Clancy Tucker's Blog: 27 February 2020 - Dr. ADAM MORRIS

27 February 2020 - Dr. ADAM MORRIS - GUEST AUTHOR

Dr. ADAM MORRIS

- GUEST AUTHOR -

G'day folks,

Today, I interview an author and musician who has had a very interesting life.

Welcome, Adam ....

1. WHEN AND HOW DID YOU BECOME A WRITER?

My first novel My Dog Gave Me the Clap came out in 2011, that was when I officially became a writer. The book helped changed my life and opened up a world of opportunities. I went from working as a guitar and cooking teacher in prison to head writer of a men’s magazine, landed a history book commision and won a scholarship to do my PhD in writing at UWA (the University of Western Australia).

2. WHAT TYPE OF PREPARATION DO YOU DO FOR A MANUSCRIPT? DO YOU PLAN EVERYTHING FIRST OR JUST SHOOT FROM THE HIP?

It’s a combination of both. For Bird, my latest novel, I wrote one very short sentence for each chapter which vaguely summarized what each chapter was to cover. Nothing too detailed, for example Chapter 1: He gets arrested. Chapter two: In the art class. Chapter three: New prisoner arrives. Then every time I sat down to write, I followed the instructions I had written for myself and it all came pouring out. Kind of a mix between having a plan and having complete freedom.

3. WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT BEING A WRITER?

I love the process. I love the feeling of hammering away at the keys and it feeling like your almost playing the piano, the thoughts turn into words and you chase your thoughts with the choices you make and write like you’re possessed and sometimes maybe you are. It’s a magical feeling.

4. WHAT IS THE HARDEST THING ABOUT BEING A WRITER?

There’s a long waiting period between announcing to the world that you’re a writer or working on becoming a writer and actually becoming a writer. There is a very fine line between being a successful author and being the guy who works casual jobs and drinks too much who fancies himself as a writer but hasn’t published anything yet. The line between adulation and ridicule is razor thin and those intervening years can be very hard. It’s the same i suppose for anyone who’s struggling to do something that is difficult, be it an entrepreneur or a business owner, the struggle is a lonely road but when it all works out and you pull it off it’s like coming up for air out of deep deep water. fucking exhilarating.

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

I was a professional musician and still am with my band Murder Mouse, we toured Canada, Malaysia, Singapore and of course Australia. I also worked a whole lotta jobs in my twenties from construction to factory worker to delivery driver and bar tender. Today I teach Creative Writing at UWA and work two days a week teaching primary school children with Special Needs.

6. WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST WRITING ACHIEVEMENT?

Publishing my two novels My Dog Gave Me the Clap and now Bird.

7. WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON AT THE MOMENT?

I love changing genres or styles, my first book was a semi autobiographical novel of a struggling musician, Bird is about an Indigenous prisoner, my next book called Winter of One Fire is a quiet parable on father hood and responsibility and now I’m writing an erotic piece of filth based on my dating life called Tinder Box.

8. WHAT INSPIRES YOU?

Alcohol and the absurdity of life (probably in that order) those two things and love and ego and ambition.

9. WHAT GENRE DO YOU WRITE?

I write literary fiction or if you want to get pretentious I write existential comic fiction.

10. DO YOU HAVE ANY TIPS FOR NEW WRITERS?

Do something else. This racket is nearly impossible. Thankfully though, it’s only nearly impossible.

11. DO YOU SUFFER FROM WRITER’S BLOCK?

Not at all, never in my life, I don’t believe in it. I suffer from laziness and depression and an over inflated opinion of myself but never writer’s block.

12. DO YOU HAVE A PREFERRED WRITING SCHEDULE?

When I’m on a project i hit a word count number every day six days a week. Depending on the pace of the novel that might be 1500 words a day or as little as 500 words a day. Writing a novel is a long game but if you hit your number every da, 5 or 6 days a week, it only takes a few months and you turn around and realise you’ve nearly finished your first draft. It’s a thrilling experience and when you’re up late at night staring at the ceiling from insomnia or dehydration it’s nice to think about what you’re going to write about the following day.

13. DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE WRITING PLACE?

Anywhere and everywhere. The spot is meaningless. I wrote half of my first novel in the prison yard where I was teaching while the prisoners were on lockdown. I’d write on a notepad and type it out when i went home in the evening. I’ve written in my car, in coffee shops and bars in Asia, your writing space is ultimately your head, so anywhere that you fit that is awesome.

14. WHO IS YOUR FAVOURITE AUTHOR AND WHY?

Cormac McCarthy for his intensity, William Shakespeare for his poetic beauty and wisdom and the Marquis De Sade for his complete insanity.

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

Anytime someone says that they laughed out loud from reading one of my books, that’s the best. One man’s wife actually wrote to me and said her husband kept waking her up late at night to read passages from My Dog gave Me the Clap, that was pretty cool.

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

Absolutely. I pretty much write exclusively about my own life in some form or another.

17. OTHER THAN WRITING, WHAT ELSE DO YOU LOVE?

I love the company of women, my children, nice wine, good strong beer, travelling, conversations with intelligent people that border on a sporting contest, lying down with any of the aforementioned.

18. DESCRIBE YOUR PERFECT DAY.

I have discovered after many years on earth that you go to bed feeling the most satisfied after having spent the entire day being of service to other people.

19. WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE?

Writing, listening, travelling and in the immortal words of Kris Kristofferson, there’s still so many drinks that I ain’t drunk and lots of pretty thoughts that I ain’t thunk, and still so many wine and lonely girls, in this best of all possible worlds.

20. WHAT ARE YOUR VIEWS ON BOOK TRAILERS? DO THEY SELL BOOKS?

I have no idea but if i had a whole lot of books that i hadn’t sold I suppose it would be handy to have a trailer to store them all in.

21. DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN ANY OF YOUR CHARACTERS?

I am all my characters. Each one is either a disgusting or beautiful part of myself magnified and simplified and dressed up in another person’s clothes and characteristics.

22. DOES THE PUBLISHING INDUSTRY FRUSTRATE YOU?

It is what it is.

Jane Austen took fifteen years to get Sense and Sensibility published. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. So thank God it ain’t easy.

23. DID YOU EVER THINK OF QUITTING?

Almost every day and almost never. Both of these things are somehow simultaneously true.

24. HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE ‘SUCCESS’ AS A WRITER.

Getting a publishing deal. Seeing your book in print, on a library shelves. Being able to look a person in the eye and tell them yes you have published something and they can buy it on Amazon for 19.95.

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

They should feel like they’ve spent some time in the presence of a literary giant or at the very least past the time waiting for their departure flight. Anything along the spectrum of these two realities would be lovely.

26. WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE YOUR BOOKS MADE INTO MOVIES?

Is this question some sort of joke, some sort of moral test?

I have already cast the novel in my mind and picked the director. And yes the director is Martin Scorcese or Roman Polanski.

27. HOW MUCH THOUGHT GOES INTO DESIGNING A BOOK COVER?

I didn’t design my first book cover and I hated my first book cover, I’d say the people responsible for that book cover probably took the least amount of time imaginable to come up with that design.

The cover is vitally important and if done correctly should sum up the tone of the work. It is incredibly important and should be given as much time as it needs.

28. WHAT’S YOUR ULTIMATE DREAM?

I’m living it baby.

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

It is what it is. If Hemingway were alive today, he’d be writing a three part series for Netflix centred around the life of a Bullfighter set in San Sebastian in the 1900’s, he’d also have a Twitter account and would do a YouTube Q and A exclusively available for his Patreon subscribers.

30. ARE YOUR BOOKS SELF-PUBLISHED?

Absolutely not.

31. WHAT PISSES YOU OFF MOST?

Death and its sneaky nature.

32. WHAT IS THE TITLE OF THE LAST BOOK YOU READ?

Blood Meridian.

GOOD ONE? It’s a Goddamn masterpiece.