STEVEN HERRICK
- Guest Author -
G'day guys,
Welcome to the life of a successful Australian author - Steven Herrick. Steven is an Australian author who
writes poetry and verse-novels for children, young adults, and adults. He
also performs poetry in schools and at festivals all over the country
and overseas.Welcome, Steven ...
TELL
US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF AND YOUR WRITING JOURNEY.
I had my first
book published in 1990 and have written and had published twenty-three books
since then. The majority have been for children and young adults, including
eleven verse-novels. I have made a living from my writing for the past
twenty-five years. I visit up to two hundred schools per year, here and
overseas.
•
WHEN
AND HOW DID YOU BECOME A WRITER?
I’ve written
since I was eighteen, when my first poem was published in a magazine and they
paid me $5! How could I resist becoming a writer. I’ve always regarded my job
as two-fold - writing books and performing my work on stage. It’s enabled me to
make a comfortable living these past 25 years.
•
WHAT
DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT BEING A WRITER?
Firstly, the
response I get from readers or audience members. Secondly, I’ve always enjoyed
being my own boss and choosing when and how I work. Thirdly, I love the
opportunities to travel that writing allows. In fact, my latest book, titled
‘baguettes and bicycles’ is a travel memoir of my recent bicycle journey across
France.
•
WHAT
IS THE HARDEST THING ABOUT BEING A WRITER?
I always have
trouble answering this question because I enjoy every aspect of being a writer.
I could not possibly do any other job.
•
WHAT
WERE YOU IN A PAST LIFE, BEFORE YOU BECAME A WRITER?
I’ve been a
full-time writer for 25 years. Before that, I worked at any job I could and
wrote part-time. I have no other skills.
•
WHAT
IS YOUR GREATEST WRITING ACHIEVEMENT?
My favourite book
is the verse-novel for young adults, titled ‘by the river’ which won the NSW
Premier’s Literary Award and was Honour Book in the Children’s Book Council
Book of the Year Awards. When I wrote it nine years ago, I knew it would remain
my favourite, no matter how many other books I wrote.
I have won the
NSW Premier’s Literary Award twice and been shortlisted for the CBCA Awards on
six occasions.
But ‘greatest
achievement’? Making children laugh!
•
WHAT
ARE YOU WORKING ON AT THE MOMENT?
I’ve just
finished a second draft of a prose fiction novel for children, titled HA!
•
WHAT
INSPIRES YOU?
Easy, my wife
and two adult sons.
And the fact that I know I have an
audience to write for.
•
WHAT
GENRE DO YOU WRITE?
Prose fiction
and verse-novels and poetry for children and young adults
Travel memoirs
•
DO
YOU HAVE ANY TIPS FOR NEW WRITERS?
Read a lot. Find
writers you enjoy and try and work out why.
• DO YOU SUFFER
FROM WRITER’S BLOCK?
Rarely. If I’m having
trouble, I usually put it away for another day and come back to it later. I
never stress if something isn’t working.
•
DO
YOU HAVE A PREFERRED WRITING SCHEDULE?
I usually write
between 8am and midday, then have lunch, followed by a bike ride and I may edit
in the afternoon. I usually write heavily between November and February and the
rest of the year is devoted to visiting schools, travel and editing.
• DO YOU HAVE A
FAVOURITE WRITING PLACE?
I have a study
that looks over our back deck and garden and down to the distant plains of
Sydney. I live in the Blue Mountains. I write on the desk given to me by my
Mother when I was eighteen and I told her I wanted to be a writer. It's perhaps
my most valuable possession.
• WHAT IS YOUR
GREATEST JOY IN WRITING?
The knowledge
that someone will sit alone with my book and hopefully get something positive
from the experience.
• WHO IS YOUR
FAVOURITE AUTHOR AND WHY?
I’ve always
loved Raymond Carver because he writes so simply and with such strong
characters. I also love John Steinbeck and William Least-Heat Moon.
•
WHAT’S
THE GREATEST COMPLIMENT YOU EVER RECEIVED FROM A READER?
I always love it
when teenage boys come up to me and tell me that they rarely finish books, but
they read mine and loved it.
•
WHAT
WAS THE WORST COMMENT FROM A READER?
The only bad
review I ever got was on a book called ‘the simple gift’. I thought the
reviewer misunderstood the book. It’s since sold over 60,000 copies, so I'd
like to think I was proven right.
• WRITERS ARE
SOMETIMES INFLUENCED BY THINGS THAT HAPPEN IN THEIR OWN LIVES. ARE YOU?
I’m heavily
influenced by familiar locations. I often set my books in places I know well,
but I occasionally change the names of the towns, etc.
• OTHER THAN
WRITING, WHAT ELSE DO YOU LOVE?
I am a fanatical
cyclist, riding 10,000 kms per year. I’ve ridden across France and up many of
the Tour de France mountains as well as in Germany, Thailand and of course,
most of Australia. I also love football (the round-ball type).
• DID YOU HAVE
YOUR BOOK / BOOKS PROFESSIONALLY EDITED BEFORE PUBLICATION?
Yes, all of my
books are with well-known publishers who provide editors and an advance!
Except, my
latest, ‘baguettes and bicycles’ which I’ve published as an eBook through
Amazon, as an experiment. I’m pleased to say it’s doing very well and sells for
the ridiculously cheap price of $2.99, even though I get as much from the sale
as I do from my $17.95 paperbacks. A strange world is digital publishing!!
• DESCRIBE YOUR
PERFECT DAY.
Eating with my
wife, cycling alone in the afternoon, watching Sydney FC with my son and having
dinner with my family. Family, food, football and cycling.
• IF YOU WERE
STUCK ON A DESERT ISLAND WITH ONE PERSON, WHO WOULD IT BE? WHY?
Either my wife
or my children. I’ll choose my wife because my sons may prefer not to stay
alone with their Dad forever on a deserted island!
• WHAT WOULD YOU
SAY IF YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO SPEAK TO WORLD LEADERS?
Enact
legislation to avert climate change.
Increase tax on
the wealthy and feed the poor.
Give up on the
absurd notion that the economic health of a country is more important than the
social health.
•
WHAT
ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE?
This year I’m
cycling across Germany, Austria and Slovakia with my wife, followed by a visit
to Italy and France, including a number of mountain climbs (by bike) of the
French Pyrenees. I also plan to write a travel memoir about our cycle across
Germany, etc.
• WHAT FIVE BOOKS
WOULD YOU TAKE TO HEAVEN?
The Grapes of
Wrath - John Steinbeck
Blue Highways -
William Least-Heat Moon
The Collected
Works of Raymond Carver
The collected
works of Nick Hornby
One man and his
bike - Mike Carter
• DO YOU SEE
YOURSELF IN ANY OF YOUR CHARACTERS?
Perhaps all of
my characters have something of me in them, even the unpleasant ones.
• DOES THE
PUBLISHING INDUSTRY FRUSTRATE YOU?
No. I think we
live in very interesting times, where what we’ve taken for granted in
publishing terms no longer holds true. I’m interested and a little apprehensive
of what will develop, but I forsee opportunities for authors to reach a much
wider audience than previously. However, earning a living from that wider
audience may become more problematic.
• DID YOU EVER THINK
OF QUITTING?
No. There is
nothing else I could do.
• WHAT WAS YOUR
FAVOURITE MANUSCRIPT TO WRITE? WHY?
‘by the river’
because it best exhibits the themes of all my books - love, sex, death,
self-image and how we as individuals learn to cope with loss and leaving.
• HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE ‘SUCCESS’ AS A WRITER.
Being read and
enjoyed by an audience, no matter how large or small.
• WHAT SHOULD
READERS WALK AWAY FROM YOUR BOOKS KNOWING? HOW SHOULD THEY FEEL?
Oh, that’s for
them to decide, not me.
• HOW MUCH THOUGHT
GOES INTO DESIGNING A BOOK COVER?
I’ve only ever
designed one cover and it took way too long and was much too stressful! I'm
grateful that my publishers give me the final say on what cover we will use.
Having said that, some of my books published in the USA were given truly
horrible covers that I was not allowed to change.
•
WHAT’S
YOUR ULTIMATE DREAM?
For myself, to
continue doing what I do. For my family, health, happiness and the satisfaction of a job well
done.
• WRITING IS ONE THING. WHAT ABOUT MARKETING
YOU, YOUR BOOKS AND YOUR BRAND? ANY THOUGHTS?
I enjoy social
media and am active on twitter, Facebook and I keep two blogs. I think it’s
necessary for a writer to be active in social media.
Clancy's comment: Well done, Steven. Love ya work!
I'm ...
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