Launch Pad contest for unpublished novelists

deadlines vary by category: historical fiction is May 10, 2012, suspense/crime/mystery/thriller is June 10, contemporary fiction/women’s fiction is July 10, middle grade, YA fiction is August 10, contemporary romance is September 10, Speculative is October 10. entry fee is $35; details HERE:

http://www.novelrocket.com/p/launch-pad-contest.html

Children’s Writer Historical Fiction Writing Contest

$500 prize; $15 entry fee; deadline is Oct. 30, 2010; 1,500 words max; info & entry here:

http://www.thechildrenswriter.com/ad028/

Paying market for military history writers

Military History Quarterly pays $400 for departments and features START at $800.

Email ideas to: Military History
militaryhistory@weiderhistorygroup.com

http://www.thehistorynet.com/contact-historynet-and-weider-history-group

10 QUESTIONS FOR…Mary M. Forbes, historical romance author

Author interview with Mary M. Forbes

Mary M. Forbes is a member of the Alberta Romance Writers Association and has been writing since she was a teenager.  She is the author of two other books, Alberta Wild Rose and Hawk’s Gift, both historical romances.  An enthusiast of everything country western, Forbes also thoroughly enjoys history and crafts.  She has completed certified coursework in a wide variety of fields including writing, computers, accounting and weather observing.

Forbes currently resides with her husband in a beautiful mountain town in the Canadian province of British Columbia.

1. Tell us about your latest book.

One Dance with a Stranger is a story about Wade, a country music superstar who gains success too young and Emily, raised on the streets and now determined to follow her mind and never her heart in order to obtain the life she craves.

2. How did you get started as a writer?

I always knew I wanted to write when as a teen I avidly read all the romance books around and other stories including literature. I was the only student that put my hand up when the teacher asked who liked Shakespeare – it was embarrassing at the time, but it was the truth.   I wrote poems, short stories and won awards .  I enjoy learning and research and always ‘critique’ books and movies saying ‘what if…’ or correcting glaring errors or weak plots.

3. What does a typical day look like for you?

I need my morning coffee, then answering e-mails, writing, researching or outlining stories and sometimes playing games.  Occasionally I go on trips with my long-haul truck driver who travels all over North America.  I try to take walks along the river at least once a day.  I spend time with my grandson and my daughter most days as well.

4. Describe your workspace.

I have my desk/computer in my kitchen beside a patio door.  I have a large yard full of hills and pine trees, close to a river and usually see the deer and squirrels and birds just outside the window. Once I even saw a bear.  I am usually alone as my husband is on the road.

5. Favorite books

My favorite books are Something Wonderful – Judith McNaught,  North and South

– John Jakes and War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy.

6. Tell us 3 interesting/crazy things about you

I love ‘debating’ (some call it arguing) and will research and question everything.  I often see humor when someone gets too intense.  I don’t believe in Global Warming.

7. Favorite quote

Only God can Judge me or It’s amazing how much people believe beauty is goodness (Leo Tolstoy – maybe not exact quote)

8. Best and worst part of being a writer

Best – going into a world where I can be/do whatever I want.

Worst: – Being interrupted when everything is falling into place and then after forgetting ‘the place’ you were in.

9. Advice for other writers

Don’t take yourself or your characters too seriously.  Humor goes a long way to make stories interesting and enjoyable.

10. Tell us a story about your writing experience.

When I published my first book and was so proud of, I met with the author Bev Jones who had inspired me to do it, for lunch.  The waiter saw the book and started talking to me about his wife loving romance.  Bev Jones stepped between us and started ‘selling’ her book.  I realized I was not aggressive enough (like she was) to sell myself – and I realized sometimes when you think someone is helping you maybe they’re helping themselves?

Where can people buy your books?

My books ‘Hawk’s Gift’ and ‘Alberta Wild Rose’ are available on my website

http://www.marymforbesauthor.com (paypal) as well as contacting me directly at marymforbes@hotmail.com.

‘One Dance with a Stranger’ is available on my website, through Authorhouse, Amazon, Barnes & Noble as well as e-published on Kindle(Amazon), Lybrary(Authorhouse),  shortcovers (Indigo/Chapters)

Writing contest (poetry, one-act plays, short stories)

Deadline Oct. 15; $10 entry; 5,000 words or fewer

Rules and entry here: http://www.theyorkemporium.com./events/contest/index.html

10 QUESTIONS FOR… novelist Michelle Cameron

Author interview with Michelle Cameron

Michelle Cameron is a historical novelist whose debut novel, THE FRUIT OF HER HANDS: THE STORY OF SHIRA OF ASHKENAZ was released by Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster in September 2009.

Michelle is also a poet whose IN THE SHADOW OF THE GLOBE, a verse novel of Shakespeare’s life, was published by Lit Pot Press in 2003. Named as the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey’s 2003-4 Winter Book Selection, IN THE SHADOW OF THE GLOBE has been performed in a variety of venues, including the Stella Adler Studio of Acting’s Shakespeare Benefit for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids.

Michelle is Creative Director of Interactive Media Associates, a digital agency specializing in Internet planning, design, development and Web marketing. A creative producer, writer and editor with more than 20 years of professional experience, her clients include performing arts companies, non-profits, universities, and corporate companies. 

Born in New Jersey, Michelle moved to Israel at the age of 15. She completed her secondary and university education there, and served in the Israeli army. Michelle lives in Chatham, New Jersey, with her husband and two college-age sons.

1. Tell us about your latest book.

This is from the Pocket Book Spring 2009 catalog:

Based on the life of the author’s thirteenth-century ancestor, Meir ben Baruch of Rothenberg, a renowned Jewish scholar of medieval Europe, THE FRUIT OF HER HANDS: THE STORY OF SHIRA OF ASHKENAZ is the richly dramatic fictional story of Rabbi Meir’s wife, Shira, a devout but rebellious woman who preserves her religious traditions as she and her family witness the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe.

Raised by her widowed rabbi father and a Christian nursemaid in Normandy, Shira is a free-spirited, inquisitive girl whose love of learning shocks the community. Her life changes radically when her father remarries in the hope of gaining a male heir and Nicholas Donin, a handsome scholar with radical views, comes to study with her father. Donin tries to capture Shira’s heart but her father will not allow her to marry such a firebrand. When Shira’s father is arrested by the local baron intent on enforcing the Catholic Church’s strictures against heresy, Shira fights for his release and encounters two men who will influence her life profoundly – an inspiring Catholic priest and Meir ben Baruch, a brilliant scholar. In Meir, Shira finds her soulmate.

Married to Meir and living in Paris, Shira blossoms as a wife and mother, savoring the intellectual and social challenges that come with being the wife of a prominent scholar. Yet once again her life is darkened by Nicholas Donin, now an apostate Jew who has converted to Catholicism and carries the fervor of the Inquisition. After witnessing Donin’s burning of every copy of the Talmud in Paris, Shira and her family seek refuge in Germany. Yet even there they experience bloody pogroms and intensifying anti-Semitism. With no safe place for Jews in Europe, they set out for Israel only to see Meir captured and imprisoned by Rudolph I of Hapsburg. As Shira weathers heartbreak and works to find a middle ground between two warring religions, she shows her children and grandchildren how to embrace the joys of life, both secular and religious.

Vividly bringing to life a period rarely covered in historical fiction, this multi-generational novel will appeal to readers who enjoy Maggie Anton’s RASHI’S DAUGHTERS Brenda Rickman Vantrease’s THE ILLUMINATOR and Geraldine Brooks’s PEOPLE OF THE BOOK.

2. How did you get started as a writer?

I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to be a writer. But I didn’t approach my writing seriously until after I took a hiatus from it, because I was a mother with two growing boys and a full-time job. Early after the birth of my first son, I had tried and failed to have a young adult novel published, and was feeling discouraged about ever writing professionally.    

I returned to writing when my youngest son was around six years old. He couldn’t stop himself from scribbling stories, poems, and cartoons, and watching his joy, I realized I had given up something that was precious to me. So I began to write ― poetry at first, because it was quick and, even with revisions, could be completed in a relatively short period of time.  I wrote in the dojo waiting room and the bleachers at the Little League game.

I began to attend readings, workshops, and seminars, where I would meet other writers. I was encouraged to start to submit my poetry and was published. I took the subject of my young adult novel ― Shakespeare and his compatriots at the Globe Theatre ― and started to write a poem cycle, which flowered into IN THE SHADOW OF THE GLOBE, a verse novel, which was published in 2003 by a small literary press.

When I began THE FRUIT OF HER HANDS, I started to write it, too, as a verse novel. But the book had a mind of its own and wanted to be a full-blown historical novel. When I finally listened to it, the writing just flowed.

3. What does a typical day look like for you?

When Simon & Schuster asked me to answer a series of questions for my “Author Revealed” page on their Web site, one of the hardest was to describe my life in eight words. I finally came up with the following: “4:30 AM writer, 9-5 day job, forever mom.”

My alarm goes off at 4:30 AM and I write for two hours before preparing to go to work. It’s my favorite time of the day, because there are no ringing phones and no one wants me to find something for them. It’s just me and the computer. 

I then prepare for work. The day job occupies me until around 5:30 PM. Home to dinner, family time, relaxation. Bed generally by 9 PM so I can do it all over again.

4. Describe your workspace.

I work in the study that adjoins my bedroom and overlooks our suburban street, with a huge apple tree in front. I’m surrounded on all sides by floor to ceiling bookshelves, in which just a portion of our family library fits (we have books in every room of the house).  I have a huge desk that my husband carefully constructed out of various pieces of Scandinavian modular furniture, which gives me room for the stacks of books on the topic I’m researching, my computer monitor, a printer. There’s even space for someone to face me on the other side of the desk.  It’s a cluttered and comfortable space.

5. Favorite books (especially for writers)

BIRD BY BIRD is probably the book I mention most when I talk about books ABOUT writing.  But I personally subscribe to the theory that you can get more out of reading good books ― both classic and contemporary ― than books about writers. Some of my favorites? Clearly, I have a deep and abiding love for Shakespeare, but also Jane Austin, George Eliot, and J.D. Salinger, among many others.

6. Tell us 3 interesting/crazy things about you

Interesting/crazy thing #1 – My parents moved to Israel when I was 15. It was 1973 and I went to a boarding school near the Lebanese border. The Yom Kippur War started for me when three Syrian MiGs were chased across the sky by a Phantom jet. We spent the next couple of weeks in the bomb shelter.

Interesting/crazy thing #2 – One of the most marvelous experiences of my life was tied to my job. We built a promotional Web site for a sponsor of a major Cezanne exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  Because we delivered in record time, the sponsor arranged for us to attend a special showing of the exhibition ― about 10 of us in an otherwise closed museum. We were able to get up close and personal with masterpieces and it was unbelievable.

Interesting/crazy thing #3 – I was a wallflower growing up – the one in the corner who watched the party instead of taking part in it. Maybe one of the reasons I was drawn to writing was because I could be sparkling and charming there, if nowhere else. After some initial trepidation, I began to feel liberated when reading my writing to other people. I realized I had changed dramatically the day I got up and read a poem called “Penis Envy” to a group of about 100 people. And I suddenly found myself the most popular person in the room!

7. Favorite quote

This varies with the season, but it’s almost invariably one by Shakespeare. Right now it’s: “Fie upon this quiet life! I want work!”

8. Best and worst part of being a writer

The best part of being a writer are those days when the story and the characters just take over and all you’re doing is hanging onto the keyboard as they tell you what words to put in their mouths and what they want to do next. It’s generally NOT what you wanted them to do ― but so often, it’s even better than what you’d planned for them.

The worst part – aside from not having enough time – are the days when you start to suspect you can’t really write. I know I’m not the only writer who suffers from this! Generally, I can dispel this suspicion of inadequacy by reading what I’ve written before. If not, it’s time to go for a walk and clear my head.

9. Advice for other writers

Having spent years thinking that I would never be published, I know how frustrating and lonely writing can be. One of the best pieces of advice I received was to connect to other writers – join a class, a workshop, a writing group. Go to readings and support other writers. When I began to do these things, not only did I feel less alone, but I found that the best writers are a generous group who want to help you do the best writing you can.

10. Tell us a story about your writing experience. 

When I was writing THE FRUIT OF HER HANDS, I discovered Maggie Anton. At that time, the first novel in her Rashi’s Daughters trilogy was not out yet. Because we were both writing about medieval women in a Jewish setting, I pre-ordered the book and placed myself on Maggie’s email list.

I loved the first book and when Maggie came to New York for some readings, I decided to contact her. I hesitated a long time before clicking the send button, but I figured the worst she could do is say no. I asked if she’d have just a few minutes to talk to me during her stay in New York.

She wrote back and asked me to join her on a walk through Central Park on the morning before one of her readings. It was the middle of the summer and I figured we’d walk a little, then find a place to have coffee or something cold. So I dressed in cool clothes ― a light skirt and blouse, a pair of sandals.

When Maggie joined me, I realized my mistake. She was dressed for serious WALKING – in shorts, a tee-shirt, and sneakers. We walked around and around Central Park, while she generously gave me invaluable advice and insight into how to market the book when it was finished ― and I ignored the blisters forming on my feet as unimportant.

Where can people buy your book?

One of the wonderful things about publishing with a major publishing house is that the book should be available everywhere – Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Booksamillion, Costco.

If you buy in stores and don’t see the book, this debut novelist would be grateful if you’d ask the store to order a copy!

If you buy online and want a quick way to purchase the book, visit my Web site at http://www.michelle-cameron.com. You can click right from the home page.  (Though while you’re on the site, stick around awhile!)

If you want to learn more about me, visit my “Author Revealed” page at www.simonandschuster.com.

And to connect:  Join the group on Facebook or follow me on Twitter.

10 QUESTIONS FOR…Garrett Peck, author of “The Prohibition Hangover”

Author interview with Garrett Peck

I’m a freelance writer for the alcoholic beverage industry in my free time, and work as a market analyst for a large telecommunications provider (“Can you hear me now?”). I went to a military college called VMI, then served four years in the U.S. Army in Germany. And I have a piece of Berlin Wall! After I left the Army, I moved to Washington, DC for graduate school and have stayed. I live in Arlington, Virginia. The Prohibition Hangover is my first book.

1. Tell us about your latest book.

The Prohibition Hangover: Alcohol in America from Demon Rum to Cult Cabernet is about how American culture shifted towards alcohol after the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. How did the United States shift over these past 75+ years from a country where abstinence was once the ideal, to one where two-thirds of adults now drink? Today alcohol is considered an important part of most social occasions. It’s also a nearly $200 billion industry that accounts for several million jobs. There is a detailed book website at http://www.prohibitionhangover.com.

2. How did you get started as a writer?

I’ve written since I was a kid, and contributed occasionally to my college newspaper. But I didn’t get serious about writing as a potential vocation until the WorldCom meltdown in 2002 (yes, that WorldCom). I was an employee at the company at the time, and began thinking what else I could do if I were laid off.

I’ve dabbled in screenwriting for awhile as a hobby, and hope to return to that someday. I mostly write period pieces (e.g. historic), as I’m a history nerd.

I had a moment of epiphany at Christmas 2003 when I noticed how differently three generations – my grandmother, mom, and myself – approached a bottle of wine. My grandmother got a little uppity about the fact that I had brought wine, which my mom and I shared. The light bulb went on: I realized that she came from a generation that stigmatized alcohol (she was born in 1913 and lived through Prohibition), but the stigma had largely fallen away by my mom’s generation. That epiphany launched me on more than four years of travel, research and interviews to write this book. I’ve been like a bulldog with a bone pursuing this story ever since.

3. What does a typical day look like for you?

I have a day job as an analyst, so most days are busy doing telecom-related work. I have to squeeze in writing whenever I can – sometimes during work breaks or evenings, but most often by dedicated Saturdays to writing. That’s the one day of the week I deliberately don’t schedule anything (except an occasional yoga class) so I can concentrate on writing. I usually find I’m productive for four to six hours, and after that, your mind gets tired of thinking.

4. Describe your desk/workspace.

I do all my writing from the home office, which doubles as the guest bedroom. Most days of the week I have two laptops up and running: a Dell for the day job, and my Apple for my writing. I can easily bounce between them. Of course I have wi-fi so I’m always connected (and a BlackBerry for when I’m not). I live in a high rise in Arlington, Virginia, surrounded by construction. It’s fun to look out the window and watch all the activity whenever I need a break. I usually have Radio Paradise, my favorite Internet radio station, running in the background on my Mac.

5. Favorite books (especially for writers)

I don’t often read fiction – I’m definitely a nonfiction kinda guy. That said, I’ve read A Confederacy of Dunces over and over again. It’s my kind of humor. Darkly subversive, ironic, and hysterically funny. The book took the Pulitzer for Fiction. I’ve often wondered why Hollywood hasn’t made this into a movie, especially after New Orleans took a direct hit from Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

6. Tell us 3 interesting/crazy things about you

1. I watch very little television (my eight years in military college and the U.S. Army were completely without a TV, so it broke me of the habit of channel surfing). If I turn the TV on, it’s almost always to watch a Netflix movie. Or an adult cartoon show like The Simpsons, Family Guy, or South Park. And gosh, I miss Beavis and Butt-Head.

2. I live three miles from the Pentagon, and heard the plane hit the building on 9/11. It was a stunning, 70-degree day, and I had all the windows open.

3. I stood on the Mall with 1.8 million other people to witness the historic inauguration of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States. That was inspiring.

7. Favorite quote

My favorite quote is from Henry David Thoreau’s Walden. “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb nail.”

Thoreau did his two-year experiment in self-reliance, living in a small house he built on Walden Pond, a mile from Concord, Massachusetts. He peeled back his life to the very core to see what was fundamental to living, separating need from want. I find Thoreau’s conclusion to live simply a constant reminder to focus on the things that matter most, and not to become encumbered by too many things. Appreciate what you have, enjoy what you have, love your friends and community. Don’t always strive for a bigger house or larger car or vacation house – all these things do is distract you from the better things that have far more value.

8. Best and worst part of being a writer

The best part of being a writer is the chance to explore a question in depth. You go deep down the rabbit hold to find the answer. Sometimes I feel like the knight in The Seventh Seal who is looking for knowledge about god. I find it’s a wonderful intellectual challenge, one that stretches the mind.

The worst (or rather, the most difficult) part is trying to balance a day job while pursuing writing as a full-time gig. But it’s nice to have the paycheck for now.

9. Advice for other writers

All told, the publishing process for The Prohibition Hangover took nearly six years – more time than most of us spend at college. If you’re a young person, you’ll think that amount of time is endless. If you’re older, you realize that’s not so long, and it’s better to bring a quality product to market rather than rush into something half-baked. Remember that it took Truman Capote five years to research and write his masterpiece, In Cold Blood.

Realize the value of waiting. Waiting is a spiritual exercise. It reminds that you are not in control of the universe. Waiting is very difficult in our hectic culture – we all know people who will text you again if you haven’t responded to their text within two minutes! You have to realize that a book is going to take as long as it takes.

Just remember that the Israelites wandered forty years in the Wilderness before venturing into the Promised Land. Not all those who wander are lost: your time of wandering will shape and prepare you for your own Promised Land as an author. Julia Child and Michael Cunningham each took ten years to publish their first books. You need to go through the process – it’s healthy, and it will make you a far better writer. But it requires something in short supply these days: patience and perseverance. 

10. Tell us a story about your writing experience.

I had a wonderful literary agent who tried his best for four months to sell The Prohibition Hangover. We ran into an unexpected issue: publishers were saying no because they expected a crowded field of books around the 75th anniversary of Repeal on December 5, 2008. I had been using this date as a hook, but my agent told me to tone it down. We tried repositioning it as a business book, and tied it in with the longevity of Fast Food Nation, pointing out that this would be a relevant book for years to come.

After four months, he realized the book wouldn’t sell, and so he released me from our contract. We’re still friends. What was bewildering was that there were no other books published around the anniversary of Repeal – they didn’t exist! All the publishers had turned down the book in the mistaken assumption that someone else was publishing about Repeal.

I shifted my search to academic presses, and soon found a wonderful reception at Rutgers University Press (Rutgers has one of the largest alcohol studies programs in the world). I’m delighted to work with Rutgers. The editing support has been great, and I have nothing but good things to say about the people I’ve worked with there – but above all my editor, Doreen Valentine.

Where can people buy your book?

The Prohibition Hangover is available nationwide on September 1, 2009. It can be ordered at any of the major online booksellers, as well as at the Rutgers University Press website. You can find links to all of these at http://www.prohibitionhangover.com/buy.html.

 

I have a Facebook group for The Prohibition Hangover. It’s at http://ww.facebook.com/group.php?gid=127586225340. I administer the group, and keep my readers informed of news and events. Plus it’s a Web 2.0 interface, so readers can leave comments and interact with one another and me.

Paying market for audio short stories

Read guidelines and submit through here: www.sniplits.com/authorsroom.jsp

Submissions open again on Aug. 1 for adventure, animal, historical, holiday, horror, humor, mystery, crime/PI, suspense and Westerns

FREE contest for all types of romance (paranormal, suspense, historical, etc)

July 15 deadline; NO entry fee; accepted stories get $25 and copy of anthology; 11,000 – 12,000 words

http://www.newconcordpress.com/sundropbooks/seaons1.html

10 QUESTIONS FOR…(Scottish time-travel adventure) novelist Roy Tomkinson

Author interview with Roy Tomkinson

I was born and live in Wales, UK; grew up in a mining village near to the coal mines, which was a feature of the landscape at that time, and was a great influence on my early life. I am married and have three children, who now make their own way in life, and I must say, doing very well at that.

I attended the University of Wales Cardiff and read Economics, later, I specialized in Financial Services, and set up my own company, a lot of the work was to do with compliance and regulation. The work was demanding but interesting, and I immensely enjoyed the work for many years, but there was always a little voice whispering to me to write a novel, which of course I ignored, I was earning far too much money to think about writing.

Five years ago, the whisper turned into a shout, and finally I made the plunge, sold my large house, my business, purchased a smaller house, set up my study, and started to write, living of my savings.

I have two other books in print, “Of Boys, Men and Mountains” and “Anger Child.” I do very little freelance writing now, but in my last profession I used to frequently write articles linked to financial services and compliance, but now I am a full time writer/novelist and concentrate inside the parameters I have given myself.

1. Tell us about your latest book.

 My latest novel, just published, hardcover, by Strategic Publications is called, “The Tour.” A group of people from a diving club in Wales decides to go to Mull in Scotland on a diving holiday. And so, the adventure begins:

When four members from the Coral Diving Club on a trip to Mull, an island off mainland Scotland, discover a Spanish Galleon, nothing can prepare them for what is about to unfold. The course of history is at stake when they are thrown back in time to 1526 amidst the warring Scottish Clans, the Mac Dougalls and the MacLeans, and must fight their way back to their own time.

They return to their own time, but Lanky quickly realises their existence is threatened when they realise they have unwittingly started a chain of events which seems unstoppable. It is down to Lanky and Jane to reverse the catastrophe of a time rift which is pulling time itself into the past, back to creation and beyond, and Lanky becomes aware, the only way to close the time rift is for someone to go back into the past and physically close it, but with little prospect of ever returning.

For one member of the party, who finds gold on the Galleon, lust, greed, and murderous intentions are the only way forward, and the stage is set for the drama to be played to its conclusion on the island of Mull in Tobermory.

2. How did you get started in writing?

I have always enjoyed writing, but it was not until I was on a live aboard boat on the Andaman Sea off Burma, that I started to give it serious thought. I used to go up on the top desk with my laptop when it was still dark, early morning, and write about what I could see and how I felt as the dawn broke.

I wrote many thousands of words over that coming two weeks, and I emailed them back to a friend, who told me I should write a book about my early childhood. She saw something in my rough writing, and encouraged me to carry on, and so my writing journey began in earnest. 

When I started to write seriously five years ago, I trawled to look for ideas, purchased books on how to be a successful writer until my mind was chock-blocked with ideas from other people who told me how to do it. Quite a few said – my friends included: It would be easier to go to the moon than to get a book published by a main stream publisher, I’m not talking vanity here. Most people, who knew me, thought I had gone mad. Many times over a meal they tried to talk, “sense” into me.

These are a few of the comments:

“You are giving up a real job, to write!”

“You can’t be serious?”

“I’ll tell you what? Do have a medical check. I’ll pay!”

“Writing! Writing! You mean full time, with no job!”

So the comments went forward. I listened, but equally, I shielded my mind from their negativity. I had made up my mind. I wanted to be a writer, and importantly, I was willing to pay the price. Believed it with a passion, had confidence in my ability and in me (myself Roy) to follow through. There is no substitute for action, and I had the will and I had the mind set to make it happen by action and belief.

I wrote out my plan. Not a long complicated one, short and to the point. A few words, something I could look at everyday, a measured plan, and here it is: somewhat elaborated and explained, and not the actual affirmations which I use.

They are personal to me, and no one sees them but me.

I forget about getting my work published, it just wasn’t important to me. I believed getting published would happen as a matter of course, and this, I believed with a passion, and told everyone so, there is no greater force than belief. It did happen in less than five years, three of my manuscripts are now published books.

At the start, I decided I would write ten manuscripts. The best ten manuscripts I could possible write, two a year, (I am now starting my tenth manuscript) and only then would I think about betting anything published. But I needed to stand out first from the crowd – my main affirmation, to be the best, of the best, of the best.

I searched out people who know what they were talking about to criticize what I wrote. I paid them, people I didn’t know, and who didn’t know me. I have three such people, not the same people, my work is sent anonymously to them.

That, to me, was the only way to get an objective view point. Some of the criticism I rejected, a lot I accepted, some hurt. It still hurts even today, and I still have my work criticized, but it was, and still is necessary. It always will be as far as I’m concerned. We grow far more from our mistakes that we ever do from our successes.

If I wish to improve my fitness when in the gym, it is no good me standing and talking about getting fit. I have to become active, to jump out of my comfort zone and meet the resistance head on, and then to work through that resistance until it becomes my new comfort zone, and then I, with my confidence grows.

I was out to learn the craft, and learn it I did over the years, but I know there is still a lot to learn.  I once read: If you haven’t been writing for at least 5000 hours – carry on, even then, you will still be learning. Forever you will be learning. This I found to be true, you never become a master without encountering resistance, and overcoming it.

I set a target, without a target there can be no aim. I made it realistic; I needed to achieve, to continually achieve it – my motivation: I like to feel successful. There is nothing more powerful for your personality than setting a goal and then setting about and achieving it.

In my case, I targeted to write 2000 words per day, 10,000 per week. I didn’t like working weekends, but if I failed in my objective, it meant I would have to work a Saturday or Sunday, and I had a lot of living to do every weekend, so I made sure I achieved my set goal.

I strived, and I kept striving for perfection, in my early days I was very rarely happy with my writing. My first published novel, “Of Boy, Men and Mountain,” which is destined to become a classic. I wrote and rewrote it 17 times before I was happy. I looked upon it as a kind of apprenticeship. Each time I thought I had it, I would leave it a few days, reread, and rewrite, and then after many months I knew I had it, and I partied.

I read other authors; I studied their plots and characters. Every writer had something from which I was able to learn. That is what a story is, a plot and characters. I strived to make my characters alive, my plots realistic.

Indeed, to me, my characters are alive. Some become my friends, others I hate, but to me they are alive, and not just a bit of writing across the page. I didn’t realize this until quite recently. I was due to finish a manuscript, the third manuscript in a trilogy, two and a half years work: 500,000 words in length, yet to be published, no one has seen these three manuscripts as yet only my critics. Personally, I think they are my greatest work to date.

For two weeks, I went back over it, walked, studied, did everything, anything, but complete the last chapter. It was only a few thousand words, and then I realized. I didn’t wish to leave them. I was suffering withdrawal symptoms similar to bereavement. That’s how alive these characters had become to me.
I work out the plots and the characters before I start. A pat saying, everyone tells you the same, to plan, always to plan. I do the same. Do I stick with it? No, of course not, sometimes, something happens and Voilà! A minor character seems to talk to you, and it grows, and grows, and sometimes, I wonder who is in charge.

I’m not talking here about going off on a tangent. There must be a plan, if there is no plan how can you know when you are not totally on it. You can’t of course, so always I have a plan, otherwise, how can you deviate away from it. So that it how I started to write.

3. What does a typical day look like for you?

I get up around 8 am dress and breakfast; I’m at my work desk at around 8:30 and start work. I have my own study where most of my writing takes place, it’s my work area and separate from the house. When I am there, it means I’m working, and the message is, to leave me alone.

Around 11am I stop and have a coffee and a snack, and then work to around 1pm, have lunch, and work to around 3pm and that is it for the day. Normally, by that time my daily target is achieved, if sooner I finish sooner.

What about writers block you might ask. Do I get writers block: these word seems to be in almost every self help book on how to write. With multitudinous ways of what you should do to overcome the problem. More worry and nonsense are expounded here than the worth of it.

I relax, place the rough plot, and characters inside you mind, I mean deeply inside. They should already be there anyway. Let them become part of you, think about them as people, the locations as real, some are real, before you go to sleep, and let my subconscious mind do the rest. If not the following morning, definitely the morning after, the answer will be there, inside you mind just waiting for you to write it down.

I am ruthless with you time when I write. It is a job, and if other people, family included, do not see it like that, I tell them, and follow through. I do not get distracted. The greater you are able to control You, the greater you are able to control what you write and the more free time you will be able to spend with your family or at play.

Finally, I keep positive, I believe you only ever fail when you give up, and I look upon my life as a journey and not as a destination. They say writing is a vocation, I need inspiration. I’ve lost my inspiration.

Codswallop: I am doing a job, a hard slog job. If I were a farmer, would I say I cannot milk the cows today because I lost my inspiration? Or, I’ve got work block against milking the cows.  Rubbish, of course, no one would think that, writing block is no different.  I do a job, so I enjoy the journey, some days I need to work harder, and it’s a pain, but that is the same with all jobs. Also, I know, the more I do it the better I will become, as in any job. Provided I don’t make the same mistakes, and expect to see a different outcome.

4. Describe your workspace.

Nothing special, it’s just a work station. I work from a small study, looking out into a forest. My study walls are lined with books on three sides; a flat screen, a computer and printer are on my desk, with room also for a lap top.

Facing me on the wall is a large picture, a beach with a girl looking out over the water; with a smaller picture directly in front me of a listed building, hanging on the wall, just above my head. Within arm’s reach, are numerous dictionaries and other reference books which I sometimes refer to for information. The room is functional, the view from the windows delightful, everything works as expected, and there I write as I would if working from an office

5. Favorite books (especially for writers)

Like most things, over the years my tastes change, as they say: the only constant life is change. But I do have a few lasting favorites: George Orwell, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Hardy, and Wilbur Smith, to name but four authors.

With George Orwell, there is a message in his writing, perhaps, more so in the essays and articles than in his novels, though, “Nineteen Eight Four,” and “Animal Farm,” leaves a lasting and clear message on the mind. Favourite: “Animal Farm” and his collected writings, and especially the articles, which he wrote for Tribune.

Ernest Hemingway, again like Orwell, his message is clear, war is not about glory or honour but about death, destruction, decay, and he takes you inside the action, strips it bare, and shows it in all his nakedness, not many writers are able to do this as effectively as Hemingway. Favourite: “For Whom the Bells Tolls,” followed closely by his short novel, “The Old Man and The Sea.”

Thomas Hardy, who was a great follower of Charles Dickens, indeed, the influence of Dickens can be seen in his style. He was writing when women had few rights, and he highlighted that in many of novels. I some quarters he was pillared for his writing. Indeed, in “Jude the Obscure,” he had to tone down one rape scene in order to get it published, and even then, many influential people of his day found the scene of three dead children, two killed by the eldest, who then commits suicide, distasteful, and difficult to stomach that could actually happen in their cosy world.

His plots, I must say, are somewhat farfetched, but this is more than made up by this characterisation and prose, especially when writing about the agricultural classes. “Favourites: Two novels, “The Hand of Ethelberta,” and “Return of the Native.”

Wilbur Smith, the way he sets a scene is brilliant. In some ways, he reminds me of J. Fennimore Cooper especially the “Deerslayer.” This novel is full of the rich description of the wilderness of the North American continent during the early colonization period, and the ways he describes the forests, lakes, and topography of the land is breathtaking. But there the similarity ends. Smith takes it a stage further; his research is meticulous, especially in his novels on ancient Egypt. And his novels based in the African Continent. Favourite: “When the Lion Feeds”

6. Tell us 3 interesting/crazy things about you

1. In my early years, I left school with no qualifications against my name. Indeed, without as much as the word failure written next to my name on my school certificate. I could barely write, and my reading was even worse. To my shame, I was never in school to take any exams. Always, I bunked off from school whenever I had a chance.

Frequently I was caught, punished, but it made no difference, I did exactly the same thing again. When I did finally leave school, I travelled and did various jobs, any job really, to earn money. Finally, when I was twenty, I decided to learn, and a few years later attended the University at Cardiff where I read Economics and then into business where I excelled.

2. One of the dullest things I did was when I returned to the UK from Thailand, where I had been diving in the Andaman Sea for two weeks. Tired, I lugged my diving gear and my case through customs, when I was abruptly stopped.

“Anything to declare the Custom Official asked me.”

I was mortified. “No, I replied sharply. The indignity, as if I would do such a thing was written all over my face?  

“Open your case.”

“See, nothing.”

“The other bag, if you please.”

I emptied out my diving gear onto the table and folded my arms in defiance. The Custom Official picked up my diving cap, and to my horror, six watches fell out onto the table. I had forgotten all about them. He looked at me, then towards the watches now in front of us, and back towards me, his face a scowl.

“I… I… I… forget about…” I stumbled out the words. My positive stance gone, arms languishing loosely by my side, back humped, wishing the floor would swallow me up.

His stern face looked at me; it was prison for me I was sure. “Rolex I see.” He grunted.

I had to come clean. “I paid two pounds each for them in the market. I bought them to take back for a few of my mates, as a joke,” I replied with hesitation, stumbling over my words.

The custom official to my relief laughed. “Gullible I see; you were robbed. I wouldn’t have given one pound for the lot, let’s be having you through. I should confiscate them, they have a brand name on them, but they’re so bad… just take them and go,” he mocked.

From that day on, a few of my friends still call me, “Rolex Roy,” my humiliation complete.

3. One of my hobbies is going frequently to the gym and then to the sauna and steam room later to relax. On one occasion, a few years ago, I stayed in the steam room far too long, didn’t drink a lot of water, and was severely dehydrated. I came out of the sauna, went into the changing room, and I stared to dress as was normal, but my body was so dehydrated,  my mind just shut down on me.

Yes, I mean in went totally, off the scale, blank. A friend I had with me didn’t know what had happened to me. My mind was caught in a round lock and it had locked closed. I was saying the same things repeatedly, no matter what question he asked me.

Personally, can’t remember anything about it. He took my car keys off me and drove me home. There was still no improvement, so my wife took me straight to the hospital together with my friend. The doctor questioned me, and I was admitted, yes, you’ve guessed it, into the psychiatric ward. I slept through the night and the following morning I underwent a barrage of test until the two doctors were convinced I was now back to normal.

The diagnosis, I was hallucinating due to being dehydrated, and because I am a relatively fit person, my body did not shut down as would normally have happen and go into a faint, but my brain did shut down. I was lectured by the doctor for staying in the sauna too long and advised I should always drink plenty of water after I had trained and when in the sauna. I can tell you, I felt such a fool, but my wife and my friend were really frightened by the experience. But at almost every dinner party it is mention, and believe me, they really take the Mick.

7.  Favourite quote

If you can’t have a good day, stay away for a bad one.

8. Best and worst part of being a writer

The best part is when I get up from bed, no travelling, look out at the day, see everyone else scuttling off to work, faces long, minds somewhere else, wishing they were still at home.  I, still in my dressing gown, eat breakfast, listen to the morning news, walk a few paces and start to work. There is no delay for me, stuck in a traffic jams or train, no battle with the weather. Just myself, my computer, and away I work.

The worst part: when I first started to write it was the loneliness, well not so much that, more the sudden shock of the different culture. Before, I was always busy. On the phone, schedules to complete, reports to write, lunches, speeches, traveling.

Continually I was in demand and on the phone. It makes one feel important; you are valued by your peers, and of course I was needed. I never thought I would miss it, but in the early staged I did, far, far more than I would have believed possible. The world I was then in had become a part of my life and I took it for granted.

Suddenly, there was nothing, no phone calls, no lunch dates, no traveling. Indeed, I even switched off my phone. I needed to be alone with my writing. My characters would now become my world when writing. I took me months to really be at ease with my new situation, but eventually, I adjusted, and now this is my world, and I am happy inside it.

9. Advice for other writers?

Don’t worry about getting a manuscript published, or initially about the money you hope to earn. Make yourself good enough and it will happen. Believe in it, visualize it, taste it, smell it, let it become part of you, glow with it, not against it, and believe, you must believe, and it will happen. 

Market yourself as a writer; too many writers think that it must to be left to someone else. If you believe in your writing, tell, shout it out, and be positive. Get an agent, if need be, be your own agent, use every way to tell the world who you are and what you are, doubt not, and it will happen.

Sell your work by selling yourself. Make yourself stand out, but first, you must stand up, on a stool if need be, you have a story, and you need to tell others about it. Otherwise, how will they know? If you lack faith in yourself, how can you expect others to have the faith in you, which you, yourself lack. Good luck with your writing, but remember, luck is something you make yourself. Show you are successful and other people will beat a pass to your door.

Attitude of mind, commitment, action and belief you must throw into the pot, and remember to always keep stirring, lest they harden and become unworkable. Finally, do not let negativity lessen your resolve; the world is paved with good advice on how to give up and to meet resistance with apathy. Good luck, stay focused to your task and go for gold. And remember, it is easier and less work to find stones in the ground than gold, which requires a lot more effort to find and dig out.

10. Tell us a story about your writing experience.

When I started to first write, my friends used to laugh and joke, they thought I was just lazing around, taking it easy, and I would go back to “work” and “business,” when this crazy notion I had of becoming a full time novelist was out of my system. Through the Welsh Arts Council in Wales, my first novel was published very quickly. Far quicker than I anticipated, I didn’t pitch the publishing company; it was a referral to get in touch with them which I did.

A few months later my first novel, “Of Boys, Men and Mountains,” was published. The printer mostly published welsh books, and there was little or no advertising with the launch, and even though it didn’t take off with a bang. Sale of the book is steadily increasing, and it is already relatively well know within Wales.

The crux: some of my gym friends bought and read the novel, there is no more taking the Mick now, they are all fans, and it gave me a lot of satisfaction when I was sitting in the hot tub talking to my friends, and a stranger walked in and joined us and started to talk about a book he had just read, and said it made him laugh and cry. Stating it was the best story he had read in a long while.

It was my book; it made me feel really good, especially when the others agreed with him, but not for me to get carried away, I had to buy a round of drinks later at the bar. They stated (sic) it was to keep my feet on the ground. I know sometimes your friends tell you what you want to hear, but it was not this time, when a few of them said my novel made them feel the same. One even admitted parts of the book makes him laugh whenever he thinks of it, and other parts makes him cry, he he’s a second Dan karate expert.

Where can people buy your books?

My books, latest included, “The Tour” can be purchased on line from all major on line book retailers and from most book shops in the UK. “The Tour” is on sale (just released) in America and can be purchased at most retail outlet, which sells books, or on line including the website they have built for me.  

See web sites:

1. “The Tour” ISBN: 978-1-60693-682-5

www.strategicbookpublishing.com/TheTour.html

2. My blog page: “roytomkinson.blogspot.com” CHECK IT OUT ON GOOGLE.

3. Webpage: “Of Boys, Men and Mountains” ISBN: 0862438683

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=2lFm86R3YRQC&dq=roy+tomkinson&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=JqWUXfVvA2&sig=5BuFZcHGwpVBp0j8_QL03yOyWQw&hl=en&ei=5FMISsTjGKDUjAe91uDQBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2#PPP1,M1

4. “Anger Child”: 978095597360-4

http://www.gwales.com/rating/?isbn=9780955973604&tsid=3