1. What
type of books do you write?
Four of my five novels are historical. The fifth, Adolf
Hitler in Oz, I call a comic fantasy satire. In it Hitler stands for
evil and hate, and Oz stands for goodness and love. Oz wins.
2. What
is your newest book about?
My latest book is Rabbi Yeshua, a fictional biography of
Jesus of Nazareth.
3. What
inspired you to write it?
I was listening to a recording of Jesus Christ Superstar, and
it made me wonder. Whatever else Jesus may have been, he was a human
being who lived in a historical period and came from a cultural environment.
Given the history and the culture, what did he think he was doing?
What was he trying to accomplish? That started me reading about the
Jews under the Roman occupation of Palestine, and after thirty years I had a
novel. Of course I didn't spend the thirty years doing nothing but
working on one book; I wrote four other novels during that time, besides
holding down various jobs.
4. What
is the writing process like for you? It's exciting. I like thinking ahead what I'm going
to do, I like getting the words down, and I like going over and over and over
the product trying to get it exactly right.
5. What
did you do before you became an author? For 23 years I was a university professor. Then I
burned out and quit. I worked for a newspaper, then an advertising
agency, and then a public relations firm. By then I figured I was an
expert on career change, so I went into the career management field and spent
15 years counseling clients on how to get new jobs.
6. How
does it feel to be a published author? It feels great when I look at my books and see what I've
accomplished, but then it feels frustrating to consider that many of the people
who would enjoy what I write haven't found my books.
7. Any
advice for struggling writers? I think the way to begin is to find an author you like and
imitate him or her. Eventually you will realize that you are different
from him or her, and you will begin to become aware of what the differences
are. In that way you will develop your own voice, and then you are a
writer.
8. Where
do you see book publishing heading? There are two main trends right now: self-publishing and
the e-book. Self-publishing has made it possible for many people (like
me) to get into print, but it has also flooded the book market so that it is
harder for one voice to be heard. The e-book has made books more
affordable and available, but I hope it never leads to the death of the printed
book. I still prefer to hold a book in my hands and turn the pages.
In his own words…
I am a retired career
counselor, 86 years old, back in the United States after six years of
retirement in Thailand. My other three books are Sweet Betsy from Pike,
a historical novel of the gold rush based on the folk ballad of the same name; The
Robin Hood Chronicles, a fictional biography of the outlaw based on the
earliest ballad sources; and Huckleberry Finn Grows Up, a
sequel to Mark Twain's classic, tracing Huck from Indian Territory, where he
lived with the Cherokees, to California during the gold rush, and finally to
Kansas, where he helped to bring the territory into the Union as a free state.
Also three collections of my short stories are available as e-books:
Through Farang Eyes and Snapshots of Thailand,
both about Thailand and Myanmar, and Chamberlain Stories, about a
college town in the Midwest. There's more about me at www.amazon.com/author/samsackett and http://samsackett.us.
DID YOU SEE THIS?
You may be an author
if…
Brian Feinblum’s
views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of
his employer, Media Connect, the nation’s largest book promoter. You can follow
him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in
the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2014
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