2/23/2024
Interview with an Author
This is number one hundred in the blog series, “My Life in Erotica.” I encourage you to join my Patreon community to support my writing.
“WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE?” asked the interviewer. I didn’t expect that one!
“I suppose because I haven’t died yet. I had a close call not that long ago, but I have a pacemaker now and it seems to be keeping me alive,” I said.
“No. Not why are you still alive, why are you still here writing this blog? This is the 100th posting. Haven’t you said it all yet?”
“Oh. I guess because two or three hundred people a week are still reading it. I kind of thrive on interaction with people and I use the blog as a means of hopefully sharing something worthwhile with readers.”
Last week, I had to learn how to use Zoom, so Mark Sawyer of “Twisted Vet USA” could interview me for his YouTube series. Normally, I sit in a relaxed gaming chair with a keyboard in my lap and a 32" monitor on the table in front of me. My computer generally stays closed and stuck a few feet away from me. The keyboard, mouse, and monitor are all I ever see.
Learning to use Zoom involved detaching the laptop from my peripherals so I could open it and make use of the camera. That was a catastrophe. Behind me was my kitchen sink and stove—not an interesting background even if it was clean. I ended up getting a small camp table from my store room and setting the computer on it, facing the sofa and the blinds drawn across my front window.
But the interview was successful and the forty-two minutes are available at Twisted Vet USA.
But there were a few things Mark didn’t ask and a lot more I thought of later.
I mentioned the Model Student series last week as an example of my first erotica books made available in paperback. But I never mentioned the seventh volume, the Triptych Interviews. In fact, I’d pretty much forgotten about them. So much so, that even though they are found both on SOL and on my Devon Layne website, the book never showed up in my list of titles on my own site! I’m correcting that this week and all my patrons and the public will now find Triptych Interviews listed as part of the Model Student series.
I created the Triptych Interviews as a supplement to the fourth book in the series, Triptych, but it also parallels Odalisque and The Prodigal. There are eighteen interviews, and they are each dated and noted with what chapter in the books they should be read after. It was a technique I used to get a better understanding of the characters I was writing about. It let me ask about things that wouldn’t appear in the story, but influenced how the character acted. I seldom conduct such detailed interviews, but in one way or another, I interview nearly every character I write about.
The Triptych Interviews can be found on SOL and Triptych Interviews on my Devon Layne website.
Questions no one asked of me yet.
I use the convention of having my alter ego Nathan Everett ask my alter ego Devon Layne questions. They are below as NE and DL.
- NE: At what point do you think someone should call themselves a writer?
- DL: Whenever they damn well please. The difference between a writer and a non-writer is that a writer sits his butt in a chair and starts writing. I think it was Anne Lamott who said that if you wake up thinking about writing, go through your day making time to write, and go to sleep thinking about what you are writing, you are a writer.
- NE: When did you start calling yourself a writer.
- DL: That’s kind of a funny story. It was the first time I quit everything in my life and decided to start over—my job, my schooling, my marriage. I had to earn a living, though, and I could type 110 words per minute, so I applied to a temp agency and went to work as a secretary at a local home-building company. I’d been at my desk a week or two when one of the company execs passed. He turned around and stood in front of my desk.
“You aren’t really a secretary,” he said. “What are you really?”
I looked up rather surprised, and with all the courage I could muster, said, “I’m a writer.”
He nodded once and said, “See me in my office. I have a job for you.”
And just by declaring myself to be what I believed I was, I gained a very lucrative contract to write a programmed instruction course for new home sales people.
- NE: You don’t think it was just because you were a man filling a typical woman’s role that he singled you out?
- DL: No, I do think so. It was terribly chauvinistic. I took advantage of the opportunity, though. I was a convenient shortcut for management to avoid actually searching for a qualified training developer.
- NE: That was back in…
- DL: 1979.
- NE: But it wasn’t fiction, right?
- DL: No, I spent several years writing and publishing training and marketing materials, trade journals, software specifications, and articles. Most of that time, at least on and off, I was squeezing out time to write fiction but wasn’t focused on selling it.
- NE: What advice would you give to a writer working on their first book?
- DL: Think. Many writers don’t have a plan for what they write. They just write down an interesting plot point or character and then wait to see where it takes them. That’s okay to begin with, but you need to ask yourself, “Why am I writing this book? What do I want readers to get out of it?” Jot down where you think the story begins and what you want the outcome to be. Then write out the major steps to getting there. That’s all you need to start writing a reasonable draft.
You can follow the age-old advice: Write with your heart. Just let the words flow and check periodically to be sure the words are still flowing toward those steps you said had to be accomplished to get there.
Then, the second half of that advice is: Rewrite with your head. Never believe that your first draft is the best you can possibly do. Think. Think about the characters. Think about the story line. Think about the timeline and the crises, the obstacles that need to be overcome to get to where you want to go. Make pages filled with notes on how this is going to be different and how that book will change the world.
Then you’ll be ready to rewrite with your audience in mind. Be considerate of them. If you want readers, you need to provide something worth reading.
Finally, you’re ready for editors.
- NE: Thank you.
- DL: No problem. I love talking to myself.
Don’t forget to watch the interview on YouTube! Mark’s questions are all different than the ones I answered here. He did a good job as an interviewer. Next week, I’ll look at some of the questions that have been submitted and choose a topic to focus on!
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
