Archive for March, 2010
Posted on March 28, 2010 - by admin
Author Interview – Jim Overturf
What’s the hardest part of writing a book?
For me, in writing mystery novels, it’s keeping track of events, actions, thoughts and movements throughout the entire manuscript so as to avoid repetition and duplication.
I do not write lineally, starting at page 1 and working to page 500. I write scenes all over the place, whenever they strike me, sometimes in the middle of the night. Only after half the book is written do I try to settle into a lineal mode of writing. Often I wind up with the same scene two or three different ways, without even realizing what I’m doing, because the same scene or theme works in Chapter 4 and Chapter 6 and again in Chapter 8, under different circumstances. My editor catches most of these, but we both miss a few.
What are your current projects?
The third book in the Kurt Maxxon series, Carpentier Falls is going into editorial review. I am currently scoping the fourth book in the series, Centralia, and will start writing it as soon as Carpentier Falls is sent to the publisher.
How long does it take you to write a book?
The first book in the Kurt Maxxon series, Masonville took over 20 years to prepare and about 14 months to write. The second book, Kings Rapids, took about 14 months from start to ready for publication. The third book, Carpentier Falls, looks to be taking about ten months from start to ready for publication. I would like to maintain the one-book-per-year mode.
What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?
How incredibly difficult it is to avoid my natural tendency, after thirty years of writing training programs, to slip into the Tell-Tell-Told technique of writing.
For thirty-years I developed hundreds of training programs in which the major emphasis is the (1) tell them you’re going to tell them [something], (2) tell them the [something], and then (3) tell them you’ve told them [something].
But the Tell-Tell-Told theme doesn’t work in fiction. Readers don’t like it. Fiction must move at a fast pace from here to there, and readers cringe at the delay that Tell-Tell-Told introduces.
I’m still having problems with this, in Carpentier Falls, as pointed out by my editor.
What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
I read a lot. I stack up books to read while I’m working on one of my books, and then when I get the story ready for editing, I start reading down the stack. I also play the stock market; not as a day trader, or anything like that. I watch the markets every day and make trades trying to catch the ups and downs of it. Nothing big or Earth shaking. Just enough to have fun and keep my portfolio growing.
Posted on March 13, 2010 - by admin
Author Interview – Jack Hatfield, Natural Success Principles
What excites you most about your book’s topic? Why did you choose it?
It excites me that I was Blessed with Tragedy so that I may help others. The wisdom that was bestowed upon me in those 130 days bedside was an amazing transformational experience. It not only shook me to the foundation, it destroyed it so that I had to build another, better foundation and a beautiful new manor or lifestyle that went with it.
It is with these teachings that I must, I repeat I must, spread the word and help. It seems like I was shown these principles at a very iconic time for our world and our country. People are seriously having problems right now. We don’t have time to sit around and hope for someone or something to pull us out of this mess. We have to work our way out. Just like they did when the country was formed, the parallels are astonishing. With that said, we need to look deep at what makes us tick, what makes us find the way in our own human spirit. Nothing can hold back the human spirit. It is what makes us powerful as individuals.
My book looks deep into this human spirit and finds that we have all we need to succeed inside of us before we were born.
It took a tiny child to show the way, and I won’t let her teachings remain kept, I must tell the world.
How long did the book take you from start to finish?
I realized what I was being shown about 100 days into our ordeal. As you can expect, I was a little preoccupied with the day-to-day worries to see most things. Yet, when I realized how powerful and amazing the things I were witnessing, I knew I had to share it.
First, the day-to-day story had to be told. People craved it from the time I started a blog for our family members. They wanted to know what happened behind the scenes. I felt I had to tell them.
I then had others ask me, what changed in you? How are you? How are you so happy?
I would meet people on the street that claimed they were so down, so depressed, yet, when they learned that I was there when my child died twice, their spirits seem to lift. They realized things were not so bad. They listened to me tell them that they can succeed. They realized that my tales of this incredible child meant that they can do it as well.
It was then that I knew I had to write the book. I had the title 4 years before the book was began. It took me 4 years to just get the first book down on paper, and from that another year to get Natural Success Principles out of my mind. 5 years from the moment I know the title and knew what I had to do, I now have the finished product.
I have since learned even more with my studies. What about my tale is so amazing? It came from a baby. I saw her work harder and be more successful than anything else I have ever witnessed. I saw true good in people helping her and us. Nurses, doctors, and assistants were doing amazing things every day.
Just amazing, simply amazing.
What aspect of writing the book did you find particularly challenging?
I found articulating some of my wisdoms simply were very difficult. Some of the concepts are big and deep. I gained the power to do this from my background in I.T. (technology). I have to make the complicated simple in all of my dealings.
The next aspect that was challenging was to make sure the reader gets it.
There are many self help gurus out there. Their books never give any true answers to success. I wanted my book and the associated workbook to really allow the person reading it to understand and find their success from this book. As in my technology area, I did not want to keep coming back to the customer fixing little things, I wanted to do the job right and make them satisfied.
The same holds true for every human that I want to help succeed. This is not an never-ending cycle of buying my book, then buying my program, then buying another book, then buying another package. I do have all these things, but eventually I want you out there, not listening to me but listening to yourself. You are the success when this is finished. That is the plan, not to drain your wallet while keeping you yearning for any truer secrets.
The secret is; it is you. You can succeed. You may need help and I will give it to you, but eventually you move on with your success. You reach your goals and keep going.
When I teach enough people to succeed, I am positive that this will be a better country and world.
What surprised you the most about the book writing process?
Nothing. I planned, worked the plan, and made everything happen exactly as I wanted. It is going along perfectly. The step we are on now is to increase the audience.
Did you have any favorite experiences when writing your book?
There were some chapters that my daughter forced me to write even after I finished the book. I did most of the writing without really writing. I talked this book. I dictated stories and teachings into a digital recorder. I then had those recordings transcribed, which I then edited to nurture the concepts in the words. It allowed the book to flow from me. It allowed me to see something in her and get it out right as it happened. I did a lot of the editing on a laptop on the kitchen table. It became my office away from my office. I did it to spend even more time with her, just in case she had something else for me to tell the world.
It also started her love of computers and that is why I have 5 pre-school games on that same super powerful laptop. We both had computer time during the day.
It was wonderful.
What do you hope your readers will gain from reading your book?
Success. See within themselves all that they need to succeed. They have covered these principles up and once I show them, they can release them again.
What projects are you currently working on?
I founded the Early Journey Foundation to help parents of premature babies. I started www.PreeMiracles.com, the world’s first and largest social network for PreeMiracles and those who love them. I am currently helping the March of Dimes in their work as well. All the proceeds from the book benefits the March of Dimes and the Early Journey Foundation.
I have also launched the Blessed with.. Series. Each book will have 50 stories of the triumph of the human spirit over many things, cancer, depression, loss and others. Each book benefits the corresponding non-profit.
Also with the launch of this book, we are launching Anytime Success Mentoring website and the Anytime Success Package. Like I said, many self-help “gurus” just highlight what you need to succeed. Many of them say things like, “My Mentor was Warren Buffett or Zig Ziglar, you need to get a mentor also.” Well, how do we go about getting a mentor like you did? It leaves you searching without a solution. They are in the business of keeping you “lost” so that you keep buying.
I am not that, if I tell you to do something, I will tell you how to get it. Yes, we need help, and that is what my site Anytime Success is going to do. It will give you the mentors you need to solve any crisis and destroy the excuses for your own success. Once we eliminate your excuses, I show you what you have inside you and then you are off to success. Not “lost” searching our stuff again for another nugget of wisdom. I am not saying do not keep learning, but I want you successful, not just wishing for it.
Is writing your sole career? If not, what else do you do?
Keeping bright smiles on the faces of the 4 ladies of the house is my full time job.
I am a proud father and husband. I am the owner of 2 other beautiful girls. They are my dogs.
I dabble in technology some also.
Did you do any research for your books, or did you write from experience?
I read anywhere from 3 to 10 books a week. I have a lifetime of learning from these books. I feel that books are incredible. I have a book anywhere there can be idle time. I even have books ready for a long stoplight. I also have books on tape for the Car School.
It is from all that I learned that I was able to see what I was being shown from my daughter’s experience. People and parents are blessed with premature children every minute on this planet. They are blessed with this tragedy. Some may say it was hard, some forget the experience, and some live differently. I could not just keep it within. I have to tell the world what I was shown.
How did you come up with your title?
Naturally. Kidding. Again, what I witnessed was a set of principles to success. These principles are inside you before you are born. They are naturally inside you. Natural Success Principles. Always there, from the start.
What books have influenced you the most?
A book really has not influenced me, but authors do. Zig Ziglar, Robin Sharma, Robert Kennedy, Stan Lee, Brian Tracy, Napoleon Hill.
Comedians have also shaped me as I love standup comedy. Richard Pryor, Brian Regan.
One of the most compelling things I remember in my past is that my parents took me to Feeling Great seminars with Glenn W Turner. While some look to him now as a pariah, it really began my foray into the power of the human spirit.
Who was your publisher and why did you choose them?
Morgan James Publishing.
I did an awful lot of research into publishing and publishers. I saw what this company was trying to do and liked the concept. While I could have self-published or went with a “traditional” publisher, I liked control. I like speed. I like to get a book done when I want it done, not when a company tells me so. They do what I want, that is why we are there.
Posted on March 12, 2010 - by admin
Author Interview – Nancy Burnett
Journeys Home: Stories from Grandmother’s Lap by Nancy Burnett
What excites you most about your book’s topic? Why did you choose it?
Real life story excites me more than anything. I want to know and understand human nature both in the abstract and on very personal levels. My choice follows my history of studying human development at the graduate level, of practicing psychotherapy, and of years of personal analytic work both formally and informally.
How long did the book take you from start to finish?
I wrote in stream of consciousness for about 18 months. I then took another 18 months to cut and reassemble the resulting segments into coherent essays. This required new writing plus rewriting. Another period of months completed editorial revisions and other book preparation tasks.
What aspect of writing the book did you find particularly challenging?
Getting over my initial reticence and self-doubt. Finding the voices necessary to telling the story. Keeping my confidence in the face of frustration.
What surprised you the most about the book writing process?
It’s actually pretty easy for me. My muse is reliable when I move forward with trust.
Did you have any favorite experiences when writing your book?
Traipsing around Arkansas doing “research” in the company of my cousin was great fun. Just being together makes us laugh. Sometimes I just get tickled with myself over what I have written because it feels so good. I loved reading the emerging paragraphs out loud.
What do you hope your readers will gain from reading your book?
I want people to see themselves and find overlooked opportunities for improving their quality of life, to find new courage to confront healing tasks, to be inspired that if I could find humor and hope in my life experience, they can too.
What projects are you currently working on?
I am picking up where this book left off in time and theme and continuing into my adulthood. The precipitating points are dreams instead of photos but I’ll probably include some pictures again.
Is writing your sole career? If not, what else do you do?
I am a certified Life Cycle Celebrant, a spiritual director, and I create and facilitate programs—classes, retreats, events—for women that are affiliated with the Marion Woodman Foundation.
Did you do any research for your books, or did you write from experience?
I wrote from experience. I informally interviewed some family members and retraced a few family documents as well.
How did you come up with your title?
It emerged from the imagery in the writing. “Journeys home” is a central dynamic of the stories. “Grandmother’s lap” is the land of Arkansas, the place that cradles the essence of my origins and identity. “Recollections”—recollecting bits and pieces—constitutes the soul work of the writing project.
What books have influenced you the most?
I have been deeply influenced by over twenty-five years of reading and reflecting on the writings of many Jungian scholars and practitioners, e.g., Marion Woodman, Marie-Louise von Franz, and Jeffrey Raff. Linda Leonard’s The Wounded Woman put me on the road to healing. I primarily read nonfiction, but I love the novels of many contemporary women writers, e.g., Margaret Atwood, Barbara Kingsolver, and Alice Walker. The Women’s Room, by Marilyn French opened my eyes. Among male novelists, I love the work of John Irving. I loved A Prayer for Owen Meany. I hadn’t realized that a novel could be so expansive. Long before any of these, Something More, by Catharine Marshall inspired me to keep searching.
Who was your publisher and why did you choose them?
My publisher is also my friend, Catharine Clarke. We began working together as writer and coach. She progressed to editor, book producer, and then publisher. To become the latter, she put her 30+ years of experience in the writing world into proper form taking a leap of faith. Her Soul Garden Press is a gift to soul-writing and soul-writers.
