Wil Kenny
asked
Howard L. Anderson:
Really enjoyed "Albert": your answers about your other books are not dated: have you found a publisher yet? (Nov 2019) Best of luck. Your work is definitely worth reading!
Howard L. Anderson
Hi Wil,
I wrote my first novel "Albert" when I was 66 years old. Since then I have written four other novels and a memoir. Two of the novels were the completion of the Old Australia trilogy. "The Spring Offensive" is set in New Mexico a few years after WWI and is the story of two people trying to escape the war. "Soledad" is the story of a sexually abused young woman who was born in an Argentinian prison at the end of the military dictatorship. The memoir was about my family, the war in Vietnam and the death of my father.
When I sent the memoir to my agent, she said there is no market for it because I wasn't sexually abused as a child and didn't have a drug habit. At that point, it became clear to me that my world view is different than that of those who dictate literary fashion in New York.
I have been told by all the women who have read it, including my agent and a five time Emmy winner in Los Angeles, that "Soledad" may be the best novel I've written. I was then told that because it deals with a younger woman and an older man, it is currently untouchable in an industry sensitive to third-wave feminism.
I will be 77 years old in less than two months and have come to the conclusion that I have outlived my time. People keep telling me that my work will be rediscovered someday and that I will be famous after I'm dead. Not exactly what I had in mind. I have some friends in London who will try and get a publisher in England.
Thank you for your interest and your compliment.
Howard
I wrote my first novel "Albert" when I was 66 years old. Since then I have written four other novels and a memoir. Two of the novels were the completion of the Old Australia trilogy. "The Spring Offensive" is set in New Mexico a few years after WWI and is the story of two people trying to escape the war. "Soledad" is the story of a sexually abused young woman who was born in an Argentinian prison at the end of the military dictatorship. The memoir was about my family, the war in Vietnam and the death of my father.
When I sent the memoir to my agent, she said there is no market for it because I wasn't sexually abused as a child and didn't have a drug habit. At that point, it became clear to me that my world view is different than that of those who dictate literary fashion in New York.
I have been told by all the women who have read it, including my agent and a five time Emmy winner in Los Angeles, that "Soledad" may be the best novel I've written. I was then told that because it deals with a younger woman and an older man, it is currently untouchable in an industry sensitive to third-wave feminism.
I will be 77 years old in less than two months and have come to the conclusion that I have outlived my time. People keep telling me that my work will be rediscovered someday and that I will be famous after I'm dead. Not exactly what I had in mind. I have some friends in London who will try and get a publisher in England.
Thank you for your interest and your compliment.
Howard
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