Greg Byrne’s latest book is a
supernatural thriller called Nine Planets. Byrne is a late bloomer who began
writing as soon as he was introduced to crayons, but was published only
recently. He spends his time teaching English as a Second Language to overseas
adults and Bachelor of Education units to undergraduate teachers, and
consulting with primary schools and ESL colleges about teaching grammar.
His next book is a YA thriller
series, followed by an epic fantasy tetralogy. In his ‘spare’ time, he loves
history, languages, science, travel, movies, books and sport.
Link to Amazon
Questionnaire:
Thanks
for letting us interrogate you! Can you
give us a go-for-the-gut answer as to why you wanted to be an author?
It was never a case of wanting to be an author. I just grew up
with words and stories and languages filling up the spaces in my head with
colour and light and mystery. Apart from teaching, which was rather hardcoded
into my DNA from birth (both parents were teachers), I never really thought of
doing anything else. Teaching pays and delights. Writing delights but pays far
less.
Tell
us (we won’t tell promise!) is it all it’s cracked up to be? I mean what are the perks and what are the demands?
Being an author is wonderful
and being a published author is one step better. The perks are that I get to
turn all the exciting stories in my head into real books. That’s an exciting
and quite fabulous journey all of itself. I get to make imaginary things real,
to subcreate (in Tolkien and Lewis’
words) characters and places and events. How fantastic is that? Even better
than that is to have readers who enjoy these stories. I recently heard from a
reader who understood some of the clues in Nine Planets and was delighted. Demands?
None really except for deadlines and editors.
Which
route did you take – traditional or self-published – and can you give us the
nitty gritty low down on what’s that like?
Traditional. I considered the
self-published route, but the reactions of bookstore owners were less than
favourable, so I was thrilled when Dragonwell took me on. I’ve done a lot of
the local work myself in getting Nine Planets into bookstores, so that is
similar to what a self-published author would have to do, but that has been
half the fun.
Tell
us for real what your family feels about you spending so much time getting your
book written, polished, edited, formatted, published, what have you?
My family understands, for
which I am VERY grateful. As long as Dad and husband balances writing with
family relationships and duties, all is well. Even when deadlines loom and the
door is shut, they have been very gracious. When the first copy of Nine Planets
arrived at my door, they all gathered around, celebrated with me and shared
their photos on facebook. That was a wonderful moment.
This
is for pet lovers. If you don’t own a
pet, skip this question, but do your pets actually get their food on time or do
they have to wait until you type just one more word?
Ah. We had Daisy many years ago
when I was writing Nine Planets, a fantastic family dog who loved us as much as
we loved her. Part of my
job was to take Daisy for a walk, so we
often went down to the local (rather large!) park where Daisy would run and I
would muse over the latest chapter, scene, character or plot problem. Daisy had
her exercise and I was able to turn my writing brain off and allow my
imagination some unfettered wandering time. There’s something almost miraculous
in the way that open air
This
is for plant lovers. If you don’t own a
plant, skip this question, but if you do, are they actually still alive?
Gardening is therapy. There is
something in the physical act of planting, digging, fertilizing and watering
that strips away worry, routine, bills and stresses and re-engages the creative
soul. I love my garden. Yes, it is still alive and we enjoy home grown herbs on
our dinner most nights.
In
writing your book, how did you deal with the phone ringing, your family needing
dinner or your boss calling you saying you’re late?
Life continues as it will and the
world makes its demands as it always has; I just have to cope. I just knew that
when I returned to the keyboard, the characters would be waiting. I would go
back three or so pages, re-read, bring myself up to speed, start again and keep
writing until the next interruption or I had to go to bed. Oh, I don’t cook. My
darling wife cooks and I do the dishes afterwards.
What
was the craziest or most insane thing that happened to you in the book
publishing process?
None of the publishing process
was unusual, but writing the book itself was seriously crazy. I recall staring
at the screen many times wondering who on earth it was who thought up this
almost surreal story. Writing query letters was insanely difficult because
summarising the story and working out short punchy taglines was almost
impossible. The most amazing part of the whole process, though, was the initial
inspiration. I can remember the exact place and time as well as the trigger
that started the whole thing. Out of a clear blue sky, with no warning
whatsoever, the novel landed almost fully formed in my head in an incandescent
ten minute period a week before Christmas several years ago. I immediately
abandoned the novel that had so completely consumed me for decades and started
on Nine Planets immediately. That was the craziest and most insane thing,
without doubt.
How
about the social networks? Which ones do
you believe help and which ones do you wish you could avoid?
I use Twitter and Facebook. I’m
still working out how to condense stuff into Twitterian simplicity, but
Facebook has been a fantastic way to tell others about Nine Planets.
Book
sales. Don’t you just love them (or lack
of?)? How are you making the sales
happen for you?
Hard work. Lots of social media
shameless self-publicity as well as talking to bookstore owners, newspaper
journalists, radio hosts and just about everyone else. I don’t expect book
sales, especially for a debut novelist, to be terrible exciting at first, but I
do expect that Nine Planets will go out into the world and tell its own story
in time (it certainly has got a wonderful story to tell!).
What
is one thing you’d like to jump on the rooftop and scream about?
Two
things. After decades of trying, getting that contract in the post was a matter
of dreams, the other side of fantastic. I didn’t run down the street screaming,
waving the contract above my head, with my dressing gown flapping, but I got
pretty close.
The second thing was getting a
REAL. PRINTED. copy of the book in my hands. With an ISBN and everything. On
PAPER. It is hard to say just how amazing it was to see all my years of late
night work, all the amazing characters and their stories, all my imagination
made REAL. A book to hold. For others to read. That thrill is still undiminished.
It’s the wonder of subcreation, of making intangible thought into a real paper
book. There’s something miraculous about that.
Okay,
too much sugar for you today! Here’s a
nice cup of Chamomile tea and come on over and sit under the cabana and watch
the waves roll in. Now…can you tell us
what you love about being a published author and how all those things above
doesn’t matter because it’s all part of the whole scheme of things and you
wouldn’t have it any other way?
I think I already have! J
Writing is making. Human as I am, writing is a dim, shadowed glimpse into the
mind of God.
No comments:
Post a Comment