Guest Post Topics for Silver Dagger Book Tours
Can
you, for those who don't know you already, tell something about
yourself and how you became an author?
I
went to a tiny college in Hartford, Connecticut. In my sophomore
year, I joined a fraternity. In my senior year, there was a
fraternity brother of mine named Jason Morfoot who told me this story
about a group of guys who wrote poetry and literature all the time,
smoked a lot of pot, dropped a lot of acid, and drove around in a
psychedelic-painted bus with the Grateful Dead.
Once
I heard this story, I asked Jason to tell it to me over and over
again, probably to his chagrin. I was so charmed by what the Beats
did way back when that I said to myself, ‘Gee, maybe this writing
thing is for me.’ Of course, it never turned out the way it turned
out for them, but I never would have gone into writing had Jason not
told me about the Beat Generation. At the time, it sounded like they
lived a fairy-tale life. Perhaps they did.
Where were you
born/grew up at?
I was born in
Lahore, Pakistan in 1971. I immigrated to the United States when I
was just a newborn. My family first moved to Buffalo, New York, and
over the years, we found ourselves in New York City by the mid-1970s.
Back then, New York City was in dire straits – high crime, intense
poverty, drugs, etc. I still can’t believe how my mother got
through it all, living in the toughest neighborhood in the city at
the time, which was then known as Alphabet City, or what is currently
known as the Lower East Side. God must have been with her the entire
time. I am really amazed at how she persevered. She was incredible
woman, even though our relationship was not.
What do you do
to unwind and relax?
I like listening to
the radio a lot. Usually, NPR, or Classic Rock and Roll.
What inspired
you to write this book?
Interestingly
enough, these stories were somehow stored on my computer for several
years before I accidently found them in a hidden file on my hard
drive. I discovered nearly ninety short stories that I forgotten I
had ever written. It turns out that nearly seven or eight years ago,
the poet, John Allen of Albany, New York, had asked me to submit
stories for his website, The New Surrealist Institute, which
is now defunct. This site had really been thriving, and a core group
of authors had submitted avidly to it. It was also quite popular
with many readers. When the website went offline, I had simply
forgotten about the stories. When I found them, I just knew I had to
compile them into a book.
I wouldn’t say
that anything in particular inspired me to write these stories,
though. The ideas came to me out of nowhere, which is why it took a
lot of effort to construct them. Some of the political stories were
inspired by the 2016 elections, for instance. There’s a science
fiction story that is more a personal response to my past
relationships with friends who have now grown up to do amazing things
with their lives. A couple stories are tributes to old friends of
mine who had passed on: a painter friend of mine who had committed
suicide in the 1990s and also a Black-American bluegrass musician who
had recently passed away a couple of years ago. But I can’t say
exactly how I got the ideas for them, which is strange. They are
very diverse and, I hope, fun to read.
What can we
expect from you in the future?
Right now, I am
working on a book about September 11, 2001, when the Word Trade
Center in New York was hit by a terrorist attack. I haven’t been
working on the project consistently as of late, though, but I hope to
have it done in a couple of years. Sometimes, life gets in the way
of writing every day, which is something I made sure to do. But I
really do want the September 11th book to be my finest
publication, so it is always on my mind, and when I am working on it,
I am working really hard.
Who designed
your book covers?
I have to do
everything on the cheap, as I have self-published for a long time. I
usually find ready-made covers on the web, purchase them, and use
them for my book covers. I use a site called
www.selfpubbookcovers.com.
There’s a guy named Rob there who runs the show, and he has always
been very responsive and helpful. He has hundreds of covers to
choose from. Hiring designers for the job is just way too expensive
for me. Ready-made covers from great designers are a great way to
package my books.
Anything
specific you want to tell your readers?
Never give up!
Never give up! Never give up!
How long have
you been writing?
I have been a
professional writer for nearly 30 years without much success. While
I have published 18 books, it seems that it is hard to attract the
public to read them. I am definitely not able to make a living off
of any of these books. Instead, I have a fixed income every month
from a variety of sources, including Social Security Disability, that
has sustained me for all of these years. While I am very happy to
see all of my peers succeed and do very well in life, it has been
equally as difficult to remain within the same income bracket for so
long. But then again, if you are concerned about the money, writing
is definitely not the right career path to choose, or so is my
experience.
Lately, I have been
taking it easier. I hope to continue writing for the rest of my
years, but I do admit that I am a bit tired of always being broke and
pinching pennies all the time. That is the hard part. But somehow,
I have made it through, and my books are all out there, should anyone
find them.
What kind of
research do you do before you begin writing a book?
I invest a lot in
the research process. After a general story idea comes to mind, I
refine that idea into a plot outline. Once that is done, I target
those parts of the plot that I know nothing of.
For instance, I
wrote a book about football. While I had known about football from
playing it in my youth, I needed to investigate how professional
players practice, not generally, but specifically. So, with that
example in mind, I had to go to the library, or surf the internet, to
find books that detailed the drills that professional coaches used in
their practices. I took this information and then put them on
notecards. Then, I added this information to the plot outline and
created a chapter-by-chapter outline with the research included in
every respective chapter. That’s how it has worked for me thus
far.
Also, I find it
extremely important to include a bibliography at the back of the
book, should I use research. That way, the writing is based not only
on my imagination, but also cold, hard facts. One should always cite
one’s sources anyway. Plus, I have found it really fun doing the
research. It’s incredible how much I have learned about a variety
of subjects over the years. When writing historical fiction
especially, research is always key.
What do you
think about the current publishing market?
Not much. But then
again, I haven’t read much of what is out there.
Pen or type
writer or computer?
I usually hand-write
a manuscript, revise it on paper, and then I type it into the
computer, constantly revising it. I then print out the manuscript and
revise it again. But I usually do this chapter-by-chapter, not the
entire manuscript at once. I find it easier to break it down into
manageable parts.
I used to hand-write
it and then use a typewriter, but luckily for everyone, the personal
computer came along.
Advice they
would give new authors?
Definitely do not
put all of your eggs in the one basket of writing. If you are going
to write or edit for a job, or work as a journalist for a decent
salary, that’s fine. But please do not make the same mistake I had
made by banking it all on writing fiction novels at an early age.
Even though I have developed as a writer through hardship, I don’t
think it was really all that worth it.
If I had to do it
all over again, I would have chosen a career with a good salary, so
that I could have afforded a good car, attracted a nice girlfriend,
afforded a simple house, and did what most of my peers have done, or
at least developed how most people are portrayed in the media of
today. I wouldn’t have had such a cavalier ‘all or none’
attitude about a becoming a writer.
Betting it all on
the one hand and winning at it is the stuff of dreams and fantasy and
not reality. I am definitely not saying that it won’t happen,
though, because a new author definitely could hit the big time with a
book or a number of books. But if you find yourself broke and on the
street in the freezing cold, as I have witnessed in every city I have
lived in, you should really stop and reassess where you are heading.
In my opinion, it is not possible to write under conditions of abject
poverty for too long. Better to get a roof over your head before
writing that next line.
