AUTHOR INTERVIEW
QUESTIONS
Tell us about your
latest book.
Hair Power is a novella about a girl
with terminal brain cancer who helps an alien hairball, who rewards her with
hair that not only replaces her own lost hair, but cures her cancer and makes
her something of a super woman. In time that hair is six feet long and she
wears it like a cloak. That’s only the beginning.
Tell us a little about
some of the others who contributed to your book, such as cover designer or
editor.
I
have to default on that, as I don’t know them.
Who are your
favorite authors?
If
I lost my memory and had my choice of reading matter, I hope my favorite would be Piers Anthony. I try to
write what I would like to read. As for other authors, I have admired many in
the Science Fiction and Fantasy fields, from Robert A Heinlein on down. I am
also an admirer of the plays of George Bernard Shaw, and not just because he
was a vegetarian.
What advice do you
have for other writers?
Publishing
is changing so much now that much of what I might say would become dated about ten minutes after I wrote it. So I’ll
just say read and study the genre you are in, keep writing and improving, and
may the world go well with thee.
What's the best thing
about being a writer?
For
me the best thing is getting to exercise my imagination and being independent.
I can’t be fired for someone else’s mistakes.
What’s the hardest
thing about being a writer?
It
used to be dealing with publishers, who
were like insensitive robots interested only in money, regardless what they
claimed. But the old order is passing and the new publishers I am dealing with
are generally more compatible. Some of them even like good fiction. So now the
hardest thing is facing the prospect of my declining ability with advancing
age. I’m not capable of simply letting it go and retiring. So when I no longer write
well, I hope I am the first, not the last to know it.
Where can people find
out more about you and your writing?
My
web site is www.hipiers.com where I have a monthly column, commenting on
whatever is on my mind, and background information on my titles. I have also
written two autobiographical books: Bio
of an Ogre and How Precious Was That
While.
How long did it take you to
write your book?
Three Weeks for this
35,000 word novella. It moved well, and I am an efficient writer.
Did you learn anything
from writing your book that was unexpected?
I don’t think so. I
had worked it out pretty well before I started writing. I’ve always loved long
hair on a woman, so this was easy imagination.
Where can a
reader purchase your book?
From
wherever the publisher puts it.
What are you doing to
market the book?
Precious little. I’m
a writer, not a marketer.
Who inspires you?
The world inspires
me.
How do you research your
books?
There wasn’t any real
research for Hair Power. I generally
try to stay within the boundaries of what I know. When I do need to research, I
buy books on the subject.
Do you have another work
in progress? Tell us about it.
I am working on the
sequel, Hair Suite, wherein there is
competition with Cyborg aliens in very attractive human form. Until the two
cultures have to unite against a third.
Have you written other
books? Where can readers purchase them?
I have written about
175 other books. Readers can find many of them listed on Amazon. Many readers
like my Xanth fantasy series, which now number 42 novels, not all in print yet.
What are your thoughts on
self-publishing verses traditional publishing?
I approve of self
publishing. In the old days only about one aspiring writer in a hundred could
ever get anything published. That led to bigger sales for the one percent, and
tough luck for the 99%. I prefer that every writer have a chance. That’s why I
have worked to make self publishing possible for anyone, notably by my early
investment in Xlibris – I am no longer connected – and my ongoing survey of
electronic publishers. The playing field will probably never be level, but it’s
better than it was. Traditional publishers had dictatorial power for over a
century. Now it’s the writers’ turn.
Who or what inspired you to
become a writer?
I needed to decide on
my college major. I pondered a day and a night, and it came to me: I wanted to
be a writer. It was like a light turning on and it has guided me ever since.
Does your family support
you in your writing career? How?
My wife supported me.
She went to work so I could stay home and try to be a writer. That was when I
broke through with my first story sale – for $20.00. But it led to greater
things, in time.
What are you currently reading?
I am usually reading
something, often a novel for review or blurbing. At the moment I’m between
books.
When you’re not
writing, how do you spend your time?
Writing is
my passion and my life. All else feels like dross. But I do make the meals and
wash the dishes, as my wife is infirm. I also like to play cards on the
computer, mainly Free Cell, which I believe is the best card game ever.
What is your
favorite line from a movie?
Great lines
in movies are myriad, but it’s the quiet personal ones that get to me the most
that others may not even notice. There was one whose title I don’t remember,
where a man, a widower, got a girlfriend he was considering marrying. His early
teen daughter lived with him. When the woman made them a meal, the man told the
teen to do the dishes. The girlfriend intervened. “No, she doesn’t have to do
that. I’ll do it.” Why? “She’s your
daughter and I want her to like me.” That disarming candor surely ensured that
the girl would like the woman.
What do you
like to snack on while you write?
I maintain
my college weight, and I exercise seriously. I don’t eat between meals. I’m
pretty fit for my age, pushing 82, and mean to stay that way.
When you walk
into a book store, where is the first place you go?
The last
local book store closed down.
What is the
funniest thing that you’ve been asked during an interview?
At the moment I’m not thinking of anything funny in an
interview. But I was amused by a sentence in my fan mail: “Ha! Caught you
reading fan mail!”
Sometimes I
do learn things from my fan mail .
I had a
suicidally depressive girl in one of my novels (Virtual Mode, if you must know) who regularly cut her wrists so
that they bled. So she wore red bands on her wrists to conceal the blood. A
reader wrote that I had it wrong: blood dries black, so she needed black
wristlets. I suspect she spoke from experience.
What is your
biggest pet peeve?
My biggest
peeve is critics who come across like the Republicans with respect to President
Obama: Anything he does is wrong. It seems similar for critics with me. I have
a mock review of a trilogy such a critic would do with me. The first novel is
inferior. The second novel is not up to the standard of the first. And readers
of the first two novels will be sadly disappointed by the third.
