[Interview] Michael McIrvin

Michael McIrvin has five poetry collections, two novels and a collection of essays to his name.

His latest novel, The Blue Man Dreams the End of Time (BeWrite Books, 2009) has been described as an implicit indictment of the use of murder and torture by modern nation states.

In this interview, McIrvin talks about his writing:

When did you start writing?.

My most recent book is a novel, but I have also published poetry collections, and that genre was my first calling.

I started writing poetry at age 12 after my first crisis of faith. I read the Bible like a cabalist in my search for answers, every syllable, afraid I might miss some truth hiding there. When I reached the last page, I started over; but this time I only read Genesis, Revelations, and the Psalms, the Christian creation and destruction myths and the King James’ version of poetry — the good bits in my 12-year-old opinion.

In fact, the intersection of language and mythology remain important to both my poetry and my prose. My first poems were a cross between the Psalms, poetry that looked like that text in terms of long lines (mostly Whitman and Wordsworth) in my father’s old intro to lit textbook from college, and popular song lyrics.

I 'published' my first book a year or so later, a few copies of Xeroxed poems stapled together (I did the cover art too, of course). My first real book came out from a small poetry publisher in New Mexico, USA many years later, and I have published eight books in total since: five poetry collections, an academic essay collection, and two novels.

I can’t claim to actively seek publication like I did when in my 20s and 30s, but rather, I generally send mss to publishers who ask because they have seen my work in literary magazines or because of the previous books. I did send my current novel manuscript to BeWrite Books unsolicited, however, after a friend suggested that the themes in the book would be more readily acceptable to a non-US publisher.

How would you describe the writing you are doing?

The most recent novel from BeWrite Books is about counterintelligence, and it is billed as a literary thriller. It is perhaps as accurate to call it social and political commentary in the guise of literary fiction, but the book is still fiction and so said commentary is implicit in the story, sublimated to story and character.

The poetry collection on which I am putting the finishing touches is about death and war and memory, and I am starting a new one that is made of stories: vignettes of working class life that all seem at this point to be, as a friend said of them recently, transcendent, the stuff of myth and ritual in everyday existence.

I am trying to find the time and energy to start the next novel too, which will be based on a short story I wrote some years ago about a feral child and his memories of his time in that mode. The novel will then follow him through his life as a 'tamed' adult, a man living on the edge of society even as he walks through it. At least that is the plan presently.

Has your personal experience had an impact on your writing?

I am a poet, fiction writer, and essayist with cultural concerns, but all of these genres are connected for me, the writing all of a piece. I frequently write narrative poems, for example, poetry that tells a story or has a character at its center. I also include some of the poet’s most powerful tools in my fiction, especially figurative language, and I use these same tools in my essays as well. And all of my work includes the stuff of modern life, the kinds of cultural issues that figure prominently in our current existence, like what constitutes individual identity in an age of hive behaviour, like how political power functions in the lives of individuals.

Don’t get me wrong. The overriding aims in my poetry and my fiction are still artistic and my poems and novels are not textual soapboxes. But like every writer, the elements of my life, what concerns me, enter the work almost inevitably and I always try to figure out how to make them serve the project at hand rather than the other way around.

Who is your target audience?

I do not aim my work at a given demographic, but if anything, I guess I write for an astute reader, one not only capable of considering the thematic elements but who also appreciates what the poet Robert Duncan called the snakelike beauty of living syntax. A good metaphor is only worth its weight in gold if the reader gets it.

Which authors influenced you most?

The influences for The Blue Man Dreams the End of Time will probably shock my publisher because those influences are perhaps not readily apparent. I am of the age now that influence is not so much stylistic as something tougher to explain, like how a given writer handles a topic or the overall tone of the prose.

Don DeLillo (Underworld) has always impressed me with his ability to include what one might term topical material without waxing didactic, and some of his prose is so lyrical it is obvious that he understands the poet’s toolkit well (again, tools I use in my fiction too). The protagonist in my latest novel is a former CIA agent, and the subject of torture is important to the book, but the book is not a heavy-handed expose on the subject but rather a larger indictment via a dramatization of the practice in historical context — in this case Mesoamerica at the end of the 20th century.

I also love Cormac McCarthy’s terse prose (Blood Meridian may be the best US novel of the 20th century), his ability to make the reader shudder for a long time in few words but also his ability to move the story forward quickly. Many of his characters also rise to the level of archetype and their story to the level of mythic undertaking. The main character and his tale in The Blue Man Dreams the End of Time, I hope, achieve those levels to some small degree.

What are your main concerns as a writer?

I just want to get it right, which is of course a moving target and a writer does not “get it right” via an algorithm. So, the work at hand is always an exercise in problem solving as well as creation. I suppose the key is tenacity, a willingness to go after my own text as many times as it takes to find shortcomings and figure out the necessary fix.

What are the biggest challenges that you face?

These days, time and energy. I somehow manage to find both, and it frequently amazes me to open a notebook or a manuscript file and see how much I have done. But the work tends to proceed more in fits and starts than when I taught because that profession included a known time that one could set aside to write, but fits and starts is the necessary rhythm now.

Do you write every day?

I do not write every day, and I marvel at those who do (my heroes, in a way). However, I am always working on the next poem or novel. I keep notebooks, wherein there are ideas or scenes or drafts, and then I have to find a larger block of time to do “official” work: to put down a draft that is closer to finished with each iteration, to revise, to put together a manuscript in something like the fashion it will look ultimately.

I also think about what I am working on even if not writing something down, which can be a pitfall if one mistakes it for actually writing; but nevertheless, that kind of imagining is important to the finished work if kept in perspective. That pitfall is not a problem I have to worry about, however. I know when it is time to do the writing viscerally, almost as instinctual need, and I will turn over heaven and earth to find the time to get it done.

And a book is a book only when the galleys are proofed. Up to that point, any reading of the manuscript can result in changes. So, I don’t let a project go, so to speak, until it is a half step from being a book.

How many books have you written so far?

I am the author of eight books:

• The Blue Man Dreams the End of Time, novel, BeWrite Books (2009)
• Optimism Blues: Poems Selected and New, poetry, Cedar Hill Publications (2003)
• Déjà vu and the Phone Sex Queen, novel, j-Press Publishing (2003, second printing 2008)
• Whither American Poetry, essays, Cedar Hill Publications (1999)
• The Book of Allegory, poetry, Cedar Hill Publications (1999)
• Dog, Pygmy Forest Press (1997)
• Lessons of Radical Finitude, Pygmy Forest Press (1993)
• Love and Myth, Blue Textual Sparrow Press (1993)

How long did it take you to write The Blue Man Dreams the End of Time?

The Blue Man Dreams the End of Time was started in 2001, but it was put aside for a long time because of the political climate shift that began then (you can read a bit about this decision in an essay I wrote for Comparative Literature and Culture, “Poetry and the Aesthetic of Morality”.

The book is about a former CIA agent who must reconsider his one-time role as a counterintelligence agent, what constitutes terrorism, and the nature of power in the modern world. His journey takes him from the American rustbelt to Chiapas, Mexico, where he meets another former intelligence operative who doubles as a jaguar shaman for his Mayan tribe. The main character must also deal with other former CIA colleagues and has flashbacks to his bloody role in American history. A Mayan boy he meets has a cultural role and a future that are perhaps the most terrible revelations in the novel.

As I noted previously, a friend suggested that perhaps the topic and my handling of it might be more readily acceptable to publishers somewhere other than in the US. BeWrite was the first non-US publisher I sent the ms (and I must admit that I had not sent it to many in the US either, believing the exercise a waste of time on this side of the Atlantic), and the editor, Neil Marr, accepted it immediately and enthusiastically.

The book was published in December, and so I am too early into the process to know much about “advantages or disadvantages,” but the people at BeWrite are consummate pros and attentive to every last detail. I am also impressed by the fact they are actively exploring “what comes next” in publishing. For example, they offer an eBook version of The Blue Man Dreams the End of Time on their site (in PDF) as well as a traditional paperback, but my book was also the among the first BeWrite titles to be made available to all current eBook devices via Smash Words.

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

The book is an implicit indictment of the practices of modern nation states, specifically of counterintelligence and its methods, including murder and torture as tools of state. As noted in the essay I just mentioned, many of my acquaintances did not understand my desire to write such a book let alone to include these thematic elements. The book is about the practices of the CIA in Mesoamerica late in the last century, but as one reviewer has said, the topics covered are utterly timely. Some readers of early drafts thought them too timely, apparently.

The atmosphere of panic brought on by the attack on the World Trade Center has abated a bit with the revelation of just how cowardly and dishonest the previous US administration’s actions were in response, but the desire for vengeance still permeates the culture to an extraordinary degree and the entire population seems in a malaise that can only be deemed moral confusion. All that made finding my way with the book, if not harder, at least a more self-conscious act. Moreover, some elements in the book, extraordinary violence and the consequent suffering, let alone the larger thematic of culpability on the part of the US government in the destruction of tribal cultures, were really tough to write about. Some of the research was in fact harrowing.

What sets The Blue Man Dreams the End of Time apart from other things you've written?

My previous novel has an element of irony that — in spite of sometimes tough topics (like murder, the black market organ trade, and genocide) — makes the reader laugh along the way. It is something of a fairytale in this aspect. Pratfalls might be bloody but they can still be a hoot.

The present novel is not ironic, except in the darker definition of the word, and not funny in the least. But it probably shares this with my poetry, which tends to be serious and imagistic and to plumb the depths, both psychologically and on some level that might be called philosophical (though I hope always to avoid a kind of dryly didactic language that kills the art in any literary work). In this latter case, The Blue Man Dreams the End of Time includes Mayan mythology, which is quite violent, and those tales are brought forward into our age as historical fact — the characters in the novel are, symbolically, incarnations of the characters in the myths and carrying out bloody prophecy.

Related articles:

• The Blue Man Dreams the End of Time by Michael McIrvin [Book Review], by Dylan Neal, Gently Read Literature, October 1, 2010
• The Blue Man Dreams the End of Time by Michael McIrvin [Book Review], by Dan Larson, The Compulsive Reader
• Talking About Torture [Interview], by Richard Labonte, Publishers Weekly, November 10, 2008

[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

[Featured Author] Azam Gill

The Warrior Bard
By Alexander James

Azam Gill is a writer and a warrior. And his thrillers are based on first-hand experience of front line fighting, covert commando operations, under-cover intelligence work … and on a seemingly incongruous lifetime’s love-story with literature, study and teaching.

Now a French citizen, Gill was born in Pakistan, the son of a renowned jurist father and a talented playwright mother. He is fluent in several languages, but it is in English that he writes his novels. He was educated in English schools and colleges run by British and Americans and he gained his BA from Forman Christian College of the Punjab University in English literature and Political Science.

Accepted as a ‘gentleman cadet’ at the Pakistan Military Academy, he passed out among the top 10% of his graduation year and was commissioned to a light infantry battalion of the Punjab Regiment in Kashmir. He also won his paratrooper’s wings.

In Kashmir, one of the world’s flash-points, Gill and his troops lived in underground earthen bunkers, crossing snake- and rain-filled crawl trenches and minefields as part of daily routine. The Kashmir border is known for a war of attrition involving intensive patrolling, fire fights, artillery duels ... and a chilling casualty rate.

He served as Intelligence Officer, Company Commander and Regimental Adjutant and was also in charge of the crossing of spies through his sector.

It was all vital experience for the kind of novels I wanted to produce. I earned the right to become a thriller writer the hard way … I suppose you could say I wouldn’t ask my lead character do anything I couldn’t do myself.

Gill received a Master’s in English Language and Literature from the Punjab University and published a pamphlet, Jail Reforms, and a book, Army Reforms. Although Jail Reforms was on the syllabus of the Prisons Training Academy, both books were seized and burnt by the authorities.

He said:

I was angered by what I saw around me and the best weapon available to me was the pen. The trouble was, the enemy was more heavily armed.

One of his former instructors was the late President Zia ul Haq’s private secretary. He called Gill to Islamabad and warned him that he should immediately leave the country before his imminent arrest for angering the authorities by his writing.

Harassed, seeking protection and a new life, Gill decided to take the advice – he followed in the footsteps of beggars and princes who have served in the ranks of the tough French Foreign Légion.

After basic training, he was posted to the 1er Régiment Etranger de Cavalérie and became the first Légionnaire to gain a PhD, which he received from Grenoble University.

At the end of his Légion contract, which added a wealth of experience to his writer’s arsenal, Gill worked as a language teacher and became a lecturer at Grenoble University’s Polytechnic. He was then seconded to the French Navy, where he taught English.

He never laid down the pen during this busy period and wrote a monthly column on Geopolitics for The National Educator, a Californian monthly paper. His political articles were published in non-fiction book form under the title Winds of Change: Geopolitics and the World Order (IUniverse, 2001).

Gill explained:

I needed to express myself to a wider readership than I could reach with my more academic work, so I turned my hand to fiction … and it worked!

Rather than stating hard facts and opinions, I learned to make them apply to characters that came to life on the page.

Readers could relate to the people I created and hear what I had to say by following them through gripping stories of love and hate and triumph and disaster.

Fiction is a wonderful medium.

His first novel, Blood Money, was published by UK-based BeWrite Books and was closely followed by Flight to Pakistan, also by BeWrite Books.

He said:

I was motivated by the horror of Islamic terrorism and its covert funding in the west. All I needed was a hero and a gripping plot, so I created a character who was a battle-hardened Foreign Legionnaire and drew on a lifetime of experience to bring the scenes to life.

Some of the seemingly wildest people, places and situations in my books are 100 percent real. I’ve met them, I’ve been there and I’ve done it!

I wanted the book to be absolutely realistic, so I also put in a lot of extra research – and it turned up other facts much stranger than fiction.

I was working full time when I wrote the novels, but I set myself word-targets to meet and the pages seemed to fill themselves.

BeWrite Books saw potential in the first manuscript, Blood Money, and I worked closely with one of their editors, Neil Marr, for three or four months, pruning, rewriting and even adding passages until the book was ready to go.

My second BeWrite Books novel, Flight to Pakistan, came more easily because I’d by then had a grounding in fiction. Again, though, there was the guidance of another seasoned BB editor, Hugh McCracken, to see the work through to publication.

Much of the editing process involves curbing my enthusiasm for providing lavish detail. It’s the teacher in me.

The editing process itself is an experience no writer should miss. The BeWrite Books team is pretty spread out with its professional editors and admin and technical staff in France, Germany, Canada and the US, so everything was handled by email and telephone. It’s a tremendously streamlined and efficient way to work.

When I took my family to meet some of them at a get-together in the French Alps – it was between the two books – I found that they were just as passionate about my work as I am myself. Neil Marr was there, Cait Myers, the publisher, and Neil’s son, Alex, who handles the technical side of things. We talked books, politics, religion, French cheeses and what have you until the sun came up again.

Gill now has two other novels in the pipeline and has no plans to ever stop writing in spite of a heavy day job schedule and hobbies that include cooking, swimming and French Savate Boxing.

In his 40s, he lives in France with his wife and three young children.

He said:

We have a lively family life, but the children are wonderful – they know when I’m at work writing and leave me in peace.

Gill – informally, he prefers his French-sounding surname to his first name, Azam – is one of several new names in fiction to find the answer to the closed-door policy of major publishing houses in a handful of editorially driven independent small publishing houses whose main sales outlet is the Internet.

He said:

Even the small presses are swamped with submissions. But at least they’re open to as proposal from an author who isn’t exactly a household name. And the entire process is thoroughly professional.

This interview first appeared in Twisted Tongue Magazine

Possibly related books:

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Related articles:

• Haroon Moghul [Interview], Conversations with Writers, April 20, 2007
• Strangers in the Write, By Neil Marr, Writers Write, Dec-Jan 2001
  

[Featured Author] Peter Tomlinson

Pigeon Holes Are For The Birds
by Alexander James

Peter Tomlinson put his literary life on the line when he turned his back on the genre stereotypes agents, publishers and retailers love to slot into their gold-lined pigeonholes – and he’s never looked back.

After bravely ploughing an independent furrow in a field of his own, the first two novels in his Petronicus Legacy series have already been released and the third in the trilogy is under contract and its first draft is complete.

But even with a solid reputation as the author of nearly 300 poems in eighty poetry and short story magazines in the UK and abroad, the path less trodden – avoiding all genre models – was no easy route for Peter.

Mainstream houses turned down flat his first four novels and two one-act plays because they didn’t fit neatly into their well-ordered catalogues.

Only when he submitted his fifth novel to an independent press with a more open mind did he pique interest … and not only interest in that book; the publishers were so impressed that they immediately offered a three-book deal for Peter to get to work on following his 80,000-word The Stones of Petronicus, with The Time of Kadrik and The Voyages of Delticos to make up a series.

And, said Peter at his home in rural Shropshire:

There are heavy hints that the series won’t end with a mere trilogy.

You see, each book is absolutely self-contained; the lead characters in each are different, but descendents of characters past, the time setting is different, but is the result of times past, the situations are different, but are extensions of situations past … there’s a common thread of development that bonds them. Making up history as I go along means that I could tie together as many Petronicus books as life allows me to write.

It’s as though Peter developed a genre of his own when he took his first character, Petronicus the scribe, and placed him in a time and country that, ‘real world’ as it is, can’t be identified … but which is, certainly, a million miles from the land of fantasy.

He said:

There were times when I felt I was getting nowhere as publisher after publisher told me they just weren’t interested in me if I couldn’t produce a book that would fit their lists so that they could easily identify a target readership for the marketing boys and retailers. But I was determined to go my own way.

So I lowered my sights from the major publishing houses and looked around for a reputable small independent. I found BeWrite Books and we just seemed to click. Far from being frightened off by the fact that the book fitted no established genre, they not only went for it, they immediately signed me up for two follow-ups.

Stones of Petronicus came out last year, Time of Kadrik was published in the spring, and I’ve just completed the first draft of Voyages of Delticos for a winter release. Together, they’ll make up the trilogy, The Petronicus Legacy.

The novels are not typecast in the mode of conventional adventure/historical fiction; the location, characters and civilisations described are entirely fictitious. I take readers into places they have never been before and to meet characters they will meet again only in their dreams … or maybe their nightmares, as one reviewer put it.

The first book follows the theme of a perpetual search for truth and the nature of human existence. All the books explore the relationships between old and young as they complement each other through interaction of enquiring and often precocious youth and the steadier, more experienced wisdom of the elder.

There is no conflict between them except, at times, some understandable impatience. Together they face great dangers as horror and wickedness descends on their idyllic world, and here we see how the combination of youthful energy and mature wisdom triumphs.

But never could the work be labelled ‘fantasy’, in spite of a touch of the mystical and the introduction of some pretty fabulous creatures. My characters have no magical powers and they face purely human struggles in an earthly landscape. The result is education in its purest form.

And it couldn’t be written off as ‘adventure’ because so much of the adventure is of the mind. It’s not ‘historical’ because there’s no factual framework. And it couldn’t get by under that vague and confusing ‘literary’ banner because … well, because there’s always a beginning, a middle and an end to the stories.

The books couldn’t even be classified in terms of potential readership; they would appeal as much to young people as to mature adults, as much to a female as a male audience. And if there’s the slightest whiff of ‘coming-of-age’ (another genre these days), you’d be hard pressed to say whether the coming-of-age applies to a young character, an old character or even a whole civilisation.

In Petronicus, for example, we have the young apprentice to life learning at the side of the master craftsman as the two main characters journey through the joys and tragedies of their lives together.

Sure, I can understand why it is my books would confound publishers whose first question is ‘what genre?’ But I wasn’t about to compromise my work to squeeze it into a narrowly defined slot to suit commercial trends.

Although there is conflict and great danger in the lives of the principal characters, Peter avoids falling into the trap of relying on gratuitous violence to carry the story along. The writing creates vivid images in the minds of his readers and he often crafts his writing in terms of acts and scenes in a visual drama.

Perhaps unusually for an author, he is predominantly an ‘imager’ and this visualisation – actually being an eye witness to what he creates – is demonstrated in his writing.

He has often said that reading is better than watching film; the scenery is better.

In his second novel, The Time of Kadrik, which is set in the same fictional landscape, 10 generations later, Peter casts his players onto a much wider canvas. Here we are introduced to different characters in a different time. The principal player is Kadrik who we follow from boyhood into maturity as he is forced by catastrophic circumstance to question the beliefs on which the survival of his community depends.

With only his wife to support and encourage him, Kadrik lives through several lonely years until his fate is decided by an inescapable imperative and a resolve that comes to dominate his life. In order to save his community from complete collapse, the very young Kadrik must embark on a perilous journey both geographical and intellectual. He undertakes this journey in the company of three unlikely companions: a nameless outcast and two members of a mysterious humanoid species known as the Men Half Made.

Peter insists:

Even so, I avoid straying into the realms of fantasy.

The ‘quest’ is a very human endeavour toward human goals. The Men Half Made are not mythological mermaids; they’re merely an earthly breed apart. And, although I draw heavily on a lifetime of historical research, there can be no confusion between the books in this series and a historical novel because of the way I’ve used what I’ve learned to create an entirely new and fictitious historical base.

I’ve travelled widely to research the backdrop to my scenes. But, again, I’ve used what I’ve learned to create a new reality rather than a Neverland.

A reader might occasionally think he’s worked out where in the world the characters are playing out their roles – but he’ll soon find that he’s mistaken.”

BeWrite Books editor, Neil Marr, said:

One of the beauties of being an independent press, driven by factors that are by no means entirely commercial, is that we have the freedom to experiment with work that doesn’t necessarily fit some tried and tested, money-spinning formula.

Peter’s books break new ground – and that’s their problem in the mainstream where genre is all important. Big-business houses – their marketing departments and their retailers – are tied to established best-selling formulas to keep afloat. A small independent like BB is free of those restrictions.

In the end, it’s the reader who benefits.

Peter’s work is consistently at the top of our ‘most reviewed’ lists. Readers who read the first couldn’t wait for the next … and already, we’re getting emails from people desperate to know when the next will be available.

These books are fresh, you see. There’s nothing else like them out there.

Peter’s road to print was long, winding and frequently pot-holed.

Born in a working class district of Merseyside, UK six months before the outbreak of World War II, he retains some hazy memories of the blitz he lived through.

I vaguely remember my mother cradling me in a blanket and telling me that the ‘all clear’ would be heard soon and we would be safe again.

His father joined the Royal Navy and served throughout the war on destroyers and mine-layers, returning home in 1945 a virtual stranger to Peter.

Meanwhile, Peter was evacuated with his mother and elder brother to a remote hill farm in North Wales to escape the blitz, and that is where his vivid memory begins.

I well remember the sheepdog and the farm animals and I have a pictorial recollection of being left on the edge of the field whilst my mother helped the farmers with haymaking.

There is also a recurring infant memory of a distant mountain that seemed very remote and mysterious.

There was no electricity, gas or piped water in the family’s evacuation home so that much time was spent collecting wood for the fire. Whilst in the safety of North Wales they knew that their home town was being heavily bombed and that relatives were in constant danger. It was inevitable that the anxieties their mother felt were inadvertently transmitted to her children.

When the war ended, the family was re-housed back on Merseyside in one of the emergency prefabricated houses (prefabs) on a cleared bomb site opposite a pawn shop. Peter received the minimum education and often ran wild with other kids in the wasteland of bombed-out buildings and post-war dereliction.

He has only two clear memories of his junior schooling: fear of being wrong and the embarrassment of a recurring stutter, a disability suffered by many wartime children. Perhaps this early communication difficulty led him to retreat into his own imagination.

It was during his brief secondary schooling that his interest in storytelling began. Often, when the teacher was engaged in administrative tasks, Peter was called out to stand in front and tell the class a story. It was terrifying at first, but he gradually mastered his stutter and enjoyed the task. This happened so often that making up stories on the spur of the moment became second nature to him.

He left school aged 15 and worked briefly in a shipyard before finding a job as a telegraph boy at an American Cable Company’s station in Liverpool. They trained him as an operator and taught him the telegraph man’s economy and precision in the use of language. They also trained him to touch type, a skill useful to an author. In fact he can still type as fast as he can speak.

His main recreational interest at the time was mountaineering and rock climbing. He associated with a group of free-spirited, rebellious young people who regularly hitch-hiked to North Wales, slept in old barns and tents that fell down whenever the wind blew, and involved themselves in poetry, heavy drinking and deep discussions by candlelight.

Peter was a very early member of the Cavern Club in Liverpool. But these carefree years ended at the age of 18 with conscription into the British Army. Peter resented the curtailment of his freedom and the discipline, bull and homesickness played heavily on him. Years later he published a poem recalling those feelings:

Conscription 1958-60

Barracked and confined
in drab wooden huts
with the smoke of cheap cigarettes,
smells of adolescent sweat
and scant privacy.

Tethered to an unfamiliar routine,
a world of harsh discipline,
contrived discomfort
and coarse khaki roughening skin,
chasing any kind word or praise
amidst insults and humiliations
embarrassingly endured.

Cold, always cold
in those slow, homesick,
day-counting weeks
in alien Catterick.

An ache filled the space
where our freedom once was,
where fettered youth could no longer run.

Then ranked in tight marching order
and dispatched as props for a dying empire
with mum’s fears, dad’s knowing eye
and daft words like: ‘It does them good’.

© Peter Tomlinson – first published in Reach Magazine

As a wireless operator, Peter spent 18 months in Cyprus. It was here that his serious interest in poetry really began. It was often too dangerous for young soldiers to venture far from their army camp but he was able to wander freely in the nearby deserted ruins of an ancient Greek city and give his vivid imagination free rein. Often he put his thoughts on paper and years later he worked these into published poems.

Another three or four carefree years passed after demobilisation before he went to college and university and pursued an academic career.

After early retirement, he worked for a few years as a cultural guide overseas, leading tours on foot in Rome, Venice, Florence, Assisi, Verona, Istanbul etc. What he saw and what he learned was to find its way into the fictional land he created for Petronicus and his descendents.

Since achieving his ambition to take time to write, he has published hundreds of poems in scores of magazines. Success came to him when Bluechrome published his first commercially produced poetry collection Tunnels of the Mind, which received favourable reviews.

In an effort to present even more work to readers, his wife, Margaret, suggested self-publishing under their own imprint, Hengist Enterprises. This launched four collections of poetry, two collections of short stories and two collections of original epigrams.

Peter read his poetry at numerous poetry festivals. At the Oxford Poetry Festival he had a chance conversation with a friend, the well known British author and poet, Sam Smith, who suggested submitting work to his own publisher, Bewrite Books.

Neil Marr – who edits both Peter and Sam’s work for BeWrite Books – said:

It was a fortuitous meeting. Sam is another author whose writing refuses to be pigeon-holed. It courageously crosses genre lines or, like Peter’s, absolutely defies all genre definition.

The sheer scope of Peter’s books is breath-taking. He’s the only author I know who can produce an epic in a tight 80,000 words.

Many of Peter’s ideas for poems and novels come to him whilst he roams wild and lonely places; the Shropshire hills and forests, the mountains of North Wales, the Lake District and the Alps. He finds that the restful rhythm of solitary walking removes his thoughts from the futile imperatives of modern life and provides an easy conduit for ideas to flow into his receptive mind.

His wife Margaret acts as an at-home editor, paying meticulous attention to his manuscripts, ensuring clarity, correct use of grammar and making sure a good clean copy is sent to his publishers.

Margaret says:

After we’ve had breakfast and discussed our plans for the day, Peter settles down to the intensive daily writing session. He is very self-disciplined about this and not even the lure of a visit to the supermarket can drag him away. Slips of paper with cryptic words litter the house as ideas enter Peter’s head and he scribbles them down before forgetting them. This can happen at awkward times: I’ve even found messages on the loo roll!

He freely admits to living in a dream world and it can be disconcerting living with a daydreamer. Not only does he forget important things I’ve told him, but he forgets what he’s told me. Is this the onset of senility or the flame of genius burning bright?

Despite these drawbacks, I think that Peter’s writing has drawn us closer. I am full of admiration for his creativity and feel privileged to be involved in the process, especially when we discuss ideas and language, although the dots and commas department is where I really feel important.

Entering into the dream world is the best of all: during our recent travels to Iceland and Greenland we were both fired with delight at recognising scenes from Petronicus – the Land of the Towering Rocks, the Land of the Bubbling Mud, the Mountains that hold up the Sky. Peter had created them in his mind before we saw for ourselves that they actually existed in the real world.

This interview first appeared in Twisted Tongue Magazine

Possibly related books:

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Related articles

• Peter Tomlinson [Interview], Conversations with Writers, November 19, 2007
• Sam Smith [Interview], Conversations with Writers, November 5, 2007
• Neil Marr [Interview_1], Conversations with Writers, November 5, 2009

[Interview] Magdalena Ball

In earlier interviews, poet, storyteller and literary activist, Magdalena Ball talked about the factors that made her start writing, her concerns as a writer and about her debut novel, Sleep Before Evening.

Since then she has gone on to publish She Wore Emerald Then, a poetry chapbook written in collaboration with Carolyn Howard-Johnson. The chapbook was a finalist in the USA Book News 2009 NBBA Best Book Awards.

She Wore Emerald Then was followed by Repulsion Thrust (Bewrite Books, 2009), a full length, solo poetry collection whcih tackles subjects like quantum physics, astronomy, time travel, ecological destruction, and technological singularity, all viewed through the lens of the human condition.

Below, Magdalena Ball talks about the work she is currently doing:

How would you describe Repulsion Thrust?

My latest book is Repulsion Thrust, which is out from Bewrite Books. It's a poetry book which is in three sections. The first has an overall theme of "The Black Dog" (as in Churchill's - eg depression and pain), the second is environmentally and technologically/futuristically focused, and the third is an almost lighthearted (for me!) synthesis of the first two -- a kind of answer to the clash of the first two notions.

As always with my work, there's a fair amount of influence from the 'sciences', from quantum physics to psychology, geology, evolution, and astronomy.

I chose Bewrite Books because they published my novel, Sleep Before Evening, and I knew that they also published poetry, and above all, that they would provide a thorough editing process for me, which is what I wanted. I also knew it would be easier than going to a new publisher as I already had a positive relationship in place with them and a reasonable understanding of the process, although poetry was quite different to prose, and there was much still for me to learn.

Which were the most difficult aspects of the work you put into Repulsion Thrust?

Finding a neat structural framework for the poetry I had been writing was a little bit tricky. Also with poetry, there's always work involved in ensuring that you remove anything that is absolutely unnecessary to what you want to say. Every word has to work, or you dilute the effectiveness of the poetry.

With the framework, that was simply a left brain exercise. Sit down and think about the overall focus of the work and work out how a structure could support what I wanted to say.

In terms of the editing process, again, having someone else involved was very helpful. I had one superb reader (my mother -- say what you will -- she's a great editor), who went through every poem with me once I was done. I read them to her outloud, and she would ask questions or point things out. Often just the process of reading outloud showed me what didn't work and what did.

My Bewrite editor (Sam Smith) was also very good at spotting what worked well and where I was overly wordy (an issue I need to work on!), or obscure. We even removed a few poems he didn't feel were strong and replaced them with others. I even did a last minute edit after the final proofread.

What did you enjoy most?

To be honest, I really love writing poetry. It's a medium I find most natural, and the fact that you can complete an exercise in one relatively contained burst, and then have something to submit, makes it very satisfying.

I found that I was (and continue to) "allow" myself some poetry time at the end of a hard slog or difficult bit of writing as a kind of reward. The combination of short term (completion/submission) gratification, with knowing I was working on a longer term objective (a full book), was very pleasurable.

To be honest, it's kind of hard to stop myself and get back to a daily fiction schedule, which doesn't have that instant component.

I will though.

My next novel is over halfway done, so it has a kind of imperitive of its own.

What sets Repulsion Thrust apart from other things you have written?

This is my first full length poetry book (the others have been much shorter chapbooks), so it's a big thing for me. It's much more intense and inclusive.

I was able to have that chapter structure and to cover a much wider terrain. I'm very excited about it!

In what way is it similar to the others?

When I finished Quark Soup, I said I would leave science alone for a bit, but found myself even more drawn to it. Not only the language, although I do tend to find words like "catalysis" and "emulsification" very attractive (not sure why!), but there is, to me, something so breathtaking about looking at the world around us from a scientific perspective. There is so much that is beautiful to explore. The fundamental structure of a snowflake or rock formations are just startling. An aurora or solar wind is an amazing thing. The quantum world itself is so full of interesting absurdities that breakdown reality in ways that are seem out of sync with day to day relativity, but when you think about dreams, emotions, or perceptions, there are alignments which aren't absurd at all. So I play with those things in most of my work.

What will your next book be about?

Black Cow is the story of Graeme Archer, a well respected Chief Executive Officer of a large multinational corporation. When his health problems worsen, and his busy family life starts to disintegrate, he has to rethink the way he lives.

The story tracks the family as they move from a ritzy suburb to a small Tasmanian farm, and the challenges they encounter as they attempt to change their lives from super consumers to super conservers. It's a little funny (my funny, which is still reasonably black at times ...)

Do you have a target audience?

I'm sure I'd sell more books with a more specific target audience.

I embrace all readers and hope that my work, even the poetry, is clear and simple enough to appeal to all levels.

That said, my work probably will appeal more to a literary fiction, poetry loving reader who likes their work to resonate for a while, rather than to someone who likes fast paced, action thriller style work. That's what my son tells me, and I'm sure he knows best.

How would you describe your writing?

I'm one of those jacks of all trades who tends to write across genres.

I have been doing a lot of poetry recently, and my work seems to be very science oriented at the moment, though that can change, and tends to apply more to my poetry than my fiction and certainly more to poetry than to nonfiction, which can be on any topic from literary criticism to parenting.

No matter what I'm writing, it's always metaphor rich, with a certain amount of depth, and probably more run-on sentences than I should have. That's my natural tendency. Even my academic writing is metaphor rich, much to the horror of various supervisors that I've had over the years!

Which influences do you draw on as a writer?

So many authors have influenced or inspired me, that it's difficult to pinpoint specific influences. I could start from my earliest reading experiences, including such authors as Maurice Sendak (Where the Wild Things Are, Little Bear, In the Night Kitchen) and Dr Seuss (The Lorax still brings a lump to my throat. On Beyond Zebra still excites me) through to authors that inspire me now, from literary writers like Umberto Eco, James Joyce, Margaret Atwood, Peter Carey, Salman Rushdie, to Auden, Plath, Porter, Judith Bevridge to the incredible science writers like Hawkings and Dawkins. I'm sure I've left out some major influence, and could probably list names for many paragraphs.

And, like most writers, I also draw on my personal experiences in almost everything I write. I'm something of a magpie, so will pick at just about everything I've got - personal obversations, sensory experiences, overheard conversations, a story someone told me, the song my son is struggling to learn on the piano. If I burn myself on the stove, the pain will be in a story or poem before the sting goes.

As a writer, I always try to get at the core of something. To try and get at something meaningful and deep at the heart of our experiences. That goes for whether I'm writing fiction, comedy, nonfiction or poetry. It isn't always easy, but it helps to have good readers, who can test whether what you've said translates into what you mean for a reader. I have several excellent readers who I show final drafts to, and they don't hesitate to tell me when I'm not making sense or when I've written something trite.

Do you write everyday?

I do write everyday. It isn't always a lot, but I'll always schedule in some time for writing in my daily plan.

I would love to have a regular place and time, but with the juggling I do, I have to take whatever moments I get, so I'll usually just open something up in the morning that I'm planning to work on and whenever and wherever I get a chance I'll work on it.

If I'm writing a poem, I'll usually keep going until the whole thing is done (first pass - often there are several iterations later). That's the same for any short piece of work - flash fiction or a short nonfiction piece. For longer work like a story or a novel, I'll usually keep going until, through some kind of instinct, I feel I've had enough and it's time to stop (or I have to go pick up the kids from school or meet some other impending deadline).

It's probably the same for nearly every 21st Century person but time is my biggest challenge. Finding enough of it to do all the things I want to do.

I'm reasonally well organised and do tend to plan each day fairly well, listing key objectives to lead to the bigger objectives, but there's always a limit to just how much you can get through in a day, and in addition to my writing, I'm also parent to three young(ish - getting older all the time :-) children, have a reasonably big day job, have just started another Master's degree, have two websites to manage and a new book to promote, so time is always a challenge. I deal with it as best as I can, through planning and prioritising - standard time management processes, but I also sometimes have to ease off my goals and accept my limitations. My children won't be young forever, so they always have to take priority.

How many books have you written so far?

I've listed the books I've written below. I've collaborated on and participated in quite a few more anthologies and collections (say around six), but these are the key ones:

• Repulsion Thrust, Bewrite Books, 2009, ISBN: 978-1-904492-96-2 - this is my just released full length poetry collection. Repulsion Thrust tackles big subjects not often the fodder of poetry: quantum physics, astronomy, time travel, ecological destruction, and technological singularity, all viewed through the lens of the human condition.
• She Wore Emerald Then, 2008, 978-1438263793, (poetry chapbook - collaboration with Carolyn Howard-Johnson), finalist in the USA Book News 2009 NBBA Best Book Awards. She Wore Emerald Then and Cherished Pulse are part of an ongoing "Celebration" series of chapbooks designed to replace greeting cards.
• Sleep Before Evening, BeWrite Books, 2007 , ISBN-13: 978-1904492962 – 2008 Indie Book Awards Regional Fiction Finalist - this is a novel set in NYC that follows the adventures of 17 year old, Marianne as she discovers the healing power of music through an almost deadly journey into the deepest recesses of her own mind.
• Quark Soup, Picaro Press, 2006 , ISBN 1-920957-23-5, ( Poetry Chapbook) - Quark Soup contains twenty eight poems which muse on topics like what it means to be human, love, loss, fear, longing, and transcendence. Avoiding cliché and the mundane, the poetry in this collection is accessible to the common reader, with a powerful intellectual edge and playful wit. As all good poetry should, this work uses sound, sense, and strong imagery to deal with everyday topics like depression, birth, growing old, love and death, all moving towards a large universal picture. As the title suggests, there is a strong astrophysical theme running through the poems.
• The Art of Assessment: How to Review Anything, Mountain Mist Productions, 2003 , ISBN 1-920913-10-6, ( Nonfiction) , The Art of Assessment is a complete guide to the review process, from how to write good reviews, how to use interviews to add depth to your reviews, obtaining review copies, marketing your reviews, and plenty of examples and references to help you become a working reviewer.
• Cherished Pulse, 2006 , re-released in 2009 as a print book, ISBN 978-1449546052 ( Poetry Chapbook - collaboration with Carolyn Howard-Johnson) , Cherished Pulse contains twenty poems which look at love from a wise, mature, sensitive perspective. Never sentimental (forget Hallmark), the poems explore love in its many guises -- cherish, longing, sensuality, and that sacred place between desire and consumation.

Possibly related books:

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Related articles:

• Interview with Magdalena Ball, co-author of Cherished Pulse, By Lucille P Robinson, Alternative-Read.com, February 6, 2009
• An Interview with Magdalena Ball, Author of Sleep Before Evening, By Ernest Dempsey, News Blaze, October 17, 2007
• Interview with Magdalena Ball, By Sarah Cook, AussieAuthors.com, July 2007

[Interview] Richard Wink

Richard Wink's poetry has been published in magazines that include Ditch, Underground Voices and Aesthetica Magazine.

He has also published a number of chapbooks, among them, The Magnificent Guffaw (Erbacce Press); Apple Road (Trainwreck Press); All Along the Wensum (Kendra Steiner Editions); Delirium is a Disease of the Night (Shadow Archer Press) and Devils and Daylight (New Polish Beat).

Dead End Road (Bewrite Books, 2009) is his first full length poetry collection.

In this interview Richard Wink talks about his writing:

When did you start writing?

I started writing poetry after finding out that I had been gifted the happy knack of putting together some snappy metaphors alongside sparse, blunt prose.

Overtime I graduated from bedroom notepad scribbles to actually getting my work published in various magazines and periodicals. This took a great deal of perseverance and patience, as paper cuts bled into rejection letters and grovelling around on my hands and knees led to grazes and bruises that blunted the ego.

I guess I never set out to get published; it took a great deal of courage to actually put my neck on the chopping block and send my words out into the open. But once you get that first acceptance and you see your poem in print – it becomes a drug, you soon get addicted and eventually you end up with all kinds of hopes, dreams and delusions.

Such flighty ideas led me to put together my debut full length collection, Dead End Road. Getting the book published was merely a case of chancing my arm, getting some interest from a publisher and then working with a fine editor who cut away the fat and produced a lean, succulent composition.

Having said that I have grafted, working my way up the small press grapevine, putting out chapbooks through indie presses and publishers, honing my craft over time. Getting Dead End Road published didn’t just happen, I had to put the hard yards in.

How would you describe your writing?

My poems are a mixture of what I see and what I imagine, a crude oily blur of fact and fiction, an exaggeration of reality.

I’m attempting to mould together many different influences - blend kitchen sink drama with surrealism, and then add two teaspoons of existentialism.

Who is your target audience?

Anyone can read my words; I’m not aiming for an intellectual minority. I endeavour to make my writing as accessible as I can.

Surely it is common sense for a writer to want as many people to read his words as possible?

Which writers influenced you most?

Carol Ann Duffy ignited the passion, Charles Bukowski made me realize anyone can do this and Allen Ginsberg explicitly taught me how to sprinkle the sugar.

Do your personal experiences influence your writing in any way?

Most certainly, as I mentioned before I write about the everyday, I believe there is a lot of mileage in the mundane. Any writer would be foolish to ignore what they directly experience.

In my working life, I’ve encountered the good, the bad and the ugly in an assortment of weird and wonderful jobs, I aim to capture the unique characters like butterflies, and pin them down on paper.

What are your main concerns as a writer?

I think every writer faces self doubt. That little voice in the back of your head that politely asks what the hell you are doing?

I find it best to flip that little voice off, and plough on into the light. So basically what I’m saying is that I am fearful of the legitimacy of my words, yet fearless when it comes to getting them out there into the open.

What are the biggest challenges that you face?

The challenge is to get people to read Dead End Road.

I mean there is are a lot of obstacles to overcome, both from the bloated corpses of the past, the dead poets, and those poets who are currently hot stuff - alive and kicking with the backing of the bigger publishing houses.

I’m dealing as best as I can, but I’ll be honest and say that I find the promotional work hard going. Let’s face it; I would make a terrible car salesman.

Do you write everyday?

I’m working (real work, not writing!) long hours at the moment so time is very much at a premium.

Honestly, I write when I can, forcing the muse through the fatigue and mental tiredness.

Each session starts with a cup of tea, I scribble in the notepad, and ideas form from the ether. Then I make the first draft, the second ties it all together and the third normally is finely polished.

Right now I’m working on a novel, so the process is a lot stricter and tightly regimented; sessions need to yield a minimum of 1,000 words.

How many books have you written so far?

A number of chapbooks and one full length collection of poetry, all released between 2005 and now.

It started when after getting in a few magazines and anthologies I approached a small press in the States that put together a chapbook called The Beehives, then I approached another that helped me with Stress, both are pretty shocking in terms of quality and thankfully no longer in print. However the experience got me thinking more about assembling a body of work rather than an odd gaggle of poems.

Then I went on a glory run and released The Magnificent Guffaw through Erbacce Press, Apple Road via Trainwreck Press, All Along the Wensum through Kendra Steiner Editions and Delirium is a Disease of the Night with Shadow Archer Press. Apart from a little chapbook I released with A J Kaufmann’s imprint New Polish Beat titled Devils and Daylight all of the other chapbooks have led up to my debut full length collection Dead End Road; the training miles before my marathon, if you will.

How would you describe Dead End Road?

I’ve described it as Revolutionary Road meets Desperate Housewives; a series of snapshot poems that look at different characters and personalities along a fictional road.

It took me a couple of months to write, because I really got into a good groove, the words were flowing effortlessly.

The book is published by BeWrite Books. I picked BeWrite because they have a roster of talented writers that I respect, and also because I wanted to work with a publisher that is forward thinking, and ambitious.

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

Speaking open and honestly I found that the editing process was superb. I worked closely with Sam Smith, an experienced writer who helped shape the collection into something substantial and coherent.

I was certainly impressed with the quality of the paperback version of the book, it looks superb.

The disadvantages have mostly been promo related, when you work with independent publishing houses it is up to you the writer to seek out reviews, this can be tricky with every Tom, Dick and Harriet also attempting to plug their books. You really do have to knock on the door of every reviewer and hope they will give your book a read, and hope you get a favourable review.

What will your next book deal with?

The novel, tentatively titled Tears and Spittle will be about a man who loses his identity and embarks on a Candide-esque misadventure across the dirty South (of England).

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

Writing Dead End Road which I believe would be a wonderful stocking filler gift. What with Christmas around the corner. It makes sense for you to pick up a copy!

Possibly related books:

,,

Related articles:

• Dead End Road [Review & Interview], By Jim Murdoch, The Truth About Lies, October 5, 2009
• Featured Poet Richard Wink Interviewed, By Claire Askew, One Night Stanzas, February 21, 2009
• Chris Hardy [Interview], Conversations with Writers, March 26, 2010

[Interview_2] David Hough

Historical romance author, David Hough has been writing for more than 20 years.

His books include King’s Priory (BeWrite Books, 2007); The Gamekeeper (Lachesis Publishing, 2007) and The Gallows on Warlock Hill (Lachesis Publishing, 2008).

In an earlier interview, he talked about the factors that motivated him to start writing.

David Hough now talks, among other things, about his novel, Prestwick (BeWrite Books, 2009):

Are you still writing everyday?

Some days I will get 5,000 words onto my computer, other days it will be only five hundred, but at least I will have written something. That’s important.

I write every day.

The process starts shortly after I wake up. While enjoying my first cup of tea, I will focus my mind on the scene I expect to write that day. I don’t switch on my computer until I have a good idea of how that scene will pan out. Then I start writing and I keep on writing until I have completed all I planned before I started.

The next bit is easy.

I switch off the computer and walk away from it. I know from experience that if I try to write something I haven’t previously planned it will be rubbish.

How would you describe your latest book?

My latest book is called Prestwick.

It’s a high tension aviation thriller set in the skies off the west coast of Scotland in the 1980s. It was published in 2009 by BeWrite Books and you will find it on their web site. You will also find it on my own website.

It’s a bit different to my previous books in that the pace is so much faster. Pure thriller.

I chose the time and location because they were meaningful to me in my career as an air traffic controller.

The story concerns the crew of two aircraft that collide over the North Atlantic – just a glancing blow, enough to cripple them but leave them both just about flying. The weather is atrocious and the only airport open to them is Prestwick, but the pilots are refused landing permission.

Why? What do they do about it? You'll have to read the book to find out.

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

I’m a bit wary of that word “difficult”. Can we look at the things I find most challenging?

My main concern is that my writing should be to a professional standard. I rather think that even if I was a famous author I would still have that concern about delivering a professional standard of work. The reading public are not fools, you know, they can recognise the difference between good and bad writing.

I deal with this concern by taking extracts from my work to a weekly writer’s workshop and reading it aloud to a critical audience. They know me well enough not to hold back in their criticism and I value that. I write down each and every point they make and then go away to consider them.

Invariably, there are ways to improve on my first efforts and so I rewrite sections again and again until they are as good as I can get them. I never, ever accept a first draft as anywhere near good enough.

Which aspects of the work did you enjoy most?

A writer is a creative artist. He or she creates people and events that would never otherwise exist or occur. That, to me, is a sense of enjoyment and satisfaction. I can look back over a manuscript and say to myself, “But for me, none of this would be. The characters would not exist and the events would not have taken place. I have created something unique.”

It’s a great feeling.

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

As I said before, the story runs at a faster pace than my other books.

Also, this is the only story I have written in which everything takes place in the space of one day. I had to write it that way in order to draw out every single moment of tension as the pilots struggle to keep their crippled aircraft in the air.

It is similar to the others in that I was writing about things I knew. I did some research, but not as much as for the historical novels because I lived through the period and environment of this book.

Do you know what your next novel will be on?

I am working on a sequel to The Gallows on Warlock Hill. I enjoyed writing the original but realised afterwards that I hadn’t said everything I wanted to say. There were other “themes” I wanted to explore. So I have taken the same locations and the same conceptual premise as the first book and wrapped it up in a new plot and new characters.

How would you describe the writing you are doing?

I write stories that have real meaning for me. Two of my novels are set around the history of Cornwall, my birthplace. They describe the place as it was more than 100 years ago simply because I wanted to research the era of my own Cornish ancestors. Other stories mix history with the present day because I am fascinated by the effect history has upon our present day lives.

I began by looking at the matter from a surface viewpoint – how the wider aspects of history have shaped our environment - and then I started to delve into the idea that our previous incarnations on earth might affect the sort of life we experience today. One of my favourite books, King’s Priory, was the first in which I really went to town on the idea that each of us has a soul with a past history which is relevant to our present life.

I write about places I know, or have known. My latest novel, Prestwick, is a fast paced aviation thriller set in locations on the west of Scotland where I have worked. My previous novel, The Gallows on Warlock Hill, describes the glorious Dorset countryside, near to where I now live. It also delves into the problems people faced in Northern Ireland during the “troubles”. I was the aerodrome controller on duty at Belfast Airport on the day troops were first airlifted into the province in 1969. I wanted to put my thoughts about that experience into the story.

I suppose the writer with a target audience nearest to my own is Barbara Erskine, but I try my best not to copy her style. I want to be recognised for my own way of writing. Why do I write for that audience? Simply because their reading preferences match my own. I enjoy reading that sort of book

How much influence has Barbara Eskine had on your writing?

This is where I may seem to be contradicting myself.

The two authors who have influenced me most are Nevil Shute and Daphne du Maurier. You will rightly tell me that they don’t write the “Barbara Erskine” sort of story. But they have both written novels in which time barriers have been broken. Remember du Maurier’s The House on the Strand and Shute’s In the Wet?

But that’s not the real reason they had a great influence on me. It was their writing style that captured my imagination. I have read all their books and enjoyed reading them time and again because their narrative “voices” spoke to me.

The writing just came off the pages for me. I try to capture that skill in my own writing.

Why is accurate research important?

I enjoy writing about history and I aim to put a lot of effort into researching the subject matter so that I get the history right, or as near right as I can manage.

Of course, I am likely to make mistakes, but at least I try to get it right. I get frustrated when I read stories by writers who have simply accepted popular but misguided myth as fact and embedded it into their novels.

A while back I was asked by an editor to scrutinise a manuscript sent in by a lady who had written a fanciful tale about Bonnie Prince Charlie, depicting him as a brave Scottish hero intent only on achieving Scottish independence. In reality he wasn’t Scottish (he was born in Rome, his father was born in England and his mother was Polish) and his sole aim was to capture the English throne.

There is so much information out there on the internet, there really is no excuse for any writer not getting the facts right.

In case you are wondering, I loved the time I spent living and working in Scotland and I feel that those writers who get the country’s history wrong do the people of Scotland a gross disservice.

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

To be recognised as a writer.

To date, I am standing on a low rung of a very long ladder, but I am on it and that gives me a sense of satisfaction. Of course I want to climb higher, but I am under no illusions about the difficulties that entails. For the present, let me enjoy holding in my hands a book I have written, let me enjoy counting myself amongst the world’s congregation of writers.

How do you intend to achieve this climb to the top?

I have been published mainly by small presses: BeWrite Books in the UK and Lachesis Publishing in Canada. They are both excellent organisations and I have nothing but warm feelings and praise for all involved in both companies. But, as a dispassionate writer, I still harbour that spark of hope that I might one day strike lucky and get my work recognised big time.

How do I deal with it?

I attend writers’ conferences and writers’ workshops with feelings of optimism that one day I will meet an agent or wealthy publisher who will look favourably upon my writing. My problem will then be in dealing with the inevitable feelings of guilt at leaving behind the good people who gave me a start in my writing career.

Possibly related books:

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Related articles:

• David Hough [Interview], By Penelope Jensen, INside Authors, January 2008
• David Hough [Interview_1], Conversations with Writers, October 5, 2007