What
are your top 10 favorite books/authors?
I
do not know if I can list ten but I like the classics; Augustine, Dante,
Machiavelli but also more modern novelist like Mario Puzo. Everyone should read
Solzhenitsyn. I enjoy well written history by people like Stephen Ambrose and
Rick Atkinson and of course everyone should read Churchill and the histories he
authored from first hand experience. One of the key points of the Breaking The
Zeitgeist: How To Be Happy In A World Gone Insane is our present tendency to
make our world very small by dismissing what we read and what knowledge we
acquire based on tribalism and what tribe we identify with. People should read
everything, they should read Augustine and Marx, Solzhenitsyn and Nietzsche,
Machiavelli and Nixon. I had a young Marxist ask me several years ago to
recommend a book and I suggested Road to Serfdom by Hayek and he mocked that
suggestion by saying, “What can I learn from a seventy year old book?” while he
simultaneously was quoting Marx (who I am sure he also quite sure never
actually read). That is an example of how we have made our world small, we
should read everything.
What
book do you think everyone should read?
City of God by Augustine and everyone
should read Solzhenitsyn. Moral courage is certainly in short supply as of
late.
How
long have you been writing?
About twelve years including newspaper
columns
Do
the characters all come to you at the same time or do some of them come to you
as you write?
I have the characters, and who they are,
identified before I start writing.
What
kind of research do you do before you begin writing a book?
I view my life as research but I often
refer back to books to clarify facts and I reach out to experts in certain
topics to confirm accuracy and my understanding. Fortunately I have a
wide-range of acquaintances and friends.
Do
you see writing as a career?
I see communication of ideas as a career. I
do a lot of radio and sometimes podcast commentary as well.
What
do you think about the current publishing market?
It is crowded.
Do
you read yourself and if so what is your favorite genre?
History, understanding previous problems
and how they were solved, successfully or not, and what caused those decisions.
Do
you prefer to write in silence or with noise? Why?
Both at different times depending on what I
am writing and what portion. I wrote a good bit of Breaking the Zeitgeist at
the actual place it occurs.
Do
you write one book at a time or do you have several going at a time?
One at a time! It takes all of my focus.
If
you could have been the author of any book ever written, which book would you
choose?
The Godfather
Pen
or type writer or computer?
Computer
Tell
us about a favorite character from a book.
I am
biased but I think both characters in Breaking The Zeitgeist,, the entire
novel is their playing off of each other from different ages, generations,
expectations and experiences without either character being invalidated. The
intent of the book is how to navigate what the world is today without losing
your soul or who you are. The underlying premise is the Greeks defined
happiness as a life well lived and Solzhenitsyn pointed out it is never too
late or too dire a circumstance to begin that life well lived and how classical
thought conflicts with post-modern definitions of happiness. The book addresses
how do you actually apply the last five thousand years of good advice in
practical terms and addresses that from the perspective of two men who are forty
years apart in age with very different experiences without being demeaning to
either. It is a very hopeful practical book set in the real world yet drawing
on the last five thousand years of human knowledge and experience to inform us
how not to be caught up in the zeitgeist while having to exist in a world that
in a very real sense seems to be periodically insane. Rather than being a dry
academic tome the book is set as two men experiencing a wilderness adventure
while discussing real life as it is in America today with real conversations.
The characters examine the provenance of classical, modern and post-modern
ideas while comparing these ideas to actual outcomes and practical applications
in a manner that makes the characters likeable, relatable and easy to follow.
The characters ponder deep philosophical questions about mankind without being
consumed by philosophy but rather using them as a touchstone for what being
happy is today.
What
made you want to become an author and do you feel it was the right decision?
I
had things to say I felt were useful. The entire intent of Breaking The
Zeitgeist is to be useful.
A day
in the life of the author? Writing in the morning and evening and touching
grass in the afternoon.
Advice
they would give new authors?
Just start.
Describe
your writing style.
Thoughtful
and intellectual but with practical application to real lives.
What
makes a good story?
People recognizing who they are or wish to
be in the story. If people say to themselves ‘I am that person’ or ‘I know that
person’ or ‘I want to be that person’ they gain a different level of
engagement.
What
are they currently reading?
Inferno
by Dante Alighieri (again)
What
is your writing process? For instance do you do an outline first? Do you do the
chapters first?
I play it out in my mind and make hundreds
of notes of what I want to say, then start writing the chapters and edit edit
edit.
What
are common traps for aspiring writers? Not to start writing at all or to start and give up, I
suspect most give up because they cannot or do not want an ending. They always
find more to say and that is a desire that must be resisted.
What
is your writing Kryptonite?
The
minutiae of life.
Do
you try more to be original or to deliver to readers what they want?
I try to communicate ideas that have
practical applications to lives of real people.
If
you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
Just write!
What’s
the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex?
Genuinely
getting in their mind for why they are saying or doing something. Men and women
think very differently.
How
long on average does it take you to write a book?
Actual
writing is about ninety days, thinking through what the book should be and
making notes could be years.
Do
you believe in writer’s block?
For short periods, usually being outdoors
changes that. However I may contemplate something for a very long time before I
arrive at what to write.
