Hello readers!
In an effort to stir things up in the writers/bloggers community, I have initiated this little project. See, it's a pain to be unpublished because you have to fight your way through waves of writers and shine in mere seconds. I decided it would be cool to cheat the process. With the help of New England's own Adam Purple, we started something new. Unpublished writers interviewing each other. If no one takes the time for us, we would create the time ourselves. The rules are simple. It's an exchange of interviews. I post my interview with Adam on Dead End Follies and he links to it on his kick-ass blog Writer Not. Then he interviews me on Writer Not and I link to him on Dead End Follies. This way we put up many links for consultation and make available more substantial material about ourselves.
I'm not sure what's exactly going to happen from here. I don't expect publication, but hey, if unpublished writers feel less alone by sharing the experiences. If you're interested, contact me in the comments section and I'll interview you on Dead End Follies...if you interview me! Thanks to Adam for being the first participant. He gave me answers that were both amazing and sincere!
*Adam Purple doesn't look like Neil Patrick Harris. I just thought I'd put a "casual pub talk" photo*
Tell us a bit about you, Adam Purple, the man who decided to write a novel. Who are you? Where do you come from?
I was born and raised in New England, but have lived many places around the country, including New York City and LA. I have degrees in engineering, and I've worked for more than twenty years in the fields of engineering and information technology. I've been writing fiction for many years, mostly in the form of short stories that I have kept to myself. I've blogged for several years, and my current blog is Writernot.com. I have written some flash fiction that appears on various sites. Nauset's Close is my first novel, and I'm currently trying to find an agent for it.
What was your first literary love? The first time a novel "swallowed your soul" and made you forget about reality.
As an adolescent, I very much enjoyed science fiction. I devoured Star Trek and Star Wars novels, but my favorite was Larry Niven, particularly his Ringworld saga. I've always been a science and technology geek, and I enjoyed how Niven's stories were steeped in science. It made his worlds seem believable and approachable to me.
Although I read and enjoyed all of the usual required reading in high school, none of them made a profound impression on me. Quite by accident, I stumbled across The Fountainhead. I'll be the first to say that I'm opposed to Rand's politics and philosophy, but The Fountainhead struck a chord with me. I find the writing clunky and wooden, but the essence of the story, and how the story unfolds, made a large impact on me. It may have been the first novel I'd read that truly asked me to challenge myself, to challenge my thinking. The message I took from it was simply this: trust your own mind, and use it well. That was a very heady experience for me, at the age of eighteen, headed off to college. Reading The Fountainhead also reignited my own passion for reading, which continues to this day.
Who are the writers that helped shape your style?
Although I've admired and have been influenced by many writers, I never really settled on a particular writer or writing style. Like many, I have simply been attracted to good writing, and good stories. Some favorites include Wallace Stegner, John Irving and Tracy Kidder.
Most people I know think they can write a novel as long as they find the time and the discipline to do it. We both know it's not given to anyone. When did you know you had to do this? What was that defining moment when you told yourself you had to write a novel?
I firmly believe that everyone has some sort of story to tell. Getting things to paper--or to canvas, or music, or stage--is the challenge. Most of my own storytelling has taken place in my mind. I've written countless scenes, stories, vignettes, often repeating them over and over, exercising the words and dialog, all without committing the words to paper. I assume that many people do just that type of "writing" with their own stories.
It wasn't until I was in my twenties that I actually put some of my ideas to paper, in the form of awful short stories that I'd share with friends. Much later in life, I had the germ of a story that I felt could become a novel. Late one night on a summer vacation, I found myself thumb-typing that story into my smartphone. It eventually became a typed chapter. I plotted out much of the remaining story in my head, but couldn't write it. It became like a loose tooth for me. I couldn't leave it alone; neither could I just sit down and complete the job. Years went by.
The summer of last year, I committed myself to actually writing the whole story. I decided I either had to see it through to completion, or give up on it completely. I set a goal of writing 500 words per day, every day, and completed the story last fall. Rewrites and revisions took me into late spring of this year. I'm now comfortable saying that it is done. That little fragment of a story, typed into my smartphone about six years ago, became Nauset's Close.
Nauset's Close is a family saga. What compelled you to chose this style of novel?
The story really didn't lend itself to being classified in a more popular commercial genre. It has elements of romance and suspense, but it is really the story of the conflicts within a family. It suppose that I could have written the story as YA, which is immensely popular now, but I think the YA genre would have been too limiting for the story I wanted to tell.
What were the biggest difficulties you've encountered while writing Nauset's Close?
The hardest part was simply committing myself to the process. I floundered for years simply because I wasn't smart enough to treat writing as a job. I also found that I had to get used to the idea of thinking myself as a writer, and not simply someone playing at writing a story. Once I put myself on a regular schedule, writing every night and weekends, I made great progress.
I can't help noticing you talked about Young Adult novels. They have soared in the literary world, from the inception of the Harry Potter series to the Twilight Saga. What's your opinion on them? Have they played a role some way or another in your literary evolution?
I think YA is a very interesting genre. I'm happy to support any writing that gets young people reading more. As a father myself, I know how difficult it can be to good books for kids to read. I'm very glad that YA is available, though I wish there were more offerings directed at boys.
Only recently I've come around to the idea that YA can appeal to adult readers as well. I read the Hunger Games this fall. While it's not exactly my type of story, I enjoyed it, and I can see why it has such a devoted following. In terms of writing, I'm not sure that I could create a convincing YA story. I afraid any serious attempt I might make would sound false to the reader.
If you had the attention of an agent or a publisher in a house party for example, how would you present your project?
This is a painful task for me. You might think that having written a full-length novel, I would very easily be able to describe it in a query letter or short pitch. Yet I struggle with this, daily. Part of my struggle is, I think, due to the fact that Nauset's Close doesn't fit into a hot commercial genre. I can't simply start by saying that it's a dystopian YA fantasy, for example. I like to think that Nauset's Close is more on the literary side of the commercial/literary divide, perhaps along the lines of Katherine Towler's Snow Island trilogy, or Jamie Ford's novel (a current favorite of mine), Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.
For Nauset's Close, here is the best elevator pitch that I've come up with so far:
When Willy's mother dies, no one thinks to blame him for her death. No one except Jack, the boy's widowed father. Willy, a hyperactive boy growing up in a quiet and orderly household, only wants love and acceptance from his father, the stoic war hero. Jack simply looks forward to the day when Willy, the constant, chattering reminder of his loss, is finally out on his own. But when Willy is nearly grown and ready to leave, Jack's disguised and long-simmering resentment erupts. Ultimately it is up to Willy to find the grace to forgive the unforgivable.
Are you considering e-publishing and self-publishing as avenues?
I think e-publishing will happen as a matter of course. I doubt I will pursue self-publishing. If I can't get a publisher interested in my work, then that's probably telling me something.
Are you only interested in writing fiction or are you tempted to take the same road than Wallace, Wolfe, Thompson and Mailer, to publish essays in magazines?
That would be heady company. I've never tried writing a magazine article, but I'm certainly willing to try. I originally got into blogging several years ago so that I could post my essays on energy, conservation, and climate (some of these are still available on my current blog, Writernot.com). But I don't currently have any essays that I could easily shop to magazines or journals.
What can we wish you in the future?
I am very new at this game. I will take any constructive advice and good luck that anyone wishes to offer. And thanks for the opportunity to speak with you.
