Thomas
W. Elam interview, author of
Tricks,
Treats, and Tinsel and My New
Kentucky Home.
I was born in Pikeville, Kentucky and mostly raised in the
same, with prior life as a military brat in Texas, California, Ohio, Illinois,
and Germany three separate times before my father died of a heart attack in the
military.
What was it that first got you
into writing and when did you start writing?
Influence of movies and TV shows mostly at first, usually
about Africa and such. Later the same
as well as many books brought me into the worlds of science fiction, fantasy,
and horror as I wrote many short or long stories during my high school years
for the fun of it.
Robert Silverberg, Edgar Rice Burrows, Kenneth Robeson and
his Doc Savage novels, Richard Matheson, Ray Bradbury, Stephen King (you had to
see that one coming), Dean R. Koontz, Robert R. McCammon, Andre Norton, Peter
Benchley, Anne Rice, J. K. Rowling (that one too), and a host of others, though
I don’t have any particular favorite one.
I do write poetry.
But I mostly write science fiction, fantasy, horror, and adventure, with
some detours into historical areas.
A lot. I’m struggling
with notes and outlines during lunch hours at work and working on manuscripts
during what free time I do have. What I
do have on the current agenda is among the four genres answered in question 4.
I do have two books through Publish
America, titled TRICKS, TREATS, AND TINSEL and MY NEW KENTUCKY HOME, that are
available on your web site as well as others.
The first one, TRICKS, TREATS, AND TINSEL, is a collection of
poetry about Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas as well as the seasons that
surround all three wonderful holidays.
It is a fun and spooky read for children to enjoy by themselves or be
read with their parents. One former
schoolmate of mine did read one of the poems in this book to her daughter when
it appeared in the local newspaper’s Halloween poetry section one year. A lot of the other poems also appeared in
the same paper over the years.
The second, MY NEW KENTUCKY HOME, is a collection of poems
about miscellaneous subjects; from fun things to very serious, heart felt meanderings
and some soul searching, which the readers might derive some familiarity from.
At the moment I am also in the process of self-publishing two
other books, SALUTE and TIME FOLLY.
SALUTE is a short collection of poetry about and dedicated to
all of the men and women who served in all military branches; past, present,
and future. I have received great
response on this one and need only to arrange for copies for sale. It is my wish that SALUTE might end up in
the hands of service men and women during war or peace and that they might open
their copy each and derive some solace from the pages. The same would result from their loved ones
waiting for them in their absence. This
is my ultimate appreciation for their service and sacrifice for our great
country.
TIME FOLLY is a novelette dealing with time travel and murder
and the unravelling of the culprit’s conscience and sanity.
Not as busy as I would like at the moment, with the writing I
mean. I do have no problem with
writer’s block. I’m always coming up
with some new story line to add to the list of a hundred some ideas I already
have.
Everything.
Well, one of the more exciting things is thinking about an
idea and building the concept, characters, and worlds that play apart in any
story line. I can really throw it all
together in a really short time. Once I
thought up a complete story line for a wagon train novel I am messing with now,
with the characters, adventures, and situations all fleshed out before morning
as I lay there in the wee hours of the morning, planning and memorising it all
until I later took extensive notes and outlines. I was in a foot cast at the moment and lying on my mother’s
couch. This one was inspired by Steven
Spielberg’s TV miniseries, INTO THE WEST.
I watched that whole show, particularly the wagon train
episode. I thought to myself what a
neat idea it would be to extend and detail such a wagon train story, such as a
miniseries or even a regular episodic series, detailing the lives and
struggles, and even deaths, of the characters involved.
Then I decided to take on such a concept myself. I plan on the book being extremely long,
which is necessary to detail the lives of those characters concerned in their
journey West. I want to touch on what
makes the large ensemble of travellers want to go West in each their own
decisions, then through the preparations at a point where they all come
together from their different origins and life styles, then bringing them all
together even more as they head West.
From there on it is a struggle for a destination wrought with sorrow and
death of some of the character and what that means to the surviving ones.
Once completed and hopefully published, I want readers who
pick up the book and follow the characters in their paths to feel as though
they too have endured the adventure themselves, as if they too had their own
personal wagon in the party. For a
reason, I will call the historical adventure MEMORIAL.
Everything.
I am also currently undergoing some emotional turmoil that
has invaded my writing goals along with some prior, severe procrastination in
getting anything done with my writing.
What’s the best piece of
feedback that you’ve had from your audience?
Some have expressed interest in SALUTE. Others, including fellow writers, have expressed excitement as some of the ideas I have pitched to them when discussing writing.
Do you write for a
particular audience, or is your first priority to satisfy your own creativity?
Yes on both. If I write a book in any of the particular genres, then of course I’m aiming at the audience favouring the same, but before I, like any other author, can write for a particular audience, they have to first write for themselves, their own creativity. Obviously in this one is writing what they know and like. If one writes something they are not interested in, just because the audience may be high in such a genre, then it will show. The excitement of the author’s own self gratification will bleed through on the pages and create and drive the same excitement of the readers, the audience.
After all, the writer is also part of the audience if he or she reads or watches the same. Writing provides the writer’s own input, his or hers own additional contribution the genre bandwagons.
If the author can’t look at his or her own stuff and go “Wow!” then the audience isn’t going to go “Wow!” when they read it.
In short, one has to write for him or herself to write for the audience. Or it won’t work. And it would definitely fail.
Do you have a homepage? Do you
have any short stories or poems published online? (If so, please provide the
URLs):
My homepage is www.freewebs.com/thomaswelamofficial/.
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