Clancy Tucker's Blog: 28 February 2013 - DARRYL GREER

28 February 2013 - DARRYL GREER - Guest Author

DARRYL GREER

GUEST AUTHOR

G'day guys,

Today I introduce another emerging Australian author - Darryl Greer. Darryl is a lawyer and lives with his wife in the Gold Coast hinterland. He began to write seriously a few years ago. Before that, he had a number of published articles to his credit but the real love of his life now is novel writing, mainly thrillers and crime/mystery/suspense novels.

Apart from writing, he enjoys walking, swimming, travel, theatre, cinema, reading - thrillers of course - and says he can still pen a song and play a decent tune on the guitar.

Welcome, Darryl ... what's your story ...

TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF AND YOUR WRITING JOURNEY.

I began writing seriously in the early 1990s when I was living and working in London. Until then I had wished I could write but kept telling myself I couldn’t. Eventually I convinced myself I should at least try. I sat at my computer, wrote a title, then a line, then another line until I eventually had what could loosely be termed a novel, though after hawking it around for a while and getting the inevitable comments from agents and publishers, I threw it away. When I started on my next book, The Election, I’d learned a lot from my experience on the first. It ended up, I think, being a great story but I still couldn’t get published. Years later, I decided to self-publish that novel. I wrote 7 novels in all, and recently published Calvus through Morris Publishing Australia after being one of their winners in a writing competition.

WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT BEING A WRITER?

I love the research. I also love the way it takes you away from your day to day problems and disappointments and deposits you in another place.

WHAT IS THE HARDEST THING ABOUT BEING A WRITER?

Marketing.

WHAT WERE YOU IN A PAST LIFE, BEFORE YOU BECAME A WRITER?

I was, and still am, a lawyer, these days working as a consultant to other law firms and my specialty is commercial litigation.

WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST WRITING ACHIEVEMENT?

Getting Calvus into print.

WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON AT THE MOMENT?

Another novel which I’ve titled Agnus Dei, a legal thriller.

WHAT INSPIRES YOU?

Things I’m passionate about. For example, Calvus is partially set in the first century in Roman times and I’m fascinated by the ancient Romans. I loved doing the research for the first half of the book.

WHAT GENRE DO YOU WRITE?

I break the rules a little and don’t always limit myself to the one genre. Given the “write what you know” rule I should always write legal thrillers. I have in fact done so but The Election is a political thriller, Calvus an historical thriller.

DO YOU HAVE ANY TIPS FOR NEW WRITERS?

If they’re passionate about writing, don’t ever give up, no matter what comments they get from agents and publishers.

DO YOU SUFFER FROM WRITER’S BLOCK?

No.

DO YOU HAVE A PREFERRED WRITING SCHEDULE?

No, though I have to work around my day job.

DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE WRITING PLACE?

I’m somewhat limited—I have to write at my computer in my home office.

WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST JOY IN WRITING?

Getting positive reviews and readers’ comments.

WHO IS YOUR FAVOURITE AUTHOR AND WHY?

I find it difficult to restrict myself to just one, given the myriad of great authors out there but the author whose books I believe I have read the most, is David Baldacci.

WHAT’S THE GREATEST COMPLIMENT YOU EVER RECEIVED FROM A READER?

“It’s absolute brilliant. It gripped me from the very beginning.” I love readers to tell me my book is a page-turner. That’s what I set out to write.

WHAT WAS THE WORST COMMENT FROM A READER?

“Well, I have to say I enjoyed the read...” That was as much as I could get out of her and she was my literary agent at the time!

WRITERS ARE SOMETIMES INFLUENCED BY THINGS THAT HAPPEN IN THEIR OWN LIVES. ARE YOU?

Yes.

OTHER THAN WRITING, WHAT ELSE DO YOU LOVE?

Reading, cinema, theatre, music, walking.

DID YOU HAVE YOUR BOOK / BOOKS PROFESSIONALLY EDITED BEFORE PUBLICATION?

Always.

DESCRIBE YOUR PERFECT DAY.

It would start with a phone call to say I have another great publishing deal for one of my unpublished manuscripts; then around lunch time I’d get the call to tell me the foreign rights have been sold to various overseas publishers; around dinner time I’d get the call from Steven Spielberg!

IF YOU WERE STUCK ON A DESERT ISLAND WITH ONE PERSON, WHO WOULD IT BE? WHY?

My wife. She’s my No. 1 fan.

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IF YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO SPEAK TO WORLD LEADERS?

Give peace a go.

Copyright Clancy Tucker (c)

WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE?

To keep working as long as I can and, of course, to continue writing.

WHAT FIVE BOOKS WOULD YOU TAKE TO HEAVEN?

As A Driven Leaf by Milton Steinberg.

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo.

Once We Were Brothers by Ronald H. Balson.

Primal Fear by William Diehl.

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks.

(I deliberately omitted The Election and Calvus for obvious reasons!)

DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN ANY OF YOUR CHARACTERS?

Yes. Good and bad.

DOES THE PUBLISHING INDUSTRY FRUSTRATE YOU?

Yes.

DID YOU EVER THINK OF QUITTING?

Yes.

WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE MANUSCRIPT TO WRITE? WHY?

Calvus because of the enormous amount of research required.

HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE ‘SUCCESS’ AS A WRITER.

Being able to live on one’s writing.

WHAT SHOULD READERS WALK AWAY FROM YOUR BOOKS KNOWING? HOW SHOULD THEY FEEL?

How much has gone into writing it. Hopefully, they’d feel elated.

HOW MUCH THOUGHT GOES INTO DESIGNING A BOOK COVER?

A considerable amount of thought went into designing the covers of both my published novels, though I did not do the graphic artistry myself. I knew what I wanted and others brought my ideas to life.

WHAT’S YOUR ULTIMATE DREAM?

To be a full time writer.

WRITING IS ONE THING. WHAT ABOUT MARKETING YOU, YOUR BOOKS AND YOUR BRAND? ANY THOUGHTS?

Marketing is the most difficult thing about writing. Getting your book onto Amazon’s site is one thing but making it stand out from hundreds of thousands of titles is another. I find that starting small, giving author talks at libraries and clubs is a good way to start.