WEIRD AND WONDERFUL STUFF
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31 July 2018 - JONATHAN FINCH - GUEST AUTHOR & POET
JONATHAN FINCH
- GUEST AUTHOR
AND POET -
G'day folks,
Today, I interview a man who lives in my favourite country - Thailand, and I do hope to catch up with him in a few months. He is a man with more than 30 years' experience in teaching English language and
literature to students and adults. Fluent in Italian, mother tongue
English. Passable in spoken Thai. French & Spanish understood,
degreed in honours English. Poet and novelist. Keen ornithologist in
Asia and Europe.
Welcome, Jonathan ... Sawasdee khup,
1.
TELL US A LITTLE
ABOUT YOURSELF AND YOUR WRITING JOURNEY.
I started writing poems
in my teens. I became over-interested in writers, their lives and their work.
They became companions, too. I wrote to console myself. In my twenties I wrote poems,
novels and short stories. Some poems won prizes. I stopped writing in my
thirties and forties, but came back to words in middle age by which time the
muse had departed.
2.
WHEN AND HOW DID YOU
BECOME A WRITER?
I became a writer in my teens and twenties. I wrote to
console myself and to order chaos.
3.
WHAT TYPE OF PREPARATION DO YOU DO FOR A MANUSCRIPT? DO YOU PLAN
EVERYTHING FIRST OR JUST SHOOT FROM THE HIP?
The creative process varies for me but I
never plan meticulously. I often have a central idea or with a novel an
awareness of its overall intention, that is my overall intention, too.
4.
WHAT DO YOU ENJOY
MOST ABOUT BEING A WRITER?
The idea of creating something beautiful and worthwhile.
5.
WHAT IS THE HARDEST
THING ABOUT BEING A WRITER?
For me it’s lack of recognition or the struggle to get
people to read me.
6.
WHAT WERE YOU IN A
PAST LIFE, BEFORE YOU BECAME A WRITER?
I was possibly a Thailand traveller in some form or
another. Thailand is where I have lived for fifteen years and despite problems
and racism I’d prefer to stay here rather than go back to Europe.
7.
WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST
WRITING ACHIEVEMENT?
Some of my poems?
8.
WHAT ARE YOU WORKING
ON AT THE MOMENT?
I’m revising and editing a collection of essays, stories
and blogs about Pattaya, that extreme city on Thailand’s eastern seaboard where
I live.
9.
WHAT INSPIRES YOU?
Some poems and novels, myself, the city where I live –
Pattaya.
10.
WHAT GENRE DO YOU
WRITE?
Mainly fiction now.
11.
DO YOU HAVE ANY TIPS
FOR NEW WRITERS?
There are all the usual tips out there : write, read,
write, edit, select after collecting, don’t get too discouraged, but if I had
one thing to say I would say there are too many books out there, so read the
greats, and read them again unless you feel you just want to write one genre
(like space sci-fi) but then for me you are already “lost” because you have opted
out of the real task, the writer’s duty, which is to present a recognisable
world in a heightened and intelligent manner. That’s real enlightenment, real
endeavour, but as you will have realised I’m old-fashioned and moralistic. Jane
Austen would have agreed with me, though (and a few others!).
12.
DO YOU SUFFER FROM
WRITER’S BLOCK?
No, but as mentioned I stopped writing for years for
personal and economic reasons.
13.
DO YOU HAVE A
PREFERRED WRITING SCHEDULE?
No.
14.
DO YOU HAVE A
FAVOURITE WRITING PLACE?
No. Where I am wherever that is.
15.
WHAT IS YOUR
GREATEST JOY IN WRITING?
Feeling fulfilled.
16.
WHO IS YOUR
FAVOURITE AUTHOR AND WHY?
Shakespeare. He’s compressed, dynamic, a poet, not somebody
repetitive, dogged, and habitual.
17.
WHAT’S THE GREATEST
COMPLIMENT YOU EVER RECEIVED FROM A READER?
A comparison to Dickens, recognition of literary tradition
in my poetry, acknowledgment of originality.
18.
WHAT WAS THE WORST
COMMENT FROM A READER?
Refusal to read my work, quotes out of context,
indifference.
19.
WRITERS ARE SOMETIMES
INFLUENCED BY THINGS THAT HAPPEN IN THEIR OWN LIVES. ARE YOU?
Yes, all the time.
20.
OTHER THAN WRITING,
WHAT ELSE DO YOU LOVE?
Good books, swimming, bird watching, fishing, my son, my
adopted granddaughter.
21.
DID YOU HAVE YOUR
BOOK / BOOKS PROFESSIONALLY EDITED BEFORE PUBLICATION?
No. I did them myself
having corrected university essays for more than twenty years.
22.
DESCRIBE YOUR
PERFECT DAY.
I’m afraid I can’t.
23.
IF YOU WERE STUCK ON
A DESERT ISLAND WITH ONE PERSON, WHO WOULD IT BE? WHY?
The temptation is to
answer: myself. The other temptation is to opt out of answering the question
because my choice of person would depend on what type of desert island I ended
up on.
24.
WHAT WOULD YOU SAY
IF YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO SPEAK TO WORLD LEADERS?
Can you listen to me
for a while and set aside your plans for the day, your self-importance, your
lust for power…? That sort of thing…
25.
WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS
FOR THE FUTURE?
I’m sixty-seven in May.
I need to stay healthy. I need to consider what plans to give priority to.
26.
WHAT ARE YOUR VIEWS ON BOOK TRAILERS? DO THEY SELL BOOKS?
Yes, I suppose they do.
27.
DO YOU SEE YOURSELF
IN ANY OF YOUR CHARACTERS?
Yes.
28.
DOES THE PUBLISHING
INDUSTRY FRUSTRATE YOU?
Yes.
29.
DID YOU EVER THINK
OF QUITTING?
I did quit. I stopped
writing for decades.
30.
WHAT WAS YOUR
FAVOURITE MANUSCRIPT TO WRITE? WHY?
Poetry : “The
Nothing-Lyre”. Prose : “Collected Selected Words” (now retitled “Sexy Thai Bar
Girls And Me : Sex Adventures In Asia” / “Great Tits I’ve Known (And Other
Species)”). The poem was easy and defines a personal moment. The novel was
therapeutic and fun.
31.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE
‘SUCCESS’ AS A WRITER?
Writing well, from the
heart. Having people interested in your work.
32.
WHAT SHOULD READERS WALK AWAY FROM YOUR BOOKS KNOWING? HOW SHOULD
THEY FEEL?
They should somehow feel enriched. They should think about
life not in the abstract. They should know more about me.
33.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE YOUR BOOKS MADE INTO MOVIES? EVER WRITTEN A
SCREENPLAY?
I
wrote a play for theatre many decades ago. I think some of my books could be
filmed.
34.
HOW MUCH THOUGHT GOES INTO DESIGNING A BOOK COVER?
The
self-publishing world stresses the importance of excellent, attractive,
appealing cover-design. I have tried to give a lot of thought to covers and with
the help of a friend I have progressed a bit, I think, but overall I do opt out
because words are my task.
35.
WHAT’S YOUR ULTIMATE DREAM?
I’m sixty-seven. I love
Shakespeare. How can I have an ultimate dream? If pushed, I want God to exist
without all the polemic and the dire problems that kill Him (but remember “We
are such stuff / As dreams are made on and our little life / Is rounded with a
sleep.”).
36.
WRITING IS ONE
THING. WHAT ABOUT MARKETING YOU, YOUR BOOKS AND YOUR BRAND? ANY THOUGHTS?
Marketing is overwhelming. It devours time. The book
publishers out there help the authors they select. They have a vested interest
in their authors selling. If you are on your own, then of course try all the
channels if you have stamina, time, and expertise (or even if you don’t, I
imagine you should try them).
37.
ARE YOUR BOOKS
SELF-PUBLISHED?
Well, last century, no. This century, yes.
38.
DESCRIBE YOURSELF IN FIVE WORDS.
Dedicated. Committed. A
word-lover.
39.
WHAT PISSES YOU OFF MOST?
Difficult to answer. You need to be extremely self-aware to
answer this one with a modicum of intelligence. In the end, it’s probably me
that pisses me off the most – and so that
sense leaves me in the mire.
40.
WHAT IS THE TITLE OF THE LAST BOOK YOU READ? GOOD ONE?
“Norwegian Wood”.
41.
WHAT WOULD BE THE VERY LAST
SENTENCE YOU’D WRITE?
The people I’ve seen
dying don’t get round to it, so I will imagine I am in good health, concluding
my last work of literature. The very last sentence would be “Well, I suppose
I’m glad that’s over. I can now even read the stuff once again.”
42.
WHAT WOULD MAKE YOU HAPPIER
THAN YOU ARE NOW? CARE TO SHARE?
Knowing the Asian child
I live with now has a better life than many of the girls I meet in Pattaya
(Thailand). This answer could well change in the future. That’s what it’s all
about, getting answers “right” even in a context, in a moment of time - unfortunately.
43.
ANYTHING YOU’D LIKE
TO ADD?
Don’t
judge a book by its cover (?).
Clancy's comment: Many thanks, Jonathan. I look forward to having many chats with you in Thailand.
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