RADIKALNEWS

I have a pleasure to talk with Eddie Vega – a writer, photographer, translator, editor and an entrepreneur. He is the author of Awake Now, Sailor (the novel), A Marine At The Door (novella), and editor of Noir Nation, the world’s only crime fiction & tattoo magazine. His work is obviously driven by passion more than by money, so he deserves a great deal of respect for that. Go find him at http://eddievega.com/, and watch out for his work …

You are the man of many talents – you express yourself visually, verbally, you translate and publish great literature … Where do you find yourself most comfortable?
On the stern of a tugboat on the open sea, leaning against a moving hawser line that is pulling a 10,000-ton barge. I sailed on tugs for three years while in my 20s and that more than anything else I have done informs my core identity. In the off-watches I was reading and writing poetry. When I was on dry land, I visited libraries and attended literary readings in Manhattan. I never borrowed books from the libraries; I could never return them on time because I would be gone for weeks and months. So in short, I find myself most comfortable on the open sea with a book of poems.
However, I still get flashbacks to some nightmare storms I survived. The smell of diesel fuel and jostling trains sometimes bring those terrible memories back. And the only way I can escape them is by taking out my Canon 30D and shooting the streets. Photography makes you focus on the world in front of you – not the one that’s in your head – and brings you into the supreme nowness of the moment. If you are thinking, you are not seeing.
Writing fiction has the opposite effect. It requires me to go deep into memory and pull those horrific moments out. With as much delicacy as I can manage. I liken it to sticking your hand in a sack teeming with the cut-off heads of rattlesnakes, some of which can still bite out of reflex. I saw some of that in the Mojave Desert when I was stationed at Twenty-Nine Palms, Cal. Marines used to hunt rattlesnakes with a flashlight – the rattlers’ eyes reflected the light, making them easy to spot – and a ten-foot pole with a noose that could be dropped around the head of the snake. A certain fellowdid not know about the reflex thing – or did but was too drunk to care – and stuck his hand into the sack to pull out a head as a stunt to scare a sleeping private. When his hand came out, there were several snake heads dangling from it by their fangs. The toxins made his arm swell several times its normal size and he almost lost it to amputation. That’s what writing fiction for me is like. I work from what I know, and what I know can be dangerous to my current health. All those moments of personal failure, humiliation, weakness, wrong choices with bad consequences, right choices with even worse consequences. I put my hand into a sack of teeming memories and hope it comes out without punctures.
This may be what separates the writer who writes to entertain and the writer who writes to provide insight that can only come from the pain of lived experience.The entertainer is ready to dance when the writing is done. The other writer is praying for mercy.

About publishing – you are very enthusiastic about books, although you are aware that there is no real big money coming from the book business. Where do you find the energy?
For me, writing is a religious vocation, a belief I developed at Cathedral Preparatory Seminary, where I earned my high school diploma. (The school helped young men explore their desire to become Catholic priests.) Another sense that I developed there was a deep respect for work not money, and that one does not necessarily lead to the other. So I have greater admiration for a poet who takes three years to write a ten-line poem and earns zero dollars than I do for a Wall Street day trader who makes $100 million in a two-second trade. However, my greatest admiration goes to the trader if s/he is the same person who wrote the poem.
So the energy — the drive, if you will — to keep writing despite no monetary or institutional reward comes from a deep fear, rooted in my teenage years, that if I don’t write, I will lose my soul.

The writer is …?
A writer is someone who has no choice but to write. Like the thrush of Walt Whitman’s “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.” If it does not sing, it will die.

Solitary, the thrush,
The hermit, withdrawn to himself, avoiding the settlements,
Sings by himself a song.

Song of the bleeding throat!
Death’s outlet song of life — (for well, dear brother, I know
If thou wast not gifted to sing, thou would’st surely die.)

You are on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, … How do social networks benefit your creative work?
Online social media platforms are a great way for artists to stay connected and collaborate on projects, despite being separated by long geographical distances.
I got stuck in the rain not long ago while on a shoot at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. I found a dry spot under a large tree. There was water pouring on other spots forming puddles. I had my iPhone with me and decided to upload a photo of my predicament to Facebook. In that act of uploading the image, it occurred to me that at least three people would almost immediately click “like” on it: Audrey Lorea, Sarah Seeds, and Winston Blakely. They had been “liking” several other posts over several days. And as I thought about them, an idea for a book project we could all work on came to me. I messaged them while still under that tree and shared the idea, The Official Gangsta Handbook. A satirical take on gangsta culture with an educational purpose. The idea came out of nowhere, though it may have been germinating for some time in the dark recesses of my subconscious. Who knows?
Anyway, the four of us later met in real time in a real space – the Irish Haven – in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and mapped out the entire book. Winston, a graphic artist, brought his camera. He later turned the pictures he took of us into drawings to accompany the author bios. I don’t think this ongoing collaboration would have happened that quickly or that comprehensively without Facebook.

What are you working on at the moment?
In addition to The Official Gangsta Handbook, I am working on a short novel called Cold Island, about a Tang Dynasty Kung Fu fighter who ends up in Iceland where he fights Vikings and falls in love with an ice maiden. Whacky stuff. But fun.
I’m also working on a television script with Jerry Brandt, the famous rock promoter. He’s the fellow who discovered Carly Simon and Chubby Checker. Artistically, those are the only projects I’m involved with right now. Of course, I’m also editing and preparing for publication about a half dozen books for Bare Knuckles Press and Noir Nation Books, including a book of memoirs by Joe Trigoboff, a kind of prequel to Goodfellas, because Joe knew some of the same characters portrayed in the film and writes about them. There’s also a gumshoe detective novel by first-time novelist Terrence P. McCauley, and a crime novel by veteran Jonathan Sturak, a writer and filmmaker, who basically owns the contemporary Las Vegas noir genre. And a book that’s very close to my seafaring heart, a sailor novel by Gene Barry, who is currently on officer on a merchant ship navigating the Pacific Ocean. And finally, I’m working with Alisha Kaplan, of Barnard College, on a digital version of the collected poems of W.B. Yeats; we will be doing a multimedia presentation sponsored by the New York Yeats Society after it comes out.

How would you describe your writing style?
This is a very difficult question to honestly answer. I have drafted no less than three responses, all of which are worthless because they do not describe my writing style but what I would like my writing style to be. It does not help, of course, that my style changes dramatically depending on the kind of writing that I am doing, news reporting, blogging, prose fiction, poetry. So all I have to offer is what I’d like my writing to be: Clear, concise, with the power of a Bruce Lee punch.

Traditional printed book or eBook?
Literature does not care how it is packaged only that it is read (or heard).

What is your method of working, both photography and writing (as both are telling stories)?
If I can formulate a fresh narrative or capture an image that implies one, that’s an accomplishment. People love stories, fake or true. But stories are not essential to literature or to photography. Catching a moment in time, a feeling, a gesture, a howl, with no beginning and no end, also holds a high place in literature.

Are there any writers that you admire most?
Earnest Hemingway for his spare sentences. Walt Whitman for his embrace of suffering humanity and lack of concern when his lines went off the page. Shakespeare for containing the entirety of the human universe in his poems and plays. Anna Akhmatova for her searing family poems. Charles Bukowski for creating the persona of the deadbeat poet who has been rejected by the academy but who is taken very seriously by real poets looking for a teacher. Ann Sexton for her uncompromising lines that distilled her middle class agony to such a high proof that it will make you blind if you read it in its pure state; many don’t, and filter her through academic studies of the Confessional School; because of that she has been dismissed as a dark-haired Sylvia Plath whose suicide was not quite as interesting. But if poetry is distilled emotion set to words – as I believe it is, and this is what distinguishes it from prose – then Sexton was the very best poet writing in English in the 20th Century. No one can touch her, not Williams Carlos Williams, not Allen Ginsberg, and certainly not Robert Frost or Robert Penn Warren. And it’s a waste of breath to compare her to the weak tea poets who are the current darlings of the academy and the lecture circuits.

If you met a young (or not so young) writer, how would you motivate him?
I wouldn’t even try to motivate a literary writer. That kind of motivation comes directly from the divine spirit, which lives within the human soul and inspires creativity. If the question was how I would encourage a writer to write, assuming I had the resources, I’d offer a villa on the Riviera, with maids, a cook, and a large library. And I would say, you can work or waste your time anyway you want. But by the end of your life, you must produce at least one line of text that will last the ages.

Thank you for your time, Eddie!

V zadovoljstvo mi je, da lahko govorim z Eddijem Vego – piscem, fotografom, prevajalcem, urednikom in podjetnikom. Je avtor knjig Prebudi se, mornar (roman) in Marinec pred vrati (novela) in urednik edine revije o kriminalnem leposlovju in tetoviranju na svetu, Noir Nation. Očitno ga bolj kot denar poganja strast, zaradi česar si zasluži veliko spoštovanja. Poiščite ga na http://eddievega.com/ in bodite pozorni na njegovo delo.

Si človek z veliko talenti – izražaš se vizualno, verbalno, prevajaš in izdajaš izvrstno književnost … Kje ti je najudobneje?
Na krmi vlačilca na odprtem morju, sloneč na gibljivo debelo vlečno vrv, ki vleče 10.000-tonsko tovorno ladjo. Pri svojih dvajsetih sem tri leta plul na vlačilcih in to je tisto, kar bolj kot vse drugo, kar sem počel, zaznamuje jedro moje identitete. Izven delovnega časa sem bral in pisal poezijo. Ko sem bil na suhem, sem obiskoval knjižnice in se udeleževal branj na Manhattnu. Nikdar si nisem knjig izposojal v knjižnicah: ne bi jih mogel vrniti pravočasno, ker sem bil na morju več tednov ali mesecev. Najudobneje se počutim na odprtem morju s knjigo pesmi.
Še vedno pa se mi kdaj prikazujejo prizori mučnih viharjev, ki sem jih preživel. Vonj dizelskega goriva in suvajoči vlaki včasih prinesejo te grozljive spomine. Edini način, da zbežim pred njimi, je, da vzamem svoj Canon 30D in fotografiram ulice. Fotografija te sili, da se osredotočiš na svet pred sabo – ne na tistega v glavi – in te prenese v sedanjost trenutka. Če misliš, potem ne vidiš.
Pisanje proze ima nasproten učinek. Zahteva, da se poglobim v spomin in izvlečem te grozljive trenutke. Z največjo mero občutljivosti, kar je premorem. To rad primerjam z vstavljanjem glave v polno vrečo odrezanih glav klopotač, kjer te nekatere še vedno lahko refleksno ugriznejo. Nekaj takega sem videl v puščavi Mojave, ko sem bil nameščen v Twenty-Nine Palms v Californiji. Marinci so lovili klopotače z baterijsko svetilko – oči klopotač so odbijale svetlobo, zato si jih z lahkoto opazil – in trimetrsko palico z zanko, ki jo nastaviš kači okoli glave. Neki tip ni vedel za te reflekse – ali pa je preprosto bil preveč pijan, da bi ga brigalo – in je segel z roko v vrečo, da bi iz nje izvlekel glavo in prestrašil spečega vojaka. Ko je roko potegnil ven, je bingljalo na zobeh z nje več kačjih glav. Zaradi strupa je njegova roka zatekla na nekajkratno velikost normalne roke in skoraj bi mu jo morali amputirati. Takšno je zame pisanje proze. Delam iz tega, kar poznam, in kar je lahko mojemu trenutnemu zdravju škodljivo. Vsi tisti trenutki osebnih neuspehov, ponižanja, šibkosti, napačnih odločitev s hudimi posledicami, pravih odločitev s še hujšimi posledicami. Z roko segam v polno vrečo spominov in upam, da bo prišla ven neprebodena.
To bi lahko bilo tisto, kar ločuje pisca, ki zabava, od pisca, ki piše, da bi omogočil vpogled, ki ga dobiš samo z bolečino preživete izkušnje. Zabavljač je pripravljen na ples, ko je pisanje končano. Drugi pisec prosi za milost.

O založništvu – zelo si navdušen nad knjigami, čeprav ti je jasno, da iz knjižnega posla ni resnično velikega denarja. Kje najdeš energijo?
Pisanje je zame religiozni poklic, vero v to sem razvil v Pripravljalnem semenišču Katedrala, kjer sem pridobil srednješolsko izobrazbo. Šola je pomagala mladim fantom, da so lahko raziskali svojo željo, da bi postali katoliški duhovniki. Drugi občutek, ki sem ga tam razvil, je globoko spoštovanje do dela, ne do denarja – in da prvo ne vodi vedno do drugega. Zato veliko bolj spoštujem pesnika, ki potrebuje tri leta, da napiše desetvrstično pesem in ne zasluži nič, kot pa posrednika na Wall Streetu, ki v dveh sekundah zasluži sto milijonov dolarjev. Seveda pa najbolj spoštujem trgovca, če je oseba, ki je dejansko napisala pesem.
Torej ima energija – pogon, če hočeš, da vztrajam v pisanju kljub odsotnosti denarne ali institucionalne nagrade, korenine v mojih najstniških letih, ko sem bil prepričan, da bom izgubil dušo, če ne bom pisal.

Pisec je …?
Pisec je nekdo, ki nima druge izbire, kot da piše. Kot drozg v Ko so zadnje na dvorišču zacvetele lilije Walta Whitmana. Če ne poje, umre.

Osamljen drozg,
puščavnik, potegnjen vase, izogibajoč dogovorom,
sam sebi pesem poje.

Pesem krvavečega grla!
Odtok smrti, pesem življenja – (ker dobro vem, dragi brat,
če ne bi bil obdarjen za petje, zagotovo bi umrl)

Si na Facebooku, Twitterju, LinkedInu, … Kako socialne mreže koristijo tvojemu ustvarjalnemu delu?
Spletne socialne platforme so izvrsten način, da ostajajo umetniki povezani in sodelujejo na projektih, čeprav jih ločujejo velike geografske razdalje.
Pred časom sem se med snemanjem v Brooklynskem botaničnem vrtu zataknil v dežju. Našel sem suh prostor pod velikim drevesom. Drugod je pritekala voda in oblikovala luže. Imel sem iPhone s sabo in sem se odločil, da bom naložil fotko svojega nerodnega položaja na Facebook. Ko sem naložil fotko, sem ugotovil, da so vsaj tri osebe skoraj v istem trenutku na njej kliknile “všeč”: Audrey Lorea, Sarah Seeds in Winston Blakely. Že pred tem jim je bilo v nekaj dneh všeč več drugih objav in ko sem mislil nanje, se mi je porodila ideja za knjižni projekt, ki bi ga lahko naredili skupaj. Medtem ko sem stal pod tistim drevesom, sem jim poslal sporočilo in z njimi delil idejo o Uradnem gangsta priročniku. Satirični pogled na “gangsta” kulturo z izobraževalnim namenom. Ideja je prišla praktično od nikoder, čeprav se je morda že nekaj časa kalila v neki temni niši moje podzavesti. Kdo ve?
Kakor koli, kasneje smo se vsi štirje dobili na resničnem kraju, v Irish Haven v Sunset Parku v Brooklynu in zarisali celo knjigo. Winston, grafični oblikovalec, je prinesel fotoaparat. Kasneje je naše fotografije prerisal, da bi pospremile avtorske biografij. Mislim, da se to tekoče sodelovanje ne bi moglo tako hitro ali tako vsestransko brez Facebooka.

Na čem trenutno delaš?
Poleg Uradnega gangsta priročnika delam na kratkem romanu z naslovom Mrzli otok o kung fu borcu iz dinastije Tang, ki konča na Islandiji, se bori z Vikingi in se zaljubi v ledeno devico. Čudaška, ampak zabavna zadeva.
Delam še na televizijskem scenariju z Jerryjem Brandtom, slavnim rockovskim promotorjem. To je tip, ki je odkril Carly Simon in Chubbyja Checkerja. Z umetniške plati sta to edina projekta, v katera sem trenutno vpleten. Seveda tudi urejam in pripravljam na objavo kake pol ducata knjig za založbi Bare Knuckles Press in Noir Nation Books, vključno s knjigo spominov Joeja Trigoboffa, nekakšno predhodno epizodo Dobrih fantov, saj je Joe poznal nekatere od likov, ki so nastopili v filmu, in piše o njih. Potem je tu še detektivski roman debitanta Terrencea P. McCauleyja in kriminalni roman veterana Jonathana Sturaka, pisca in filmarja, ki ima pravzaprav v lasti sodobni noir žanr v Las Vegasu. In knjiga, ki je zelo blizu mojemu pomorskemu srcu, mornarski roman Genea Barryja, trenutno častnika na trgovski ladji v Tihem oceanu. In na koncu sodelujem z Alisho Kaplan iz Barnard Collegea pri pripravi digitalne različice zbranih pesmi W. B. Yeatsa; ko bo izšla, bova imela multimedijsko predstavitev v newyorškem Združenju Yeats.

Kako bi opisal svoj slog pisanja?
Na to vprašanje je zelo težko iskreno odgovoriti. Pripravil sem tri osnutke odgovora, ki pa so vsi brez vrednosti, saj ne opisujejo mojega sloga pisanja, ampak to, kar si želim, da bi moj slog bil. Seveda tukaj ne pomaga, da se mi slog dramatično spreminja glede na vrsto pisanja, poročanje novic, bloganje, proza, poezija. Lahko ponudim samo to, kar bi rad, da bi moje pisanje bilo: jasno, jedrnato, z močjo udarca Brucea Leeja.

Tradicionalna tiskana knjiga ali eKnjiga?
Književnosti ni mar, kako je zapakirana, samo da se bere (ali posluša).

Kakšno metodo dela imaš – pri fotografiji in pisanju (glede na to, da je oboje pripovedovanje zgodb)?
Če lahko formuliram svežo pripoved ali zajamem sliko, ki jo nakazuje, potem je to dosežek. Ljudje imajo radi zgodbe, ponarejene ali resnične. Ampak zgodbe niso bistvene ne v književnosti ne v fotografiji. Ujeti trenutek časa, občutek, kretnjo, krik brez začetka in konca, zaseda tudi visoko mesto v književnosti.

Katere pisce najbolj občuduješ?
Ernesta Hemingwaya zaradi skopih stavkov. Walta Whitmana zaradi sprejemanja trpečega človeštva in ker mu je bilo malo mar, kdaj so se njegovi verzi dvignili s strani. Shakespeara, ker je v svojih pesmih in igrah zajel celoto človeškega univerzuma. Anno Akhmatovo zaradi žgočih družinskih pesmi. Charlesa Bukowskega, ker je ustvaril persono lenuharskega pesnika, ki ga je akademska sfera zavrnila, zelo resno pa ga jemljejo resnični pesniki, ki iščejo učitelja. Ann Sexton zaradi nepopustljivih verzov, ki so destilirali njeno agonijo srednjega razreda do tako visokega dokaza, da oslepiš, če jih bereš v čistem stanju: mnogi jih ne in jo filtrirajo skozi akademske študije izpovedne šole, zaradi česar so jo zavračali kot temnolaso Sylvio Plath, katere samomor ni bil pol toliko zanimiv. A če je poezija destilirano čustvo, spravljeno v besede – kot to verjamem jaz in to jo razlikuje od proze – potem je bila Sextonova najboljša pesnica v angleškem jeziku v dvajsetem stoletju. Nihče se je ne more dotakniti, ne William Carlos Williams ne Allen Ginsberg, zlasti pa ne Robert Frost ali Robert Penn Warren. In škoda je sape, da bi jo primerjali s šibkimi čajnimi pesniki, ki so trenutni ljubljenčki akademskih in predavateljskih krogov.

Če bi srečal mladega (ali ne tako mladega) pisca, kako bi ga motiviral?
Literarnega pisca ne bi niti poskušal motivirati. Tovrstna motivacija prihaja neposredno od božanskega duha, ki prebiva v človeški duši in navdihuje kreativnost. Če pa je vprašanje, kako bi opogumil pisca k pisanju, bi mu – če bi seveda imel sredstva – ponudil vilo na Rivieri s strežnicami, kuharjem in ogromno knjižnico. In potem bi mu rekel, delaj ali pa zapravljaj svoj čas, kot želiš. A do konca svojega življenja moraš iz sebe spraviti najmanj eno vrstico besedila, ki bo trajalo stoletja.

Hvala, da si si vzel čas, Eddie!

Please welcome Heath Lowrance, author of The Bastard Hand and City Of Heretics (novels), and Dig Ten Graves, short story collection. He has many noir stories published in anthologies and magazines. His latest western Hawthorne short series is also awailable on the Amazon, and he blogs at http://www.psychonoir.blogspot.com/ (a place, worth checking out).

Hi, Heath, can you please introduce yourself?
I think you covered all the basics in your intro, but hello, I’m Heath. You mentioned my newest novel, City Of Heretics, which is just out from Snubnose Press, and I also have a spanking new novella out in the terrific “Fight Card” series called Bluff City Brawler.

What does your typical writing day look like (we have been informed on Facebook, that you had just started a new day job)?
Yeah, a new day job has forced me to modify my writing day a little. Before this, I got up every morning, had a couple cups of coffee, and within an hour got started writing. I’d go, usually, for a few hours every day. Now, though, since my new schedule is a bit erratic, I find myself just writing whenever I can. About an hour or two every day, sometimes in the morning, sometimes late afternoon. That’s the problem with a day job, I guess. You just have to fit it in whenever you can.

When did you find the need and what makes you write in the first place?
I used to wonder what it was, this mad compulsion to write. I used to think it had something to do with wanting to be understood somehow. Lately, though, I’ve come to realize it’s just something you’re born with. Not the talent or drive, but the desire. It’s inexplicable. Sometimes you take great pleasure from writing, other times it’s just… frustrating. But you do it, either way. I feel like I HAVE to write, or else something inside me goes off-kilter and I become very unhappy.

As a writer, do you see yourself as a man with a special mission, or just as a guy, having fun thinking up stories?
It’s funny, I never thought of it as a special mission before, but I guess it is, in a way. Not a Special Mission, with capital letters, but a more modest special mission. Yeah, mostly I just want to tell good stories, but I also feel that the writer has an obligation to be as truthful as he or she can be. Granted, stories are lies—structured, stylized lies—but at their core they should be about the Truth, with a capital T. So my special mission, I suppose, is to tell the Truth, no matter how painful or unpleasant.

You are efortlessly crossing genres from noir/crime to western – where do you feel most comfortable?
Honestly, one doesn’t feel more or less natural than the other. My approach is the same, no matter what genre I’m working in. As a reader, I love several different genres, so I’d feel awful if I was restrained to only one. Westerns, I guess, require a little more research, only because they have to take place within a historical context, but what it always comes down to is characters in some sort of crisis point. And that’s the same across the board, no matter what sort of story it is.

What about your style? Do you have one? How much attention is put into defining how your writing is different from other authors?
It’s hard for a writer to define his own style, isn’t it? I’ve been told that my style is hard-boiled and stripped down and direct. That works for me. I go to great pains to use sparse language, as few words as possible. I don’t use metaphors or similes, generally, or words that would require your average reader to pull out a dictionary. Anything that sounds like “writing” gets tossed. That’s probably why I’m one of the only writers I know who actually ENJOYS editing—it gives me another chance to scalpel out more unneeded words and scenes. I actually went through my answers when I got done with this interview and stripped them all down to essentials. Ha.

What inspires your stories? Real life events, news and TV, or do ideas just pop up in your head?
Ideas come from everywhere. Random thoughts, like you said, that just pop in your head, combined with things on the news or things said by people you know. There’s no one place where ideas grow, unfortunately. A lot of my stories come from imagining a “worst case scenario” sort of thing—like, what’s the absolute most awful thing that could occur in any given situation, and how would this certain kind of character respond to it? Would his/her actions make it worse? Would they win in the end, or would they be doomed? And yeah, usually in my stories, they’re doomed.

How do you use social media to promote your literary work?
I’m afraid I’m not the most efficient guy in the world when it comes to using social media. Whenever I have something new out, I do a few rounds of promotion on Facebook and Twitter, and on my blog as well, linking to the work, struggling to be pithy and interesting. But after that initial round of self-promotion, I’m at a bit of a loss. I count on people who maybe like my work a little to repost or write reviews or what-have-you. I really need to come up with a better model, don’t I?

Do you self-publish or are you commited to the publisher?
I self-published my short story collection, Dig Ten Graves. Everything else has been put out by small publishers. I prefer working with small publishers because (1) they know what they’re doing, generally, and (2) they reach a somewhat larger audience. I’ve been very lucky so far that, with only one exception, the publishers I’ve worked with have all been terrific.

A printed book or an eBook? How important really is the form to you?
It’s the message, not the medium. eBooks, I’ve found, sell brisker, for a variety of reasons. I think I’ll always prefer the feel of an actual paper book in my hands, but lately I’ve read just as much on my Kindle as I have otherwise.

Who are your literary heroes?
I love Flannery O’Connor, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck. In so-called “genre” fiction, I always go back to Jim Thompson, Charles Willeford, Richard Stark, David Goodis, etc.

What advice would you give to an aspiring writer?
Just the standard advice. Write every day. Don’t be lazy. Read a lot. If you don’t do those things, you’re not going to get anywhere. And also, don’t listen to advice from other writers.

Thank you for your time, Heath!
Thanks for having me!

Z nami je Heath Lowrance, avtor Roke barabe in Mesta krivovercev (romana) in zbirke kratkih zgodb Izkoplji deset grobov. Veliko noir zgodb je objavil v antologijah in literarnih revijah. Njegova najnovejša serija kavbojskih zgodb Hawthorne je prav tako na voljo na Amazonu, piše pa tudi blog na http://www.psychonoir.blogspot.com/ (prostor, ki se ga splača pogledati).

Zdravo, Heath, se lahko prosim predstaviš?
Mislim, da si v uvodu povedal v glavnem vse, a vseeno, pozdravljeni, jaz sem Heath. Omenil si moj najnovejši roman Mesto krivovercev, ki je pravkar izšel pri Snubnose Press, in čisto novo novelo Bleferski mestni borec v fantastični seriji Fight Card (izraz se nanaša na vse borbe, ki se zgodijo v enem večeru boksarskega dogodka).

Kakšen je videti tvoj tipični pisateljski dan (na Facebooku smo bili obveščeni, da si pravkar začel novo redno službo)?
Jaaa, nova služba me je prisilila, da sem nekolikanj spremenil pisateljski dan. Pred tem sem vsal vsako jutro, spil par skodelic kave in v roku ene ure začel pisati. Pisal sem ponavadi kar nekaj ur vsak dan. Zdaj pa je moj urnik rahlo spremenljiv, zato pišem, kadar pač lahko. Kako uro, dve vsak dan, včasih zjutraj, včasih pa pozno popoldne. To je najbrž težava, ko si v redni službi. Moraš se umestiti, kadar koli gre.

Kdaj si začutil potrebo po pisanju in zakaj sploh pišeš?
Včasih sem se spraševal, kaj me tako besno sili k pisanju. Mislil sem, da zato, ker bi rad, da me na neki način razumejo. Pred časom pa sem preprosto spoznal, da je to pač nekaj, s čimer se rodiš. Ne talent ali pogon, ampak želja. To se ne da razložiti. Včasih ti predstavlja pisanje resničen užitek, spet drugič pa je … frustrirajoče. Pa vseeno to počneš. Čutim, da MORAM pisati, ali pa se v meni nekaj poruši in postanem nesrečen.

Se kot pisec vidiš kot človek s posebnim poslanstvom ali preprosto kot tip, ki ga zabava izmišljanje zgodb?
Hecno, nikoli nisem razmišljal o tem kot o posebnem poslanstvu, a najbrž na neki način to je. Ne Posebno Poslanstvo z velikimi začetnicami, ampak bolj skromno posebno poslanstvo. Ja, večinoma bi rad samo pripovedoval dobre zgodbe, čutim pa, da ima pisec dolžnost, da je karseda zavezan resnici. Priznam, zgodbe so laži – strukturirane, stilizirane laži – a v svojem jedru bi morale biti o Resnici z velikim R. Torej je moje posebno poslanstvo pripovedovati Resnico, pa naj bo še tako boleča ali neprijetna.

Z lahkoto preskakuješ žanre z noir, kriminalke na kavbojke – kje ti je najudobneje?
Če sem pošten, nobeden se mi ne zdi naravnejši od drugega. Enak pristop imam, neglede na žanr, v katerem pišem. Kot bralec obožuje različne žanre, zato bi se grozno počutil, če bi bil omejen na enega. Kavbojke zahtevajo več raziskovanja, se mi zdi, ker se morajo umestiti v zgodovinski kontekst, ampak vedno gre na koncu za like v neki krizni točki. In tako je na vseh nivojih, neglede na zvrst zgodbe.

Kaj pa tvoj slog? Ga imaš? Koliko pozornosti posvetiš temu, da bi bilo tvoje pisanje drugačno od drugih avtorjev?
Pisec težko definira lasten slog, ne? Pravijo, da je moj slog brezčuten, razgaljen in neposreden. Meni to deluje. Trudim se do bolečine, da bi uporabljal skromen jezik s čim manj besedami. V glavnem ne uporabljam prispodob in primer ali besed, ki bi od povprečnega bralca zahtevali, da seže po slovarju. Zavržem vse, kar zveni kot “pisanje”. Verjetno sem zaradi tega eden od redkih avtorjev, ki dejansko UŽIVA v urejanju – daje mi še eno priložnost, da izrežem vse nepotrebne besede in scene. Pravzaprav sem šel skozi svoje odgovore, ko sem zaključil ta intervju, in jih slekel do čiste osnove. Ha.
Kaj navdihuje tvoje zgodbe? Dogodki iz resničnega življenja, novice in TV ali se ti ideje enostavno porodijo v glavi?
Ideje pridejo od vsepovsod. Naključne misli se, kot si rekel, preprosto porodijo v glavi v kombinaciji s stvarmi v novicah ali stvarmi, ki jih izrečejo ljudje, ki jih poznaš. Ni samo enega mesta, na katerem rastejo ideje, žal. Veliko mojih zgodb pridejo, ko si predstavljam nekakšen “najslabši možni scenarij” – recimo, kaj je absolutno najbolj grozna stvar, ki bi se v danih okoliščinah lahko zgodila in kako bi neki določen lik na to odreagiral? Bi ji njegovo/njeno ravnanje lahko še poslabšalo? Bi na koncu zmagal ali bi bil pogubljen? In ja, ponavadi so v mojih zgodbah liki obsojeni na pogubo.

Kako izrabljaš socialne medije za promocijo svojega dela?
Bojim se, da v zvezi z rabo socialnih medijev nisem najučinkovitejši tip na svetu. Vsakič, ko objavim kaj novega, naredim par krogov promocije na Facebooku, Twitterju in svojem blogu s povezavami do svojih del, pri tem pa skušam biti karseda jedrnat in zanimiv. Ampak po prvem krogu samopromocije sem malo izgubljen. Štejem ljudi, ki jim je morda bilo moje delo malo všeč, da so ga delili, pisali ocene ali kaj. Moram si izmisliti boljši model, ne?

Si samozaložnik ali si predan založbi?
V samozaložbi sem izdal zbirko zgodb Izkoplji deset grobov. Vse drugo so izdali mali založniki. Raje delam z malimi založniki, ker (1) nasplošno vedo, kar delajo, in (2) dosežejo nekako večje občinstvo. Do zdaj sem imel srečo, da so bili vsi založniki, s katerimi sem delal, z eno izjemo, krasni.

Tiskana knjiga ali eKnjiga? Kako pomembna je zate forma?
Gre za sporočilo, ne za medij. Spoznal sem, da se eKnjige prodajajo hitreje iz več razlogov. Mislim, da sem imel vedno raje občutek dejanske knjige v rokah, ampak zadnje čase sem prebral prav toliko knjig na svojem Kindlu kot drugače.

Kdo so tvoji literarni heroji?
Obožujem Flannery O’Connor, Ernesta Hemingwaya, Johna Steinbecka. V takoimenovanem “žanrskem” leposlovju pa se vedno vračam k Jimu Thompsonu, Charlesu Willefordu, Richardu Starku, Davidu Goodisu, itd.

Kaj bi svetoval nadebudnemu piscu?
Samo običajen nasvet. Piši vsak dan. Ne bodi len. Veliko beri. Če vsega tega ne počneš, ne boš nikoli prišel nikamor. In še, ne poslušaj nasvetov drugih piscev.

Hvala, da si si vzel čas, Heath!
Hvala tebi!

Allow me to present to you Ruth Jacobs, the author of In Her Own Words … Interview with a London Call Girl, which is a charity publication with all royalties being donated to Beyond the Streets, a charity that helps women exit prostitution. For 99c it can be downloaded from Amazon US and for 77p it can be downloaded from Amazon UK. It is also available worldwide. You can see the trailer here, and on her blog http://www.soul-destruction.com you can read Soul Destruction Diary as a series of blog posts. Soul Destruction – the book is on its way, so we’ll keep an eye on her.

Hi, Ruth – in your own words: who is Ruth Jacobs?
Right now, I’m in the midst of a bad episode of bipolar and posttraumatic stress disorder so I would say I am a tragic character. Although the trauma I’ve experienced in my life is primarily what inspires my writing and enables me to make characters and events real (I hope). On a happier day, I would say I am blessed. I have come through a great deal in my life and have a peaceful life in the countryside. I am lucky to have two wonderful children, an adorable dog, a great family, and some very special friends.

I am not going to ask you how you see the writer as your work explicitly shows us, why you do what you do, what you’d like to achieve …
As well as telling gripping stories with realistic characters, I want my writing to have a greater impact. With my fictional series of Soul Destruction novels, I show the dark world and the harsh reality of life as a call girl, dispelling the ‘happy hooker’ myth. With my charity publication, that is also my aim. I would like to change the stigma some of society has against women who work in prostitution so they are better understood, and not judged and looked down on. 75% of women who work as prostitutes have been sexually and physically abused as children, 70% have been raped multiple times and 67% meet the criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder.

When did you realise you were a writer?
I started writing at around thirteen or so. I wrote poetry then. I didn’t consider myself a writer at the time, but writing has often felt an important part of my life. Although there have been years when I have not written at all.

And if you didn’t write, you would …?
Have numerous stories swimming around in my head.

Your kind of writing demands a special kind of commitment and research, working outside the comfort of your writing room, meeting special people who experienced hell and came back … Where does your courage and energy come from?
My courage and energy comes from the desire to tell authentic stories and show the truth about life as a call girl. I have been through a great deal of trauma myself, so I can draw a lot on my own experience. Although often that can be painful to put myself back in an horrific situation to ensure I write accurately how a character is feeling and what they are thinking during a rape or a sexual assault for example. I did my research in prostitution in the late 1990s and some of those women became friends. Most of my closest friends have had painful lives too.

Your eBook In Her Own Words … is just out, what are you working on at the moment?
I am in the middle of writing Soul Destruction Diary, which is a spin-off from my debut novel, Soul Destruction. The Diary is available to read on my blog. However, as I am suffering more severe PTSD and bipolar symptoms currently, I am unable to write, but hopefully, that will change very soon and I will be back writing regular diary posts on the blog.

We can find you on Facebook and Twitter – how important are they to your writing?
Twitter has been quite useful but I would say Facebook has been indispensible for me as a writer. Not only have I become part of various writing communities online and built up a network of supportive fellow writers, but my existing friends, as well as my new writing friends, have shared links to my blog, book trailers, interviews, and my charity publication among others. I owe a great deal to my friends, new and old, on Facebook for their support because without them, I don’t believe I would be where I am now.
I’m on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/rujacobs
And there is a Soul Destruction Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/SoulDestructionSeries
You can find me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/RuthFJacobs

How would you describe your writing style?
Someone else asked me that recently too. I said minimalist, but I’m not sure really. Authentic might be a better term. I write from my heart and put everything I have into whatever I am working on.

How does Ruth Jacobs’ typical workday look like?
I do the school run, work from home most days (though one day a week in London) in the field of information security, I then write in the evenings. I rarely turn on the television but I am very easily distracted by Facebook and sometimes Twitter and other blogs too.

Which writers inspire you most?
I couldn’t say because my memory is terrible, partly from PTSD but also probably from my drug addiction in the 1990s, and the countless overdoses I took back then. I remember what writers I have read (probably because most of their books are on the shelves in my study) but I can’t remember the stories or their style.

If I was a young writer, just starting out, what would you advise me?
Keep writing and don’t let people put you down. Easier said than done sometimes, but it’s important to keep your head up and keep going.

Thank you very much, Ruth!

Dovolite mi, da vam predstavim Ruth Jacobs, avtorico dobrodelne knjige S svojimi besedami … Intervju z londonsko punco na klic, od katere bo prihodek na avtorske pravice doniran dobrodelni organizaciji Beyond the Streets, ki pomaga ženskam izstopiti iz prostitucije. Za 99 centov jo lahko snamete na Amazon US, za 77 penijev pa na Amazaon UK, na voljo pa je po vsem svetu. Trailer si lahko pogledate tukaj, na njenem blogu http://www.soul-destruction.com/, pa si lahko preberete Dnevnik uničenja duše kot serijo objav. Knjiga Uničenje duše je na poti, zato bomo imeli Ruth na očeh.

Zdravo, Ruth – s tvojimi besedami: kdo je Ruth Jacobs?
Trenutno sem sredi slabe epizode bipolarne in posttravmatske stresne motnje, zato bi rekla, da sem tragičen lik. Čeprav travme, ki sem jih izkusila v življenju, na prvem mestu navdihujejo moje pisanje in mi omogočajo ustvarjanje likov in dogodkov, ki so resnični (upam). Ob bolj veselih dneh pa bi rekla, da sem blagoslovljena. Veliko sem dosegla in živim mirno življenje na deželi. Srečna sem, da imam dva čudovita otroka, psa, fantastično družino in nekaj zares posebnih prijateljev.

Ne bom te vprašal, kako vidiš vlogo pisca, saj nam tvoje delo eksplicitno kaže, zakaj počneš, kar počneš in kaj želiš doseči …
Poleg pripovedovanja oprijemljivih zgodb z realističnimi liki, bi rada, da bi moje pisanje imelo vpliv. Z leposlovno serijo romanov Uničenje duše prikazujem temačen svet in kruto resničnost življenja prostitutke in razbijam mit “srečne kurbe”. Z dobrodelno izdajo je to tudi moj cilj. Rada bi spremenila stigmo v nekaterih družbah o ženskah, ki delajo v prostituciji, da bi jih bolje razumeli, da jih ne bi obsojali in zviška gledali nanje. 75 odstotkov žensk, ki se prostituirajo, je bilo v otroštvu spolno in fizično zlorabljenih, 70 odstotkov je bilo večkrat posiljenih, 67 odstotkov pa zadostujejo kriterijem posttravmatske stresne motnje.

Kdaj se ti je posvetilo, da si pisateljica?
Pisati sem začela pri trinajstih. Takrat sem pisala pesmi. Nisem se imela za pisateljico, se mi je pa zdelo pisanje pogosto pomemben del življenja. Čeprav so bila vmes leta, ko sploh nisem pisala.

In če ne bi pisala, bi …?
Imela polno zgodb, ki bi mi plavale naokrog po glavi.

Tvoja vrsta pisanja zahteva posebno vrsto predanosti in raziskovanja, dela izven udobja delovne sobe, srečevanje z ljudmi, ki so izkusili pekel in se vrnili … Odkod tvoj pogum in energija?
Moj pogum in energija izhajata iz želje po pripovedovanju avtentičnih zgodb in prikazovanju resnice o življenju prostitutke. Tudi sama sem bila precej travmatizirana, zato lahko ogromno potegnem iz lastnih izkušenj. Čeprav se je pogosto boleče vračati v grozljivo situacijo, da bi zagotovila natančen opis, kako lik čuti ali kaj razmišlja recimo med posilstvom ali spolnim napadom. Prostitucijo sem raziskovala v poznih devetdesetih in nekatere od teh žensk so postale moje prijateljice. Večina najbližjih prijateljev je imela boleče življenje.

Tvoja eKnjiga Z njenimi besedami … je pravkar izšla. Na čem trenutno delaš?
Sem sredi pisanja Dnevnika uničenja duše, ki je stranski produkt mojega debitantskega romana Uničenje duše. Dnevnik je na voljo za branje na mojem blogu. Sicer sem trenutno nesposobna za pisanje, saj trpim za resnimi PTSM in bipolarnimi simptomi, upam pa, da se bo to kmalu spremenilo, in bom lahko dnevnik znova redno objavljala na blogu.

Najdemo te na Facebooku in Twitterju – kako pomembna sta za tvoje pisanje?
Twitter je kar koristen, ampak rekla bi, da je Facebook zame kot pisateljico nepogrešljiv. Ne le da sem postala del raznih pisateljskih spletnih skupnosti in si zgradila mrežo kolegov piscev, ki me podpirajo, ampak tudi moji obstoječi in novi pisateljski prijatelji delijo povezave na moj blog, trailerje knjig, intervjuje in mojo dobrodelno izdajo. Veliko dolgujem svojim novim in starim prijateljem na Facebooku za njihovo podporo, saj ne verjamem, da bi brez njih bila, kjer sem.
Na Facebooku sem na http://www.facebook.com/rujacobs
Facebook stran Uničenje duše je na http://www.facebook.com/SoulDestructionSeries
Na Twitterju me najdete na http://twitter.com/RuthFJacobs

Kako bi opisala svoj slog pisanja?
Nekdo me je pred kratkim tudi to vprašal. Rekla sem, da je minimalističen, ampak nisem čisto prepričana. Avtentičen bi bil boljši izraz. Pišem iz srca in vse dajem v kar koli, na čemer delam.

Kakšen je tipičen delovni dan Ruth Jacobs?
Otroke odložim v šoli, večino dni delam od doma (čeprav enkrat tedensko v Londonu) na področju informacijske varnosti, pišem pa zvečer. Televizijo redkokdaj vključim, zlahka pa se zamotim s Facebookom, včasih pa tudi s Twitterjem in drugimi blogi.

Kateri pisci te najbolj navdihujejo?
Težko bi rekla, ker imam grozen spomin, delno zaradi PTSM pa tudi verjetno zaradi zasvojenosti z drogami v devetdesetih in prevelikimi odmerki, ki sem jih takrat jemala. Spomnim se piscev, ki sem jih brala (najbrž zato, ker je večina njihovih knjig na policah v moji delovni sobi), ne pa tudi njihovih zgodb in sloga.

Če bil mlad pisec, ki komaj začenja, kaj bi mi svetovala?
Piši in ne dovoli, da bi te ljudje ponižali. To je včasih laže reči kot narediti, ampak pomembno je, da dvigneš glavo in greš naprej.

Najlepša hvala, Ruth!

The one and only Paul D Brazill, the Bukowski of Noir, did an interview with me on his blog: a little Slovenian writer is now internationally exposed!

En in edini Paul D Brazill, Bukowski noir zvrsti, je naredil intervju z mano na svojem blogu: mali slovenski pisec je zdaj mednarodno izpostavljen!

Our latest literary guest is Wayne C. Long – despite his surname he writes short stories. He has published four LongShortStories collections (Stories from the Edges, Flash In The Hand, Eye Candy and Where Less Is More), and Slow Dancing, a short story single, which can all be found on the Amazon. He has a nice place on the web, called LongShortStories, where you can find some author info, free samples of his work and the link to his blog.

Hi, Wayne! It’s great to have you here. Can you tell our readers a little bit about yourself?
Hello, Renato and thanks for inviting me. I am an American short story and flash fiction writer. I was born in Chicago, Illinois and now live in Wisconsin with my wife, Diane. We are both graduates of Northern Illinois University and we have two married children (a son and daughter), a 7-year-old granddaughter and a ten-month-old grandson. After I retired early in 2003 from a successful sales and marketing career in the environmental services field, I really began to write professionally.
Maybe your readers can get a keener sense about me, the writer, from this extract from my “About the Author” page of my LongShortStories website that you mentioned:
Wayne C. Long is a digital storyteller.
His self-proclaimed mission statement is “BE what you wish to see!”
His self-portrait as a professional short story writer:
First and foremost, a reader.
An individual, unafraid.
A professional listener with an overclocked imagination, able to translate life’s complexities onto the head of a pin.
Multi-talented, multi-dimensional, yet singularly focused like a ruby laser.
A disciple of “nothing happens until the final edit.”
A social anarchist, a covert moralist, a zealot for the rights of the downtrodden, and an ardent supporter of independent thinkers everywhere.
A servant worthy of his hire.
A lover of animals and irony.
Strongly grounded in the classics, yet able to throw off the straitjacket of commercial genrefication.
A healer and repairer of breaches.
A guardian of ancient secrets.
A cosmic engineer and modern-day alchemist, able to turn thin air into leaden truth with a single keystroke.
An outsider with an insider’s perspective.
A gifted seer, able to distill from the glorious music of the spheres one bad-ass, street-smart bass line that resonates in the thumping hearts of eager readers everywhere.
Someone whose sensory perception has been refined to high art.
A mental moviemaker.
A keeper of the artist’s bowl and the sacred flame.
A lover of words.
A soldier of love.
A prophet often unwelcome in his own country.
A first-responder to the Dreamworld and an ageless shapeshifter.
A shaman of his tribe.
A bullshitter’s bullshitter.
One who does not believe for a nanosecond the tired urban myth that the short story form is dead.
And maybe, just maybe, the last one sane in a world gone horribly mad ….

How/When did you discover the urge to write?
Back in the 1960s, I was blessed with a wonderful high school creative writing teacher, Mrs. Webster. She saw that “something” in my work which she then encouraged and praised. I am so grateful to her.

How do you see the writer? Do you see him as a man with a way to connect to people through giving them an escape into the world that you invented or more as a man on a mission to make the world a better place?
Actually, Renato, I see it both ways. It is my most enjoyable challenge to create story settings that grab the reader and plunk them down into the action. In addition, I seek out themes that are at the edges of society, those gems that no one is writing about and that need spotlighting to the world at large. Themes like homelessness, mental illness, post-traumatic stress disorder in soldiers, child abuse and a whole host of issues that are both positive as well as negative. With today’s state of our world, I have more than enough to write about.

Is your work inspired by real life and real events or is it more powered by imagination and observation?
I have a vivid imagination and have been trained in the art of active listening. Add to that my cinematically-trained mind’s eye and my unique take on the real world and you have the essence of LongShortStories.

Do you do a lot of research, study and planning? Do you have a “method” of your own?
Renato, I do a LOT of Internet research to be able to capture the essence of the people, places and things I inject into my stories. I don’t outline but instead have pretty much a fully fleshed-out view of what things will look like on the page in my head. Being a licensed Amateur Radio operator for over fifty years, I know my world geography and cultures very well and having traveled extensively to all fifty states and more than twenty countries sure helps me write realistic stories.

Do you see Twitter and Facebook mainly as productive writer’s tools or just as the way to spend time away from writing?
I have both a Facebook and a Twitter account and I use them to strategically promote my writing. Being a trained sales and marketing person, I know how to use these tools wisely while also balancing the fun aspect of Facebook and Twitter. I intentionally have kept my Facebook Friends list small (around 60) and have chosen each Friend wisely for their skill and interest in writing and music. You, Renato, are one of those valued FB Friends.
My mother was a classically-trained pianist and she gave me an appreciation of all genres of musical expression. I use that to enhance the FB experience of those gathered each day in my personal “great room” by selecting music YouTubes appropriate for the occasion. Then, I will occasionally offer up a bit of writing about social themes and maybe even do a bit of self- promotion every once in a while. It’s a delicate balance and I feel that my Friends like what they experience there.
Incidentally, I have used a professional book tweeting service to promote my work and to direct avid short story readers to my Amazon ebook ordering pages. I greatly appreciate it when my Twitter friends retweet my own tweets about me and my writing career.

How would you describe your style?
I write across many short fiction genres and can also claim to have created a genre of my very own over the years, one that identifies me as the owner of the LongShortStories brand.
What I strive to give my readership is cutting-edge short fiction filled with believable characters and accurate settings. But more than anything else, I have mastered the power of vocabulary to inject just the right imagery into my stories. Imagery that excites all six senses of the reader. After all, writing great short stories is all about choosing just the right words to convey that sense of “Where Less Is More” that all great short fiction needs. My stories are often literary fiction, dark humor, social satire, military fiction, science fiction, coming-of-age themes and even romance.

Are you primarily focused on the short form or can we expect a longer piece of work, say, a novella or a novel?
A long time ago I made a commitment to thoroughly explore the short story form and to foster its future growth as a unique art form. So far, I have digitally published more than 100 short stories and flash fiction pieces for my appreciative global readership.

Who are your literary heroes?
Ahh, Edgar Allan Poe of course. Annie Proulx, Benjamin Percy. Alice Munro. Native American short story master Sherman Alexie. And the many soldier-scribes that have vividly shared with us what combat is really like.

What are you working on at the moment?
Right now I am putting the finishing touches on a five-part noir crime serialized story set in southern Louisiana. The bad guys are very bad and the good guys are equally bad-ass! It will roll out soon on Amazon as an ebook series.

Can you give any advice to aspiring young (and not so young) writers?
I’d be happy to, Renato. As I mentioned before, one of my goals is to foster the short story form in any way I can. For the past several years I have held the LongShortStories Short Story Contests twice each year. I encourage budding unpublished (including anywhere on the Internet) short story writers to submit their best efforts after carefully reading the simple Contest rules. We have three great prizes: First Prize is an $800-value professionally designed website built by my very own webmaster, Eugene Barnes. Second Prize is $150 cash. Third Prize is $100 cash. Lucky winners will have their winning stories posted on my blog for all the world to enjoy for an entire month and then their stories will be archived on my blog. All rights revert back to the winning writers.
Being one of the judges of the LongShortStories Short Story Contests, I see a lot of manuscripts that could have been great if the writers had only learned their craft from reading the masters of the short story form. Too many aspiring writers write for the current fad market employing vampires and zombies. What I am looking for is something so unique that it will knock my socks off! Stories rich in vocabulary. Stories that have snappy dialogue, well-punctuated and grammatically correct. There are rules to follow in writing great short fiction. Aspiring writers should take the time to learn them and make them their own.
I would be remiss if I didn’t advise your readers about another important aspect of becoming a professional short story writer (one who actually gets paid regularly for their hard work).
Writing is a business. To call oneself a professional writer, one must realize that they need a five-year plan for their business, just as any other business professional has. The professional writer needs to know (or learn) how to manage their time each writing day, to know how to market their work to the world, and to know how to manage their writing career as an agent would. Traditional publishing is changing so radically today that the smart money is on self- publishing by brave new writers who can handle it all. From A to Z.
If aspiring writers can accomplish that, Renato, our beloved short story art form will indeed have a glorious future!

Thank you very much for your time, Wayne.

Naš zadnji literarni gost je Wayne C. Long – kljub “dolgemu” priimku piše kratke zgodbe. Izdal je štiri zbirke DolgihKratkihZgodb (Zgodbe z robov, Blesk v roki, Paša za oči in Kjer je več manj) in Počasen ples, samostojno kratko zgodbo, ki jih vse najdete na Amazonu. Ima prijeten prostorček na spletu, ki se imenuje LongShortStories, kjer lahko najdete informacije o njem, brezplačne primerke njegovih del in povezavo na njegov blog.

Pozdravljen, Wayne! Lepo je, da si tukaj. Se lahko na kratko predstaviš našim bralcem?
Zdravo, Renato, hvala, da si me povabil. Sem ameriški pisec kratkih in mikro zgodb. Rodil sem se v Chicagu, v Illinoisu, zdaj pa z ženo Diane živiva v Wisconsinu. Oba sva diplomirala na Univerzi v Severnem Illinois in imava dva poročena otroka (sina in hčerko), sedemletno vnukinjo in desetmesečnega vnučka. Ko sem se zgodaj leta 2003 upokojil po uspešni karieri v prodaji in trženju na področju okoljskih storitev, sem začel pisati pofesionalno.
Morda pa bodo tvoji bralci dobili boljši občutek o meni, piscu, iz odlomka s strani “O avtorju” na moji spletni strani LongShortStories, ki si jo omenil:
Wayne C. Long je digitalni pripovedovalec zgodb.
Izjava njegove samooklicane misije je “BODI, kar želiš videti!”
Njegov portret profesionalnega pisca kratkih zgodb:
Najpre in predvsem – bralec
Posameznik brez strahu.
Profesionalni poslušalec z navito domišljijo, ki je sposoben življenjsko kompleksnost prevesti na bucikino glavo.
Multitalentiran, multidimenzionalen, a osredotočen kot rubinast laser.
Učenec teorije, da “se nič ne zgodi do končne ureditve”.
Socialni anarhist, prikrit moralist, fanatični borec za pravice zatiranih, goreč podpornik neodvisnih mislecev od vsepovsod.
Služabnik, ki ga je vredno najeti.
Ljubitelj živali in ironije.
Močno prizemljen v klasiki, a sposoben sleči prisilni jopič komercialne razvrščanja v žanre.
Zdravilec in popravljalec prekrškov.
Čuvaj pradavnih resnic.
Kozmični inženir in sodobni alkimist, sposoben spremeniti redek zrak v svinčeno resnico z enim udarcem s tipko.
Autsajder s perspektivo insajderja.
Nadarjen videc, ki lahko iz veličastne glasbe krogel zdestilira eno samo super bas linijo z ulice, ki odmeva povsod v donečih srcih željnih bralcev.
Nekdo, čigar čutno zaznavanje je izčiščeno v visoko umetnost.
Mentalni filmar.
Čuvaj umetnikove sklede in svetega ognja.
Ljubimec besed.
Vojak ljubezni.
Prerok, pogosto nedobrodošel v lastni deželi.
Prvi odzivnik na Sanjski svet in menjalnik oblik, ki se ne stara.
Šaman svojega plemena.
Tisti, ki serje drugim, ki serjejo.
Nekdo, ki niti za nanosekundo ne verjame prežvečenemu urbanemu mitu, da je kratka zgodba mrtva.
In mogoče, mogoče še zadnji pri zdravi pameti v svetu, ki je grozljivo ponorel …

Kako/kdaj si začutil potrebo po pisanju?
V šestdesetih sem bil blagoslovljen s čudovito srednješolsko učiteljico kreativnega pisanja, gospodično Webster. V mojem delu je videla “nekaj”, kar je takrat vzpodbujala in hvalila. Zelo sem ji hvaležen.

Kako vidiš pisca? Kot nekoga, ki se zna povezati z ljudmi, tako da jim ponudi pobeg v svet, ki si si ga izmislil ali bolj kot človeka s poslanstvom, da ustvari lepši svet?
Pravzaprav ga vidim na oba načina, Renato. Izziv, v katerem najbolj uživam, je, ustvariti postavitev zgodbe, ki potegne bralca in ga porine v akcijo. Dodatno skušam iskati teme z družbenega roba, bisere, o katerih ne želi nihče pisati in jih je sploh potrebno postaviti pod žaromet. Teme kot brezdomstvo, duševne bolezni, post-travmatski stres pri vojakih, zloraba otrok in cela paleta zadev, ki so tako pozitivne kot negativne. Glede na stanje, v katerem je svet danes, imam več kot dovolj tem za pisanje.

Ali tvoje delo navdihuje bolj resnično življenje ali ga bolj poganja domišljija in opazovanje?
Imam živo domišljijo in naučili so me umetnosti aktivnega poslušanja. Temu dodaj kinematično natrenirano oko uma in moj edinstven pogled na svet in dobiš bistvo DolgihKratkihZgodb.

Veliko raziskuješ, preučuješ in načrtuješ? Imaš svojo “metodo”?
Renato, VELIKO raziskujem po spletu, da bi lahko ujel bistvo ljudi, krajev in stvari, ki jih vcepljam v svoje zgodbe. Ne skiciram, imam pa v glavi jasen pogled na to, kakšne bodo videti stvari na strani. Ker sem radioamater z licenco že petdeset let, zelo dobro poznam geografijo in kulture sveta in ker sem intenzivno prepotoval vseh petdeset držav in več kot dvajset dežel, mi to zagotovo pomaga pisati realistične zgodbe.

Vidiš Twitter in Facebook v glavnem kot produktivno orodje pisca ali samo kot način, kako zapraviti čas brez pisanja?
Imam račun tako na Facebooku kot na Twitterju in oba uporabljam za strateško promocijo svojega pisanja. Ker sem izučen Prodajnik in marketingar, vem, kako uporabljati ta orodja modro in hkrati usklajevati zabavno stran Facebooka in Twitterja. Seznam mojih prijateljev na Facebooku je namenoma kratek (okoli 60) in vse sem izbral modro zaradi njihovega znanja in zanimanja za pisanje in glasbo. Ti, Renato, si eden teh cenjenih FB prijateljev.
Moja mama je bila klasično izobražena pianistka in zaradi nje cenime vse žanre glasbenega izražanja. To izkoriščam za boljšo izkušnjo FB in vse vsakodnevno zbrane v moji osebni “sobani” z izborom najprimernejše YouTube glasbe glede na priložnost. Potem občasno ponudim nekaj malega pisanja o družbenih temah in morda naredim vsake toliko kaj malega tudi za lastno promocijo. To je občutljivo ravnovesje in mislim, da imajo moji prijatelji radi, kar izkusijo tukaj.
Mimogrede, uporabljam tudi profesionalne storitve knjižne promocije na Twitterju za promoviranje svojega dela in usmerjanje navdušenih bralcev kratkih zgodb na svojo Amazonovo stran za naročanje knjig. Izjemno cenim, kadar moji prijatelji na Twitterju objavljajo moje tweete o meni in moji karieri pisca.

Kako bi opisal svoj slog?
Pišem več žanrov kratke proze in lahko trdim, da sem tekom let razvil čisto svoj žanr, ki me poistoveti kot lastnika blagovne znamke DolgihKratkihZgodb.
Trudim se dati svojemu bralstvu vrhunsko kratko prozo, napolnjeno z verjetnimi liki in ustreznim dogajanjem. Predvsem pa sem osvojil moč besedja, s katerim svojim zgodbam vcepim prave podobe. Podobe, ki vzburjajo vseh šest čutov bralca. Dejansko pa gre pri pisanju odličnih kratkih zgodb za izbiranje ravno pravih besed, da bi zbudili tisti občutek, da “je več manj”, ki ga vsa odlična kratka proza potrebuje. Pri mojih zgodbah gre pogosto za leposlovje, črni humor, družbeno satiro, vojaško prozo, znanstveno fantastiko, teme odraščanja in celo romantike.

Si osredotočen predvsem na kratko zgodbo ali lahko pričakujemo tudi daljša dela, recimo novelo ali roman?
Pred časom sem se zavezal k izčrpnemu raziskovanju kratke zgodbe in k negovanju njene prihodnje rasti kot edinstvene umetnostne zvrsti. Do zdaj sem v digitalni obliki izdal več kot 100 kratkih in mikro zgodb za svoje globalno bralstvo, ki to ceni.

Kdo so tvoji literarni heroji?
Ah, Edgar Allan Poe, seveda. Annie Proulx, Benjamin Percy. Alice Munro. Mojster kratke zgodbe ameriški Indijanec Sherman Alexie. In mnogi vojaki pisci, ki so živahno delili z nami resnične boje.

Na čem trenutno delaš?
Pravkar zaključujem noir serijo v petih delih, postavljeno v južno Luisiano. Slabi tipi so zelo slabi, dobri pa prav tako! Kmalu bo na Amazonu kot serija e-knjig.

Lahko daš kak nasvet za navdahnjene mlade (in ne tako mlade) pisce?
Z veseljem, Renato. Kot sem že omenil, želim negovati kratko zgodbo na vse mogoče načine. Zadnjih nekaj let objavim dvakrat letno Natečaj DolgihKratkihZgodb. Obetavne, nikjer (niti na spletu) objavljene pisce kratkih zgodb vzpodbujam k oddaji svojih najboljših izdelkov po seznanitvi s preprostimi pravili Natečaja. Imamo tri velike nagrade: prva nagrada je profesionalno izdelana spletna stran v vrednosti 800 dolarjev, ki jo izdela naš spletni oblikovalec Eugene Barnes. Druga nagrada je 150, tretja pa 100 dolarjev v gotovini. Srečnim zmagovalcem objavim zgodbe na svojem blogu, da lahko v njih cel mesec uživa ves svet, potem gredo v arhiv, pravice pa se povrnejo avtorjem.
Kot eden od sodnikov na natečaju DolgihKratkihZgodb vidim veliko rokopisov, ki bi lahko bili fantastični, če bi se pisci učili obrti z branjem mojstrov kratke zgodbe. Preveč navdahnjenih piscev piše za trenutno moderno tržišče o vampirjih in zombijih. Jaz pa iščem nekaj tako edinstvenega, da gate trga! Zgodbe z bogatim besednim zakladom. Zgodbe z živahnim dialogom, pravilno postavljenimi ločili in brez slovničnih napak. Obstajajo pravila, ki jih je potrebno upoštevati, če želiš pisati odlično kratko prozo. Ambiciozni pisci si morajo vzeti čas, da se jih naučijo in si izmislijo svoja lastna.
Malomarno bi bilo izpustiti nasvet tvojim bralcem o še enem pomembnem vidiku, ko postaneš profesionalen pisec kratkih zgodb (se pravi tak, ki je dejansko plačan za svoje garanje). Pisanje je posel. Da si lahko rečeš profesionalni pisec, ti mora postati jasno, da potrebuješ petletni poslovni načrt kot vsak poslovnež. Profesionalni pisec mora znati (ali se naučiti) upravljati s časom vsakega dne pisanja, kako svoje delo tržiti in kako upravljati svojo kariero pisanja enako kot literarni agent. Tradicionalno založništvo se danes spreminja tako radikalno, da je pravi denar v samozaložništvu na strani tistih pogumnih novih piscev, ki obvladajo vse, od A do Ž.
Če lahko navdahnjeni pisci dosežejo to, Renato, potem najino ljubo kratko zgodbo čaka res veličastno prihodnost.

Najlepša hvala za tvoj čas, Wayne.