Interview with Tim Desmond
Today, I have the pleasure of introducing to you Mr. Tim Desmond whose new novel, The Doc, has just been released, so get your hands on it while it's still hot. And while you're waiting for it to arrive, read some wise words by Tim.
AC: What inspired you to write your novel and how much research went into it? Any personal experiences?
TD: When the first novel was in print, For Thou Art With Me, I was talking with another author I had met by accident. He said that I should get started on a second one immediately. I understood that, but I was busy working a day job and had no second novel idea brewing. Then, I thought of the unsold screenplay I had done in 1999 called Control Thesis. I dusted it off and novelized the story. The research in it spanned twenty years of conspiracy theories, legal things and history. But the adding of the back story was more difficult and created editing problems. Personal experiences which contributed to the whole story were from past employment in hospitals, competitive shooting, and Civil War re-enacting.
AC: How do you write? Do you outline and follow chapter by chapter, or do you wait until the story’s magnitude can’t be contained in your mind and you have to pour it out on paper?TD: When doing the 1999 screenplay, I learned a method of outlining and construction. It was good because it followed the basic three act structure. It was extensive but had a list of thirteen points. It was good because it demanded to follow some “rules” as in “genres have rules.” I adapted that for my own short story and novel length pieces, and that is what I used as I novelized The Doc book. I still had huge problems to solve.In 2011, I actually found the small hardbound book in a Home Goods store. It was No Plot, No Problem and published by the NaNoWriMo originator. I dived in for the November 2012 NaNoWriMo with a story that had been ruminating for ten to fifteen years. I did get the 50,000 words done, but it was neither pretty nor completed. I was working on it until The Doc’s second round edit phase with Black Opal Books. AC: Stephen King says “you only have a season (3 months) to write a book” after that, you should abandon it and work on something else entirely, then come back 6 weeks later, re-read, and start revising. Do you agree? How long does it take to write a good story?TD: I tend to agree if one is a full time writer. But people work differently. I once heard an interview with the late Vince Flynn on Rush on radio. They were friends, and Flynn said he starts in January and works hard till June, then sets it aside to rewrite. Another article I read was about writing a screen play in 90 days. So, yes I think it can be three months. Hemingway wrote from 6:00 AM until noon. I don’t know how many days he took. But, many of us have day jobs. When I was really working, I sometimes worked from 4:00 AM to 6:30, then caught the car pool at 7:00. That got me to a story worth rewriting, at two years.I once logged the time it took to write a finished 2,000 word short story. It took about eight hours. That could translate into a similar “time per word length” calculation for chapters or book length work.
AC: Do you have a book to which you constantly go back and from which you constantly draw inspiration? If so, which is it and by whom?TD: A book of maps. I have World War II maps, Civil War maps, Europe maps and more. You are laughing now, I can tell. Okay, okay. One book I’ve reread is Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Dana. Yes, it is non-fiction of mid 1800s. Too, this is a loaded question because it could mean that one is getting inspiration from an author that one would emulate or write like. But, if one writes long enough, a certain style will emerge. On older, other books, some stories never get old, but, a past style would not get past most editors today. For fiction, I’ll jump in here with one well known successful author, the late Elmore Leonard. I came across one of his books by accident in a brief review that it was being made into a movie. I had never read him before, but I picked up a paperback of Tishomingo Blues. A crime story in Mississippi that revolved around the Chicago mob, casinos, drugs, Feds, Civil War reenactments, and a high dive aerial artist from Florida. It was a moving tale for me.
AC: With the flood of self-published authors, small presses, and vanity presses, I feel like the “big houses” have a lot of competition. They are very selective and often end up kicking their butts for not signing someone special. Do you know of a book/author that has been underappreciated and everyone should read his/her book?TD: In late 2000s, 2007 or 2008, I watched a television conference on CSPAN, where a panel of New York editors talked about their publishing and sales problems. They were tasked with physically going to book stores to learn what books people were buying. Too, it wasn’t other cities like Boston, Nashville, Denver or L.A. that they went to for this research. Just New York. They were shocked by what they learned, just by their New York City data. But it brought to light that so many of their problems of not being in touch with the reading public. They can create their own waves of sales and media attention, yet their huge clout and promotions had hit some sort of wall, or limits. A part of the “large house” system is the vetting by the only agents they recognize or use, and who are presumably all over the country. I think this vetting system is elitist, another story, and flawed. We’d all like an agent, but they’re only human, trying to find the “middle masses” and the next winner, just like a flock of bookies at the track.This is really tough for me, as I was not one to read small press titles or authors. If it was hardbound it was big to me. Except Louis Lamour westerns, only because I never saw a hardbound of his, only mass paperbacks. So, besides you and me, I can name three other Black Opal Press authors I’ve read, who are great writers. I read two of those three when they were published by other presses. To be fair, to go outside of our own publisher, I read last year The Vesuvius Isotope by Kristin Elise. It is a medical mystery with an archeology connection, travel, and ancient cure – with a murder of course. It is so well written.
AC: And on another note, there are books whose reviews and bestseller lists rave greatness, but the story, the characters, or the premise is either a copy cat of something really good or it sucks all together. Do you know of a book like that?TD: I don’t consider myself well read. I bought Clancey’s Hunt for the Red October in paperback, after it had become a sensation. Then during a phase of buying hardbounds for my meager library, I bought his Executive Orders, Debt of Honor, and Without Remorse. All grand original stories. I liked the way he used the same characters, and the Kelly character who went deep undercover after a faked death. I was bothered by his use of the word capacious to describe Kelly’s abode once. I had a hard time getting into Debt of Honor because of the verbose minor character stories. I always learned something. But, at some point I gave up, and quit buying.I have a signed copy of a Jane Smiley novel, but I am having trouble getting through it.
AC: What do you think is more important: A great story, a great cover, or a great promotion?TD: The order for me is: 1. Cover, 2. Great Story, 3. Promotion. In a college art class we had to tack assignments on the wall for a critique. The instructor then had all students comment their pros and cons. The first thing is, that one sees immediately what pieces stand out from the others. It’s an immediate visual thing. Too, the story has to be as original and stand out from the others. Then you have something to promote.
AC: And speaking of promotion. It has become the author’s worst nightmare as they have less time to write with having to promote so much since the bookworld is a business after all. What is your strategy? Have you found a promotion tool that works every time?TD: Between 2006, my first jumping in with marketing, to this time with a new book out, so much has changed. I don’t feel I know enough to answer, “what works best” in today’s environment. I’ll know more in six months. However I have been studying, and implementing the advice from other successful authors and connections, thanks to author Sunny Frazier. She has her own take on all this and methods, and I have tried to follow much of it all as my release date approached of last June 14. Here are my main steps: 1. Use email for hard sales, 2. Contact other bloggers, authors and pros for help, and blog tours like we are doing, 3. Blog posts on my blog, 4. Link on social media sites, 5. Arrange my own real signing events, 6. Contacting print media for covering signing events and release information. I also did a web streamed/TV interview offered from a LinkedIN contact in our area.We’ll see.
AC: And finally, do your characters take on some qualities of people you know? TD: Sure. It’s a good exercise to have real life models that are a basic character, even if you change them. It’s good to verbalize and describe different personalities you know. In many ways, I don’t “read” people very well. People are different, but have same feelings as others. Too, people have differing motivations. Maybe we have to be amateur shrinks – not therapeutic, but observational.
Will Rogers said that he never met a person he didn’t like. Most of us are not like that. I try.
When a dying friend and fellow Civil War reenactor asks California physician Hank Houston to find his daughter’s killer, Hank has no idea what problems his snooping will cause. The last thing he expected to uncover was a US murder squad being run by the DHS. But this domestic black ops unit is determined not to be exposed and, as Hank gets closer to the truth, he discovers just how far they will go to hide all their dirty little secrets.
Tim Desmond was raised in Madera, California. He attended, on scholarship, California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, CA. Later, after graduating from California State University Fresno with a BA degree in Zoology, he earned his Teaching Credential. While writing since the college years, he taught biology, chemistry and physics for thirty-six years before retiring. He has written two novels, in 2005 a World War II flashback For Thou Art With Me and in 2009 the conspiracy thriller ebook version The Doc. He spends time painting and Civil War reenacting. He lives with his wife Bobbi in Fresno, California.
Email: bobbitimdesmond@att.net
Amazon author page at: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00694KQQO
Writing at: http://timothydesmond.wordpress.com
Art at: http://artbydesmond.wordpress.comAvailable at:Black Opal Books at: http://www.blackopalbooks.comAmazon: http://www.amazon.comBarnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/Kobohttp://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/All Romance: http://www.allromanceebooks.com/
AC: What inspired you to write your novel and how much research went into it? Any personal experiences?TD: When the first novel was in print, For Thou Art With Me, I was talking with another author I had met by accident. He said that I should get started on a second one immediately. I understood that, but I was busy working a day job and had no second novel idea brewing. Then, I thought of the unsold screenplay I had done in 1999 called Control Thesis. I dusted it off and novelized the story. The research in it spanned twenty years of conspiracy theories, legal things and history. But the adding of the back story was more difficult and created editing problems. Personal experiences which contributed to the whole story were from past employment in hospitals, competitive shooting, and Civil War re-enacting.
AC: How do you write? Do you outline and follow chapter by chapter, or do you wait until the story’s magnitude can’t be contained in your mind and you have to pour it out on paper?TD: When doing the 1999 screenplay, I learned a method of outlining and construction. It was good because it followed the basic three act structure. It was extensive but had a list of thirteen points. It was good because it demanded to follow some “rules” as in “genres have rules.” I adapted that for my own short story and novel length pieces, and that is what I used as I novelized The Doc book. I still had huge problems to solve.In 2011, I actually found the small hardbound book in a Home Goods store. It was No Plot, No Problem and published by the NaNoWriMo originator. I dived in for the November 2012 NaNoWriMo with a story that had been ruminating for ten to fifteen years. I did get the 50,000 words done, but it was neither pretty nor completed. I was working on it until The Doc’s second round edit phase with Black Opal Books. AC: Stephen King says “you only have a season (3 months) to write a book” after that, you should abandon it and work on something else entirely, then come back 6 weeks later, re-read, and start revising. Do you agree? How long does it take to write a good story?TD: I tend to agree if one is a full time writer. But people work differently. I once heard an interview with the late Vince Flynn on Rush on radio. They were friends, and Flynn said he starts in January and works hard till June, then sets it aside to rewrite. Another article I read was about writing a screen play in 90 days. So, yes I think it can be three months. Hemingway wrote from 6:00 AM until noon. I don’t know how many days he took. But, many of us have day jobs. When I was really working, I sometimes worked from 4:00 AM to 6:30, then caught the car pool at 7:00. That got me to a story worth rewriting, at two years.I once logged the time it took to write a finished 2,000 word short story. It took about eight hours. That could translate into a similar “time per word length” calculation for chapters or book length work.
AC: Do you have a book to which you constantly go back and from which you constantly draw inspiration? If so, which is it and by whom?TD: A book of maps. I have World War II maps, Civil War maps, Europe maps and more. You are laughing now, I can tell. Okay, okay. One book I’ve reread is Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Dana. Yes, it is non-fiction of mid 1800s. Too, this is a loaded question because it could mean that one is getting inspiration from an author that one would emulate or write like. But, if one writes long enough, a certain style will emerge. On older, other books, some stories never get old, but, a past style would not get past most editors today. For fiction, I’ll jump in here with one well known successful author, the late Elmore Leonard. I came across one of his books by accident in a brief review that it was being made into a movie. I had never read him before, but I picked up a paperback of Tishomingo Blues. A crime story in Mississippi that revolved around the Chicago mob, casinos, drugs, Feds, Civil War reenactments, and a high dive aerial artist from Florida. It was a moving tale for me.
AC: With the flood of self-published authors, small presses, and vanity presses, I feel like the “big houses” have a lot of competition. They are very selective and often end up kicking their butts for not signing someone special. Do you know of a book/author that has been underappreciated and everyone should read his/her book?TD: In late 2000s, 2007 or 2008, I watched a television conference on CSPAN, where a panel of New York editors talked about their publishing and sales problems. They were tasked with physically going to book stores to learn what books people were buying. Too, it wasn’t other cities like Boston, Nashville, Denver or L.A. that they went to for this research. Just New York. They were shocked by what they learned, just by their New York City data. But it brought to light that so many of their problems of not being in touch with the reading public. They can create their own waves of sales and media attention, yet their huge clout and promotions had hit some sort of wall, or limits. A part of the “large house” system is the vetting by the only agents they recognize or use, and who are presumably all over the country. I think this vetting system is elitist, another story, and flawed. We’d all like an agent, but they’re only human, trying to find the “middle masses” and the next winner, just like a flock of bookies at the track.This is really tough for me, as I was not one to read small press titles or authors. If it was hardbound it was big to me. Except Louis Lamour westerns, only because I never saw a hardbound of his, only mass paperbacks. So, besides you and me, I can name three other Black Opal Press authors I’ve read, who are great writers. I read two of those three when they were published by other presses. To be fair, to go outside of our own publisher, I read last year The Vesuvius Isotope by Kristin Elise. It is a medical mystery with an archeology connection, travel, and ancient cure – with a murder of course. It is so well written.
AC: And on another note, there are books whose reviews and bestseller lists rave greatness, but the story, the characters, or the premise is either a copy cat of something really good or it sucks all together. Do you know of a book like that?TD: I don’t consider myself well read. I bought Clancey’s Hunt for the Red October in paperback, after it had become a sensation. Then during a phase of buying hardbounds for my meager library, I bought his Executive Orders, Debt of Honor, and Without Remorse. All grand original stories. I liked the way he used the same characters, and the Kelly character who went deep undercover after a faked death. I was bothered by his use of the word capacious to describe Kelly’s abode once. I had a hard time getting into Debt of Honor because of the verbose minor character stories. I always learned something. But, at some point I gave up, and quit buying.I have a signed copy of a Jane Smiley novel, but I am having trouble getting through it.
AC: What do you think is more important: A great story, a great cover, or a great promotion?TD: The order for me is: 1. Cover, 2. Great Story, 3. Promotion. In a college art class we had to tack assignments on the wall for a critique. The instructor then had all students comment their pros and cons. The first thing is, that one sees immediately what pieces stand out from the others. It’s an immediate visual thing. Too, the story has to be as original and stand out from the others. Then you have something to promote.
AC: And speaking of promotion. It has become the author’s worst nightmare as they have less time to write with having to promote so much since the bookworld is a business after all. What is your strategy? Have you found a promotion tool that works every time?TD: Between 2006, my first jumping in with marketing, to this time with a new book out, so much has changed. I don’t feel I know enough to answer, “what works best” in today’s environment. I’ll know more in six months. However I have been studying, and implementing the advice from other successful authors and connections, thanks to author Sunny Frazier. She has her own take on all this and methods, and I have tried to follow much of it all as my release date approached of last June 14. Here are my main steps: 1. Use email for hard sales, 2. Contact other bloggers, authors and pros for help, and blog tours like we are doing, 3. Blog posts on my blog, 4. Link on social media sites, 5. Arrange my own real signing events, 6. Contacting print media for covering signing events and release information. I also did a web streamed/TV interview offered from a LinkedIN contact in our area.We’ll see.
AC: And finally, do your characters take on some qualities of people you know? TD: Sure. It’s a good exercise to have real life models that are a basic character, even if you change them. It’s good to verbalize and describe different personalities you know. In many ways, I don’t “read” people very well. People are different, but have same feelings as others. Too, people have differing motivations. Maybe we have to be amateur shrinks – not therapeutic, but observational.
Will Rogers said that he never met a person he didn’t like. Most of us are not like that. I try.
When a dying friend and fellow Civil War reenactor asks California physician Hank Houston to find his daughter’s killer, Hank has no idea what problems his snooping will cause. The last thing he expected to uncover was a US murder squad being run by the DHS. But this domestic black ops unit is determined not to be exposed and, as Hank gets closer to the truth, he discovers just how far they will go to hide all their dirty little secrets. Tim Desmond was raised in Madera, California. He attended, on scholarship, California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, CA. Later, after graduating from California State University Fresno with a BA degree in Zoology, he earned his Teaching Credential. While writing since the college years, he taught biology, chemistry and physics for thirty-six years before retiring. He has written two novels, in 2005 a World War II flashback For Thou Art With Me and in 2009 the conspiracy thriller ebook version The Doc. He spends time painting and Civil War reenacting. He lives with his wife Bobbi in Fresno, California.
Email: bobbitimdesmond@att.net
Amazon author page at: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00694KQQO
Writing at: http://timothydesmond.wordpress.com
Art at: http://artbydesmond.wordpress.comAvailable at:Black Opal Books at: http://www.blackopalbooks.comAmazon: http://www.amazon.comBarnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/Kobohttp://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/All Romance: http://www.allromanceebooks.com/
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