Ciao a tutti! Hi, everybody! It's time for another Thursday Thirteen, and this week I have a special treat for everyone. You see, back in 2008-9, I had the pleasure of meeting a number of good writers on the Harper-Collins Authonomy website. I read many great books while they were still in their development stage, but there was one book in particular which stood out in my estimation. One, a psychological thriller (which is not a genre I normally read), was so good, I read all of the available sample and asked for more of it. I was generously given the still-incomplete manuscript to read at my leisure. To this day, it is the only book I've managed to read while sitting at my computer.

Well, now, that book - called Affinities - is available for purchase, along with another thriller, Subculture. Both are well worth a read, but you might also want to get to know the author a little better, first.

So please sit back, relax and enjoy this interview with the lovely and talented (and former Authonomite), Chris Hollis!

1) So, Chris - tell me something about yourself.

Well, I’m a mid-thirties writer, fighting off life while I try to make my mark. Writing is the one job in entertainment where you can still be considered at the start of your career in your thirties. Many of the greats didn’t reach their stride until their kids were all grown up (not that I have any).

2) When did you first get bitten by the writing bug?

That’s not so easy to pin down. Winding back the clock, I was originally an aspiring (failed) cartoonist, then a director-without-a-camera, which turned into a screenwriter. Book writing evolved some point in my early twenties. I dabble. It’s always been one of my problems – disciplined, but rarely focussed.

3) Tell me about your books.

I have two available as of 2013 – Subculture and Affinities. Both are thrillers, and fast, but the similarity ends there. Subculture is an action-packed, breakneck, A-to-B kind of affair, whereas Affinities is a good deal more complex. Even I can’t remember all the different threads I wove into it. Every inanimate object has a specific pathway through the novel, developing in the reader’s eye, something like a character.

4) Which book was the greater challenge to write?

Easily Affinities. That kind of detail takes time to get right. After six years of putting it together, I just wanted to write a nice linear plot, something you could read on a sun lounger in a couple of days. That’s Subculture. Still, both are child’s play compared to a couple I have on my desktop. Ten years hasn’t been enough to call them finished...

5) How much research do you do when you're writing?

Copious and endless. Google images helps me to write descriptions, then I look up sunset times, weather forecasts, road names, people names. You can’t afford not to research every last little detail. It also helps to write Q&As as you go along, to remind yourself what the overriding point of the novel is. Then you can research your own research!

6) What genre do you prefer to read? What are your favorite books in that genre?

I’m into soft sci-fi and paranormal. Different genres, but they boil down to the same thing – an ordinary protagonist versus a strange adversary. Giant monsters and spooks. Think Triffids, Martians, vampires in a 1990s sense. Vampires are a bit different now, I feel. Less edgy, less fun.

7) What made you decide to be an Indie author?

I would have baulked at the concept ten years ago, determined to follow in the footsteps of the people who inspired me. Then one day I realised it should be the readers who decide what they like, and nobody else. So now I’m out there, along with two billion other authors, walking the fine line between shameless self-promotion, and blindly hoping to get noticed.

8) When you're writing, do you need noise or silence?

Great question. Silence, and it’s a bone of contention. When I’m doing a first draft, ambient noise is acceptable, but when it comes to doing that perfect paragraph – I mean the one where every word just flows poetically – it has to be silent like the grave for miles around. Hence why my output isn’t higher. One book a year is hard enough as it is when you struggle to concentrate like I do.

9) What's your typical writing day like?

Few and far between, really. Sometimes, I stay late in the office and pace up and down, proof reading, lapping up the solitude. But those rare pajama days amount to maybe seven hours of writing, and five of procrastination. They’re fantastic for getting the house clean!

10) Where did the ideas for your books come from/what inspired them?

Someone once said to me “think of a terrorist”, and I had the image I think most people would – a Middle-Eastern bearded man, with a vendetta that many Westerners perhaps wouldn’t understand. I didn’t like the stereotype, and so I decided to make terrorists who were homegrown, but still organised en-masse. The other ground, I felt, had been over trodden. [note: that book became Subculture]

Affinities, at conception, was a one-man play. Every chapter was supposed be a different night in the same location, with just one character. Turns out that would be boring as hell, so I scrapped the idea as I learned how much a story needs both dialogue, and autonomy. You can still see the roots in the first five chapters, though.

11) Say your books take off and you start earning Stephen King money: What is the first thing you purchase?

Remember the speedboat David Beckham rode along the Thames, holding the Olympic torch? I heard they couldn’t sell it. I’d have that. There were lights shining into the water jets that made it look all futuristic.

12) Give me a completely random fact about yourself.

I was the one who left the office window open overnight. Feels good to clear the air.

13) Any final words of advice or declarations to make?

It seems to me that every writer around is part of a gold rush for the ebook market right now, with many struggling to get as many books out there as quickly as they can. My advice is relax. Better to have three great books than six that are merely okay, right? You’ll be tagged with those books for the rest of your life (and then beyond). The other tip is go sit in a sauna. Quiet thinking time, and also nice and warm.

Hello, all! This week, I thought I'd continue the bookish themes from previous weeks and give you another glimpse into the creative mind of an indie writer. This time around, I've interviewed my new friend Jill Pennington, author of the slightly unusual ex-pat memoir The Diary of a Single Parent Abroad.

So, here are:

1) First, please tell us a little about yourself.

I am a ‘Britalian’ Originally from Yorkshire (England) I have been living in Italy for 8 years, I have three teenage children and far too many animals. We live in the Apennine mountains and love it.

2) Could you sum up your book in one sentence for us?

An expat story with a difference.

3) Had you ever considered being/Were you a writer prior to writing this?

I have always written about my life and observations since childhood. I thought everyone did it but apparently not.

4) What was the hardest thing about writing the book?

Re-living the hard times.

5) Since The Diary of a Single Parent Abroad is a memoir, did you have to resist the urge to fictionalize any of it?

Oh no, the material just piled up in a corner, in fact there is still so much that I didn’t capture. My friends say that more things happen to me in a week than happen to most people in a year!

6) Have you considered writing fiction? Why/Why not?

Yes, I am currently considering this idea.

7) Is this book traditionally published or self-published?

I self-published.

8) Why did you choose that route to publication?

It appears in the current publishing climate, that unless you are a celebrity or already published there is very little chance of being taken on by a traditional publisher, so I decided to try going it alone.

9) What has been the most challenging part of publication for you?

Marketing, the hard work starts after you publish.

10) Are you considering writing another book yet?

Yes, I hope to write many more.

11) What will it be about?

Probably a sequel to the first but I have other ideas to explore as well.

12) What is your favorite book you've read this year?

Ooh I would have to say ‘Ask Me if I’m Happy’ by Kimberly Menozzi (sorry I am biased due to living in Bella Italia)

13) What is your favorite book ever?

Stig of the Dump by Clive King –My favourite book as a child, I read it over and over, then got the chance to enjoy it again as a parent.

Or use the following links:
Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
Paperback
You can also follow Jill on Twitter (@jillipen) and Facebook. Her promo for the book can be found on Youtube.

Ciao for now! :)

Four years ago, while I workshopped the original short-story form of Ask Me if I'm Happy on a writing site called URBIS, I read some excerpts from Christopher Allen. We got to be online friends after I rated the excerpts and shared my thoughts on them, and soon we were chatting about things other than books or writing. I thought he was funny and definitely talented - ask other folks, they'll tell you the same! - and I expected to see more of his URBIS project soon.

Well, it took a little longer than expected - these things often do - but now the big day has come! So please, allow me to share with you:

1) What one thing would you want readers to know about you?

That I mean them no harm. I want them to laugh until their bellies jiggle. I want their tear ducts to be cleansed through uproarious giggling fits.

2) Is there a genre you'd like to write in, but haven't tried? If so, why not?

I’ve written in just about every genre out there except western. Is that still what they call it? I remember reading several western mysteries as a teenager, and I liked them very much. I wouldn’t want to write a western, though. Although I have dabbled in science fiction, I’ve never finished a story. Definitely science fiction. Something like Stargate. Big fan.

3) Your previous stories have often had a contemplative or bittersweet quality to them. The new book seems to be a departure from that. Was there a reason for this?

I think contemplative and crazy are just two parts of me that come out at different times. Conversations with S. Teri O’Type has been a wild book to write, and I hope it will be just as wild to read. It’s humor and parody and most of all satire. Nothing here is serious except everything.

4) How much of your real life informs your writing?

My inner life—my worries and my dreams—informs my writing a great deal, but if you mean my day-to-day life of teaching and mowing the lawn and making dinner, etc. I try to keep that separate. There are times that certain situations will spark an idea for a story. The oak in the backyard keeps giving me stories. Then the hedge gave me one. I should spend more time out there.

5) Where have you been published previously?

Most of my work has been published at literary ezines, most recently at SmokeLong Quarterly. Others include A-Minor Magazine, Blue Five Notebook Series, Gone Lawn, Referential Magazine, Every Day Fiction, The Legendary, Pure Slush and Metazen (where I’m an editor). I’ve had non-fiction published at Connotation Press and BootsnAll Travel, and several of my creative non-fiction pieces have appeared in Chicken Soup for the Soul (print, mass market). I’ve also been very fortunate to have landed in cool short story/flash collections like Flash Fiction Fridays and STRIPPED, a collection of anonymous flash fiction.

6) You live in Europe but you're from the US. Does being an expat affect your writing style?

It certainly does, I’m just not sure how. I wish I could go back and forth between parallel universes and see Christopher Allen in Nashville vs. Christopher Allen in Munich. I’m sure I’ve become a different person, so of course my writing style has developed differently. Maybe this is the science fiction novel I’ll end up writing. Or not. I am certainly more secluded her than I would have been if I’d stayed in Nashville. Seclusion is good for writing.

7) What is your typical writing workday like?

I wake up at around 6a.m. I used to get up at 5a.m. but I’ve trained my body to lie there and suck it up for another hour. I turn on my computer and let the old bag boot while I make coffee. I check my e-mails, I check facebook, I check my blog, I sip my coffee, I check Twitter. I chat with people in the US who’ve not gone to bed yet. I sip my coffee. I notice the piles of reminders on my desk. Here are the ones I’m looking at today. March AWP! Indie Author News! Check SmokeLong! Message classes about tomorrow!! Gay Book Club NYC!!! Edit “Furniture”! My notes tend to scream at me. I start checking off the things on the list, which is much longer than this. I haven’t listed the names of people I’m working with on interviews and such. I take a nap because my shoulder is hurting. You get the picture. I should be writing, but I’ve just come back from vacuuming the kitchen.

8) Which writers have influenced/inspired you?

I love writers like Chuck Palahnuik and Daniel Handler and Lucy Ellmann and Julie Innis. One of my favorite writers is Jincy Willett. I love all these people for their sharp wit and exciting prose. I want to be all of them when I get taller. I’ve never lost hope.

9) Do you have a "target audience"?

All people on planet Earth would be nice. Doing the math, I think that would make me the richest man on planet Earth. But let’s say that doesn’t happen. I would hope that people—not just gay men—who love humor and stories that break away from the mold just a bit would love, or at least read, or at least buy, Conversations with S. Teri O’Type. The cover is very pretty, so it would look great on coffeetables and bathroom shelves. It is a story about a man in his mid-forties who has never learned how to be gay, so . . . um . . . I see this is the next question. Moving right along . . .

10) What is this book about?

So Curt, a dysfagtional man in his mid-forties, enlists the help of a self-proclaimed “gayru” to help him get gay. It’s a farcical jaunt down the Road to Greater Gayness, an absurd tale, a train wreck of sorts between a guy who thinks he knows nothing and a monster who thinks he knows everything.  

11) When did you first get the idea for this particular book?

I wrote the first Conversation on an online workshop in 2008 I believe. Fifteen of the 30 Conversations were born in the online workshop, but the story actually took shape much later. It has been a long process. Deciding what Curt, the narrator, really wants came much later than 2008.

12) Was this book inspired by anyone in your life?

It’s funny you ask that. My partner, who read half of the book on a plane last week, thinks he’s Curt. And maybe there are aspects of Curt in him. I remember once when we were living in London in 1998, he hung all the pictures in the living room very very close to the ceiling. I was shocked, and we had a “little” argument about it. Everyone knows pictures are supposed to be hung at eye-level, don’t they? This may have been the first time I thought, Hmmm not all gay men can hang a picture. And this might have been the germ for the book. Other than that one moment, Teri and Curt represent an elephant-in-the-room dialogic among gay men: To Be or Not to Beyoncè—which became one of the later Conversations.

13) You really are adorable, aren't you?  (readers of Christopher's I Must Be Off blog will get that one...)

Yes! I really really am adorable. It’s true. Some people don’t believe it, but when they meet me in person, they often pinch my fat little cheeks. Just don’t shove past me in a bar. 

Christopher Allen is the author of the adult cartoon satire Conversations with S. Teri O'Type. In 2011, Allen was a finalist at Glimmer Train and a Pushcart Prize nominee. He blogs at www.imustbeoff.com.

I first met Robert Stermscheg a year ago on the Amazon forums where we chatted about various topics which were related to my debut novel, Ask Me if I'm Happy. Robert shared his review of Ask Me... a short while later. Recently, he contacted me to let me know that his latest work was about to be released, and he happily agreed to do an interview about his work.

This is what he had to say:

Q. I believe this is your third translation project. Can you briefly describe the process of not only translating a work into English, but taking a story written in the 19th century and bringing it to today's reader? 

A: Process is aptly put. First, you need to have an understanding of the time period. In my case, 19th century France and Germany. Second, as a translator, I have to be aware of old expressions that Karl May employed; idioms, as it were, from his time (1880s), that not only stemmed from German tradition and folklore but also presented a challenge in conveying them into modern English. That was perhaps the most difficult. I chose to retain them, as they added ‘colour’, and provided explanation notes at the end.  Also, the German language is structured quite differently from English. Karl May often employed long paragraphs and run-on sentences that had to be broken up and reworked into a more coherent format. That was certainly time consuming.

Q. Why did you choose Karl May as an author to translate and share with North American readers?               

A: Easy. I “grew up” with Karl May. As a boy, I was naturally drawn to his thrilling stories, many taking place in North America, often in the “Wild West”. They depicted the Indian tribes as noble savages, clearly the victims of the “White Man’s” insatiable thirst for land. As much as I enjoyed stories about cowboys and Indians, I also delved into his other works, some of which took place in the old Ottoman Empire, dealing with conflict between the French and the Germans. Although I also read Edgar Rice Burroughs and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, I seemed to gravitate back to Karl May. I suppose I was attracted to his keen sense of adventure, portrayal of humanity, and his rendering of history through his novels.

Q. Now that you've translated several Karl May books, will you continue with this author or are there other authors that you want to translate?              

A: Actually, I’ve completed three translations, which have been published thus far. The fourth book, POW #74324, is my father’s memoir and deals with his experiences during WWII and then post-war Yugoslavia. I’ve committed myself to doing the Hussar’s Love series, spanning five novels. I may do more in the future, but I also want to expand my writing in other areas, exploring other interests such as historical fiction from the WWII era.

Q. We’ve all fielded unique, if not awkward questions from customers. Can you recall one that stood out? 

A: Sure. One actually dealt with the process of translation. One woman was quite surprised to hear that it took me the better part of nine (9) months to translate my first manuscript of roughly 150,000 words. Looking somewhat sheepish, she had assumed I had used a computer program, like the ones found on Wikipedia. I smiled, explaining that, as a translator, you have to capture the small nuances, the ‘flavor’ of the manuscript and adapt the work to the spirit and flow of the original. No program will do that.

Q. No doubt you've grown a great deal as a writer through this process. Can you share what you've learned, and has this helped you to develop your style and honed your craft?                

A: That is an understatement. If truth be known, I can honestly say that I had no idea what I was getting into (laughs). In my former career as a police officer, I naturally wrote a great deal. However, much of it was very structured and concise, leaving little room to express my thoughts outside the confines of the police report.  The funniest thing about writing, and writing to be published is that everything takes on a new importance. All of a sudden you’re forced to pay attention to previously overlooked things like spelling, syntax, and of course grammar. In short, I took the whole thing more seriously and endeavoured to put out the best effort that I could. Secondly, I started paying a lot more attention to other writers: how they developed their storyline, pacing, character development, even the use of dialogue.  I wasn’t shy about getting advice from other writers, and willingly applied many of their suggestions.  Becoming a writer is the start to the learning process.

Q. Has this experience influenced you to venture away from translation and into writing a novel of a different genre?                 

A: My initial drive was to translate this series so that family and friends could appreciate the works of Karl May. But as so often happens, (perhaps it was just me) we get inundated with all sorts of ideas. I’ve actually had people come up to me at book signings and comment on their bizarre ideas, and one lady in particular told me I needed to, no, I had to, write a certain story (laughs). During the process, I did however have inspiration to write my father’s memoir. He was a WWII veteran, and this was quite the departure from writing fiction. So, yes, it did inspire me to venture into other areas, including writing short stories for magazine publication. I’m currently working on a WWII thriller, entitled Stealth. It deals with an experimental jet fighter the Nazis were developing. The novel delves into human conflict, pitting a few ‘good’ Germans against Hermann Goering’s war machine. It promises intrigue, adventure, even a little romance.

Q. I noticed that you’ve self-published the books in this series. Please share the best and the most challenging parts of that process?            

A: As with many new authors, the challenge is to find a publisher who will take on your project and then walk you through the maze of the publishing industry. What I quickly learned was that few are willing to take on new authors, and fewer still if their initial work exceeds 100,000 words. My first novel (translation) had just over 150,000 words. Further, what complicated my entry into the world of publishing is that my first work was a translation. In my search, I ran into all sorts of vanity presses, that for a high price promised all sorts of things, including marketing, but delivered little in the way of real promotion, and certainly virtually nothing in terms of distribution. For any author, particularly in the early stages, you need to be available for book signings, and that means distribution into book stores. It was a real learning process. My advice to current writers and aspiring authors, is to seek out established authors and ask lots of questions. Also, keep reading (expand your repertoire), and of course continue writing. And perhaps most important, be prepared for the long haul and the many rejection letters (emails) that are sure to come. One of my first highlights was to see my first novel prominently displayed in a local bookstore. The thrill of signing those first few copies was a wonderful experience and made all the work worthwhile.

To see more of Robert's work, click on any of the images below.