1. What or who inspired you to start writing?
I'm not really sure what got me started. I do remember thinking about writing books all the way back when I was in Junior High school, but Inever really tried writing stories until college. I was sort of inspiredby a high school teacher named Esther Brinkley, but that was a sort of mixed inspiration?either become a writer/artist or a murderer.
2. How did you come up with your idea for World Without End?
I was raised in a Christian Home and School and so got the basis of my life from those teachings, but I am also a philosopher who started to wonder how a lot of those concepts I was taught as a child might apply to the realworld first and to the world of fiction second. Truth be told I am nearlyas crazy as Joshua Gordon when it comes to belief in the actuality of mycreation. Forneria, the world Joshua created exists out there somewhere because the California I created for Joshua and John and Katherine and all the others to exist in actually exists out in the ether somewhere as well as in my fevered imagination. And of course I stole the title from theGloria Patri which is used in a lot of different churches ?Glory be to theFather, and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning,is now and ever shall be, World without End, Amen, Amen.?
3. What expertise did you bring to your writing?
Years of study of religion and philosophy as well as a degree in History and an absolutely insatiable curiosity about the limits of creation?and more than forty years of scribbling stories and poetry.
4. What would you want your readers to know about you that might not be inyour bio?
Not too much really. My life has been pretty much an open book for a lot of years. The major thing which is implied but not out-right said is that none of this would have been possible without the continual support of my wife of forty years. No matter what else I ever accomplish in my life the epitaph on my tomb-stone will read ?...He married Well.?
5. As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans?
To just keep at it. I am a creator and there is just no help for it. Ihave written three novels and dozens of short stories and poems so, though I sometimes ask myself why the hell I keep punishing myself with writing?and worse, punishing myself with hope of getting published? I keep at it all the same.
6. If you could be one of the characters from this book, who would it be and why?The simple answer of course is that I?m Joshua?but the true answer, and I think this is true with everyone who has ever put pen to paper to create anovel, I am every character in the book good guys and bad guys.
7. Can you give us a sneak peak into this book?
I?m not exactly sure what you mean by a sneak peak. I could give you the prologue or a chapter, but that would probably just confuse the matter because the book covers so much territory concerning creation?both the creation of this world and the creation of the world of Forneria. What it boils down to is that sometimes when a writer creates a story he makes it so real that a person who reads that story gets sucked into the story in such a way that the world of the story becomes ?real? to them. I know that seems a little esoteric but think about the times you have sat down with abook and were so swallowed up in that story that hours passed without your having noticed them.
8. Do you belong to a critique group? If so how does this help or hinder your writing?
I do belong to a critique group and have belonged to several down the years. The first one was a college class that was a wonderful learning experience. I even describe the class in WWE. All you had to do to get an A was turn in a thousand words a week or a hundred lines of poetry, thenthe class critiqued the work. The one I am in now is a bunch of writers who are trying to be professionals so we are pretty hard on one another. Generally I think the group helps me. It certainly teaches one to toughen up. And just the act of reading your work aloud to a bunch of other people is helpful. There is no way quicker to discover clumsy construction or badwording that to try to read the stuff out loud.
9. When did you first decide to submit your work? Please tell us what orwho encouraged you to take this big step?
I aways intended from the very beginning to submit anything I wrote (If Ithought it was as good as what I was currently reading) to publishers. And I wrote intending to try to make money at it because I believe what Ben Johnson said a couple of centuries ago, ?No one but a fool ever wrote for any reason save money.? Of course that makes me sound like a crass hack and there is some of that in me, but there is also the desire to tell people what I believe to be the way the universe really is or perhaps howit could be.
10. What is the best and worst advice you ever received? (regarding writingor publishing)
The best advice I ever got was, ?Don?t do this. It will eventually bringyou pain.? I ignored that good advice and here I am. And it was indeed correct. Writing has indeed brought me great pain in many ways, but it has also brought me immeasurable satisfaction. I can?t remember any really bad advice?or maybe the ?Don?t do this...? was both the best and the worstmixed together.
11. Do you outline your books or just start writing?
I don?t do outlines on paper. I tried it a couple of times and it seemed very strictured and I never finished the books. What I do generally is Iknow the beginning, and something about the middle and then I have a good idea about the end before I start writing. Now sometimes the middle will change a bit and so will the end but I start out with them in mind.
12. Anything else you might want to add?
Not really. Maybe my website for the publishing company I put together to publish my first novel. It has ended up being a great thing because I have published the Antelope Valley Anthologies for the last six years which has given a lot of poets and writers a shot at being published who might not have ever gotten the chance other wise. The website address iswww.mouseprintspublishing.com
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