Author Bio:
I grew up in Western Pennsylvania and attended one of the last remaining one-room schools in the state. Even though our library consisted of a single small bookcase, I managed to develop a fatal attraction to books early on. When I was in junior high, we had a visit from an actual author (the only such event I can recall), and I realized that not all stories are written by some long-dead, almost mythical personage; I might conceivably hope to be a writer myself. I started sending off handwritten manuscripts to magazines, accumulating so many rejections that I might have been persuaded to consider another career–except that one of them was from the famed SF writer/editor Frederik Pohl, who encouraged me to keep at it. A few years later, I sold my first story. But it took another twenty years and nine much-rejected attempts before I finally wrote a book that someone wanted to publish. Since then, I’ve sold thirty-five novels and nonfiction books and had a dozen or so stage plays produced in theatres from California to Spain. In 2005, after moving about from one state to another every few years, I settled down on the lovely North Shore of Nova Scotia.
What inspires you to write?
That seems like a two-pronged question. If we're talking about being motivated to write in a general sense–well, honestly, I don't need much motivation; I think it's harder for me NOT to write. When I'm not working on at least one project, I feel at loose ends, as if I'm just marking time. As far as writing any particular book or play, I think I'm most often inspired by something from real life–not my own so much as something I've stumbled upon while reading a nonfiction book or article, many times while I'm researching another story altogether.
Tell us about your writing process.
The longer I keep at this game, the more I realize the value of advance planning. I don't create a detailed outline, but I do take voluminous notes about the characters and the plot and the purpose of the story. I sketch out, very literally, the structure of the novel or play–where the conflict kicks in, what the "point of no return" will be (at which things can never go back to the way things were) and the event that decides how the story will end. Of course, all those things are subject to change, but it gives me a sort of road map to follow, so I don't get hopelessly lost.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
As much as possible, I try to make the characters listen to me (something that real people don't take kindly to, especially your children); after all, I know what's going to happen–more or less–a few chapters down the road and how they're going to be affected by it, perhaps how they cause it to happen. But of course, just as people do in real life, they sometimes surprise me.
Who are your favorite authors?
There are only a few cases in which I've been compelled to seek out everything that particular author wrote and devour it. They tend to be the above mentioned long-dead and almost mythical ones. I think by now I've read just about the entire output of Charles Dickens, and Thomas Hardy and Jane Austen, and I'm working on Anthony Trollope, but he has sooo many.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
When I started writing, there were basically just two options: traditional publisher or vanity press. I was lucky enough to have a long run with a couple of pretty prestigious publishers, who did a good job of editing and promoting my work. But in recent years, with the advent of e-books, the expansion of social media, and the increasing cost of print books, publishers–at least mine–have gotten very selective, and increasingly they expect authors to self-promote, something I'm not very good at. But when my latest publisher turned down a sequel, I decided that, if I was going to have to do all that legwork, I might as well reap the profits, so I've ventured into self-publishing.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
Well, that's the million dollar question, and I'm afraid I don't have any answers, any more than the traditional publishers seem to. We're all just muddling along and waiting to see how things will play out. One thing I do know: books will go on being written and published (or memorized, as in Fahrenheit 451?) in some fashion. They fill a need that's not satisfied by any other form of entertainment/escape/enlightenment.
What genres do you write?
Fiction and nonfiction for children, young adults and adults, stage plays, screenplays
What formats are your books in?
eBook, Print, Audiobook
Website(s)
Gary Blackwood Home Page Link
Follow Gary Blackwood On Amazon
Author’s Social Media Links
Goodreads
Twitter
All information is provided by the author and is presented as it was submitted so you the reader get to hear the author’s own “voice” in their interview.
