Quote of the day:
"Success is a ladder which cannot be climbed
with your hands in your pocket."
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G'day guys,
Today I offer some cute relief from this maddening world. I have observed and photographed many animals in my travels. They seem to be far more forgiving than humans. Enjoy.
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HAVE A GREAT DAY!
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I'm ...
Copyright Clancy Tucker (c)
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Quote of the day:
"All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered;
the point is to discover them."
Galileo
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WRITERS' WEB
- GUEST BLOG
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G'day guys,
Today I introduce a guest blog that has featured yours truly and others - Writers' Web. I've always found the site gurus to be most helpful. What does it do? Writers' Web connects writers direct to their reading audience, allows emerging Australian writers to have their work read and places the book directly into the hands of potential purchasers - the reader.
Emma Mactaggart is half of the creative team behind writers’ web, an online platform where Australian writers become authors by having their work read and reviewed. She is also Creative Director, Boogie Books (small press boutique publisher) and Founder of the Child Writes program. Her award winning book; Child Writes: Creating a Children’s Book is Child’s Play underpins the program. Welcome, Emma. How did it all begin?
TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR BLOG’S JOURNEY.
With a flash of brilliance (and then two years of planning and a year in practice) writers’ web emerged. It’s single goal was to bring writers and readers together – allowing the reader to be the gatekeeper, rather than the publisher, and the writer to be the author by sharing their words. Kind of like a farmers markets for words, with the paddock to plate; or a dating service where you get to choose your best match, not someone else tell you who you should date!
WHAT IS THE AIM OF YOUR BLOG?
The blogs for writers’ web are the conversation we wanted to have. They are supposed to be informative, newsy, entertaining and timely. Probably a bit too ambitious to have all criteria ticked off for each blog – but we certainly do seem to hit this over a month. It has been a wonderful medium to practice putting one word after another, especially if my own projects have stalled.
The ultimate aim? To continue a conversation between readers and writers, allowing them to be one community, rather than the two entities which has been the case for a long time. Whilst writers are the most accessible ‘celebrities’ I know; they are often not far from their desk working. The odd insight at a writer’s festival or a workshop is one thing – a lovely chatty conversation is another and it is much warmer.
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WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO CREATE A BLOG?
We actually planned to include a blog as part of our conversation when we were designing the business model for writers’ web. The conversation was to be much like life; where there are pearls of wisdom are offered at the checkout, information sharing when you make a quick call to a friend, or getting to know someone better over a superbly long lunch. Hence Twitter, FaceBook and the Blog.
WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT BEING A WRITER?
What I find totally exhilarating is seeing what is in my head on paper! These thoughts have gently swirled around, first in a jumble and at a distance, slowly getting closer and closer, clearer and clearer. Then the marks appear on paper and I can share this without making a sound. (If I had practiced drawing instead of learning to touch type, I believe I would have been an artist!)
WHAT IS THE HARDEST THING ABOUT BEING A WRITER?
Making the world stop for long enough so I can really let ideas brew and then boil and bubble before needing screen time. I seem to produce work in two stages – the first, ideas like lightning bolts are created whenever I am in a physical situation where friction is created (and I don’t mean friction in a negative way, rather, that when there are two or more people in a conversation, the brainstorming for me creates these ideas). Then, I need quiet time (impossible sometimes!) to let the idea become clearer and more substantial.
WHAT WERE YOU IN A PAST LIFE, BEFORE YOUR BLOG?
The same as I am in a present life, though now with the blog, I am just a little busier. Incredulously, I look at the clock in the evenings and am simply amazed another day has past. Aside from constantly beating the drum for writers’ web, I have been working with children, taking them all the way through the picture book creation process; from manufacturing ideas, through writing and illustrating, all the way to publishing agreements and book launches! This program is called Child Writes.
I am constantly fascinated by watching aspiring authors and what is their starting point. If they are struggling, either socially, physically or mentally, for example, their stories focus on trying to find solutions for their struggling characters. If they are incredibly secure, loved, supported, their imaginations are more outrageous and their characters have a greater opportunity to explore some really interesting adventures!
As the children write stories, they sometimes crystallise something they have been trying to understand and I am sure this is what contributes to an increase in their self efficacy. Well, that and actually working so incredibly hard and achieving the impossible – a 32 page picture book written and illustrated and published in less than a year!!!
WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT PROMOTING OTHERS?
Ironically, I find promoting others is incredibly self rewarding. There is an energy generated when you work with someone or are positive about someone else. There is often reciprocation, not necessarily instantaneously, but it does eventually happen.
Besides, it is so boring talking about yourself!
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WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON AT THE MOMENT?
I get so excited about the end of the school year – no, not school holidays, not having children filling every corner at home, nor NOT packing lunchboxes and dealing with the grind – it liberates me from Child Writes for a moment. The classroom tuition ceases, the training finished, the books done and dusted and printed, so they are under Christmas trees ready for gleeful grandparents and spoilt cousins.
I have already dug out of the bottom drawer (where it has been brewing for five years) a first draft of a YA novel. I wrote 60000 words in 60 days (before I learnt of The Rabbit Hole by Queensland Writers Centre or Nanowrimo, which is National Novel Writing Month). It was painful at times, exhilarating at others – but the words are there. Editing hundreds of beautifully raw children’s picture book manuscripts as well as attending countless workshops on writing and editing has certainly given me the courage to grasp my editors pen with two hands and attach the manuscript.
(Besides, like a gold fish, I can’t really remember what I did yesterday, so reading this will be like reading someone else’s work. How exciting to be removed emotionally – FINALLY!)
WHAT INSPIRES YOU?
Outcomes and results. This is why I cry at book launches! I know exactly what has gone into the process of creating this simple looking object – a book. It is equally fascinating how that single moment seems to be so definitive, because it is about increasing your self-efficacy, it is about stepping off and finally feeling strong enough to share you work...
ARE YOU A WRITER?
Yes indeed I am. The last time I travelled (did I tell you about New York?) I wrote ‘WRITER’ as my occupation. I also self describe myself as a writer on census forms, taxation documentation, and any other forms, regardless if they are from the doctor or the local hairdresser. I can actually remember the transition from not acknowledging myself as a writer to doing so and what transpired. When I wrote that YA manuscript, I wasn’t a writer. As soon as I described myself as a writer, others did! I get such a buzz when they do, though the pendulum may be swinging the other way... I was with a friend, embellishing an incident which had happened earlier in the day. My children were in earshot of the conversation. One rolled her eyes and said, ‘Oh Mum. That so didn’t happen like that. You made that up. You are such a writer.’
WHAT GENRE DO YOU WRITE?
I love writing children’s books. The audience are the toughest, sharpest, most ruthless readers (and listeners!) If you miss a beat, your rhythm is off or your character has any traits deemed unbelievable, then it is over! Your words will be dismissed.
My favourite project though, is seeing the extraordinary personal journey which is watching someone conceive an idea, get the words on paper and then see it in print. The book is such a comfortable concept for many of us – yet it seems so inaccessible.
If only people realised how easy it is to create using this medium...
You are an expert at something if you do it 10,000 times. Global skills, like drawing and driving mean proficiency is only acquired with practice, practice, practice. In writerly terms, this would mean someone like Kim Wilkins (pens also as Kimberley Freeman) with 2 million words in print has probably already spent 10,000 hours putting one word in front of or after another word... Think about that!
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Copyright Gavan Rowe 2012 (c)
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DO YOU HAVE ANY TIPS FOR NEW WRITERS?
As much as I would love to share tips, I am still absorbing tips first hand! The most poignant one for me right now which is genuinely making a difference to my day is to share your writing. Find a family member, a good friend; send them something, anything, often. Clutching a manuscript, looking furtively to the left and to the right, assuming someone is going to steal the principle idea and take your story... Well, it just ain’t gonna happen. Get a project off your desk and out there, and start the next one. It is the only way to learn.
Oh, and look in the mirror and say to yourself ‘I am a writer’.
The creative process is akin to discovering an interesting rock on the side of a creek. It is covered in mud and moss, but for some reason it attracts you. You give it a rinse in the river, paring it down to mere rock. Even the initial colour which caught your eye has changed. The shape is fascinating, it sits will in your hand. You keep hold of it, but stretch your arm out, ‘look’, giving the person next to you a glimpse. You go to rinse it again, but you drop it and to you chagrin, it breaks. As you pick up the pieces, you discover one side has this beautiful crystal structure within it. You don’t even notice you have discarded the bulk of the stone. You simply can’t help yourself – on this side, one piece is protruding and you firmly grasp it between two fingers. Pull. It separates. You hold it up to the sun and the light refracts through and the person beside you gasps and asks for a look, and then the person behind them leans over their shoulder, interested, curious, reaching for their turn...
It is only now that you acknowledge it as a treasure – yet it was a treasure all along!
DO YOU SUFFER FROM WRITER’S BLOCK?
No, but I do suffer from ‘far out, is anyone going to be interested’ block. It is ridiculous. I talk and talk (and talk) when I am with people – am opinionated at the best of time and am not renown for my tact. Yet when it comes to paper – I honestly think no-one will be interested in reading it.
DO YOU HAVE A PREFERRED WRITING SCHEDULE?
My best solutions, ideas, thoughts are all generated at about 2.30am in the morning. I need to give over to this and simply get out of bed, type madly until the energy ebbs and then go back to sleep.
This probably comes from being so easily distracted, so it is the only way I get any words on paper! Right now, for example, as the kitchen heaves still with the breakfast plates now crawling up the walls because of that insidious combination of high temperatures and the remnants of soggy cereal and milk... I am thinking about the 60 books which still need to be constructed (yes, I am the little bugger’s Child Writes graphic designer as well!) and instead... I am having a lovely time writing to you!
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Copyright Clancy Tucker (c)
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DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE WRITING PLACE?
When I am on a roll, at home, with a full screen, a supersized keyboard and a large chair which I can cross my legs up upon! When I am creating a character who is in desperate need of some attributes, or a conversation which is wilting, I go to the cafe near my husband’s office. Here, eventually, I will see or hear what I need!
WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST JOY IN WRITING?
Giving something of myself to others.
WHO IS YOUR FAVOURITE AUTHOR AND WHY?
Augusten Burroughs. Even though he writes of his own torrid, tawdry childhood, his prose are so intensely beautiful, that just like an object of beauty, they should simply be stared at! He makes me laugh and he makes me cry, but most importantly, he makes me think – not about him, but about myself and my reactions to his thoughts and actions and of those around him.
WHAT’S THE GREATEST COMPLIMENT YOU EVER RECEIVED FROM A READER OF YOUR BLOG?
I actually received a text yesterday... ‘wonderful clever inspiring woman, I loved reading ur piece on writers’ web, what a journey of reading, discovery and understanding.’ It was from a childhood friend – does that count!
WHAT WAS THE WORST COMMENT FROM A READER?
I am steeling myself for that... It is yet to come! Once a student commented in on an evaluation form ‘She waves her hands around too much and uses too many words.’ I am ready for anything from a blog reader – I have been working with ruthless children who can sniff out a weakness before you know you have one!
WRITERS ARE SOMETIMES INFLUENCED BY THINGS THAT HAPPEN IN THEIR OWN LIVES. ARE YOU?
The day a very good friend of mine said (in the context of an event we were collaborating on), ‘Here, you have to do this, you’re the writer,’ and I looked up, startled, because this was the first time I had ever heard the words aloud!
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OTHER THAN WRITING, WHAT ELSE DO YOU LOVE?
A long lunch with girlfriends – especially those friends that are like donning your favourite slippers; comfortable and immediately induce as state of relaxation! In this environment, I can gain a little perspective on my other loves (Dave and the girls!) and how I am managing the entire juggling act. I also plan, sound out problems and deal with the micro insecurities which can stymie my writing.
IF YOU HAD AN OPPORTUNITY TO SPEAK TO THE ENTIRE WORLD, WHAT WOULD YOU SAY?
Ladies and gentleman, children all. Thank you so much for this incredible opportunity to share my thoughts with you tonight.
I must say though, it is time I listened...
WHAT ARE YOUR GREATEST ASSETS AS A WRITER?
IF YOU WERE STUCK ON A DESERT ISLAND WITH ONE PERSON, WHO WOULD YOU LIKE IT TO BE? WHY?
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WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE?
Today, my to-do list looks like this:
Finish this and send to Clancy!
Check the edit on the student manual and the tutor manual for Child Writes;
Continue building books for the 2012 graduates of Child Writes (I am up to 29/63!);
Send one book to web designer – he can convert the inDesign file into one which is compatible to the iTunes store in less than ten minutes
Go through the writers’ web emails AGAIN – there are three new authors ready to have their profiles loaded, books set up for preview
Buy a birthday present for Sarah to take to a party this afternoon
Meet with inDesign guru 5.15pm for training session
Tomorrow? I will see what I do or don’ t get done today!
WHAT FIVE BOOKS WOULD YOU TAKE TO HEAVEN?
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Clancy's comment: Wow! I told you Writers' Web was good. How switched on is that? So, to all aspiring, emerging and published writers, check out Writers' Web. Love ya work, guys! - CT.
I'm ...
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Email me if you wish to subscribe
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clancy_tucker@hotmail.com
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Copyright - Clancy Tucker (c)
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President John Fitzgerald
'Jack' Kennedy
May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963
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NOTABLE QUOTES
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Check it out!
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Quote of the day:
"Patience is not passive. It is concentrated strength."
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Rapid Growth in Self-Publishing!
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G'day guys,
Today I bring you some interesting facts about the state of publishing, courtesy of Suw Charman-Anderson of Forbes.
The number of books and ebook self-published each year in the US has increased by 287 percent since 2006 says Bowker, America’s ISBN agency, in a new report on self-publishing. Bowker counted over 235,000 titles self-published in print and digital compared to 148,424 titles in 2011, although it counts only those books with ISBNs. From the Bowker press release:
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Email me if you wish to subscribe
or unsubscribe to my daily blog
clancy_tucker@hotmail.com
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Copyright Vicki Tyley (c)
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"Happiness is the sense that one matters."
Sarah Trimmer
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E. A. SETSER -
GUEST AUTHOR
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G'day guys,
Today I introduce an interesting young man - E. A. Setser. After spending most of his life failing to gain footing in Knoxville,TN, E. A. Setser and his family packed their life into a truck and set their sights on Cincinnati, OH. Being nearsighted, his aim was a little off, and they landed 2 miles short in Covington, KY. But in the spirit of America, they got a rental house with some friends and decided to settle there anyway. Now, he works as a cost estimator, purchaser, machinist, and database administrator for a local sign manufacturing company.
As for writing, E. A. got started at the age of 4, writing short stories for his family. Seven years later, he tried writing a novel for the first time and failed. Another few years later, he tried again, keeping many of the same elements, and scrapped the 540-page end result because it sucked. It wasn’t until he was 28 years old that he finished a novel he was proud enough of to publish under his real name. Elder Blood is the first of seven novels in his 'The Epimetheus Trial' series, and it has nothing to do with vampires, so don’t even ask.
Welcome, E. A. Tell us more ...
TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR WRITING JOURNEY.
If there was any time between my becoming literate and my taking to creative writing, I honestly don’t remember it. I was writing little one-page short stories before kindergarten, usually inspired by something that happened that day. The first time I saw a deer up close, I wrote a story about a guy who lost his talking pet deer and was trying to find it before a mad scientist stole it.
A few years passed, and I didn’t give writing much thought beyond school assignments. In middle school, I was a largely disliked social recluse. I went back into leisure writing as a means to keep my mind occupied, perhaps to create a world that I controlled. At some point, I discovered that this was the one thing that could make dozens of adolescents who generally hated me shut up and listen. If your enemies don’t dare to find fault, you’ve either got a good thing going, or they’re afraid of you.
I took it upon myself to be my own worst critic though. So it wasn’t until about fifteen or sixteen years later that I completed a novel I was comfortable putting my name on. I’ve lost count of how many failures to launch I had in that time, but I always learned something from even the shortest attempts.
WERE YOU A GOOD READER AS A KID?
Oh definitely! At least, up until school ruined it for me. I don’t like being told what to read, how to read it, or what to think about it. I also never bought into the idea that everything is symbolic or that three hundred pages are necessarily going to revolve entirely around one central theme. Sometimes, it is what it is. Sometimes, there’s more than one theme. Sometimes, there is no theme, and it’s just a story. I also never liked being told my interpretation was “wrong,” especially when the teacher couldn’t back up their view beyond it being what was written in their guidebook.
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WHEN AND HOW DID YOU BECOME A WRITER?
Wait, what? I thought we went over this already. Ah well, I can go more into the teenage and adult years, I suppose.
Throughout high school, I could never really find a niche that interested me, something I could build a solid career out of. I took up a novel project I’d been developing throughout middle school and spent the duration of high school writing and rewriting. By graduation, I had something close to a working draft.
All through college, I had a feeling my pursuit of higher education wouldn’t end well. So, I took to writing all the more seriously, but that led to the conclusion that this current story needed to be thrown away. I had changed the canon of the series-to-be so many times that this opening tale was an incoherent mess.
A couple years later, I started building another series, but this time I moved through the first book slowly and cautiously. Between having a kid and having trouble keeping a job, I found the motivation to put thoughts to paper with two decades worth of finely tuned precision.
WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT BEING A WRITER?
Definitely the control. Think about it. I can create an entire civilization, world, even a universe with words. I’ve breathed life into paper creatures, built a culture for them, and even gotten people emotionally attached to strangers that don’t exist beyond what I say about them. It’s an incredible feeling, knowing you can build and move worlds just with text, especially text written purely for entertainment.
WHAT IS THE HARDEST THING ABOUT BEING A WRITER?
The troubling thing about giving life to these paper creatures is that they eventually gain sentience. On the one hand, that can make it easy to move them through a scene naturally. On the other hand, that makes it difficult to make them do what I want. If their only motivation is “because I said so,” I either have to find a new route to Point B or make a new Point B.
I once had a character turn out to be a traitor, and I didn’t see it coming until (s)he flipped. Going back and rereading, it actually made a rather reasonable amount of sense.
WHAT WERE YOU IN A PAST LIFE, BEFORE YOU BECAME A WRITER?
I tried my hand at painting, skateboarding, poetry (free form and lyrical), and various forms of engineering. Poetry and engineering still interest me, but not as things to pursue for a career or lifestyle.
When I was a kid, I wanted to be a mad scientist when I grew up.
WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST WRITING ACHIEVEMENT?
You might expect me to say finishing and self-publishing a novel is my best accomplishment. You’d actually be wrong. I don’t want to say anybody can write a novel, because they certainly can’t. But anybody can convince themselves that what they wrote is worth selling, even beyond all reason and peer opinions to the contrary.
No, my best accomplishment was throwing away a 540-page draft when I was more than halfway through editing. That one I mentioned earlier, nearly everyone I told about it like the idea. The one friend who read any of it couldn’t wait for it to be in print as a finished product. But I was intimately familiar with it, the work that was going in, and what was to come. It may have been good enough for them, but it wasn’t good enough for me.
That’s when I knew I could make it as a legitimate writer, when I discovered the willpower to detach myself and look at my own writing objectively.
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WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON AT THE MOMENT?
Right now, I’m on the initial draft of the second book in The Epimetheus Trial. Into Antiquity a sequel/prequel to Elder Blood. For the most part, it takes place five years later, but it also establishes events and connections from before and during Elder Blood as well as the five years between the two. This is done through conversations, sharper focus on supporting characters, and sometimes flashbacks.
WHAT INSPIRES YOU?
Honestly, I don’t know. This saga and the compulsion to write it have become so ingrained in my thoughts that I don’t know what triggers it anymore. At the risk of sounding crazy, this world has become real within my mind, and there’s no discernible boundary separating it from reality. Asking what inspires me to externalize it is like asking what inspired your mother to birth you. It has a life in its own right. It deserves to live.
WHAT GENRE DO YOU WRITE?
Industrial fantasy, for lack of a premade label. Take a fictional world with modern-ish technology and civilizations, some real some fictional but viable, and pepper in a blend of sword and sorcery as well as sci-fi technology. Justify the variation with the fact that it takes place across multiple cultures, advancing at different paces and with different ideologies, and you have industrial fantasy. Quarterstaff vs. Giant Robot!
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DO YOU HAVE ANY TIPS FOR NEW WRITERS?
Don’t concern yourself with trends. Say you want to write young adult fiction. Vampires are pretty popular these days, so that might seem like a good way to go. But think about how many others you’ll be competing with. Also think about where that trend might be by the time you’re finished and have an audience.
Write what you write because it’s something you like. Not because it sounds like something that could make you an overnight sensation. The big names that survive the test of time are the ones that went their own way and focused on quality, not mass marketability.
Also, remember that even your antagonist is a person, too. Justify their behavior.
DO YOU SUFFER FROM WRITER’S BLOCK?
All the time! Yes, I said all these people and cultures are real to me, but we’re not always on speaking terms. Plus, there’s centuries of history to take into consideration, trying to understand how one civilization reacts to another’s behaviour.
DO YOU HAVE A PREFERRED WRITING SCHEDULE?
I write whenever I’m capable and have the opportunity. My most common times are during my lunch break at work and at home after my son falls asleep.
DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE WRITING PLACE?
Anywhere I can turn out a few solid pages is a favourite place. If I can get focused and catch my stride, it’s a good place to write. I’ve done it at my desk, on my couch, on the living room floor, and in the back seat of an SUV.
That sounded naughty.
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WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST JOY IN WRITING?
That would have to be building an emotional bond between my creations and my readers. Giving these creations such sentience that they develop their own relationships and dreams is also pretty great.
WHO IS YOUR FAVOURITE AUTHOR AND WHY?
Is it bad to say I don’t really have one? I respect James Patterson’s ability to write across multiple genres, and sell like crazy while still having respect for quality. Too many writers are dumbing it down for the sake of marketability. Same goes for the late Robert Jordan, plus the ability to keep track of so many characters.
WHAT’S THE GREATEST COMPLIMENT YOU EVER RECEIVED FROM A READER?
In my first review from a stranger, he said the character depth was absolutely stunning. This was a guy who had never heard of me or my story, and he was lured in and eager to find out what happens next. Great words to hear after your first steps into the public eye.
WHAT WAS THE WORST COMMENT FROM A READER?
A friend told me I might need to dumb it down. I don’t go out of my way to be obscure or dig through a thesaurus searching for the smartest-sounding word. I mean, I do use a thesaurus sometimes, but I don’t abuse it.
Anyway, I do write for an adult vocabulary and intelligence. I’m sick of anti-intellectualism permeating entertainment literature, and I wanted to write something that made people think while still being enjoyable. I know she meant well, but it was a real facepalm moment.
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WRITERS ARE SOMETIMES INFLUENCED BY THINGS THAT HAPPEN IN THEIR OWN LIVES. ARE YOU?
Beyond the stuff I talked about in the opening, not really. Having a kid has made it easier to relate to parent-child relationships in my characters though.
HOW MANY BOOKS HAVE YOU PUBLISHED?
Just the one, and it was self-published.
HAVE YOU WON ANY PRIZES OR AWARDS?
Yes, the Social Detriment Rookie of the All the Time Award.
WHAT DID THEY MEAN TO YOU?
It was great to know that I was proud enough of myself to outshine all the other newcomers in a field of one.
OTHER THAN WRITING, WHAT ELSE DO YOU LOVE?
Movies, documentaries, science news, video games, cooking, spending time with my wife and son. That’s not in any particular order.
DID YOU HAVE YOUR BOOK / BOOKS PROFESSIONALLY EDITED BEFORE PUBLICATION?
I did not, but I might with Into Antiquity. My wife helped though, because she was the one second pair of eyes intimately familiar with the series as a whole. You know, sometimes certain details need to be left as they are because of their relevance later. Anomalies in one story may be there to get the reader asking how/why, only to be explained later. Those conversations are easier with someone who already has an idea of what’s to come later.
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IF YOU HAD AN OPPORTUNITY TO SPEAK TO THE ENTIRE WORLD, WHAT WOULD YOU SAY?
Stop letting stupid people define your culture. Get off the bandwagon, and stop giving them a platform and a microphone.
DESCRIBE YOUR PERFECT DAY.
To put it briefly, start out with breakfast in front of the Playstation with my son, while listening to whatever documentary my wife is watching on Netflix. Straighten up a bit, get the house looking a little nicer, then go out on the town with my family. Along the way, hash out some ideas for my writing, maybe even get someone who overhears us involved in the discussion. That evening, cook a big meal for family and friends and sit around the living room eating and talking about our personal work. Once my son is in bed, put those ideas to paper, then spend the rest of the night talking and watching television.
WHAT ARE YOUR GREATEST ASSETS AS A WRITER?
It’s easy for me to see from someone else’s perspective, even if their personality doesn’t mesh with my own. It gets me away from the evil-for-the-sake-of-evil trope and helps me humanize my villains.
IF YOU WERE STUCK ON A DESERT ISLAND WITH ONE PERSON, WHO WOULD YOU LIKE IT TO BE? WHY?
Michio Kaku. The man is a genius but can communicate in layman’s terms. Plus, he’s creative enough that I’m sure he could design a safe means for us to get off the island using only what’s available.
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WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE?
In writing, I want to release Into Antiquity before Christmas 2013 and finish the rest of The Epimetheus Trial before I’m 40 (June 2023).
The rest of life, I want to move to Cincinnati proper in four years so my son doesn’t have to spend more than two years in a Kentucky school zone. I’d also like to get some money saved up to give him a leg up after high school, should he need it.
Lastly, I want to get the means to have my wife’s epilepsy surgically treated. She’s gotten rather accustomed to functioning normally with it, but it’s still an obstacle. She deserves to live a normal-ish life. Plus, if she can force herself to function normally with it, just think what kind of potential will be unlocked when the interference is taken away.
I guess the mad scientist never died.
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E. A. Setser's Contact Points:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ElderBlood
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Clancy's comment: Thanks, E. A. Now, head off to the laboratory and pretend you're still a mad scientist - CT.
I'm Clancy Tucker.
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