Was there a book that changed your life? If so which one and how did it affect you?

Reading William Saroyan’s book, My Name Is Aram, about growing up as an Armenian immigrant in Northern California, made a great impression on me. I learned that life could be sad and happy at the same time and that the written word could really touch the heart. I felt a deep sense of joy and compassion for the quirky characters in Saroyan’s short stories. There was also this sense of magical wisdom that pervaded the nostalgic kingdom of childhood. I was, quite simply, filled with wonder!

Did you learn anything from writing your book?

I learned that writing is sort of like wrestling with one’s self. This wrestling match usually occurs in isolation until the day comes when you have to come out of your room and expose yourself. It can be a very humbling experience!

As for myself, I had to struggle with my lack of patience in the writing process itself. I also had to grapple with trusting my instincts and believing in my own capacity to bring some wonder into the world.

What inspired you to write your first book?

I was inspired by my topic: a public school that has saved lives, mine among them, for almost 40 years. I felt compelled to tell the story of this transformational experience so that others might benefit from demanding something different from their schools. I was also motivated by some of the prominent goals of the school:  to rediscover the joy of learning,  to seek meaning in your life and  to help create the world that ought to be.

What books have most influenced your life?

There are many, but I might start with Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Paulo Friere was not afraid to confront the truth about the educational system and its subservient role in keeping people down by protecting the status quo.

I’d also include Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness that revealed the depths of the human spirit and, of course, Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man which exposes the truth about the struggles for identity and freedom in a forbidding environment.

Of course, I could list 100 more.

As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?

All I know was that I had all of these quirky interests and no one seemed to take them seriously. I was like a lot kids growing up in the fifties and sixties. I felt isolated and anonymous. I needed someone to believe in me. As a result, I went off to college not having any real sense of direction.

As we know, one thing leads to another. I found my way to teaching from the back end of working in the schools as a bus driver and a custodian. I found that I liked being around kids so I went back to school to get my teacher’s license. Now, I could finally use those quirky interests as a teacher.

Here’s a nice irony: when I was working on my Ph.D. in education, I had to return to my alma mater and interview some professors. I hadn’t taken a single education class as an undergraduate, so here I was, asking where the education building was located!

I get e-mails and texts all the time asking me ‘who exactly is Paul Bruin?’ and ‘what exactly is Bruin’s Wake?’ Most of the questions come from either my growing fan base or just curious individuals anxious to know why Paul Bruin wants to friend them on Facebook. Well, to answer their inquiries, Paul Bruin is an amalgamation of several different individuals I grew up with in Memphis, TN. Suffice to say, Paul Bruin is not an exact, cloned, carbon copy of myself but rather a mixture of several different characters, myself being one of them. Many of the experiences Paul Bruin faces in the book, actually happened in the author’s life including, but not limited to, attending a private Catholic high school in Memphis, joining the Marine Corps at the age of 18, running a marathon, playing major college football, writing the Great American Novel and having been falsely accused and wrongly convicted of a crime. Paul’s enemies are numerous, mean and vindictive. The major players include Brian Gowan, a former high school friend of Paul’s who has inherited the beautiful gene from his mother and the stupid gene from his father and who can’t seem to find a way to stop disrupting Paul’s life in any way he can. Next there’s Allison Tressle, the lie-mongering , local newswoman who fiends for sex and unearned money. Under highly suspicious circumstances, she becomes Paul’s stepmother in the book by marrying Paul’s widower father, George Bruin, and is a non-stop schemer, much like her attention-seeking ,real-life counterparts. Dick Cordella, the Germantown Police Officer, is the pistol-packing homosexual who has had it in for Paul ever since hacking into his wife’s e-mail account and discovering all the lurid messages Paul has sent her. Dick fulfills an important role throughout the book. It is his specific actions, words and tomfoolery that will eventually absolve Paul and subsequently the author from any and all wrongdoing, supposed shenanigans and felonious behavior. Finally, there is Clinton Weeks, the meth-addicted maniac who murders Paul Bruin’s beloved mother during Paul’s junior year of high school. Clinton is arrested in Part 1 of Bruin’s Wake, only to escape in Part 2, reuniting with his mother, super-dyke Tura Weeks, in Part 3. Clinton is about as stupid and senseless as they come, bragging non-stop about all the drugs he’s done in his lifetime and continuing to make meth even while on the lam. He does however possess one burning passion. To get even with the one person, both he and his cellmate back in federal prison, want dead: Paul Bruin.

So you see Bruin’s Wake really is the story of Paul Bruin, an enigmatic character who traipses from one adventure to the next. Horseshoe Lake, Arkansas. The ‘Mad’ County Jail. Florida State University. Oxford, Mississippi. They’re all the places Paul leaves a little bit of himself in his ‘wake’ and they’re all stops on the road leading back to Memphis as a Confederacy of Dunces aims to bring him down. But will pride, his greatest nemesis of all, finally get the best of him?

Paul Bruin is not a real person, per se, but the things that befall him all are, or at least people can relate to them.
Now, Bruin’s Wake, is the story of Paul Bruin, again, an enigmatic character who traipses from one adventure to the next.

Interview with Paul Mark Tag, author of Prophecy

Book Summary: Shortly before the great Johnstown, Pennsylvania, flood of 1889, a 19-year-old girl enters a church and places an envelope inside a bottle and into a safe. Minutes later, a wall of water engulfs the town and kills over 2200 people. What happens 120 years later when the bottle is discovered—and its contents become ensnared in a worldwide quest for rare genetic material—is the intriguing story behind Prophecy by Paul Mark Tag.

{mosimage}In 2009, that safe is unearthed, and with it, the letter, which reveals that the author knew of the impending flood. Meanwhile, laboratory experiments in Russia could prove to be the scientific discovery of the ages, as researchers uncover a rare genetic mutation that could scientifically explain the clairvoyant powers exhibited by prophets of old.

At the epicenter of the ensuing maelstrom, Dr. Victor Mark Silverstein, the Naval Research Laboratory’s preeminent scientist, and his loyal assistant tangle with greedy U.S. senators, the CIA, and a Middle Eastern organization for verification and control of the “prophecy gene.” The hunt begins for a present-day carrier who could confirm the gene’s potential and prompt development of a synthetic replacement. At stake is theological chaos for the world’s religions—and the power to control the planet.

About the Author: Until he retired in 2001 to write fiction full-time, Paul Mark Tag’s work revolved around meteorology and his career with the Naval Research Laboratory. Prophecy is his second novel, following his thriller, Category 5. Tag lives in Monterey, California, with his wife, Becky. Please visit the author at www.paulmarktag.com

LAUREN SMITH: What inspired you to start writing fiction?

Paul Mark Tag: First, Lauren, I’d like to thank you for this opportunity to discuss my book.

To answer your question, since I was a child, I’ve loved to live in the world of make-believe. One of my first memories is of my mother yelling to me outside, around the corner of the house, asking me to whom I was talking. Of course, I was talking to one of my make-believe friends. I think that my reply was “Nobody.” Later in school, I wrote stories and poetry.

Fast forward to adulthood, and I found myself going to Penn State, majoring in meteorology. My education there transitioned into my career with the Navy as a research scientist. I sometimes wonder, if I had to do it all over again, if I should have gone into writing from the start. I’ve decided that the truth is two-fold. First, I would have starved to death starting out. Second, importantly, I later realized that I didn’t have enough life experiences or the maturity to write (fiction) then. But when I reached the age when I could retire from the federal government, I jumped at the chance to tackle fiction writing head-on.

LAUREN SMITH: What did you do to prepare for writing your book? You were a meteorologist and could draw on your work experience, for instance; but what about the locations and historical references – did this involve travel and research?

Paul Mark Tag: My first novel, Category 5, had a meteorological premise that revolved around hurricanes. The old saw is that you should write what you know, and so I did that with my first book. Afterward, because I couldn’t think of another meteorological premise that was good as that in my first novel, I deviated for Prophecy, going off into genetics and the genome.

I must say, though, that for me, the premise, once I’ve figured it out, is not that important to the story. I guess that sounds odd. Sure, it sets the backdrop around which the story evolves but, ultimately, whether I’ve written a page-turning thriller, which is the genre that I prefer, comes down to the plot and the characters. I think of the premise as the basket in which all of the plot and character eggs roll around in.

You ask about the locations and historical references. My readers want to be transported into a world of excitement and interest. And that includes fascinating locations and places where they’ve probably never been. In terms of travel, I go to, I’d say, 90% of the locations in my books. For example, for Category 5, my wife and I spent a week in Bermuda where all of the final action occurs in the book. In Prophecy, we did the same for Washington, DC, siting locations for each of the many chapters that occur there. And when I say siting, I mean that I identify an actual location where I imagine the action to occur. I try to be authentic. For example, I used the actual phone number (pay phone) that Mohammed Abu Saada calls when he reaches Samantha Thurston at the Union Station Metro in Washington, DC (Chapter 51). Further, when I’m comfortable with the location, I take its GPS coordinates. If you go to my web site, www.paulmarktag.com, you can look at the Google Earth images for nearly every chapter. There are a few locations in Prophecy that I did not personally visit: for example, the Cairo Airport locations in Egypt. Still, the airport locations that you can see on my web site are the ones where I’ve imagined the action to have occurred.

Now, with regard to historical references. In the case of Prophecy, it is the Johnstown flood of 1889. The book starts out just prior to that disaster unfolding. Again, I use historical events to make things interesting. The great Johnstown flood of 1889 occurred just 30 miles from where I grew up in southwestern Pennsylvania. Growing up there, I heard references to the flood. However, it wasn’t until I visited the Johnstown Flood National Memorial (run by the National Park Service) did I realize how momentous a catastrophe that was: over 2200 people lost their lives when an earthen dam gave way. Because that tragedy was so devastating and the reasons that it happened so interesting, I decided almost from my first visit there that I would incorporate that event into a book someday.

LAUREN SMITH: Do you feel that tying in actual historical events gives your books additional credibility and/or a frame of reference for your readers?

Paul Mark Tag: No, I don’t think that the use of historical events gives my books any additional credibility. A frame of reference, perhaps. I think the use of actual events ties my fiction into an unfolding narrative with which the reader can perhaps identify. Although I make up a lot of stuff, the locations and historical events are based on facts, something that I hope might draw the reader in when he or she decides whether to purchase or read my fiction.

LAUREN SMITH: What is your attraction to writing about protagonists who must overcome a huge obstacle to save the world?

Paul Mark Tag: My attraction, perhaps, is more related to the genre of thriller. I like fast-paced, world-hanging-by-a thread fiction; that’s why I’ve read nearly all of Tom Clancy’s books. As you know, there is often a clock ticking in a thriller. Unless something is done, and soon, bad things will happen. Compared to my first novel, Category 5, I start the clock ticking very early in the story line for Prophecy.

Specifically, though, I should address your question with regard to the protagonists. It does give me satisfaction (and I think the reader as well) to have characters who are clever enough to solve a major problem by themselves. Do you ever have “hero” or “heroine” daydreams? I do this all the time. I imagine myself in some tough situation, and I’m there to be the hero. I think that a lot of us root for the little guy or gal who surmounts all obstacles, defies all odds, and is there to save the day.

LAUREN SMITH: Are any of your characters based on anyone or any type of person you know?

Paul Mark Tag: Not really. People ask me that all the time. For example, since Dr. Silverstein is a meteorologist, like I was, they figure that I patterned him after me. I wish that was true. I gave Silverstein a photographic memory and a genius IQ. I can only wish that I had either of those traits. Because he’s so smart, Silverstein is arrogant and ridicules others who don’t use logic or facts as well as he does. I hope that I don’t have any of these latter qualities.

Without exception, I think, my characters are composites of everyone I’ve known. I’ll give you an example. In my first book, Category 5, I go much deeper into Silverstein’s background than I do in Prophecy. To illustrate how intelligent and driven he is, I provide an anecdote for him. It’s said that you never wanted to go into his office to ask a question without some sort of plan to extricate yourself. The anecdote was that if you made the mistake of asking Silverstein the time, that he would also explain to you how a watch functions. And then, he’d follow up with how to make a better watch. That story was an actual anecdote told of Herman Wobus, a meteorologist with whom I worked early in my career—and who was one of the smartest people I’ve ever known. We had a PA (public address) system back then. If you went to ask Herman some scientific question (because we knew he would always have the answer), you had to make sure you had an excuse to leave his office. Otherwise, you’d end up there all day. One way of making that happen was to have someone call you back to your office via the PA system.
At the time, I didn’t realize how fortunate I was to have known the man.

LAUREN SMITH: How long did it take you to write the book – (was it longer or less time than you expected)?

Paul Mark Tag: It took me 2 ½ years to write my first novel, Category 5, and about the same to write Prophecy. I didn’t know how long it would take when I started.

LAUREN SMITH: Was it difficult to transition from years of scientific, technical writing to fiction?

Paul Mark Tag: That’s a good question. When I started writing fiction, I figured that, based on all my experience writing technical papers, that it would be a snap to transition to fiction. Not so. First, writing a story that someone might find interesting to read is a whole lot different from writing a technical paper that is normally pretty dry and can put you to sleep. That’s why I spent 5-6 years learning the art of storytelling by way of writing short stories. Arline Chase, author and publisher, was my mentor. Writing short stories is a “bite-size” way of learning to write. Most of my short stories I wrote in a couple of weeks, up to a month in time.

Do you want to know the single item that I had to unlearn—in making the transition from technical writing to writing fiction? It’s the sentence structure. Scientists often use passive sentence structures (“The laboratory was prepared for the experiment.”). Passive sentences tend to make you fall asleep. In fiction, it’s important to write active sentences (“We prepared the laboratory for the experiment.”).

LAUREN SMITH: The glossary and cast of characters is quite helpful – was there a particular reason you wanted to include this feature?

Paul Mark Tag: I’m glad you asked that question. When I read a novel, particularly a complicated one, I usually make a cheat-sheet for the characters. I have trouble remembering all the names. When I wrote my first novel, I decided to include a cheat-sheet for people like me. I did the same for the glossary where I detail some of the technical terms I use in the book.

LAUREN SMITH: What surprised you the most about this process?

Paul Mark Tag: I assume that you mean, “the process of writing and publishing.” In terms of the process of creating the manuscript, I don’t think that much surprised me. It was just a lot of work. The hard part is to find a publisher, and I didn’t realize that might prove impossible for me.

After I completed Category 5, I queried numerous agents looking for someone to represent me. I couldn’t find anyone. So, I decided to self-publish with Print-on-Demand (POD) publisher, iUniverse. By the time I had completed the sequel, Prophecy, I had sold over 1000 copies of Category 5, not a small accomplishment for a first-time author with no formal publisher. So, I figured that it would be easy to find an agent for my second book, what with my record. Not so. I queried 123 agents and a few publishers and came up dry. Those agents who would talk to me said that it was next to impossible to sell a new fiction author to a publisher. So, I returned to iUniverse. To answer your question, this aspect of writing proved to me the most surprising—and the most disappointing.

LAUREN SMITH: What tips would you offer to anyone writing fiction for the first time?

Paul Mark Tag: I get asked this all the time. My advice is to start with short stories in order to learn the art of telling a story that someone will want to read. You’ll need a mentor (like I had) or, you can take classes in creative writing. Another approach is to read a lot of self-help books (and magazines) on writing. I used those to supplement what Arline Chase taught me.

LAUREN SMITH: What can we look forward to in your next book?

Paul Mark Tag: I have already begun the third book in the series. The same protagonists, Silverstein and Kipling will return. However, because Kipling has become such a strong character on her own, she will be the lead in book 3. Also, I’m returning to my roots, to meteorology. As you know, both protagonists are meteorologists. I’ve felt guilty ever since I changed science (to genetics in Prophecy). So I’ve decided to tackle global climate change in the next in the series. It’s one of the scientific topics of this decade, and I would be a fool to ignore it.

In the meantime, I plan to publish a book of fourteen of my short stories later this year. The title will be The Errant Ricochet: Max Raeburn’s Legacy. I cover a gamut of genres with these stories; I think there’s something for everyone.

LAUREN SMITH: Is there anything we haven’t covered that you would like to include?

Paul Mark Tag: I’d just like to thank you for this opportunity.

LAUREN SMITH: Thank you for taking the time to be part of this interview!

]]> http://www.internetpublicityforauthors.com/prophecy/feed/ 0 http://www.internetpublicityforauthors.com/infinite-exposure/ http://www.internetpublicityforauthors.com/infinite-exposure/#comments Fri, 03 Apr 2009 05:00:00 +0000 admin Infinite Exposure

ISBN 978-0-9770866-8-9 is an e-book by Roland Hughes, published by Logical Solutions in 465 pages.

The story begins with a secret international team of al-Qaida fighters following and apprehending an offshore web master who is part of an al-Qaida cell, which, in turn, is part of a far-ranging network. From here, the scene shifts to the financial districts of the United States, and their never ending search for ways to save money. The CEO of a huge American bank, with large branches in France and Germany, is approached by a marketing company to offshore their operations. Such a move will save millions of dollars and, in the thoughts of the executive, produce a lucrative advancement. He is more concerned with this personal gain, and does not think through the proposition, even when given hints by his second in command, who is most knowledgeable. A software company becomes involved and contributes further to the maneuvers, and the story progresses to a horrendous financial debacle, and many associated reactions. A third element enters the picture – a group of traders who deal with insider information, have ties to Account Executives in Russia, with the Russian Mafia, with China, and with the coordinator of the occult al-Qaida fighters.

To provide more details would spoil, for the reader, a most interesting and thought-provoking proposal of a possible future American agenda.

With respect to the writing, Roland Hughes quite masterfully juggles the various elements, as they shift from one to the next. His characters are interesting, and the story’s progression is at a fine pace. I read an ARC (Advanced Reading Copy) of this book which contained spelling and grammar problems.  However, I understand the author has since had the manuscript fully edited and corrected. With removal of this jarring note, I should like to say that Roland Hughes has provided added enjoyment to a highly recommended read that presents some very serious thoughts to ponder, as well.

Download a free chapter at:  http://www.infiniteexposure.net

Roland Hughes is the president of Logikal Solutions, a business applications consulting firm specializing in VMS platforms. Hughes serves as a lead consultant with over two decades of experience using computers and operating systems originally created by Digital Equipment Corporation (now owned by Hewlett-Packard).

With a degree in Computer Information Systems, the author’s experience is focused on OpenVMS systems across a variety of diverse industries including heavy equipment manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, stock exchanges, tax accounting, and hardware value-added resellers, to name a few. Working throughout these industries has strengthened the author’s unique skill set and given him a broad perspective on the role and value of OpenVMS in industry.

Read more reviews at:  http://www.infiniteexposure.net

Interview with Erik Quisling

{mosimage}Lauren Smith: What inspired you to create a work of fiction? 

Erik Quisling:  I initially came up with the idea for Fables from the Mud shortly after I graduated college.  In the course of my soul searching and trying to figure out my place in the world, I was struck with the idea of a clam who was trying to do the exact same thing. For some reason it struck me as extremely amusing.  This is how The Angry Clam, the first fable in my book, was born. 

Lauren Smith: Do you see Fables From the Mud as a satire, cultural commentary or something more? 

Erik Quisling:  Fables From The Mud is about three little creatures – a clam, an ant, and a worm – all of whom are struggling with very human problems.  The stories are satirical but in many ways are simply a cultural commentary on the human obsession with finding meaning in the world.  All in all, they are designed to be amusing and to get you to see somewhat the absurdity of taking life too seriously. 

Lauren Smith: How did you develop each of the fables? 

Erik Quisling:  Each fable was born from its own separate bout of inspiration. In each case, it was a single line of text that came to me that was like lighting a fuse that set the story on its course.  Once the fuse was lit, the stories pretty much wrote themselves – I simply had to go back and edit them a little bit. 

Lauren Smith: Are any of the characters based on anyone – or any type of person – you know? 

Erik Quisling:  I can say that the more I read the stories, the more I learn about myself.  But I truly think each character is a reflection of some deeply common human experience – not of any human in particular.

Lauren Smith: Which is your favorite character in Fables? And why? 

Erik Quisling:  Well, I have to say I love each one of them – after all, these are perhaps the greatest ant, worm, and clam to have ever walked the face of the earth.  But my favorite is probably the worm in the third fable Grant’s Tomb.  Living inside of Grant’s Tomb, feasting on the bones of the former president, is General Julius Gunther Weems, a celebrated war hero who led the worm army to victory in the last of the great cemetery wars.  However, after achieving glory and fame and just about everything else he ever wanted in life, he realized he still wasn’t happy – still not satisfied.  So, figuring he could never truly be happy, he sets off on one last mission to drown himself in the nearby Hudson River. It is on this journey, though, that Julius discovers the answer to why true happiness had always eluded him.

Lauren Smith: What did you learn about writing and publishing a book during this process? 

Erik Quisling:  I wrote a short story about what I learned that I will share with you now – I call it “A Secret to Getting Published.”

A Secret to Getting Published

by Erik Quisling 

When Warner Books, one of the world's largest publishing companies, published my first book, The Angry Clam, back in 1998, the most common question I was asked was, "What were you smoking when you wrote this book?"  This was quickly followed by the second most common question, "How in the world did a 40-page, hand-written book with bad drawings of a clam get published?" 

The answer to the first question was easy – pure Turkish Hashish – just kidding.  (Actually, I awoke in the middle of the night with the idea of a ticked off clam running through my head, then feverishly spent the wee hours putting a frantic pencil to paper.)  The answer to the second question takes a little bit more explaining but I believe it contains one of the essential keys (and secrets) to getting published. 

The story of how I got The Angry Clam published is a brief one so I will share it with you now: 

(To read the rest of this story, visit my Squidoo lens.)

Lauren Smith: You also co-authored Straight Whisky: A Living History of Sex, Drugs, and Rock'n'Roll; which type of writing do you prefer? 

Erik Quisling:  Both fiction and non-fiction are a great deal of fun to write.  With non-fiction you get to interview a lot of interesting people and explore a particular subject very deeply.  But with fiction, you have a great deal more freedom to take license with the material and it can be an extremely pure form of self-expression.  I would have to say I prefer fiction. 

Lauren Smith: What tips would you offer to anyone writing fiction for the first time? 

Erik Quisling:  Write as much and as often as you can because you will just keep getting better.  Writers don’t talk about writing, they write.  Also, you have to play the game of marketing yourself full out like your hair is on fire.  Do not rely on anyone else to get the word out about your work.  If someone else (a publisher or publicist) helps you that’s great, but do not rely on anyone else.  It is your vision and passion for what you write that is going to make it reach the most people.

Lauren Smith: What can we look forward to in your next book? 

Erik Quisling:  My next book will be unchartered territory for me – a fiction/non-fiction hybrid that is semi-autobiographical – probably ready for print by 2030.  Currently, Fables from the Mud was just optioned by an animation company in Los Angeles to bring the stories to life. 

Lauren Smith: Is there anything we haven’t covered that you would like to include? 

Erik Quisling:  No, Lauren, thank you for the questions and I greatly appreciate your interest in  Fables From The Mud.

Lauren Smith: Thank you for taking the time to be part of this interview!

A Virtual Book Review Network exclusive…

Interview with David Dent,

author of Alex Webster and the Gods

 {mosimage}VBRN: What inspired you to create a work of science fiction? 

David Dent: Science fiction and fantasy have always been obsessed with the nature of godhood. The idea came to me in 2002 after reading an article in the Atlantic Monthly on the explosion of new religious movements. The article noted that there were about 10,000 religions competing for our souls and that some sociologists use the idea of a religious economy or spiritual marketplace to explain what helps a religion succeed in gaining followers. One could say that Darwinism had its start in the heavens. Because the capitalist marketplace is the dominant metaphor, if not mythology, of our age, I thought it would be interesting to examine a world where gods are the producers of religious services, competing to meet the demands of humans.  

VBRN: How did you arrive at the idea of Yahweh as the first capitalist? 

David Dent: About the same time that I was considering ideas for my book, I was also taking a course in world religions. During one class the professor asked about the nature of god as presented in the Old Testament. Rather than responding from a theological perspective, I considered it from a modern reading of the Bible, asking, What kind of business leader was Yahweh? This was not by chance because my career at that point dealt with issues of corporate governance and management.  Interestingly, I found that one can argue Yahweh’s management style evolves from an entrepreneurial, hands-on deity to a maturing manager who, overtime, introduces more sophisticated management and control methods to achieve his goals. The cause for these changes is that Yahweh, like any good manager, learns from experience. His evolution is similar to that of many entrepreneurs who create new ventures and navigate them to successful organizations. In Yahweh’s case, his brand dominates the religion market, with Christianity taking about a 32 percent share worldwide. In other words, Yahweh’s story is not unlike that of Bill Gates or Henry Ford, evolving from a temperamental, even eccentric, entrepreneur to the avuncular, but distant, Chairman of the Board. And the idea tied in beautifully with the notion of a religious market. Arguably, Yahweh is the world’s first and oldest capitalist and, to this point, most successful. 

VBRN: How did you decide on Jupiter as the old god looking for a comeback? 

David Dent: Jupiter was the obvious counterpoint to Yahweh. Two thousand years ago, Jupiter was the supreme god of the Roman Empire, worshipped as Mr. Optimus Maximus. In other words Jupiter was where Yahweh is today, the ceremonial divinity of the world’s greatest empire. So if Yahweh is the grand winner of the religious marketplace, Jupiter was the corresponding loser. In the end, the Roman people humiliated him. Emperor Theodosius I, who was a supporter of orthodox Christianity, officially banned the practice of the old Roman pagan religion in about 389CE.  In a full meeting of the Roman Senate he posed the question of whether the worship of Jupiter or that of Christ should be the religion of the Romans. The outcome was decisive.  Most of the Roman Senate condemned and degraded Jupiter. It was an impeachment of Divine  proportions. So Jupiter slipped away, banished by the people who had once worshipped him. He has nursed his wounds and tried to forget for almost two thousand years. Until now.

VBRN: What are some of the issues in the religious marketplace? 

David Dent: Religion can be usefully examined  using the  marketplace as a model.  And conversely so. For example, when Victoria asks Jupiter what he will stand for in making his comeback, he replies, Whatever  works. Jupiter doesn’t need help with what gods think, he says; he needs help with what humans think. His approach, while practical, also seems cynical. But is his reply unusual, given that religions, for thousands of years, have evolved and adapted to best meet peoples’ wants and needs? The capitalist model of creative destruction gives us a new way of looking at how we got to where we are with religion. Conversely, applying religion to markets, we find Jupiter claiming that CEOs of large global corporations think and act like gods. And if this is so, are management consultants the modern version of prophets of old, at least in the way that they are received by people? Is Alex Webster a modern Jeremiah, the reluctant prophet?

At the same time, metaphors and myths can lead us in unexpected directions in both religion and the marketplace if taken literally, because they are not intended to provide literal truth. For example, assuming the capitalist market knows all and will make the right decision ,as a literal truth, is as misleading as assuming that Yahweh strode through the Garden of Eden looking for Adam and Eve. But, it does create rich resource for satire.  And that is the underlying theme of the book, satirizing the literal interpretation of myths.

VBRN: What did you do to prepare for writing your book? 

David Dent: I read widely in the subject areas of the book, both fiction and nonfiction, including  religion, mythology, and corporate governance. To complement the often eclectic nature of my reading, I took courses in areas like world religions, classical mythology and cult formation.  Being trained as an economist allowed me to get up to speed on the idea of a religious economy. My experiences in the consulting and corporate world provided a rich base of personalities, power plays, and the endless amusements that people pursue. 

VBRN: How did you develop the plot? 

David Dent: As an exercise in problem solving. The most critical step was coming up with the conceit, namely the Roman god, Jupiter, wanting to make a comeback by taking over a global company. The second step involved a weekend of brainstorming possible story lines, characters, motives, situations, challenges, and resolutions. What problems would Jupiter face? Would he need help from humans? Which gods should join him? How would the old gods interact with humans and so on. Being an avid movie watcher, I pictured scenes, adding and subtracting until I had something that held together. The challenge here was to pare down various scenarios and characters into a workable story arc for which a plot line could be framed.  As often happens with problem-solving, I slept on the various choices, woke up with a solution and wrote a five-page outline and summary of key characters, which became my road map for writing the book.  While I twigged and tweaked the outline from time to time, adding some scenes and deleting others, the final book follows the original outline reasonably closely.

VBRN: Are any of your characters based on anyone or any type of person you know? 

David Dent: None of the characters is based on anyone. They all come out of my imagination, so to some extent they may all reflect some different element of me. That said,  the gods such as Jupiter, Morrigan, and Cupid come with some history, so that history provided a base to play with as counterpoint to their new circumstances.  The challenge was to give each god some human dimension in their incarnation. So the ever smiling Richard Branson, the British entrepreneur, for example, was a useful model for Jupiter as J.J. Jones. The corporate and consulting worlds attract certain types of personality and behaviors, and my experiences in those worlds helped shape characters like Alex and Victoria as consultants, and Gerry Schilling and James Waite as business executives.  Several secondary characters, like Professor Laydback and Marcus MacQuillan were likenesses of people that I have known. 

VBRN: Is there a particular message you are trying to impart to your readers? 

David Dent: Beware of mythical figures you meet on street corners, or anywhere else for that matter. My primary aim was to provide my readers with a book that they would find both entertaining and stimulating. 

VBRN: One reviewer wondered if the book is a comedy or a biting critique of modern Judeo-Christian values and the commercialism of present-day religiosity.

David Dent: It was my intent to take a satiric look at elements of the religious marketplace and hopefully encourage some critical thinking.  While the Christian-Judeo model may be prominent in some chapters, the issues being satirized are common to most, if not all, religious practices. When you have 10,000 religions competing for the soul of humanity, it is nearly impossible to comment on one, without offending another.  To use an old cliché, just because someone says the bathwater is dirty, doesn’t mean they are suggesting you toss out the baby.

VBRN: How long did it take you to write the book? 

David Dent: If I include writing, revisions, and editing, then about four years. One of my early advisers suggested it would take me that long, and I thought I would be able to do it in a shorter time frame. While I did have a workable draft within two years, the revising and editing took longer than I expected.  The added time gave me new eyes with which to review my writing.  It is humbling to discover that what once looked like gold, turns out to have no glitter at all.  However, the constant revising improved the final product. 

VBRN: Did you seek the support of a writer’s group or class? 

David Dent: While writing the first draft I enrolled at the Humber School for Writers. The main benefit of Humber is that I was linked to an established writer, Susan Swan, author of What Casanova Taught Me and the Wives of Bath, who acted as my writing mentor over the academic year. I also belonged to a writers’ group.  These groups are not for everyone, and they may not be suitable for a writer all the time. For me, it reinforced writing discipline by meeting twice a month with fresh material and  having a great sounding board for testing the story. Also, it provided an opportunity to share experiences and problem solve in a collegial setting with peers. In my experience, such groups are not the place for hard-core critiquing, which is important, but not here.

VBRN: What surprised you the most about this process? 

David Dent: True to one of the themes of the book, it’s never too early to start thinking about your marketplace and marketing. 

VBRN: What tips would you offer to anyone writing fiction for the first time? 

David Dent: Different methods work for different people. That said, the most important factor is to pursue your passion for writing, using what works best for you. And be practical; don’t quit your day job. If you value living above the poverty line, be sure you have a secure source of income to support your writing passion at the beginning. And perhaps always.

VBRN: What’s your next project? 

David Dent: I have two projects underway. One is a sequel to Alex Webster and the Gods titled, The Greta Garbo Goddess. Alex Webster discovers that blood may not be thicker than water for the family of Roman Gods, as New Age followers of Jupiter’s grandmother, Gaia, threaten his new base of operations. The second is a nonfiction work that builds on a significant theme in Alex Webster and the Gods, titled,  Yahweh, The Father of Capitalism. While the tone is light, it will provide a modern reading of Yahweh in the Bible within the context of modern management theory and practice. 

{mosimage}VBRN: Thank you for taking the time to be part of this interview! 

David Dent: It has been my pleasure. 

 
About the book: After several millennia spent in retirement, taking it easy, Jupiter, the superstar Roman God, decides the timing is right for his comeback as a business leader with an MBA from Harvard. His intention is to acquire a global corporation and to set up a new worldly empire. But Jupiter has been out of circulation for a while and he and his friends are a little rusty at the game of corporate takeovers. The high jinks and intrigue that ensure are all part of David Dent’s new science fiction novel, Alex Webster and the Gods.

Anyone interested in horror novels?

I love to read and write them.

I have one out now-Tales Of A Half Shell, Gateway To Terror available through www.rainbooks.com or just type in Tales Of A Half Shell on your search engine and it will bring up the places you can order it, (Target, BookHitch, Amazon)

Jennifer Thompson:  Thanks so much it’s nice to be here.

Penny Sansevieri:Listen I just got done doing a class in Colorado and we were talking about video and people had so many questions about Book Video.  Book Video is becoming so insanely popular.  Do you see that too?

Jennifer Thompson:  Oh absolutely and the neat thing about it is right now there is very few people doing it so it’s a really good time to jump in and have a book video to help your promotion.

Penny Sansevieri: Yeah exactly, exactly.  You know the Book Video and you and I talked about this too one of the misnomers I think of Book Video is people want to actually turn their book into a mini movie which is really wrong.  I mean how long – now you guys do Book Videos?

Jennifer Thompson: Yeah we’ve been calling them Book Teaser Videos because really you should be teasing your book.  You should be giving people a taste of what you have to offer but you don’t really want to tell the whole story.  I’ve seem Book Teasers that are five minutes long and I think people lose their audience.  We recommend that authors keep their teasers to 30 seconds to a minute long no longer than a minute.  People just don’t have the attention span and if people don’t make it to the end of the teaser where you offer the URL where people can buy your book then of course you’ve missed the whole point.

Penny Sansevieri:Yeah exactly, exactly.  You know the other point of a teaser is to draw someone in so one of the things – I was reading this article the other day and it talked about how there is a company out there letting authors read their books and I don’t know about you but I don’t really think that that’s a good thing.  I mean you have to be – you have to be very careful with that because you have to be a very engaging speaker in my view.  Wouldn’t you say so?

Jennifer Thompson: Absolutely, absolutely.  I recommend having a professional voice over talent if you’re going to have voice at all on your video.

Penny Sansevieri:Yeah, because we you know when we did Camelwood Lake which is all – you can go to redhotinternetpublicity.com and see some of the videos that we are going to talk about today.  When we did Camelwood Lake we had no – we had no voiceover it was all music and that one – that one I know I did intentionally long because as you know experimenting with this time to see how quickly we could engage people in the message and you’re right we found that people would click off of it and click to the Camelwood website usually after 30 seconds.  You know they got the message, they got sort of the idea – the jest of the book and now they wanted to know more you know it got them sort of engaged with it.  But we’ve also done one because you guys did one for a book that we were working on where there was voiceover and it was just darling.

Jennifer Thompson: Yeah Accidentally Engaged.

Penny Sansevieri:Yeah Accidentally Engaged it was really, really cute.  You know videos that are just like wildfire gone across the globe and one of the reasons that I think that a Book Video would do with you well is that really pulls in the emotional trigger of the audience.

Jennifer Thompson: I have a question for you Penny.

Penny Sansevieri:Yeah?

Jennifer Thompson: A lot of people want to use video.  What do you think of using video on a trailer to grab your audience?

Penny Sansevieri:Well I mean I think it’s good.  I mean I think it’s good as long as it’s appropriate to the subject.  I have no problem using actual video I mean it’s got to be appropriate to the topic.  It’s really not and I got to tell you I mean I don’t know how you feel about this but it’s really not about what you do it’s about the emotional triggers that you are trying to get to with your audience.  You know, use video when video is appropriate.  Now we used video for Camelwood Lake – you guys didn’t use it for Accidentally Engaged but both were very suited to the market.  You know Accidentally Engaged was a cute quirky romance novel.  But you know this long winding elaborate video wouldn’t really work with it.  With the audience.

Jennifer Thompson:  I think the reason that the video worked so well for Camelwood Lake is because it was an excerpt and it did it created that emotional trigger you know the little girl that was being pushed on the swing and it was in the park and they were having a good time and you got this feeling the essence of what the book had to offer about the family.  But it didn’t tell a story and I think that is where authors make a mistake because they try and tell the story of their characters through an entire acting segment and that’s when people run into trouble.  Because if it’s not great acting and if it’s not directed or produced you know in a manner that we’re used to seeing coming out of Hollywood then I think we lose our audience because it becomes hokey and kind of cheesy.

Penny Sansevieri: Well you know you’re absolutely right.  I think that and I think that a lot of authors approach this far more complicated than they really need to.  You know you put together a teaser just like you put together an elevator pitch you know I mean we talk about elevator pitches so what’s that one to two second thing that you’re going to say to engage someone.  Your Book Video is the same sort of thing.  It’s what you’re really doing is you are saying is you’re hooking them into your message and by trying to tell the entire story and in particular try and tell the entire story in 30 seconds I mean this is not going to work.

Jennifer Thompson:Yeah.

Penny Sansevieri:  You know you want to tell enough of it to really engage them.  So how complicated is it?  I mean how complicated is it really for an author to have you guys let’s say for example put together a video?  I mean let’s talk time wise.  How long would it take?  Is it terribly expensive?

Jennifer Thompson:  Well a Book Teaser ranges in price and our base line is $2,000.00 and what that gives people is obviously the programming time.  We create the video in flash so it can be as little as 214k as opposed to a 9 megabyte file so it loads very quickly and it will also load on our platform which is very important.  So with the base price gets people is the music and we score all our music.  It’s all rights free.  We actually create it right here.  We ask our authors what genre of music would you like to have on your video?  What kind of style would you like and then we create that.  

Penny Sansevieri:  In fact when we did Accidentally Engaged we threw in kind of a Peter and the Wolf feeling.  As the tension started to grow with the trailer we added in extra musical instruments just like they did with Peter and the Wolf.  You know people didn’t realize it was happening but it was creating this feeling.  So the music is very important and of course it has to be rights free.  You can’t use your favorite song that is playing on the radio every week or you will get sued.  People want to be careful of that and people don’t realize that that is something they have to think about.  Now the other thing is we throw in the still images.  We did some animation.  The cover of Accidentally Engaged has a dog carrying a ring in it’s mouth.  So we have the dog walk across the screen, drop the ring and then walk off the screen.  

Jennifer Thompson:  So that was included the animation.  We also added voiceover to that particular video and we wrote the script.  So what I usually ask an author to do is write a script for us and then I help them massage it and really make it shine.  But once I have something to work with that’s a base line then we can really you know draw the characters and decide what we’re going to do with the video.  The voiceover is extra money because we have to pay for the talent of course and we record it here in our office professionally.  We have recording equipment so it sounds topnotch.  So when it’s all said and done that video was about $3,000.00.

Penny Sansevieri:  Yeah.

Jennifer Thompson:  We also have to find images so I encourage authors to bring me rights free images or royalty free images.

Penny Sansevieri:  Yeah exactly.  Well and I think to some extent having them help you on the script is really good because I got to tell you even from my own book trailer – book video you know you’re just too close to it.  You’re too close to it to be objective.

Jennifer Thompson:  Yeah true.

Penny Sansevieri: I will tell you in one of the things that I want to mention is that next week we’re going to talk about promoting video.  Video is – we find is just some of the hottest – it is so hot right now to use video to promote your book.  It doesn’t have to be complicated.  When you think about all of the ways and all of the things that you can do to promote your book and those fiction authors out there who say oh I have no way to market my book and I’ve heard this for years and especially being a fiction author.  I’ll tell you something look into doing a book video.  I mean it’s really, really powerful.

Jennifer Thompson:  Yeah and like we said there’s not really very many people doing it right now so now is a great time to get into a market that isn’t so dense with so much competition.

Penny Sansevieri: Yeah, absolutely.  You know and I say this to authors and we talked about this when I was at the Colorado conference too not everybody is going to want to hire somebody to do a video and that’s okay.  But here’s the thing you know it’s sort of like your website.  It’s sort of like your business card.  Make it professional you know don’t use Powerpoint which Powerpoint I’m sorry but Powerpoint can do a lot these days.  It’s amazing what you can do now with Powerpoint you can make things fly in and out but you know what?  These types of things they all become your resumes so take the time to do something that you really are proud of because you never know who is going to see it especially when you start to circulate it online and we’ll talk about some of that stuff next week.

Jennifer Thompson:  Absolutely.

Penny Sansevieri: Jennifer, it was great chatting with you again today.  Thank you so much for your time.

Jennifer Thompson:  My pleasure.

Penny Sansevieri:Jennifer with Monkey C Media – that’s the letter “c” –monkeycmedia.com and Penny Sansevieri from Author Marketing Experts – amarketingexperts.com and if you want to take a look at those videos that we were talking about today head on over to redhotinternetpublicity.com.  Click on your book should be on video and you’ll get to take a look at some of the trailers and we’d love your feedback on that.  Till next time, Jennifer thanks again.

Jennifer Thompson:  Thank you so much.

Penny Sansevieri: Bye, bye.

Jennifer Thompson:Bye, bye.