Interview With Author Bret Cargile

 

  

1.What inspired you to write this book? Ambition. I am a creative person. From childhood I was encouraged to be so. I was taught that creativity was immensely desirable and was a valuable commodity in its own right. Perhaps my teachers were naive. This book (the first of two in series) took me about twelve years to complete. Not that I could not have finished something sooner, but that I picked a nonfiction genre that demanded a declarative poise or sang·froid. This choice forced me to do a great deal of research into subjects with which I was unfamiliar. One question would lead to another, then another. My approach was often autodidactic. But learning was the fuel that fed the flames of writing.  

2. What exactly is it about and who is it written for? It's about rounding out an individual in ways to ensure his or her comfortable survival; potentially a reference book for use in an upcoming age of chaos perhaps. Navigation, food preservation and plant chemicals, in this 1st volume. It's partially about teaching self-reliance. High School equivalency youth is the target audience. It was envisioned as a textbook, similar to a cross between a BoyScout Manual and an Army Field Manual. Both manuals were once full of images and understandable explanations.  

3. What do you hope readers will get out of reading your book? Respect for responsibility. Self-reliance. Their own survival.  

4. How did you decide on your book’s title and cover design? Since I am somewhat of a graphics artist, the cover design came easy. The general layout was done over a decade ago and I have on display @ my website, the evidence to prove it. From time to time in the succeeding years I would spend some evenings tweaking the images with the computer. Deciding upon a decent title however was just the opposite. It took a decade to decide on the title. (Also explained on the Intro page of my blog).  

5. What advice or words of wisdom do you have for fellow writers– other than run!? Keep the faith. Keep pouring love into your project. Take it easy on the sipping wiskey. Avoid AI like a plague. I've no personal experience with AI but I suspect that touching it once will lead you down a stray path and cause your integrity to wither. Like smoking that first cigarette can lead to an addiction that can't be stopped.  

6. What trends in the book world do you see -- and where do you think the book publishing industry is heading? AI. I hope it never comes to pass, but I perceive that artificial intelligence will wipe out creative writing. Many people in the modern writing world are already leaning heavily upon crutches like ChatGPT. That's cheating; that's wrong. These people have thrown the thesaurus out the window. They have neither ethics nor pride. Others are compelling a new generation of aspiring writers to embrace AI. The algorithms are improving daily. Today while only a portion of someone's writing might be AI generated; tomorrow it might be all. Who desires a book that was written by an inanimate machine?  

7. Were there experiences in your personal life or career that came in handy when writing this book? In my early life, I was surrounded by educated people but far from any town or city. I came from a family of educators and they had educated peers for friends, that visited. Long ago and far away I payed off part of my tuition by working as a student librarian. That university at the time possessed one of the larger libraries in the nation with over 10 million books, housed in eight different buildings around campus. The branch that I worked in mostly, was like a three story Walmart Super Center. If that allusion misses the mark, then imagine three floors with 2-3 acres of floor space each, crowded with bookshelves packed from floor to ceiling. Literally millions of books in the same room or building; almost as far as the eye can see. (The British Library and Library of Congress both, catalog more than 170 million works each). An additional estimated 2.2 million new titles are published worldwide each year. It's depressing. It is dispiriting to realize the enormity of it all. That there is so much creativity and human cognition already in print, that you can never see nor fully appreciate, let alone compete with it all. And yet we try. I was brought up as gentry almost, on an isolated cattle ranch. I've lived in a few cities over the years but utterly despise the congestion. My attitude derives from an expectation of privacy I suspect. When leaving home to enter the job market, I was attracted to the most exciting & most dangerous outdoor activities that I could find (outside of joining the military that is). This experience comes in handy when writing my type of book. But blue-collar occupations also lead to the parroting of fowl language and the conducting of mundane conversations sometimes.  

8. How would you describe your writing style? Which writers or books is your writing similar to? I am attracted to many ideals of the stoic philosophy. I've read several Earnest Hemingway novels, practically every western dime novel that Louis L'Amour ever wrote and practically nothing that Winston Churchill wrote outside of several of his famous quotations. I know very little about literary science or literary studies. Yet I perceive that these aforementioned men advocated the use of short words, brevity of speech and terse prose. I can only aspire to do as well.  

9. What challenges did you overcome in the writing of this book? Learning the intricacies of a complicated word processor, was an aggravating challenge to surmount.  

10. If people can buy or read one book this week or month, why should it be yours? I'm biased here. If society were to collapse tomorrow (from potential reasons mentioned in the book) city people (as I like to call them) are toast. They are unlikely to endure (for reasons mentioned) and therefore have no need for survival advice. But one third of the 500 page book is dedicated to sorting out both lawful and licit psychoactive drugs. 'Big Pharma' has scandalous power and resources. The history of medicine is replete with chemical concoctions extracted solely from natural plants. Subjects that should appeal to some city people. The information won't waste a reader's time.  

About The Author: Not discussing my biography is a hallmark of my website and a gimmick used on the back of my book. I ignore social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Reedit, Twitter, WhatsApp, Pinterest or LikkedIn. However I have created and maintained my own Web pages for over 30 years now. I have also participated long term in a forum or two. I took computer programming classes in 1972 and bought my first PC in 1978. About 6 months ago the local landline - phone service became so bad that I was forced to buy my first cell / smart phone. I still don't know how to use it. Website: https://cactusbush.wordpress.com/

 

 

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About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2024. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This award-winning blog has generated over 3.9 million pageviews. With 5,000+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and director of publicity positions at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.