Ask the Author: Michael Patrick Clark
Answered Questions (5)
Michael Patrick Clark
My new novel 'Hierarchies of Greed' is in final editing. This is the second part of The Etzel Trilogy, a Cold War espionage series that blends little-known fact with espionage fiction, and defies readers to 'spot the join'.
It should be ready for publication around the end of September or beginning of October 2014.
It should be ready for publication around the end of September or beginning of October 2014.
Michael Patrick Clark
From my research on The Folks at Fifty-Eight.
I find research fascinating, and sometimes the simplest research activity can throw up all manner of possible subject matter for future work.
I find research fascinating, and sometimes the simplest research activity can throw up all manner of possible subject matter for future work.
Michael Patrick Clark
This is a bit of a cheat; it's taken from my website.
I once received a rejection slip from Darley Anderson. In truth, as rejection slips go, this was a good one: not a coffee stain in sight, and Emma - bless her heart - had taken the time to write a comforting note of condolence and encouragement alongside a decipherable signature. . . at least, I think it was Emma.
In a further effort to cushion the blow, the letter also explained that Darley Anderson receives more than three-hundred submissions a week; yet takes on only two or three new writers a year.
Work it out. . . that translates to odds of over five-thousand-to-one against. They are roughly the odds you’d get on Weston-Super-Mare football club winning the F.A. Cup, and that’s just representation; forget publication.
That was the way it used to be for writers, in the bad old days. We were not only delusional, we were also hopeless optimists, because before e-books we never had to test our abilities against the giants of literature in the way that dear old Weston-Super- Mare F.C.occasionally does against the giants of football.
When they lose five-nil to Basingstoke, who lost eight-nil to Aldershot, who lost five-nil to Bradford, who lost seven-nil to Leeds, who, last time out in the Premiership, lost five-nil to Arsenal, they know exactly where they fit in the pecking order.
They know that, if a miracle does occur and they ever do come up against Arsenal, if they lose by less than thirty goals to nil they have a result.
It’s unlikely that such a scoreline would occur of course, because that’s the trouble with statisticians. They flatly refuse to factor in things like unsung ability, and good fortune, and hidden genius, and bursts of creativity, and rising to the occasion, and sudden inspiration, and downright tenacity.
Then there’s that dreaded accolade of potential, and the knowledge that even my beloved Arsenal occasionally find the back of their opponent’s net to be as foreign as most of the team.
So don’t listen to statisticians. What do they know?
And don’t worry if the sales move slower than a Newcastle keeper at The Emirates.
Just take the royalties, however humble they may be, and smile.
Because now you’re competing with the giants.
Thanks to technology you’re competing with Grisham and Brown and Bronte and Dickens and yes, you’re even up against the Bard of Avon himself.
Who cares if they rack-up sales quicker than an Arsenal forward racks-up goals, on an away day to Weston-Super-Mare, because now you’re in the same game.
And when you see that first fluke goal go in, even if it is off the referee, three despairing defenders, and both posts, you can finally tell the world that it was you, and you alone, who made it happen.
I once received a rejection slip from Darley Anderson. In truth, as rejection slips go, this was a good one: not a coffee stain in sight, and Emma - bless her heart - had taken the time to write a comforting note of condolence and encouragement alongside a decipherable signature. . . at least, I think it was Emma.
In a further effort to cushion the blow, the letter also explained that Darley Anderson receives more than three-hundred submissions a week; yet takes on only two or three new writers a year.
Work it out. . . that translates to odds of over five-thousand-to-one against. They are roughly the odds you’d get on Weston-Super-Mare football club winning the F.A. Cup, and that’s just representation; forget publication.
That was the way it used to be for writers, in the bad old days. We were not only delusional, we were also hopeless optimists, because before e-books we never had to test our abilities against the giants of literature in the way that dear old Weston-Super- Mare F.C.occasionally does against the giants of football.
When they lose five-nil to Basingstoke, who lost eight-nil to Aldershot, who lost five-nil to Bradford, who lost seven-nil to Leeds, who, last time out in the Premiership, lost five-nil to Arsenal, they know exactly where they fit in the pecking order.
They know that, if a miracle does occur and they ever do come up against Arsenal, if they lose by less than thirty goals to nil they have a result.
It’s unlikely that such a scoreline would occur of course, because that’s the trouble with statisticians. They flatly refuse to factor in things like unsung ability, and good fortune, and hidden genius, and bursts of creativity, and rising to the occasion, and sudden inspiration, and downright tenacity.
Then there’s that dreaded accolade of potential, and the knowledge that even my beloved Arsenal occasionally find the back of their opponent’s net to be as foreign as most of the team.
So don’t listen to statisticians. What do they know?
And don’t worry if the sales move slower than a Newcastle keeper at The Emirates.
Just take the royalties, however humble they may be, and smile.
Because now you’re competing with the giants.
Thanks to technology you’re competing with Grisham and Brown and Bronte and Dickens and yes, you’re even up against the Bard of Avon himself.
Who cares if they rack-up sales quicker than an Arsenal forward racks-up goals, on an away day to Weston-Super-Mare, because now you’re in the same game.
And when you see that first fluke goal go in, even if it is off the referee, three despairing defenders, and both posts, you can finally tell the world that it was you, and you alone, who made it happen.
Michael Patrick Clark
Hearing that someone enjoyed my work. Reading or hearing that someone 'got it', enjoyed it, appreciated it, understood it, even questioned it, gives me a tremendous buzz and sense of fulfillment. A good review sets me up for the day, and makes me feel that all my research, writing, editing, and promotion was worthwhile.
Michael Patrick Clark
I don’t. If I’m in the mood to be distracted, I’m probably not about to write anything worthwhile. I love writing, and so if I’m not in the mood to write, for any reason, I just go with whatever has caused that emotion. I have no idea what people mean by writer's block. We each lack creativity at different times; that’s a human condition. I sometimes think that giving it a fancy title merely prolongs and exacerbates what would otherwise be a temporary blip.
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