Which of the characters you have created in your books is your favorite?
Well, like many when they write their first book, I guess I lived the role of Andar, the hero of The Reedsmith of Zendar, my lone, fantasy adventure. A widower with children, he is forced to take on an unknown enemy against great odds. Busy with my own young family at the time, it took four years to write. But I sure got to know him over those four years. And I do like Jake Bennett, the lead in my latest novel, Expedition Borneo. A somewhat jaded Canadian living on the island of Borneo in the South Pacific for twenty years – faced with a life changing situation. I won’t say more.
What does your office look like?
Funny, I don’t think of my writing location(s) as an office. That’s where you go to work. A Lesson in Revenge and The Reedsmith of Zendar were both written in my basement den, a great place to become immersed in the story during the winter when the wood stove warmed the basement. It was festooned with thirty years of memorabilia and props from school plays. Not so great in the summer – kind of damp and cool. So in the summer I moved to the tree house in the back yard, generally writing in the morning. When I built it for my three sons, I cleverly put in hydro. A really great place to write: nice breeze, birds and chipmunks sitting outside the windows on the branches. Change of Heart was written in one of the upstairs bedrooms. All the guys had moved out and I had my pick. When we sold the log house, I set up a desk at the end of our living room in the new place and that’s where I now write.
Why Self Publishing?
Obviously it makes getting your book out there so much easier, there is no question about that, but for me there were, are other reasons. When I started approaching publishers appreciated the polite, personal rejections. Some weren’t that encouraging but that’s okay, it’s part of it. But today, everyone is “too busy, overwhelmed and just don’t have the time” – for a generic ‘thank you, but no thank you’, pre-written, that could be sent with the click of the enter key. Another reason for self publishing is I really do like being involved to a high degree in all the aspects of the book. (perhaps read ‘being in control’).
Why did you start writing?
As a youngster, I was a fan of adventure and science fantasy. I devoured Edgar Rice Burroughs, Andre Norton, Tolkien and later Terry Brooks. Twenty years later, unable to find a science fantasy adventure I liked, to the encouragement of my wife, I wrote my own. Now here I am publishing book number six!
