Thursday, May 15, 2014

BB Interview: Jim Denney, author of the TIMEBENDERS and WRITING IN OVERDRIVE

TGIF! I couldn't sleep as I had one of the best writing conversations today with Jim Denney. And, of course, I invited him to stay a while longer for a quick interview. (which, if you know anything about writers, nothing is ever quick ;)

Author of the Timebenders, a science fantasy series for young readers and Writing in Overdrive: Write Faster, Write Freely, Write Brilliantly, Jim Denney is one of the greats and has been writing - and intensely committed to it - all his life.

Please help me give a warm BB Writers Retreat welcome to Jim Denney!

Jim Denney (left) with one of his writing heroes, Harlan Ellison, at the Saroyan Writer's Conference where Jim gave a workshop on writing for a living, and Harlan was guest of honor.

Lia Mack: Jim, start us off by saying a little about yourself:

Jim Denney: I've been writing for as long as I can remember, and I've been a full-time self-employed writer since 1989. I don't think I'm defined so much by writing per se as by what I care about and write about—meaning and purpose in life, how the universe and life came to be, how the mind works, the nature of truth and reality, how we achieve our full potential, and how we treat one another as fellow members of the human family.

Lia Mack: That's wonderful that you're able to follow your passion, and successfully! Can you tell us a little about your books?

Jim Denney: I wrote a series of time travel adventures for young readers called the Timebenders series, originally for Thomas Nelson Publishers, and recently reissued in a revised and updated ebook edition by Greenbrier Books. The first book in the series is Battle Before Time. Throughout the series I combined scientific paradoxes with moral paradoxes. I tried to confront my characters with insoluble problems of both science and conscience. For example, I put my protagonist—a boy genius named Max—in an impossible position where he must choose between helping an evil ruler kill thousands of innocent people versus allowing his three closest friends to die. You can't read the story without asking yourself, "What would I do in Max's place?"

I honestly believe young readers are more nimble thinkers than most grownups, because they haven't formed a lot of biases and hard-shell opinions. So I don't write down to kids. I write for middle grade readers using the same vocabulary and concepts I use when writing for adult readers. If anything, I tend to simplify more when writing for adults.

One of the writers who impacted me at an early age was Madeleine L'Engle. I discovered A Wrinkle in Time when I was nine years old. After reading that book, I knew I wanted to be a writer.

A Wrinkle in Time is filled with scientific and moral paradoxes. I remember the pleasure of trying to wrap my brain around the Tesseract, the four-dimensional hypercube in L'Engle's story. I remember the moral and spiritual dilemmas L'Engle threw at her characters. I appreciated it that L'Engle didn't write down to me. She trusted me, the young reader, to keep up. She once said, "Write the book that wants to be written. If it's too difficult for grownups, write it for children." I've always followed that advice.

Lia Mack: What was the most challenging aspect of writing the Timebenders series?

Jim Denney: I suppose the biggest challenge I faced in writing these books was the short deadline. It was a curse that turned out to be a blessing. I asked the publishers to push the deadline out a few months, but they wouldn't budge. So I accepted a challenge I thought was impossible, and I met the challenge. I delivered the books to the publisher on deadline (more or less). And in the process I learned I could write faster than I had ever written before. I also learned that by writing faster, I could write more freely and I was more creative than if I'd had more time to think and plan what I was writing. That was a huge eye-opener to me as a writer.

I learned a lot about the creative process during that experience, and I finally understood what Ray Bradbury meant when he said, "In quickness is truth. The more swiftly you write, the more honest you are." I eventually took the lessons I had learned, combined them with research into the lives and creative processes of other writers, and wrote a nonfiction book for writers, Writing in Overdrive: Write Faster, Write Freely, Write Brilliantly. It's a distillation of everything I've discovered about unleashing our creativity.

Lia Mack: Sounds like a book we need on the shelf here at the BB! Now, my ultimate question...Why do you write?

Jim Denney: I write because I can't imagine doing anything else. I was writing as a child, as a teenager, as a college student. My first adult job was writing and editing. What else can I do? What else am I suited for? I'm not qualified for anything else, and I can't imagine doing anything else. My mind is crammed full of stories and ideas I want to express. If I don't write them, my head will explode.

Saul Bellow once said, "A writer is a reader moved to emulation." That's certainly true in my case. My three great writing role models, the writers who most influenced me and motivated me to become a writer, were the ones whose work impacted me in my youth and teenage years—Madeleine L'Engle, Ray Bradbury, and Harlan Ellison.

Lia Mack: Well said. Can you describe a bit how your venture into writing looked like?

Jim Denney: I started out writing nonfiction, working mostly as a writing partner for celebrities and authorities in various fields. I got to work with a lot of fascinating people, and I learned a lot from each of them. I worked with Pat Williams, the founder of the Orlando Magic, on many kinds of books ranging from sports and leadership to a biography of Walt Disney. I worked with Super Bowl champions Reggie White and Bob Griese, and learned a lot about determination, perseverance, and work ethic. I worked with actress Grace Lee Whitney on her Star Trek memoir, with supermodel Kim Alexis, and many others. It's been a fascinating journey. Whether I'm writing fiction or nonfiction, every book I write is a learning and growing experience.

Lia Mack: If you don't mind me asking, what are you working on now?

Jim Denney: I'll just say that my current work-in-progress is science fiction on a grand scale.

Lia Mack: What does your typical writing day look like?

Jim Denney: My typical writing day for the past twenty-five years or so is pretty simple. Get out of bed and start writing. Knock out five hundred words or so first thing, then grab breakfast and coffee. Then it's writing and coffee pretty much all day long, interwoven with my day-to-day "real life"—family time, relaxation, household chores, and so forth. But both consciously and unconsciously, I'm writing all day long. I end the day with a long stretch of uninterrupted writing. Nighttime is prime time for writing, because the phone never rings.

Lia Mack: During your "real life" time, do you read while you write? What are you reading now?

Jim Denney: I have writer friends who say they won't read while they are engaged in a writing project. I suppose that's so that they won't be influenced by what they read. But I'm always writing. If I can't read during a writing project, I'd never get to read—and I can't go a day without reading for pleasure. Currently, I have two books open. I'm reading The Stars My Destination, a classic science fiction novel by Alfred Bester, and the definitive Harlan Ellison collection, The Essential Ellison.

Lia Mack: Seeing you love science fiction... if you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself if you could speak to the aspiring writer you once were?

Jim Denney: In my early days, I lacked focus, motivation, and discipline. I thought writing success would come easily. I'd love to go back in time and give my younger self a kick in the pants and a Vince Lombardi-style motivational speech. I'd say, "Writing isn't something you do when you feel like it. Writing is a discipline, a daily habit, an intense commitment. You have to be a writer with every fiber of your being. You have to be intense, focused, and sold out to your work. You have to crave writing. You have to want it so much that you think about writing when you wake up, think about writing throughout the day, think about writing when you go to bed, and dream about writing through the night."

I'd also tell my younger self to get a copy of Dorothea Brande's Becoming a Writer. If you want to understand the creative process and how to tap into the power of the unconscious mind to unleash your imagination and creativity, you must read that book. I learned much of what Brande teaches through trial and error, but I could have greatly accelerated my growth as a writer if I had discovered that book at an early age. It was written in 1934, but I only read it for the first time within the past few years. Every serious fiction writer should read Becoming a Writer without delay.
  
Lia Mack: Another great book for the shelf. And I'm going to post your spoken advice on the wall of every writer's room here at the BB. And also tattoo it on my arm. 

"Writing isn't something you do when you feel like it. Writing is a discipline, a daily habit, an intense commitment."

You said it perfectly.

Well, Jim...it's been fun! I hope you can stop by the BB again some day. In the meantime, where can BB readers go online to find you and your work?

Jim Denney: My book on writing quickly and freely is called Writing in Overdrive. It's available in trade paperback and as an ebook at Amazon.com. My Timebenders books for young readers are also available at Amazon.com: Battle Before Time, Doorway to Doom, Invasion of the Time Troopers, and Lost in Cydonia. My two most recent nonfiction books with Pat Williams are Leadership Excellence and The Leadership Excellence Devotional, both from Barbour Books.

Thank you, Lia, for giving me a soapbox to talk about writing. Wishing you and all your readers at the BB B&B an inspired writing adventure!

Lia Mack: It was my pleasure. Come back any time! 

:)


Tuesday, May 13, 2014

BB Interview: Cindy Young-Turner, debut author of THIEF OF HOPE

Good afternoon and welcome back to the BB Writers Retreat

While sipping some good ol' sweet tea out on the front porch, debut author Cindy Young-Turner stopped by for a chat. And as always I asked her some of my favorite questions: why do you write? 

The answer to that is always fun ;)

But my favorite question to ask authors is: what advice would you give yourself if you could go back in time and talk to the aspiring writer you once were? 

Check out Cindy's wonderful answer below, as well as other golden advice for all writers.

~ Lia 

BB Interview: Cindy Young-Turner, debut author of THIEF OF HOPE


Cindy Young-Turner, 
author of Thief of Hope and Journey to Hope

Lia: So, Cindy. Tell a little about yourself:
Cindy: I’m an author and a mom and I also have a full-time day job. Life is hectic. By day I edit and do business development for international development projects. In my free time, I try to inspire my characters to fight for change and justice in their imaginary worlds. I’m an avid reader and a fantasy geek and the original Star Wars trilogy shaped my childhood.

Lia: Ultimate question...Why do you write? 
Cindy: I don’t think I could not write! I’ve always done it, from almost as far back as I can remember. I have stories I’d like to tell so I’ll keep writing as long as I can.

Lia: How do you feel you've grown as a writer?
Cindy: Finishing a novel is a huge milestone and getting published is an even bigger one. I have to give a lot of credit to my wonderful critique groups that have helped me over the years. In addition to knowing how to put words together, there’s also characterization, plot elements, basically how to make your story hang together and engage the reader. Working professionally as an editor has also helped in the technical aspects of writing, even though technical writing is very different from creative writing. And going through the sometimes painful editing process during the publication of my novel was definitely an eye opener. It’s amazing to look back at my writing from a few years ago and see the improvement.

Lia: Can you describe a bit how your venture into writing looked like?
Cindy: As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been writing for most of my life. Sometime in grade school I think I had to write a story for a class and I was hooked. I was ten when I wrote my first “novel” and it was a combination of my own ideas, Star Wars, and GI Joe. I think now you’d call it fan fiction. I have a bunch of other novels in various stages that were hand written in notebooks. Most of them will probably never see the light of day, but who knows. Maybe someday I will salvage one of them.

Lia: Can you tell us a little about your book?
Cindy: Thief of Hope is fantasy and features a pickpocket whose life becomes entangled with the commoners' fight against an oppressive society, a would-be king's bid for the throne, and the strange and dangerous magic of the faery folk. In this bleak, medieval world, nothing is black and white, and even a thief must make a stand for what she believes is right. I adore Sydney, the heroine of the story. She’s not perfect and she’s had a hard life but she’s a fighter.

Lia: As one of your critique partners many moons ago, I adore Sydney too.

What was the most challenging aspect of writing this particular story?
Cindy: The hardest part was getting through a couple drafts and then realizing I needed to overhaul the story because certain plot elements just weren’t working. I kept about ten chapters and tossed out the rest, save for a few scenes that made it to the final cut. It was painful, but the result was a much stronger story.

Lia: It always does, doesn't it?

What are you working on now?
Cindy: I’m currently working on the sequel to Thief of Hope, titled Thief of Destiny.

Lia: What does your typical writing day look like?
Cindy: With a full-time job and an active five-year-old, it’s challenging to find time to write. Luckily I’m a night owl and my most creative time is between 9 pm and whenever I go to bed. Sadly I can’t pull really late nights like I used to.

Lia: Do you read a lot while you write?
Cindy: I love to read and I will read just about any genre. I went through a period a few years ago where I wasn’t reading much due to job pressures and lack of time and then I realized how much I missed it. So now I’m playing catch up because there are so many good books out there. I’m currently working my way through GRR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series (on book 4) and I’m about to start the last book in Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. Not to mention the stacks of books around the house waiting to be read!

Lia: Good for you! I love stacks of books and honesty, a writer who doesn't read isn't much of a writer.

What are your thoughts on the necessity of writers building a platform? Any advice?
Cindy: Personally I hate the marketing aspect of the business. I’d much rather be writing than trying to sell my books and myself. But sadly it’s a necessity these days. There is so much out there in terms of social networking and it can really be overwhelming. I’ve been trying various things, from blogging to twitter to being featured on various book blogger sites. The best advice I can give is to start small and see what works for you and what you’re willing to do. From what I’ve heard, the best way to build your platform as a writer is to write more books.

Lia: That's the best advice of all!

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself if you could speak to the aspiring writer you once were?
Cindy: I’d tell myself to have more confidence in my writing and to take advantage of my free time to write more when I have the chance.

Lia: Cindy, thank you so much for being our guest author today. 

Where can BB readers go online to find you and your work?
Cindy: Thanks so much for having me today! I hope your readers will check out my links!