Author Spotlight - Richard Milton

Visit Richard's Amazon Author Page at - http://www.amazon.com/Richard-Milton - I'm so happy to have crossed paths with him. Find him on FaceBook too - https://www.facebook.com/richard.milton.54

Enjoy the interview. I sure did.

What inspired you to become a writer? Why did you go from non-fiction to fiction? Why did you choose this particular genre?

I wanted to be a writer since I was nine or ten. I would make up treasure maps and bury them in the garden hoping someone would discover them and dig them up. Sadly, they never did. When I was 15 I bought an old cast-iron typewriter from a junk shop, lugged it home on the bus and taught myself to type. The books I wrote in the evenings were not very original and, like the treasure maps, remained undiscovered.

Eventually I managed to get a job as a journalist and worked on business magazines and newspapers. I developed an interest in geology and spent my spare time visiting cliffs and quarries collecting rocks and fossils and this started me investigating Darwinism. My first book was Shattering the Myths of Darwinism, which didn’t go down too well with some sections of the scientific community, who started foaming at the mouth and chewing the carpets. Richard Dawkins called me ‘loony’ and suggested I needed ‘psychiatric treatment’, although he didn’t trouble himself to respond to any of the scientific questions I raised.

I wrote several other non-fiction books. Alternative Science looks at the curious phenomenon where some scientists are averse to new discoveries and declare certain subjects taboo. Bad Company looks at why large corporations sometimes behave in insanely self-defeating ways. Best of Enemies examines Anglo-German relations through two world wars and the birth of the PR industry.

I started writing fiction because I find it the most challenging and the most satisfying form, but in my stories the factual background is never far away and I like themes that introduce the unusual, the exotic and even the paranormal into everyday life.

What’s your strongest point as a writer?

I consider myself very lucky to have been trained in old-school journalism where you are compelled to express the facts as economically as possible and still tell an interesting and engaging story. I was given one tip early on that I find very useful in fiction. I always draft a novel first (mainly) in dialogue, like a screenplay, and add the exposition and descriptions later. This makes your story lean and mean and stops all the throat-clearing and long-winded descriptions.

As Author, what do you consider your most difficult obstacle?

The biggest obstacle to writers is the traditional publishing industry which now works against us rather than with us. The big publishers have squeezed out mid-range authors in favour of books “authored” by TV celebrities, sports stars and models, and will no longer even look at unagented manuscripts. The good news is that the reservoir of writing talent that traditional publishers have sponged off for so long now has an alternative outlet in the form of professional self publishing and especially Kindle.

What new projects can we look forward to from you, and where and when will they be available?

I’m putting all my books, past, present and future on Kindle. So far, I’ve published Dead Secret, The Glass Harmonica and Conjuring for Beginners, as well as my non-fiction book Shattering the Myths of Darwinism. If anyone wishes to review any of these, please email me and I’ll be happy to email you a complementary copy.

My latest Kindle novel is Conjuring For Beginners (only put up last week and at the time of writing no-one has yet reviewed it at all). It’s a story about a woman magazine journalist, Rosa Daniels, whose father - Ferdy Daniels - is a legendary con artist living out his days in Switzerland. When Ferdy dies alone and penniless, Rosa, inherits his victims who are convinced she was his partner in crime. To stay alive, Rosa must unravel Ferdy’s web of deceits. But to understand her father’s past, she must learn to become as quick-witted and cunning as Ferdy. She must learn to become a conjuror like him.

In the next few months, I’ll be publishing a fourth fiction book, a collection of short stories called True Stories, and more non-fiction, starting with The Ministry of Spin and then a follow-up to my Darwin book titled Darwin Doesn’t Work Here Anymore.

Where can we find you?

My website, with more details of all my books is at www.richardmilton.net If anyone would like to contact me directly my email is richard@richardmilton.co.uk (note the site has a different domain name from the email).

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Where to Begin

I've heard this question rather frequently recently. People think they have a story in mind but they just don't know how to start.

My reply is to pick a beginning >just pick one< Two of the people who approached me wanted to do something of a memoir, and in one case it was important to paint an early foundation behind a family relationship so that later issues would be fully understood. The other one, I think, simply wants people to understand him, and so a beginning might be kind of hard to nail down, but still, a beginning needs to be THE beginning - first thoughts - first realizations - first conflicts.

This holds for starting a fictional story too, no matter the genre you choose to write in. Pick a beginning - somewhere where the crux of the matter starts - somewhere where you first understand that a certain chain of events has come together.

I've picked several different points of beginning: A voluntary medical procedure which changes everything - a chain of deaths that forces my character to make hard choices - love at first sight - murder - the fall of the royal family, though my character did his best to avoid stepping into his responsibilities. Those are just a few, but you get the idea.

For me, starting a story was always rather easy. Some idea would give me a scene and then I would simply have a suitable character work out the details of getting to or from that scene. The biggest issue is agreeing on an ending. Sometimes my characters decide on something else, but it's still a goal.

Some people like to do a story outline. I prefer to drive in the dark with the headlights on high, but something of an outline might be useful as something like mini-goals to achieve within the bigger story. Whatever works for you, by all means have at it, but don't spend so much time on your outline that you get tired of the story before you start writing.

Recently I've offered my services for hire, but I do also try to be available just to help out. I do enjoy helping other writers however I can.

How do you come up with your beginnings? Inquiring minds wanna know.

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Where is Your Passion

I was looking forward to this post being about an editor I met on FB, but she didn't seem to have the time, stating a busy family life and the coming holidays. She wanted to post a short list of generic editing tips, whereas I wanted you to get to know her, to get a feel for her passion for the job, her love of taking a rough diamond and turning it into a polished gem. I wanted to showcase her to her advantage, but she didn't want to, didn't have time, sadly.

So...what is your passion? Where is your passion? Have you thought about it? It doesn't matter if you are in the writing business or not, are you passionate about what you do?

Writers? What of your soul do you pour into your stories? Are you excited (and terrified) to put your labor of love out there for people to read? Are you thrilled at every review, good or not so good, or even the bad ones? Even if you've written twenty or more books, is the passion still there? The excitement? The love?

Editors? Do you like taking that labor of love, that rough work, and turning it into a gleaming gem to be proud of? Are you thrilled every time you hear about or see a book that you know you had a hand in making it what it is?

Cover artists? Do you love putting together that perfect picture together and hearing how thrilled the writer is about it. Does it make you smile when you see it on a shelf somewhere, or on Amazon?

Publishers? Do you love taking these beautiful gems and putting them out there under your moniker? Does it make you proud knowing that book is such a culmination of so much work, and there it sits, glowing, waiting to reward everyone for all their hard work.

Notice I didn't mention money until the very end. Publishers are in the business end of things and so money is a large part of their concern, but the rest is no less important. Writers, editors, cover artists, and publishers too, if you are only in the game for the money, you are cutting yourself short. Of course, we all need to make a living, and yes, we should all get paid for our work, but if there is no passion, no excitement, why are you doing what you are doing? Life is too short to commit yourself to a job you have no love for.

I don't care if you are 'good' at telling a story, and being 'good' at editing can't be good enough either. I've worked with a 'dry' editor; I even spoke with him on several occasions. He always sounded bored on the phone, or maybe he was just tired. Creating an eye-popping cover takes attention to detail and a desire to create something beautiful. The bland, barely good enough cover simply isn't going to generate any sales. Believe me, I know. I have one like that.

If we all work together, with passion, excitement, and pride, the end product can only be a wonder to behold. You low budget publishers who can't afford to hire an editor for what they deserve to be paid, need to hire one passionate enough to make up the difference; your business depends on it.

So where is your passion? Is it somewhere here in the writing world? Is it perhaps in the reading world? Or somewhere else? Whatever it is, are you passionate about it? Are you proud of your work?

My Guest This Week, J.R. Nova

My Words

by J. R. Nova

I write fantasy, and when I'm not at my computer I'm playing guitar, practicing Yoga, or reading a book. I blog at http://jrnova.blogspot.com/ and http://spiritmyst.blogspot.com/. You can connect with me on Facebook and Google+, and if you enjoy my writing and want a little more, feel free to check out my debut novel, “Rising,” on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Rising-The-Czar-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B007PFZZTO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332992834&sr=8-1

I picked up a pen at the age of 12, for the same reason many people pick up a pen. I did so to write down a feeling I had. It was a painful feeling, and what came out was a poem. I began writing poetry in sixth grade, at the bequest of my teachers who enjoyed my essays and other work. They saw a promise in me, a skill.

The poetry I wrote was emotional. It was therapy. And that was my first experience with writing outside of schoolwork. For several years my words were really all I had, as so many others have experienced. Words are the window into the soul, and it’s through that doorway many of us live.

My writing is no longer just therapy for me. It's no longer just emotional. I blog, not about my darkest thoughts, but of my interests, my life, my work, my relationships and experiences with humanity. I use a computer now, instead of a pen. My words have evolved from simple emotions to complicated and passionate introspection.

And this is writing, for me, for so many others. I started writing fantasy at age 16, and by the time I was 20 I had pretty much given up on poetry. I have branched out into writing fiction and nonfiction, but the core of why I write is intact.

I write because I'm a human being, and I see things in life that need to be put down in words. They need to, not quite be immortalized, but at least be remembered for me, as well as shared with others. Sometimes I put these things into the form of themes within stories. Other times I blog them or write long-winded essays to get to the bare bones of my ideas.

One of the biggest questions for any writer is whether or not we should—or even have the right to—share our words.

For years I kept much of what I wrote to myself. Some of the things I shared were welcomed, some weren't. But as I grew older, as I began to explore the deeper reasons of writing, the more I realized that not only could I share my writing—that I did, indeed, have the right to do so—but that I was, on at least one level, obligated to do so.

Every writer needs a reader. Every reader needs a writer. It is an injustice to readers for writers to keep their words to themselves.

Why?

Because we never know what piece of writing may have a profound effect on another human's life.

And so I write, and now I share.

Why do you write?

Reading come Writing

Once was the time when I read every book (almost) I could get my hands on, as long as it took place somewhere else or some-when else. I read about dragons, space travel, mind reading, time travel, you name it, for the most part. There was very seldom when I didn't have a book open; I even had to restrict myself and make myself finish a book before I started another, and further, to wait until the next day before starting another book. It gave me a little time to digest one story before starting another one.

Being the Libran that I am, I loved books that were a series, but I hated getting the second of a series (or whichever) and not being able to find the others, so I refused to buy a book that was part of a series unless I could get all of them. That didn't apply to those books given to me, so I ultimately ended up with some of those odd books. Needless to say, I read them anyway, frustrating though it was.

When we moved out here, I had to give up my collection of books - we simply couldn't move them, and even if I'd managed to be able to bring them out here initially, at some point during the multiple times we've moved since, I'm certain that my collection would have had to be sacrificed somewhere along the line.

Since then, I've accumulated quite a few books; sadly, few of them are the kind I like - the long story that covers several books - and finding any remnants of any of my old collection is impossible. Another obstruction is the fact that I can't just go to a book store; I'm doing good to go through the book stands in Walmart or Fred Meyers or some other big store, if there's time. Another rather frustrating thing about my books is that they are mostly in boxes stashed either in the top of the woodshed or upstairs stuffed in a corner buried under other boxes or shoes or clothes or whatever else it stuffed up there. Space is at an extreme premium here in this little cabin in the middle of nowhere.

To satisfy my desire to read, I have, from time to time, jotted down a story. While I was working on the military base (before we moved out here), we were required to take three breaks during every work day. They were fairly boring breaks, though not really all that long - an hour all together. To fill the time, not long enough to enjoy a good read, I started writing a story, long hand, in a loose-leaf notebook. This notebook is the one book that came with me when I moved out here. This notebook was unfortunately one sacrifice because of one of our moves. Some items had to be left behind, and when I finally got the chance to retrieve the duffle, the notebook was gone. Sigh

Several years later, I decided to start another story in another notebook. The kids were both done with school and there was all this paper left over. One day, my son comes home with this little laptop computer. I'd never seen one before. It was really rather cool. He taught me how to use it and he taught me some things about Word, other things I learned along the way with occasional help from my son when he was home. Since then, I have worn out that poor little computer. My second PC started getting a hiccup in the music program and my son said it might be some kind of internal problem. So, since I've managed to write over twenty stories which I didn't want to lose, I now have my third computer, a MAC.

Yes, I said over twenty stories. They are all lengths and I've talked about them before in this blog. I have discovered the new way to read. I have satisfied my desire to read new books. If I can't go to a bookstore, I can create my own books. I can do it, and you know what, I love doing it. The new stories that evolve on my computer screen don't have a book trailer, they don't have any advertising yet, they don't even have a rumor friends can pass on. You can't get much newer than that.