[Interview] Stanley Ruzvidzo Mupfudza

Stanley Ruzvidzo Mupfudza is one of the most exciting emerging voices in Zimbabwean literature.

His short stories have appeared in anthologies such as A Roof to Repair (College Press, 2000), Writing Still (Weaver Press, 2003), Writing Now (Weaver Press, 2005) and Creatures Great and Small (Mambo Press, 2006).

A number of his short stories have also been published in national newspapers and magazines that include The Sunday Mail, the Sunday Mirror and Moto.

In a recent interview, Stanley Mupfudza spoke about his writing.

Do you think newspapers and magazines in Zimbabwe are giving enough space to creative writers?

The Sunday Mail no longer has space for creative writing. The Sunday Mirror had it because of my own initiative. Many magazines have become defunct in Zimbabwe, so it is no longer a question of magazines giving space to creative writers, but that creative writers no longer have media through which to express themselves.

How would you describe the current situation in Zimbabwe? What do you think caused it? Is there a solution?

Political and economic stagnation. Political arrogance, national self-disbelief, sanctions... As a nation, we failed to consolidate the gains of independence, to create a solid foundation on which we could go forward as a nation. Instead, we became mimic men.

A solution is inevitable, but it is difficult to see how soon. There is lack of unity of purpose, a failure by people from different walks of life to come together for the good of Zimbabwe. You see, politicians come and go, as do parties, but Zimbabwe remains. This country that lies between the Zambezi and Limpopo is a special place; so special that it is the only one South of the Sahara that has anything as spectacular as Great Zimbabwe. There is the Great Dyke. Now diamonds are being discovered in Marange. The potential is massive. Look at the Zimbabweans who go abroad and do well -- they are in key positions. We are currently beggars on a beach of gold -- but six years after everyone had written us off, we are still here and that fascinates me as a writer. Some think Zimbabweans are docile people. I think they are simply resilient. Historically, the white settlers were taken by surprise when the 1896/7 uprisings came. They had thought the people docile, too.

What are your main concerns as a writer?

Spiritual regeneration, the triumph of the underdog, humanity's resilience, justice, freedom... Conformism has always riled me. Going through life, I noticed that those people who are usually overlooked, cast out, mocked etc., have their own stories to tell, stories that more often than not add value to human experience. I am a sucker for stories about overcoming adversity, triumph against all odds, succeeding when everyone has written off success... My father had to resort to the old custom of kutema hugariri -- you know, where a husband to be had to go and live with his in-laws and offer his labour, ploughing, building, etc. as a way of paying lobola -- then became a truck driver, until one day he was able to set up his own store at Nyangavi Township in Guruve -- he sent his brothers to school, raised six children...

I am concerned with questions of identity. For a long time I wandered through the mazes of our own Zimbabwean condition -- western education, acculturation -- looking for a centre. I even dabbled in Eastern philosophy, always felt on the outside of mainstream society. Then I started delving into our own religion, history and mythology. One of my short stories is called "The Lost Songs" which is about a singer who repudiates his past, his rural family and gets lost in the seedy life of the city, pop music... Then one day he forgets all the lyrics to his songs... Things begin to fall apart around him, his so-called friends abandon him... Then he makes the journey back home, to his mother where he reconnects with his family history and he discovers an ancient mbira which was passed down from generation to generation in his family and through mbira music he finds his place in the scheme of things.

In Zimbabwe right now, many claim to be Christians, but n'angas (traditional healers) are doing roaring business. There are stories of about people using the arcane in order to become rich, to gain political power -- there is the belief in the avenging spirit, ngozi... How can one take all these concepts so that they become leit motifs in one's writing? How does one deliberately borrow from symbols of drought, rain, hunger etc. that have been used by Charles Mungoshi, Dambudzo Marechera and others, and talk about current conditions? Can one take folklore figures, transpose them to contemporary society and write a children's story that will appeal to a techno-generation kid? I grapple with all these questions because our culture and history are rich and the struggle is to make use of it all to come up with universal stories which are, however, rooted in the particular.

What would you say are the biggest challenges that you face? And how do you deal with them?

Getting published. Having a PC or laptop of my own -- priced out of reach down here.

Irene Staunton and Weaver Press have been highly exceptional in promoting emerging Zimbabwean writers. Her two anthologies, Writing Still and Writing Now have done a lot to create that excitement but I have been around for quite a long time. Back in 2000, when I tried to get a manuscript published, I was told that publishing houses had put publishing fiction on hold for about four years since the economic conditions were bad. Well, they are worse now and school textbooks have a ready market. Zimbabweans would rather buy DVDs, bread and butter, than books.

When I was an undergraduate student, I had a second, probably fourth-hand typewriter, that I had bought from a used goods shop in Harare. I always wrote my work long hand before typing it out. That process became a process of revising, editing and re-conceptualisation. I was a high school teacher from 1994 to 2001. When the school where I taught introduced computers, I took advantage of that and began to type my stories at school, whenever I got the opportunity, saving them on disks. When I worked as a copy writer in an advertising agency, I took advantage of that, too.

Same now... when you are not at work, you can't really sit down and do your final drafts, and when you are at work, you do not always have the time. Something suffers in the process. You might write long hand, make notes, and so on but there are times when in the middle of the night, or just before dawn, an idea crystallises... but you have to wait until you get to work.

How have your own personal experiences influenced the direction of your writing?

At one stage writing saved my life. I wrote in order to stay sane, to make sense of who I was, to assert myself. When I was doing my A' levels, I wrote almost every day. I kept a journal where I poured out all my fears, anxieties, hopes and dreams. I always felt the odd one out. I was reserved and saw the world differently. I began to write fiction as a way of self-assertion. It helped tame my personal demons. It helped me face the Furies that were tormenting me.

The same, too, when I was an undergraduate student. In my second year back in 1992, I went through another crisis period. This had more to do with Literature and Socialism, a course I was doing then. I began to question the value of literature and poetry in a world full of wars, hunger and things like that... One day I recited a poem in First Street as part of a Marechera commemoration. One old man was more fascinated by my dreadlocks than my art. It all felt futile. I toyed with the idea of dropping out of university and joining the armed wing of the ANC and help my Azanian brethren fight for liberation.

How did you resolve this conflict?

I sat with an occidental student friend from the States who genuinely loved my writing and told her about my dilemma. She told me that art, literature was important. She had come to Africa thanks to Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. After that talk, I went back to writing relentlessly and was saved once again.

Over the years, I lost two brothers and a sister and I became self- destructive. Dealing with the pain of loss, coming to terms with it all, was only possible through my art.

In the writing that you are doing, who would you say has influenced you the most?

One can only speak of specific influences at a given time. For example, there was a period of pulp fiction addiction, when Stephen King, Robert Ludlum and similar writers ruled the roost. Thomas Hardy, Shelley and Wordsworth at A-level. College years, Marechera, Jack Kerouac and others… but I have always tended to read, read and read and certain elements of style or vision would create a lasting impression and in the journey to find a personal voice, I tended to interlope, borrowing, grafting and so on.

Do you write everyday?

I am an undisciplined writer. I sometimes wait for inspiration to write. Yet, an idea can gestate inside my head for a long time and when I eventually sit down, the story, poem or essay is completely formed. I think right now I am suffering from a writer's block, actually -- I haven't written original fiction in a long while. I am not even coming up with ideas and concepts. I know I am going through a phase, where I am trying to come to terms with my current profession and personal life. I want to write a novel, a television script and a play.

It's important that I get involved in a creative project, because that is what I do and what I am -- I write. I am a writer.

One of your short stories is about the conflict between religion and rationality. How did the story come about?

"Faith" is about a man called Faith who is seen by some as a lunatic, and a prophet by others. The story is set just before the turn of the millennium, with Faith preaching that the end of the world is nigh. It is told from the perspective of a sceptical teacher, whose wife and child become converts. It took me between three to six months to write the story and it was going to appear in an anthology which we were expecting to come out around August, which has writings from across Africa. Things, however, seem to have stalled.

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

The quasi-religious aspects, making them read and feel real, without being contrived. I wanted the reader to able to immerse himself or herself in the story and enjoy it, without batting an eyelid.

I have become fascinated by our folklore, myths, history and spirituality -- the challenge has been how incorporate this into my fiction and enrich it.

What do you think is the source of this fascination? How much space do you think folklore, myths and spirituality take in your own life and in contemporary life in Zimbabwe?

They have become the prism through which I view, process life. They help me shape my identity, offer me dimensions that hitherto had been hidden to me. They offer me a refreshing look at the world, a wealth that many have ceased to be recognised and yet can be very useful. People are always looking for crutches in order to survive, and I am fascinated by how these work or fail to work, and what people do or fail to do as a result of the beliefs and values they resort to or discard. Look at what the Latin American writers like Isabel Allende in The House of Spirits have accomplished. Magic realism can be a tool that might help us inject a fresh feel and voice to Zimbabwean literature.

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

Being still alive today and being able to respond to these questions.

Why is this?

Sometimes, the worst possible threats to ourselves come from us. Losing the will to live, not caring how one lives or dies. Perhaps there is a romantic notion of the artist underlying it all... fuelled by the desire to die young. One bad thing about dying young is that it comes too early...There is nothing romantic about death, while life itself is full of so many possibilities. My first brother to die died in 1998, while the second died in 2000. My young sister died in 2002. My sister's death was the most difficult of all to deal with. We were very close.

How did you deal with the pain and the loss?

One night, after a long hard day of vodka-fuelled boozing, I hit someone with a beer bottle in a nightclub. There was so much blood everywhere. I was mobbed and beaten up by his friends and thieves and nearly died. I was taken to the local police station and locked up in a cell with hardcore criminals, people from the underside of our society. These were habitual criminals, and I listened to their stories, each one had a different story to tell and no one, according to them, was really guilty. Through it all, a question kept nagging me: Is this as good as it gets?

I realised that I deserved more and that the potential I had could not end up in such a place -- there was no glory in that, in dying early.

In 2003, my then partner gave birth to a pre-term boy. She was seven months pregnant when he decided to come into the world. There were scary moments when he was confined to the intensive care unit. Then he developed jaundice, and the doctors were on strike, so you had medical students experimenting with treatments. The most amazing thing about it all was how this kid fought. He didn't want to die, he refused to die. It was truly amazing that a pre-term child, barely weeks old could show such a tremendous will to live. It was a trying period for me but through his struggle and triumph, I began to appreciate the value of my own life, and because he lived, I learnt to appreciate what it meant to live for someone other than yourself.

You have also talked about finding a centre. Where would you say your centre lies?

My centre revolves around knowing who I am, what I want out of life and going through life informed by a core set of values that enable me to value life, the gifts that we come with into this world and what we ought to do with them. Before me, there have been others of my line, who have made their contributions, even though they remain unknown and unsung, and I am part of that contribution.

My grandfather was a great hunter, drummer, mbira player and dancer, and the arts course through my blood. Skidrow was boozing and not caring what tomorrow brought, getting off, was taking charge of my life, creating a sense of purpose and focus...Whatever it is I do, I believe I should do it with passion and to the best of my ability, so that I leave a mark.

This article was first published on OhmyNews International.

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[Interview] Tim Lees

Tim Lees has been a warehouse worker, film extra, musician, schoolteacher, lithographer and conference organiser. He has also worked on the secure ward of a psychiatric hospital.

His first collection of short stories, The Life to Come was published by Elastic Press in 2005.

In a recent interview, Tim Lees spoke about his writing.

What is your latest book about?

You probably mean my story collection, The Life to Come (Elastic Press, 2005), but to my mind, my latest book is the one I’m writing now. It’s a weird noir detective piece set in L.A.

How long did it take you to write it?

Give it another few months to completion. In fact I wrote the opening chapters about four years ago and they’ve been moldering in a drawer every since. Stories often seem to come this way -- a bit at a time.

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

The final polishing, which I’m now in the process of. Always tricky, ironing out inconsistencies, wondering if you’ve got enough jokes, if the story slows down at any point, if the dialogue reads easily… Often you simply have to put it away for a while, work on something else, and come back to it with a fresh eye.

Which did you enjoy most?

Going to L.A. to do research. Actually, it was a complete waste of time -- in the end I stuck with the “fantasy” L.A. I’d concocted from reading before I went. Still, it was a great trip.

In what way is the book similar to the other things you have written?

It’s taking a familiar genre and twisting it around to suit my own warped ends.

What sets it apart from the others?

It’s a novel, for a start. Sadly, there’s not much place for short story writers these days. I know some brilliant short story writers who will probably never receive the exposure they deserve, simply because of the form they work in. How this came about I don’t know, though it may have roots in the numerous competing forms of entertainment available nowadays -- TV, DVDs, computer games, etc -- or through a failure in the education system, or simply through economic factors. It may be uncool to say so, but economics has a huge impact on the kind of art being produced. Dickens was famously paid a penny a word, and produced enormous, rambling tomes with enormous, rambling descriptions of just about everything under the sun. All good stuff, of course, and guess what! He got very, very rich. Nothing wrong with that. But I do regret that, nowadays, a lot of more idiosyncratic work seems relegated to the small press.

Perhaps the short story will go the way of poetry: once popular, now something of a specialist market. Interesting to note, however, that there is still a market. These things don’t die out. They just cease to be a viable means of earning a living.

What unifies the stories that make up The Life To Come?

There are sixteen stories in The Life to Come, the first of which, “The God House”, was originally published in 1997. About half of them have been published previously. They are (mostly) SF-oriented, but I saw them as linked thematically by a sense of exile or displacement. This may arise from some obvious fantastic element (the arrival of aliens, a visit to a strange city) or something more mundane (traveling in Morocco, a relative’s mental illness). What interests me, though, are the people, and how they accommodate the situation -- or fail to do so. You could say this is SF with a warm edge to it.

I don’t know which of the stories was hardest to write. Certainly, some of them took years -- accumulating bit by bit. Also, as I remarked earlier, writers seldom judge their own work well. I remember when I finished the story “Relics” feeling it was very much a sub-standard piece. Its critical reception persuaded me otherwise. I think I’d just been slogging away at it for so long I’d lost sight of its merits. But judge for yourself…

I’m not sure I’d ever describe writing as “enjoyable”. Compulsive, perhaps. However, the one piece that was fun to do was the Hemingway pastiche, “A Specialist in Souls”, largely because it came to me almost fully-formed during the course of an afternoon’s walk back from town. Jokes and all. Most writing is like forced labour, which is why so many talented, imaginative people never get around to doing it. But every now and then, you get a gift. I’m still waiting for the next one to turn up…

When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?

Very early. I wanted to duplicate the stories I read, first in comics, later in books, but somehow to make them mine. I’d usually start by stealing the beginning of a piece (Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Conan Doyle) then, when the real fun started, make up my own adventures for the characters. Beginnings were boring back in those days. Now they’re often the best bits.

Who would you say has influenced you the most?

It depends what I’m writing. If it’s SF, Ballard and Aldiss have certainly had an impact, but so have countless other writers, many of them not related to that genre at all. A lot of stuff I read in childhood keeps re-surfacing, now viewed through rather jaded adult eyes (the shade of Edgar Rice Burroughs, for example, in my piece for The Elastic Book of Numbers). I think childhood experience is immensely important. For my present book, I’m drawing very consciously on some hard-boiled crime writers -- the wonderful Raymond Chandler, of course, but also Kinky Friedman and the neglected British writer, Derek Raymond. Plus comics writers such as Brian Azzarello. Somehow, though, it doesn’t seem to be coming out quite like any of them, which I suppose is a good thing. You take techniques from every writer you read, and your own style probably ends up as a mish-mash of all of them. There are no rules for learning to write, but I’d suggest to anyone with ambitions that they read as widely as possible -- popular fiction, literary fiction, experimental fiction -- anything that does its job well.

How have your personal experiences influenced the direction of your writing?

It may be possible to write good fiction that doesn’t draw on personal experience, but I don’t know how. It’s not a case of writing romans à clef (loosely disguised autobiographies, such as works by, say, Kerouac, Isherwood or Proust), but simply this: you put a character in a situation, you ask yourself, how would I react? What would I feel? How would I react if I were this person, with his/her history?

What are your main concerns as a writer?

Trying to get published. Actually, that’s not quite fair; I’ve been lucky enough to be associated with some of the very best of the U.K. independent press -- Elastic, TTA, PS, etc. -- and have been treated well by them. My concern now is to get some mainstream recognition.

If you’re asking what the themes of my writing are… That’s something I prefer not to think about. I’m aware of certain recurrent subjects and motifs, but critics tend to pick up different, often surprising elements. I don’t think it’s good to over-analyse your own work. When you cease to be surprised by it, that’s when it becomes dull, both for yourself and for the reader. In addition, writers are usually very poor judges of their own stories. Is it good? Is it bad? Is it as good as your last one? It’s not for you to say.

What would you say are the biggest challenges that you face?

Trying to balance the demands of writing, earning a living, general responsibilities (e.g. family, etc.) and still finding time to chill out. While I could witter on for hours about structure, dialogue, characterization and so forth, I find I’m daily more concerned with the practicalities of writing -- making sure I’ve got the time and energy to do it, as well as the right state of mind. I think Trollope wrote a piece about the difficulties of writing a love scene after a hard day at the post office, or wherever he was working then. I sympathise. Writers’ career’s are odd, misshapen things. Reading Anthony Burgess’s autobiography, the question that kept haunting me is, how, in the space of a few pages, does he go from being a near-penniless novelist to a famous literary personality, invited to prestigious conferences in New York?

How do you deal with these challenges?

Badly.

What will your next book be about?

It depends which MS comes out of the drawer next.

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

I haven’t done it yet.

How did you get there?

I can pretty much guarantee that hard work will be a major factor. Unfortunately. But at least it’s an element I have control over. The other vital element is luck.

This article was first published on OhmyNews International.

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[Interview] Susan Jarnagin

Susan Jarnagin writes under the pen names Renee Russell and Darcy McKenna. Her articles and short stories have appeared in publications that include The Commercial Appeal and Absolute Write.

She made her debut as a novelist, this year, with Kate’s Pride (Wings ePress, 2007).

In a recent interview, she spoke about her writing.

How many books have you written so far?

Writing as Renee Russell, I have Kate's Pride which came out in January. My second novel, working title Fated Love has recently been sold to Wild Rose Press with the publication date to be announced -- the pen name for that novel will be Darcy McKenna. I'm at work on Novel #3 and Novel #4 right now.

Why the pen names?

I chose to use two different pen names because when I pick up a book by a particular author I'm expecting a particular kind of story. For example with Stephen King I expect a horror story. With John Grisham I expect a legal thriller.

Kate's Pride is a Southern Gothic historical. Very dark and tragic. Fated Love is a contemporary suspense with a much lighter tone. I didn't want anyone who loved Kate's Pride to pick up my second book and be disappointed that it is a completely different story.

I plan to write more dark historicals in the future and those will be published under Renee Russell. The more contemporary romantic suspense and mystery books I write in the future will all appear under the pen name Darcy McKenna.

How did you come up with the idea behind Kate's Pride?

Kate's Pride is about a young woman in West Tennessee who finds herself in the family way and abandoned by her own family after the end of the Civil War. It's a Southern Gothic Historical in the tradition of Tennessee Williams and William Faulkner. I got the idea for the book when I was doing genealogical research on my family and got stuck. It drove me so nuts I decided to write a book about what might have happened to a young woman in that time and place and under those circumstance.

This was my first novel and it took me over two years to write it. I learned a lot along the way -- like don't keep revising the first two or three chapters or you'll never get the thing completed. Just write it straight through and then go back and edit.

The novel was published January 2007 by Wings ePress as both an ebook and a trade paperback.

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

Kate's Pride is a very dark story and I found it difficult to express Kate's pain without becoming emotionally upset myself. The bones of the story line are based on someone in my own family history and I worried what other family members would think of the story I wrote about our common ancestress.

I most enjoyed the writing process itself. Although it certainly wasn't easy. When it was really rolling along I felt on top of the world. When I had writer's block I thought about just chucking the whole thing. When I wrote "The End" it was one of the most exhilarating moments of my life.

What sets the book apart from the other things you have written?

I've written and published quite a few short stories and none of them are as dark and tragic as Kate's Pride. Even the other novels I've written are not as dark as this story.

It's similar to the others in that a woman who should be in a position of weakness finds the inner strength to carry on in the face of big obstacles.

What will your next book be about?

Fated Love is about a woman who's been the object of unrequited love for more than one hundred years. She keeps getting reborn and pursued by two men. One of whom is her soul mate the other her killer.

How have your personal experiences influenced the direction of your writing?

I tend to writer darker stories. Maybe because my father died when I was very young, maybe because we moved a lot when I was in school, maybe because I'm terribly shy. Or perhaps it's a combination of all those things. I don't want anyone to think I had an awful childhood because I didn't. Those are just the things that come to mind when you ask about personal experiences and writing.

When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?

When I was in junior high school I wanted to be a writer more than anything. I loved the way books could take you to other cities, other countries, to the past and to the future and I wanted to be able to do that too.

Who would you say has influenced you the most?

Wow. That's a tough one. I have so very many favorite authors across all genres. Going back to your first question about when I decided I wanted to be a writer, I grew up on Phyllis Whitney, Norah Lofts and Agatha Christie, so I supposed you could say those were my early inspirations.

What are your main concerns as a writer?

From a personal point of view, I'm concerned that no one will like my work. I think a lot of authors are that way -- at least quite a few I've spoken too. I once heard another author say putting your book out there for the public is like standing on a stage, dropping your pants and waiting for comments.

From an industry point of view -- it's really really hard to get published these days and a lot of good books go unpublished because there just isn't space in the major publishers' lists to publish everything. They may like half a dozen that were submitted, but they only have one slot available so they choose the one they feel will make the most money. Publishing is a business after all and if the publishers don't make money they can't stay in business.

What would you say are the biggest challenges that you face? And, how do you deal with them?

I think the biggest challenges are making time to write -- I have a day job and I have an hour drive in each direction. Getting Kate's Pride published doesn't guarantee me anything going forward. So I worry about sales figures. Wings ePress is a small publisher and their books are not available through the big distributors. That means none of the big chain bookstores will carry my book on their shelves. And even the independents won't unless I contact them and convince them they should carry one or two copies.

As far as getting another book published, I can only write the best book I can and hope I'm the one chosen for that available slot. As far as sales numbers, I've created my own website, www.reneerussell.com, where people can find out more about me and my book. I've been contacting independent bookstore owners and begging them to stock a few books. I'm contacting independent bookstores to see if I can set up a book-signings. I'm contacting newspapers and newsletters to get book reviews and author interviews to get my book out to the public. Also, I'm offering to do question and answers sessions via telephone with book clubs who choose my novel to read. I guess you could say I'm trying to think outside the box as much as possible to find marketing strategies that will overcome the lack of distribution to major bookstores.

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

That's an easy one! Getting my first novel published. Hopefully there will be many many more to come.

How did you get there?

It was a long and frustration road. Once I wrote "The End" the hard part was really just beginning. I sent out queries to all the major New York publishing houses and got form rejections from all of them. I can't tell you how devastated I felt! Thinking I had no talent as a writer I gave up. The manuscript went into a drawer and I didn't write another thing for several years. I was so naive about the publishing business I thought those rejections were it and I hadn't been able to cut it. Then, I began to write again.

It was a compulsion and I couldn't not write any more. I tried my hand at a few short stories and got them published. That was a huge boost to my morale. I'd also begun really learning about the publishing industry as a whole and realized what a truly tough business it is. Since I'd already been turned down flat by the big [New York] N.Y. houses, I explored the possibilities of epublishing. I researched quite a few and decided I like Wings the best. I sent them the first manuscript and they sent me a contract. Now I've completed a second novel and am working on two more. What a difference it makes to understand how the industry works and that you just have to have a lot of persistence. Keep writing, keep sending out those queries. Your first book may not be published. Or even the second or third or fourth. But keep trying and eventually your dream can come true.

Do you write everyday?

I try to write at least one hour every weekday evening and two or three hours each on Saturday and Sunday.

You spoke of a time when you had writer's block. How did you deal with this?

I got to a point where I didn't know how to proceed. I knew how the book ended, but couldn't quite figure out how to write the middle. I ended up not pushing myself, just let it simmer in the back of my mind and relaxed about it. I wasn't on a specific schedule so I had the luxury of doing that. Eventually the middle of the story came to me.

Will there come a time when the e-book will supersede or replace "the book" as we know it?

In my heart I think this will happen. Not with my own generation, but with the one following. So many of the younger generation get all their information electronically. So yes, I believe e-books are the wave of the future. I bought an e-book reader myself and actually enjoy it immensely!

Do you think more writers will consider epublishing as a way of getting their books out there?

I think quite a few are doing that now. With the major N.Y. houses having so few slots available for books, many truly excellent books are now being published by epublishers.

Do you see a time when a lot of them will prefer this as opposed to the traditional print publication?

That's hard for me to say. I still see a place for both. Some people will prefer the ease of the ebooks. You can transport your entire library on a hand held-reader with ebooks, but there will be some who prefer holding a book in their hands. Personally I like both. Why? As a huge fan of Star Trek growing up, I saw a world where nothing was in a book. They got all their information from computers --- including books. So I have to say as the world progresses I think there will be many more books done by epublishers. It saves trees, it saves shelf space, all around it's a good thing.

This article was first published on OhmyNews International

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[Interview] Gary Dale Cearley

Gary Dale Cearley grew up in Prescott, Arkansas. He joined the United States Navy two months after graduating from high school and received language training in Vietnamese at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California and further military training at Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas.

After the leaving the navy, he started an international shipping and freight forwarding company and went to work in Los Angeles, living in the Venice Beach area. He then moved to Seoul, in South Korea before settling in Vietnam where he has lived for well over a decade.

His first book, Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness: The Truth About the Vatican and the Birth of Islam is a refutation of The Prophet, a tract by Jack Chick. The Prophet suggests that the Vatican created Islam in order to rid themselves of rival early Christian denominations who did not follow Roman Catholic Church doctrines.

In a recent interview, Gary Dale Cearley spoke about his writing.

In all, how many books have you written so far?

Projects in or near completion, about seven. But I have only published two, which were both self-published.

Gary Dale Gets Offensive was released in October of 2006 and Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness was released in July of 2006.

I originally had targeted Gary Dale Gets Offensive to be released about June or July of 2007, but one of the main subjects of Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness, the biblical tract publisher Jack Chick, had a heart attack earlier in 2006 and he was 83 years old at the time. I decided to sew that book up and get it out first because I wanted it to be released while Jack Chick was still alive. I believe he still is alive as I have yet to see a credible obituary for him. (There is one spoof obituary someone posted on the internet as a joke). As far as releasing both of these books a few months apart? Well, I saw no problem in this due to the fact that they are for two totally different audiences.

Your second book is a collection of ‘bawdy’ stories from the American South. What motivated you to write it?

When I tell people about the book they mistakenly assume that this is “just a joke book”. They couldn’t be further from the truth. This book actually is an attempt to keep a traditional story telling style alive.

The books full title is Gary Dale Gets Offensive!: Lurid Scenes from Bawdville. It actually was very simple to write compared to others that I have written. In the first part of the book I explain the differences in style between how Southern story telling was done and how it is seemingly a dying genre. I also explain a bit about the role of the bawdier stories in Southern culture as well -- something that is not well represented nowadays, and quite frankly never has been. The rest of the book I re-tell some of these bawdier stories in the fashion of the Southern story teller.

How long did it take you to write it?

I am not exactly sure how long this book took to write. I know that sounds like a flakey answer but to tell the truth, I have been collecting several of the stories for years. Last year year most of the work I did on the book was mainly to put it together and have it published. The research for the book certainly did not take as long in man hours as my first published book, Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness: The Truth About the Vatican and the Birth of Islam, which was much, much longer on the research. And rightfully so, as Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness was a refutation of another work where I had to dig into historical facts for every point. The two books weren’t even in the same league when it came to the research end of it.

Where and when was it published?

Gary Dale Gets Offensive! was actually self-published in October of 2006. It will be available on all of the online book retail outlets soon. By this I mean outlets such as Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, etc. I have already sent several advance copies to interested parties around the world and it is getting rave reviews in response. But hey, let’s see how it floats when it hits the market. What I can say is that Gary Dale Gets Offensive! is already benefiting from good word-of-mouth.

I have also been experiencing good word-of-mouth with Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness as well, which has become a bit of a conversation piece. I have been receiving e-mails from people all over the world since its publication. Initially I received some quasi-hate mail for it, which was shocking. Some people would say things like “you’re going straight to hell!” Most of this came from evangelical types, all of whom I responded to by questioning if they’d actually read it. Not one of them had! In fact I even had one of the hate mailers reply to me that he refused to read it because it was the work of Satan! I found this a bit bothersome because of my personal church background, but then again, maybe I should have expected it. But all of the mail that I have received from people who actually read the book, bar none, has been extremely positive and I am very proud of that!

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

One thing I took a personal slap in the face over was the fact that I had always thought of myself as a good, conscientious writer but when I started finishing books I began finding all of the errors in spelling and punctuation that I never thought would have come from me. Simple things I should have seen and certainly knew better. This really got me. I did very well in school and in university when it came to grammar, spelling and style. I hate to see poor writing from peers, colleagues and professionals. But to see how bad I can be before editing always is like having cold water splashed over my ego. Re-writing isn’t always for style -- quite often it is for silly, simple mistakes! I am learning to swallow my pride on this.

I really enjoy the learning process that I go through when I am writing, especially when several disparate pieces of research come together and make sense and present a broader picture. I saw exactly that with Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness and I am seeing it even more clearly on my current biographical project, but more on that later. Also, I have enjoyed that the research on these books have put me in contact with so many new and interesting people who have helped me with the finer points of the subject I am researching. It has been great!

What sets the book apart from the other things you have written?

First of all, none of my major projects have been similar to one another. There seems to be no single thread that holds them all together. And that’s alright because I don’t want to find myself pidgeon-holed one day and not be able to write what I want to. But I would say that Gary Dale Gets Offensive! would be very interesting to people who like humor, especially spicey humor and regional humor, whereas Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness appeals to people who like history and religious subjects. I have two other humorous projects in the works, one is sort of a bit autobiographical and the other is purely fiction, so this obviously isn’t the only humorous project I have undertaken, but it is also definitely unlike the other two.

I believe that Gary Dale Gets Offensive! would only be similar to my other works and projects in that it was something I personally found intensely interesting. So I wrote about it and ultimately produced a book! None of my stuff is cookie cutter.

What will your next book be about?

My next book, which has been an immensely interesting project so far, is about the life of Lysander Spooner. Lysander Spooner was a libertarian before there was the term “libertarian”. He was a classical anarchist in many important respects, but not an anarchist in the modern sense of the word. Spooner was a major figure in the abolitionist movement prior to the American Civil War. He was a radical who supported the actions of John Brown and Nat Turner. Spooner believed in using force to free the slaves but he didn’t support the Union ’s efforts in the Civil War because he believed the war was not for the purpose of freeing slaves.

Lysander’s family also had a very intriguing history. The Spooners came to the New World by a Puritan widow joining her remnant family in Plymouth Colony, bringing her two young sons. Through the years the Spooner family survived Prince Joseph’s War and other hardships of Puritan life and saw much of the early history of what is now the state of Massachusetts. Lysander’s grandfather, Wing Spooner, was a hero of the American Revolution. Lysander Spooner himself was a major political pampleteer of the 19th century who took on the government all his adult life, beginning in his early twenties, and most of the time alone. He was associated with many well known people of his age such as William Lloyd Garrison, Gerrit Smith, John Davis and Charles Allen. An amazing character was Lysander. And that having been said, there has been very little written about the man at all which was the main impetus for me deciding I wanted to do this project. It believe that if I stopped after this book it would be considered my magnum opus. But then again, I have no plans to stop after the Spooner book. It will be my best so far, that I can promise.

Of all the books you have written so far which would you say was the most difficult to write? Why is this?

My next book, the one on Lysander Spooner, will be lucky to be out by March of 2007. I have been working on the background research for a few years already and am still not 100% finished. It has turned out to be quite a challenge on the research side of things. I am loving it though.

I mean, the first time I read a Spooner tract was over twenty years ago when I was still in the US Navy. The tract was “No Treason” and it altered me politically from that point forward. I have been a fan of his various works since. But I couldn’t study my subject in a straightforward manner. During the research I conducted on Spooner’s life there have been three areas I have had to cover: Spooner’s personal life and family history, what was going on locally and nationally around Lysander Spooner during his lifetime, and how his writings reflect his relationship to this world that was around him.

What an exceptional challenge, but it has really made me grow as a writer!

Which was the easiest? Why do you think this was so?

Of the two books that have already been published Gary Dale Gets Offensive! was by far the easiest to write. But I have one or two in the pipeline which are basically finished already, but not polished for publication yet, that I feel were even easier to write than Gary Dale Gets Offensive! These were ideas that I developed, sat down and mind mapped, and from the mind map made a diagram of what should be written in each chapter, then I sat down and worked them out. The words just flowed. But even though these are 95% finished products I am putting everything on hold until I get the Lysander Spooner book out. It is a very important and very personal project to me and I want that it is the hallmark of all I have done up until the point that I release the Spooner book.

Do you write everyday? How much time would you say you spend on writing?

I write whenever I can. I mainly concentrate my actual writing on two to three nights per week and one or both days on the weekend. I will often do a “marathon stretch”. My marathon stretch is when I start writing on a Friday evening after dinner, work until the early hours of Saturday morning, then sleep a bit. When I wake up later Saturday morning I will normally work until lunch and after lunch I work again until the early hours of the morning (sometimes taking dinner, sometimes not). I repeat the process Sunday. I will especially do this if I know there is a long weekend that I am in town for because then I get even one more day on the marathon, but normally that day would only be a half day.

People who know me personally also know me as a very fun loving, social guy. I am quite involved in my community and am tied up with going out a lot in the evenings either for a few drinks for a game of darts or both. Many can’t believe that I have time to research and write all that I do. But what many don’t know is that I have had sleeping problems almost all my life. My first decision to start researching these things had to do with the fact that I couldn’t sleep and rather than toss around in the bed and wake up my girlfriend at the time, I decided to be pro-active and get up and grab a book or go to the computer!

What would you say are the biggest challenges that you face? And, how do you deal with these challenges?

Much of what I write is non-fiction -- so good, deep, proper research is primo to what I am doing. As an expatriate living in Vietnam , this research takes me exponentially more time and effort than if I were back home.

Most of the research I do on my topics I can conduct in little pieces every day through my own books, borrowing books from others, and books online, etc. I start out by doing mind maps to discern what I know already about a subject and also on what I need to know. I will search the reference books that I already have in my possession for more ideas. Quite often I must buy much of my reference books from overseas. This is both expensive and time consuming. I also try to find people who can help guide me or help me with sources, primary sources whenever possible. I have had these generous folks help me in several different countries. I find them through networks that I have already and sometimes simply through internet searches. The research takes so much longer than if I were in Los Angeles or London or another large city where I could go right into major university libraries or large, specialized bookstores. But it also makes the entire process more interesting I presume. It also gives me more time to develop ideas about the project than if I had all the information right at my finger tips. Lots of information I can find on the web as well but I only use that as guideline material because quite often the information found on the web is tainted with untruths. Not all I find on the web is untrue by a long shot, but a substantial enough amount is that I have to question and vet everything I see there, so again I am left having to do the background research on what I find there.

How have your personal experiences influenced the direction of your writing?

I have had a very diverse life in my forty years on earth. I was raised in a very rural and wooded area of Arkansas but have lived for the better part of two decades overseas, in Seoul, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. I was in the United States Navy for a few years even before living abroad. While in the Navy I was trained at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, in Vietnamese. Because of this as well I lived in many parts of the United States West Coast: San Diego, Monterey, Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay area, Seattle area… All of this moving around didn’t just happen though.

When I was quite young I picked up an intense interest in reading almost anything I could get my hands on. My siblings were much more outdoorsy and were interested in horses and go carts. But I loved going to my grandmother’s house and reading her World Book Encyclopedias that were bought for my aunt’s schooling. When my mother got our own set I would spend hours upon end at home reading random articles in them as well. My mind always wondered to other parts of the world…

As I got older I was also attracted to the long religious history associated with the King James Bible and found myself studying it for many late hours when I should have been sleeping. One year a friend of the family for Christmas gave me a large, exhaustive biblical concordance with glossaries in the back of Koiné Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic and Chaldean languages. This concordance sparked a fascination with foreign languages that has guided my life at many turns. Mama’s younger sister was a Spanish teacher in my local high school so I borrowed books from her from around the age of 12 and taught myself Spanish. But my thirst for learning languages didn’t stop there. I would save my lunch money to buy Dover foreign language phrase books via the mail. My mother was also a member of Book of the Month and History Book Club so I started reading adult level books in History when I was still a pre-teen. In my adult life this background has led me to travel over fifty countries in the world so far. A few years back I began to document happenings in history, cultural idiosyncrasies that I found interesting, bios of people I discovered were interesting, etc. Some of the subjects I began writing about were concerning people I had read about and some were about things I had seen or places I had been.

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

I would say the fact that I have basically written what I have wanted to up to this point and on my own schedule is a major accomplishment in my mind. It is the main reason that I have been sticking to self-publishing for my projects. I won’t say that I might not one day choose the traditional publishing route, but I really don’t think I will do that until most of my pet projects are out of the way. I thought long and hard before deciding to self-publish. Getting rich on the writing wasn’t the goal. I felt that I had lots to say about subjects that were keenly personal to me and I felt that I would be wasting my time by trying to push fairly niche projects to publishers. Right now I feel like I am still on the right track. If I do come up with a project that I feel has a broad appeal, well, at that time I might look at the traditional route. For now I am still happy though. My books are out there and available for those who want to read them.

How did you get there?

It took lots of work and imagination to work on my books. This will fly in the face of conventional wisdom, but I never set myself a personal goal to become a writer. Somehow I knew from when I was a young kid in rural Arkansas that I would be an author of several books and that I would eventually have a measure of respect from it. Then a few years ago I just decided to start working at it. I took a first step forward by making a list of the subjects I wanted to write about and I started mapping them out, researching them, and recording my findings and compiling notes. I then told myself early in 2006 that it was time to go the second step. I had to start putting these write ups in final book form. I had procrastinated on this because I was enjoying the research and kept putting off the writing side of it but I think Jack Chick’s heart attack was the catalyst to get me going. Even though I had planned to publish Gary Dale Gets Offensive! before publishing Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness, I think that if I finally did not feel the sudden intense pressure to get Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness published while Jack Chick was still alive maybe both books would still be a file on my computer...

This article was first published on OhmyNews International.

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[Interview] Maurice Suckling

Maurice Suckling has produced and directed plays for a number of British theatre groups. He has also worked as a radio and television scriptwriter and a creative consultant for a number of national and multinational companies.

Since 1998, he has been working as a writer, editor, designer, voice director and project manager in the computer games industry.

His first collection of short stories, Photocopies of Heaven (Elastic Press) was published in November 2006.

In a recent interview, Maurice Suckling spoke about his writing.

When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?

I think I always wanted to be one. I always wrote stuff, little ideas, thoughts -- that kind of thing.

The first story I really remember and was maybe worth remembering was called The Island of Blue Glass. I’m not sure how to explain it -- it was a kind of surreal love story in which I wanted to never write the word love, because I thought there were lots more interesting ways of writing about the subject. I wanted to try and write a love story without clichés or laziness.

I never showed it to a publisher. Only a handful of people have read it. Amongst the people who read it were some of my brother Laurence’s students from across Europe . Some people wrote to me to tell me how much they liked it -- so I suppose it was received well, if not that widely.

How did you feel about this?

It made me feel fantastic -- that I’d communicated with people I didn’t know who lived thousands of miles away and that they’d felt something that made them want to write to someone they’d never met. I thought maybe I should write some more and see what else happens…

How have your personal experiences influenced the direction of your writing?

Everything I read, watch, listen to, everywhere I go, everyone I meet makes some kind of impression somewhere and it all goes in, and sometimes finds a way out. I tend to write about people who live now, are used to a technology-rich, consumerist-heavy and religiously- or spiritually-poor world. People like me, and people like my friends. Maybe that doesn’t answer the question.

To you, what are aliens?

Slimey green beings from other planets with lots of tentacles, though there are probably lots of different styles; some maybe wear human suits. I’ve never met any aliens (as far as I know) but I like writing about them because they are cool. They’re very pliable for dramatic purposes -- invasion stories, horror stories, stories about the strangeness and surprising nature of the universe, and also, because of certain imagery and preconceptions about them in popular culture, they also have lots of potential for humour.

What is your latest book about?

It’s called Photocopies of Heaven. It’s about how miracles are all around us but we don’t always notice them, about how the tiniest of everyday things is amazing, about how technology shapes our lives and the stories we tell about them, about how nothing means anything, and everything means something.

How many stories are in the collection?

28, though one is in six episodes.

What unites them?

I think they’re all about characters looking for meaning in their lives; about people who feel moments of intense spirituality but don’t have religion and don’t know what to do with those feelings, or about people who don’t feel any spirituality, but are surprised when they do (or feel something they have no better word for than ‘spirituality’ but it doesn’t fit with the way they view the world), or would be surprised if they could ever see the world more clearly. They’re stories about everyday miracles, the most amazing things that we take for granted, and, mostly, about people who are alive now and have the same kind of references to pop culture and contemporary technology as I do. In addition to that a number of the stories also share characters, sometimes re-appearing in minor roles, so you get this sense that people move on and they’re not just trapped in the character arc of one simple story. It’s quite exciting, because it means there’s a way of giving longer and richer character arcs to characters in short stories -- and I think this is something I’d like to have another look at in the future.

How did the idea behind the book come about?

I wanted to write about the kinds of people I mix with and meet in my life; people who don’t have lives like action movie plotlines, people who are scrabbling around, trying to make sense of their lives, and, for the most part, just trying to do the best they can. I’m interested in what these people think about, and how they live -- that’s really exciting to me. So much of our lives are shaped around popular culture and technology it seemed important to address that -- it seems that’s where we do a lot of our living. I also wanted to explore it without resorting to the laziness of cynicism. I wanted to find ways of writing about how amazing life can be sometimes and how people have feelings that are almost spiritual even if they aren’t religious -- and I wanted to do this without being dogmatic or facile.

What is the significance of the book’s title?

It shows the collusion between technology and spirituality in the stories. It also hints at two key interpretations of many of the stories; that the best we can get of heaven is just photocopies of it, i.e. something insubstantial and something that is less than what it was, something reduced by trying to talk about it, and reduced by the way we experience it; and secondly, more optimistically, that to be able to photocopy heaven is fantastic because we can at least see a version of it -- and if that’s the best we get, so be it, but at least we get that.

How long did it take you to write it?

About two years, on and off.

It was published in the U.K. by Elastic Press in November 2006.

Which aspects of the work that you put into Photocopies of Heaven did you find most difficult?

There are cartoons in the book -- well, sort of a graphic story told with imagery like in plane safety cards or in self-assembly furniture instructions. Finding the right people to do them was hard. Then I found rm*, Gaylie Runciman and Debs Norton, two very talented artists based in Glasgow -- and I couldn’t have been happier.

They tend to specialise in installation art and digital media, but they’re also animators. They won an award just recently: The Scottish Style Awards ‘Taste Maker of the Year’.

What was it about the work rm* did that you found particularly pleasing?

They just immediately got what I was talking about -- and that was such a delight. They never forced the imagery -- the story they worked on ("The Amazing Adventures of No One in Particular") needs the imagery to almost strike you as bland -- and it’s the collision between the words and pictures that gives it its heart. They also really liked the story too and found the same things funny in the same kinds of ways as I did, so that made things trip along very nicely for all of us.

What did you enjoy most during the process that led to Photocopies of Heaven?

I liked working on all of it -- I really set out to have fun with storytelling and to experiment with techniques and ideas. For example, the Amazing Adventures I just mentioned. There’s one story written entirely in text message form, because there were lots of characters and I wanted them all to speak with their own voices and for the sense of an authorial voice controlling them all to be masked.

There’s a story that tracks a relationship through the things that the couple buy. There’s another tracking the state of mind of a guy as he grows up and hits his 30s through the gadgets he has. There are various stories where I’ve played about a little with linearity and jumping back and forth in time.

I already mentioned having characters return and feature in more than one story in the collection, and that was one of the most exciting experiments to me. I thought not many people would notice -- but they have and I’m really delighted about it.

What sets the book apart from the other things you have written?

Most of what I’ve written to date is for clients -- people who hire me to tell stories -- mostly in computer games, but sometimes other mediums. This book is different because it’s the first thing I’ve published that’s by me, where the copyright and all the words and ideas aren’t owned by a company that paid me. It’s really me expressing myself, which is something I only get to do professionally in a more limited way, as a general rule.

In what way is it similar?

It’s not. A lot of computer game stories I write are set in a crime, or an adventure, an action, or a sports world. Here I wanted to set stories in a contemporary world recognisable as the one where people, like me, are used to having crime, action, adventure stories etc all around us, where we’re used to wondering how come our world isn’t as full of story and drama as the TV and movies we watch are.

How many of these stories have you done so far?

Including games that don’t really need stories, but just need some editing, I’ve currently worked on 13 games.

Do you have examples of some of the stories you’ve been hired to tell and some of the media through which you have told them?

Probably the best known stories have been for a series of games called Driver. These stories have been written as screenplays and are delivered as CGI animation -- often using motion capture. I often direct the voices for these stories too and sometimes the publishers bring in famous names like Mickey Rourke and Iggy Pop and I get to work with them.

How long have you been doing this?

About 9 years.

How did you start?

A friend took a job at a company that made games and they needed a writer and I got asked if they could book my time for a couple of weeks. I’ve been working in games ever since.

What are some of the challenges that come with this line of work? And, how do you deal with them?

It’s not like when you write your own material. Firstly you have to sign away all your copyright -- and there’s no way round that, apart from to have a best selling novel or something in the first place, in which case the games companies would come to you to license the title.

You can also have vast swathes of people looking over your shoulder and chipping in -- producers, designers, animators, programmers, artists -- there are a lot of people to try and keep happy. Most people think they can write, and most people have seen movies they think you should be ‘absorbing’ into your work. You can deal with this by being selective, or more often lucky with whom you work, or, more often than that, just by rolling your sleeves up and taking the time to keep people on-board. This can involve visits to clients and lots of clear headed thinking and a basic ability with handling people.

Recently you presented a lecture at De Montfort University? Had you done something like this before? How did you find the experience?

I did a guest lecture for Kate Pullinger’s online MA writing course. The lecture was an asynchronous forum, so I didn’t make my way to Leicester, it was all done online. I spent my time answering the students’ questions about writing in games, the nature of interactive narrative and techniques for designing interactive stories.

That was the first time I did an asynchronous forum, but I’ve spoken about this kind of thing and related topics before all over the place -- Reading , Newcastle , Tokyo , Kyoto , Shanghai , Chongxing, Chengdu , Hanover last week, and I’ll be talking in Malmo in May. I travel quite a bit with my work and for my company, The Mustard Corporation because of our clients and because of the games conferences all over the world -- it’s GDC in San Francisco in early March -- and also because I do quite a bit of voice recording of actors for games and that usually entails being in L.A. -- and that’s another thing --you find ways of making good use of time when you spend so much of it travelling.

I really enjoyed the experience -- I think it went down O.K., people thanked me, and said they found it interesting. I can’t remember if I mentioned it, but I’m also working towards a Ph.D. in creative writing at Newcastle University and I like the idea of maybe doing the occasional guest lecture again to students sometime in the future.

How do you find the time for all the projects you are working on?

Well, there’s no real magic to it -- I just work hard. It’s not like it’s a chore because I like it -- and if I didn’t do it it just wouldn’t get done and I’d be left feeling I wished I’d done it. Plus I actually like working on a few things at once -- it keeps them all interesting and bits of my subconscious just take care of things on projects in the back of my mind, then when I go to work on them my brain has already done some of it for me -- my PC is still just single processor -- I wonder if I got a dual core one it would do this kind of thing for me…

I’m good at making minutes count too -- and they add up.

What will your next book be about?

It'll be about the same kind of world, themes, concerns, with characters not too distant from those in Photocopies of Heaven, but it will be a novel.

Do you have a working title for the novel?

Yes I do, though I don’t want to jinx it by mentioning it just yet.

When do you think you will be submitting it for publication?

Maybe another 18 months. I think I’d like to finish it before I show it to a publisher.

How long do you think it will take you to write the novel?

From start to finish it’ll be about two and a half years. It’s slow going when I’m working on so many other things at once.

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

To have been self employed for over 10 years, and counting -- and not to have had my credit card re-possessed. It might sound not much, but trust me, it's a lot harder than it sounds.

How did you get there?

I work hard, I schmooze, and I never stop learning and being interested in stories and storytelling.

This article was first featured on OhmyNews International.

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[Interview] Patrick Mackeown

Novelist Patrick Mackeown was born in London in 1966 and grew up in Turkey, Wales and in several parts of England.

He studied analytical philosophy and worked as a chef, a salesman, a computer operator and as a senior technician for Demon Internet as well as for an internationally renowned news corporation.

His debut novel, The Expendability Doctrine has been described as “a suspenseful saga” about oil, greed and murder.

In a recent interview, Patrick Mackeown spoke about his writing.

In all, how many books have you written?

So far, I’ve only written one book, a thriller called The Expendability Doctrine, published by BookScape. It’s been highly recommended by the Midwest Book Review.

It’s only been out since November of 2006. But, already it’s been featured on the front page of Independent Publisher Online Magazine, Christmas edition. Since this is my debut novel, I’m very pleased.

I also write satires as an outlet for my cynicism. President Bush has done badly by my hand, I must admit, much to the delight of several American webmasters and radio talk show hosts. Lisa Casey’s website All Hat No Cattle, and Terry Coppage’s Bartcop have posted copies of my parodies on their pages. I’d have to say that in addition to contributing a little towards the entertainment of Lisa and Terry’s website viewers, I’ve also had great fun myself.

What is your latest book about?

My next thriller, The Cardinal’s Blood, combines details from the mysterious death of an Italian banker in London in 1982 with a series of Mafia crimes.

I’m still writing it. I have been working on it for more than a year.

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

I’d say that I find researching my books most time consuming. I wouldn’t say that it’s difficult. Perhaps it’s difficult to know when to stop. I think when the author begins to wonder exactly how much darker a carpet would have been, given a certain amount of exposure to sunlight, a decade ago, and so on, it’s time to take a break!

Which did you enjoy most?

When my characters say funny things I find it entertaining.

What sets the book apart from the other things you have written?

The main difference between The Cardinal’s Blood and The Expendability Doctrine is that the former novel is written in the recent historical past.

It’s not an extraordinary challenge, because of course, I’m quite familiar with the Eighties, but still, it’s more challenging, I’d say, setting a narrative in a different time frame from the one in which the author sits.

In what way is it similar?

The fact that it’s a thriller, and that it’s international in its scope characterises it as one of my novels.

What will your next book be about?

I’m not sure yet what my third novel will be about. There are so many interesting subjects.

When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?

I’ve decided to be a writer several times. The first time was when I must have been seven or eight years old. My parents gave me a book, and on its rear-cover the publisher encouraged its readers to send anecdotes and what-have-you to their London head office. I submitted to them The Trials Of A Young, Welsh, Hill Sheep-Farmer. Since then I moved house several times and lost the publisher’s response. But, I remember that it was a charming one.

Who would you say has influenced you the most?

Very recently, Ismail Kadare’s Broken April, without question. It’s a story which haunts the reader long after its final page. It has a sadness which hangs outside the novel. It touches the subject of mankind’s beastliness in a tender and almost loving fashion.

And, of writers generally, I’d say that Gerald Durrell’s humour is rarely far from my mind. To constantly poke fun at life, I think, is a writer’s solemn duty. Any refugee from Dickens’ Hard Times, who has been made to sit through a dose of Josiah Bounderby’s insufferable rhetoric, will know that well enough. In contemplating what cannot be contemplated, William Golding’s The Inheritors showed me that an author can write magnificently about sensory perceptions which Neanderthal Man possessed, and modern humans do not.

How have your personal experiences influenced the direction of your writing?

I can’t honestly say that many of them have, at least not that I’m aware of. Thankfully I’ve never been pursued by armed men, or tortured. That said, however, I suspect that the cynicisms, which I acquire during my researches, find an outlet in my poems. “Cruel World” is a good example. It was published only days ago, in Lionheart Press’ poetry anthology: Ancient Heart Magazine.

What are your main concerns and challenges as a writer?

That’s a difficult question, almost too difficult; I have several. The accuracy of my research troubles me to distraction. I’ve been known to telephone foreign embassies to ask them about the colour of their carpets. I must stop doing that. But, on a more sombre note, I’d have to mention corruption and genocide.

It’s a task of thriller writers to point out how political elites abuse their charges. And, it’s certainly a task I relish. However, it’s difficult to study inhumanity on a daily basis and still believe in goodness. I’d have to say that I find that aspect of my work challenging.

How do you deal with these challenges?

Put simply, the question is: How can I continuously write about abuses of authority without becoming jaded and cynical? There might be a temptation to assume that I succeed! I hope it’s possible to be cynical without becoming too jaded.

Cynicism visits all of us, occasionally, I’m sure. But, my wife reminds me, simply by being there, that life itself has a beauty which can’t be measured. I think, when pressed, I remind myself that mankind possesses the unfortunate ability to promote his own interests above everything else. And, this is a mistake. I suspect that it’s my realisation that individual men are in error which releases me from a constant cycle of worry.

Do you write every day?

I write for at least eight hours a day. But, I do include research in that calculation.

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