Conversations with Writers

[Interview] Ellie Stevenson

2013-02-14T17:50:00.000Z

Ellie Stevenson was born in Oxford and brought up in Australia. She is a member of the Careers Writers' Association and the Alliance of Independent Authors.

She writes feature articles and short stories.

Her first novel, Ship of Haunts: the other Titanic story (Rosegate Publications, 2012), which is available as an e-book and as a paperback, has been described as "engaging and lively ... a real page-turner" and as "thoroughly enjoyable".

In this interview, Ellie Stevenson talks about her concerns as a writer:

When did you start writing?

When I was 10.

I spent part of my childhood in Australia, and I would lie in bed and listen to the sounds of the Australian bush, and think about what I could do with my life. My first published work was a poem published in an Australian state newspaper. Then came a hiatus, quite a long one, but fortunately, that’s over now.

How would you describe your writing?

Fairly eclectic.

Primarily I’m focused on writing more novels but I also write stories, articles and poetry. The poetry's more of a leisure thing, but I like to think it informs my work!

I always wanted to write books, but life and a need for cold, hard cash got in the way. When I finally took my ambition seriously, I started with articles, as a way getting some hands-on experience. But I always planned to be a novelist – I just wasn’t sure if I had the stamina.

Who is your target audience?

Anyone who wants to read my work!

No, seriously, I write for people who love mysteries and a sense of something other-worldly. I love to read ghost stories and books that take us across time and space. Maybe some time travel, or something that haunts or has a bit of a twist.

I write the stories I want to read.

I like novels which speak to the reader, are emotionally strong. And those that challenge the reader’s concepts, while still maintaining a page-turning story. Lyrical language is also important. I love to read books by Maggie O’Farrell and Douglas Kennedy.

Have your own personal experiences influenced your writing in any way?

My novel is a ghost story about Titanic, child migration and living a life under the sea. I’m an historian by nature and I love the past. Three of my family were child migrants and I’ve been heavily influenced by the time I spent living in Australia, an amazing country. I’ve always been passionate about Titanic. As for the ghosts, I can’t really say...

What are your main concerns as a writer?

Making my work the best it can be and improving its rhythm and the way it flows. Having integrity in my stories. Making people wonder if what we know isn’t all there is. Reaching readers.

What are the biggest challenges that you face?

Marketing my work. In order to be read, readers need to know you exist. I enjoy promoting my novel and articles but it takes a lot of time, which means less time to write. It’s a constant trade off, especially if you’re an independent author. Every day I do a little bit more.

Do you write every day?

At the moment I’m focused on promoting the novel. But when I’m writing, yes, every day, in allocated time slots until I have to do something else. I stop at that point, or when I come to a natural break. The initial writing isn’t that hard, the real work comes with the plot corrections, improvements to language, and the many revisions. I’m naturally self-critical and my work is never good enough. It’s not a happy trait for a writer to have!

How many books have you written so far?

One so far, Ship of Haunts, although a collection of short stories will be coming out in late September.

How long did it take you to write the novel?

Far too long. The next one will be quicker.

Where and when was it published?

Initially, as an ebook on Amazon (Rosegate Publications). It was published in April 2012, to coincide with the 100-year anniversary of Titanic’s sinking. Print copies are also available, via Amazon.com, or via me if you live in the UK.

How did you choose a publisher for the book?

Because it took so long to write, and I had to meet the April deadline, an ebook was the obvious choice, with printed copies following later. That’s the beauty of independent publishing: the author has control of the book. It’s also the downside – you have to do all the work yourself. Commissioning a cover, getting it proofed, getting it out there. I’d do it again, but it’s a steep learning curve.

Which were the most difficult aspects of the work that went into Ship of Haunts?

The book was organic, it developed as I wrote it. And then of course, it needed reworking. I spent much of my time rewriting the novel. Again and again. Next time round, I’m planning the book before I write it!

What did you enjoy most?

Creation of the story, thinking of the plotlines, doing the research. The creative side is why I write. Editing and rewrites are hard work, especially when you’re several drafts in.

What sets Ship of Haunts apart from other things you've written?

It’s my first novel, so in that sense it’s totally different. And Titanic, of course, is quite unique. And the novel encompasses reincarnation, which is a little bit out there (in the West, anyway).

In what way is it similar to the others?

The broader themes are fairly similar to the stories I’ve written: mysteries and loss and a sense of something unexpected, perhaps paranormal. The odd twist or a bit of a chill...

What will your next book be about?

A lost place and a man who... (well that would be telling)

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

Having the book in my hands, and seeing it as something outside myself. I wasn’t sure I could ever do this. And now, of course, I’m going to do more...

Related books:

,,

Related articles:

Ship Of Haunts by Ellie Stevenson [Book Review], Rennie's Book Blog, November 1, 2012
Author interview: Ellie Stevenson, by Rachel Pictor, rachelpictor.co.uk, October 8, 2012
'Ship of Haunts: the other Titanic story,' by Ellie Stevenson [Book Review], by C L Davies, cldavies.com, September 28, 2012

[Interview] Harry Whitehead

2013-01-25T21:15:00.001Z

by Nick Edgeworth, The Grassroutes Project*

Harry Whitehead is a novelist, a short story writer and a creative writing lecturer at the University of Leicester. Before that, he worked in the film and TV production industry.

His novel, The Cannibal Spirit (Hamish Hamilton, 2012) is set among the First Peoples of Canada at the turn of the twentieth century, and has been described as "“Unflinching and rigorously unsentimental ... a thought-provoking and impressive read.”

His short stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies that include London Lies (Arachne Press, 2012), The Storyteller Magazine and Whimperbang.

In this interview, Harry Whitehead talks about the concerns that inform his work as a novelist and a creative writing lecturer:

To start off, thanks very much for agreeing to be interviewed.

Pleasure.

My first question is: where did the creative writing process begin for you? When and why did you start?

Well, I used to win the prizes at primary school at creative writing exercises and competitions, and I think that started it for me. And I always wrote. I never took it seriously I don't think – but I guess everyone who writes stories sort of does take it seriously, don't they?

I did an undergraduate degree in Anthropology when I was 24 – I had been in the Far East for many years – and I read a story whilst I was there: an anthropological story that stuck with me. I won't explain it immediately because it might go back to a question you ask me later, but that story just played in my mind and I ended up doing a Masters degree in Anthropology to follow the story, and then it wouldn't go away, and I did a Creative Writing MA as well, and got sidetracked and wrote a load of other stuff before I eventually came back and wrote that. So I've always written, and enjoyed storytelling from the earliest days, and I got serious about it in my thirties.

Anthropology is a big part of your début novel The Cannibal Spirit. Do you think you're the sort of writer who looks very widely for ideas in interdisciplinary fields?

Yeah, for sure.

Before I joined this department [UoL's School of English] I had an O Level in English Literature so I haven't come from a focused reading past, in the way that English Literature trains you, at all. I come from a much broader space and have read much more multifariously, shall we say. But living abroad for so many years and then studying Anthropology has made me look all over the place for stories.

My book has been reviewed well and badly, and when it's been reviewed badly it's often in terms of its cultural authenticity and arguments about that. I was treading on some pretty delicate ground writing about First Nations people in Canada and people either loved me or hated me for it. Which is all right – that's fine by me.

What was it that attracted you to that setting at that point in time?

Well, I was 25 and I'd just broken my back, and I read this story, actually in a piece by Claude Lévi-Strauss, one of the founders of structuralism – so a pretty unlikely spot to originate. I read this story about a nineteenth-century north-west coast shaman who wanted to become a shaman in order to expose the lies and trickery of shamanism. And he learns all these acts of prestidigitation and fraudulence as he saw them, and then a local chieftain has a dream that only he can save his sick grandson. So very reluctantly the guy performs the ritual, and lo and behold the child is cured.

So, this guy, whose name is Quesalid in the story – Quesalid's dilemma fascinated me. It was about belief; it was about the placebo effect; it was about what healing means; it was about rationality – all these kind of things. And it was that story that just wouldn't go away. So I decided when I did my Masters in Anthropology that I wanted to find out who this shaman actually was. And what I learnt about who he actually was was that he was half white, half Native Canadian; he was an anthropologist's assistant as well as a shaman and a chieftain; he was tried for cannibalism in 1900 – and there I had a great story of a man who exists between worlds, as we all do to one extent or another. How do we fight those conflicts that we have inside ourselves?

So it was that that really kind of stuck for me. And it was 18 years, really, from when I first read that story to when I was published.

Was it quite research-intensive?

Yeah, it was. I wrote a draft of the novel in nine months, so in a flash really. My wife, who you just heard texting me, I had just met and I was doing this Ph.D. and I was trying to write this novel, and I'd been researching for 10 years. Just about everything: into the life and the history of the region, the history of the Canadian First People. And I was sat in the British Library surrounded by books piled high. I'd just met her and I was sitting there going, [mock-sobbing] “I can't write my novel! I can't do it – I don't know what to do!”

And she said, “All these books: send them all back,” like that.

And as soon as I threw them all away and started to make it up, it flowed and came out in a burst. But without all those years of them filling me up and then stepping away and being free to just create, one would not have allowed the other, if that makes sense.

Did you find it difficult to arrive at what you felt was an authentic voice for George Hunt [the shaman], or was it more of a difficult labour to get something that sounded right?

This question has been debated since by people. There have been some critical responses to his voice, and some people loved it, others have hated it. There's about 40 years of his letters – of this anthropologist's – that still exist, but they're very tentative and very polite and rather obsequious, and actually not as interesting as the character I was reading about. They always used to put me off.

And then I read this story by Edward Curtis, this famous American photographer who worked with George Hunt, who said that Hunt was prone to murderous rages: he would lose his mind and come stomping down the beach to kill you sometimes, and he was this terrifying huge man. And as soon as that happened he came alive as a person to me - someone I could use and construct. And then I made up his voice.

There are bits of his speech from his letters; there are bits and pieces from the slang of the time; from other people's writings; and it kind of evolved as I wrote. The first draft I wrote in the third person actually, and it was only the second draft that I turned it into the first person. His voice started to come into being. But it was born of all those bits and pieces, and also the flora and fauna of the place and how I imagined the experience of being a hard old bastard of a man, like he was, who lived in these worlds; it would've made him gruff but articulate, if you like.

You mentioned a minute ago writing in the British Library. How do you think living and working in Leicester has altered your approach to writing, if it has at all?

Well, it means I don't have access to the British Library. [Laughs.] That's a pain, because I loved the silence amid the chaos of the city. My own office up here is not quite the same. But the book I'm writing at the moment is thematically a book about psychogeography, and it's set now, in the present. And it's set in the kind of edgelands: there are many different marchlands, edgelands; the urban countryside; the margins of the town, if you like, of the city; those bits inbetween. Everywhere that's inbetween; the forgotten bits around the back of new retail parks and the nowhere scrublands between one building and another. It's all about that.

Of course, Leicester is packed full of that sort of decaying, half-forgotten, inbetween places, so I've been sniffing out the underbelly a bit, walking along the canals and things like that. So it's been quite useful to me actually here. I mean, I'm a Londoner: I was born in Dean Street, above the Pizza Express, in 1967, so it's been tough moving away from what I know in the city, but actually as well it's been quite liberating because the subject of my novel fits the surroundings at the moment.

Would you like to say anything more about your new work?

Yeah, sure.

Well, it's called Nowhere. It's premise is, it's the story of a location scout in the film business who's set the brief to find Nowhere by a film director. And in the middle of nowhere he meets this lady anthropologist who has been diagnosed as having had a nervous breakdown, but actually hasn't at all – she's just seen through how everything is. And they have this furious love affair whilst searching for Nowhere along the edgelands of society, if you like.

It's all set in a very short period of time: a few days of their affair and this guy's location scout. So there you go: I've told you all about it now.

You recently organised this year's Annual Creative Writing Lecture with Laura Esquivel, the hugely popular Mexican writer. As an author yourself, what do you feel you gain with this dialogue, if you like, with authors from completely different cultures?

My remit in having this lecture take place each year is that Creative Writing as a taught subject here in the academy, the enormously popular subject that it is, grew up in the 1880s in Harvard and other American academic institutions and was born from English Studies, and has as its craft tools critical ways in which we approach literature in English Studies. So, it's somewhat blind to itself, given what its supposed universality is.

So, what I am hoping to gain from these kind of dialogues – we had Ben Okri last year, who is based in the U.K., but has a very broad kind of take on what literature is, and then Laura Esquivel, who I thought was fascinating actually in how revolutionary she saw creativity – I mean, real Latin American stuff – what a revolutionary take she had on it. She said we have to get away from telling the same stories, and when we are looking at archetypes, look in a quantum-mechanical way at the mirror of an archetype, the opposite, the negative charge, the opposite character to the character you're writing and see if that's more interesting. That was really something important and new that she had to say. It was all about what I'm trying to do in making a Creative Writing lecture bring people in from outside the Anglophone tradition. So I felt, even though she went off in all kinds of directions, and I think a few people went, “What is she on about?”, I thought it was great, you know. I thought she was really doing something different to what any British writer would've done if they'd been invited to give this lecture.

What do you think? Do you agree?

I would agree: it was not what I was expecting at all, but I found it a really interesting, a really original take on it.

Yeah it was. She was as mad as fish, bless her, but also fantastic! I got to spend a couple of days with her and talking to her, she was so wonderful and engaged, and she really does absolutely believe in what she was talking about. And flipping things upside-down; inverting them, turning them round; you know, not repeating ourselves and how that's actually an answer to the social condition of supermodernity, of the modern condition, a passive consumerism. And how the creative process of writing stories can actively become part of that.

It's not something we talk about in Creative Writing classes in the Anglophone tradition. We just talk about point of view and doing this and doing that. We don't – I don't as a teacher – I've not been taught to say to you guys, “Let's use this to tell some story that really is about something else.” To really plunder the depths. I'm hesitant to do that: classes I'm teaching tend to be introductory classes and I don't want to scare people off, but then after watching Laura Esquivel a bit of me thinks that actually, yeah, maybe I should be scaring people off and engaging the people who want to be engaged.

You know what I mean? What do you think about that? Interesting to throw that at you, since you're one of my students.

I think the classes so far have been valuable and I think I would've felt a bit out of my depth. But then it's interesting to think – I was about to call them the “basic tools” of creative writing, but is that an objective thing, or is that something ingrained in how we think about it in the Anglophone tradition?

I started on about it a little bit in the class on Monday. With Jamaica Kincaid, everything is kind of like what I've been explaining – until it ain't. But when it still works, it still works.

And Alain Robbe-Grillet's take on the nouveau roman – I don't know if you guys have come across him or not - but he says, “I'm not interested in character or plot, point of view, structure, any of this kind of thing. I'm interested in tone, colour, suggestion,” - all those completely different things.

For someone who comes along to these events, or the Grassroutes exhibition and thinks, “That looks fun – I want to do that”... what advice would you give to an absolute beginner who wants to write?

Be wary of your own ambitions. Be absolutely honest that you're not fooling yourself by your ambitions.

Isak Dinesen said something that I have pasted up in my office. She said, “I write a little every day, without hope, without despair.” And that's it.

I mean, Laura Esquivel says, “What should a writer do? Write.”

If you're an absolute beginner you think, “Oh I'd like to be doing that.”

“Why aren't you?” is an important question. What is it that you want? Because there is a degree – not so much in universities, and I haven't found it so much in reality in my students as I thought I might – but there's a degree of a culture of narcissism at writing schools.

In a secular age, how do we answer our extinction after 4,000 weeks of life? By showing the world how authentic, deep and meaningful we are by writing a Great Novel.

Like Nick Cave says, “We call upon the author to explain.”

My advice for a starting writer is have a good look at what it is you want to do. Don't fantasise it too much too soon.

Don't become a writer before you write.

Yeah, that's exactly right. Don't seek to become a writer: seek to write. And then ask yourself what it is you write: what is your purpose? Why? Do it without hope or despair. [Laughs.] Because God knows it's a long process!

I got lucky. I did an MA from 2004 to 2005 and I got my first novel published in 2011: six years, I mean, that's remarkable. I'm not bigging myself up, I'm just saying it's remarkably fortunate how quick that happened. Also, I'd been writing since I was eight and I've always written stories, hundreds of short stories that are rubbish.

So, it's a long old grind and you've got to enjoy the process.

I met this guy when I was on this book tour in Canada who did a survey of 1,500 novelists, and he asked them how old they were when their first novel was published, and the mean age was 42, which is a real surprise I think.

Thanks very much.

A pleasure.

*Nick Edgeworth is a volunteer at Grassroutes: Contemporary Leicestershire Writing, a project that aims to promote Leicestershire's diverse literary culture.

Related books:

,,

Related articles:

Harry Whitehead, Writers Gallery, Grassroutes: Contemporary Leicestershire Writing
Harry Whitehead on The Process of Writing [Video Interview], CivicLeicester, May 29, 2012
The Cannibal Spirit taps into mystery: Novel examines the inner life of a shaman moving between cultures [Interview], by John Goodman, North Shore News, February 24, 2012

[Interview_3] Gail McFarland

2013-01-23T03:17:00.000Z

Gail McFarland writes contemporary romance.

Her novels include Doing Big Things (Lulu, 2012); Wayward Dreams (Genesis Press, 2008); and, Dream Keeper (Genesis Press, 2009). In addition to that, her romantic confessions and short stories have been featured in a number of magazines as well as in the anthologies, Bouquet (Pinnacle Books, 1998) and Can a Sistah Get Some Love? (Lady Leo Publishing, 2010).

Her work is available in both print and e-format.

In this interview, Gail McFarland talks about her experience of e-books, the future of the book and about her short stories:

How much of your work is available in print form and in e-format?

My novel-length work is currently available in print form and available for order and purchase in both online and brick-and-mortar-bookstores. In e-format, readers can find a dozen different stories everywhere from Amazon.com and B&N.com, to the ibookstore, Kobo, Diesel, Sony, and Smashwords.

Of the two formats, as a reader and then as a writer, which do you prefer?

This is a great question! As a reader who grew up pre-ebook, I absolutely love the feel of a book in my hands. I love experiencing the turning of the pages and the whole holding-my-breath as I wait to see what awaits me on the next page thing. But I am at heart a reader. Truth be told, I will read just about anything, so I am reading ebooks.

In my everyday real life, I work in Wellness and Fitness and for me, that is where e-books take the full advantage. They are easy to carry in my gym bag and I can read on the treadmill or while cranking out miles on a stationary bike. E-books are unmatched for downloading manuals and having ready reference available for my classes and clients.

I still love a real paper book, but I guess I’m just a woman of my times and a good e-book works for me.

In your view, what is the future of the book going to be like?

The ease of reading and the portability of e-readers is impressive. Additionally, the opening of the market to indie authors is allowing an unprecedented rise to free and open thought that was often lost among traditional publishers. This leads me to think that more people are reading – a good thing. It also leads me to think that more ideas are being more easily exchanged and that our society, as a whole, is expanding and reshaping itself accordingly – another good thing.

So ultimately, I think that both traditional and indie authors are going to have to step up our game to keep pace with this future, and that we owe this effort to our readers, ourselves, and the ongoing integrity of books.

You have an impressive number of your stories that have been published in a variety of anthologies. How did this happen?

One of the nicest things about writing for publication is that you are able to make contact with people whose hearts sing the same songs as your own. When that happens, how can you say, ‘no’?

I have been fortunate to find myself in the company of a number of lovely ladies for the Arabesque Bouquet Mother’s Day anthology, and the Lady Leo Can a Sistah Get Some Love anthology. Additionally, a number of my short confessions (27 of them!) appeared in collections for the Sterling/MacFadden Jive, Bronze Thrills, and Black Romance magazines.

In each case, I was invited to submit an idea and a subsequent story for the collection.

I was very happy and enjoyed doing it.

And here’s a little bit of a 'scoop' for you and your readers: I will be included in a new anthology featuring the GA Peach Authors in 2013. The anthology will include work from Jean Holloway, Marissa Monteilh (Pynk), Electa Rome-Parks, and me. As authors, we write across a wide variety of genres that include everything from erotica, murder, romance, and mainstream fiction, so this one promises to be big fun.

How have the stories been received?

Anthologies are nice little “samplers” of style and content. A reader may choose the book because they are partial to a particular writer or style, but in the reading, there are always little unexpected and surprising “jewels” to be found, giving the reader something fun and unexpected – a lot of bang for your reading buck!

I have been fortunate to be included in well-planned, well-thought out collections where the writers shared a similar vision and direction. This, combined with skilled editing results in entertaining, often dream-worthy collections of well-developed prose.

Each of the anthologies I have been involved with has generated a series of really nice reviews, lots of email, and even a few new fans of the individual writers.

All of the stories and their associated collections have been well-received, and readers often want to see fully-developed novels that will follow the characters forward.

Related books:

,,

Related articles:

Gail McFarland [Interview], by LaShaunda Hoffman, Odinhouse Fantasy, July 14, 2012
Gail McFarland [Interview_2], Conversations with Writers, April 5, 2010
Gail McFarland [Interview_1], Conversations with Writers, June 2, 2008

[Book Review] Killing Honour... a beautifully written, heartfelt book

2013-01-14T15:42:00.001Z

Reviewed by Sarah O’Rourke, The Grassroutes Project*

Bali Rai is considered the writer of British Asian teen fiction, and it’s not hard to see why. Life bursts off the pages of his 2011 novel, Killing Honour. Rai tackles taboo subjects with incredible clarity and passion.

Killing Honour tells the story of Sat, a Leicester-born Asian teenager, whose sister is forced into a marriage with an abusive husband who then goes onto murder her – a so-called “honour killing.” Bai makes his stance clear on these killings in the title of the book and through the voice of his narrator, who never once gives up on his sister, no matter what izzat she has offended. Sat understands that family must come before honour, saying: “[A]ll you’re doing is killing it – killing honour – not defending it,” (KH p.180) but in order to unravel the mystery of his missing sister, Sat comes up against a “wall of silence” in the Sikh community. At the same time, of course, Sat represents those Sikh men who openly condemn such murders.

Killing Honour condemns domestic violence in any form, whether that be against Asian women or white women. By removing the “honour” from the phrase honour killings, Rai exposes these violent acts for what they are: murder without justification. Rai makes it clear how intolerable it can be for women who have to live up to unachievable standards to protect their family’s izzat. Sat notes that he is a male and so the “izzat thing” (KH p91) is easier for him, making his sympathy for women apparent, wishing that his sister had run away, because he could never have lived her life. Rai further instils a sense of sympathy for women by switching the point of view of his narration – sometimes it’s Sat, sometimes it’s third person from Laura’s perspective, and sometimes it’s the abused woman. Here we see the horror of domestic violence and murder from every perspective, from the family to the Asian wife to the abused white girlfriend. Rai considers all these people as victims of the same crime. Rather than privileging one over the other, he states emphatically that it is wrong. That it must be stopped.

Rai paints Leicestershire as a diaspora space – that is a community in which the consciousness of not only the first generation immigrants is transformed, but the indigenous peoples too, each changing and shaping one another together as one cohesive whole. Location figures heavily in Killing Honour, set in and around Leicester, with local landmarks such as De Montfort Hall, Victoria Park, Queens Road, and even Babella’s bar. Sat says that his sister “lived on the other side of Leicester, but it wasn’t far. Nothing in Leicester is.” (KH p.9) And this image of Leicester as a tightknit community can be felt not only in the novel, but in the city itself, with art reflecting reality and vice versa.

In Rai’s novel, Britishness figures as intrinsically culturally diverse. As Rai himself says, “we should celebrate what we have in common” rather than putting our differences first. And so we see Sat drinking from a Bart Simpson mug, the family visiting Disney World and hot dogs being eaten. When Sat gets a girlfriend who is white (a union frowned upon by people from both sides of the cultural divide), he is presented as very much the modern multiculturalist, showing the transformations that have taken place between first and second generations in the diaspora space of Leicester life. Sat says of his girlfriend: “Although we were both British, Charlotte came from one culture and I was from another. We were like the same, and then different too.” (KH, p38)

But this is no glib celebration of multi-racial Britain. We see several examples of racism, far right activism and inter-communal strife. Most notably, we see hatred between Muslims and Sikhs, which Sat puts down to “prejudice” more than “any sense of tradition.” (KH p74) Non-white communities clash on their own terms, while Sat’s own Sikh community clashes with white bigotry, too. We hear an anecdote of his father being mistaken for a terrorist whilst going through customs, racist slurs of “paki wanker” (KH p40) and several declarations of “you don’t understand our community” (KH p115). Perhaps this is what all the tension in Killing Honour comes down to: understanding. Rai counterbalances this sense of violence and distrust between factions with genuine friendships, interracial love and the day to day entanglements that are a staple of multicultural life in Britain.

Bali Rai’s previous works have been celebrated as “verbal brilliance ... on every page” (TES) and Killing Honour is no exception. Each character has her/his distinctive voice, but more than this: their voices ring true. Rai’s ability to capture teenage speech is astonishing and at times, extremely funny, as you hear the voices of Leicestershire locals echoing through the pages, with their “innits” and their “bruvs.”

Killing Honour is a beautifully written, heartfelt book with a genuine and sincere message. Rai is a true inspiration for Leicestershire writers and readers alike, and takes the tradition of Young Adult Leicestershire writing from [Sue] Townsend and into the 21st century.

*Sarah O’Rourke is a volunteer at Grassroutes: Contemporary Leicestershire Writing, a project that aims to promote Leicestershire's diverse literary culture.

Related books:

,,

Related articles:

Bali Rai, Writers' Gallery, Grassroutes: Contemporary Leicestershire Writing
Want to Write? – Interview with Booktrust Writer-in-Residence Bali Rai, by Marése O'Sullivan, A Younger Theatre, April 5, 2012
Bali Rai - reggae, ex-gangsters and zombie-demon-cowboys, by Rachael Mott, The Jitty, May 22, 2011
Interview with Bali Rai author of Killing Honour, by cari3232, Sugarscape, June 9, 2011

[Interview] R. J. Heald

2013-01-10T17:53:00.000Z

R. J. Heald is author of 27: Six Friends, One Year (Dancing Parrot Press, 2012); founder of Five Stop Story and editor of Five Stop Story: Short Stories to Read in 5 Stops on Your Commute (Five Stop Story Press, 2011).

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

When did you start writing?

Like a lot of writers, I always loved creative writing when I was a child and I remember writing stories as one of the highlights of my primary school education. I continued to write into my teens, but stopped completely during university.

I started writing seriously when I woke up from a dream with the idea for a book about five years ago. The idea just wouldn’t go away, and when I got home from work it was still at the front of my mind, so I just started writing. That was the first novel I wrote, but it’s still in draft form and remains in a drawer at present!

I’m not sure if I ever consciously thought “I want to be a published writer.” The overriding motivation was to write, to tell the stories that occupied my thoughts and to let loose the ideas. But when I finished the first draft of my second novel, publication seemed like a sensible goal. I got feedback from beta readers and produced five re-drafts of the novel over eighteen months. I entered the novel into the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Competition and reached the Quarter Finals.

I’d always been interested in publishing as a business, and I run my own digital publisher, Five Stop Story, which publishes short stories. Therefore, I didn’t approach any agents or publishers, but took the decision to set up my own publishing company and self-publish the novel.

How would you describe the writing you are doing?

My writing is very contemporary and tells the stories of ordinary people and their everyday triumphs and disasters. My debut novel, 27: Six Friends, One Year tells the story of a year in the lives of six friends aged 27. On the surface they lead enviable lives, but underneath the facades, they are falling apart. They each face their adversities in different ways as they try and maintain their appearance to the outside world. The novel focuses on the events both big and small that shape their lives during their 27th year.

I write about the drama of ordinary lives, and I try to capture the complexity of relationships, telling each character’s story.

Some readers have compared my writing to One Day by David Nicholls and I think that’s a good comparison.

Who is your target audience?

My target audience is predominantly women in their 20s, 30s and 40s. However, I’ve had feedback from men and women outside of this age bracket, who also enjoy my writing.

One piece of advice I heard when I was writing was “write the book you’d want to read.” That’s what I’ve done with 27: Six Friends: One Year. So I suppose the target audience is people like me.

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

My debut novel, 27: Six Friends, One Year is all about everyday life, so my experiences and those of my friends have influenced it a lot. However, I think the experiences in the novel are universal. So, although my experiences have guided me to a certain extent, the novel is really an amalgamation of everyone’s life stories.

Jodi Picoult has been a big influence. I love the way she focuses on the importance of the relationships between characters in her stories. I think Nick Hornby and David Nicolls have influenced writing style with their use of different viewpoints.

What are your main concerns as a writer?

I actually think that the present day is a better time than ever to be a writer. There’s an amazing support network of other authors online; that just didn’t exist 10 years ago. Through this network you can get support from writing the first draft, to editing, to publishing and finally marketing. Authors like myself also have the opportunity to take things into our own hands and independently publish if we choose to do so.

That said, I suppose my concerns are the same as any creative person; essentially that people won’t like my work! However, the reviews so far have been very positive, which has been a real relief.

What are the biggest challenges that you face?

Finding time to write. Sometimes I feel like everything else should come first and writing is a treat that I reward myself with if I manage to get everything else done. I work full time and also run a small digital publisher, Five Stop Story so I’m always pretty busy.

I’d love to have more time to write.

Do you write everyday?

Sadly, no. I never have done. I tend to write when I’m inspired which is why I have so many beginnings of novels and short stories, but comparatively few endings. However, when I’ve been writing first drafts of my two completed novels, I’ve been more disciplined and I’ve written most days. I had to fit it around everything else, so it might have meant writing in a lunchtime, or on a train, or first thing in the morning before work. But I made sure I did it.

I’m going to start the sequel to 27: Six Friends, One Year soon and I intend to go back to a more disciplined approach. But at the moment, marketing my debut novel is taking a lot of my limited spare time.

How many books have you written so far?

My debut novel 27: Six Friends, One Year was released in July 2012 by Dancing Parrot Press. It’s contemporary fiction and it was a Quarter finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.

I also have a short story featured in Five Stop Story: Short Stories to Read in Five Stops on Your Commute, a book which I also edited.

In addition to that I have a novel, Obsession which I am currently redrafting. This novel was one of the winners of the Next Big Author Competition in September 2011 and was shortlisted for the Brit Writers Awards.

How long did it take you to write 27: Six Friends, One Year?

It took me two years to write the novel, from the first draft to the published form. It was published in July 2012 in the UK. I set up Dancing Parrot Press in order to publish the novel. I didn’t approach traditional publishers or agents, because I was concerned about the timescales involved. Usually it takes at least a year to get an agent ,another year to find a publisher and then a further year to bring a book out. My novel is set in the here and now and I didn’t feel like waiting around.

Of course self-publishing has advantages and disadvantages. I get complete control, over the edit, the cover design and the sales channels, but I have to pay for editors and cover designers. And I have to do all the marketing myself. I’m relishing the challenge, but it’s not for everyone.

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

I think I found asking for feedback the most difficult. After working on your own on a project for so long it can be hard to put it out into the world for critique. I was lucky to have 10 really generous beta readers who provided constructive feedback, 90% of which I’ve taken on board in the multiple rewrites.

Which aspects of the work did you enjoy most?

Writing the first draft. Everything was up for grabs, I was in complete control and I could take the story wherever I wanted to. It was liberating.

What will your next book be about?

It will be the sequel to 27 – re-meeting the characters in 27 in three year’s time and seeing how they’ve changed. Of course they’ve been living in my head for the last two years, so I already have a good idea what they’ve been doing. I just need to get it down on paper!

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

I’ve had some success in writing competitions that I’m very proud of. I was a winner of the Next Big Author Competition in September 2011 and I was a Quarter-Finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Competition earlier this year. However the best feeling I’ve had so far has been when I’ve received 5* reviews from people I’ve never heard of. That’s a real buzz.

Related books:

,,

Related articles:

"27: Six Friends, One Year" by R J Heald [Interview], by Jenny Beattie, tea stains, August 16, 2012
27 (Twenty- Seven): Six Friends, One Year - R.J. Heald [Book Review], Lucybird's Book Blog, August 12, 2012
27 (twenty-seven) – r j heald [Book Review], Just a Normal Girl in London, August 5, 2012

[Interview_4] Jonathan Taylor

2012-11-03T15:10:00.001Z

Jonathan Taylor is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at De Montfort University in Leicester.

He is also the author of books that include the memoir, Take Me Home: Parkinson’s, My Father, Myself (Granta, 2007) and the academic books, Science and Omniscience in Nineteenth-Century Literature (Sussex Academic Press, 2007); Mastery and Slavery in Victorian Writing (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2003); and, Figures of Heresy: Radical Theology in English and American Writing, 1800-2000 (Sussex Academic Press, 2005) (co-edited with Dr. Andrew Dix).

In this interview, Jonathan Taylor talks about his debut novel, Entertaining Strangers (Salt, 2012):

How long did it take you to write the novel?

It took me a while to write the novel: I started it in 2007, shortly after the publication of my memoir, Take Me Home: Parkinson’s, My Father, Myself (Granta Books, 2007), and finished it four or so years later.

In fact, its origins lie further back, in that the starting-point was an episode which was eventually cut from my memoir. In 2001, my father was in intensive care, and I was travelling backwards and forwards to Stoke from Leicestershire, where I was working at the time. One night, in Loughborough, I was approached by a homeless woman, who said she hadn’t eaten for days, and who asked if I had anything she could eat. I’d had a few too many drinks that night, and decided it was a good idea to invite her back to our house to (and I quote) “eat our freezer.” She came back with me, I fed her, and then she met my housemate of the time, who proceeded to talk to her for hours about his current obsession: ants. After that, she slept on our floor, and then, next morning, just before she left, gave us both a kiss on the cheek and told us that she now “believed in English gentlemen again.”

It was one of the nicest things anyone’s ever said to me. I never saw her again, but the novel is an attempt to imagine what her traumatic background was – what had brought her to that desperate point. In effect, she’s the novel’s narrator. The central character is a heavily fictionalised version of my ant-obsessed housemate (though he’s really a complex hybrid of my housemate, myself and other people I know).

Did you write everyday?

I wrote a great deal of the novel in 2008-9, when our twin girls were still babies. This meant that the writing process was squeezed between massive commitments – to my daughters (obviously), and also to my full-time job as a lecturer. So I’d sometimes have no more than an hour or two a week writing time. This meant that I had to maximise that time, and use it to its full advantage. Through sheer necessity, I’ve come to discipline myself to be able to write at will as and when I get the chance. I hardly believe in ‘inspiration’ any more – and I don’t have the kind of time available to wait for it to come. I’ve just trained myself to write as and when I get the odd hour free. In that sense, ‘writer’s block’ is something, I think, that is often the preserve of people with a lot of spare time.

In terms of how I proceeded with the novel, I actually wrote it in a linear way, from beginning to end. I’ve never done this before – the memoir was built up in a piecemeal fashion from fragments, and my second novel (which I’m completing now) is much less linear. But the story for Entertaining Strangers demanded this kind of treatment: it’s a very linear, step-by-step story, where each small chapter builds up towards the climax.

I wanted the story to move fast from episode to episode, and each chapter to move the story on one step.

I enjoyed the challenge of writing something so different in structure to everything else I’ve done. Of course, when I’d finished the first draft, I then went back and edited, redrafted, reshaped and expanded the novel – so, ultimately, the writing experience is never really linear. But it was in this case, at least for the first draft.

How would you describe the novel?

I’ve always described Entertaining Strangers as a ‘tragi-comedy.’ It’s a mixture of grotesque and dark comedy on the one hand, with horror and trauma on the other. The starting-point is the weird comedy: the tragedy is what lurks underneath the comedy (as it does with so much comic material).

Most of the novel is set in 1997, and centres on the mysterious narrator Jules, about whom little is known, and the manic-depressive Edwin Prince, who is obsessed with high culture and ants. Gradually, the narrator uncovers Edwin’s strange history and family background – and ultimately, in doing so, reveals another, darker and much more distant trauma which lies behind both Edwin’s family’s neuroses and psychoses and, indeed, the narrator’s own. Towards the end, the novel flashes back to 1922 and the Great Fire of Smyrna, which forms the traumatic backdrop to what happens in the novel.

Where and when was the novel published?

The novel was published in Autumn 2012 in the UK. By coincidence, Autumn 2012 is also the 90th anniversary of the Great Fire of Smyrna, which occurred in September 1922, and which, as I say, is the formative trauma lying behind everything which happens in the novel (the majority of which is actually set in 1997).

How did you find a publisher for the book? And, what advantages and/or disadvantages has this presented?

I had a lot of help and advice in terms of editing from a literary agent friend of mine, called Meg Davis. Ultimately, though, I approached Salt Publishing myself: although I know agents are important for most writers, all my books have been published without one. In part, it’s just happened that way; but it’s also because I like to establish a relationship with publisher’s editors myself.

Salt has been a great publisher: both Chris and Jen Hamilton-Emery (the editors) have been incredibly supportive, and also – most importantly – seem to love the book. Salt’s books are beautifully designed, and Salt is also quite daring in what it publishes, in a way that the very biggest publishers often feel they can’t be any more. My novel is, no doubt, eccentric and individual – and, as such, suits an independent publisher like Salt, which is willing to take risks.

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

I think the most challenging part of writing the novel was the large chapter – towards the end – which flashes back to the Great Fire of Smyrna in 1922. This was a terrible disaster, in which many people were killed, injured and made homeless. I had to find a style which somehow did justice to such an awful catastrophe. For that reason, the chapter on Smyrna is one of the most experimental and extreme pieces of writing I’ve ever attempted – and I hope it captures some of the horror, terror and grief of that event.

Another challenge, linked to this, was that of connecting the main plot, which is, at least in part, comic, with the tragedy of Smyrna, without the link between comedy and tragedy seeming bathetic. In the end, this wasn’t the problem I thought it would be, in that – as I’ve said – horror often lurks within comedy anyway, so the two plots had underlying connections. And, of course, bathos has its own horrors.

Which aspects of the work did you enjoy most?

To be honest, I enjoyed writing the novel hugely: it was a break from the pressures around me at the time, and was also a break after writing the memoir. Suddenly, instead of having to stick to the truth, I was free to invent, exaggerate, embellish.

Of course, the memoir itself could never be strictly and absolutely true – but here, writing a novel, I was freed up from truth entirely, notwithstanding the novel’s origins in various ‘truthful’ images.

I enjoyed playing around with the characters, and I also enjoyed writing something which, on the surface at least, is primarily comic. For all its constraints, there is something playful and liberatory about the novel form.

What sets Entertaining Strangers apart from other things you've written? And, in the same vein, in what way is it similar to the others?

I’ll address the second question first: it overlaps with the memoir in various ways, but particularly, perhaps, in its use of dark humour. I believe that comedy and tragedy – as I’ve said – are always mingled, even in the most extreme of circumstances. The memoir, I hope, demonstrated that – and so does the novel. People laugh at funerals, cry at jokes, feel melancholy at joyful parties. Many writers have understood this, from John Keats to Jack Kerouac. That’s what I want to capture in my work: that emotions aren’t monolithic, that experiences are strange hybrids of different emotions. Whether I’m successful or not is, of course, up to the reader to decide.

The main way in which Entertaining Strangers is different, I think, from other things I’ve written is as regards its plot: in writing the novel, I soon realised the importance of plot, and I struggled with this at first. Memoirs don’t need a plot, and short stories only need one small ingredient. A novel, by contrast, needs a whole chain of causes and effects for the story to work – and it took me a long while to get that chain right, so that each cause linked to the next effect, and so on.

My other challenge, when writing Entertaining Strangers, came when I realised that a novel often demands to be more realistic than reality. This may sound rather strange – but I think readers will happily read material, such as memoirs, which is labelled as ‘non-fiction,’ and believe what’s going on, however crazy it is. Some of things that I talk about in my memoir – which did actually happen – are crazy, grotesque, bizarre. But as soon as you transfer those kinds of events and behaviour to a novel, somehow they seem less believable. However crazy reality actually is, you’re expected to tone it down for it to seem realistic in a novel. A novel is a more moderate version of reality, you might say. In the end, though, I wouldn’t and couldn’t really do that: I wanted to write a novel which captures the insanity of the world and the people in it, so if some people choose to think it’s a caricature, or satire, that’s fine. But to me it’s not.

What will your next book be about?

Well, I’ve got a couple of books coming out in the next few months – firstly, a poetry collection called Musicolepsy, which will be published by Shoestring Press in early 2013, and then a collection of short stories called Kontakte and Other Stories, which will be published by Roman Books in mid-2013. The material for these books is already written: I’ve been writing poems and stories for many years, so it’s a matter of selection, structuring, editing and ordering them at the moment. That’s what’s so wonderful about writing individual poems and stories – you can write them whilst you’re engaged on other, longer-term projects. Speaking of which, I’ve also just finished the second draft of a second novel, called Mellissa, which is very different to Entertaining Strangers. It’s more of a ‘concept-driven’ novel than Entertaining Strangers. It’s set in Stoke-on-Trent in the late 1990s, and is about ... well, actually, I don’t think I’ll reveal that yet.

Related books:

,,

Related articles:

Angels, Ants and Vermouth [Book Review], SophieDuffy, September 6, 2012
Jonathan Taylor [Interview_1], Conversations with Writers, August 10, 2007
Jonathan Taylor [Interview_2], Conversations with Writers, February 7, 2008
Jonathan Taylor [Interview_3], Conversations with Writers, February 11, 2008

[Interview] Marissa Monteilh

2012-10-20T00:00:00.000+01:00

Marissa Monteilh is a former model, television news reporter, and commercial actress. She is a regular contributor to the literary blog, Novel Spaces, and is a member of the all female group of touring writers, Atlanta's GA Peach Authors.

Her books include May December Souls (William Morrow & Company, 2002), Make Me Hot (Dafina Books, 2008), Dr Feelgood (Dafina, 2007) and The Six-Letter Word (4D Publishing, 2012).

In this interview, Marissa Monteilh talks about her concerns as a writer:

When did you start writing?

I did not plan to be a published writer. I sat down to write my life story in 1998, and honestly, it was so boring that I added in a whole lot of fiction. Before I knew it, I had an 80,000 word rough draft.

I did a lot of research on the craft of writing and finished the story, shopping it around to publishers for about one year. Once I self-published my title May December Souls (at the suggestion of a well-known author) in 1998 and it was in bound book form, I ended up signing with an agent who'd heard of my work, and before long three publishers auctioned for my titles.

I signed a two-book deal with Harper Collins in 2001.

How would you describe your writing?

I write relationship-type novels that fall into the category of women's fiction. I also write erotica under my pen name, Pynk.

My target audience is women, ages 21 to 65. I support women and enjoy showing the trials and tribulations of life as it pertains to love, family, careers, dysfunctions, addictions, religion, sex, etc.

I write what I call fiction-friction... people who are broken or who struggle to gain something or break bad habits, in spite of the obstacles that stand in their way.

Sometimes it can be uncomfortable to read about a woman who abuses her husband, or to read about the life of a sex addict, but through the uncomfortableness of those stories we can learn a lot about situations that we may never experience personally. Or perhaps it's a story about a tough break-up.

Many of my readers enjoy being a fly on the wall, and learning about how to deal with moving on after a tough divorce. Reading is life-therapy.

Which authors influenced you most?

Terry McMillan influenced me with her contemporary stories about love. She writes strong female characters who are very flawed, yet very relatable overall.

And James Baldwin influenced me when I was young. I read Giovanni's Room and was hooked on reading fiction. The story was bold, vivid, and unforgettable.

My very first book, May December Souls, was semi-autobiographical. Without my life experience of having a well-known father who abandoned his family, having gotten caught up in the trappings of his fame, I never would have sat down to write my first book.

All is in divine order.

What are your main concerns as a writer?

Writing is my passion. I always have new ideas and manage to meet my deadlines, which, in the beginning, I thought would be challenging. Today I focus on ways to garner continual word-of-mouth momentum so that readers are constantly aware of my titles. Most authors seek out new and innovative ways to get readers talking about our works. It's challenging and so very necessary. It takes a lot of creativity.

What are the biggest challenges that you face?

This is a business of numbers, so back to the previous question, we must make sure that readers know about, talk about, buy and read our books. Word-of-mouth is key.

Do you write everyday?

I try to write or edit at least a page per day.

I handle emails and promotion during the morning hours, and begin settling down to write in the afternoon and evening hours. If I'm on deadline, I can easily spend eight to twelve hours writing. I prefer writing at home, not in a bookstore or airport, and I must have total quiet. I even turn off my phone at times.

How many books have you written so far?

I've written 15 titles:

May December Souls (2000 and 2002),
The Chocolate Ship (2003 and 2009),
Hot Boyz (2004),
Mariah's Gotta Have It (2005),
Make Me Hot (2006),
Dr. Feelgood (2007),
Something He Can Feel (2008),
Erotic City (2008),
Sexaholics (2010),
Sixty-Nine (2011),
Hot Girlz (2011),
The Six-Letter Word (2012),
Turnabout Is Fair Play (2012),
Triangle (2012),
Politics.Escorts.Blackmail (2012)

... more novels, novellas, and anthologies to come!

How would you describe your latest book about?

My latest book is called The Six-Letter Word, and it's a peek into the life of a married woman named McKenzie Livingston who is diagnosed with cervical cancer, and how her life gets turned upside down. She refuses to say the word "cancer", and refers to the disease as "the six-letter word". This is a story of survival, courage, faith, and love, and I'm very proud of it. I interviewed many women who have experienced gynecological cancers and learned a lot in the process.

I began writing this book years ago, having first written it about pancreatic cancer, but I kept it aside until I really felt I could do the subject justice and conduct more research. I changed it to cervical cancer after hearing about how many women rarely understand the risks that make us more susceptible to cervical cancer. I wanted to enlighten women and raise awareness about all cancers, particularly those that involve reproductive issues.

The Six-Letter Word is an ebook novella which was released in July 2012.

How did you chose a publisher for the novella?

While I do have contracts with mainstream publishers, I decided to self-publish The Six-Letter Word.

With all of the amazing opportunities for authors which involve electronic books, I felt this novella would do well as an ebook.

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

Creating the scenes that show the main character dealing with the reality of her diagnosis was difficult. I actually cried while writing a couple of the chapters. But, that's part of the process of writing. We create characters and get to know them. When our own characters test our emotions and surprise us, that's a very good sign.

I enjoyed showing the relationship between two close sisters. I don't have a sister, being that I have two older brothers. I found this particular familial connection interesting and complex, yet very loving.

What sets The Six-Letter Word apart from other things you've written?

This title became so much more important to me once I interviewed seven women who've had personal experiences of living with cancer. They wanted people to know about how cancer changes lives, how tough it can be to accept and deal with, and about how strong, mentally and physically, one must be. After a while I saw it as my mission to do this story justice, and make my beautiful interviewees proud.

This story is different from my other 14 novels, though I do try to create characters who face very tough challenges head on. Sometimes the outcomes are tragic, sometimes triumphant, but they are unusual and taboo and life-changing.

What will your next book be about?

My erotica title, Politics.Escorts.Blackmail, will be released in December 2012, and is the story of the world of politics in New York City and how so many politicians feel entitled to solicit the services of escorts, in spite of all that they have to lose. The book is written from the viewpoint of a madam named Money Watts, and her three escorts, Leilani, Midori and Kemba.

And, finally, what would you say has been your most significant achievement as a writer?

My most significant achievement as a writer is that creating stories allows me to live my passion, and my purpose. I'm in love with words!

Related books:

,,

Related articles:

Spotlighting Marissa Monteilh, Reviews and Views by LaToya, February 19, 2011
Make Me Hot by Marissa Monteilh [Book Review], Layla J Omorose, September 27, 2011
A Writer's Orgasm, by Marissa Monteilh, Black Pearls Magazine, December 20, 2008

[Interview] Electa Rome Parks

2012-09-14T21:00:00.000+01:00

Electa Rome Parks writes contemporary and erotic fiction.

Her books include The Stalker Chronicles (Kensington/Urban Books, 2012); True Confessions (Kensington/Urban Books, 2010); Diary of a Stalker (Kensington/Urban Books, 2009); and These Are My Confessions (HarperCollins/Avon Red, 2007).

In this interview, Electa Rome Parks talks about her concerns as a writer:

When did you start writing?

I have been writing for as long as I can remember; writing and reading have always defined who and what I am as a person. Writing is the love affair of my life. From a professional standpoint, I started writing and penned my first novel, The Ties That Bind in 2001.

For me, becoming a published writer was a natural progression. Friends and family who knew me back in the day, they can all testify to the fact that I was always writing something (a short story, a poem, a play) or had my head buried in a book, usually mystery or supernatural. Being a quiet, shy child, writing was a means for me to express myself, non-verbally. Later, I realized I had a voice that needed to be heard (read). And reading was my escape to meeting other people and worlds that I could only imagine.

I went about accomplishing my goal by researching, networking and finding mentors in my genre. I lived and breathed the literary industry. Eventually I published via print on demand, then traditionally self-published and eventually went mainstream after being picked up by a major publishing house. I achieved this by hustling... attending every conference, literary event, signing, book club meeting, etc., that I could. I made it my mission to network with creative, like-minded people in the industry and to get the word out about my book and myself. Passion, persistence and perseverance paid off when a literary agent contacted me and within 30 days had inked a 3-book deal with a major publishing house.

How would you describe the writing you are doing?

I write contemporary and erotic fiction. I’ve also been classified as a women’s fiction author.

My target audience is anyone who enjoys a good book! Primarily, African-American women and a small percentage of men tend to purchase my novels. I don’t know if I was motivated to start writing for this audience as opposed to this audience is who I am. I am an African-American woman; however my storylines tend to stem from life experiences, lessons, and situations that are universal.

Which authors influenced you most?

I absolutely adore contemporary fiction authors and my greatest influence was, hands down, author Terry McMillian. I witnessed and applauded the commercial successful she achieved with her books, from them being New Times Bestselling novels to being adapted to movies for the big screen. Her books, especially Disappearing Acts, was the first book that spoke to me as I saw myself and others in the storyline. I could relate. I laughed out loud, I cried and I didn’t want that book to end. I wanted to savor each page, digest it and breathe it in. There was such a connection that it left an impact that inspired me to reach for my dream.

How have your own personal experiences influenced your writing?

I’m sure in many ways that I haven’t even thought about.

I write from the heart about many topical issues prevalent in our communities. I’ve touched upon domestic abuse, molestation, friendship, dysfunctional relationships, stalking, mental illness and the list goes on. My characters aren’t perfect and my storylines don’t necessarily have happily-ever-after endings. However, they are much like real life.

I share life lessons and give readers imperfect characters they can embrace, whether they choose to love or hate them.

What are your main concerns as a writer?

My main concern as a writer is the constantly changing literary climate. I know of many talented authors who have lost book deals and can’t appear to get another one. I hate the fact that the industry is all about sales and the bottom line. There doesn’t appear to be an appreciation for the craft or an internal mentoring process for the author anymore.

I deal with these concerns by accepting the fact that what’s going to be is going to be. What’s meant for me is for me. I simply can’t sweat the small stuff so to speak. I have to continue to write my stories and be true to myself. How the changes pan out remains to be seen.

What are the biggest challenges that you face?

Staying abreast of the changing industry and remaining relevant are two big challenges for me. I deal with them by doing what I love to do, which is to write. I simply can’t allow myself to worry about things which are not within my control.

Do you write every day?

When I first started my professional literary career, I did write every single day. However, with my life evolving, that has changed. I simply don’t have the time to write every single day.

My session usually starts with me writing long-hand and simply doing a free flow style. I let the characters speak and tell their story. So, you will never see me with a detailed outline that some authors utilize. Later, I transpose my notes to my computer and tighten the prose up a bit. Typically, by the end of the session, I end up with a good first draft that later will be rewritten several times and edited.

How many books have you written so far?

I have written eight books, with a 9th book, When Baldwin Loved Brenden, dropping January 2013. A brief description of each novel can be found on my website. Please stop by and check them out!

The Stalker Chronicles (Kensington/Urban Books, 2012);
True Confessions (Kensington/Urban Books, 2010);
Diary of a Stalker (Kensington/Urban Books, 2009);
These Are My Confessions (HarperCollins/Avon Red, 2007);
Ladies' Night Out (Penguin Group/NAL, 2007);
Almost Doesn't Count (Penguin Group/NAL, 2005);
Loose Ends (Penguin Group/NAL, 2004); and,
The Ties That Bind (Penguin Group/NAL, 2004).

What is your latest book about?

The Stalker Chronicles - She's back, and this time it's all about revenge.

Tall, dark, and handsome bestselling male author Xavier Preston thought his nightmare—in the form of Pilar, a fanatical stalker/fan—had finally ended. Little does he know it’s only beginning. When Xavier met Pilar, he got much more than he bargained for. What started out as an erotic one-night stand quickly turned into a dangerous game of obsession and pain, with both parties playing to win. Then she simply disappeared.

Stunning Pilar hasn't gone away, though. In fact, she has been very near, watching his every move and patiently waiting for him to realize they were meant to be together forever. She still believes they’re soul mates, and the only option for her is “Until death do us part.” If she can't have Xavier, then no one can. Now no one is safe—not his friends, and definitely not him.

Revenge can be a real killer.

How long did it take you to write The Stalker Chronicles?

It took approximately 4 months to write the novel. This timeframe didn’t include rewrites and edits.

It was published in January 2012 by Kensington/Urban Books.

The novel was part of a second, two-book deal with this particular publishing house.

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

At this point in my career, I pretty much have a system or rhythm when it comes to my writing. Once I have my storyline and the characters are speaking to me, it’s on. [Laughs out loud].

As strange as it may sound, I almost see the various scenes played out in my mind like a movie. I hear my characters' voices as clear as I can hear yours.

I can’t really describe any difficulties I had with my previous project. It was a much-anticipated, much-requested sequel and the characters hadn’t left me. In fact, their voices were as strong as ever. So, it was like revisiting old friends, playing catch-up and putting it all on paper.

Which aspects of the work did you enjoy most?

I enjoyed revisiting old friends in The Stalker Chronicles, which is the sequel to Diary of a Stalker. I had missed my characters and it was refreshing to find out what was going on in their lives and to speak with them again.

What sets The Stalker Chronicles apart from other things you've written?

This was only my second attempt at an erotic thriller. So the genre was a little different from what I typically write.

It was familiar in that it incorporated my trademark style of writing that I have become known for: it was drama-filled, spicy, relationship-based, fast-paced with imperfect characters and with a twist to the storyline.

What will your next book be about?

My next book is titled, When Baldwin Loved Brenden.

Fair-weather friends come and go, but true friendship lasts a lifetime. Same goes for true love.

Ten years is a long time. Much can change in ten years, an entire decade. That’s how many years have passed when a former close-knit group of college friends, Baldwin, Brenden, Bria and Christopher, self-proclaimed The Group, are tragically reunited to attend the funeral of one of their own in a small North Carolina town.

The Group hasn’t seen or spoken to one another since an unfortunate set of circumstances placed their friendship in jeopardy ten years earlier. After graduation, everyone went their separate ways and never looked back, until now. The past has a way of catching up with you, sooner or later. Baldwin, the romantic, Brenden, the do-gooder, Bria, the wildchild, Christopher, the pretty boy, are all about to discover the truth in that.

Rihanna was once dubbed the peacemaker of the group. Her death reunites them for an unforgettable, poignant and life changing few days. Each friend will confront their own internal demons and leave a changed person. Secrets are revealed, hurts exposed, tears shed and laugher shared, all in the name of friendship and love.

Can anything truly tear real friendship and love apart?

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

I would say my most significant achievement has been just that... the fact that I am a published author. It’s not a dream anymore, it’s a reality. I have a voice. Readers embrace my books and enjoy them. I’m doing something I love and that I’m passionate about. It doesn’t get any better than that. Priceless.

Related books:

,,

Related articles:

Conversations in Literature, Annenberg Learner
Electa Rome Parks, African-American Voices, Penguin.com
Electa Rome Parks [Interview], ChickLitGurrl, January 13, 2010

[Interview] Lauri Kubuitsile

2012-08-29T18:13:00.001+01:00

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

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

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

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

When did you start writing?

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

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

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

How would you describe the writing you are doing?

I write primarily popular fiction.

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

Who is your target audience?

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

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

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

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

How have your own personal experiences influenced your writing?

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

What are your main concerns as a writer?

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

What are the biggest challenges that you face?

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

Do you write everyday?

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

How many books have you written so far?

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

What is different about your latest books?

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

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

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

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

What advantages and/or disadvantages has this presented?

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

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

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

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

Which aspects of the work did you enjoy most?

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

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

What will your next book be about?

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

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

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

Related books:

,,

Related articles:

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

[Interview] Catherine Czerkawska

2012-08-17T19:55:00.000+01:00

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

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

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

When did you start writing?

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

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

How would you describe your writing?

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

Who is your target audience?

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

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

Which authors influenced you most?

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

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

How have your own personal experiences influenced your writing?

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

What are your main concerns as a writer?

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

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

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

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

What are the biggest challenges that you face?

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

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

Do you write every day?

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

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

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

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

How many books have you written so far?

Novels

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

Non-fiction:

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

Published Plays:

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

How would you describe your latest book?

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

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

How long did it take you to write the book?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Which aspects of the work did you enjoy most?

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

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

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

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

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

In what way is it similar to the others?

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

What will your next book be about?

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

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

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

Related books:

,,

Related articles:

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

[Interview] Jean Holloway

2012-08-13T04:05:00.000+01:00

Jean Holloway lives in Kennesaw, GA.

Her books include Ace of Hearts (PHE Ink, 2009)) which is also available as an audiobook; Black Jack (PHE Ink, 2009); Deuces Wild (PHE Ink, 2010) and Full House (PHE Ink, 2011).

In this interview, Jean Holloway talks about her concerns as a writer:

When did you start writing?

It all began when my sister, Lori, commented, ‘You read so much, I bet you could write book,’ and I answered, ‘I bet I can!’ and began writing Ace of Hearts in long-hand in 1980. I completed the manuscript in 1982.

I was 30 years old and the mother of six.

I never considered the possibility of becoming a published writer, in fact, if someone had told me I would become a published author at the age of 57, I wouldn’t have believed them. Lori pushed me into this career when she bought me a ticket to the National Book Club Conference in Atlanta and instructed me to print copies of my manuscript and give them to anyone who wouldn’t throw them back. That’s where I met my first publisher.

Two years later at a literary event in Houston, I met T.L. James, CEO of PHE Ink. I recognized a kindred spirit and switched publishers.

How would you describe your writing?

I’m a genre bender, writing risqué romantic thrillers with a splash of the paranormal.

My target audience is mainly women over 21. I thought they could empathize with my protagonist, Detective Shevaughn Robinson.

Which authors influenced you most?

All my life I’ve been a fan of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Tananarive Due and Jean Auel. I admired their ability to transport me into their world and take me on a roller coaster ride. I wanted to have the same effect on my readers.

And how have your own personal experiences influenced your writing?

I thought the influence was minimal until my sister, April pointed out the similarities of my characters (especially Shevaughn’s) experiences to correlating events and attitudes in my own life. What an eye-opener!

What are the biggest challenges that you face?

I think my biggest challenge is getting readers who are unfamiliar with my work to give me a chance. I find there are a lot of readers who only read their favorite authors and won’t gamble on someone new.

How are you dealing with this challenge?

I’ve put excerpts on all my social networks. Usually, once they read a smidgen, either they love me or hate me.

Do you write everyday?

No, not every day. I usually write when my characters tell me to. A session starts when I hear one of them whisper in my mind. Then I go to my computer and write what I hear. It ends when they get quiet. Since they seem to be nocturnal, sometimes I find myself jumping out of bed at three in the morning running down to the computer to get down our thoughts before I forget.

How many books have you written so far?

Ace of Hearts, PHE Ink – Writing Solutions Firm, July 13, 2009, Second Edition
Black Jack, PHE Ink – Writing Solutions Firm, May 14, 2009
Deuces Wild, PHE Ink – Writing Solutions Firm, October 10, 2010. That was my 60th birthday present to me!
Full House, PHE Ink – Writing Solutions Firm – November 22, 2011

The four novels complete the Deck of Cardz series.

Detective Shevaughn Robinson is the main character in all four novels. You get to follow her life and career from rookie to Captain of the Homicide Division. As Portsborough, NY’s first Black female homicide detective in 1981, you watch as she strives to prove herself in a male-dominated workforce. You also meet her new partner, Jared Benjamin, and Tony O'Brien, an unexpected love interest.

The series introduces you to a series of sexual predators, starting with Eric Becker in Ace of Hearts, a psycho who has the inexperienced Shevaughn in his sights.

What is your latest book about?

In Full House, the final novel of the Deck of Cardz series, Captain Shevaughn Robinson is at the pinnacle of her career and living the challenging life of a single mother of two. It doesn’t help that her adolescent daughter still communicates with the dead and is in a relationship that’s way too serious for her age. Or that Nonna, the only one she can depend on, is beginning to show signs of Alzheimer's.

When she hears allegations that the police are ignoring the growing number of missing black women in Portsborough, Shevaughn pledges to personally investigate their disappearance. It leads her to one of the most unusual crimes in her entire career and gives new meaning to the phrase, "honor thy mother".

How long did it take you to write the novel?

Full House took me a year because it’s the last novel of the Deck of Cardz series and after working on this series since 1980, I really hated to let it go. I procrastinated a bit.

Which aspects of the work did you enjoy most?

I loved seeing how everything came together.

I don’t use outlines or storyboards or anything. I write by the seat of my pants and once I’m through getting it all out, I have to arrange everything chronologically like a time puzzle.

What sets Full House apart from other things you've written?

This time I have an entire dysfunctional family instead of my usual one psychopath.

In what way is it similar to the others?

Shevaughn is one tough cookie from start to finish.

How did you choose a publisher for the book?

When I met T.L. James, we clicked. I chose PHE Ink because it’s a small, independent press which allowed them to give me the personal attention I wanted. It’s more like a literary family. I really don’t see any disadvantages since I’m now Managing Partner.

What will your next book be about?

I’m contemplating collaborating with another author or maybe another series, but haven’t worked out the details as of yet.

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

Ace of Hearts was nominated against the esteemed Walter Mosley’s The Tempest Tales in 2008. Of course, he beat me like a bad child, but what an honor!

Now Ace is an audiobook, but not your usual audiobook; it has music and sound effects like a classic radio show. And last year, I became a member of the GA Peach Authors. I’m proud to be touring with such a group of well-respected authors.

Related Books:

,,

Related articles:

Literary Drama and Dinner with a Purpose, by Cyrus Webb, The Examiner, July 27, 2012
Gail McFarland [Interview_2], Conversations with Writers, April 5, 2010
Jean Holloway [nterview], A Book Blogger's Diary, July 7, 2008

[Interview] Jennifer McBride

2012-07-13T23:50:00.000+01:00

Jennifer McBride has written and published books that include Touching the Trees (2011); Cape of Leaves (2012); Basement Daisies (2012) and Child Less Parent (2012).

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

When did you start writing?

I began writing a few years after I began to read. My first "produced" work was in 2nd grade. I was around seven or eight years old and I wrote a play that my teacher allowed me to make into a classroom production. At around the same time, I wrote a story that my uncle read aloud to a large family reunion. I was hooked after that.

What made you decide you wanted to be a published writer?

I resisted the urge to be published because I thought it was too difficult to achieve but once self-publishing became an option, I explored this avenue and found that I really enjoyed being involved in every aspect of the publishing process.

I majored in writing in college, but didn't do much with that for almost 15 years. Then I began taking writing classes at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis and knew I wanted to work at being a published author. More interesting, though, is that about six years ago I made a conscious decision to not write. I was trying to find a way to stay in a relationship and I knew writing was going to lead me to find myself... and lead me away from the sad comfort of that situation. So, I sat in a bar in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and announced "I will not be a writer."

In that funny way life has of changing one's mind, though, it wasn't three months later that the urge and desire and calling to write became overwhelming and I began taking classes again. I haven't stopped writing since.

Needless to say, I'm not in that relationship anymore.

How would you describe your writing?

It's funny you ask that. I'm kind of a Kelly Clarkson writer. I dabble in many genres... nonfiction, essay, blogging, poetry, and fiction... just like she's able to sing in many different ways: country, pop, soul, rock, etc. I am, however, primarily a non-fiction writer right now.

Who is your target audience?

My target audience has been slightly different for each book I've written.

Overall, my audience is women and men who have had to make significant changes in their lives, whether it's because of relationships, job transitions, illness, etc. I became motivated to write for this audience when I became divorced and in search of an identity other than "wife" and "carpooler."

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

Mary Oliver and Billy Collins have influenced my poetry. I try to write accessible poems that express deep emotions. Mary Oliver's poetry sung to me and I heard Billy Collins speak in Minneapolis many years ago and I thought, "Wow. I really like his poetry. I should try writing some."

For my non-fiction, I'm inflenced by Elizabeth Gilbert and Anna Quindlen. Both women are frank, unashamed, and witty. I long to write like them!

For fiction, my "mentors" are Janet Evanovich and Jonathon Kellerman. I'm trying to find a balance between murder mystery, humor, and societal issues.

Have your own personal experiences influenced your writing in any way?

That's all they do! I write nonfiction "self-help" because I needed help and finally feel I can share what I've learned with others.

When I was getting divorced, I thought there had to be a better way to "do" the incredible changes that come from such a traumatic life experience. I didn't want my divorce to be in vain... I wanted to be a better, stronger, more alive person because of it.

One of my books is in reaction to finding out more about Parental Alienation Disorder and how un-noticed and un-handled it is in the family court system. One book was written as a series of affirmations for my father-in-law, who is/was going through cancer treatment. The book I'm working on now is all the things I wish I could tell my teenagers (if only they could hear me!).

In addition, I may be the most unknown writer to have a stalker, but because of that, I've had to make very conscious decisions to ignore the fear and threats and keep writing. Many times it would have been easier to power down the laptop (and I have shut down five different blogs because of this), but I can't let that person or uncertainty stop me. Not now. I do try to be a little more careful with what I write and have chosen an entirely different name for my fiction writing, but those are the only two concessions I'll make.

What are your main concerns as a writer?

My biggest concern is being able to make a living being a writer. I deal with this concern by producing quality work at a brisk pace. I network, seek out new venues, and make connections. Mostly, I believe that I'll reach my goal of self-sufficiency through writing and then I don't have to worry about it!

The biggest challenges I face are finding the right audience and convincing that audience that they want to read my work. I deal with this challenge by learning all I can about marketing, audience desires, and trends. I work on positioning my work, both in timing and content, to have the biggest impact on the market.

Do you write everyday?

I write about five days a week. Each session starts with poking around on the internet, checking email, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Once that's all done (or I'm irritated with myself for procrastinating), I pull up the piece I'm working on and re-read just a little before where I'm picking it up.

I learned during NANOWRIMO 2008 (National Novel Writing Month) that the best way to move forward in a piece is to keep going back to re-do what's already been written. And it's true. When I get busy editing the first part, I don't always get around to writing the next part.

My writing sessions end when I have to be somewhere, the kids come home, I'm exhausted, or I've reached a good stopping point. I've been known to write for five or six straight hours with almost no breaks. I always wonder where those days have gone!

How many books have you written so far?

I've written six books so far:

Child Less Parent: "Snapshots" of Parental Alienation: a primer, with photos, of what Parental Alienation is, how to prevent it, how to correct it, and (if all else fails) how to have hope that life will go on. Written with input from members of the Parental Alienation Awareness Organization. Published in April, 2012 by my company, CCS Communications.
Basement Daisies: a book of thirteen affirmations and accompanying photos for people who need hope. Originally published with the blessing of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, Basement Daisies was a fundraiser to honor my father-in-law. Now it's available to all. Published in October, 2011 by CCS Communications.
Cape of Leaves: a compilations of poems about relationships and identity. I feel they are similar in style to Mary Oliver's work. Published in February, 2011 by CCS Communications.
Touching the Trees: a motivational memoir about finding identity through crisis. This book is a series of metaphors/stories that highlight all the changes one has to go through to find an authentic voice and life. Publishing in December 2010 by CCS Communications.
The Parents' Guide to Boys' Lacrosse: written under the name Jenni Lorsung, this book is a parent guide to understanding the sport of youth lacrosse. Published in January 2009 by CCS Communications.
The Parents' Guide to Girls' Lacrosse: written under the name Jenni Lorsung. This book is the companion guide to girls' youth lacrosse. Published in January 2009 by CCS Communications.

How would you describe the books you are working on at the moment?

My latest book is non-fiction and focuses on the ways I think "being" and "not being" are vital to a healthy life. For instance, in this case I'm "being" forthright in sharing my story with you!

I'm also concurrently working on a novel about a reporter who has great struggles in his relationship with his ex-wife and daughter while also chasing down a serial killer. I'm working on "not being" anxious about getting it done soon!

I'm still working on these two books.

Generally, how long does it take you to finish writing a book?

Child Less Parent and Basement Daisies each took about 4-6 months to write. My other books took over a year each.

For my longer non-fiction books, I allot about a year to do research, write, edit, and produce.

I self-publish all of my titles. I don't do this because I'm a control freak. Instead, I chose self-publishing so I could have tangible work product and potential income as soon as possible. I use CreateSpace as my production company because of their link to Amazon and (especially now that I've used them so much) their ease of developing a book. I also use Kindle as my exclusive e-book distributor. The disadvantage is that I have to do all the marketing myself, which is not my strength.

Which were the most difficult aspects of the work that went into the books you have published so far?

In Touching the Trees, I found it extremely difficult to be honest and vulnerable. I'd come from many years of silenced feelings and it felt very frightening to put all those feelings out in the world for anyone and everyone to see.

As I suspected, my family (current and ex) wasn't all crazy about some of what I wrote, but I believe that I have a right and an obligation to tell the story truthfully. Based on reactions to the book, it was the right decision to stare that fear down and write it anyway.

Which aspects of the work do you enjoy most?

I enjoy the beginning and the end of the book-writing process.

I love having the brainstorms and squirting out thousands of words a day getting a book started. At the end, once the editing is complete, I really like designing the interior and the cover and planning a marketing strategy.

The middle part... editing... is hard for me.

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

I try to bring a sense of hope and trust to all of my work. I don't want my audience put-off by proclamations, so I write to be disarming and compassionate.

Touching the Trees is the most autobiographical book I've written. The others, with the exception of Cape of Leaves, are more objective non-fiction. Touching the Trees gets to my core.

What are your plans for the future?

My next really big project will be about a place in Northern Minnesota that hosts very old inns and has great histories of dynamic, eccentric innkeepers. I see so much potential in this book and have begun interviewing people and visiting the inns.

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

My most significant achievement as a writer is that I've been able to touch lives in ways I didn't know I could.

It's not the awards or the accolades that mean the most to me. It's the honestly... or hesitantly... written emails and comments that show me that my words have found a way to lodge themselves in someone else's soul and have made a positive difference. I always knew words had that effect on me... I just never realized I had the power to use my own to have an effect on others.

It's a privilege to be read.

Related books:

,,

Related articles:

Review of Jennifer McBride's "Touching The Trees" Book about Divorce [Video], GarnetMierau, October 17, 2011
Self-Publishing And Ebook Sharing: The Industry's New Bellwethers, By Suw Charman-Anderson, Forbes, June 28, 2012
Self help: forget positive thinking, try positive action, By Richard Wiseman, The Guardian, June 30, 2012

[Interview_3] Mark Adam Kaplan

2012-07-08T13:58:00.000+01:00

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

In this interview, he talks about his latest novel:

How would you describe Down?

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

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

How did the idea behind the novel come about?

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

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

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

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

That sentiment is still true.

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

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

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

How long did it take you to write the novel?

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

Did you write everyday?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Which aspects of the work did you enjoy most?

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

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

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

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

How did you choose a publisher for Down?

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

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

What will your next book be about?

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

Related books:

,,

Related articles:

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

[Interview_2] Julius Sai Mutyambizi-Dewa

2012-06-30T12:32:00.000+01:00

Julius Sai Mutyambizi-Dewa is the author of Preaching to Priests (Timeless Avatar, 2007); Candid Narratives (i-Proclaim Books, 2010); and, Two Faces One Woman (i-Proclaim Books, 2011):

In this interview, Mutyambizi-Dewa talks about his latest play:

How would you describe Two Faces One Woman?

The story I tell in Two Faces One Woman touches on contemporary post-colonial societies, especially the crossroads that Zimbabwe finds herself in post-2000. In approaching the topic, I had to set aside my own political affiliations and sympathies and approached the topic from the position of an innocent bystander. I liked the whole idea of a Debbie Scott, a young white Zimbabwean, being the chief defender of the black government where Takubona Mapembwe, the son of a war veteran, comes out as black Zimbabwe’s chief antagonist.

What motivated you to take this approach?

I have this thing in mind that tries to get the races seeing beyond race and I believe writers have a role to play.

Readers will notice that my writing, especially where it regards the whole point of the liberation struggle and the post-colonial Zimbabwe, will be approached from this philosophy. I want to see a stronger Zimbabwe emerge which is not painted in colour and which is based on merit. We have to demistify this thing of race war in Zimbabwe. There were more blacks in the Rhodesia National Army than there were whites and we have white Zimbabweans who died fighting for the liberation cause. We also have people like Rob Monro, Professor O.T. Ranger, Jeremy Brickhill, A.V.M. Welch and others who suffered in one way or the other during UDI in Zimbabwe. Post-independence we have people like Ian Kay, Roy Bennett etc who helped black farmers in their neighbourhoods.

I am driven by this philosophy, to tell a story of integration... white, Indian, black, Kalanga, Shona, Venda, Ndebele, Tonga etc... we are all a mix of villains and saints but unfortunately we have created a society where the villains and saints are identified by race, tribe and creed not deeds. This therefore sets Two Faces One Woman apart from any story I have told so far.

The issue of racial, ethnic and religious integration will continue to define my characterisation and writing for the forseeable future.

In what way is Two Faces One Woman similar to other things you have written?

It is similar to other work that I have published and that I will publish in future because I am that same writer who never took an English literature class in high school. I believe I am original and I do not have so many literary influences speaking to me as I write. I enjoy this aspect so much as well.

How did you choose a publisher for Two Faces One Woman?

All my books are self-published. I write in genres that are very difficult to place with mainstream publishers... poetry and plays... and this has meant I have to self-publish.

I started Two Faces One Woman in 2010 and finished writing it in 2011. I then sent it to Penguin in South Africa but although they expressed interest in the idea be book, they advised that they did not publish plays as there is no market for plays. After trying two more publishers and they too expressing some doubts about a market for plays, I abandoned the project and started writing the story in the form of a novel. But something wasn’t coming out even as I tried, the idea had been a play originally and to change it would kill off the very qualities I want to maintain. I then decided to self-publish and bring the story out that way.

Some colleagues have said they will be serialising the play in an online newspaper, which, to me is welcome news.

What are your plans for the future?

I have already finished my next book, Ndimirwa, a play about a Lozwi/Rozvi heroine.

I think I have written my last play for now as I am now concentrating on the novel form.

My previous work with Mapupo Theatre Group, a drama group that I founded in 1991 in Zimbabwe may explain why I have this love for plays. However, my first piece of writing was a novel in Shona which I wrote in 1988. Those days it was very difficult to get published. It was also very difficult to self-publish. So, members of the Budding Writers Association of Zimbabwe decided that performing our work was the only way we were going to be heard and that’s why we had Albert Nyathi, Cynthia Mungofa, Nhamo Mhiripiri, Titus Motsebi and many others becoming dub-poets. To me drama and plays became a natural choice as I tended to write more stories than poems.

Related books:

,,

Related articles:

Julius Sai Mutyambizi_Dewa [Interview_1], Conversations with Writers, May 14, 2011
Are African governments suppressing art? By Isaac Esipisu, Reuters, May 31, 2012
So you want to be an ebook superstar? By Patrick Barkham, The Age, June 7, 2012

[Interview] The Coffin Factory Folks

2012-06-11T20:44:00.000+01:00

In this interview, Laura Isaacman and Randy Rosenthal talk about The Coffin Factory, a magazine that has been described as "a nexus between readers, writers, and the book publishing industry."

How would you describe The Coffin Factory?

The Coffin Factory is the magazine for people who love books.

We acquire stories, essays, and poems from at least a handful of more-recognizable authors and publish their work alongside those of lesser-known writers, whose work we believe is as compelling and thrilling to read.

The high-quality design and content from writers and artists from around the world signals to our readers that each issue is worth reading cover to cover, just as they would a book.

What role do you play in the magazine?

We are publishers, editors, art directors, and we do the design of both the print magazine and website.

What are the most challenging aspects of the work that you do?

Publishing a printed, visually engaging magazine that features some of the best authors and artists in the world on virtually no budget.

How do you deal with these challenges?

We keep our chin up.

What do you like most about the magazine?

The white space. There's tons of it.

When was the magazine set up?

The idea for the magazine began in April of 2011. The first issue was in stores in October.

Why was it set up?

We believe that quality literature and art are essential for the existence of an intelligent society, and we want to perpetuate an intellectually engaged culture.

Who was involved in setting up the magazine?

Both of us. We also have two wonderful Managing Editors who helped to develop the idea as it grew from a baby into a toddler.

What was the nature of their involvement?

They converted us from Scotch to Bourbon.

Are all the people who were involved at the beginning still there?

Yes. Because they share the same passion for literature as we do. And we have a fun time putting an issue of our favorite authors together, and being able to share that with readers.

What were the most challenging aspects of the work that went into setting up the magazine?

Entering the publishing business without any experience in the publishing business.

Why do you think this was so?

Because we had no experience in the publishing business.

How did you deal with these challenges?

We're still learning the publishing business.

How has it been received?

Very well.

Who is your target audience?

People with good taste.

How do you find them?

They find us.

Where are your contributors coming from?

From all over the world. We're pretty sure we have the most diverse list of authors and artists in any North American magazine.

What would you say about the range and quality of submissions you are receiving at present?

We receive a lot of submissions. And the writers that are familiar with the magazine's particular aesthetic taste submit very good work.

What is The Library Donation Project?

The Library Donation Project is our effort to introduce young readers to the world's most exciting contemporary writers. We are donating 1,000 magazines to universities across the country, with a goal to raise $3,000 to help cover the cost of shipping.

What motivated The Coffin Factory's involvement in the project?

We hope that the next generation of readers will know that it's cool to be smart. It's important to try and save the younger generation from participating in the degeneration of language, which, sooner or later, will affect the level of our nation's intelligence. Can't be a superpower if you're super stupid.

Related articles:

Finding Equilibrium, LJ Best Magazines 2011, By LJ Reviews, Library Journal, May 4, 2012
Magazine Review #9: The Coffin Factory, Issue #1, By Nancy Smith, The Rumpus, November 18, 2011
Talking to the Editors of New Lit Mag The Coffin Factory About Publishing Dead Nobel Laureates [Interview], By Mark Asch, The Measure, October 27, 2011

[Interview] Virginia W. Dike

2012-04-14T02:12:00.001+01:00

Virginia W. Dike is Professor of Library and Information Science at the University of Nigeria where she specialises in school libraries, children's literature and library services.

She is also one of the founders of The Children's Centre, a comprehensive educational and recreational facility for children and young people that includes a model children's library.

In addition to that, she is a director with the Libraries for Literacy Foundation, a non-governmental organisation that works to extend library services to schools, communities and prisons and to generate local learning resources.

Her books include Library Resources in Education (Abic, 1993) and the children's non-fiction books, Birds of Our Land: A Child’s Guide to West African Birds (2nd ed. Abuja, Nigeria: Cassava Republic, 2011) and Why We Need Trees (Cassava Republic, Forthcoming).

In this interview, Virginia Dike talks about her writing and about the state of Nigerian children's literature:

When did you start writing?

I began writing during my teenage and college years, with journals containing my thoughts and experiences, a little poetry, and long letters to friends. This was writing just to express myself and communicate with others. Writing became especially important as a means of expression during the two years I spent in Tanzania after graduating from college. I was living in a small village where no one spoke English, only Swahili and KiBena - so I relied on letters home to articulate my experiences and keep my English, even.

Having said that, I now remember childhood beginnings - in second and third grade we wrote compositions, with a drawing, of an experience we’d had each week. It was pretty rudimentary (mine usually ending with “We had fun.”), but I took great pride in it. In the middle grades, I wrote an episodic chapter book about two girls’ primary school adventures and a musical play of medieval romance (perhaps inspired by Robin Hood and Ivanhoe movies), performed in my neighbourhood and on a visit to family friends. Those were my last forays into fiction.

In adulthood, most of my writing has been academic, as a lecturer in library and information science, until I started writing for children.

Looking at this background, I wonder if young people today have the same opportunities to develop writing craft. Education in Nigeria, as I’ve known it through my children’s experiences and my work with primary school pupils, often lacks these kinds of writing opportunities, both in creative and expository writing, as well as the copious voluntary reading on which writing skills are based. And looking at the world generally, others have as well commented on the decline in thoughtful journal and letter writing in an age of e-mail and text message communication, and the implications of this for writing craft, as well as for historical records.

I think we have much to do to encourage writing and the development of written communication skills.

How did decide you wanted to be a published writer?

I don’t remember deciding that I wanted to be a published writer. What happened was that I came to Nigeria and fell in love with the beautiful and fascinating birds I discovered here. I wanted a book that would allow me to share this excitement over West African birds with my children - and I couldn’t find such a book. This was about 1979, the International Year of the Child. Conversations with a friend, Miriam Ikejiani-Clark, about the possibility of our teaming up to write books on birds and trees for IYC led to contact with her cousin Arthur Nwankwo, the owner of a local publishing house. Fourth Dimension had just embarked on publication of a picture book series, and the first edition of my bird book, Birds of Our Land, eventually became part of this series.

It was a long process at that. I had to do considerable lobbying for the book, even though my friend Judith Osuala was their very knowledgeable and committed children’s editor at the beginning of the process. After Judith left to join the University of Nigeria, the publishers tried to veer it toward being more like a textbook and for a higher level. In response, I added a brief guide for parents and teachers, which turned out to be a good idea retained in the new edition. But due to their lack of conviction about a market, few copies were printed and the book almost immediately went out of print, without reaching the intended audience, this even though there were indications of high demand.

The other problem had to do with illustration. A picture book, and a guide to birds at that, absolutely depends on illustrations of the highest quality and appeal. I was left to find an illustrator. My observation was that most Nigerian artists are more inclined to abstract or impressionistic art, rather than the naturalistic style required for a book off this nature. I was fortunate to locate a budding landscape painter, Robin Gowen, a young American woman visiting her parents in Nsukka that year. She had grown up in Nigeria and loved birds, so it was a perfect match. However, the publishers did not see the role of the illustrator as we did, as an equal partner in creating a picture book, which is a holistic blend of text and illustration. In spite of all our protestations, Robin’s name did not appear on the title page, nor was she given copyright to the illustrations. I am happy to report that these problems did not re-occur with the new edition, also illustrated by Robin and published by Cassava Republic.

How would you describe the writing you are doing?

Nonfiction literature for children.

While I very much enjoy fiction for all levels, I have not felt inclined to write fiction or felt that I have a gift for it. I began writing for children as the result of the need I saw for a particular book, a guide to West African birds. Then in 1994 I participated in a workshop organized by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), Nigerian Section to create nonfiction literature for children, which had been identified as a major need. For that I produced manuscripts on the uses of trees and the West African seasons.

More recently I have written on flowers. Natural history then seems to be my niche in writing, which is interesting since my background is history and social studies.

Long after I started writing, I began to read more about nonfiction literature for children as a genre - its importance as well as its under-valuation, the observations and insights of writers specializing in nonfiction literature - and so to place my writing in a larger context.

Who is your target audience?

Children from about 3 to 12 years.

My areas of specialization within library and information science are school librarianship and children’s literature and library services, so I am concerned with literature for this age-group in my teaching future librarians and teachers.

Most of my experience in sharing literature is also with this age group - first with my five children - then through the Children’s Centre Library I helped develop at the University of Nigeria and my work with local primary schools.

There is also a great need for Nigerian children’s literature at this level. It is ironic that the ages that need local literature most have the least. From the beginnings in the 1960s, the emphasis in Nigeria has been on fiction for pre-adolescents and secondarily for adolescents. There have only been a handful of picture books over the years. Yet these should be a child’s first books, since they build up an association between reading and pleasure, develop language skills essential for reading, and foster personal development in all areas.

Three major gaps in Nigerian children’s literature that impact particularly on younger children are locally based picture books, nonfiction literature, and books in Nigerian languages. I have tried to contribute to meeting the need in the first two areas by writing nonfiction picture books introducing the local natural environment.

As a writer, which authors influenced you most?

I read general literature before I came to writing for children. I believe the aspect that influenced me most in terms of my own writing style was the poetic prose found in some novels. Among those that made a deep impression were the opening of Charles Dickens Tale of Two Cities (“It was the best of times...”) and for African novels, the description of goldsmithing in Camara Laye’s African Childhood and the opening passage of Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country. Then there was poetry, including the descriptive poetry of the Bible, as found, for example, in the books of Job, Psalms and Isaiah.

More directly, in the course of sharing books with children, I came across many picture books that made such wonderful expressive use of language. One from my own childhood is The Littlest Angel, by Charles Tazewell, with such wonderful words as “precipitous,” “vociferously,” and “disreputable” - no controlled vocabulary there!

A few of the many examples I could mention, especially where the prose has a poetic quality, are Tomie de Paola’s The Legend of the Bluebonnet and The Clown of God; William Steig’s Sylvester and the Magic Pebble; James Riordan’s The Three Magic Gifts; and Gail. E. Haley’s A Story, a Story. There are so many others, including humorous stories in rollicking verse, like Horton Hatches an Egg by Dr. Seuss and The Duchess Bakes a Cake by Virginia Kahl. What I learned from these is that literature for children can be of the highest literary quality. It can help develop a sense of beauty in language, as the illustrations can also do in terms of art.

How have your own personal experiences influenced your writing?

I grew up attuned to nature wherever I found it, including my childhood home in urban Indianapolis. Then there were family vacation trips to my grandparents’ home in Texas, the Rocky Mountains and Southwest desert, the land-of-a-thousand-lakes in Maine. When I was 1l, my parents bought a vacation home in beautiful northern Michigan - an old one-room schoolhouse overlooking the lake; surrounded by pine woods, meadows and cherry orchards; a land filled with birds, trees and wild flowers. My parents were both enthusiastic birdwatchers and given to long walks down country roads, through the woods, along the lake.

Through my mother and secondary school English literature classes, I was also introduced to poetry, especially romantic poetry describing nature. Towards the end of secondary school, I became very interested in Eastern religions and wrote a term paper on the Chinese religion Taoism, which emphasizes wholeness with nature. I was also drawn to Judeo-Christian traditions that envisioned the inter-connectedness of the whole spiritual, natural and human world, for instance as found in St. Francis of Assisi. This fed into a growing awareness of environmental issues and the need for environmental conservation and biodiversity.

When I moved to Nigeria in 1975, I was immediately taken with the many beautiful and intriguing birds I found there (like the brilliant blue and orange kingfishers and wing-beating flappet lark). I began to keep a journal sketchbook of my observations and consulted guide books in the library to learn more about them. However, when I wanted to share these birds with my children, I discovered there was no children’s book on local birds.

I was also interested in learning more about Nigerian trees and flowers, tasks which proved even more daunting since even adult guides were missing. Again, in the Children’s Centre Library there were numerous books informing about the seasons of the temperate zone (winter, spring, summer and fall), but nothing about tropical rainy and dry seasons.

I also found that many children as well as adults lack an appreciation of nature and the need for a healthy environment.

All these helped lead to my choice of nature books for young children as the focus of my writing.

What would you say are your main concerns as a writer?

As a writer of nonfiction literature for young children, specifically books in the area of science, my concern is to find ways of opening the natural world up to children, of exciting and involving them in the world around us. This involves increasing their knowledge about birds or trees or the seasons but also interpreting their prior experience with these in the local environment. It also concerns heightening their powers of observation and analysis. Equally important, I want to encourage certain values and attitudes - appreciation of the value and beauty of the natural world, awareness of the importance of a healthy environment for human welfare, scientific thinking and a sense of inquiry as well as a sense of wonder.

To accomplish this I have to find an approach that will speak to children, an approach that will meet them at a point of their own experience and stimulate their imagination and curiosity to explore further. I also need to find the words and mode of expression that will communicate effectively to children at their own level.

What are the biggest challenges that you face?

The biggest challenges are two. One is getting and verifying the information I need in areas where there are few authoritative and accessible sources, even for adults. And these are in areas of science where I am not an expert but am learning as well. After all, I began this journey to answer my own questions.

I have tried to deal with this challenge by consulting experts in the field, for instance botanists; by broadening my search to materials on other tropical areas in Africa and the Caribbean; by consulting children’s books on these topics written in other countries; and by making informed use of the many sources now available on the Internet.

The second challenge is communicating what I have found in a way that will speak to young children. The concepts have to be expressed in simple and concrete terms that children can understand. This is a challenge often cited by well known writers of science books for children, like Millicent Selsam, since scientific ideas are often complex and abstract. Moreover, these must be expressed in simple language, simple in terms of both vocabulary and sentence structure. This can be a serious constraint. One must always strive to achieve a balance between saying things in the way that best describes or expresses a thought in literary or scientific terms and being understood by the children reading it. Having said that, I believe that reading good literature expands children’s powers of expression, both in terms of language expression generally and vocabulary, and that it’s better to err on the side of style than to produce writing that is ordinary and mundane.

Do you write every day?

Since my primary assignment is university teaching and administration, writing for children, while growing out of my area of specialization, is something I do on the side.

With the bird book, ideas often came on my morning walks - like the day I saw chattering weavers zooming back and forth carrying fronds from some palms to the tree where their nests were, and began playing with words and phrases to capture this sight for children. I can mull over passages in the course of daily life - walking; cooking lunch; driving on the highway; listening to music.

Since I’m writing nonfiction, once I get an idea the next step is usually research. In writing about birds, this was a combination of fieldwork (observing the birds directly and recording notes and sketches) and library research (checking the guide books and, in a few cases, the Internet).

In preparing to write about trees in the early 1990s, I discovered a wonderful series of old articles on economic uses of trees in Nigeria Magazine, like from colonial days. The problems were that many of the names given to the trees were no longer in use and information had to be updated, since uses of tree products have changed over time. I couldn’t find a satisfactory guide to Nigerian trees, but more recently I found a great source in the Internet, especially in getting details of some specific species. For flowers, I took a lot of photographs on morning walks, then consulted with a botanist friend to identify the flowers by name and pick up any interesting facts. I’ve also been to the Internet for specific species and consulted numerous American children’s books on flowers and plants.

Along with the research, I try to develop a focus, a central idea that will organize the content. This was relatively straightforward for Birds of Our Land, since it was organized as a guide to 25 West African birds, beginning with an introduction and ending with an activities section. However, several themes ran across the various entries - adaptation, classification, the interdependence of different forms of life, observation as a method for collecting information.

The book on trees posed a greater challenge in this regard. Information on individual species was less available and aside from economic trees, there were few common English names to easily identify them. I also felt that children, and most people, have a greater affinity for birds, which have so much in common with us (behaviour, social interaction, family life, movement), than for trees and other plants. For these reasons, I decided to focus on what connects trees to us - the uses of trees, both in terms of their role in the environment and products we get from trees. So the book is organized in terms of uses, the various environmental uses and the many types of tree products - artefacts, food, medicine, industrial products, etc. When this was getting a bit dry, I took my editors’ suggestion of including portraits of a few individual species as detailed examples. So the baobab is featured as an example of trees offering homes and food to animals, ebony as an example of numerous wood products, from chess pieces to piano keys, the shea nut tree as an example of foods, oils and medicines from trees.

Flowers presented even more of a problem than trees in terms of identification and human connections. I looked at a number of children’s books on plants, flowers and trees and found such a variety of approaches. Some were general guides to trees or wildflowers, for instance one in which children talked about their favourite tree. Some took up a particular group, like poisonous or medicinal plants. Others focused on a particular species; one I especially liked was on the banyan tree as the centre of an Indian village. Still others looked at the life of a tree, why we need trees, the role of flowers in plant reproduction, pollination, and the role colour plays in pollination. I decided to focus on colour as a way of introducing flowers to young children, with more detailed portraits of a few familiar or unique flowers. I also became interested in the socio-cultural role of flowers, as brought out so effectively in the book about the banyan tree. All this is preliminary to the actual writing.

How many books have you written so far?

Library Resources in Education (Enugu, Nigeria: Abic, 1993). A university-level textbook in three sections: the first discussing the relationship between modern education and school libraries; the second on various types of resources, nonfiction, literature, and audiovisual resources; and the third on the role of the library in promoting readings habits and skills, developing information skills, and expanding learning resources.
Birds of Our Land: A Child’s Guide to West African Birds (1st ed. Enugu, Nigeria: Fourth Dimension, 1986; 2nd ed. Abuja, Nigeria: Cassava Republic, 2011). An introduction to West African birds, including basic features of birds and hints for observation; portraits of 25 memorable birds; and bird watching activities.
Why We Need Trees (Cassava Republic. Forthcoming). Focuses on the uses of trees, first in helping create a healthy environment and then in providing products of so many kinds, from furniture to musical instruments, from foods to art, from medicines to varnishes. Finally, a conclusion on how to save trees and activities involving trees.

Also books on flowers and seasons and perhaps more, all part of a nature series for children.

How did you find a publisher for your latest book?

My latest book, and also my first children’s book in a new edition, is Birds of Our Land: A Child’s Guide to West African Birds, published by Cassava Republic Press of Abuja in 2011, but just out. The name indicates the content: the new edition features 25 familiar or notable birds of West Africa. I wrote the original edition about 1980-1981, based on my observations of Nigerian birds carried out from about 1978.

The new edition developed out of my meeting with Bibi Bakare-Yusuf of Cassava Republic at a seminar organized by the Spanish Embassy in 2009. There was little additional editorial work: I added seven new birds and an activities section to the new edition, made more inquiries about names of birds in the three major Nigerian languages, and conferred with the illustrator in creating all new illustrations.

In this case, the publisher found me. Bibi was attracted to my book, which I used as an example during the seminar. It was just the kind of book she had been seeking for a new nature series of picture books that Cassava Republic wished to bring out. She immediately proposed they publish a new edition of my bird book.

What advantages or disadvantages did this present?

I already knew of Cassava Republic from their novels, which impressed me greatly both in terms of literary and production quality.

From everything said, it was apparent we shared a common philosophy about children’s books and a fruitful partnership was born. We agreed on the crying need for local nonfiction literature for Nigerian children. We likewise agreed on the importance of quality in every aspect of the work, including illustration and physical production, and on the need to acknowledge the crucial role of the illustrator in creating a picture book. I have also appreciated the very thorough editing of my proposed book on the uses of trees and the team of critics who helped to improve the work.

Any disadvantages have been due to Cassava Republic’s status as a new, small and yet to be fully established company. There have been delays in production - due to efforts to find sponsorship to support the work; due to locating a printer with the best balance of quality and cost and, as a result, relating to one in faraway India; and due to other unforeseen circumstances, like the January general strike over fuel price increases.

Marketing is also a major challenge for Nigerian publishers, especially those aiming at innovation and quality. But the need is so great, as are the possibilities: I feel Nigeria is where I can make a meaningful contribution.

What will your next book be about?

Three books in the nature series are at various stages - the one on uses of trees has been edited and is at the stage of layout and illustration, those on flowers and the seasons have been accepted.

Ideas for future books include small mammals and reptiles, insects, fish, foods... there is no end to possibilities.

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

I think it is too early to talk of significant achievement. However, I believe I have created a beautiful book that can open the world of West African birds to children, and even adults. (Actually, many of the same or very similar species occur in East and Southern Africa as well.)

I believe that the three of us working in cooperation - I as writer, the illustrator and publisher - have created a model for a quality nonfiction picture book based on Nigerian environment. I hope this book will call attention to the need and value of nonfiction literature for children as a way of opening up the world of knowledge and discovering the pleasure and excitement to be found in the natural world. I hope it will help begin to fill this enormous gap in Nigerian children’s literature and lead to more high quality books in the future.

Photo credit: Nigerian School Library Association

Related books:

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Related articles:

Q&A with Virginia W. Dike, by Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, Sunday Trust, February 26, 2012
Representations of Nigerian Culture in Children's Literature, by Ariel Villano, Nigerian Literature, March 21, 2012
Birds of Our Land by Virginia Dike [Audio Interview], Africa Unchained, March 25, 2012

[Interview] Bunny Suraiya

2012-03-20T18:33:00.000Z

Bunny Suraiya has worked in the advertising industry, first as a copyeditor and then as creative director.

She has also worked as a freelance writer and has contributed material to magazines that include Illustrated Weekly, JS, Time Out and Khaleej Times.

In this interview, Bunny Suraiya talks about her debut novel, Calcutta Exile (Harper Collins Publishers India, 2011):

When did you start writing?

My first short story was published way back in 1973, by eminent author, Khushwant Singh, when he was the editor of the Illustrated Weekly. After that, I wrote another short story for the iconic Indian youth magazine, JS. Shortly after that, I got into the profession of advertising as a copywriter, ending up finally as Creative Director with JWT and before that Ogilvy & Mather – and the long hours, crazy deadlines and relentless pressure drove all thoughts of writing anything not connected with advertising out of my head.

When I quit full-time advertising and went into freelance mode in the late 90s, I started writing again. Book reviews, travel features, opinion pieces, Delhi happenings for Time Out, London, and a fortnightly column for the weekend magazine of the Khaleej Times published out of Dubai.

I never actually decided I wanted to be a published writer; I just wanted to write this story about a city in which I grew up and which was home to so many communities – Armenians, Jews, Goans (while they were still Portuguese), British, Chinese – and most of all the Anglo-Indians – before it grew so severely alien to them that they felt they had no option but to leave it. As I did. There are so many Calcutta Exiles all over the world today – in Britain, Canada, Australia, America – and of course in the many cities of India where they have settled and frequently meet to reminisce about what was once the greatest city in Asia, the acknowledged second city of the Empire after London.

I woke up one morning in March 2010, and with no fixed plan in my mind, sat down at my laptop and wrote the first sentence: Ayah’s name was Sohag Khatun, but she was never addressed as anything but Ayah by the Ryan family with whom she had worked for nineteen years, first as a nanny to the children, then as a highly-valued cook and general factotum.

After that, the story just spooled out of my mind as if it was writing itself. I wrote every day for two hours – from 11 am to 1 pm – and put down about 1,200 words every session.

What was terribly exciting about writing Calcutta Exile was that the characters just took over the story, and often I would get up from a writing session and go back and read what was on the page and find myself completely surprised by the direction the story had taken thanks to the actions of the characters!

It’s obvious to me now that the story was in my mind at a subconscious level for years, and was just waiting to spring out. The book took me four months to write.

Who is your target audience?

My target audience is everyone. Everyone who enjoys a good story, everyone who has ever felt a sense of rootlessness and alienation from the place they live in, everyone who is unsure of their identity.

In this increasingly globalised and rapidly changing world, where people are either uprooted from their home regions or even where they have remained where they always were only to find that their homes have changed so much as to make them feel isolated, everyone is an exile. Exile is a state of mind more than a physical or geographic displacement; this insight is what motivated me to write this story of Calcutta Exile.

How did you chose a publisher for the book?

I was offered a contract before I’d even written the first word by a publisher who had given my husband, Jug Suraiya, a contract and an advance for his book. But I wanted to go with a different publisher as I didn’t want anyone – least of all myself – to feel that I was being done a favour because my husband is a senior journalist and well-known writer in India. So, when Harper Collins said they liked my novel, I was thrilled and decided to go with them.

The key advantage of going with Harper Collins is that they are owned by one of India’s largest media groups and their weekly newsmagazine, India Today, is very well-read and respected. I felt that there was a very good chance of my novel getting reviewed in India Today (of course, whether reviews turn out to be positive or negative depend on the reviewer), which was a plus. As it turned out, I got a wonderful review in the magazine, which contributed to awareness of the novel.

The disadvantage of going with Harper Collins is that they are very large, and bring out a new book every single day, which means that after the Delhi launch of each of these books, there are no further marketing efforts put in by them for any of their books – it’s on with the next! Luckily, because of my network of friends, all of whom have loved my novel, I was able to organise a series of well-attended launches in Goa, Bangalore and Calcutta, as well as readings at book clubs and other social groups. If you can’t do this, it’s probably better to go with a smaller, more accessible publisher who will work harder on promoting your book instead of leaving it to sink or swim.

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

When I first sat down to write, Calcutta Exile, I found the starting very difficult. I had much of the plot in my head, but each time I tried to start, I found the first words far too tame, not engaging enough for a novel.

My advertising background has taught me that if the headline doesn’t grab you, chances are you won’t go on to read the rest of the copy. Similarly with a novel; if the opening words have no oomph, your story is at a disadvantage, particularly with in-store book buyers, who often read the beginning before deciding whether or not to buy a book. Think of great opening lines: Scarlett O’Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charms as the Tarleton twins were. And: Mother died yesterday, or maybe today, I can’t be sure. And: Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Each of these openings arouses the reader’s interest, hooks them into the next sentence, and the next, and the next…

Striving for a similar effect, the sentence with which I opened my first chapter establishes rather a lot: It introduces Ayah, one of the key characters in the novel, gives the name of the family who will be introduced in the next sentences, tells the reader about her domestic skills, and offers a time-frame which gives the reader some idea about Ayah’s likely age and the length of her relationship with her employers.

It worked.

I know this because most of the feedback I’ve received from people who’ve read the novel, included the words, “I just couldn’t put it down; I read it virtually in one go.”

I loved every minute of writing Calcutta Exile because I fell in love with the characters – all of them. I enjoyed their daily company so much, that on the day I wrote the last words, I cried. I felt such a sense of loss, I was completely bereft. My characters had become more real to me than most of the people whom I meet on a regular basis.

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

The kind of feedback I’ve received from reviewers in all the major media – print and television – as well as from readers whom I know as well as total strangers who’ve managed to get my email address or my phone number and contacted me just to tell me how much they’ve enjoyed reading it. I believe this is because of its authentic tone and feel.

As a writer, who or what influenced you most?

I lived in Calcutta for most of my life and the many of the characters in the novel are based on real people I knew, with parts of the story being autobiographical. The schools, streets, restaurants, shops and clubs actually existed and many still do. The story is set in the late 50s and early 60s – with flashbacks going back to the 30s and 40s – and is an interface between the India of the Raj and the new India against the richly textured backdrop of Calcutta in its glorious heyday.

I think the major influences for me in writing Calcutta Exile have been Jane Austen and Alexander McCall Smith. Both of them tell stories about everyday, ordinary people and the way they lead they lives and yet they make their characters so very interesting that the reader is dying to know more about them.

From the reader feedback I’ve received, I think my most significant achievement has been to create characters who are real, and a story that has the ability to move its readers to tears. I think I have succeeded in that everyone who has read Calcutta Exile inevitably asks: What happens after this? When are you going to write a sequel?

Do you write every day?

I write every day.

I’m a late riser, waking up at 8 am, after which I read the papers with a cup of herbal tea and then (usually) work out for an hour, doing pilates and yoga.

I sit down at my desk at 11 am and start writing. I type very fast, using all my fingers, and have connected a conventional external keyboard to my laptop because I find it easier to use. I go at about 60 words a minute and do not stop until it’s 1 pm and thoughts of lunch drive me to the dining table!

I make no corrections until after I’m done, when I go back and read over what I’ve written and check on typos, etc.

I never write after lunch, because that’s the time reserved for doing the crossword ( I do the cryptic crossword from The Times, London, which is reproduced every day in a local paper I buy only for this reason), followed by reading, a walk when it gets cooler in the evening, and then dinner with a glass of wine and the music on.

What will your next book be about?

I’m not sure. It’s early days yet. But with so many readers of Calcutta Exile asking for a sequel, I just might oblige them – although I fear that most sequels never quite manage to live up to their precursors.

I am currently engaged in the very challenging and stimulating work of converting Calcutta Exile, into a play script for a theatre group that plans to stage it as a play. I have to work closely with the director because he understands stagecraft while I do not, and so the play will not take the linear format of the book; scenes will be sequenced depending on the requirements of stage management. My task is to ensure the story is told in direct speech issuing from the character’s mouths and it’s fascinating, because the novel has quite a bit of interiorisation, which has to now be turned into speech that is plausible and convincing from each of the characters by remaining in accordance with their personalities.

Photo credit: Priyanjali Ghose, MiD Day, December 5, 2011

Related books:

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Related articles:

Bunny Suraiya on her novel Calcutta Exile [Video], NDTV, December 3, 2011
Longing and Belonging [Book Review], by John Mason, India Today, November 11, 2011
Oh Calcutta [Book Review], by Kushal Rani Gulab, The Hindustan Times, October 27, 2011

[Transcript] The Future of the Book Industry

2012-03-19T05:44:00.000Z

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

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

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

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

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

You use a combination of print and ebook...

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

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

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

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

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

Essentially, you have two wins with an ebook.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Did we talk about the challenges you face as publishers?

Not yet.

[Laughs]. Alright.

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

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

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

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

Related books:

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Related articles:

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

[Interview] Agrena Mushonga

2012-02-22T19:55:00.000Z

Agrena Mushonga trained at Seke Teachers' College in Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe and went on to teach in a number of primary schools in Chitungwiza.

In addition to teaching, she co-ordinated the Chitungwiza Children's Reading Tent Project and, in collaboration with Mbuya Muroyiwa, hosted story-telling sessions on the Zimbabwean children's television channel, KidzNet.

She is also the author of children's books that include Kapitau and the Magic Whistle (Priority Projects Publishers, 2001) and Stories from Africa: Meet Kapitau Junior (Kapitau Publishing Ltd, 2012).

In this interview, Agrena Mushonga talks about her writing:

When did you start writing?

Way back, when I was growing up in my home village of Goneso in Mashonaland East Province in Zimbabwe, in mid-70s. I remember I had this great desire to write even when I was still in 4th grade in primary school. I was 10 years old then. (I started school at the age of seven). I never stopped writing since then.

When did you decide you wanted to be a published writer?

There was an acute shortage of reading materials in primary schools in Zimbabwe around late 90s, particularly at the school where I was teaching. To get around this problem I gathered empty shoe boxes from the local town centre. I made up little summaries of stories, some from the text books and supplementary readers and some which I just made out of my imagination. I drafted a few questions and things to do at the end of each story. Each story ended up being a work card.

Due to large enrolment in the school, we ended up with hot sitting so those reading cum work cards occupied my school pupils until they went into the classrooms. I soon realised a remarkable improvement in my classes’ performance.

I then came up with a bound volume of appropriate registers in Shona after I realised that our Grade 7 pupils were performing badly in examinations in this particular area. I also wrote a collection of Shona stories which, together with the bound volumes, I took to a leading publishing company. After a while I received a very encouraging letter with a lot of advice from one of Zimbabwe’s highly regarded writers today, on how to improve my manuscripts.

I did not do anything about the manuscripts. I put them away and began to write a collection of folktales – some in Shona and some in English. I had a very strong connection with one of the tales, Kapitau and the Magic Whistle. It was perhaps because Kapitau was an orphan and my mother spoke a lot about her life as an orphan. I decided to publish this folktale and when I approached Priority Projects Publishing they agreed to publish the story. My intention was to use the story for reading promotion in our Children’s Reading Tent Project of which I had been chosen as co-ordinator in Chitungwiza. That was in 2001.

How would you describe the writing you are doing now?

Presently I am writing a series of children’s stories.

I like to enter the mind of the young reader when writing for children. I get into their world and explore it.

I also recently completed a novel which will be out soon. I hope it comes out well before the end of 2012. I put myself in the shoes of Nokuthula, the main character in this story. Nokuthula means ‘be still or stay put’. I just don’t know how to disconnect as an author – I am emotionally connected to this story and I just love it. I empathise with the main character.

Who is your target audience?

For the children’s series my target audience is children of about six to 10 years old. I probably enjoy writing for this age group due to the fact that I spent a lot of time with children in my career as a teacher and also because of the fact that I had this tendency of being very observant of the way children grow up and socialise.

The novel is meant for teenagers and young adults but it can also appeal to anyone... say, people in their twenties, thirties or older.

Which authors influenced you most?

My greatest influence never really authored a story in print. That person is my mother, the late Mbuya Sirina Makaita Watyoka Mugaba. The stories she told me orally during evening times in her dung-smeared and grass-thatched hut are still deeply anchored in my mind, several decades after.

Later, as young person, I got really inspired by the works of writers and poets like Modekai Hamutyineyi, Paul Chidyausiku, Charles Mungoshi and Chirikure Chirikure, among others. I respect Yvonne Vera and think she is my role model but I find her writing rather too complicated to comprehend. I feel like I need a Shona dictionary when reading her novels particularly Nehanda. It’s as if she got into a world of her own when writing.

For the children's stories, I get a lot of inspiration from the works of Charles Mungoshi and Michael Morpurgo. Mary Higgins Clark, on the other hand, inspires me to write novels.

I also tend to idolise Jane Austin for having written Pride and Prejudice as well as William Shakespeare for Macbeth and Gorge Orwell for Animal Farm. The value of these books was added by my high school Literature in English teachers who were so good in their act.

How have your own personal experiences influenced your writing?

Pretty much so. I could not write from a vacuum. Writing is about experiences and observations and socialisation. Think of how you could come up with a character without drawing from somewhere or from experience. You have to relate to something.

What are your main concerns as a writer?

There is very little money to be earned in writing as far as I understand unless you become big and very popular. That makes the writing field a rather scary market to venture into. You work so hard and get very little in writing and you question yourself. Is it worth it at the end of the day?

Unfortunately or fortunately, for me the answer is still "Yes" because, to be honest, I am not only in it for money. There are so many ways of making money, more money but I still choose writing because I do not know how to live my life without writing. It’s like I was born to write.

Do you write every day?

No, everything varies. I write as and when I feel inspired. I can’t just sit in front of the computer in the morning when my mind is blank – nothing happens definitely nothing. But when inspired, my mind bubbles with thoughts. I can feel the adrenalin, it’s like my chest is full and I want to empty it, it’s like being pregnant with thoughts and you want to give birth. It’s hard to control that feeling. I write with a lot of emotion – particularly in novels. It’s the children’s stories that I usually write casually.

So far I have written several books. Of these, only two have been published, namely, Kapitau and the Magic Whistle, published by Priority Projects Publishers, 2001 and Stories from Africa: Meet Kapitau Junior, published by Kapitau Publishing Ltd, 2012.

I have an upcoming novel also to be published by Kapitau Publishing Ltd soon.

I am now merging some of the stories I wrote ages ago into my new writings. Not everything that I have written in the past is publishable: I have to be very honest with myself as a writer; I still have a few of my old manuscripts though and I cherish them. I sometimes have a good laugh and say to myself, “What was I thinking writing this?” At the end of the day you realise how far you have come and realise how mature you have become as a writer but again you never cease to learn new things.

Related books:

,,

Related articles:

Call For Papers: 5th Conference on South African Children’s and Youth Literature, By Alida Allison, SDSU Children's Literature, February 15, 2012
'Charlotte's Web' and 99 more 'great' kids books, By Bob Minzesheimer, USA TODAY, February 15, 2012
Fungisayi Sasa [Interview], Conversations with Writers, November 1, 2011

[Interview] Elizabeth Wood

2012-01-29T20:01:00.000Z

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

What motivates Worldreader?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Related books:

,,

Related articles:

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

Updated: February 9, 2012

[Interview] Mathias B. Freese

2012-01-12T23:57:00.000Z

Mathias B. Freese lives in Henderson, Nevada in the United States. He has worked as a teacher and a psychotherapist and has been writing for over 42 years.

His books include a Holocaust novel, The i Tetralogy (Wheatmark, 2005); a collection of short stories, Down to a Sunless Sea (Wheatmark, 2008); the mixture of memoir and essay, This Mobius Strip of Ifs (Wheatmark, forthcoming) and a second collection of short stories, I Truly Lament (___, forthcoming).

In this interview, Freese talks about his writing:

When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?

In 1968 I wrote a short article, “Is Content Enough?” for an education journal of some note. It was my first publication, but not a literary one, although I devoted a few months to perfecting the article. I had no idea that I would become a writer, much like I had no idea that I would become a psychotherapist, or have children, or lose my wife in an accident. Often such happenings are made randomly or we just walk into them. Much of life is a wild run through a corn field like Cary Grant in North by Northwest.

By 1974 I was listed in The Best American Stories of 1974, with such writers as Joyce Carol Oates, Isaac Bashevis Singer, John Hawkes, etc.

Me?

Martha Foley, who had edited Hemingway, among others, was the editor and through a series of errors my name was mixed up with H. T. Kirby Smith, a poet. To make a long story very short, Mensa Bulletin, 2011, just published my award-winning essay, “To Miss Foley, With Gratitude,” which is the tale behind “Herbie,” the first story of note that I ever had published, and credit given to Kirby-Smith. That’ll show you.

As I look back, it was a terrific gift to a new writer. To know you’re good at something doesn’t mean you have to hear it from others. The inner-directed writer needs no acclaim.

As an English teacher I wrote stories during lunch breaks, study halls, during the evenings late into the night and over the week-ends; my trusty second-hand Smith-Corona was repaired several times as the letter “e” got an intense battering. Rejections were rife, but as an autodidact I continued to self-learn. I had to feed my family and had no time for "conferences", and all that folderol.

I made a promise to myself during these difficult years as a husband, father and as a teacher who loathed the mediocrity in high schools, that whatever stories I could not get published I would publish someday. I waited about 30 years for that to happen. In 2008, I self-published Down to a Sunless Sea and won the Finalist Indie Excellence Award. I persevered. I am the turtle behind the turtle racing against the hare. Think on this for a moment and you can get a handle on me!

How would you describe your writing?

All my writing is visceral and passionate. I favor the passion of the mind as well as that of the soul.

As to my "target audience", that is part of the marketing world and I do not respond to that at all. I have always written for myself, believing that if I do it well the person reading it will connect to me. I have a conversation always with myself. Apparently some people like that.

All literature is an internet among people. To understand this about me is to understand why I take risks and dare in my writing. What I really do know is that fearlessness makes for authenticity in writing. I do not write to be remembered. I write in the now and for the interaction and discussion it might bring about. I have my close ones to remember me. In short, I write to give off my scent.

Which authors have influenced you the most?

Authors have not influenced me. I read to be moved.

Kazantzakis’s The Last Temptation of Christ and his Saint Francis are intensely, vividly splendored works; his Report to Greco is one of the great confessionals of the last century. His existential epitaph has served as a guiding light for me: “I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.” He wrote a two volume sequel to The Odyssey in verse and by all accounts he equalled Homer.

Have your own personal experiences influenced your writing in any way?

In all my writing I try to make the reader feel – as a psychotherapist with over two decades experience, in this culture we are conditioned not to feel.

Having lost a wife in a horrific automobile accident, my daughter being terribly wounded but surviving, her boyfriend dead, and the early death of an older daughter by her own hand have devastated my life and all of this has impacted upon my writing. What is that impact? To weigh carpe diem with tempus fugit on a moment to moment basis, to live in the moment, right now, to deprogram myself of this rather decadent society’s need to swallow us up through conditioning. I step aside and askance of the writer’s world, for often new writers sell their souls very early on. Older writers as well. I revel in being a stranger in a strange land; in America I am an ex-pat.

What are your main concerns as a writer?

I really don’t have main concerns as a writer. I don’t view myself as a "writer". I am Matt who happens to write. Being a writer is a role and with that comes all kinds of delusions and mischief. I am not my occupation! I do my best at what I am doing, no more, no less. I strive not to write a glorious sentence. If anything, I struggle to engage you, the reader, to shake you, turn you upside down, rub your face in my own grit. I teach you nothing. I observe.

In my graphic and violent Holocaust novel, The i Tetralogy, the work of a lifetime, I engage the inherent violence of this species-devastating event, the lens through which we all can observe man. As a psychotherapist, writer and human being I struggle for two things:

to see
to struggle to be psychologically free.

The triumvirate for me is – Krishnamurti, a remarkable spiritual teacher, Kazantzakis, and Freud.

Do you write everyday?

There are no rules for me as a writer. I think in fractals. I write when I am moved to do so. I spent years learning the craft and am still a novice. The serendipitous consequences of being self-taught is that one may venture into areas loaded with landmines and emerge safely, perhaps wisely so. To write 500 words a day or more does not a writer make. Ask Homer, ask Joyce, ask Dickens. Thank god they never went off to schools to learn how to write.

I believe with conviction that the very next book I will write is already being assembled in my unconscious. My unconscious has rarely failed me; indeed, I get really excited when it makes its appearance in my writing and I go on for pages. When I teach writing, I urge students to tap into that, to not censor it.

I wrote an early version of i in about one week; it entirely poured out of me. It was a remarkable event and changed everything in how I approach writing. In short, I channel it all.

How many books have you written so far?

As to the books I have written, The i Tetralogy (Wheatmark, 2005) explores the relationship between victim and perpetrator during the Holocaust in great depth as well as the relationship between the perpetrator and his own family in the States after the war, where he fled to. Very intense and graphic, it has been described as both “pornographic and holy.” High praise in my eyes since it was reviewed by a survivor.

Down to a Sunless Sea (Wheatmark, 2008) is a collection of stories dealing with the deviant and damaged. Duff Brenna, novelist and editor, considered it Proustian.

At this time I have two books readied for publication:

I Truly Lament is a collection of short stories about the Holocaust, ten of them published last year to my joy. I can never let go of the Holocaust, although I am not a survivor.

This Mobius Strip of Ifs will be published in early January 2012 and is a series of related essays over the past four decades of my life, a kind of Bilsdungroman of my psychological life as a writer, spiritual seeker, teacher and curmudgeon. It is a mixture of memoir and essay, with me breaking the rules again. It is my happiest effort in years. Not bad for this 71 year old.

To come full circle, the essay on Miss Foley leads off the collection for it is emblematic of my experience as a writer. I self-published the book and I find Wheatmark more than capable of producing a fine product. Working with the editor is for me a growing experience, not something to resist. After all, the whole art of writing, for me, comes down to revising. When you revise, you sharpen who you are.

The Mobius Strip of Ifs is a compelling compilation of observations, psychological insights, and reminiscences for those possessing the requisite courage to feel and think, to struggle against cultural conditioning, and to create artistically inspite of an environment that impedes the awakening of intelligence. I summed it up: “Although we are passing ephemera, human lint on this planet in transit, it is a powerful and nourishing feeling for me to have paused long enough to have observed the passage of time and my place in it.”

What will your next book be about?

At this time my next effort is at the starting gate.

I Truly Lament is a varied collection of stories, inmates in death camps, survivors of these camps, disenchanted Golems complaining about their tasks, Holocaust deniers and their ravings, and collectors of Hitler curiosa (only recently a few linens from Hitler’s bedroom suite went up for sale!) as well as an imagined interview with Eva Braun during her last days in the bunker.

The intent is to perceive the Holocaust from several points of view. An astute historian of the Holocaust has observed that it is much like a train wreck, survivors wandering about in a daze, sense and understanding, for the moment, absent. No comprehensive rational order in sight.

I am seeking to find a publisher for this.

In the meanwhile, I will be entering contests.

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

The most significant achievement as a writer, you ask, makes me reply: It is in the totality of who I am. I work on myself to hope for nothing, to fear nothing, so that I can be free.

Related books:

,,

Related articles:

Mathias B. Freese [Interview], by Derek Alger, Pif Magazine, June 16, 2008
The i Tetralogy by Mathias Freese [Book Review], by Christopher Frost, Neon Literary Magazine
Down to a Sunless Sea by Mathias B. Freese [Book Review], by Carol Reid, the short review

[Interview_2] Mark Adam Kaplan

2011-11-27T23:14:00.001Z

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

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

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

How would you describe Monsters Do Ugly Things?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Where and when was the book published?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What will your next book be about?

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

Related books:

,,,

Related articles:

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

[Interview_2] Tahlia Newland

2011-11-05T21:38:00.000Z

Tahlia Newland writes young adult and adult urban fantasy.

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

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

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

How would you describe your latest anthology?

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

Norris?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Which aspects of the work did you enjoy most?

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

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

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

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

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

What will your next book be about?

Realm Hunter is coming out in December.

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

How many books have you written so far?

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

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

Resources:

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

Related books:

,,

Related articles:

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

[Interview] Fungisayi Sasa

2011-11-01T20:19:00.001Z

Zimbabwean poet and author Fungisayi Sasa lives in Milton Keynes.

She is the author of the children’s book, The Search for the Perfect Head (Eloquent Books, 2008).

One of her short stories was published in the anthology, Writing Free (Weaver Press, 2011) while her poems have appeared in places that include the Poetry International Web and Spilt Milk Magazine.

In this interview, Fungisayi Sasa talks about her concerns as a writer:

When did you start writing?

My dad unwittingly led me to writing during my early childhood years. He was very firm about studying and, as children, we weren't allowed to watch television during the week. And he would often take us to the local library.

At first, I didn't like these visits to the library because reading felt like work to me. But eventually I started enjoying it and through reading, my passion for writing grew and I started writing poems and short stories about my family and the annoying things they would have done to me. Instead of ranting and raving at them when they made me angry, I would write a story about them or write an angry poem. Writing was therapeutic.

When I was in Zimbabwe, writing was simply a hobby, I didn't think I could go anywhere with it. Even though I read many books, my mind didn't grasp the concept that I could be a writer.

When the political situation in Zimbabwe forced my family to flee to the United Kingdom, I found loads of career opportunities that included writing. I studied creative writing at the University of Bedfordshire and with guidance and support from my lecturers, I sharpened my skills. I gained the confidence to send my work out and I found that the thing with writing and becoming published is that you have to push and persevere.

I used to spend hours trawling websites and writing down their details, sending work by post or e-mail - hoping that somebody would be interested. I even used to write work specifically tailored for particular magazines and websites. I sent my work out to so many places and received so many rejections but I didn't let this deter me. I was motivated because I knew that my work was of a suitable standard. If I was asked to make changes, I would.

Have your experiences influenced your writing in any way?

My personal experiences are everything when it comes to my writing.

Some of my characters have my personal traits. They talk the way I do.

My writing flows more easily if it comes from my own personal perspective. For example, in the short story, “Eyes On”, which was published in Writing Free, the idea of stalking came from the fact that when I am on Facebook, I cannot randomly go on a person's profile and check out what they are doing because, to me, it feels like I am stalking them.

However, it would also appear that one of the wonders of modern technology and social networking sites is they appear to have normalised stalking to such an extent that we are not disturbed when we are followed around. It is probably because of this 'miracle' that the main character in “Eyes On”, isn't alarmed when he realises that he is being followed.

What are the most difficult aspects?

Starting writing anything is always difficult. The first sentence is always important to me. It has to make the right impact. If it doesn't, I can't continue.

I can write three pages but if the first sentence of the story or book isn't quite right, I will delete it all.

I don't start writing until the sentence sounds right in my mind. And while I wait for that, I plot the story in my mind and concentrate on characterization.

The moments I enjoy most come after I have finished the work because while I am writing, I can't quite see the piece as a whole. The great thing about finishing a piece is that I can dive back into it and start editing and tweaking it.

What are your main concerns as a writer?

Is every word relevant and important? This is what I keep asking myself. This is because as I write I can see a word repeated over and over again. When I see this happening, I remember the time, in my primary school, when my Grade 4 teacher said, “So, then and got are barred from society.” And there was this picture of a man behind bars and that phrase was written underneath.

I usually overcome repetitions like these by reading my work out aloud. If the writing flows well and each word sounds right, I am happy. If not, I tweak it a little bit.

Also, sometimes, motivating myself to write is really difficult. Some days I look at the computer and I think, “No, not yet..” It's not writer's block because the ideas are there, always buzzing in my mind.

What will you write about next?

Baboons … I am working on a re-write of a children's book that I completed sometime ago. I am doing this because I realised the story would work better if it was about humans. I am not saying the baboons evolve into humans, but that when I first wrote the story, I could see humans in my mind but I forced the story into being one about animals.

This conversation was first published by The Zimbabwean

Related books:

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Related articles:

Petina Gappah [Interview], Conversations with Writers, April 10, 2009
Speech given by Chiedza Musengezi at the launch of Writing Free, Weaver Press, September 19, 2011
Writing Free [Book Review], By Sibusiso Tshuma, Panorama Magazine, October 14, 2011

[Book Launch] Mad, Hopeless & Possible

2011-10-28T13:43:00.000+01:00

On October 27, 2011, the Adult Education College in Leicester was the venue of the launch of Siobhan Logan's latest poetry chapbook, Mad, Hopeless & Possible: Shackleton's Endurance Expedition (original plus, 2011).

The title of the chapbook comes from Sir Ernest Shackleton himself who rated applicants for his legendary 1914 Antarctic Expedition as "Mad, Hopeless & Possible". The chapbook also weaves in the hidden shadow-story of the Ross Sea Party, his supply team, who were marooned in the white wilderness just as war consumed Europe.

Leicestershire author Mark Goodwin says, "Siobhan Logan's Mad, Hopeless & Possible lifts the reader out of their warm armchair to place them among the stubborn men of Shackleton's 1914 Trans-Antarctic Expedition.

"This history of polar exploration is at once effectively informative and dramatically powerful: smooth, economic prose offset against haunting poetic soliloquies. It's as if Logan has pulled desperate men's voices out of sub-zero winds."

Related articles:

Siobhan Logan [Interview_3], Conversations with Writers, February 20, 2010
Poetry, Football and the Spirits in the Sky [Interview_2], Conversations with Writers, June 4, 2007
The Poetry of Mass Movement [Interview_1], Conversations with Writers, April 11, 2007