The Author Interviews, Round 3: #1: Andrew Hiller
The first interview of this round is authorAndrew Hiller, whose bookA Climbing Stockwill be released on April 1st 2017.Tell us a little about yourself - Perhaps something not many people know?A few years ago, I got to sleep over at Dave Goelz’s house. Dave is the original puppeteer and actor behind Gonzo, the Great and a ton of other Muppets. At night, we worked on skits, told stories, and in the morning, we recorded them. The work was for a two part documentary on Jim Henson I was crafting for NPR. You might know about that, but what most people don’t know is that when we were in the studio and I got my chance to voice a Muppety character, I slipped in a poem I wrote in high school. It worked perfectly!Getting to be a Muppet was geek heaven. Working and interviewing so many members of the original Jim Henson gang is something I will always treasure!What made you want to become a writer?As both a writer of news and fiction, the five “W’s” are really important to me, but where some people focus on “what” and “who,” it’s “why” that really excites me.Every story I craft begins with either a “huh?” or a “ha!” That is, my stories stem from something I can’t figure out or something that makes me laugh. I get caught in these webs of wonder and start twisting ideas, turning them upside down, spinning them ‘round, and once I truly get ensnared, the tale begins to reveal themselves. After that, you get to wander, study and play.The best part of writing is the opportunity to constantly learn, to play, to gain access to places, ideas, and people, and to test ideas. When an idea teases me, I’m in the library, I’m online, I’m on the phone or on a campus talking with subject area experts. I find the best ones share with me that giddy excitement and childlike exuberance. They’re experimentalists. They’re dreamers. The best stories are stories of discovery.On a simpler level, I write because I need to. It’s a release. It’s oxygen. It’s problem solving. Sometimes, it’s community. I share my writing because my readers can teach me and hopefully we get to share a few laughs and thoughts.
What has your experience been like as a new Indie Author? Bruises, Highlights, and lessons?It’s Friday night and a guy approaches my author’s table at Mars Con. I ask him to take a peek at what I’ve brought (two books, a couple paintings, and my Jim Henson audio-documentaries). We chat for a while and he decides to buyA Halo of Mushrooms. I continue on, swapping writing stories, talking about my favourite writers, and enjoying the cosplay. When I come back Saturday morning this same man approaches my table.“Damn you,” he says, “for selling me that crack.”I pause uncertain what to do with the remark.“I’m already halfway through your book!” he continues.I smile and ask, “So, you liked it?”“I love it!” he shouts loud enough to make heads turn.When you write, all too often you don’t know how people respond to your work, things like that fill up your heart and soul.What is/are your book(s) about?A Climbing StockMany years ago, Jacque was tricked into selling his last cow to M. Au Paulet for an amount that wasn’t worth beans.Today, John, the owner of a small failing business, is tricked by a strange little man to sell his company for three thousand shares of an unknown stock called Beomicroscopy Endoscopic Arterial NeuroSurgery.To his surprise, the BEAN stock grows rapidly.So rapidly, in fact, that he finds himself questioned by the FBI, FTC, and practically every organization with an F in their name. In order to preserve his name, John breaks into BEAN headquarters.Whisked away, John must fight bureaucrats, dragons, labor unions, and a very powerful corporate giant. But despite all the obstacles John won’t quit… not ‘til the cows come home.A Halo of MushroomsIt tells the story of a healer who steals one of the last mushrooms of the first faerie ring in order to try to find an environment fit to transplant it. He is pursued by those who would consume the mushroom, hoard it, or obliterate it in the hopes that evolution will replace the dying wonder.The story takes place largely on Earth and travels from the Great Lakes to Malawi, but takes place largely in a bakery. It is also possibly the only fantasy ever written in which the resolution relies partly on dessert.What is your writing style?I’m a pantser. I start with a question or a laugh and just launch. Usually, it’s a race to keep up with my thoughts. I’ll pop in a CD that fits the emotional tone of the piece I’m working on and just sprint forward. I do very little reading back as I go and almost no editing. I want to get the story down in its most raw/undiluted form. I usually can knock out a novel in about three weeks this way. Then, it takes me about a 6 months or two years to edit it before I give it to beta readers, a professional editor, and do final revisions. It’s during that time where I will research, interview, and fact check. Sometimes, that changes a lot, but often it more sands and refines the texture of the piece. I respect those who outline, but I find it confining. I worry that if I did that I would become so locked into structure that I will fail to notice how the story wants to evolve.The process is very different, of course, if I’m on deadline or when I’m writing for the radio. There, it’s research first, write a set of bulleted questions, fact check, fact check, fact check, and then go into the interview. Even then though, you want to ditch the prepared questions. You want to have them ready, but listen attentively so you can follow where the interview should go. The trick is to be so prepared that you never need to use or look at your notes because your guest or expert will always say something which should generate a follow-up. More importantly, if you stick to your list of questions, all too often, both you and the people you are speaking to go on auto pilot and you get the canned/prepared statements that they’ve delivered a billion times. You want your work to sing. You want it stand out and be original."My inner environmentalist loves the idea of an ebook."Million dollar question, are you working on another book?There are a couple of new stories actually that won’t let me sleep at night. They keep pestering me and whispering in my ear. They dance, seduce, tempt, and parade about. They also bribe. Luckily, I’m a sucker for those voices. I’m a very willing dance partner and happy to both lead and follow where my stories want to take me!What do you think about the ebook revolution?I have very mixed feelings. On the one hand, my inner environmentalist loves the idea of an ebook. An ebook saves a tree, it weighs practically nothing, and it’s portable. Besides, another book squeezed into the bookshelf might cave in the whole house! On the other hand, I love traditional books. Used bookstores are amongst my favourite places. I love the smell of the pulp, the feel of a weathered spine, the browning of the pages, and I relish being able to excitedly hand a treasured paperback to a friend and shout, “READ THIS!”If you were running the 100 yard dash with a new writer. What writing, publishing wisdom would you bestow upon him/her before you reached the 100 yards?In your first paragraph activate at least three of the five senses. If your reader gets to see, smell, hear, touch, taste, or feel something they will be likely to be drawn into your world. It’s a lesson I borrowed from Ray Bradbury.Do your characters seem to hijack the story or do you feel like you have the reigns of the story?I prefer my characters to hijack the story. I rein them back in during edits. Every so often I even take them hostage. Turnabout is fair play!Even though I’ve spent a large part of this interview talking about ideas and whys, it’s the characters that drive you story. They need to be behind the steering wheel. We must care about them as they suffer, struggle, win, lose, fail, falter, and succeed.What is the biggest surprise that you experienced after becoming a writer?I once was tasked with covering the National Kite Festival for Metro Connection on WAMU 88.5 FM (DC NPR). I conducted the interviews, cut the tape, and wrote my script. In it, I decided to introduce the piece this way—Why is it that when people say they are going to “stop and smell the roses” it’s always interpreted as a good thing. It’s a time to slow down and enjoy the beauty that surrounds us, but when someone says to you, “Go fly a kite…”Anyway, I file the story and it airs on Friday. Over the weekend, I decide to go to the festival to see if what I previewed matched reality. To my surprise, I heard six different people from six different groups quote me. My work resonated! It was really cool.Many thanks to Andrew for this interesting interview, and of course if you would like to support the author you can visit his website or click below to purchase the book. Thanks!
What has your experience been like as a new Indie Author? Bruises, Highlights, and lessons?It’s Friday night and a guy approaches my author’s table at Mars Con. I ask him to take a peek at what I’ve brought (two books, a couple paintings, and my Jim Henson audio-documentaries). We chat for a while and he decides to buyA Halo of Mushrooms. I continue on, swapping writing stories, talking about my favourite writers, and enjoying the cosplay. When I come back Saturday morning this same man approaches my table.“Damn you,” he says, “for selling me that crack.”I pause uncertain what to do with the remark.“I’m already halfway through your book!” he continues.I smile and ask, “So, you liked it?”“I love it!” he shouts loud enough to make heads turn.When you write, all too often you don’t know how people respond to your work, things like that fill up your heart and soul.What is/are your book(s) about?A Climbing StockMany years ago, Jacque was tricked into selling his last cow to M. Au Paulet for an amount that wasn’t worth beans.Today, John, the owner of a small failing business, is tricked by a strange little man to sell his company for three thousand shares of an unknown stock called Beomicroscopy Endoscopic Arterial NeuroSurgery.To his surprise, the BEAN stock grows rapidly.So rapidly, in fact, that he finds himself questioned by the FBI, FTC, and practically every organization with an F in their name. In order to preserve his name, John breaks into BEAN headquarters.Whisked away, John must fight bureaucrats, dragons, labor unions, and a very powerful corporate giant. But despite all the obstacles John won’t quit… not ‘til the cows come home.A Halo of MushroomsIt tells the story of a healer who steals one of the last mushrooms of the first faerie ring in order to try to find an environment fit to transplant it. He is pursued by those who would consume the mushroom, hoard it, or obliterate it in the hopes that evolution will replace the dying wonder.The story takes place largely on Earth and travels from the Great Lakes to Malawi, but takes place largely in a bakery. It is also possibly the only fantasy ever written in which the resolution relies partly on dessert.What is your writing style?I’m a pantser. I start with a question or a laugh and just launch. Usually, it’s a race to keep up with my thoughts. I’ll pop in a CD that fits the emotional tone of the piece I’m working on and just sprint forward. I do very little reading back as I go and almost no editing. I want to get the story down in its most raw/undiluted form. I usually can knock out a novel in about three weeks this way. Then, it takes me about a 6 months or two years to edit it before I give it to beta readers, a professional editor, and do final revisions. It’s during that time where I will research, interview, and fact check. Sometimes, that changes a lot, but often it more sands and refines the texture of the piece. I respect those who outline, but I find it confining. I worry that if I did that I would become so locked into structure that I will fail to notice how the story wants to evolve.The process is very different, of course, if I’m on deadline or when I’m writing for the radio. There, it’s research first, write a set of bulleted questions, fact check, fact check, fact check, and then go into the interview. Even then though, you want to ditch the prepared questions. You want to have them ready, but listen attentively so you can follow where the interview should go. The trick is to be so prepared that you never need to use or look at your notes because your guest or expert will always say something which should generate a follow-up. More importantly, if you stick to your list of questions, all too often, both you and the people you are speaking to go on auto pilot and you get the canned/prepared statements that they’ve delivered a billion times. You want your work to sing. You want it stand out and be original."My inner environmentalist loves the idea of an ebook."Million dollar question, are you working on another book?There are a couple of new stories actually that won’t let me sleep at night. They keep pestering me and whispering in my ear. They dance, seduce, tempt, and parade about. They also bribe. Luckily, I’m a sucker for those voices. I’m a very willing dance partner and happy to both lead and follow where my stories want to take me!What do you think about the ebook revolution?I have very mixed feelings. On the one hand, my inner environmentalist loves the idea of an ebook. An ebook saves a tree, it weighs practically nothing, and it’s portable. Besides, another book squeezed into the bookshelf might cave in the whole house! On the other hand, I love traditional books. Used bookstores are amongst my favourite places. I love the smell of the pulp, the feel of a weathered spine, the browning of the pages, and I relish being able to excitedly hand a treasured paperback to a friend and shout, “READ THIS!”If you were running the 100 yard dash with a new writer. What writing, publishing wisdom would you bestow upon him/her before you reached the 100 yards?In your first paragraph activate at least three of the five senses. If your reader gets to see, smell, hear, touch, taste, or feel something they will be likely to be drawn into your world. It’s a lesson I borrowed from Ray Bradbury.Do your characters seem to hijack the story or do you feel like you have the reigns of the story?I prefer my characters to hijack the story. I rein them back in during edits. Every so often I even take them hostage. Turnabout is fair play!Even though I’ve spent a large part of this interview talking about ideas and whys, it’s the characters that drive you story. They need to be behind the steering wheel. We must care about them as they suffer, struggle, win, lose, fail, falter, and succeed.What is the biggest surprise that you experienced after becoming a writer?I once was tasked with covering the National Kite Festival for Metro Connection on WAMU 88.5 FM (DC NPR). I conducted the interviews, cut the tape, and wrote my script. In it, I decided to introduce the piece this way—Why is it that when people say they are going to “stop and smell the roses” it’s always interpreted as a good thing. It’s a time to slow down and enjoy the beauty that surrounds us, but when someone says to you, “Go fly a kite…”Anyway, I file the story and it airs on Friday. Over the weekend, I decide to go to the festival to see if what I previewed matched reality. To my surprise, I heard six different people from six different groups quote me. My work resonated! It was really cool.Many thanks to Andrew for this interesting interview, and of course if you would like to support the author you can visit his website or click below to purchase the book. Thanks!
No comments have been added yet.
