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| Birthday photo. I'd guess this was taken the same year I started my first draft. |
The articles were initially published on various book blogs, but now, with lots of new readers and social media friends, I've decided to re-issue them here. I'll probably share one article each week.
As with the novel, I tried my best not to let these blog posts suck. I hope you enjoy them.
First up....20 Questions!
When did you write your first story and what was the inspiration for it?
I was a poet in my early years, and I don’t think I wrote any fiction until I was in my twenties. The first story I remember writing was a supernatural tale about a boy who gets inexplicably lost as he bicycles around his own neighborhood trying to find his way home. I named the story “Jeremiah Blues,” a title I took from a Sting song of the same name. In the song, Sting references a Shakespeare line in the lyric, “Everybody wants to look the other way, when something wicked this way comes.” I decided if Sting could borrow from literature for music, I would borrow something back from music for literature.
Do you have a writing schedule or do you just write when you can find the time?
I’m a guy who doesn’t get much writing done without structure and scheduling (sound like a load of fun at parties, don’t I?). When I wrote the first draft of Solid Ground, I worked pretty regularly in the afternoons for 4-6 hours each day. Oddly enough, when I reached the editing stages, I shifted my writing time to early mornings. I started editing many days before the sun even came up.
Briefly describe the writing process. Do you create an outline first? Do you seek out inspirational pictures, videos or music? Do you just let the words flow and then go back and try and make some sense out it?
When it comes to novel writing, I’m a hardcore outliner. That’s not to say I don’t seek out inspiration (especially from the music I listen to as I write), but at the start of the project, I plot things out as best as I can. I write a one or two page synopsis of the story and a basic biography of each main character. Then, I break the story arc into three acts and outline the key moments and scenes within each act. Having said that, once I start writing I’m totally open to following whatever rabbit trails I come across. With Solid Ground, I veered off course several times and those side trips yielded some of the best elements of the story.
Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention how much I love Scrivener writing software. I’m like a TV evangelist for this software, only I’m not asking for donations.
Where did the desire to write LGBTQIA+ stories come from?
I like to write about character flaws and individual struggles, how the seemingly tiny moments in life can ultimately define us. For me, the details of the experiences and challenges LGBTQIA+ characters face may differ from their CIS hetero brothers and sisters, but in the end, our stories are all just human stories.
How much research do you do when writing a story and what are the best sources you’ve found for giving an authentic voice to your characters?
My stories are set in everyday places among everyday people, so I’m not a big researcher. To make sure my characters sound real and compelling, I draw from my own experiences and from a lifetime of paying attention to books, movies, music, and pop culture. I’ve also been lucky to have some excellent beta readers and writing group buddies who have been willing to spray paint the awful parts of my manuscripts when I’ve been off the mark.
What’s harder, naming your characters, creating the title for your book or the cover design process?
Hands down, naming the characters is the most difficult! Actually, to be clear, naming them is a cakewalk. Renaming them once you realize a few of the names needed to be tweaked is…a challenge. BUT, getting used to their new names and calling them by those names as you edit and discuss the story, that is torture. First, it’s just mentally challenging to make the switch. Second, and more importantly, it feels to some degree like you’re being unfair and maybe even unfaithful to the characters. But hey, Conor is a more compelling name than Rob. So, there you have it.
How do you answer the question “Oh, you're an author...what do you write?"
Fiction. I write intimate stories about people who try and don’t always succeed.
What does your family think of your writing?
I think they’re proud and as surprised as I am that I finally finished a damn book.
Tell us about your current work in process and what you’ve got planned for the future.
My current work-in-progress is my second novel, Selfish. Like my first novel, Selfish is a first person narration that revolves around the small wonder and giant burden of family. The setting is a fictional town in Michigan, and the main character, Max Becker (or so he’s named for now), is forced to make a harrowing and deeply personal decision that will mean life or death, though not necessarily his own. Unlike Solid Ground, most of the main characters in Selfish are not LGBTQIA+. I’m about half way through the first draft of the book and I’m excited to see if the storyline actually ends up where I originally told it to go.
Do you have any advice for all the aspiring writers out there?
It’s cliché, but write every day, even if it’s only for fifteen minutes. Some days, you’ll put in your fifteen minutes, bitch and moan a little, then shut your laptop and get back to the business of life. Other days, a quarter hour magically becomes three or four hours, and you’ll have to drag yourself away from the keyboard. Both days are okay.
If you could travel forward or backward in time, where would you go and why?
I’d go back to my twenties to tell myself to write fifteen minutes every day.
We’ve all got a little voyeurism in us right? If you could be a fly on the wall during an intimate encounter (does not need to be sexual) between two characters, not your own, who would they be?
Hmmm. I suppose I’d like to peak in on Louis and Lestat, Anne Rice’s characters from the Vampire Chronicles. I loved their love, especially in the first hundred or so years when it was fresh and new.
If I were snooping around your kitchen and looked in your refrigerator right now, what would I find?
Milk (for my Apple Jacks), grapes (I like to drop a few in my brandy), and cheese (the most versatile of all the dairy products).
If you could be a superhero, what would you want your superpowers to be?
To sleep through the night without waking up to pee.
If you could trade places with one of your characters, who would it be and why?
I’d trade with Conor, my main character, so I could make better decisions than he does and spare him a shitload of grief.
If you could sequester yourself for a week somewhere and just focus on your writing, where would you go and what would the environment be like?
A small cabin in the redwood forest around Arcata, CA. There would be no television, telephone, or Internet, and I’d use a wood stove for heat. On the wooden front porch, I’d have the most comfortable writing chair known to mankind – an Eames lounge chair and ottoman (if you have $5,000 to spend on one, you’ll thank me). I know that’s how my fantasy week would be because I was in that cabin in Arcata for a month in 2012. I’d go back tomorrow if I could.
What's the one thing, you can't live without?
Ice cream, Maker’s Mark, and tennis. Okay, that’s three things, but if I can’t have ‘em all it’s not worth it.
What internet site do you surf to the most?
I have a serious Twitter problem. Add me if you’d like to help keep me awake nights. (https://twitter.com/waythingsturn)
If you had your own talk show, who would your first three author guests be and why?
* Christopher Moore (Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, etc.) – because he’s not only a terrific novelist, he’s also hilarious and kind (or so it seems).
* Dave Eggers (Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, etc.) – because he’s brilliant and I’d probably be a better person by the end of the interview.
* JK Rowling (Harry Potter, as if I needed to say that) – because she’s an unbelievable creator of compelling stories and characters and her British accent would make me giddy.
When you got your very first manuscript acceptance letter, what was your initial reaction and who was the first person you told?
I don’t recall my exact reaction, but it was in the ballpark of, “Seriously? Are you sure?” followed by some zealous fist pumping and jumping around. I told my partner, Paul, and our roommate (and live-in editor), Kyle as soon as I read the letter. Kyle got weepy and Paul said something akin to, “Holy shit!”
Thanks for reading!
Jeff's novel, Solid Ground, can be purchased in print and ebook from Amazon, B&N, Books-A-Million, and other places where fine fiction is sold.
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