It was a decade ago. I was sitting in my car staring at the sun. After failing at starting a business, I was at “the crossroads” again, trying to figure out what I should be doing with my life. It was an epiphany really. I’ve always loved telling stories and hearing them, so I figured I would dedicate every moment I could to finding out if I could write stories other folks would enjoy reading. So, I drove over the bookstore and bought a pile of books.
At first I thought I might pursue screenwriting. I even completed a handful of screenplays, but I quickly realized that writing novels fit my style better. Since I can be in my characters’ minds, I can make them more human.
What inspired your book?
So many things: A family trip to the holy lands. Sleepless nights in the chemistry lab. An obsession with the inability of men to communicate deeply with other men. The strong women in my life. A steady diet of 1990s grunge music.
How long have you been publishing your work?
Time’s Alibi or The Quantum of Jazz Between the Sun and the Grave is my first novel. It is the first part of a planned trilogy. I also write poetry. You can find some of my haiku on my website.
Have you been interested in writing the majority of your life?
In some form or fashion. In college, I was a chemistry major. Scientists take hypotheses and data and tell stories about discovery in journal articles and lab reports. I also went to law school. Lawyers take facts and laws and tell stories of circumstance and justice in legal briefs and memoranda. It’s been a circuitous route, but I’ve found my home in writing fiction.
Do you have a routine to help you write?
Yes. I work best from an outline. I keep working on the story’s skeletal structure (outline) until it feels right. For me, this is a big portion of the creative process. I need to know my plot points and how the story ends so I can drive towards them.
Once it is done, I put flesh on the bones (manuscript). In the manuscript phase, I try to write at least one thousand words a day. I force myself to take at least a week off in between drafts so I have a fresh perspective on what I have produced. It is easy to for me to be too close to my work to the point where I am blind. In the revision phase, I work with my editor to get everything right. Above all things, I just try to keep moving until a project is done.
Author Bio
Husky is a lawyer, poet,
musician, chemist, and writer from the Philadelphia area. His high school literature class blew up his
brain, exposing a love for story telling.
He's circling back now. He can't
argue in court like Mitch McDeer, drop rhymes like Mother Goose, rock like
Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, or leverage his skills in the lab
like Walter White, but he can write better than Kilgore Trout. Husky is a lover of ideas, progressive
thoughts, and mankind.
Twitter: @HuskyHarlequin
Thanks for hosting me, Emily!
ReplyDelete-Husky