How and Why I Write

·      What are you working on now?

 I finished The China-Africa Parallax: A Ryan and Gillian Mystery.  This is a novel about the theft of intellectual property from universities. There's no firewall long enough or high enough to prevent theft or tampering with data posted on a public site. Data security on US government computers and university campuses is a major issue today. This novel is timely, I believe, since the US has claimed China has been hacking government computers. No, I had no prior knowledge about cyber warfare. It just seemed like a potential international issue.

Now I‘m writing The Nathan Culper Brotherhood. The Brotherhood is a fictitious society with a singular mission: cleanse school faculties, public schools and universities, of teachers and professors who aren’t true Americans, which is White.  It’s a frightening circumstance but not too far-fetched. “Patriotic” hate groups have been growing in number at an alarming rate, according to research completed by the Southern Poverty Law Center in Birmingham, AL. I've also been writing more poems in the last year. I 've enjoyed it because I  like to play words to see whether I   can frame with words the ideas I'm trying to explain.

How and Why I Write

• What discipline do you impose on yourself regarding schedules, goals, etc.?

When I'm at work on a book, my goal is to write a chapter a day, no matter how long it takes. A chapter may take as little as 1 hour. Or it might take 2, 3 hours or more. My goal remains: one chapter each day five days a week. I try to save Saturdays and Sundays for personal and family activities, but now and then I might go to my study to check my e-mail.

• Do you write on a computer? Do you print frequently? Do you correct on paper? What is your process?

I'd be lost without my iMac and iPad. I'm always in a create-revise-create mode; write-revise are no longer discrete phases of writing for me. I doubt that paradigm works for anyone these days.

• What has been your experience with publishers?

So far, good. My textbook editor at Taylor Francis, Naomi Silverman, has been a friend and a great help for 20 years or more. The people at Author House are great to work with, too.

How and Why I Write

• Is writing a form of personal therapy? Are internal conflicts a creative force?

Yes, no doubt, in my first book. I've dealt with my personal issues related to Post Polio Syndrome in my first novel, Songs of Sadness, Songs of Love. However, my second novel The China-Africa Parallax: A Ryan and Gillian Mystery, doesn’t. It’s a mystery and mysteries are fun to write.  

Does reader feed-back help you?

More than my draft readers know or appreciate! More than general readers know.

• Do you share rough drafts of your writings with someone whose opinion you trust?

Absolutely. They're acknowledged, 3-4 people, in every textbook and novel I've published.

• Do you believe you have already found "your voice" or is that something one is always searching for?

I think I know which is my better voice, but I experiment with other voices regularly. One of the nicest compliments I’ve received, however, was from a friend: “Larry, in many parts of this novel Ryan Graves sounds just like Jesse Stone.”  I don’t know whether that’s a compliment.  I accepted it as such.

The Good Samaritan

We’ve probably all heard the expression, “This separates the men from the boys!” 

What kinds of things separate the men from the boys? 

Things that involve danger and risk. Things that take courage and a willingness to sacrifice. Accepting the fact that many rewards are deferred until later. Things that are grueling and gut-wrenching. Things that require maturity and perseverance, not just boyish enthusiasm and energy.

In a sense, that’s what the parable of the Good Samaritan teaches about the Christian life. Jesus isn’t separating the men from the boys, Jesus is separating the real Christian from the merely religious.

How and Why I Write, part 5

·      What is required for a character to be believable? How do you create yours?

Language, language, language. Is the dialogue advancing the story in a tongue the reader can identify as appropriate to the character? I observe people, I remember people, then I create characters from the bits and pieces I've observed. A character in one of my books may be the blending of the traits of 3-4 people I’ve met. Be forewarned, I tell people, anything you do or say could end up in one of my poems or novels.

·      Are you equally good at telling stories orally?

I think so. My wife doesn't.

·      Deep down inside, who do you write for?

Primarily, I write for a reader of one: Larry Andrews. My mother influenced my passion for language. (For example I have four linguistics textbooks on the university book market; one translated into Korean.)

I write because I love the challenge of making the best linguistics choices available to depict realistically disparate characters in both disparate and desperate circumstances.