Interview with Author – Pat Perrin
Author Bio:
Pat grew up in Virginia. She became a visual artist and a teacher and also raised and trained horses. (Her academic degrees are in English, Liberal Studies, and Art Theory and Criticism.) One day Pat decided to move to Los Angeles—an excellent decision, because there she met and married Wim Coleman. The couple soon began writing books together, and their publications include several mainstream novels, essays, articles, stories, educational materials, and books for young readers. They have both been full-time writers for more than two decades. Pat and Wim have lived in various parts of the United States; for more than thirteen years they lived in the Mexican town of San Miguel de Allende. They are now in Chapel Hill, NC, with their adopted daughter, Monse.
What inspires you to write?
I can’t imagine not doing some kind of creative work. Years ago, an essay of mine was accepted in a book called Creativity. The piece was fun to write, because it came out in the form of a story. Published in that book, it was an odd thing, out of place among the words of scientists trying to define the topic. One of my characters said, “I think that the relationship of art to reality lies in the creative act itself. It’s not in
the images or other results produced. The creation of images is part of the learning process, not something carried out after it.” Later I said in another essay, ““Storytelling, like all art, like life, is an act of learning—of finding out.” That pretty much sums it up. I’m addicted to that process of discovery.
Tell us about your writing process.
Pretty much all day, every day. Although that can be off and on, depending on life’s interruptions. Most of the time, Wim and I work in collaboration. So one of us writes and passes it to the other. On nonfiction educational projects, one of us might write the whole thing then pass it to the other. For fiction, we set up a calendar rather than an outline, so we can keep track of what happens when. Either of us can work on any part of the story, in or out of sequence. i have a better grasp of overall structure, he’s great with specific scenes and dialogue. We work at home on big Mac computers in our shared office. French doors give us a view of trees and occasional wandering wildlife.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
Both. The characters often take off in unexpected directions. In one book I’ve been working on, the heroine just changed the ending.
What advice would you give other writers?
We often give the most impractical advice: if you really have to write, quit your day job as soon as you possibly can. For us, this sometimes means writing nonfiction books and reading passages for educational publishers, but we always learn something by doing those. On the other hand, if you spend time out in the world, pay attention!
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I love the self-publishing process, creating the book as a whole. And this is really starting to work for us. Years ago we had three books with mainstream publishers. One was a nonfiction book that supported us for a while. The next, The Jamais Vu Papers, didn’t bring in much money but is still selling 20 years later. Our suspense thriller about computer networking, Terminal Games, was published by Bantam in 1994 and was something of a success. But we couldn’t write anything sufficiently similar to keep them happy for a follow-up. After that, we had some books with small publishers and educational publishers that just barely kept us going. When self-publishing became available, we put out some paperback books for young readers. I love that process, but we didn’t sell enough to make a living. Now we’re doing ebooks, and that’s what’s selling best for us now.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
More and more in the hands of the authors, so there will have to be more ways to sort out the good stuff. Right now, reading sure seems to be going digital. Things are moving so fast, that it’s hard to guess what comes next. Interactive? Anyhow, I hope people also still want paper books, because we’ll probably keep doing those too.
What do you use?
Co-writer
What genres do you write?
metaphysical, thriller, fantasy, trade fiction and YA
What formats are your books in?
Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
Author Home Page Link
Link To Author Page On Amazon
Link to Author Page on other site
Your Social Media Links
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/161523.Pat_Perrin
http://facebook.com/wim.coleman
https://twitter.com/pat_wim
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