Q&A

I don’t remember wanting to be a writer, per se. I wanted to act and perform. I wrote material for myself and my partner, and wrote scripts and screenplays to fill the time an actor has while not acting. It’s more recent that I became serious about writing books. It’s a way of traveling through my imagination and I like that.

It was a series of accidents. My dream of being an actor was squashed by my parents and upbringing. “Nobody goes out and becomes an actor for a living. Get real.” That was my programming. So I became a bartender, who performed on the side. After a serious car accident I realized a normal job was not for me. Still not convinced I had a chance at show business, I wrote to a mime teacher in Boulder Colo. I went to study with him and learn about the Kabbalah. Yes, he was a spiritual Mime. I was ready to live a life of a poor mime on a mountain top. When I got to Colorado, he had booked himself a European tour and left my money with the post office. I went to LA to be a bartender, but fell in with other mimes and one thing led to another. In retrospect, I followed my dream. While auditioning for a comedy show, I was not dismissed properly by the producers and stood there while they batted around sketch ideas. I tossed in a few and became a writer on that show for the Playboy Channel as well as a performer. Everything was sort of accidental.

The first author to make me cry was Nikos Kazantzakis’ Zorba the Greek. I finished the book in 8th grade under my desk while in class and broke down. I wanted to be that kind of a writer inspired by people who lived life richly and fully. Then, of course Norton Juster, Roald Dahl, S.J. Perelman all tickled me and entertained me. I’m more of a Roald Dahl and Woody Allen fan for writers.

I wish I was more disciplined. I don’t write every day, — yet. I do my best writing in the early morning. If I get on a tear, I can look up to see it be 8 PM or later and my body is stiff. That’s a good day of writing. I like getting caught up in it.

I write on a computer. I cannot even read my own writing anymore.

Zorba. Of my personal book writing, I love to be each character. That’s my acting training, I guess.

King of Average, had a good beginning and I let the book unfold in the writing. That’s the hard way. I had to outline the book after the fact. Painful. In my second book I’m working on at the moment, The Benji Loper Caper, I had a good idea as in King and this time wrote the outline as a movie script to make the action work. That was fun and gave me a structure for the book. I still like writing the flow out way, because you never know when a character will take you by the hand and change the story.

51 years.

Oh, yes. I wrote the first 20 pages back in the 80s and then told everyone what a great story I had. I would then tell the story rather than write it. Finally, in 2008, when I was challenged by a friend to push past the 20 odd pages, I ended up with 360 pages. I read it and was horrified at the bad writing. I put the thing away for several years. I have to make myself accountable to others and then I seem to get going. If I am asked to show my work to someone who’s on my case, I do it. In the end I enjoy it. But I’m not the greatest self-starter.

It’s my homage to Norton Juster’s Phantom Tollbooth. James (the most common name) Mayor Culpa (the verbal pun on Mea Culpa) the scapegoat was first. Kiljoy, the Pessimist reminded me of Gilroy was here. Monsieur Roget the Optimist was the only one I had trouble naming. What pun do you use for an Optimist. Sonny? Anyway, I wanted to make him French and my Thesaurus was my friend at this point, so I named him after Roget’s Thesaurus.

James would be the current version of Fred Savage from Princess Bride. Billy Crystal as the Goat, Patrick Stewart as King Norman, Lewis Black for Kiljoy, Jimmy Fallon for a lot of people, and I wouldn’t mind playing a part or two myself.

Yes, from the first bad manuscript, I sent it to family and friends. The non-reply told me I needed to make it work as a piece of writing. Then writer friends, more family and other friends along the way. Then I hired a mentor – Susan Hughes, a children’s book author and teacher from Nova Scotia. She really took me in hand and gave me the most help. Writing, good writing is hard work.