Keith G. Laufenberg interview

Keith G. Laufenberg is the author of the Authortrek short story Thunder and Lightning.

Where were you born and raised?

I was born in Rockville Centre, L.I., New York and, being as my father was in the navy and worked for the government his entire life, I grew up in New York for five years, on Guam, for five years, San Antonio, for five years, and Hyattsville, MD., at which time I enlisted, at age 17, in the Marines.

What was it that first got you into writing and when did you start writing?

I began reading Edgar Rice Burroughs, mostly his Tarzan books when I was about five or six and lived on Guam, where we lived on a small island, in a military community. We kids ran after wild boars and up coconut trees and swam in the ocean waters like Johnny Weismueller. It was a real paradise for a small boy and we watched free Tarzan movies every week, shown for free to all the military families and, of course, the next day we kids ran into the jungle and played Tarzan. As much as I loved the movies, I loved to read because I seemed to get more from the stories than the movies, and still do. Anyway, I read from then on and somehow, someway, I knew I was going to write stories.

Which writers have influenced you the most?

Besides Burroughs, John Steinbeck, Upton Sinclair, Irwin Shaw, Mario Puzo, Joe Wambaugh & Ken Kesey. I seem to have different points in my life where I couldn't read enough of a certain author. This happened with Tolstoy and then Boris Pasternak, Dostoevsky & Solzhenitsyn and continued with Steinbeck, Upton Sinclair, Irwin Shaw, Joe Wambaugh & Mario Puzo. John Grisham is probably the best of the new crop of lawyer/writers; seems like all it takes to get a book published nowadays is to graduate from law school. I also like anything with boxing in it and enjoyed reading F.X. Toole's book of short stories, as well as Thom Jones' short stories, and Nick Tosches’ The Devil and Sonny Liston.

What kind of things do you write?

I write about what I feel I have to. I was in the Marines for three years and knew I was going to write a book about it, I just didn't know it would take thirty years to do it. I wrote Miami Rock, basing the book on real events that happened to me and others during a decade as a carpenter in the Ft. Lauderdale/Miami area and I have written close to 200 short stories and fifty poems in that amount of time. I started off writing poems, which is a short story or song, and then progressed to short stories and from there to novel-length books. They are all stories, the only difference being that poems are much easier, and less time-consuming than short stories, which in turn are much easier and less time-consuming than novels.

What are you working on now?

It seems that I am in the process in (re) writing a novel entitled The Profit Factor, a story of about 500 pages, which is set in California, where I lived and worked in real estate sales. Also, a novel of considerable length, 700-800 pages entitled South Beach, and based upon my years living in South Miami Beach in the 60's & 70's, where I labored as a professional fighter, cab driver, lifeguard, and jack-of-all-schemes.

What is your writing day like?

I still work, selling real estate and mortgages in Spring Hill, Florida, just outside Tampa, and my writing day is whenever I can find the time. I have been writing and rewriting the above two novels over the past twenty years and so edit, edit, edit is in my future. I usually try to do four hours a day but sometimes I do only write for two hours and sometimes I do twelve. I like to write at night but I don't like to get up early, so you can see my predicament.

What’s the most exciting thing about writing for you?

I don't think of anything about writing as exciting, it is mostly work, work, work, although when it is done and published I really like to see it and hold it in my hands, almost like a proud mother holding a newborn infant.

What’s the most frustrating thing about writing for you?

The most frustrating thing about writing for me is the fact that I have, I literally have to, to promote the work; going to book stores, interviews, etc. and also that I have had, over the past thirty years too many publishers and editors tell me they would publish something if only I would change something (to their tastes obviously).

What’s the best piece of feedback that you’ve had from your audience?

The best feedback I have ever had is always the same for me; it's when someone tells me that what I wrote was, to them, absolutely real and the truth. As one friend of mine said about Semper-Fi-Do-Or-Die, it was as real as when he had lived it. Any ex-marine that tells me that it is real is always a plus and anyone otherwise who tells me they view it as truth is always the best feedback a writer can get (as far as I'm concerned.) My wife told me she liked Miami Rock and that was about as good a compliment as I can get because she is in it and knows the truth of it.

Do you write for a particular audience, or is your first priority to satisfy your own creativity?

I, maybe unfortunately for me, never write for any particular audience; I never have and I never will, when I write something I feel as if the source of my writing comes from a higher plane than simply wanting something for myself (money, publication, publicity, etc.)

Do you have a homepage? Do you have any short stories or poems published online? (If so, please provide the URLs):

All are on my webpage in books and stories and you can purchase my two published novels from there also.

www.kglaufenberg.com

http://www.authorsden.com/visit/author.asp?AuthorID=64181

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