 Questions
that I am asked over and over again are listed below. So, before you write and
ask me again, check my interview below, your question may already be answered…
1) What made you decide to start writing? And how did
that decision influence the genre you've chosen to write in?
As a child I never used to like writing and actually, back then, I
wasn't a very good writer so hated writing….but then again, I kept journals
when I was younger so maybe I didn't really hate writing after all.
My Grandfather was a writer in the sense that he kept journals. His passion was
to write in his journals with his quill…..that's over 100 years ago. When
he died, my father kept those journals under my bed as I was growing up so every
time I wanted something to read, I would reach down and pick out one of his journals
to read. His journals influenced me so I decided to do the same. I have been keeping
journals since I was 7 years old.
So, I guess you would say that he greatly
influenced me in becoming a writer or should I say, to start writing. I have always
had a passion for history so I suppose it was a gradual transfer of writing interest….from
journal-writing to history-writing.
2) Do
you have a pet?
Yes, I have pets. I love animals. When I was growing
up I had a Shetland pony called Tomthumb and he was with me from the age of 4
until I was about 18. He was black and little and loved running through gaps in
the fence to try and knock me off. He almost always succeeded. Since then I have
had an assortment of animals around my house. At the moment I have about a dozen
tropical fish (if you can call them pets) and a cat called Alley-cat. 3)
Is your writing done mainly for you, as in for a sense of self-accomplishment,
or do you do it for the enjoyment of others?
In the past, my writing
was mainly done for myself. I love being able to prove to myself that I can do
it. I can research, write, then have published a novel that children (and adults)
want to read. You see, when I was young and in school, I struggled 'big-time'
with English classes. I hardly ever passed my exams and tests in English, so now,
as a novel-writer it sort of proves to myself that….yes, I can do it…
after struggling for all those years as a student to succeed at 'English' in school.
I always used to get the lowest grade in my class. So yes, initially, writing
novels was for a sense of self-accomplishment.
However, now that I have 12
books on the market and I see students here reading my books and loving them….my
thoughts are changing to "writing for the enjoyment of others." 4)
Did your characters really do all those things you write about in your books?
Do you put your own stories into your books?
Many of the ideas/activities/incidents
that I include in my books come from the characters themselves. Of course, if
I'm writing about a person who sails around the world, that person is obviously
going to be visiting port cities. Therefore, I include activities for my characters
around those early port cities of the time-period that he is sailing in. However,
many of the "fill-in" activities that I have my characters do come from
out of my head. Growing up, I had a very good friend called Lawrence and he and
I did many things as boys. If he were to read my books, he would see many similarities
to the things he and I got up to. 5) Is writing something
you try to do on a regular basis, or do you do it just when you have the time
or feel in the 'moment'?
I still keep my journal writing up. However,
I don't write every day. Once a month, I summarize everything that has been going
on, both in my life, and in the lives of my wife and children. When I write novels,
I try to keep to a schedule. I feel writing is all about discipline. I am a night
writer who is able to survive on only 3 hours sleep a night. My nightly schedule
goes something like this: from 11pm to midnight, I will walk. I use this period
to prepare my mind and get me on the track of thinking about what I'm going to
write. When I come in at midnight, I'll write from then to around 3am in the morning.
I then go to bed and sleep for 3 hours to around 6am after which I get up
and prepare for my day at school in the library. (I am not a full-time writer-I
have a day job working as a school librarian.) Not many people can survive on
only 3 hours sleep a night….but I can. 6) Out
of the books that you have written, what is your favorite book?
With
every new book that I write, that becomes my favorite book. Writing the type of
genre that I do requires a lot of research to ensure that my facts are correct.
Sometimes I can spend a whole year, or longer, on research alone before I even
begin to write the book. I become very involved in the current famous character
that I am researching and writing about. I say to myself… "this has
to be my favorite book." Then, once I complete the book and I begin the next
character, I say the same thing.
7) What has
your writing accomplished for you?
It has definitely given me a sense
of self-achievement. It's not easy to write and publish at a level that I do.
12 books on the market sold by Barnes and Nobles and Amazon is quite an achievement.
Achieving this level of writing has placed me in a certain category. Being honored
as "being a published writer" is wonderful. Being invited as a guest
speaker to conferences all over the globe to speak about the books I have written,
I feel is a great honor. It's like being 'important'. It's like a level of self-satisfaction.
And I often think…. "if only those teachers I had in high school could
see me now!"
8) Are you rich?
No,
I am not rich. There is a statistic out there that says that only 3% of authors
can make a living from the books they publish. I am (at the moment) not one of
them. 9) Has writing shaped you into the person you
are today, or has, who you are shaped your writing?
No, it's definitely…who
I am has shaped my writing…. When I was growing up (the youngest child of
13) I had a very rich and rewarding upbringing. When I first started out writing,
I became a 'freelance writer'. I used to write for newspapers and magazines and
the articles that they liked were 'human interest' articles that were usually
about growing up being the youngest of 13 kids. Writing these articles got me
on the road to writing professionally. I wrote about personal experiences and
readers loved these articles. I received many compliments from these pieces. This
made me think that maybe I could go onto the next step of professional writing….from
freelance to novel-writing. Being who I am and with the background that I had,
I feel, has definitely shaped my writing career. 10)
Do you have another job other than writing books?
Yes, I do. I am a
school librarian. I used to be an elementary school teacher for 22 years before
I became a librarian. I began writing on a professional basis (as a freelance
writer) about 20 years ago and a novelist about 15 years ago. 11)
If you could change one thing about your writing, or the writing process, what
would it be?
I used to think…..why couldn't I have started writing
novels way back when I first started professional writing. I would have a good
20 books 'under my belt' by now. But then again, maybe I would not have been successful
if I had not have gone through the writing process of…journal-writing, freelance-writing,
then novel-writing. Maybe a writer needs to go through the stages in order to
be successful….
As a writer, I feel my writing is getting better and
better. I look back at some of the first articles I wrote and I cringe. Also,
from my first novel to my last novel, I feel there are huge changes in my writing
ability. In my opinion, my writing is far better in my later novels. I guess this
is life, the more one does something, the better one becomes at it. 12)
Where do you live and will you come to my school to talk to us?
I currently
live in Saudi Arabia. I am a librarian in an international school in a town called
Dhahran. There was a time when I would visit schools, as a visiting author, on
a monthly basis. I now have scaled down my school visits to accepting around 2
or 3 visits a year. 13) Where do you get all those
funny-sounding names for the characters in your books?
I look them
up on the internet. Many of them are real characters that were associated with
the main character during his/her life-span. This is why I spend a lot of time
researching. For the "support characters" I go online to the country
that my main character is from, and I look at the most popular names from that
country. I have to be careful that I use names that were around during the period
that my main character lived. 14) How do you choose
your subjects to write about?
Initially, I wrote about people from
history that I admired-my favorite historical figures. But now, I look for characters
that have very little material written about them. Those are the historical figures
I tend to write about now. 15 When is the next book
in your series "What Made Them Famous?" coming out?
I am
currently researching two new subjects. The first one: Helen of Troy, I am about
half way through writing it. The second one: Empress Dowager, who was the last
Empress of China, is still thoughts in my head. -----
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