1.. What inspired you to write this book?
In the late 1990's, I had recently separated from my first wife and was living in an apartment on my own in Orlando, Florida, when I met a charming young lady, several years younger than myself, who was living with her niece in my building.
Although it was a different friend who sparked me back in to writing poetry, it was this charmer that convinced me to take my poetic talents on stage for open mic night at The Backroom Words, hosted by Patrick Scott Barnes.
Introducing a couple of other building resident characters into this mix, we all became fast friends and for the next three years we had some of the most madcap adventures together. Each of us has declared those years to be some of the best times of our lives, and we could not help but develop a love for each other during those times long ago.
But love, and looking for love, are two very different things. So when my relationship with this sweetheart eventually hit its boundaries, as we both knew it would because we were heading in different life directions, I became a little glum.
One
afternoon, I was talking alone with her niece about the relationship as we sat
in an open stairwell overlooking the swimming pool, when she threw out that old
cliche' of, “Don't worry, let her go. There are plenty of fish in the sea!”
Later that day as I was looking down over the stairwell railing onto the pool, I started to reflect on what I thought I was trying to do, what I was actually doing, and how I felt about my own behaviors. That was when I came up with the idea for a fisherman story and started writing the original poem. The words poured out onto the paper for Part 1, and about two years later, I wrote Part 2, never foreseeing a second ending to this story.
A
few years later, I thought about turning this poem into an illustrated book. As
a result of the 2020 COVID shutdown, I realized it was now time to publish.
2.
What exactly is it about and who is it written for?
“A Fisherman's Tale” is about two things: (1) how obsessions can be confounding and perplexing, and the emotional and psychological impacts they can have on a person, (2) and something I call unnormalcy, which is just another word for counter-intuition, or doing the opposite of what one would normally think or do.
For example, if you recognize that your world is behaving abnormally, you can then do unnormal versus abnormal things to straighten your world out, similar in concept to multiplying two negative numbers together to create a positive, or more desirable outcome.
“A Fisherman's Tale” is written for everyone and one day I would like to see my book translated into multiple languages. For young readers, I hope to plant the experienced seeds of my insight to help them recognize and avoid unfortunate and unnecessary obsessive behaviors, while for older readers, provide a focal point or perspective on against which to reflect and contrast their own behaviors.
All
of this is my attempt to do my part in making our world a better place for all of us to live... cliche' as that may sound.
3.
What do you hope readers will get out of reading your book?
My greatest hope is that my readers will enjoy a few minutes of escapism and be swept away by their imagination with the colorful illustrations and poetic narrative of a fantasy love story while absorbing its subtle messages.
4.
How did you decide on your book’s title and cover design?
The
title came from the original poem, “A Fisherman's Tale – A Story of Love,” with the subtitle being revised using a play on words – reel instead of real – creating the book's subtitle,
“A Reel Love Story.”
For the cover design and illustrations, I hired Baillie B. King from Thumbtack.com, after interviewing her and a couple of other illustrators, giving them each the same particular
short
verse from the poem and asking them to sketch out their interpretation of that
verse.
Strangely
enough, as I approached publication, I was having technical difficulties with
uploading the cover illustration to my publisher, Outskirts Press, when I discovered their
offer for a webinar reviewing prospective book covers by an expert.
I
took advantage of this opportunity and submitted my cover, and it was one of
many covers selected and publicly critiqued. Upon hearing the critique results,
Baillie and I immediately put those suggestions into effect and the improved cover
illustration successfully uploaded. It was a great and timely coincidence for
us!
5.
What advice or words of wisdom do you have for fellow writers – other than
run!?
Stay patient and continually refine your work until you are comfortable enough say to that your final product possibly could be different, but not necessarily better.
Do not quit until you are satisfied that you did your best, sleep on it before signing your name to it, then throw it out there and let the chips fall where they may.
Finally, as hard as it may
seem, when letting others review your work, try to not take their criticisms
too personally, for you are the writer, not them. In the end, go with what
feels and sounds right.
6.
What trends in the book world do you see – and where do you think the book
publishing
industry is heading?
The
trend I notice most is the number of books coming from the publishing sectors
that are heavily focused on diversity and inclusion.
Looking
forward, I can only imagine that those publishing sectors will continue to
broaden their efforts to stay relevant to the perceived wants of their readers.
7.
Were there experiences in your personal life or career that came in handy when
writing this book?
Absolutely,
yes! I believe art imitates life because in the very beginning, there first had
to be life before there could be art.
In
this case, “A Fisherman's Tale,” is just such a book because it is based on a
personal chapter from my own journey of insight, maturity, and growth blended
with my talents of imagination and the ability to put my ideas on paper, with either words
and/or drawings.
8.
How would you describe your writing style? Which writers or books is your
writing
similar
to?
I
draw from several basic writing styles including narrative, descriptive,
reflective and personal. With poetry, I take artistic liberties with grammar
and sentence structure to create unnormal word
combinations for the sake of emphasis, stress, meter, cadence, and tempo... almost like choreographing the words into a flowing dance without
music.
I have not yet seen similar styles to my own, nor will I ever again attempt to emulate anyone else's style as I tried that once before, but abandoned the effort and instead went back to using my own style.
9.
What challenges did you overcome in the writing of this book?
The biggest challenge was staying patient while trying to keep the project moving forward when my illustrator faced easily understandable and much higher real-life priorities than working on my book.
The
other challenge was when my publisher was dissatisfied with the resolution of some of our illustrations, but we persevered until everyone was satisfied.
10. If people can buy or read
one book this week or month, why should it be yours?
“A Fisherman's Tale” is a great coffee table book with an attractive cover that is easy on the eyes with its beautiful colors, a great “hook” question and color contrast on the back cover, and SURPRISE... it is a narrative poem, too!
Since the poem “hears” differently than it reads, and with my onstage recital experience, I would also like to one day produce a companion talking book to enhance the readers' experience.
About
The Author:
Norman is a published and recognized poet several times over, an industrial
voice-over narrator and spoken word artist. This is his first published book
and he has aspirations of one day publishing his personal poetry anthology
which includes one of his favorite and most well-received poems entitled, “The
Puzzle (of Life).”
As a young man, he served one enlistment term in the U.S. Navy working in the
engine
room.
After his enlistment ended, his civilian career led him to becoming an Industrial
Maintenance Specialist covering
a wide range of areas including environmental control systems, refrigeration
systems, preventative maintenance databases, among other things. Norman also
spent a couple of years as an Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Trade School
Instructor.
He retired from the working world to spend what would become four combined years as an in-home caregiver for two different family members, one with garden-variety dementia and severe diabetes, while the other developed life-threatening lung cancer.
His favorite focus area these days is on the topic of Interactionism and self-managed behaviors to which he has developed his own novel theory and informative website called, “The Interactor,” that uses pictograms or symbols to relate what he believes are the repetitive processes of decision making, interaction, communication, and thus the proper operation, application, and inherent traps and pitfalls of each. For more information, please see: http://www.the-interactor.com.
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