Describe your writing process: schedule, environment, and inspirations abstract and material.
My mind takes me where it wants to go. So as a non-linear thinker, process is fleeting and I would rather be free to have useful and stupid thoughts than be a slave to a schedule. As I no longer work for others and I am an insomniac, my work hours often include time between 2am to 5am. I do put in many hours trying to round my ideas into cogent and alluring sentences and paragraphs. I never know where ideas come from. A friend made a joke 30 years ago and I used it as the basis of a chapter of my book and an award-winning short story.
We live in a small but wonderful apartment in Manhattan, thus my work area is more practical and compact than comfortable. We try to keep our library to 400 books, but we are willfully neglect about that number.
Walk me through your publishing process, from final draft to final product, and marketing.
I am sorry to disappoint but this will be terribly pedestrian. Almost everyone I know in the arts finds the business side odious. And as I have only completed one novel, my experience is limited. I have had short stories, poems, and photographs published, but that was purely a hit and miss proposition of submissions to selected publications.
But I am already thinking about the marketing for my work in progress, a satire on business, which I believe has commercial potential. I will ultimately want to appeal to an agent or a traditional publisher; thus I have been gathering bits that may help. My current publisher, Creativia, of my novel “Cousins’ Club” believes in free downloads as a means of marketing and 12,000 people have taken advantage. I have written poems for the first time in 45 years and had them published and I have photographs appearing in art magazines. I also participate in select on-line writing boards where the atmosphere is collegial, solicit reviews for my Amazon page, and appear at book events. I think of each as being one inch closer to my goal. Obviously I do not know how many inches will be needed.
Tell me about your support system online and IRL; who are your biggest cheerleaders?
My wife of 47 years is absurdly supportive. She’s an artist and an inveterate reader and we both understand our need to be creative. My friends and family have gone out of their way to help. Many have used their good names on social media to alert others of my work, others organized events, others submit reviews and buy books, and others offer literary advice. I like to think of myself as a curmudgeon and lacking sentimentality, but I have been genuinely moved by the efforts of so many.
How does your life influence your writing and vice versa; how has your life prepared you for writing?
I have always been an independent spirit and thinker, whose benefits and limitations I have long understood and accepted. I approach things with a great ferocity which I think also appears in my work. Cautious people do not change the world. My creativity and my ability to analyze and connect disparate events and facts stood me well in business and in school. But my “I do not care about your arbitrary rules” has not. One boss used to say to me, “You’re not one of us.” To which I replied, “Why would I want to be.” Accordingly, why would I want to write what has been written or photograph what has already been shot.
What do you love most about your creativity?
I apply creativity to every aspect of my life. There are few things I do as routine, for I think how can I do this differently. They call it conventional wisdom because it comes from drunks at conventions.
Writing is problem solving. How can I create characters that are true to their purpose but are still different, vivid, and believable? How do I create dialogue that is witty and distinct, yet propels the story? How do I create events that are new and fresh, yet relevant and germane of the story? How do I create consequences for people’s actions that the reader will accept? As I write satire, how do I amuse a reader for hundreds of pages? I embrace all these challenges and quietly celebrate every victory. But you can never become smug, because the next sentence is just a keystroke away.
Connect with Warren:
Rupi Kaur divided her poetry collection into five sections. Wilting begins…on the last day of love…my heart cracked inside my body…and continues this part of the story throughout the following poems. Falling exposes the self in an introspection of negativity, moving from grief to the numbness of sudden aloneness. Rooting reaches the stage of connecting with community, recognizing pain and fear, power and strength on a larger scale. Rising expands and contract the self, bringing the strength inward…i will welcome…a partner…who is my equal…celebrating the self and being proud of ancestry. Blooming shares the fruits of the labors of those who have gone before…i am the first woman in my lineage with freedom of choice…praising her parents’ decision to immigrate and allow daughters to fully become themselves. Kaur’s poetry has been derided for being so accessible to the masses, which is a shame, because what then is the point of exclusivity of art…