RSS FEED IDEMS: Conversations with Writers
- Interview with Valerie Tagwira, Author of 'The Uncertainty of Hope'
Valerie Tagwira is a Zimbabwean medical doctor and an author. Currently she is working in London while preparing for her membership exam for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Her debut novel, The Uncertainty of Hope is set in the densely populated suburb of Mbare, Harare, and explores the complex lives of Onai Moyo -- a market woman and mother of three children -- and her best friend, Katy Nguni -- a vendor and black-market currency dealer. The novel gives an insight into the challenges faced by a wide cross section of Zimbabwe, where life expectancy has dropped to 37, possibly the lowest in the world.
In 2005, Operation Murambatsvina, the government's controversial urban slum clearance program, created over half a million internally displaced persons and destroyed the livelihoods of close to 10 percent of the population. Eighty percent of the country's population is unemployed.
The International Monetary Fund estimates that the rate of inflation, which currently stands at over 1,700 percent, could reach an unprecedented 4,000 percent this year.
In a recent interview, Tagwira spoke about the concerns that influenced the novel.
What would you say The Uncertainty of Hope is about?
It is a novel set in contemporary Zimbabwe. It looks at poverty, homelessness, H.I.V./AIDS, domestic violence, and a host of other socioeconomic challenges of the day. It is also a story about surviving against the odds and, hopefully, gives an insight into the intricacies of contemporary Zimbabwe with respect to how people are trying to survive.
When I initially started thinking about writing, I had a desire to do something different… something creative, and because I'm something of a "mild feminist" at heart, I always knew that I would write something featuring strong female characters. Writing about contemporary Zimbabwe was a natural choice because I am very much attached to "home" and I travel back quite frequently. At each visit, it strikes me how the living standards are deteriorating, and at each visit, I never imagine that things can get any worse, but they do, and people still survive. I was particularly concerned about how women deal with the challenges that are thrust upon them.
When I started writing the book, being a woman was my motivation, but I also had a strong interest in socioeconomic, developmental, and health-related issues that affect women. I wanted to highlight the plight of the disadvantaged in modern day Zimbabwe… the poor. This encompasses the homeless, be they adults or street children, the unemployed, and all the employed and ex-middle classes who are now living below the poverty datum line. It includes everyone who cannot afford basic necessities like food, clothing, education, and access to healthcare…
Among the disadvantaged in Zimbabwe, are there groups that are more vulnerable than others?
In each of the groups I've mentioned, I think women (and the girl-child) are worse off than their male counterparts.
What is life like for these women and children?
Extremely difficult.
They have been disempowered, and have very little or no means with which to make their lives better. The issues discussed in the novel have touched most people either directly or indirectly because there is now so much poverty in Zimbabwe.
To me, it feels as if most things are collapsing, be it industry, the health system, or the education system… you name it, it's going… deteriorating. Even the judicial system is struggling. The current political situation and the country's negative publicity certainly don't help. All these have the combined effect of making life very difficult for the people.
Also, women are more likely to be unemployed, less educated, and less in control of their lives because of cultural and biological reasons, all of which makes them even more vulnerable. The collapsing health system in Zimbabwe has placed an even bigger burden on women, who are naturally expected to be caregivers. For example, childbearing necessitates the provision of obstetric services which, for the greater proportion of women, are now out of reach, even at a very basic level. I can see a situation where pregnancy and childbirth are soon going to be gratuitously risky. In addition to this, women's role as caregivers now brings with it the extra burden of looking after family and friends with H.I.V./AIDS.
Is there a solution?
In my opinion, this is where the uncertainty about the future of Zimbabweans lies. If a solution is ever to come, I don't know when it will be or how it will come. What I'm sure of is that drastic changes have to take place in order for the lives of ordinary people to improve.
What can/should be done to improve the lives of women and children in Zimbabwe?
Empowerment through education, employment creation, affirmative action where possible (as long as this does not lower standards), and generally making resources available to the population.
This can be effected by government leaders as they are the ones in charge of policymaking processes and allocating funds to various sectors.
I must also say it was heartening to see the Domestic Violence Act come into being in 2006. To me, this was a demonstration of an awareness of the significance of domestic violence and its negative effects. It will go a long way toward protecting the rights of women and children. They are affected to a greater extent than men, who are more likely to be perpetrators of violence and abuse. The women's coalition which campaigned for the bill had representatives from women with different political and social affiliations. This provided a window of hope that if women can come together to pursue a common goal, they can bring about positive changes in a patriarchal society which tends to put men's interests before those of women and children.
N.G.O.'s and the donor community also have the capacity to complement government efforts aimed at improving the lives of women and children. And at grassroots level, communities do have a duty of care toward the next disadvantaged person. As the core unit of society, the family setup has a very important role to play as well.
Which aspects of the work that you put into The Uncertainty of Hope did you find most difficult?
The novel is quite long, and for each of the characters, I had to maintain consistency throughout, taking into account various interpersonal relationships.
I did find that a challenge. I don't know if I got it right. I suppose I will be able to tell from how the novel is received.
What did you enjoy most?
Working with my editor.
I was able to participate in the editing process, which was a great learning experience. Basically, this involved checking the manuscript for errors, consistency, language, etc. Being in medicine for so long and not reading as much as I did when I was younger made me feel that my English had gone rusty so this was a great opportunity to "revise" language skills as well.
How did you decide on a publisher?
I didn't decide on a publisher as such. I heard about Weaver Press from my cousin and I rang them to ask about manuscript submission.
I was very fortunate to have my manuscript accepted, and to have Irene Staunton as my editor. She is very supportive and serious about the work she does.
In the writing that you are doing, who would you say has influenced you the most?
My parents. They were teachers, and I was always surrounded by books from a very early age. I developed a love for books because of their influence.
I read anything that I could get my hands on. This included the Benny and Betty series, the Nancy Drew series by Carolyn Keene, volumes of fairy tales, Enid Blyton, Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Catherine Cookson, [Charles] Mungoshi, Chinua Achebe, Ngugi [wa Thiong'o] (and many more). My favorite Shona novels were: Pafunge, Ziva Kwawakabva, Ndiko Kupindana Kwamazuva, Rurimi Inyoka, and Maidei. The list goes on and on…
What are your main concerns as a writer?
My biggest challenge is how to juggle family life, my medical career, and still find enough time to work on my writing. My career makes it impossible for me to have enough time to write as much as I would like to.
How do you deal with this?
When I have to write, I just make sure that I set aside time to do so, which might mean giving up some leisure time. I enjoy writing so much that I don't mind terribly when I have to give up something else in order to write.
While I was working on the novel, I tried to make time for about three writing sessions per week. Each session was at least three hours during the week and much longer, with short breaks, during weekends, and involved expanding the manuscript, rewriting, checking for mistakes, inconsistencies, the usual… and later, working with the editor to shape the story into something worthy of being called a novel.
What will your next book be about?
I recently came across some disturbing U.N. statistics on child abuse in Zimbabwe. I would like to find out more about this sometime in the future and see if I can write a book which looks at that theme.
When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?
Several years ago… sometime in my late twenties. I can't remember the exact age.
It was one of those vague ideas that kept crossing my mind time and again. However, because of work and study, I never seemed to have the time to settle down and commit myself to writing. I only started working on my novel earnestly toward the end of 2005, when I made a conscious decision to start working and get on with it, instead of daydreaming about being a writer one day.
I think I worked really hard once I started. It took me about ten months to complete the manuscript.
This article was first published by the World Press Review.
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Wed, 02 May 2007 09:44:00 +0000
- Interview with Shani Dowdell, Author of "Keepin' It Tight"
Shani Dowdell lives in Opelika, Alabama with her three children and husband. She has always been fascinated by creative writing and started writing poetry as a young girl. Her debut novel, Keepin' It Tight, releases May 2007.
Her novel was inspired by African American fiction and its message of self love and black love. Through the novel, she seeks to weigh in on race and relationships and the temptation and deception that tears so many marriages apart.
In a recent interview, she spoke about her writing.
When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?
I've always thought being a professional writer was a fascinating career, but it was 2004 when I decided to make the dream come true for myself.
How would you describe the genre in which you do most of your writing?
I am writing in romance and drama.
Who is your target audience?
Anyone who can relate to issues women go through in relationships. My first novel, Keepin' It Tight, addresses how a black woman feels when her marriage is threatened.
What motivated you to start writing in this genre?
I am a sucker for a love story. I love to see the struggles a couple goes through and then the resolution.
Who would you say has influenced you the most?
In the beginning it was authors Darrien Lee and Jacquelyn Thomas by reading their works. Since I have become friends with Naiomi Pitre I have been influenced by her work.
What are your main concerns as a writer?
How others will perceive my work and judge my character based on it. I have a bad habit of not wanting to ruffle any feathers, but it's entirely impossible to be true to yourself and your characters when you are worrying about how one audience or another will react to it. It is impossible to please all of the people all of the time, so I've learned to just write for me.
How have your personal experiences influenced the direction of your writing?
Somewhat. I am sure a lot of me comes out in my writing.
What would you say are the biggest challenges that you face?
Being self-published, there will always be challenges, but the beauty is overcoming them. I would say the biggest challenge I face now is breaking into this business on a low budget.
How do you deal with these challenges?
I take it one day at a time.
How many books have you written so far?
My self published debut novel Keepin' It Tight will release May 2008. In this story Lela James finds love and loses it when she catches her fiance cheating on her with a white woman. Then when she picks up the pieces, moves on and finds herself a better man whom she marries, his colleague, Amanda, becomes a thorn in her side. She'll be damned if she lets another white woman infiltrate her relationship. This time is going to be different.
Do you write everyday?
If I could just figure out a way to block my computer from myspace, I could find the time to write everyday. I do not work on my second novel, which is titled Secrets of a Kept Woman by the way, but I do write at least three or four days a week. I am do blog and comment in blogs daily.
How long did it take you to write your latest book?
It took me a year and three or four months. It will be self published through lulu.com. I am using a different approach because while I will be using a print-on-demand publisher, I will eventually move to using traditional press.
Which aspects of the work that you put into the book did you find most difficult?
Race related issues.
Which did you enjoy most?
Building the relationship with Lela and her best friend Tonya.
What will your next book be about?
Secrets Of a Kept Woman is a street fiction novel. In Secrets of a Kept Woman, Layla Wilson is married to the biggest drug dealer in town. Their lifestyle is lavish, but the flames are all but dead in their marriage. He married Layla because of her beauty and treats her like a trophy. All of that is fine and good, but Layla is in dyer need of attention, love and affection. One day when Antonio shows up for work to do some routine pool maintenance work, he ends up servicing a of Lela's pipes too. The rest is a wrap. Once she gets a taste of Antonio, there is no turning back. The secrets of a kept woman can be deadly if revealed...
What would you say has been your most significant achievement as a writer?
I have not even tipped the iceberg on what I see myself accomplishing as a writer, but for right now it is typing the last letter in my first manuscript. That was a good feeling right there.
How did you get there?
Hard work, persistence, and determination.
Mon, 30 Apr 2007 12:15:00 +0000
- Interview with Jenny Alexander, Children’s Author
Jenny Alexander has written over a hundred books for children as well as several non-fiction books on a wide variety of subjects.
Her first book for children, Stumpy Toe is about bullying and her second, Miss Fischer’s Jewels, which was reissued as Haunting for Beginners is about the importance of expressing your emotions. One of her stories, Mouse and the Bullies is offered as an example of excellence in a course book for the Open College of the Arts.
Three of her books on bullying, Mouse and the Bullies; Your Child: Bullying and Bullies, Bigmouths and So-Called Friends have all been approved by ChildLine. Your Child: Bullying is also used by counsellors and recommended by anti-bullying organisations including Families Against Bullying.
Her non-fiction books include the geography title, Pedal Power: Land’s End to John o’ Groats in 26 days (Pearson, 2002) which was selected for the Child Education and Junior Education “Best Books, 2002 supplement.
In a recent interview, Jenny Alexander spoke about her writing.
When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?
I decided I was going to be a poet when I was about 7 years old — well, either a poet or an artist. In my teens I stopped writing poetry because learning literature at school convinced me that I didn’t really understand it.
What prompted you to write you first book? How long did it take you to write it?
I wrote a number of adult novels in my late teens and twenties but didn’t really try to find a publisher. What prompted me to write for publication was that I needed a proper job after my last child started full-time school. I sent a lot of material to an agent, including an adult crime novel and several pieces of children’s fiction. A couple of months after she took me on, she sold my first children’s novel to Hamish Hamilton. It had taken me about two weeks to write.
Who would you say has influenced you the most?
I write all different sorts of books, both fiction and non-fiction for readers aged 4 years old [as well as for] adults. [I also write] magazine articles and the odd poem, so I’d say my biggest influence has been the wonderful British library service. When I left university, almost completely cured of the urge to write anything original at all, I took a job in a branch library where I discovered the absolute joy of reading adventurously.
What are your main concerns as a writer?
To enjoy myself and keep pushing back my boundaries by trying new things.
How have your personal experiences influenced the direction of your writing?
I think the decade I spent as a stay-at-home parent has provided the inspiration for a lot of my stories as well as the experience to write non fiction about life-strategies for children. Virtually everything I write comes out of first-hand experience rather than research — looking after your rabbit, living on an island, understanding your dreams…
What would you say are the biggest challenges that you face?
I think writers have pressure these days to keep working to the same formula once they become established and I don’t want to be pigeon-holed.
How do you deal with these challenges?
I write different things in my spare time between contracts and then try to sell them.
How many books have you written so far?
I stopped counting when I passed 100 — but lots of them are very short.
Of all the books you have written, which was the most difficult to write? Which was the easiest? Why do you think this is so?
The most difficult was How 2 B Happy. It’s a straightforward book based on the principles Of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Positive Psychology but I happened to land the contract just before my marriage broke up. The easiest was the first one, Miss Fischer’s Jewells (reissued in paperback as Haunting for Beginners) because when I started writing after putting my ambition on hold for so long I was completely fuelled by joy.
What is your latest book about?
I’ve just done a series of children’s non fiction books called The 7-day Stress-buster, The 7-day Brain-booster, The 7-day Bully-buster and The 7-day Self-esteem Super-booster.
How long did it take you to write it?
I did the four books in about 7 months. The first two books were published in the U.K. in January 2007 and the second two in April.
Which aspects of the work that you put into the book did you find most difficult?
With non-fiction I always find the planning gorgeous, the first draft frustrating and redrafting satisfying. I think the first draft is hard because you have to find a way of expressing your ideas that is both interesting and accessible, and sometimes that makes my brain hurt.
Which did you enjoy most?
Devising the quizzes and special features.
What sets the book apart from the other things you have written?
It’s the first series I’ve done.
In what way is it similar?
I’d already written several other life-skills books for 8 to 12-year-olds: Bullies, Bigmouths and So-called Friends, Going up to Secondary School — the no-worries guide; How to be a Brilliant Writer and How 2 B Happy.
What will your next book be about?
My spare-time book is an adult workbook on dreams. I’m putting together material for a fiction series that will hopefully be my next contract.
What would you say has been your most significant achievement as a writer?
Overcoming first my fear of failure and then my fear of success.
How did you get there?
I think I was propelled by this life-long feeling that I was meant to be a writer and the sense of home-coming I felt every time I put pen to paper.
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Sat, 28 Apr 2007 09:48:00 +0000
- Interview with Tabitha Suzuma, Author of 'A Note of Madness'
Tabitha Suzuma's first novel, A Note of Madness tells the story of a teenage musical genius struggling with manic depression. The novel has received a lot of critical attention from newspapers, magazines and websites that include The Guardian, Hackwriters.com, Cherwell, Medical Humanities, CMIS and Write Away.
A Note of Madness, which is now available in both hardcover and paperback, was also shortlisted in the 2006 NASEN & TES Special Educational Needs Book Award.
Suzuma spoke about what she has been working on since making her debut as an author, in May last year:
How would you say you have you been received so far?
A Note of Madness came out in paperback this February and I am hoping it will sell well because its sequel, A Song for Jennah, will only be published next year if sales figures are high. And as soon as I get the green light from Random House -- with luck by August -- I will start work on the third book in the A Note of Madness trilogy. It will be about Flynn and Jennah post-university making their way on the classical concert circuit.
My second novel is coming out in May and has already received some great reviews. It's called From Where I Stand and is a psychological thriller about a deeply disturbed teenager trying to track down his mother's killer. I have a fourth book under contract with Random House: Without Looking Back, about a family on the run.
In the last interview we had, you spoke about wanting to venture into writing books for adults. How is this going?
At the moment, Random House want to build me as an author and so they are only publishing one of my books each year. This, in part, prompted my decision to branch out into adult fiction. It's not easy making a living on one book a year. Another reason I wanted to write for adults was because most of the fan mail I received for A Note of Madness (which is set at university) has been from older teenagers and adults of all ages. Nonetheless, I do plan to keep writing for teenagers too.
I have just finished my first novel for adults, Maya which is based on a relationship between a father and his young daughter. It's about a man who loses everything. It's about letting go. It took me seven months to write.
My agent is sending it out to publishers at the moment. It does mean starting out from scratch in a way, which is a bit daunting, because my current editor only publishes books for young adults.
I have recently started work on my second novel for adults which aims to be another psychological thriller. It will be based on the idea that the people closest to us are not always who they seem to be.
Perhaps we could also talk about the writing process itself. What do you start with? And how do you proceed from there?
I start with a character, or an idea. With A Note of Madness, I was trudging through the snow one winter in Helsinki, listening to Rachmaninov on my iPod. That's when the character of Flynn came to me: a Finnish concert pianist suffering from bipolar disorder. I was severely depressed at the time (hence my choice of holiday destination), and everything sort of fell into place. Flynn became very real to me, more so than the people around me, a character born out of my passion for classical music and my fascination with the link between mental illness and the artistic genius. I came home from my tour of Scandinavia and instantly started writing, without any plan or any real idea of where the story was going. Things just came to me as I wrote, and I wrote as much for myself as for anyone else.
With my second book, From Where I Stand, the process was a little different. I had secured the contract for book one, so this time I was writing to be published. I deliberately moved away from the first book and chose to write something more plot-driven, with a twist at the end; yet still retaining the psychological slant. This second book was much harder to write because I knew it was going to be read -- at least by my editor if no-one else -- so it was a struggle not to feel self-conscious. There was suddenly a lot more at stake: I had something to lose, and I knew A Note of Madness was going to be a tough act to follow.
Other writers have said they find starting a story to be the most difficult part of the writing process. How similar or different is your own experience?
The starting point of a story comes to me quite easily -- it's the rest which is hard! A scene appears before me, I see it in my mind's eye, as vivid as watching a film. A chair in a psychiatrist's office; a teenager standing at the window waiting to be taken to his new foster family... The starting point is always obvious, somehow.
I try to write plans, but I'm not very good at it! I always start off with a very real sense of my main character -- I make sure that I know that character really well before I write the first word. I will also have a general idea of the outline of the story, kind of like a rough charcoal sketch. As I write, I fill in the detail and ideas come to me as I go along. Often the characters seem to take over, and starts pulling in directions I had not previously thought about. I'll go with them, and sometimes this results in a very different book from the one I set out to write. But it also means that the end result is almost always richer and fuller than the idea I started with.
Sometimes, however, things do go awry. You take a wrong turn, and suddenly you find yourself writing a scene which doesn't work, or which is taking you in a direction that doesn't fit with the rest of the book. Then I will have to backtrack -- find the point at which the story changed, and see if you can bring it back on course. That can be really frustrating: suddenly realising that the intensive labour of the last few weeks was all in vain. But it's all part of the writing process: often you have to explore different avenues before you find the one which feels right.
This article was first published on OhmyNews International.
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Thu, 26 Apr 2007 09:38:00 +0000
- Interview with H. Nigel Thomas, Author of How Loud Can the Village Cock Crow?
Canadian author H. Nigel Thomas was a teacher in St. Vincent, his home island, before moving to Montreal where he taught English and French in high school and elementary school. For the past 18 years, he has been working as professor of U.S. Literature at Université Laval in Quebec City.
His books include Why We Write: Conversations with African Canadian Poets & Novelists (TSAR Publications, 2006) which features interviews with 15 African Canadian writers and From Folklore to Fiction: Folk Heroes and Rituals in the Black American Novel which appeared in Contributions in Afro-American and African Studies, Number 118 (Greenwood Press, 1988).
He has written three novels: Return to Arcadia (forthcoming, TSAR Publications, Fall 2007); Behind the Face of Winter ( TSAR Publications, 2001) and Spirits in the Dark (House of Anansi Press, 1993 and Heinemann Caribbean Writers Series, 1994) which was a finalist for the 1994 QSPELL/Hugh MacClennan Fiction Award.
In addition to these five books, Nigel Thomas is also the author of Moving Through Darkness (Afo Enterprises, 2000), a poetry volume, and How Loud Can the Village Cock Crow? (Afo Enterprises, 1996), a collection of critically acclaimed short stories set in the Caribbean which explore interpersonal relationships.
In a recent interview, Nigel Thomas spoke about his concerns as a writer.
When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?
Quite late. In my adolescence, I wrote sketches and directed them principally to raise money for the indigent fund of the Methodist Church to which I belonged. These were short plays. People paid to see them performed. No social welfare system existed in St. Vincent then. The churches that people belonged to aided those who were in need. This was the purpose of the indigent fund. The money thus collected went into the indigent fund.
One of the sketches I thought was significant, but I never saw myself as a writer then, nor did I wish to be a writer then.
I began writing poetry at age 28 and found that I had to do so every day for a period of over four years.
What would you say you were trying to achieve through the poetry?
Wordsworth defines poetry as emotions recollected in tranquillity. What caused the intense emotions that required shaping into poetry, I do not know. Perhaps it was the deep sense of exile that I felt. There certainly was a deeply felt angst that poetry relieved.
I wrote about one's place in the universe, about identity, about injustice, about the lessons inherent in nature. I recall a few lines from a poem written in the second year: "Would I have thought that at 29/ My life would be an autumn Vine?" . . . "But we must roll our stones/ And roll them all alone/ And find in art the solace that dogs do in their bones." I think that was the sort of tone found in those early poems. I've published few of them.
"What was I trying to achieve?" Finding language, metre, symbols and metaphors to embody what I was feeling. Robert Graves refers to this as the pearl the oyster creates to coat the grain of sand in its flesh.
I was already in my mid-thirties when I turned to fiction, largely because plots filled my head and I could not fall asleep. In a manner of speaking, it was easier to write than fall asleep.
How would you describe the genre in which you do most of your writing?
Now most of my writing is prose fiction. It seems to lend itself better to the issues my psyche predisposes me to explore.
Which issues are these? And why do you think they are this dominant?
They are no different from the ones that interested me when I began writing poetry. It's only the form that's different. My last novel, Behind the Face of Winter, follows a youngster from about age five in the Caribbean through high school and university in Canada. I wanted to show via fiction some of what I know about the Black immigrant experience as it affects Black children in high school in Montreal (I taught in the school system in Montreal for 12 years). My next novel, Return to Arcadia, forthcoming in autumn, explores a mixed-race man's quest for sanity as he tries to cast off the burdens bequeathed by his colonial heritage.
Underlying the premise of everything I write is the notion that life is constant negotiation. We may do it passively sometimes by absenting ourselves from active confrontation and consequently deprive ourselves of the fruits of such confrontation (conversely we may avoid the resulting wounds), or we may jump into the fray. What underlies such choices make for interesting speculation and hence fiction.
What motivated you to start writing in this genre?
I vaguely recall that in the early eighties I despaired over what I was not reading in works produced by West Indian writers. Earl Lovelace was the exception. Something told me I had to begin writing that sort of work -- works that focused on African Diasporic identities.
You see, we in the Caribbean had been brought up in a culture of self-hate. It was necessary to explore, (not merely through history -- history does not engage us with the same emotional depth) through characters, the impact of this on our psyches and to imply ways by which we might exorcise it. Prose fiction was the ideal genre for this. The theatre would have been even better, but I’m predisposed to being solitary, and the sort of atmosphere in which plays are born is anathema to what I am.
How are you defining this "culture of self-hate"?
Africa in the Caribbean in which I grew up symbolized savagery. The word Zulu in my village had the same virulence as cannibal. As my protagonist in Spirits in the Dark notes, to call someone African was to challenge him or her to a fight.
Clearly, if we despised Africa and Africans we hated ourselves. It's tantamount to disowning one's mother. This came about via Christianity, which equated Blackness with sin and savagery. But it's also true that we were ashamed of slavery. My father believed that we were the descendants of Ham (Noah's cursed son). The implication, then, is that God had ordained us for servitude. Spirits in the Dark puts such self-hate onto the threshing floor.
I have continued the theme to a lesser extent in Behind the Face of Winter to show in part the evolution that has taken place. I continue the theme as well in Return to Arcadia.
How and why is it that people in the Caribbean accept this teaching?
We were too weak to challenge it. We were a hostage society. Opinions that differed from the colonizers' were severely punished. Promotions meant parroting the colonizer's beliefs and expressing a preference for his culture.
Why is it important to exorcise it?
The reason is self evident. Hatred of one's self is profoundly debilitating. It goes to the core of one's self-worth. Who should do the exorcising? Educators, artists, the purveyors of the various media -- everyone with the power to influence public opinion.
How does self-hate manifest itself in the Caribbean?
Today, there is very little overt verbal expression of such self-hate. We have come a long way, thanks to Bob Marley, Chalkdust, etc. (musicians); and to writers like George Lamming, Earl Lovelace, Louise Bennett, etc. We are also able to read works that hitherto had been proscribed. West Indian history came into the curriculum my last year in high school. I had no Caribbean authors on my high school curriculum. Today the exact opposite is true.
In the writing that you are doing, who would you say has influenced you the most?
African American writers primarily: the greats: Wright, Baldwin, Ellison, Hughes, Toni Morrison; and two unknowns: Toni Cade Bambara and Leon Forrest; African writers: Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Ngugi Wa Thiongo, Alex LaGuma; North American First Nations Writers: Leslie Marmon Silko, Louise Erdrich, James Welch and N. Scott Momaday. The only Caribbean writer who influenced me -- and it was a profound influence -- was Earl Lovelace.
Some showed me how to shape a novel. Others showed me how powerful a banal notion could become once it's transformed into fiction. I also saw the tremendous amount of knowledge I gained from their books, hence I came to believe that fiction could be intellectually enlightening.
How have your personal experiences influenced the direction of your writing?
An important dictum for writers is: write about what you know. It doesn’t mean adhering slavishly to facts but rather employing facts as tools for further imaginary exploration. In other words, facts are the screwdrivers to tighten or unscrew the imagination as well as the containers to fill with whatever the imagination produces. For example, it is difficult to find in any of my fiction my own personal experiences. The settings, however much reconstructed, are real and the obsessions that get explored are my own.
What are your main concerns as a writer?
To listen to my muse and resist the pressures of the marketplace. I write largely because reality’s surface is for me hardly more than a mask. What’s worth knowing is beneath it. I’m not saying that I discover anything. All I do is try to uncover. I think that the biggest beneficiary of my writing is myself. Self-knowledge is something I’ve gained from my writing much as we discover our fears in our dreams.
Who would you say is your target audience?
In all honesty, it would be anyone who reads my writing. I think, however, that since I’m of Caribbean origin and write out of that sensibility, West Indians and Diasporic Africans are likely to be the readers best able to appreciate the issues I explore.
What are the biggest challenges that you face?
Finding metaphors that my audience and I share. I am not a consumer of popular culture, so I’m cut off from the source where the overwhelming majority of today’s population find its psychic nourishment and cultural references.
To you, what is popular culture? And, in what ways are you cut off from it?
Popular music: rap, hip-hop, dancehall, etc.; televisions programmes; fashion shows, etc. I'm cut off in the sense that I gain far more nourishment from other sources. It's a question of how I'm predisposed to spending my time. I would have to consume a great deal of popular culture to get a small measure of intellectual food. I prefer to go to the sources where an abundance is more likely.
Do you write everyday?
Now that I am no longer bogged down by university teaching, I spend a few hours each day. When I was a university professor I wrote chiefly in late spring and summer. I chose to retire early so that I would have time to write.
What will your next book be about?
Return to Arcadia will be about the process of attaining psychological wholeness after enduring a sullying childhood. I've worked on it in spurts over a seven-year period, almost exclusively during the summer months.
This article was first published on OhmyNews International.
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Tue, 10 Apr 2007 20:34:00 +0000
- Interview with M.D. Benoit, Author of 'Synergy'
Canadian author, M.D. Benoit is on a virtual book tour to promote her upcoming alternate reality novel, Synergy.
The tour started on March 28 and will run until April 11.
During this period, ten blogs will host M.D. Benoit for a day to discuss Synergy, its themes and characters. Some blogs will also feature interviews with the author and reviews of the book. On her own blog, Life’s Weirder than Fiction, M.D. Benoit will announce where she will be that day, as well as talk a bit about her host.
Synergy’s Virtual Book Tour will culminate with a Virtual Book Launch, on April 14 and 15.
In an email interview which took place between February 21 and March 30, 2007, M.D. Benoit spoke about the tour and about her writing.
How many books have you written so far?
I’m currently working on my seventh, but I have two books currently published and one which will come out in March 2007. All three are published by Zumaya Publications.
The first one, Metered Space, was published in 2004. It is the first book in the Jack Meter Case Files series. Jack Meter, a Private Investigator from Ottawa, Canada, is hired by aliens to recover a stolen device a megalomaniac wants to use to conquer the universe. In Meter Made, Jack teams up with a beautiful intergalactic agent to investigate parallel universes.
In Synergy, a man who can travel people’s memories and a woman who has visions team up to find the cure for a horrifying genetic disease. In doing so, they may have found the ultimate genetic weapon.
How long did it take you to write Synergy?
Synergy took me two and a half years to write. Six months of research went into it. When I started, I knew very little about genetic engineering, so I had to take a crash course. The story is about gene modification and warfare, but it’s also about the relationship between two hurt people. Torver Lockwood is scarred emotionally, Demetria Greyson is disfigured. He uses people’s innermost secrets against them; she is unwaveringly honest. The question is: does the end justify the means? Is saving one child worth unleashing a dangerous weapon?
What did you find most difficult when you were working on the novel?
The genetics, of course. As I was writing the book, new developments in the field occurred almost every month. I had to keep up-to-date constantly. For instance, before the beginning of mapping the human genome, the speculation was that we had a minimum of 100,000 genes. When they finished the map, the count was 30,000.
What did you enjoy most?
My biggest thrill is always writing the first draft. Everything else after that is hard work.
How are you promoting the book?
I’ll have a physical book launch, of course, but with the last ones I held, I found I could reach just a very small portion of the population. So I’ve decided to hold a virtual book launch and book tour. Bloggers will host my book tour, as if I were stopping in a different city every day.
The book launch will happen in a virtual pub on my website. Visitors will be able to watch a video about the book, read the first chapter, participate in a contest to win a signed copy of one of my other books, read reviews, read all about my blog hosts during the book tour, buy Synergy, and chat with me.
What is a virtual book tour? And, how did you select the blogs who will be hosting you and your novel?
Using the virtual world is a new phenomenon that grew with the advent of virtual communities and blogs. Even the large publishers have little money to spend on book tours for midlist or emerging authors, so the writers themselves have had to be creative. Doing a virtual book tour and launch seemed a good solution: your audience is larger and as varied as possible.
For the book tour, I’ve approached ten blog owners, from writers to fans to reviewers, who can do whatever they want on the day I visit: an interview, a review of the book, a Q&A using the comments portion of the blog; the sky is the limit. I tried to ask a variety of blog owners so that the visitors won’t all be the same ones from one blog to the next. The only criterion: they have to like to read.
How would you describe the genre in which you do most of your writing?
Alternate reality fits better for my books than science fiction or mystery, or the new term, weird fiction. I explore possibilities, but the basis of the stories is always grounded in the concrete.
Who is your target audience?
With my series The Jack Meter Case Files, which is a mix of alternate reality and mystery, the target audience would be those who enjoy whimsical writing. Jack Meter is a Private Investigator who gets his cases from aliens. With Synergy, the novel coming out in March 2007, my audience would be those who are able to suspend their disbelief and come along for the ride. The novel is about gene modification and genetic warfare.
What motivated you to start writing in this genre?
I really didn’t have any choice in the matter. Those are the stories coming out of my brain. I love reading literary fiction, for instance, but when I try to write in that genre, the writing comes out as stilted and trite. What usually pops into my head are strange stories, and those are the ones I need to tell.
Who would you say has influenced you the most?
Hmm. I’d say the first one I remember with awe is my father. He wasn’t a writer, but an incredible storyteller. Every night for years, when we were growing up, he would tell us a story. Of course, my two brothers and I were the protagonists. There was always a dark forest, alien beings, caves and bats, witches, keypads to press that led to strange, dangerous worlds. We had to overcome many obstacles, and the story lasted for weeks. I learned the skill of cliffhangers from him.
What sets the Synergy apart from the other things you have written?
It is much more serious in tone. The Jack Meter Case Files are lighthearted, even though I explore some difficult issues. My protagonist is somewhat based on Sam Spade, so there’s a tinge of “roman noir” to them. Synergy explores some deeper issues about our right to our genetic information, and of the role of ethical behavior in research. It doesn’t proselytize or moralize, simply asks the questions. It’s up to the reader to come up with his/her own answers.
In what way is it similar?
I’ve always been fascinated with time, and that theme recurs throughout all my books. Another theme is water, or its flow. Looking back, it also appears in all my books.
What are your main concerns as a writer?
That my readers enjoy my stories. If I can make them smile, shiver, or hold their breath, if I can keep them fascinated until the end, I’ll have done my job.
How have your personal experiences influenced the direction of your writing?
Even when I was young, I was very different from the others. I have a quirky sense of humour few people understand; I have a sense of the ridiculous, and my brain works almost twenty-four hours a day (I suffer from chronic insomnia). I’ve always been somewhat of a recluse, preferring books to friends. A ten, I had already read many Nobel prize writers. I started school at four and a half, so I was always “off”. I’d say that gave me the perfect makeup to be a writer. I can spend weeks without seeing no one else than mys husband and my cat, and I’m quite happy with that.
What would you say are the biggest challenges that you face?
Not becoming stale as a writer. It’s easy to fall into a comfortable rhythm, a style that is easy because it’s well known. However, that way you end up with cookie-cutter prose.
How do you deal with these challenges?
I try to find a new challenge in every book I write and tackle it in a new way.
Do you write everyday?
I write five days a week, sometimes six. I’ll usually start around 8:30 or 9 am, write until 11 am, have lunch and a bit of a read, then write until 2 pm.
When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?
I’ve always written, from awful poetry to short stories, but I dabbled more than anything. It was a dream of mine to be a “real” writer. Unfortunately, life interfered -- I had to earn money, I had really stressful jobs, and I couldn’t switch gears when it was time to do some serious writing. Then a good friend died at 42. I decided life was too short, too uncertain, to do something you hated, to stomp on your dreams. It took me a year to prepare my exit from the workforce, and our income was reduced dramatically, but I began writing full-time. That was 12 years ago, and it’s the best decision I’ve ever made.
What will your next book be about?
The next one will be another Jack Meter, Meter Destiny, where Jack gets involved with Gods of the Greek Mythology. Then there’s the next in the genetic engineering trio, Catalyst, about human cloning farms.
What would you say has been your most significant achievement as a writer?
Getting published. English is not my mother tongue. I learned to speak it when I was twenty-one. I’ve always had a fascination with languages, but I find that getting published is an affirmation that I am able to master this extremely difficult language.
How did you do it?
I read a lot, often with the dictionary beside me. In addition, a very good friend of mine, Peggy Loyer, has been my copy editor for as long as I’ve written. I learned much from her over the years. I would not be were I am without her. I also owe my success to my husband, Daniel, who believes in me more than I believe in myself. He has been a stalwart promoter of my work and has propped my flagging optimism over and over. He is also my biggest fan.
This article was first published on OhmyNews International.
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Mon, 09 Apr 2007 06:16:00 +0000
- Interview with Zimbabwean Author Ruzvidzo Stanley Mupfudza
Ruzvidzo Stanley Mupfudza is one of the most exciting emerging voices in Zimbabwean literature.
His short stories have appeared in anthologies such as A Roof to Repair ( College Press, 2000), Writing Still (Weaver Press, 2003), Writing Now (Weaver Press, 2005) and Creatures Great and Small (Mambo Press, 2006). A number of the short stories have also been published in national newspapers and magazines that include The Sunday Mail, the Sunday Mirror and Moto.
In a recent interview, Stanley Mupfudza spoke about his writing.
Do you think newspapers and magazines in Zimbabwe are giving enough space to creative writers?
The Sunday Mail no longer has space for creative writing. The Sunday Mirror had it because of my own initiative. Many magazines have become defunct in Zimbabwe, so it is no longer a question of magazines giving space to creative writers, but that creative writers no longer have media through which to express themselves.
How would you describe the current situation in Zimbabwe? What do you think caused it? Is there a solution?
Political and economic stagnation. Political arrogance, national self-disbelief, sanctions... As a nation, we failed to consolidate the gains of independence, to create a solid foundation on which we could go forward as a nation. Instead, we became mimic men.
A solution is inevitable, but it is difficult to see how soon. There is lack of unity of purpose, a failure by people from different walks of life to come together for the good of Zimbabwe. You see, politicians come and go, as do parties, but Zimbabwe remains. This country that lies between the Zambezi and Limpopo is a special place; so special that it is the only one South of the Sahara that has anything as spectacular as Great Zimbabwe. There is the Great Dyke. Now diamonds are being discovered in Marange. The potential is massive. Look at the Zimbabweans who go abroad and do well -- they are in key positions. We are currently beggars on a beach of gold -- but six years after everyone had written us off, we are still here and that fascinates me as a writer. Some think Zimbabweans are docile people. I think they are simply resilient. Historically, the white settlers were taken by surprise when the 1896/7 uprisings came. They had thought the people docile, too.
What are your main concerns as a writer?
Spiritual regeneration, the triumph of the underdog, humanity's resilience, justice, freedom... Conformism has always riled me. Going through life, I noticed that those people who are usually overlooked, cast out, mocked etc., have their own stories to tell, stories that more often than not add value to human experience. I am a sucker for stories about overcoming adversity, triumph against all odds, succeeding when everyone has written off success... My father had to resort to the old custom of kutema hugariri -- you know, where a husband to be had to go and live with his in-laws and offer his labour, ploughing, building, etc. as a way of paying lobola -- then became a truck driver, until one day he was able to set up his own store at Nyangavi Township in Guruve -- he sent his brothers to school, raised six children...
I am concerned with questions of identity. For a long time I wandered through the mazes of our own Zimbabwean condition -- western education, acculturation -- looking for a centre. I even dabbled in Eastern philosophy, always felt on the outside of mainstream society. Then I started delving into our own religion, history and mythology. One of my short stories is called "The Lost Songs" which is about a singer who repudiates his past, his rural family and gets lost in the seedy life of the city, pop music... Then one day he forgets all the lyrics to his songs... Things begin to fall apart around him, his so-called friends abandon him... Then he makes the journey back home, to his mother where he reconnects with his family history and he discovers an ancient mbira which was passed down from generation to generation in his family and through mbira music he finds his place in the scheme of things.
In Zimbabwe right now, many claim to be Christians, but n'angas (traditional healers) are doing roaring business. There are stories of about people using the arcane in order to become rich, to gain political power -- there is the belief in the avenging spirit, ngozi... How can one take all these concepts so that they become leit motifs in one's writing? How does one deliberately borrow from symbols of drought, rain, hunger etc. that have been used by Charles Mungoshi, Dambudzo Marechera and others, and talk about current conditions? Can one take folklore figures, transpose them to contemporary society and write a children's story that will appeal to a techno-generation kid? I grapple with all these questions because our culture and history are rich and the struggle is to make use of it all to come up with universal stories which are, however, rooted in the particular.
What would you say are the biggest challenges that you face? And how do you deal with them?
Getting published. Having a PC or laptop of my own -- priced out of reach down here.
Irene Staunton and Weaver Press have been highly exceptional in promoting emerging Zimbabwean writers. Her two anthologies, Writing Still and Writing Now have done a lot to create that excitement but I have been around for quite a long time. Back in 2000, when I tried to get a manuscript published, I was told that publishing houses had put publishing fiction on hold for about four years since the economic conditions were bad. Well, they are worse now and school textbooks have a ready market. Zimbabweans would rather buy DVDs, bread and butter, than books.
When I was an undergraduate student, I had a second, probably fourth-hand typewriter, that I had bought from a used goods shop in Harare. I always wrote my work long hand before typing it out. That process became a process of revising, editing and re-conceptualisation. I was a high school teacher from 1994 to 2001. When the school where I taught introduced computers, I took advantage of that and began to type my stories at school, whenever I got the opportunity, saving them on disks. When I worked as a copy writer in an advertising agency, I took advantage of that, too.
Same now... when you are not at work, you can't really sit down and do your final drafts, and when you are at work, you do not always have the time. Something suffers in the process. You might write long hand, make notes, and so on but there are times when in the middle of the night, or just before dawn, an idea crystallises... but you have to wait until you get to work.
How have your own personal experiences influenced the direction of your writing?At one stage writing saved my life. I wrote in order to stay sane, to make sense of who I was, to assert myself. When I was doing my A' levels, I wrote almost every day. I kept a journal where I poured out all my fears, anxieties, hopes and dreams. I always felt the odd one out. I was reserved and saw the world differently. I began to write fiction as a way of self-assertion. It helped tame my personal demons. It helped me face the Furies that were tormenting me.
The same, too, when I was an undergraduate student. In my second year back in 1992, I went through another crisis period. This had more to do with Literature and Socialism, a course I was doing then. I began to question the value of literature and poetry in a world full of wars, hunger and things like that... One day I recited a poem in First Street as part of a Marechera commemoration. One old man was more fascinated by my dreadlocks than my art. It all felt futile. I toyed with the idea of dropping out of university and joining the armed wing of the ANC and help my Azanian brethren fight for liberation.
How did you resolve this conflict?
I sat with an occidental student friend from the States who genuinely loved my writing and told her about my dilemma. She told me that art, literature was important. She had come to Africa thanks to Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. After that talk, I went back to writing relentlessly and was saved once again.
Over the years, I lost two brothers and a sister and I became self- destructive. Dealing with the pain of loss, coming to terms with it all, was only possible through my art.
In the writing that you are doing, who would you say has influenced you the most?
One can only speak of specific influences at a given time. For example, there was a period of pulp fiction addiction, when Stephen King, Robert Ludlum and similar writers ruled the roost. Thomas Hardy, Shelley and Wordsworth at A-level. College years, Marechera, Jack Kerouac and others… but I have always tended to read, read and read and certain elements of style or vision would create a lasting impression and in the journey to find a personal voice, I tended to interlope, borrowing, grafting and so on.
Do you write everyday?
I am an undisciplined writer. I sometimes wait for inspiration to write. Yet, an idea can gestate inside my head for a long time and when I eventually sit down, the story, poem or essay is completely formed. I think right now I am suffering from a writer's block, actually -- I haven't written original fiction in a long while. I am not even coming up with ideas and concepts. I know I am going through a phase, where I am trying to come to terms with my current profession and personal life. I want to write a novel, a television script and a play.
It's important that I get involved in a creative project, because that is what I do and what I am -- I write. I am a writer.
One of your short stories is about the conflict between religion and rationality. How did the story come about?
"Faith" is about a man called Faith who is seen by some as a lunatic, and a prophet by others. The story is set just before the turn of the millennium, with Faith preaching that the end of the world is nigh. It is told from the perspective of a sceptical teacher, whose wife and child become converts. It took me between three to six months to write the story and it was going to appear in an anthology which we were expecting to come out around August, which has writings from across Africa. Things, however, seem to have stalled.
Which aspects of the work that you put into the story did you find most difficult?
The quasi-religious aspects, making them read and feel real, without being contrived. I wanted the reader to able to immerse himself or herself in the story and enjoy it, without batting an eyelid.
I have become fascinated by our folklore, myths, history and spirituality -- the challenge has been how incorporate this into my fiction and enrich it.
What do you think is the source of this fascination? How much space do you think folklore, myths and spirituality take in your own life and in contemporary life in Zimbabwe?
They have become the prism through which I view, process life. They help me shape my identity, offer me dimensions that hitherto had been hidden to me. They offer me a refreshing look at the world, a wealth that many have ceased to be recognised and yet can be very useful. People are always looking for crutches in order to survive, and I am fascinated by how these work or fail to work, and what people do or fail to do as a result of the beliefs and values they resort to or discard. Look at what the Latin American writers like Isabel Allende in The House of Spirits have accomplished. Magic realism can be a tool that might help us inject a fresh feel and voice to Zimbabwean literature.
What would you say has been your most significant achievement as a writer?
Being still alive today and being able to respond to these questions.
Why is this?
Sometimes, the worst possible threats to ourselves come from us. Losing the will to live, not caring how one lives or dies. Perhaps there is a romantic notion of the artist underlying it all... fuelled by the desire to die young. One bad thing about dying young is that it comes too early...There is nothing romantic about death, while life itself is full of so many possibilities. My first brother to die died in 1998, while the second died in 2000. My young sister died in 2002. My sister's death was the most difficult of all to deal with. We were very close.
How did you deal with the pain and the loss?
One night, after a long hard day of vodka-fuelled boozing, I hit someone with a beer bottle in a nightclub. There was so much blood everywhere. I was mobbed and beaten up by his friends and thieves and nearly died. I was taken to the local police station and locked up in a cell with hardcore criminals, people from the underside of our society. These were habitual criminals, and I listened to their stories, each one had a different story to tell and no one, according to them, was really guilty. Through it all, a question kept nagging me: Is this as good as it gets?
I realised that I deserved more and that the potential I had could not end up in such a place -- there was no glory in that, in dying early.
In 2003, my then partner gave birth to a pre-term boy. She was seven months pregnant when he decided to come into the world. There were scary moments when he was confined to the intensive care unit. Then he developed jaundice, and the doctors were on strike, so you had medical students experimenting with treatments. The most amazing thing about it all was how this kid fought. He didn't want to die, he refused to die. It was truly amazing that a pre-term child, barely weeks old could show such a tremendous will to live. It was a trying period for me but through his struggle and triumph, I began to appreciate the value of my own life, and because he lived, I learnt to appreciate what it meant to live for someone other than yourself.
You have also talked about finding a centre. Where would you say your centre lies?
My centre revolves around knowing who I am, what I want out of life and going through life informed by a core set of values that enable me to value life, the gifts that we come with into this world and what we ought to do with them. Before me, there have been others of my line, who have made their contributions, even though they remain unknown and unsung, and I am part of that contribution.
My grandfather was a great hunter, drummer, mbira player and dancer, and the arts course through my blood. Skidrow was boozing and not caring what tomorrow brought, getting off, was taking charge of my life, creating a sense of purpose and focus...Whatever it is I do, I believe I should do it with passion and to the best of my ability, so that I leave a mark.
This article was first published on OhmyNews International.
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Thu, 05 Apr 2007 14:30:00 +0000
- Interview with Tim Lees, Author of The Life To Come
Tim Lees has been a warehouse worker, film extra, musician, schoolteacher, lithographer and conference organiser. He has also worked on the secure ward of a psychiatric hospital.
His first collection of short stories, The Life to Come was published by Elastic Press in 2005.
In a recent interview, Tim Lees spoke about his writing.
What is your latest book about?
You probably mean my story collection, The Life to Come (Elastic Press, 2005), but to my mind, my latest book is the one I’m writing now. It’s a weird noir detective piece set in L.A.
How long did it take you to write it?
Give it another few months to completion. In fact I wrote the opening chapters about four years ago and they’ve been moldering in a drawer every since. Stories often seem to come this way -- a bit at a time.
Which aspects of the work that you put into the book did you find most difficult?
The final polishing, which I’m now in the process of. Always tricky, ironing out inconsistencies, wondering if you’ve got enough jokes, if the story slows down at any point, if the dialogue reads easily… Often you simply have to put it away for a while, work on something else, and come back to it with a fresh eye.
Which did you enjoy most?
Going to L.A. to do research. Actually, it was a complete waste of time -- in the end I stuck with the “fantasy” L.A. I’d concocted from reading before I went. Still, it was a great trip.
In what way is the book similar to the other things you have written?
It’s taking a familiar genre and twisting it around to suit my own warped ends.
What sets it apart from the others?
It’s a novel, for a start. Sadly, there’s not much place for short story writers these days. I know some brilliant short story writers who will probably never receive the exposure they deserve, simply because of the form they work in. How this came about I don’t know, though it may have roots in the numerous competing forms of entertainment available nowadays -- TV, DVDs, computer games, etc -- or through a failure in the education system, or simply through economic factors. It may be uncool to say so, but economics has a huge impact on the kind of art being produced. Dickens was famously paid a penny a word, and produced enormous, rambling tomes with enormous, rambling descriptions of just about everything under the sun. All good stuff, of course, and guess what! He got very, very rich. Nothing wrong with that. But I do regret that, nowadays, a lot of more idiosyncratic work seems relegated to the small press.
Perhaps the short story will go the way of poetry: once popular, now something of a specialist market. Interesting to note, however, that there is still a market. These things don’t die out. They just cease to be a viable means of earning a living.
What unifies the stories that make up The Life To Come?
There are sixteen stories in The Life to Come, the first of which, “The God House”, was originally published in 1997. About half of them have been published previously. They are (mostly) SF-oriented, but I saw them as linked thematically by a sense of exile or displacement. This may arise from some obvious fantastic element (the arrival of aliens, a visit to a strange city) or something more mundane (traveling in Morocco, a relative’s mental illness). What interests me, though, are the people, and how they accommodate the situation -- or fail to do so. You could say this is SF with a warm edge to it.
I don’t know which of the stories was hardest to write. Certainly, some of them took years -- accumulating bit by bit. Also, as I remarked earlier, writers seldom judge their own work well. I remember when I finished the story “Relics” feeling it was very much a sub-standard piece. Its critical reception persuaded me otherwise. I think I’d just been slogging away at it for so long I’d lost sight of its merits. But judge for yourself…
I’m not sure I’d ever describe writing as “enjoyable”. Compulsive, perhaps. However, the one piece that was fun to do was the Hemingway pastiche, “A Specialist in Souls”, largely because it came to me almost fully-formed during the course of an afternoon’s walk back from town. Jokes and all. Most writing is like forced labour, which is why so many talented, imaginative people never get around to doing it. But every now and then, you get a gift. I’m still waiting for the next one to turn up…
When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?
Very early. I wanted to duplicate the stories I read, first in comics, later in books, but somehow to make them mine. I’d usually start by stealing the beginning of a piece (Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Conan Doyle) then, when the real fun started, make up my own adventures for the characters. Beginnings were boring back in those days. Now they’re often the best bits.
Who would you say has influenced you the most?
It depends what I’m writing. If it’s SF, Ballard and Aldiss have certainly had an impact, but so have countless other writers, many of them not related to that genre at all. A lot of stuff I read in childhood keeps re-surfacing, now viewed through rather jaded adult eyes (the shade of Edgar Rice Burroughs, for example, in my piece for The Elastic Book of Numbers). I think childhood experience is immensely important. For my present book, I’m drawing very consciously on some hard-boiled crime writers -- the wonderful Raymond Chandler, of course, but also Kinky Friedman and the neglected British writer, Derek Raymond. Plus comics writers such as Brian Azzarello. Somehow, though, it doesn’t seem to be coming out quite like any of them, which I suppose is a good thing. You take techniques from every writer you read, and your own style probably ends up as a mish-mash of all of them. There are no rules for learning to write, but I’d suggest to anyone with ambitions that they read as widely as possible -- popular fiction, literary fiction, experimental fiction -- anything that does its job well.
How have your personal experiences influenced the direction of your writing?
It may be possible to write good fiction that doesn’t draw on personal experience, but I don’t know how. It’s not a case of writing romans à clef (loosely disguised autobiographies, such as works by, say, Kerouac, Isherwood or Proust), but simply this: you put a character in a situation, you ask yourself, how would I react? What would I feel? How would I react if I were this person, with his/her history?
What are your main concerns as a writer?
Trying to get published. Actually, that’s not quite fair; I’ve been lucky enough to be associated with some of the very best of the U.K. independent press -- Elastic, TTA, PS, etc. -- and have been treated well by them. My concern now is to get some mainstream recognition.
If you’re asking what the themes of my writing are… That’s something I prefer not to think about. I’m aware of certain recurrent subjects and motifs, but critics tend to pick up different, often surprising elements. I don’t think it’s good to over-analyse your own work. When you cease to be surprised by it, that’s when it becomes dull, both for yourself and for the reader. In addition, writers are usually very poor judges of their own stories. Is it good? Is it bad? Is it as good as your last one? It’s not for you to say.
What would you say are the biggest challenges that you face?
Trying to balance the demands of writing, earning a living, general responsibilities (e.g. family, etc.) and still finding time to chill out. While I could witter on for hours about structure, dialogue, characterization and so forth, I find I’m daily more concerned with the practicalities of writing -- making sure I’ve got the time and energy to do it, as well as the right state of mind. I think Trollope wrote a piece about the difficulties of writing a love scene after a hard day at the post office, or wherever he was working then. I sympathise. Writers’ career’s are odd, misshapen things. Reading Anthony Burgess’s autobiography, the question that kept haunting me is, how, in the space of a few pages, does he go from being a near-penniless novelist to a famous literary personality, invited to prestigious conferences in New York?
How do you deal with these challenges?
Badly.
What will your next book be about?
It depends which MS comes out of the drawer next.
What would you say has been your most significant achievement as a writer?
I haven’t done it yet.
How did you get there?
I can pretty much guarantee that hard work will be a major factor. Unfortunately. But at least it’s an element I have control over. The other vital element is luck.
This article was first published on OhmyNews International.
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Tue, 03 Apr 2007 09:00:00 +0000
- Interview with Children's Author Chris d'Lacey
Chris d’Lacey has published over twenty books for children.
He describes his first attempt at writing as “a gentle ‘Christmassy’ story” about polar bears which was aimed at adult readers.
He started writing children’s fiction after a friend suggested he enter a competition to write a story for nine-year-olds. The story he wrote for the competition became his first book, A Hole at the Pole -- an environmental tale about a boy who wants to mend the hole in the ozone layer and enlists the services of a polar bear to help him.
His books have been translated widely and one of his novels for children was highly commended for the Carnegie Medal.
Chris d’Lacey spoke about his writing and his concerns as a writer.
What was your first story called and in what way was it ‘Christmassy’?
I was writing about a cuddly polar bear I’d bought my wife as a present! It’s the sort of romantic thing I do. Realizing I knew very little about polar bears, I began to read about them and the book just grew out of my continuing fascination.
It was called White Fire. I refer to it in the dragon books, but it is still to come out of my ‘bottom drawer’.
Is there a connection between A Hole at the Pole and White Fire?
By then, polar bears were a real love for me, and I’ve always been concerned about the environment. It was a natural step.
When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?
When I was 32.
I’d always had a ‘creative streak’ but it had always been expressed through songwriting. In my early thirties I decided I wanted to try something different and stories seemed the most logical option.
I found it incredibly difficult at first, but stuck at it and eventually, after a few years, I had a short story published in a small press magazine.
Who would you say has influenced you the most?
Hand on heart, no one. My biggest influences were always musical. I had never read very much and still don’t, but when I began writing children’s stories I enjoyed the output of Roald Dahl, Allan Ahlberg and Michael Bond (Paddington Bear) the most.
What are your main concerns as a writer?
Unlike most writers I know, I don’t have an overflowing well of ideas. So I do worry, sometimes, about drying up.
But my biggest worry is that now I’ve become reasonably successful, the writing has become more stressful because it’s now my main source of income.
Ideally, I’d like to recapture the joy I had when I was starting out, and still be paid for it.
Several of your books have this underlying concern with the environment. Why is this?
Just look around you at the changing climate and the decline of species. Those are my concerns.
It amuses me when people say, “We need to protect the planet.” Wrong, the planet will ultimately protect itself.
What we need to protect are the creatures that inhabit it. We’ll be gone long before the planet will.
I do want people to wake up to the idea of what’s happening in the Arctic etc. We watch TV programmes week in week out saying, “Polar bears will be extinct within fifty years” and we all go, “Oh dear.”
At what point do we go, “Hang on, shouldn’t we be trying to do something about this?” Twenty years? Ten years?
How have your personal experiences influenced the direction of your writing?
For many years as a children’s writer I dabbled in all sorts of styles and genres, but the stories that always brought me the most critical acclaim were those based around true domestic events.
I came very close to winning the biggest prize in children’s fiction, the Carnegie Medal, with my first novel Fly, Cherokee, Fly, which was about the time I found an injured pigeon and nursed it back to health.
I often transpose events that have happened to me as a man into the experiences of a fictionalized boy.
I’m presently working on a Young Adult book about bullying, set against the backdrop of my parents’ divorce. That has been cathartic -- but harrowing. It’s a story I’ve always wanted to write. It’s very powerful and needs to come out.
How did the idea behind Fly, Cherokee, Fly come to you?
Cherokee is based on the true story of me finding an injured pigeon on my local park and nursing it back to health. I kept it for fourteen years, as a family pet!
It took me about four months to write the novel. The biggest challenge was research. I knew very little about pigeons or pigeon racing but I wanted my hero to be involved in the sport. In the end, I sidestepped the issue by having the bird not compete in a race, but in the sequel to Cherokee, a book called Pawnee Warrior, I actually visited a professional pigeon loft and learned all about it. That was great fun. Very rewarding.
You are best known for your series of fantasy books about dragons. How did the series start? What would you say inspired you to sit down and start writing the first book in the series?
Fly, Cherokee, Fly was so successful that my publisher wanted me to write another animal rescue drama. This time I chose squirrels, because I’ve always liked them.
The set-up of the squirrel book involved a single parent family in which the mother worked from home. I wanted her to do something artistic, but for a while I couldn’t think what. Then one day I was out at a craft fair and saw a woman making beautiful clay dragons. I thought, “That’s what the woman in my book could do.”
My editor thought the dragons were a great idea and asked me to involve them more in the story! It took a long time to work out how to do it, but it opened up a whole series. I’m currently working on the fourth of them, The Fire Eternal which will be published in September 2007.
Do you write everyday?
I try to. The writing time varies hugely. I try to do 500 words a day. Sometimes it’s more.
What would you say are the biggest challenges that you face?
Finishing a book on time! I’m hopeless with deadlines. I like to let my stories evolve at their own pace. Unfortunately, my publisher isn’t always in sync.
I suppose one challenge we all face is trying to develop something new and different. It’s an eternal quest.
How do you deal with these?
Deadlines: I work hard to hit the dates I’ve set for myself, not necessarily those laid down by my publisher, which are often arbitrary anyway. If I really think a book needs more time, say another six months, I’ll discuss it with my editor. After all, what’s a few months if a book can be ‘great’ rather than just ‘okay’?
This raises one of my biggest gripes about publishing: the uneasy relationship between creativity and business. Publishers may love books, but they also want to make money. In an ideal world, they would run to strict business schedules. But inspiration doesn’t come in handy, manageable nine-to-five pockets, it comes in dribs and drabs, in snatches. I don’t like my work being thought of as ‘product’, but sadly, that’s exactly what it is.
How would you rather your work was viewed?
As entertainment, which I think all literature should be. I simply don’t like the attitude that sometimes goes with publishing that a book is simply out there to make money.
What is your latest book about?
It’s called Fire Star and is the third book in my series about dragons.
I’ve never liked the idea of dragons as fire-breathing monsters. In my books, they are the spiritual guardians of the Earth. In Fire Star, the hero, David, is caught up in a mystery to unravel the origins of dragons, which I speculate may have been off-world …
How long did it take you to write it?
Ten months! It was published in the U.K., in hardback, in 2005. The paperback has just been released. The whole series is breaking ground in the USA, Canada, Australia and Japan as well, which is very exciting.
Which aspects of the work that you put into the book did you find most difficult?
Only one: trying to work out the plot. Actually, I’m not sure the book has a real plot because it’s so multi-layered and complex. And it’s told from several different viewpoints. I always tell people that I like my stories to have an ‘X Files’ quality.
In other words, the truth is out there, but you’re not quite sure where.
For me, as long as a book leaves you buzzing with intrigue, or makes you want more, it’s done its job.
Which did you enjoy most?
There is one particular section that goes off at a fantastic tangent. It involves a monk who finds a dragon’s claw. I won’t give away any more than that. I love taking risks with narrative, and this was an enormous leap. I was very proud of this section. It’s one of my favorite pieces of writing.
What sets the book apart from the others you’ve written?
Well, the ‘leap’ as described above. But Fire Star is also a book that explores the nature of human consciousness and the power of thought.
If you’re thinking, “Hang on. How can he be using themes like that in a children’s book?” read it.
In what way is it similar?
It follows the path of the same characters. We always like characters to develop or go on a journey. Some of mine have gone through huge changes during the course of these books.
In all, how many books have you written so far? What would you say unites them? How many of them have been translated into other languages?
I’ve written 23 now. I guess the only thing that unites them is my style. Lots of people write about dragons, but only I do it my way. The same is true of any author. About half have been translated, everything from Thai to Japanese to Italian to, erm, American!
What would you say has been your most significant achievement as a writer?
Being highly commended for the Carnegie Medal.
How did you get there?
Discipline, self-belief and hard work.
In July 2002, you were awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Leicester for your services to children’s fiction. How did you feel about this?
Surprised, but very flattered.
I tend to play it down a little bit because there are other writers who’ve done far more in the field than I have, but it was very warming to receive the degree from my workplace of, then, 24 years.
A podcast of this article is available on OhmyNews International.
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Tue, 05 Dec 2006 16:19:00 +0000
- Interview with Novelist Susan Jarnagin
Susan Jarnagin writes under the pen names Renee Russell and Darcy McKenna. Her articles and short stories have appeared in publications that include The Commercial Appeal and Absolute Write.
She made her debut as a novelist, this year, with Kate’s Pride (Wings ePress, 2007).
In a recent interview, she spoke about her writing.
How many books have you written so far?
Writing as Renee Russell, I have Kate's Pride which came out in January. My second novel, working title Fated Love has recently been sold to Wild Rose Press with the publication date to be announced -- the pen name for that novel will be Darcy McKenna. I'm at work on Novel #3 and Novel #4 right now.
Why the pen names?
I chose to use two different pen names because when I pick up a book by a particular author I'm expecting a particular kind of story. For example with Stephen King I expect a horror story. With John Grisham I expect a legal thriller.
Kate's Pride is a Southern Gothic historical. Very dark and tragic. Fated Love is a contemporary suspense with a much lighter tone. I didn't want anyone who loved Kate's Pride to pick up my second book and be disappointed that it is a completely different story.
I plan to write more dark historicals in the future and those will be published under Renee Russell. The more contemporary romantic suspense and mystery books I write in the future will all appear under the pen name Darcy McKenna.
How did you come up with the idea behind Kate's Pride?
Kate's Pride is about a young woman in West Tennessee who finds herself in the family way and abandoned by her own family after the end of the Civil War. It's a Southern Gothic Historical in the tradition of Tennessee Williams and William Faulkner. I got the idea for the book when I was doing genealogical research on my family and got stuck. It drove me so nuts I decided to write a book about what might have happened to a young woman in that time and place and under those circumstance.
This was my first novel and it took me over two years to write it. I learned a lot along the way -- like don't keep revising the first two or three chapters or you'll never get the thing completed. Just write it straight through and then go back and edit.
The novel was published January 2007 by Wings ePress as both an ebook and a trade paperback.
Which aspects of the work that you put into the book did you find most difficult?
Kate's Pride is a very dark story and I found it difficult to express Kate's pain without becoming emotionally upset myself. The bones of the story line are based on someone in my own family history and I worried what other family members would think of the story I wrote about our common ancestress.
I most enjoyed the writing process itself. Although it certainly wasn't easy. When it was really rolling along I felt on top of the world. When I had writer's block I thought about just chucking the whole thing. When I wrote "The End" it was one of the most exhilarating moments of my life.
What sets the book apart from the other things you have written?
I've written and published quite a few short stories and none of them are as dark and tragic as Kate's Pride. Even the other novels I've written are not as dark as this story.
It's similar to the others in that a woman who should be in a position of weakness finds the inner strength to carry on in the face of big obstacles.
What will your next book be about?
Fated Love is about a woman who's been the object of unrequited love for more than one hundred years. She keeps getting reborn and pursued by two men. One of whom is her soul mate the other her killer.
How have your personal experiences influenced the direction of your writing?
I tend to writer darker stories. Maybe because my father died when I was very young, maybe because we moved a lot when I was in school, maybe because I'm terribly shy. Or perhaps it's a combination of all those things. I don't want anyone to think I had an awful childhood because I didn't. Those are just the things that come to mind when you ask about personal experiences and writing.
When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?
When I was in junior high school I wanted to be a writer more than anything. I loved the way books could take you to other cities, other countries, to the past and to the future and I wanted to be able to do that too.
Who would you say has influenced you the most?
Wow. That's a tough one. I have so very many favorite authors across all genres. Going back to your first question about when I decided I wanted to be a writer, I grew up on Phyllis Whitney, Norah Lofts and Agatha Christie, so I supposed you could say those were my early inspirations.
What are your main concerns as a writer?
From a personal point of view, I'm concerned that no one will like my work. I think a lot of authors are that way -- at least quite a few I've spoken too. I once heard another author say putting your book out there for the public is like standing on a stage, dropping your pants and waiting for comments.
From an industry point of view -- it's really really hard to get published these days and a lot of good books go unpublished because there just isn't space in the major publishers' lists to publish everything. They may like half a dozen that were submitted, but they only have one slot available so they choose the one they feel will make the most money. Publishing is a business after all and if the publishers don't make money they can't stay in business.
What would you say are the biggest challenges that you face? And, how do you deal with them?
I think the biggest challenges are making time to write -- I have a day job and I have an hour drive in each direction. Getting Kate's Pride published doesn't guarantee me anything going forward. So I worry about sales figures. Wings ePress is a small publisher and their books are not available through the big distributors. That means none of the big chain bookstores will carry my book on their shelves. And even the independents won't unless I contact them and convince them they should carry one or two copies.
As far as getting another book published, I can only write the best book I can and hope I'm the one chosen for that available slot. As far as sales numbers, I've created my own website, www.reneerussell.com, where people can find out more about me and my book. I've been contacting independent bookstore owners and begging them to stock a few books. I'm contacting independent bookstores to see if I can set up a book-signings. I'm contacting newspapers and newsletters to get book reviews and author interviews to get my book out to the public. Also, I'm offering to do question and answers sessions via telephone with book clubs who choose my novel to read. I guess you could say I'm trying to think outside the box as much as possible to find marketing strategies that will overcome the lack of distribution to major bookstores.
What would you say has been your most significant achievement as a writer?
That's an easy one! Getting my first novel published. Hopefully there will be many many more to come.
How did you get there?
It was a long and frustration road. Once I wrote "The End" the hard part was really just beginning. I sent out queries to all the major New York publishing houses and got form rejections from all of them. I can't tell you how devastated I felt! Thinking I had no talent as a writer I gave up. The manuscript went into a drawer and I didn't write another thing for several years. I was so naive about the publishing business I thought those rejections were it and I hadn't been able to cut it. Then, I began to write again.
It was a compulsion and I couldn't not write any more. I tried my hand at a few short stories and got them published. That was a huge boost to my morale. I'd also begun really learning about the publishing industry as a whole and realized what a truly tough business it is. Since I'd already been turned down flat by the big [New York] N.Y. houses, I explored the possibilities of epublishing. I researched quite a few and decided I like Wings the best. I sent them the first manuscript and they sent me a contract. Now I've completed a second novel and am working on two more. What a difference it makes to understand how the industry works and that you just have to have a lot of persistence. Keep writing, keep sending out those queries. Your first book may not be published. Or even the second or third or fourth. But keep trying and eventually your dream can come true.
Do you write everyday?
I try to write at least one hour every weekday evening and two or three hours each on Saturday and Sunday.
You spoke of a time when you had writer's block. How did you deal with this?
I got to a point where I didn't know how to proceed. I knew how the book ended, but couldn't quite figure out how to write the middle. I ended up not pushing myself, just let it simmer in the back of my mind and relaxed about it. I wasn't on a specific schedule so I had the luxury of doing that. Eventually the middle of the story came to me.
Will there come a time when the e-book will supersede or replace "the book" as we know it?
In my heart I think this will happen. Not with my own generation, but with the one following. So many of the younger generation get all their information electronically. So yes, I believe e-books are the wave of the future. I bought an e-book reader myself and actually enjoy it immensely!
Do you think more writers will consider epublishing as a way of getting their books out there?
I think quite a few are doing that now. With the major N.Y. houses having so few slots available for books, many truly excellent books are now being published by epublishers.
Do you see a time when a lot of them will prefer this as opposed to the traditional print publication?
That's hard for me to say. I still see a place for both. Some people will prefer the ease of the ebooks. You can transport your entire library on a hand held-reader with ebooks, but there will be some who prefer holding a book in their hands. Personally I like both. Why? As a huge fan of Star Trek growing up, I saw a world where nothing was in a book. They got all their information from computers --- including books. So I have to say as the world progresses I think there will be many more books done by epublishers. It saves trees, it saves shelf space, all around it's a good thing.
This article was first published on OhmyNews International.
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Mon, 26 Mar 2007 11:36:00 +0000
- Interview with Gary Dale Cearley, Author of Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness: The Truth About the Vatican and the Birth of Islam
Gary Dale Cearley grew up in Prescott, Arkansas. He joined the United States Navy two months after graduating from high school and received language training in Vietnamese at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California and further military training at Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas.
After the leaving the navy, he started an international shipping and freight forwarding company and went to work in Los Angeles, living in the Venice Beach area. He then moved to Seoul, in South Korea before settling in Vietnam where he has lived for well over a decade.
His first book, Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness: The Truth About the Vatican and the Birth of Islam is a refutation of The Prophet, a tract by Jack Chick. The Prophet suggests that the Vatican created Islam in order to rid themselves of rival early Christian denominations who did not follow Roman Catholic Church doctrines.
In a recent interview, Gary Dale Cearley spoke about his writing.
In all, how many books have you written so far?
Projects in or near completion, about seven. But I have only published two, which were both self-published.
Gary Dale Gets Offensive was released in October of 2006 and Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness was released in July of 2006.
