JAMES M. COPELAND
- Guest Author -
G'day folks,
Welcome to the return to this blog of a great author from Alabama, USA. The questions he answers today will be those that few people have asked.
Welcome, James ...
My dear friend Clancy:
Your offer to come into your blog is an
enticing one to say the least. The people I have been reading about are famous
people, ones that have accomplished great things. Would that I may do some of
them at some point in my life.
What caused you to
start writing, James?
I’m not sure, I suppose it was the love of
saying something. I was a salesman, then a sales manager for a company that had
excellent products. They taught me to love the art of explaining the value, not
the price and with that knowledge I excelled. I had always wanted to be able to
tell people about…whatever. I followed my Grandfather in the fields walking on
the fresh ground he was plowing with my bare feet. That’s a wonderful feeling.
I told him about it, and he grinned, said that he had done that behind his own
Grandfather and knew exactly how I felt. Getting to the writing, I guess it
started much later. I remember sitting in a cafeteria not far from my office in
Kansas City, MO eating and I saw a man puttering on the sidewalk and the
gutters for smokes. His clothes were ragged but clean, his hair was askew under
an old cap and he was walking in the tops of a pair of bottomless shoes. He
picked up a couple reached for a match in his pocket and lit the smoke. He grinned
a broad smile when he inhaled as if that was one of the most enjoyable thing in
the world, his world. I had to write about it. I wrote that poetry on the
napkin at my table and that’s where I got my start. Since then, I have retired
from actual work where I get paid and I write every day.
What are some of the
things you have done during your lifetime?
As you can tell I enjoyed my Grandfather, oh
yes, all the rest of my family as well. My father was killed in the Second
World War in the year 1945. I have recently discovered several poems that he
wrote during the years of 1938 and 1941. I am including them in the back of one
of my novels titled, ‘Avenging Cycles.’
I’m sure that my father’s desire to write was
inherited. I have rhymes of typed, categorized by date pieces of poetry stashed
away. Mainly because I am the only one who really knows what they mean. The
book I am referring to is pictured below as the front cover of the book. It’s
not published yet, but will be shortly. The poems I found of my fathers will be
featured at the back of the book with a short story about him. The Avenging
Cycles story itself is a recounting of my own venture into the military field
of Helicopter Flying. In 1963 I applied for helicopter training at the Camp
Walters Helicopter Training facility located in Texas and was accepted. I went
through the OCS training to achieve a Warrant Officer’s degree and then on to
the helicopter part. The Avenging Cycles story substitute David Stabin O’ster
for me and he progresses to a CIA appointment by the President of the USA.
There is a sequel to this story, but I haven’t written it yet.
Was this the only
flying you have done?
No Clancy, I came back to my job at Gadsden,
AL and a client of mine said he didn’t want to buy anything that he would
rather have a student pilot to train in fixed wing flying. I closed my bag,
stood up like I was leaving and he asked, “Did I make you mad?” No, I said, I’m
ready to go to the airport and become one of your students. We went, he
trained, I flew to the Bahamas for my cross country flight, got my commercial
license to fly and a customer for life.
The last ten years of my working life I
operated a restaurant equipment & heating and air installation company in
Branson, MO. I married my dear sweet wife two years before the end of the ten
years and sold the business. We moved back to Alabama which was home for both
of us.
My writing started in earnest in 2006. My
first published book was titled, ‘Bottom Bones’ with Detective Frank Hawthorn.
This book has been my best seller. When I go
to signings or shows this one is the first to sell out.
Other books I have written and published are
‘Madlyn Witherspoon’ a thirteen year old girl that runs away from home because
of incest, and becomes a boy in looks for a few years at a hardware store.
James, many more books
have you had published?
Clancy I’m glad you asked, there are two more.
The next one started in December, of 2006. It was one that went in a drawer for
two years before it saw the light of another day.
The title is, ‘Blindsided,’ this book had
several rewrites, and then some more from the copy editor, the script editor
and finally the publisher before it became a book. The publisher liked the
Avenging Cycles manuscript but said that war stories were not selling as well
as mysteries so we went with the ‘Blindsided’ novel.
What is the hardest
thing about traditional publishing?
JMC: I don’t think there is anything hard
about traditional publishing; it’s the authoring that’s hard. Of course the
publisher has to make a decision to publish and once that decision is made
their hung if it doesn’t work. I’d say that getting someone in publishing to
look at your work is probably the hardest thing.
What genre is this book written in?
JMC: It’s a mystery / crime / suspense book,
or better said, a-who-done-it-book. And, in this case Detective Frank Hawthorn
always gets his man!
When did you
originally write this book James?
JMC: This novel was one of the first I wrote
in 2006.
Has it been rewritten,
or possibly re-titled?
JMC: Has it been rewritten, ha, ha. (Laugh) I
have re-written it so many times I wore the words out. This was the first book
I took to a Literary Conference. It got eaten alive by a literary agent. Not
only that, but the name was changed several times. I think that the end results
are one of my best works. (I do have to give my publisher (KG Books) editor
credit for making the last corrections.)
What’s the book about?
JMC: Detective FRANK HAWTHORNE receives a
call from W.J. FISHER. He said that his son Milford Fisher had disappeared. He
found his boat near the Memphis, Tennessee branch of the Fisher Granary Corp
covered in blood. Later that day the boat disappears as well.
Hawthorn is told that young Fisher discovered someone was stealing millions
from the company and now he is missing. Everyone believes him dead except
Hawthorn who has a premonition that maybe…he’s still alive.
Detective Hawthorne works his magic to solve the crime. After several
incidents and mishaps, he discovers the truth and finds the guilty individuals.
There is an important twist in the story and Frank Hawthorne uncovers a plot
that will keep you on your toes. Frank wears his heart on his sleeve and is
BLINDSIDED when he discovered the truth about the woman he loves while he
searches for the truth. You'll never guess what happens in this riveting tale.
How should new readers of your work feel?
JMC: Like they want to turn the pages of my
next book! (This could be the beginning of a series?)
How did you meet the publisher?
JMC: Through one of the social media units I
belong too. (I was turned down by the publisher at once, until I restated my
position.)
Writing is one thing. What about marketing
you, your book, and your brand, any thoughts?
JMC: Clancy, if I had been left to my own
demise, I don’t know what I would have done. My publisher, (KG Books of
Alabama) has given me every conceivable amount of help I could ever imagine. I
feel that with the assistance I have been given that there is no way my novel
would be anything but a success. The path we are on (together) only leads to
success!
(One
of my ways of marketing is going to be the sale of my home, and hitting the
road in our new 38 ft Cayman Motor Home. I have the sign already made to post
on my bus when we arrive at a signing spot. I have cards already printed with
the face of the book prominent and mailing-cards that I can send to prospective
accounts that possibly might sponsor a signing. We have the accessories for
having a signing at a location, ie, table, table cloths, chairs, pens, isles
for showing books and several other things too numerous to mention.)
What are your feelings, concerning the efforts
of your publisher?
JMC: I am overwhelmed. If I had planned to
select a publisher, I couldn’t have made a better choice.
Will this episode in your life change it?
JMC: Yes it will. It’s a new adventure, and I
can hardly wait. For Shaw, who’s waiting, I have been working night and day
trying to keep up with what my publisher (KG Books) wants me to do.
What are your plans in the very near future?
JMC: We are working every day in preparation
for hitting the road. I can hardly wait for the signing process to begin. I
have agreed to be at any signing or interviews my publisher (KG Books) feels
necessary.
Do you have any tips for wanna-be writers?
JMC: I think the strongest thing I could
possibly say is that if you want to write, you have to devote yourself to doing
just that. This is not a process like fishing. You can bait a hook and drop it
in the water, after a while you will catch a fish. Not so, in writing. You have
to research every nook and cranny of the writing and publishing world to see
the opportunities available to you and then spend countless hours practicing,
arranging the words and studying the results. In reading some of my earlier
works I look with awe at how I did what I did. I know now that my earlier work
was only for me! Why, because I was the only one who knew what I was talking
about. I wrote endless poetry and turned it over to others and they would read
it and go, huh! What did he say?
In order to write, you have to write, and write, and write!
My
greatest frustration as an author from the get go has been the fact that each
turn down comes in a nice package. No instructions as to how you flubbed, no
statements as to quitting your day job, nothing! The reason I have cordoned
myself into this 15 by 15 room and slaved over this *%#))*& computer for 8
to 10 hours a day was not to receive a turn down stating how nice I was.
Once I learned, the hard way, I might add,
how. . .to write I have done quite well. I now know how to put words on paper
that actually mean something. . .to others! Now that I can do that my next
problem is why are computers designed to dump things right in the middle of
when you are the hottest? Did you know that the second time or maybe the third
time you write something it will be entirely different? When I was a kid my
mommy would have a birthday party for me with my cousins. One of the games we
played was ‘telling a tale.’ Mom would start by whispering something in the ear
of the first person in line and it was that persons job to relate that tale to
the next one. IT WAS NEVER THE SAME!
I have learned a great deal including how to
use the computer as a word processor. That’s cool. I still don’t know how to
spell. Thank goodness for ‘spell check.’
Anything you’d like to
add?
The last thing I am going to talk about is
the great guy who is sponsoring this very blog. Thanks Clancy, I couldn’t have
made it without you.
Best regards,
Clancy's comment: Thanks, James. Always a pleasure. Good luck with your books. Hope you sell heaps. Oh, get in that motorhome and have a great time. I'm sure your travels will inspire many new books.
I'm...
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