When did you start writing and what inspired you to start?
I don’t really remember when I ‘started’ writing. Seems I took small steps over the years and finally stumbled down this less travelled road. I wrote for my college newspaper at Florida State University, did book reviews for Ft. Worth Star Telegram (TX), articles and photographs for Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette, The Chronicle of the Horse, Horsemen’s Roundup, American Iron, Covertside, Sidelines, and Ozark Mountaineer among others. With non-fiction, especially when covering an event, you have one opportunity to get it correct, stay within a word count, and come out with something interesting. Then, I moved into fiction which is more flexible in some respects, less so with others. I enjoy and learn from both.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I felt the electricity in a pen with my first byline on a magazine article and called myself a journalist wanna’be. With the publication of my first short story in an anthology and two contest wins at a major writers’ conference, I donned my wordsmith cloak and have not looked back.
What inspired you to write your first book?
The Northwest Arkansas Writers Workshop, my critique group, encouraged me to hone writing skills, build an author platform, and publish. The Writers Guild of Northwest Arkansas, another insightful critique group, supported my fiction and non-fiction endeavors. They have pushed me to read widely, attend book fairs, present workshops, work on the craft of writing, and expand all my efforts.
Is there a message in your book that you want readers to grasp?
Life happens in small increments. Finding the good in others and within self is a lifelong endeavor. Redemption is all about finding the best in everyday living.
Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life?
These are events that have happened to me, befallen friends, or have flowed around me. How can a person live and not be part of their community? John Donne said it best: No man is an island, entire unto himself. Each is a part of the whole.
What is the best advice you could give an aspiring author?
Write daily in a disciplined manner. Find a good critique group. Listen to feedback, think about it, and use what works for you. Read. Hone your craft. Enjoy your process.
What is the best advice you’ve received from other authors or anyone else?
Get critical feedback. Write every day.
List your favorite quotation or words you live by.
That’s a tall order. Quotations on writing, life, love, family, joy – abound. There are two poems by Miller Williams – “Compassion” and “How It’s Born in Us to Understand That there Are Two Sides to Every Question” – that I reflect on frequently. I like Mizuta Masakide’s haiku: “Now that my hut has burned down, I have a better view of the moon.”
Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work? Who are some of the authors you particularly admire or who’ve had some influence on your own writing? What is your favorite book by another author?
There are as many good authors out there as there are pebbles on a beach. Colum McCann’s Let the Great World Spin; Louise Erdrich’s Round House and The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse; Cormac McCarthy’s Border Triology, No Country for Old Men, Blood Meridian; Nobel Prize for Literature Alice Munro short stories; nonfiction works of Larry McMurtry and Thomas McGuane; classic southern tales of Lee Smith, Eudora Welty, and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. I could go on and on. These writers make language visual, create setting, develop characters, and build a story arc. They hook me every time I read them. I’ve been told to write what I enjoy reading. I’d pass that advice along to novice writers also. These are a few of my role models.
What books have most influenced your life?
Probably not single books so much as the bodies of work by authors like William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Lee Smith, and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.
Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?
I love, really love books. I like the way they feel. I enjoy seeing them on shelves. Stacks of books delight me. I don’t have an ebook reading device – yet. They are so handy for travel it’s only a matter of time before I buy a device. Until then, I love the printed page.