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The
Devil's Waters
Photos
Broken Jewel
Summary
Excerpt
Critical
Praise
James
River Writers interview
Fountain
Bookstore Event (video)
The Betrayal Game
Summary
Excerpt
Critical
Praise
The Assassins Gallery
Excerpt
Critical
Praise
Liberation Road
Summary
Excerpt
Critical
Praise
Last Citadel
Summary
Excerpt
Research
Critical
Praise
Scorched
Earth
Summary
Excerpt
Critical
Praise
The End of War
Summary
Excerpt
Suggested Reading
Critical
Praise
War of the Rats
Summary
Excerpt
Extra Chapters
Suggested Reading
Critical Praise
Souls to Keep
Summary
Excerpt
Critical
Praise
Richmond
Magazine interview (2008)
Lake Placid News interview (2007)
Chapter
11 Books Blog interview (2006)
Bookreporter.com
interview (2006)
Expanded
Books video interview (2006)
Pleasant
Living Interview (2004)
Soldier Interview
(2003)
Bella
Stander Interview (2003)
WAG Interview
(2002)
WAG Interview
(2000)
Bantam Q&A
France
Germany
Philippines
/ Australia
Russia
Ukraine
USA
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James
River Writers interview
for Broken Jewel
How
much research did you have to do to write from a comfort woman's point
of view?
There’s a universality to all people. We exist across the spectrum
where our experiences take us, certainly, but in the end, we all share
a lot more than what separates us. To write from the perspective of
a comfort woman, I first had to find what I had in my life and insights
that made us alike. I know grief, I know love, and I know loss. I’m
grateful that I have not suffered to the same degree as these women,
but I was able to expand on my own pain, and in that way see the portal
to their suffering open for me. In all my work, I look for the seeds
of everything emotional in my own heart; what I cannot imagine on my
own, I study deeply. Next, I trust that my characters and I are close
enough, that I am empathic and prepared. Lastly, I work hard at being
a good enough artist to depict them convincingly.
You
mentioned at your book release event that although you are
adamant about not using back story, you did this anyway. When is it
necessary for an established writer to break the rules and what caused
you to do it here?
I’m adamant about pacing. Back story, dream sequences, narration,
flashbacks, all of these and more are devices which exist on a plane
not concomitant with the story itself. While the reader is ensconced
in them, nothing happens to the characters in real time. No jeopardy,
no progress, no action. No pace. So I recoil – usually. In Broken
Jewel, I used a lengthy recollection - and I believe it is some of the
most beautiful prose in the novel, to be honest – to express a
father’s checkered history with his son. The entire passage is
a bad idea that worked. This demonstrates that there are no rules in
art, only default settings. It is necessary simply for a writer to have
a working knowledge of the “rules,” so when they are broken,
this is done with control and intent. I did it on purpose. That’s
my only explanation.
When writing historical fiction, how do you keep history from
controlling the plot so that the protagonist can do his or her job which
is to instigate the action rather than react to events?
Design active protagonists instead of victims. Immature writers often
rely on plots where their characters are buffeted by events, villains,
heartless nature, or bad mojo. The key is to write a tale from the perspective
of main characters who drive the action, not merely survive it. Do this,
and you’ll never have the problem of a character being overwhelmed
by history. In fact, if you’re clever, you can even invent characters
who actually explain some bits of heretofore veiled history. So that’s
how it happened! See?
The antagonist in your novels is often war itself. How do you
create
an enemy without falling into the stereotype of the enemy is pure evil?
An antagonist
is anyone or anything which opposes the desire/health/quest of the protagonist.
Antagonists can and should be complex, and they must question themselves
and decide to carry on, in order for the reader to accept them. Villainy
is an irreducible ingredient of a good story. To avoid cliché
and shallow motivation, find the villainous part of yourself. The greedy
bit, the angry and murderous corner of your psyche. Everyone has these.
Villains are characters, and like all characters, they work best when
they reflect some part of the reader and elicit empathy. Make your villains
act on and react to real motivations, with logical and rooted reasons,
and do not rely on the simpering tripe of mere avarice, simple bloodlust,
Caesarian power craze. Are you power crazed? Likely not. But if you
were, wouldn’t there have been a path for you to arrive at your
megalomania? A childhood, teen years, and adulthood of perniciousness?
Of course. Give that path to your villains.
Do you chose to write from multiple points of view in order
to create
tension in the novel?
I select multiple perspectives to more fully explore my worlds. My novels
are character driven, and as such the only real way to tell the story
is through action and dialogue. I try to portray the many facets of
each tale. In Broken Jewel, I even play with time: we see several events
replayed through the perspectives of three different characters. Tension
comes in a novel when the reader knows something a character doesn’t.
Multiple viewpoints is a great way to accomplish this. Remember: truth
is a gem. How you view it relies on the light.
What
would be your ideal writing environment?
To work in a publishing environment free of genre and barriers. It’s
so hard to get published, followed by a whole set of challenges in order
to stay published. The best business decision any writer can make to
carve out a career is, frankly, to limit himself. There have been occasions
of writers jumping the fence, but they are few and they are exceptions.
I’m about to try it in a small way: my next several books are
not going to be historical but contemporary. They’ll still be
conflict-based, but I’m excited to plow some new earth. The ideal
writing environment will be if I can pull it off a few more times before
I’m through.
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