Quite the Life (and all in Times New Roman 10pt!)
Elizabeth Chatsworth, kind, gentle, and giving person she is, interviewed me and published our exchange at AN INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR JOSEPH CARRABIS.
We talked about
Enjoy!
I met Joseph Carrabis through his former publisher. He’s a fun guy with a wonderful imagination, and a very interesting past in marketing. Today, we’re going to talk all about that, and he’s going to introduce you to his work.
The great and glorious (and everwise. mustn’t forget everwise) Justine Manzano, author of The Order of the Key and other novels, interviewed me on her blog.
We talked about The Augmented Man, my writing process, music I write by, my publishing plan (currently in phase III of IV), examples of good publishers and an example of a bad publisher, blogging about wildlife, and more.
Give it a read.
And comment. It’s always nice when you comment.
What can be better than six #weareallharvey writers getting together? How about them talking about how one writes fiction?
Specifically, science fiction, horror, fantasy, steampunk, historic romance, novels, short stories, flash, …
And even better, they’re all published! Some self, some indie, some small press. Some in the Harvey Duckman Presents series, some in other venues.
That’s what Kate @KateBaucherel Baucherel, Mark @darrackmark Hayes, Alexandrina @Caelestia_Flora Brant, myself and others did for #Scarborough Live this past weeked.
So give a listen (and let them know what you think).
(and yes, i’m one of them).
Gifted author Terry Melia interviewed me recently as part of The Shadow’s Project Limited‘s author interview series.
All cards on the table, Terry’s Tales from the Greenhills is an amazing novel and how Terry and I got in touch. We knew each other via Twitter, I enjoyed our interactions, and decided to give his book a go.
Strongly recommended.
Terry contacted me a while back about being interviewed. As my The Augmented Man was re-released by Sixth Element Publishing, I said “oh…well…if i have to…PLEASE DEAR GOD YES OH PLEASE OH PLEASE OH PRETTY PRETTY PLEASE!”
You can watch the video below or on YouTube.
Enjoy.
It took two months to write, thirty-one years to get published. And you know what? It was worth the wait.
I am so proud. I wrote The Augmented Man in April of 1990. Now I’m holding copies in my hands.
And the delay wasn’t because of slow mail.
I wrote the novel side-by-side with the novella, The Goatmen of Aguirra (to give you an idea of what my mind was working on at the time).
I’d workshopped The Augmented Man and received high praise. I shopped it around, no publisher was interested. I asked AJ Budrys, my mentor and an accomplished author and editor, if he’d be willing to read it and let me know if I was kidding myself, did it just need work, should I give up my dreams of being a published author…?
What you need to know is I was an accomplished trade technical author in the late 1980s through the early 1990s, at the height of the PC Boom (I discuss this in my interview) and my work was in high demand. I knew the publishing industry at that time.
AJ read it and was so blown away he offered to agent it for me. He’d published some of my short fiction in his Tomorrow magazine and he knew my work from workshops. He was familiar with my work, my style, my weaknesses, and my strengths. But The Augmented Man caught him by surprise.
I was flattered, honored. I almost fainted when I read his letter offering to represent the novel (1990, remember? We didn’t do lots of emailing back then).
For reasons that had nothing to do with the book, AJ couldn’t land it. We met at a con and he explained the situation to me. Someday, should we meet at a con, ask me and I’ll share the story.
AJ passed and I got another agent. She loved the book. Could I add 30,000 words to it?
Sure, why?
Because (at 85k words) it was too short (I reedited it to its present 97k words). Thirty-k words longer and she was sure she could land it. I added 30k words, edited, proofed, and sent the rewrite to her in under a month.
Didn’t hear from her. Called and got “Oh, on second thought, no, I don’t think this is a good enough novel. Besides, there’s too much out there already like it.”
Really? Did you read the novel?
Yeah, sure. It’s about a guy lost in a jungle, right?
On to agent #3. Who was a joke. I finally asked point blank, “How many projects have you placed?” and she responded that she couldn’t work with someone who asked such questions. This after the head of the agency phoned and talked with me for an hour to let me know how impressed he was by my work.
So I put it on the shelf. I went on with life.
Because I’m patient.
And now I’m holding the novel in my hands.
I’m so proud.
Would you like a personally autographed copy?
(and feel free to pass this on to every one)