Telescopes and tall tales - Ngaire meets Keith Nichols

Ngaire Victoria Elder

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve found in your washing machine, apart from Great Aunt Bonnie’s bloomers …? A couple years ago I discovered the remnants of a used diaper (that's a nappy for us locals, Ngaire - Ed) and just a few weeks ago I found half of my precious wind chime in the machine. 

In the name of Don Quixote, what the heck was it doing there! I blamed the kids, and the kids blamed the dog … you work it out!

Anyway, what does this have to do with today’s guest, Keith Nichols? Absolutely nothing. I was going to tell you about the dead cat I picked up by the tail (its tail came off), but I‘ll save that tale for another day.

Talented and multi-genred author, Keith Nichols 

Need to move on dear Wizardwatchers, here comes the Ed with his bendy wand!

______________________________

Hi Keith

Hi Ngaire. It's great to be on the show!

Lovely to see you here. Keith, tell the Wizardwatchers a bit about yourself?

A bit about myself. I was born a poor Irish lad, on the lost island of Scotlandia. At the age of 15 I migrated to the US and taught myself how to read and speak English. No, not really. I was born in Tacoma Washington. I grew up on a wheat farm in Colorado. My father was a scientist and artist. My mother is an artist as well. I am the youngest son of 16 children.

Keith Nichols

When did you first realise you wanted to be a writer and what inspired you to write your first book?

My first book was written as an English class project, my teacher at the time Mr Wiley told me all I had to do to pass his class was write a novel. (hahahaha…Ed)  So I did, and I did. I never really wanted to be a writer, I just figured if I was going to write, I might as well try to make some money from it.

What are you working on now?

Non fiction..

My current projects are numerous. I am working on a book co-authored by my cat. I am working on a parody of everything that has been popular for the past ten years called 'Best selling Book'. I am also plodding away at a space opera parody thingy.

...to making stuff up..

Keith  you write both fiction and non-fiction, which do you prefer?

I prefer to write non-fiction, mostly because it’s so much easier for me then all that tedious making stuff up. Although, making things up is actually a lot of what I call non-fiction.

E.G Too Writ

(Ed says: I read this book a few weeks back. Non fiction. All about writing, writers, publishers and editors. For 77p and/or $1 its an informative read. Had an author I know read this before he mithered me unmercifully about the publication date of his short story, he might still be part of an anthology I'm compliling. Definitely worth a gander. Okay, back to the show.)

Did certain parts of any of your books make you uncomfortable? If so, why did you feel that way? Did this lead to a new understanding or awareness of some aspect of your life you might not have thought about before?

I once wrote a sex scene for my book Nuramans Endgame, (before it was ever published in any form) and I based the scene on an actual event from real life. Pretty uncomfortable bit. I deleted it from the final version of the book, it was just too weird for me. I learned that I can't write sex stuff at all.

Keith Nichols - much more comfortable with
tug boats than tug books. The highly rated
Virginia X

I read Virginia X, Keith. I really enjoyed it. 

I enjoyed that one, Ngaire. I'm partial to tug boats.

If you had to go back and do it all over, is there any aspect of your novel(s) or getting it/them published that you would change?

 I suppose I would change the part where I don't get a huge advance. 

How would you react to a bad review of your book?

Often I manage to completely ignore a bad review for days before I am forced to comment on it. And usually this comment is something along the lines of 'You are a big doodie head'.

What type of writer are you, Keith, a 2000 word a day scribbler or a ‘whenever, wherever’ writer?

I am a whenever whatever writer. Sometimes I will go months with barely writing anything. Then I will write a book in a weekend.

What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author? What has been the best compliment?

My little zombie short story has been reviewed as 'rubbish'. That was pretty hard to take. I like my little zombie. Best compliment is when I was compared to Clive Cussler. I beamed over that for a month.

A book Keith could have written.

Your hobbies include astronomy and ‘rat rod’ fabrication, of which you published books about (How to Build a Rat Rod Roadster Body and How to find chose and buy your own telescope: A guide for students and parents). Tell us more...

Well, I think that pretty much covers it. I build cars from scrap, and then I drive the cars to car shows and make lots of people either very happy or very angry. Both of these books, the rat rod book and the astronomy book were written in a weekend. I wrote the astronomy book mostly because I feel people don't understand how to get a telescope. I felt it was up to me to spread the word to the masses.

Isaac Newton's first telescope

Who is/are your favourite author(s) and why?

 My favorite author of all time was Tolkien. Because he was Tolkien. I love Douglas Adams. Alastair Reynolds is writing the best sci-fi in 20 years. Terry Pratchett makes me giggle in public.

Top Sci-Fi from Alistair Reynolds.
A comeback for the genre overdue?

Describe a typical day in the life of Keith Nichols.

Well my day starts around 10 in the morning, when my wife decides I should get out of bed. I have some coffee, sit in front of the computer for an hour or two and get ready for my day at the regular job. I then spend ten hours a night watching a large CNC machine drill holes, and often I will work on books while it’s running. I usually get home from work around 2 in the morning, I have a small bite to eat, sit in front of the computer and Facebook for way too long. Then I get dragged off to bed by my wife. Repeat.

If you could invite 2 famous people to dinner who would they be and what would you discuss?

 I would invite David Morell and Tom Cruise over to dinner and we would talk about espionage thrillers and their impact on monastary recruitment.

Do you get road rage? What pisses you off the most about other drivers?

I get awful road rage, but oddly it’s often directed at me. I drive lots of strange cars, from the Frankentruck to the MG Midget. I get flipped off a lot. The thing that other drivers do that really gets to me is driving on the road.

Keith spots the troll who dissed his zombie short
while in a traffic jam,

You and a couple of friends have resurrected the Virginia X from her watery-grave and overhauled her. Armed with your food and drink supplies you set sail. Unfortunately you didn’t brush up on your navigational skills and hit a rocky seabed, tearing a small hole in her hull. What 3 books, 2 dvds and 1 cd did you pack to ease your boredom whilst your shipmates pumped out the bilge.

 I would take all 3 of the Revelation Space Series, by Reynolds. 

Clutch Elephant Riders is the cd... 

...and both Expendables movies.

And finally, where can fans of Keith Nichols find out more?

I have a good authors page on Amazon, and of course my Facebook page is a very good place.

Keith, it's been a pleasure having you on the show and we look forward to you coming back. Thank you.

It's been a blast, Ngaire. Thank you....

Contact:

http://www.facebook.com/fivepenniespress

my youtube channel

http://www.youtube.com/user/novelist10?feature=mhee

my amazon authors page

http://www.amazon.com/Keith-Nichols/e/B0074H8NFQ/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1343523996&sr=1-2-ent

NB: The editor of the Wizard's Cauldron would like to point out that the road rage attack picture above is entirely fictional and nothing whatsoever to do with Keith wearing an outlaw mask during this interview. Honest, guv.

and Ngaire

http://greenwizard62.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/an-interview-with-ngaire-victoria-elder.html

An Interview with Val-Rae Christensen

A relaxed Val-Rae Christensen

Val-Rae Christensen is a writer's writer. 

That is, a writer liked and respected by other writers. Undiscovered she may be, but the right people have been whispering her name in all the right circles. Some shrewd judges have said on more than one occasion that Val-Rae could be a name to watch. 

Last year, Val-Rae wrote the highly regarded piece of work, Of Moths and Butterflies  and even I, over in the cold, misty, foggy, bereft, socially challenged and economically destroyed UK, began to hear how good this book was. Nip onto Amazon and have a read of the first chapter. Proper writing.  

Serious Indielit isn't very fashionable - unless you write erotica, romance or vampire fiction, you aren't going to be invited to too many fashionable Indie parties - but that's changing. It will change - and I'll lay good odds that Val-Rae will be leading the charge. 

In order to get her thoughts, I picked up the Wizphone  and interrupted Val-Rae  in her writer's garret somewhere deep in leafy, arborial, rural Virginia.  Here's what she had to say about matters Val-Rae, writing, and her many, many influences...

Tell us about yourself, Val? Whereabouts in the US are you from.

I'm from a small town in western Washington state. I grew up on the coast, spent a few years in the Seattle area, went away for college and then moved to the South. I'm presently in Virginia, and hope to remain here for some time. I've always wanted to live in the UK, and whenever I have the time and money (sometimes hard to have those two things at once) I travel to England and do research and just absorb the culture and atmosphere. I hope (and think it does) seep into the books I write.

A snapshot of

British culture to infil future 

novels - from Plan B, London's new Dickens, 

only with music (of sorts).

Describe your publishing history? What genre do you work in?
I write Historical Fiction, sometimes with some Steampunk and paranormal thrown in for fun. 

But I love history, and I am constantly fascinated by the lessons that can be learned from studying the people of past eras. 

To be honest, I didn't shop Moths around too much before I decided to go independent with it. 

I did have a publisher in the UK, but their verbal agreements were tentative, and after a year or two of waiting, I just decided to see what I could make of it. 

My soon to be released novel Cry of the Peacock, actually has been seriously considered by several agents and publishers, but it was my first book and still needed a lot of work at that time. With the success of Moths, I'm fairly confident Peacock will do well. It will certainly appeal to Downton Abbey fans.

Downton Abbey Cast 

on Chat Show

But though I'll publish it independently, I am planning on looking for representation to give it the publicity it deserves.

Were you heartened by the critical reaction to "Of Moths and Butterflies"? 

I really worried about Moths, as it's written for a specific audience, namely women who've experienced some kind of emotional/physical/sexual trauma in their lives. 

It's fairly evident from the reviews which readers got it and which did not. For the most part, I'm very happy. It's done far better than I had expected. And with the growing popularity in Historical Fiction, it's never been a better time for me to have my works out there and available to readers. 

 I've heard so many people say it's a beautiful work. I wish you luck with it's promotion - more people need to read quality books. That way Indie becomes respected.

I agree with you Wiz.

Val-Rae features prominently in the Independent 

Paperback Gift Shop Catalogue - see top left for a free download.

What's your latest project?
I'm just finishing up the last edits on Cry of the Peacock. It's another Historical Fiction work that explores pride and greed, money and inheritance, family secrets and scandals. It isn't as dark as Moths was, and I think it will appeal to a wider audience.

Peacocks:Much lighter and 

frothier than Moths

What are the primary influences on your writing? History? People? Environment?

Mostly it's literature. Dickens, George Eliot, George Meredith, Thomas Hardy. 

"It's the books and the authors who wrote them who had something to say about life and the times in which they lived, and who effected change, or at least provoked their readers to think. I try not to be too moralistic, but I think there are some valuable lessons that can be learned by comparing history. In many ways our lives are much better. In many ways they are not. What drives us as people, now and then, remains remarkably similar. Our struggles, our sorrows and joys, are very much the same, and I find that really intriguing."

Is there a market for serious fiction in Indielit? Or are we condemned to be strictly amateurs in a shallow marketplace?

I think it's changing. I think there yet remains a bit of a stigma, but nothing like there was five years ago. 

Even a year ago, really. Indie books are being turned into movies, they're being snatched up by publishers and agents. 

The dust hasn't settled, as far as the publishing revolution goes. What will the future look like, I dare not hazard a guess. 

But I think the indie movement is here to stay, in one form or another. I think eventually there will be ways to sort the wheat from the chaff, and it will likely be through sales venues like Amazon, and through the readers who review these books. 

I've read some really amazing stuff that's been published independently. And I've read some stuff that has no business being published. 

But those books don't become bestsellers, they don't rise to the top, and they don't make money. 

I think Fifty Shades, Ryan Winfield's book and quite a bit of vampire fiction prove us wrong there, Val-Rae. It sometimes seems as if the more OMG's and irrelevant interconnectives there are in a paragraph, the more money you make. 

I hope you are wrong Wiz. Eventually even the most naive writer has to learn to write and how to tell a story. Validation doesn't come from the publisher or the agent who tells us we're worthy. It comes from the readers themselves, and that's how it should be.

That's really admirable, Val-Rae. I am impressed.

Thank you Wiz.

Okay - from the sublime to the ridiculous:  You become lost on a field trip in the dinosaur fields of South Dakota. You fall into a cave and you are trapped. However, you have running water and a supply of fish and fruit. You are convinced that help will come but it could be some time. Prepared for the worst, you have taken three books, two CDs and a DVD. What are they?

Daniel Deronda by George Eliot

Daniel Deronda - George Eliot's 1876 elegant bodice ripper.

Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens 

Using up the last remaining starch and whalebone
corsets - the cast of BBC's "Our Mutual Friend", a lesser
known Dickens.

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

Classic dramatic montage

Hot Fuss by The Killers 

New Order - Substance 

True Faith by New Order. I've got mates who saw these

when they were Joy Division.

and for the DVD.

BBC's 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice 

Swoonmeister General, Colin Firth

A High Quality survival collection if I ever saw one, Val-Rae.

That's very kind of you to say so, Wiz. 

What do you do to relax away from work and from writing?

Read, mostly. I like to hang out with my kids, spend time with my animals (seven cats and two dogs), watch a good movie, listen to music.

Seven cats?

Yes, seven cats. Like the dwarves, only with four legs and whiskers.

Classic seventies horror film 

"The Uncanny" - three sinister, creepy 

stories about CATS!

Hi Ho. It's off to eat we go! Okay, for fans of Val-Rae Christensen, what does 2013 hold.
Cry of the Peacock should be released in April. At least that is presently the plan. I'm toying with the idea of doing a pre-release abridged eBook in February, but I'm not sure yet. I will be buying a house, becoming a landlord (not sure how I really feel about that, yet) and doing a good bit of traveling.

Val-Rae, it really has been a pleasure to talk to you this evening and I wish you every success in the future.

Thank you Wiz - its been a fun interview!

Contact Val-Rae HERE!!

http://vrchristensen.com/