/ I can write up to 8,000 words in a day at that stage.

What will your next book be about?

I’ve just finished the rough draft for a new romance. It’s called There’s Something About Him. I hope to have it to the publisher in the next two months or so.

What would you say has been your most significant achievement as a writer?

I’ve won or been shortlisted for quite a few writing prizes. I’ve twice won the PanAfrican prize for children’s story, The Golden Baobab Prize. I won our national award for creative writers sponsored by our Ministry of Youth Sports and Culture, the Orange/Botswerere Prize, and last year (2011) I was shortlisted for the Caine Prize which is perhaps the most prestigious prize for African short story writers.

Related books:

,,

Related articles:

• Letter from Botswana: ET is not an alien, by Lauri Kubuitsile, New Internationalist, March 1, 2012 
• Blogging the Caine: Lauri Kubuitsile’s “In the Spirit of McPhineas Lata”, by Aaron Bady, zunguzungu, June 24, 2011 
• An Interview with Botswana Writer, Lauri Kubuitsile, Geosi Reads, January 24, 2011

[Interview] Catherine Czerkawska

Catherine Czerkawska is a poet, a novelist and a playwright.

Her books include The Amber Heart (Amazon Kindle, 2012), Bird of Passage (Amazon Kindle, 2012) and The Curiosity Cabinet (Amazon Kindle, 2011)

In this interview, Catherine Czerkawska talks about her concerns as a writer:

When did you start writing?

When I was very young I wrote poems, stories and fan fiction before fan fiction was ever invented – stories about The Beatles, especially John Lennon. I found some of them a little while ago in a box of old papers. They weren’t too bad, considering how young I was.

I think I probably wanted to be a published writer from the start. But it’s so long ago that it’s quite hard to remember. I submitted poetry and stories to all kinds of magazines and when I was still in my teens, I began to get personal letters instead of standard rejections. By the time I was at Edinburgh University, I’d had various poems published. My first biggish sale was a short story called "Catch Two" for She Magazine. (They paid well.) I was also writing plays, especially radio plays, and I sold my first short play to Radio Scotland when I was in my early 20s. I went on to write more than 100 hours of Radio Drama, some television and many stage plays.

How would you describe your writing?

I’d describe myself as a novelist, although I still write the occasional stage play. I’m an unashamed mid-list writer. Some of my novels are historical and some contemporary. I hope they’re well written (don’t we all?) but I also hope they’re good, readable stories. I write a lot about relationships, often in a rural setting, but I don’t always do happy endings. A sense of place is very important to my fiction. I do a lot of revision, a lot of honing. Maybe because I started out as a poet!

Who is your target audience?

When I’m writing, I don’t have any target audience in mind. I’m too involved with the characters and the story. At some point in the process, (but I couldn’t say exactly when) I start to think about the audience, the readers. Am I communicating this story in the best way possible? What am I trying to say? Will people understand it?

I would say I write for a ‘mid-list’ audience - the kind of readers who seem to be increasingly ill-served by traditional publishing, which spends too much time and money trying to predict the next big success on the basis of the last big success. And I don’t much like being tied to a specific genre. In some ways, I write the kind of books I like to read myself but I always love talking to readers about my novels.

Which authors influenced you most?

There are two distinct influences. The first involves Victorian novels, the Brontes in particular. In fact my novel Bird of Passage is something of a ‘homage’ to Wuthering Heights. It’s quite subtle, but it’s there. I love the way Wuthering Heights is so heartrending but by the end, past miseries are resolved in a loving relationship – balance is restored. I love that about these novels.

But I enjoy contemporary fiction too. I’m a big fan of William Trevor. I routinely think ‘I wish I had written that’ when I’m reading his stories. They seem deceptively simple, but they have untold depths and complexity.

How have your own personal experiences influenced your writing?

Obviously I’ve accumulated a lot of experience over the years. Everything feeds into the writing. People often ask ‘where do you get your ideas from?’ but ideas are everywhere, every relationship, every experience, (even the difficult ones). It’s a process of trying not to become cynical, trying to become wise instead, trying to tell the stories that might mean something to readers just as they mean something to the writer.

What are your main concerns as a writer?

Big question. I’m endlessly interested in the relationships between men and women, not just in their love stories, but in how we betray other people for all kinds of reasons, how other people betray us and how we come to terms with that.

I’m interested in how past suffering influences the present.

And – of course – as a writer of historical fiction, I’m fascinated by the attempt to recreate the past as it might have been – not as we might see it through modern eyes. Well, that’s practically impossible, I know, but if you immerse yourself in a time and place, you can make a good enough job of it.

Perhaps most important of all, I want my readers to believe in the world I’ve created. It might be a past or a present world. But they have to believe that it’s real and true.

What are the biggest challenges that you face?

Disillusionment with the process. I had quite a lot of success early in my writing life. I spent a number of years as a reasonably successful playwright but I always knew that fiction was where my real ambitions lay. Then I had three traditionally published novels, and each time I thought ‘this is it’. One of them in particular did very well. But for one reason or another – all of them to do with fluctuations within the publishing industry – I always seemed to be going back to square one and starting again. Maybe most writing careers are like that: a switchback rather than a curve.

On the other hand, I’ve developed a lot of persistence and it has allowed me to work at my craft. I think I’m a better writer now because of it. Most ‘beginning writers’ underestimate the sheer volume of work you have to produce to get anywhere.

Do you write every day?

I write just about every day but not always fiction. I do some reviewing and the odd essay and feature article. But I’m always thinking about the latest novel, and when I do get down to it, I write very intensively. I can keep going for twelve hours at a stretch!

I work best in the afternoons and in the evenings when the house is quiet. I like to stop at a point where I actively don’t want to stop – that way it’s easier to start again the following day.

I do a very rough first draft. I wouldn’t ever let anyone see it. Then I let the work lie fallow while I get on with something else. And then I revise. A lot. It’s quite a long process.

If I’m writing something that needs research, I’ll do some preliminary research, then write the first draft to find out what I don’t know. The Curiosity Cabinet consists of two stories, separated by several centuries. I wrote each part of that story separately and then put them together afterwards – printed them out and actually shuffled the pages about physically – it worked surprisingly well.

How many books have you written so far?

Novels

• Shadow of the Stone (Richard Drew, 1989): Novel written to go with my television series of the same name, first produced on STV with Alan Cumming and Shirley Henderson, all episodes now available on YouTube
• The Golden Apple (Century, 1990): A novel about a cross cultural marriage.
• The Curiosity Cabinet (Polygon, 2005): Alys visited the fictional Hebridean island of Garve as a child. Donal was her playmate. Now she has returned after a long absence and a difficult divorce. Interwoven with the story of their growing love, is the darker tale of Henrietta Dalrymple, kidnapped by the formidable Manus McNeill and held on Garve against her will. With three hundred years separating them, the women are linked by an embroidered casket and its contents, by the tug of motherhood and by the magic of the island itself.
• The Curiosity Cabinet (Amazon Kindle Version, 2011)
• Bird of Passage (Amazon Kindle, 2012): A novel about the shocking realities of state-sanctioned physical abuse in Ireland and its aftermath in Scotland. Bird of Passage is a powerful story of cruelty, loss and enduring love.
• The Amber Heart (Amazon Kindle, 2012): An epic love story set in the troubled Eastern Borderlands of 19th century Poland, this is a tale of obsessive love and loyalty set against the backdrop of a turbulent time and place.

Non-fiction:

• Fisherfolk of Carrick (Molendinar Press, 1979)
• God’s Islanders: A history of the People of Gigha (Birlinn, 2006): A well-researched hardback social history of the most southerly of the Hebridean islands – a readable and informative history of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland in miniature, just like Gigha itself.

Published Plays:

• "Wormwood" in Scotland Plays Anthology (Nick Hern Books, 1998)
• "The Price of a Fish Supper" in Scottish Shorts Anthology (Nick Hern Books, 2010)
• Burns on the Solway (Kindle, 2011)
• The Secret Commonwealth (Kindle, 2011)
• Quartz (Kindle, 2012)

How would you describe your latest book?

The Amber Heart is a love story set in the Eastern Borderlands of 19th century Poland. I think it tackles very adult themes sensitively, but there’s no denying that it’s the story of an intense physical obsession between two people, set against the backdrop of an equally turbulent time and place.

It is also the story of the ‘pancake yellow’ house of Lisko, the heroine’s beloved childhood home, and the way in which the lives of the characters are disrupted by the political turmoil of the times. It has been described as a 'Polish Gone With The Wind'. It is very loosely based on a series of extraordinary facts which came to light when I was researching my own remote family history.

How long did it take you to write the book?

Unusually for me, this one has been on the go for about 20 years! I did a lot of the research while my beloved father was still alive – I’m very glad that I did because he gave me lots of information, lots of details which would be very hard to find now. The late great Pat Kavanagh was my agent at the time and although she told me she loved the book and she was one of the best agents in the business, she simply couldn’t place it with any publisher – lots of positive responses, but they said they didn’t think they could market anything with a Polish setting. We both got very frustrated about it. I filed it away and got on with writing plays. But I kept going back to it from time to time. It’s a big piece of work, 130,000 words. Then, over the past three years, I revised and rewrote it much more intensively. I had matured as a writer and I think it’s a much more readable story now.

When and where was it published? How did you find a publisher for the book?

Last year, I took the decision to go completely ‘Indie’ and start self publishing, initially to Kindle.

The Amber Heart is my third and most recent Kindle novel.

I think like most writers of my age and stage, I had begun years earlier by looking for traditional agent/publishing deals. I was headhunted by an agent who specialised in drama after a play of mine won a major award and then the agency asked Pat to look after my fiction.

At first all went well – my first novel was sold to a small publisher, my second to a much bigger ‘mid-list’ publisher, but the whole industry was changing. That publisher, the Bodley Head, old and distinguished, was bought over by one of the Big Six and after that even Pat couldn’t sell The Amber Heart.

Much later, returning to novels after years spent on plays, I was shortlisted for the Dundee Book Prize with The Curiosity Cabinet and it was subsequently published, but although the print run sold out, the publisher declined to look at the next book and wouldn’t reprint TCC. Neither novel fitting in with their future plans, so it was fair enough But both are now available on Kindle and selling well.

For a long time, it had struck me that there was a growing imbalance for authors. Many of us were getting what my fellow writer Maggie Craig calls the Rave Rejection – ‘We love this but the marketing department says it won’t sell in big enough quantities.’ Traditional publishers were – so my agent told me – looking for an ‘oven ready product’. They were also looking for a breakthrough book right away. When I first began writing and publishing, you had time to grow as a writer. Many best-selling authors today made that breakthrough with their forth, fifth or sixth book. Now they’d be dumped after book number two. I still remember the sudden shock of hearing my later agent say ‘I won’t submit this because although it’s good, I don’t think it’s a breakthrough book and if I submit two books by you which are turned down, nobody will even look at a third.’ It was as though somebody had placed a time limit on my creativity. It was appalling.

Then along came eBooks and Amazon. I don’t have any illusions that this is a particularly benevolent industry and I don’t plan to put all my eggs in one basket, but I still wake up most mornings thinking, God Bless Jeff Bezos. This is a company which has given me the professional tools to do the job. I don’t expect nurturing – just a good businesslike relationship. Long may it continue.

Which were the most difficult aspects of the work you put into The Amber Heart?

Punctuation. Although I have a degree in English Language and Literature, I’ve spent years as a playwright. You get into the habit of writing speeches the way you want the actor to say them, regardless of punctuation. Then, suddenly, you have to get it right.

The other challenge for me was having an editor – albeit not my main editor – suddenly advise me to chop off the last third of The Amber Heart and finish it a hundred pages earlier. I enjoy working with a sympathetic editor but this was a bridge too far and I said I wouldn’t do it. When I think about it now, I see that there may be a difference between what appeals to a male and what appeals to a female reader. I felt very strongly that to do as he suggested would have made the ending of the book deeply unsatisfactory. One or two female readers agreed with me. So I didn’t follow his advice, although it did send me back to the manuscript to tighten it up a bit.

Which aspects of the work did you enjoy most?

I would have to say, writing the sensuous scenes between the hero and heroine.

Fifty Shades this isn’t, but it is a story about an intensely physical but forbidden relationship - an obsession really - between two people – one that lasts for their whole lives. That’s not all it’s about of course – but it is certainly central to the novel and the key to the whole story. I loved writing these scenes.

What sets the book apart from other things you've written?

The background, I suppose. That Polish background was familiar to me from my own childhood, in Leeds, which was where my refugee father finished up after the war, and where he met and married my Irish mother – but I don’t think I realised just how strange it would seem to others. And how much subsequent perceptions of Eastern Bloc countries might colour other people’s idea of a ‘Polish’ novel.

Essentially, The Amber Heart would appeal to anyone who enjoyed the movie of Dr Zhivago but it’s quite a challenge to get that across to potential readers!

In what way is it similar to the others?

It’s a love story with a tragic twist. So is Bird of Passage. The Curiosity Cabinet has a happier ending. All of them have largely (but not wholly) rural settings.

What will your next book be about?

It will be finished later this year – I’m revising it at the moment. It’s called The Physic Garden, a historical novel set in very early nineteenth century Glasgow. The central character – and narrator - is one of the gardeners of the old Physic Garden (the medicinal garden) of Glasgow University. He’s a very old man when he relates the story of events that happened in his youth. It’s a story about friendship and horrific betrayal. He has spent his life trying to forget it, but in old age, he has to try to come to terms with it.

What would you say has been your most significant achievement as a writer?

Two things. Finally finishing and publishing The Amber Heart, against all the odds. (It’s a BIG book and very dear to my heart.) And my stage play Wormwood which is still part of the Scottish Higher Drama syllabus. It’s about the Chernobyl disaster and I think it may be the best thing I’ve ever written. The critics liked it too.

Related books:

,,

Related articles:

• Writer's choice 300: Catherine Czerkawska, by Norman Geras, normblog, April 5, 2011
• First Word: Catherine Czerkawska, The List, Issue 649, February 1, 2010
• Wormwood [Review], by Claire L Jarvis, The Journal, Issue 18, February 12, 2009

Interview [3] _ Mark Adam Kaplan

School teacher and screenwriter Mark Adam Kaplan has written and published two novels, A Thousand Beauties (Bewrite Books, 2009) and Down (Bewrite 2012) as well as an illustrated picture book, Monsters Do Ugly Things (BookBaby, 2011).

In this interview, he talks about his latest novel:

How would you describe Down?

Down is a contemporary, urban, YA thriller about a 15-year old trying to stay out of lock up. Leon Mendoza starts the school year with an ankle monitor and an upcoming court date. He's determined to stay out of trouble. But how can he with the pending charges against him, his P.O. breathing down his neck, a father in jail, a mother in deep depression, and even his home boys pressuring him to quietly take the rap?

Will the attention of an attractive school girl, the support of a few teachers and a part-time job make a difference to Leon? Or is he destined to follow in his father's footsteps, and spend his life in and out of jail?

How did the idea behind the novel come about?

I teach middle school in East Los Angeles, I have seen how disconnected from pleasure reading most of my students are. Reading for their classes is not just a chore for some of them, it is torture. A surprising number of middle school students in the inner cities in the United States have never read a complete book. A good number of them haven’t read any books since the third grade.

But I was lucky enough to come across Townsend Press, and their Bluford Series. These books offered adult, urban themes about teenagers at a very accessible reading level. Paul Langan, Anne Schraff, and John Langan have done a remarkable job creating high-interest books for urban teens. As a teacher, I assigned the Bluford books to my students, and I cannot count the number of formerly non-reading students who read not just one book of the series, but several.

Then one of my students, a 15-year old eighth grader, handed me Sapphire’s Push, which was turned into the movie “Precious”, and I saw further proof of these students’ needs.

Twenty years ago, in “For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Wasn’t Enough, Ntozake Shange said something like, “The New York TImes never said nothin’ to me.” She repeats it over and over.

That sentiment is still true.

Regardless of the advances so-called “minorities” have made in the political arena, urban kids today are inundated not with personally empowering works, or slice-of-life stories designed with respect for the audience. They are bludgeoned with senseless violence, or idiot humor - the Saw series, Scarface, American Me, Blood In Blood Out, any Adam Sandler film, SpongeBob, etc. The only other outlet they are afforded is sports, and many of them have parents who don’t let them out in the neighborhood to play sports because the area is dangerous.

As I looked into what else is available, I discovered Street Lit, and realized that I wanted to be a part of this movement. Although my life was blessed compared with some of my students’, I faced my own issues as a teenager, including getting thrown out of both a middle school and a high school (both public).

I realized how much I wanted to write a book for my students who are struggling readers. My personal writing process led me somewhere between Bluford and Precious, and I believe that Down will speak to a wider audience than those for whom I wrote it.

How long did it take you to write the novel?

The book gestated in my mind for a couple of years before I put it down on paper. But from the time I sat down to write until its publication this past May took about 22 months.

Did you write everyday?

I teach full-time, have two small children and a marriage that requires my attention. We home school our girls, so that is an additional demand on my time. I write when I can, where I can. Some times I don’t get to write for a week or two. Other times I can get a good three days in a row.

What happens most often is that I get time to write between 11.00pm and 1.00am. On a good day, I‘ll get in an hour or two before dinner.

As a teacher, I have periodic vacations, and my most productive times are usually then.

Which aspects of the work you put into the book did you find most difficult?

By far most of my difficulties have surrounded creating a genuine voice for Leon. The slang was not the problem, nor the tone, nor the inflection. What I found particularly difficult was being consistent with Leon’s syntax, and maintaining an appropriate grade-level vocabulary.

Early on, I decided that Leon’s voice would be confined to his speaking, but his thinking might operate at a higher level. But in conversations with my editor, Hugh McCracken, it became clear to me that the whole thing was in Leon’s voice, so I have to adjust all of the prose to be delivered with a third- or fourth-grade vocabulary. This insight engendered an enormous amount of work, and its efficacy continues to haunt me.

Which aspects of the work did you enjoy most?

I have been a teacher, on and off, since 1989. The best part of the book, for me, has always been the knowledge that I am writing something for struggling readers that might interest them enough so that they will finish it. I also enjoyed working with the character of Mr. Chong. Playing up the dynamic between Leon and Mr. Chong was really fun for me.

What sets the book apart from other things you've written?

This book is different from my other published work because it was written with a focus on maintaining an accessible reading level. I enjoy the interplay of words, and take pride in my prose. A Thousand Beauties is truly a beautifully written book. Down contains prose that is much more raw. The play of ideas is limited because Leon’s thinking is limited and Leon delivers this book.

There are similarities in that both Down and A Thousand Beauties are realistic, contemporary explorations of societal expectations, mores, and values. Both Leon (Down) and Ruskin (A Thousand Beauties) pressure themselves to perform well under immense duress. Both make terrible mistakes. Both characters are imperfect and multifaceted, and both try to maintain lives spiraling out of control. There are other similarities, but these, I think, are the important ones.

How did you choose a publisher for Down?

The novel was published by Bewrite Books, Canada, May 25, 2012, and is available in all digital formats.

Bewrite Books published my first novel, and I enjoyed (and benefited from) their editorial process. I have relationships with Neil and the people at Bewrite. They know me as more than the author of this one book. Their editorial process is enjoyable, and is designed to produce the best product possible. The disadvantage is that they no longer offer hard copies of the book.

What will your next book be about?

My next book is a historic, romantic farce set in Southern California around the turn of the last century. That’s about all I can say about it right now.

Related articles:

• The Future of American Fiction: An Interview with John Brandon, by Emily Temple, Flavorwire, July 3, 2012
• Mark Adam Kaplan [Interview_2], Conversations with Writers, November 27, 2011
• Mark Adam Kaplan [Interview_1], Conversations with Writers, July 30, 2009

[Transcript] The Future of the Book Industry

In an interview that was conducted during at the States of Independence fare which was held at De Montfort University in Leicester on March 17, 2012, David A. Bowman (Bluewood Publishing) talks about the books his company publishes and about where he sees the book publishing industry going:



Hi, I'm David Bowman. I'm one half of Bluewood Publishing. We are an international small press publisher. My business partner is actually in Christchurch, New Zealand. We publish genre fiction in ebook and print. We've been around for about two and a half years. We have about 150 titles currently available as ebooks, 32 of which are now in print.

When you say 'genre fiction', what do you mean?

Genre fiction is popular fiction as opposed to literary fiction. For example, we have alternative history, romance, western romance, fantasy, science fiction, thriller and, dark fantasy... i.e. the vampire type stories.

We also have one non-fiction title but that was because that was just such a brilliantly written manuscript we couldn't turn it down.

You use a combination of print and ebook...

Yes. We actually started in ebook rather than in print. Simply, it was a mechanism that worked for us and then we expanded into print.

Why is that? I get the impression that people are actually moving from print to ebook.

I think that's because when we formed, we had a blank canvas. Most people are coming from a background of print. We were coming from a background more as authors than as print [publishers] and, as a result, it was a manner of working that worked for us. So, we started with an ebook and then moved through into print, from that direction. So, we are going against the tide but we are going with the tide because, obviously, ebook sales continue to grow and grow and grow. In many respects, paperback sales are relatively flat. There is not growth in that market as there has been in the past.

What do you see happening to the industry? Where do you see it going?

I have both sat on panels and seen the panel [on the future of the book and the book industry] here today. I don't think there is a simple answer to that question. Ebooks are taking over and TESCOs, I think, sold 225,000 kindles in the run-up to Christmas, which is an enormous amount for a supermarket to sell. Ebooks are selling and selling and selling.

Essentially, you have two wins with an ebook.

Firstly, your ebook reader is a light device. You can carry around your entire library in your handbag or in your back-pocket.

The second is ecological. You haven't destroyed a tree to print an ebook. There is an element of people that, of course, say the ebook reader itself has taken rather more than just a tree to be produced but ebooks have a better cost profile, obviously. It costs a lot of money to print a book, particularly on a short run. If you print millions of books, you can do it a lot better. But, for a small press like ourselves, it takes a lot of investment to actually produce the printed version of the book.

Which takes us back to the question we discussed earlier... Why switch from ebooks to print?

It's not a switch. We always intended to do both but we started with the ebook because that was, for us, the easier way to do it... and then we moved through to print... but all of the print books are available as ebooks. It's just that there are a lot of ebooks we published that are a lot shorter which makes for not such an economic model for print.

One of the things that I heard today was that ebooks present a problem in the sense that a lot of ebooks that are being published are self-published and the quality is not very good and that, potentially, this has the potential of...

This is a problem. As the technology gets easier, more people get onto that technology and some of them don't understand the importance of the various steps that a publisher takes.

We copy edit and proofread every book before it is published and the author gets corrections twice, at least. We go through a third set of edits before it actually goes into print because changes to a print book after it has been printed are, obviously, both practically and financially, a lot. The consequences are a lot higher.

The ebooks people are self-publishing... it's very, very easy to do these days... all you need is, basically, a copy of Word. You don't need anything else in terms of software to be able to get out to virtually all of the major retailers... people like Amazon, people like Apple, people like Barnes and Noble in America. It's very easy to get the books out there.

What happens is that [some of the people who are self-publishing], they don't follow the methodology of publishers because they don't actually get everything printed... they don't get it all edited... they don't get it all formatted properly... and the whole thing goes. You end up with a sub-standard product and then that brings down the value of those that actually do [follow the methodology of publishers].

Did we talk about the challenges you face as publishers?

Not yet.

[Laughs]. Alright.

[Laughs]. The problem is always, we are small press... That means we are not well-known... That means our authors are not well-known... So, therefore, getting exposure, getting publicity for them is a much fight.

You know, if I had a Stephenie Meyer on my books, I wouldn't be a small press publisher. You are always looking for a book that will come along in those terms. But, in terms of [small press publishing], you have to work that much harder for each copy that you sell.

Where do you see yourself, let's say, in five years' time, as a publisher?

Hopefully with a table about 10 times this size with piles of books. [Laughs]. But, no, seriously... it's very difficult, at the moment, to work out what's going to happen in the industry. And, the advantage that we have by being a small company, is, we are nimble. We can change with the industry. So, as ebooks evolve into more complex things rather than just simply pure text, we can probably keep up with that and be ahead of the less nimble organisations such as the mainstream publishers.

Related books:

,,

Related articles:

• The making of a blockbuster, by Laura Miller, Salon, March 18, 2012
• Has China found the future of publishing? by Alison Flood, The Guardian, November 4, 2011
• Neil Marr [Interview_2], Conversations with Writers, November 10, 2009

[Interview] Elizabeth Wood

Elizabeth Wood - head of digital publishing at Worldreader, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting literacy in the developing world by bringing books to all using e-books - talks about how authors and publishers are making e-books available to readers in rural Africa:

What motivates Worldreader?

As you know, many people in rural parts of Africa have limited access to books. Using new technology (e-books, e-readers, mobile phones, etc), we can provide people in the developing world with access to hundreds of thousands of books and stories.

Worldreader currently has e-reader programs in schools in Ghana and Kenya. This week, we began an e-reader program in Uganda, and soon we kick off in Rwanda.

If efforts to find new ways to bring more books to more people, Worldreader is testing a reading application for mobile phones, that will work on almost any mobile phone thanks to our partner biNu’s technology that turns feature phones into smart phones. As mobile penetration continues to grow in the developing world, this could be a way for millions of folks to have access to books.

Where are the e-books you are making accessible in this manner coming from?

Many international publishers and authors are donating the use of their e-books to our e-reader programs. These publishers include Random House and Penguin. Recently Puffin in the UK decided to allow our kids access to Roald Dahl's brilliant e-books - a huge win for us and for our kids!

We also aim to give people in Africa access to great African writers, both of yesterday and today. We partner with local publishers across Africa, digitizing their books and using them in our programs.

And we partner directly with African authors. We are fortunate to have Chika Unigwe, Meshack Asare, Brian Chikwava, Jackee Batanda and other great African authors donating work to our programs. And we'd love to add more African writers to this list!

If there are writers out there who are are interested in taking part in the programme, what should they do?

One way to get involved would be to contribute one or more short stories - which we would publish digitally and send to the e-readers in our programs. We will pay for conversion costs, which are minimal, so there is no cost to an author. In 4 or 6 weeks' time, we could have our students reading your work!

For example, Chika Unigwe contributed 6 short stories, which we published as a collection of stories. Although the collection of short stories is available to folks in the USA at 99 cents, it is given free of charge to students and teachers in our programs across Africa and will be available free of charge on the book reading application for mobile phones.

In your view, how has this project affected people who have had access to it?

We are passionate about the project and we are already seeing clear proof that our programs are working to improve literacy. The kids in Ghana who have had e-readers for the past year are spending 50% more time reading, and they have improved dramatically in reading fluency and comprehension.

Related books:

,,

Related articles:

• Curling Up with E-Readers, By Suzie Boss, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter 2011
• Bringing e-books to African schools [Video], Al Jazeera, October 23, 2011
• iRead Students' Performance [Short video], by Worldreaders, June 3, 2011

Updated: February 9, 2012

[Interview_2] Mark Adam Kaplan

Mark Adam Kaplan is a school teacher, a novelist and a screenwriter.

His first novel, A Thousand Beauties, was published by BeWrite Books in 2009. His second novel, Down, has just been picked up by Bewrite Books, and will be released soon.

In this interview, Mark Kaplan talks about his first picture book, Monsters Do Ugly Things.

How would you describe Monsters Do Ugly Things?

Monsters Do Ugly Things contains 36 illustrations about all things monstrous. It is a satire of social norms and common behaviors. Most of all, it's fun.

It is about inappropriate social behavior. Our monsters pick their noses, eat when they talk, make messes, etc. They also do 'pretty' things, like have friends, and share.

How did you come up with the idea for the book?

This book has been gestating in my mind for years. After the birth of my children, it just gelled. But the book is nothing without Glenn Scano's brilliant illustrations. I'd written the book and it sat in a drawer for a long time. Then I found one of Glenn's old pieces, an etched mirror, that I'd bought from a crafts show. The minute I thought of Glenn for this book, all the lights went on.

The book began even simpler than it ended up. Glenn's art inspired me to expand on the original idea. The book grew organically from our work together.

I wrote the book fairly quickly, then worked with Glenn's illustrations to hone the idea and craft the entire piece. Glenn worked every day, 12 hours a day for 10 months, stopping only for bodily functions and doctor's visits.

Where and when was the book published?

Monsters Do Ugly Things was published on November 15, 2011. Several issues (on the publisher's side) pulled the book from the shelves for a few days. Then it reappeared, all issues resolved.

We had been rejected form about a dozen agents and a handful of publishers. When we investigated self-publishing, we discovered how expensive it would be to print out high-gloss, hard cover books. Add that to my constantly seeing women baby sit their kids while shopping by stuffing an iPhone in their faces... it just made sense to go eBook. But we found there were no established outlets for new Children's eBooks. ePublishing houses also did little or no promotion for the books they published. It didn't make a lot of sense to give the lion's share of the profits to a company that wasn't really working for it.

One big disadvantage is that we have to market the book ourselves. Neither Glenn nor I are marketing experts. Because we are selling a picture book, many people want a hard cover to read at night with their children, and are thrown by the fact that we aren't offering one. But the future is electronic, and many people I know let their children play with their iPad. Why not have something specific, safe, and fun to give the kids to look through?

Which aspects of the work you put into the book did you find most difficult?

The most difficult part of this was preparing the book for ePublication. Glenn spent hundreds of hours tweaking the illustrations and the text, adjusting the coloring and the sizes, formatting the files and refining the edges

My favorite part was opening the files to see Glenn's artwork. Glenn's favorite part was creating the monsters. We spent more time laughing than doing just about anything else. We've known each other for 35 years, but this is the first project we've ever done together. We plan to do many more.

What sets Monsters Do Ugly Things apart from the other things you've written?

I normally write American tragedies, screenplays, avante garde plays. This is my first picture book, and is an entirely different world than I am used to building.

The book is similar to my others works only in as much as it is a different view of a somewhat accepted part of our society.

What will your next book be about?

We are working on Monsters Grow Up, a sequel to this one.

Related books:

,,,

Related articles:

• A Thousand Beauties by Mark Adam Kaplan [Interview], Conversations with POD, April 22, 2009
• Mark Kaplan [Interview], Conversations with Writers, July 30, 2009
• Read Me an E-Book Story? Can kids' books on a tablet beat the real thing? By Michael Hsu, Wall Street Journal, November 19, 2011

[Interview_2] Tahlia Newland

Tahlia Newland writes young adult and adult urban fantasy.

Her books include The Drorgon Slayer’s Choice (Catapult Press, 2011); A Matter of Perception (Catapult Press, 2011) and Realm Hunter (Catapult Press, forthcoming 2012).

Newland is giving away a limited number of ebook copies of her short paranormal romance, The Drorgon Slayer’s Choice while the e-book version of her anthology of urban fantasy & magical realism, A Matter of Perception is available at the special release price of 99c until November 14. On the November 15 the price for A Matter of Perception goes up to $1.99.

In this interview, Tahlia Newland talks about A Matter of Perception:

How would you describe your latest anthology?

A Matter of Perception is an unusual collection of urban fantasy and magical realism that will make you wonder what’s real and what’s not. The stories are thematically linked by various supernatural beings, a touch of romance, a bit of humour, and a smidgen of philosophy. There are gods, aliens, ghosts in the service of sirens, sorcerers who battle each other with magical light, a dream of a future past, a pair of rose-coloured glasses and Norris.

Norris?

Yeah, he’s a really sweet, shy, rather pedantic guy who would like to be a knight in shining armour.

How long did it take you to write the stories that appear in this anthology?

I’m a very creative person. Ideas fly around my mind all the time. I wrote these stories just to try some of them out, but it wasn’t until about a year afterwards that I thought about publishing them. I worked on these and other short stories for about three months initially ... writing, revising or editing every day. I sent some of them into competitions and to magazines, and one got to the semi finals in a big competition, but they’re really different.

It took another three weeks to get feedback, fine edit them and prepare them for publication.

The anthology was published by Catapult Press on November 2, 2011 and is available on Amazon, Smashwords & will soon be in other major outlets.

Catapult Press is the publishing arm of Centrepiece Productions, a company owned by myself and my husband. We set up the publishing side to publish my shorter books while my agent still chases a print deal from traditional publishers for my longer works. The advantage is that I have control over all facets of the production. The downside is that I have responsibility for all facets of production. I’m handling it by being very organised and allotting just a few tasks to do each day.

Which aspects of the work you put into the book did you find most difficult?

I hadn’t written short stories before, so it was a new game for me.

The hardest thing is finding a really snappy story and giving it a bit of a twist at the end.

Which aspects of the work did you enjoy most?

I didn’t have much trouble with the stories in A Matter of Perception. They came easily. It was just the right time, I guess.

I like finding great endings and several people commented on the clever and often humorous, or tragic endings in the stories, so I’m happy about that. I also love great characters and there are some good ones in this collection. Norris is my favourite. He’s terribly lovable.

What sets A Matter of Perception apart from other things you've written?

All my writing has unusual ideas and a mix of humour, action and romance. All my themes encourage readers to look more closely at the nature of their world, their mind and their perception.

A Matter of Perception is the only collection of short stories I’ve ever written.

What will your next book be about?

Realm Hunter is coming out in December.

The book revolves around Nadima, a philosophy student, who becomes infatuated with Aarod, a handsome shadow slayer. Their relationship jeopardises the success of an important mission in the hidden realm where he lives. When Aarod’s master orders him to leave the mundane world for ever, Nadima is determined to penetrate the veil between the worlds and follow him. But will he be waiting?

How many books have you written so far?

The Drorgon Slayer’s Choice(Catapult Press, 2011). Are you willing to stake your future on a butterfly’s shampoo preferences?" Julia’s not sure. She knows that relationships made in heaven can end up in hell, but if she can avoid having her memory wiped, she just might end up with a god of her own.

A Matter of Perception (Catapult Press, 2011). Do you see what I see? Take a bunch of supernatural beings, a battle of magical light, a mysterious hole in the pavement, a dream of a future past and a pair of rose-coloured glasses, mix them with a little romance and a smidgen of philosophy and you might be left wondering if it isn’t all just a matter of perception. This thought-provoking collection of urban fantasy and magical realism stories includes "The Drorgon Slayer’s Choice" and "The Boneyard", a semi finalist in the Aussiecon 4 Make Ready fantasy/scfi competition of 2010.

Resources:

Author's website
Author's facebook page
Author's Goodreads.com page

Related books:

,,

Related articles:

• Tahlia Newland [Interview_1], Conversations with Writers, August 2, 2011
• At NYCC, urban fantasy authors explained why supernatural cities are weird and wonderful, By Kelly Faircloth, io9.com, October 16, 2011
• Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s son on the art of storytelling, By Ruben V. Nepales, Philippine Daily Inquirer, October 15, 2011

[Interview] Bosley Gravel

Bosley Gravel was born in the Midwest and grew up in Texas and southern New Mexico.

His work includes the novels, Servant of the Mud (Shadowfire Press, 2009) and The Movie (Bewrite Books, 2009).

In this interview, Bosley Gravel talks about his writing:

When did you start writing?

I’ve been writing stories ever since I can remember.

I first sought publication in the mid-90s, but that didn't amount to much. In 2006 I took up writing again and have written close to half a million words since then. About 200,000 of those have seen publication in some form.

Between 1996 and 2006 the Internet became a critical tool for writers and I’ve leveraged that in a predictable way by targeting online journals, using it for research and making cheap, efficient submissions via email.

The number one thing I did to achieve the goal of publication was to write every day and study the craft of storytelling. As for the reasons for seeking publication, that is hidden in treasure chest and buried deeply somewhere between my ego and my id.

How would you describe your writing?

My novels typically involve plots centering around personal growth.

I tend to use simple structures and complex characters (all male so far) who, through extraordinary circumstances, must come to terms with a hidden aspect of themselves. These characters have built entire worlds of myth around themselves and subsequently struggle to align themselves with both the myth and the reality of their lives.

Essentially, these are coming-of-age stories built on top of the hero’s journey formula. If that sounds rigid, it’s not.

I pride myself on not being afraid to take a chance and follow some strange and unusual paths. For example, I’ve written about an independent filmmaker who struggles to get his absurd imagination on the big screen; a troubled polymath who must come to terms with not only the brutal world, but his own fears of loss and love; a handsome anthropophobic accountant who finds his true nature in a new found world of organized crime and sorcery; a gifted musician who is orphaned at an early age and soon learns that even fame and fortune can not fill an empty soul; a could-be messiah who must come to terms with both his human needs, and his divine responsibility.

With my short fiction pretty much anything goes though. Most of that is available online in some form or another. A lot of it is genre stuff with emphasis on plot and trope, some literary and some just a kind of unclassifiable other. In my short fiction I’ve written everything from splatter-punk horror to morality fables.

I read widely and I think my fiction reflects that.

Who is your target audience?

I’m sort of a selfish writer, I hate to say.

I don’t think much about audience and, since I don’t really stick closely to one genre, I pay for this by not having consistent readership. When I write, the only loyalty I feel is to the story and, ultimately, to the protagonist.

With that being said, I have a handful of faithful readers who read early drafts and I’ll often oblige their tastes or tailor content for them in some fashion. But it will always be on terms that are true to the character or story.

Which authors influenced you most?

Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn had a tremendous influence on me. I still go back and read that book occasionally. The depth and layering of both the Huck character and the story itself has had a big impact on me and introduced me to concepts of irony and metaphor in fiction -- although I didn’t know that the first time I read it of course.

Also, there is a book called Wyvern by A. A. Attanasio that is story about a Bornean native/Dutch half-breed who goes from the jungles to the shore of America in the 1500s. It’s really a story about destiny and human potential. A great book.

In terms of something I’ve read more recently, I think Rebecca Wells wrote some excellent short fiction in Little Altars Everywhere and Ya-Yas in Bloom.

Little Altars Everywhere, in particular, inspired me to start writing again after a 10-year hiatus. I was impressed with the depth of her characters and the simplicity of her prose.

Ray Bradbury, Clive Barker and William S. Burroughs, Kurt Vonnegut, Poppy Z. Brite, Louis L'Amour and Lawrence Block have also all made significant contributions to my writer’s toolbox.

How have your personal experiences influenced your writing?

My writing is in stark contrast to my day job.

I deal primarily with computers and computer networks in the real world and, when I sit down to write, it’s the last thing I want to think about. So my stories almost never contain elements of technology. In fact a good deal of my longer works are set pre-1990 in order to avoid having to deal with the Internet, texting, cell phones, etc. I find all of that terribly boring.

Obviously though, as I writer, I’ve been gathering details on people, places and situations for years, and these come out in my writing. I think all the ups and downs of my life do come out in some way or another in my writing. I’m a bit reluctant to reveal any specific details though, so like the reasons for seeking publication, it will have to remain a mystery.

What are your main concerns as a writer?

I think writers have an obligation to tell the truth.

The truth isn’t always pretty and the truth is often subject to perspective. Worse yet, the truth is sometimes fluid and changing.

I get concerned that a reader will misinterpret something I’ve written and use it to justify a rigid view of the world.

In the same vein, it would bother me a bit if I thought people were associating me too closely with my characters.

I try to avoid the problem of having too loud a moral voice by writing about people and less about ideas.

Apart from being accused of evangelizing some half-baked belief, my only other real worry is being a bore -- the worst sin ever for a writer (makes me shiver just thinking about it).

What are the biggest challenges that you face?

The biggest challenge is finding the time to go back and edit what I’ve written.

By the time I’ve completed a chapter or a short story or even an novel, my imagination is already taking me to the next one, and the previous one becomes a lot less shiny and pretty.

The only cure for this is discipline, and the desire to be published. No editor wants a first draft on his desk; well, no editor in their right mind, anyway. The only real way to deal with the final polish is to just go ahead and do it.

By the same token, I try to avoid over-polishing a piece. I think too much commercial fiction is edited to mush and really has no remaining voice. I'd rather not do that.

Do you write everyday?

I write every morning. I go for about 500 to 750 words; on occasion more. I just grab a cup of coffee and write a page or so, get my kids out the door for school, then hack out another page or two.

I've written about five novel-length manuscripts. Two of those were released at the tail end of 2009, one as an ebook, and the other as a paperback. The others remain in various stages of drafting.

The two that have been released are:

• Servant of the Mud, Shadowfire Press, Dec 4th 2009. This is a mythic urban fantasy that follows Pauly, a reluctant Christ figure, who transitions from an irresponsible street kid into something far more, and
• The Movie, Bewrite Books, Dec 10th 2009. This is a story about a small town kid with big dreams, and a very weird imagination.

What would you say your latest book is about?

In The Movie, the unemployed young feller’s dream is to break into Hollywood with a DIY movie called Cannibal Lesbian Zombies from Outer Space -- versus -- Doctor Clockwork and his Furious Plastic Surgeons of Doom. This was the book’s original title and still stands (in small print, artfully hidden in the front cover image -- my publisher added The Movie as main title).

See what I mean about my characters taking myth and building reality?

How long did it take you to write the novel?

Twenty-four very, very busy days.

How did you choose a publisher for the book?

I’ve always been keen on small presses. I’m still cutting my teeth as an author and I like the idea of dealing with editors who are hand-choosing their projects and not having them assigned by acquisition folks.

I like the idea of a ‘mom and pop’ style press in this day and age.

BeWrite Books was one of the handful of small presses that turned up in my research as being flexible and open to literary-type fiction that is fun and unpretentious.

What advantages and/or disadvantages has your association with BeWrite Books presented?

BeWrite has been everything I’d expected it to be ... and more.

Craft is obviously very important to the staff, and it shows in their titles and the attention my manuscript received (the first draft took me twenty-four days ... it was almost a year in edit as revisions passed between me and BeWrite Books over and again).

The disadvantage, I suppose, is that small presses can’t afford the media-blitz marketing big publishing can do ... with an emphasis on can. It doesn’t look like big publishers do much advertising for their authors these days anyway, other than a select few.

I think in the day and age of virtual everything, handling distribution/production the way BeWrite does it is the future that big publishing will eventually yield to anyway. So that’s really less of a disadvantage and more of a ahead-of-their-time kind of thing with BB ... but it still limits sales.

Bewrite’s no-pulping methods are a lot better for the environment. And while I’m rarely seen hugging trees, I think being frugal with our limited global resources is important.

Which were the most difficult aspects of the work you put into The Movie?

This book wrote itself. I’m told every author gets one of those sooner or later.

I think the most difficult thing was to go clean up the prose and punctuation, etc.

I read once that Jack Kerouac wrote On the Road on a single sheet of paper that rolled continuously through his typewriter, he used no punctuation and no indents. My manuscript was not much different.

Which aspects of the work did you enjoy most?

This book was just fun to write. The characters all have an innocence about them, an innocence they’ve chosen to indulge. In direct opposition to this innocence is the lead character’s screenplay with these bizarre and decedent scenarios.

I enjoy deliberately blurring opposing concepts like that.

I’ve had beta readers from all over the world, from middle aged American housewives to Australian teenagers, even a moderately curmudgeonly (but brilliant) Scottish editor -- they've all loved it.

The idea that I could write something that would be enjoyable by such a vastly different group of people is immensely encouraging.

What sets The Movie apart from other things you’ve written?

This is the most light-hearted manuscript I’ve written. My other books tend to be dark and only cautiously optimistic about human nature.

In this case, caution is thrown to the wind and I’m thrilled that it came out this way.

It’s also written in first person which is a rarity for me.

In what way is it similar to the others?

It includes several hallmarks of a Bosley Gravel story: male protagonist with a somewhat flawed sense of reality and vivid imagination, a meta-story woven into the story proper, love, sex, death, the absurdly tragic ... and the tragically absurd.

What will your next book be about?

My current novel manuscript, American Woman, is about Hollywood Tommy.

Tommy is a self-absorbed womanizer, who as a way to deal with a mid-life crisis, rekindles a relationship with his ex-wife and his children in suburbia.

What would you say has been your most significant achievement as a writer?

Writing one word after another. Finding a reason to do it each and every day.

Having the guts to get things in front of editors and readers.

Aspiring to write a book better than the last one I wrote.

Having the guts to get my work out there to editors and readers.

Related articles:

• Interview: Bosley Gravel, By gapyeargirl123, The Book Bundle, September 2009
• William Gibson On the Future of Publishing: Made to Order Books, By Steven Kurutz, Wall Street Journal, September 6, 2010
• The future of the book, By Chin Wong, Manila Standard Today, September 21, 2010

[Interview] Jason Bicko

Speculative fiction author, Jason Bicko has worked as a barman, garden labourer, care home kitchen hand, slot machine engineer and bingo caller.

His work includes Alien Inc. which is available as an e-book from Sonar 4 Publications.

In this interview, Jason Bicko talks about his concerns as a writer:

How would you describe the writing you are doing?

Unobtrusive, I would like to say. I don’t go in for literary impact because I don’t like that in the books I read. I want the story to go straight into the reader’s head -- I don’t want them to fight through the prose, constantly reminded that they’re reading a book. One author I find excellent at the subtle prose is Stephen Leather.

I have no target audience other than those who pick stories for what they might want to read at that moment. That’s how I read. I don’t go to the crime section in the library because I fancy a crime novel that day. I pick up various books, read the blurb, and choose the one that I like the sound of. It might be a crime novel or a western -- I never know.

My writing style changes constantly and this is because of the novels I read. For instance, after reading Clive Barker’s Weaveworld, I wanted to structure my stories the way that one was put together, broken down into Books, Parts, Chapters with titles, and sub-chapters marked numerically. After reading Stephen Leather, I began to compose my stories in such a way that chapters didn’t really exist, only one-line breaks. I prefer this format now because it keeps a reader reading. I don’t like chapters because it’s too easy to stop reading at the end of one.

How have your personal experiences influenced your writing?

My emotions and personal experiences don’t figure into my writing much.

For me, writing, or reading, is about escapism. It’s like a little mental holiday when I pick up a book or sit before my keyboard.

If I were to have a car crash, for instance, I wouldn’t let that intrude into my mind enough to filter into my writing. But it might give me an idea for a story about road rage turned deadly. In fact, just talking about it makes me want to write just such a tale.

What are your main concerns as a writer?

My main concern is spinning a decent yarn.

Way back, I used to try to come up with an exciting storyline and then make my version of that story. But I was always concerned that the same idea would be out there.

Take a story like Groundhog Day, in which a guy wakes up in the same day every day and must use his knowledge of what’s going to happen to change things a bit. That story has been done a few times, and since Groundhog Day was kind of the template, all the others are judged by it, I think. To me, that means a story might not live to its expectations, and I find that just wrong. So I gave up going for original storylines and concentrated on (trying to) tell good stories.

If I write a story about a guy trying to rescue his kidnapped wife, I know it isn’t the first of its kind. I just hope mine is better than some of the others out there. I just hope it’s a good tale.

What are the biggest challenges that you face?

Finding time to write is my main hurdle.

Thankfully, I don’t need to sit down in order to plot stories. Once I have an idea for one, I can let it brew like a good cup of tea. Ideas, scenes, twists, they all grow in my head as I live and work. If I hear a good joke, it’s stored in there and will take part in the story one day. When it’s time to sit down and put a synopsis on paper that I will stretch into a longer story, it comes easily. All the ideas I had over the last couple of months, they just come together as if magnetized, then I write.

Do you write everyday?

I don’t write every day, but I always create in my mind. A bit like a musician humming on the bus. I call it plotting. It’s probably more like daydreaming.

How many books have you written so far?

Seven novel-length stories, but these are unpublished. Eight or so short stories that are out there on the Internet. These are all works that came about after I moved cities in 2000.

Before that, I wrote about ten novels, but none of these has survived. My ego hopes they’re preserved somewhere in a bag or box, to be discovered in 50,000 years.

The latest one, Alien Inc. is set for ebook publication by Sonar 4. I fancied doing a gung-ho horror based on that old idea of a bunch of people trapped in one place and hunted by an enemy. I wanted to set the scene, then let it run. There were a few directions I knew it had to take, but I set these as markers and sort of said to my wild imagination, “Do what you want, just hit these checkpoints on the way.” I wrote it in about six months.

Which were the most difficult aspects of the work you put into Alien Inc.?

The hardest part was characters. There were eleven in it, each as strong as the next. That meant keeping track of the emotional make-up of eleven people as they went through the story. Much easier when there are one or two main characters and everyone else is built of a little less substance. It also made the choice of killing them off a bit harder. But that had to be done. Couldn’t have eleven people all survive in this sort of story.

Keeping track of all these people was made easier after the group split into five smaller groups. It became more like writing five short stories at the same time. I would concentrate on one at a time until the group was reunited.

What did you enjoy most?

If you read a Dan Brown book, you see important information on every page. That’s constant attention to telling the tale.

In this story, I mostly got to play. There’s a part where two people are trapped in a carriage on a monorail, hunted by an alien enemy. I just let it go with the flow and didn’t have to think about it or refer to notes. It was fun to write.

What sets Alien Inc. apart from other things you've written?

The horror aspect. I wrote horror as a teenager, because somehow that seemed easier. Setting a story on an alien planet filled with vampires means no wasting time on research. Garlic doesn’t bother my vampires. That’s another story you’re thinking of! I wrote horror because I had no experience of the world, so probably couldn’t have written a courtroom scene or a birth scene realistically. But chopping the heads off virgins came easily.

As I got older, I cast aside horror and wrote thrillers involving real people and realistic events. But maybe I missed the carefree ways of the horror novel.

For me, maybe Alien Inc. was the adult returning to the playground he’d so loved as a kid.

What will your next book be about?

Guy hunting down his lost sister. A good old action thriller set in the murky London underworld. Another chance for me to let the imagination run wild. I don’t often put guns in my stories. I’ll fill this one with them. Can’t wait.

What would you say has been your most significant achievement as a writer?

Having Sonar 4 Publications decide to put the story on their website.

When did you start writing?

I started writing at age 12. My dad had started a creative writing course and I wrote a story to see what he thought. That was the beginning. I had the bug from that day.

I wanted to be published because I wanted my work out there, for all to read. I was young and foolish and didn’t understand how hard and competitive the writing world could be. Pocket money went on photocopying my work and postage costs to send it to the big publishers.

Back then there was no email submissions. I would wait months, get back a rejection letter, and start again. Usually, a rejection letter wasn’t seen as a fail, it was seen as proof that my story wasn’t the one I was destined to be famous for. So rather than tweak that story, I would sit down and do another. I would often send out the first thirty pages as soon as they were completed, knowing that by the time the publisher wrote back to ask for the full manuscript, the story would be finished.

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Related article:

[Interview] Allen Ashley, Author of 'Urban Fantastic', Conversations with Writers, September 5, 2007