Historical Fiction and Non-Fiction from Jorgen Flood

Today I interview Jorgen Flood, author of several works of historical fiction and non-fiction, all of which are associated with his native Norway.  Jorgen and I are members of the Brandywine Valley Writers Group (in the Philadelphia suburbs).

Congratulations on your books, Jorgen!  Although all of your work is related in one way or another to Norway, these books are all written in English, correct?

Yes, pretty much. All of my fiction books. However, one of the non-fiction books was published in Norwegian.

You self-published these books.  What was your greatest challenge in the self-publishing process?

I actually started out with a publisher for my first book, but felt I had no control over distribution or pricing. I am sure the level of support from the publisher is different if you have a best seller, but for me the self publishing route was the best. I have not regretted it, and ended buying back the rights to my own book (for a modest amount) Marketing is undoubtedly the biggest challenge for self publishers, since companies like Amazon and Smashwords (an e-book company) handle the distribution very well.  

How many books have you published?  Which was your most popular book?

I have published three works of historical fiction, and five non fiction books. Two of the historical fiction books are from the Viking age, while the last, Steel Armageddon, consists of five war stories covering the Second World War, the Korean War, and the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Steel Armageddon is without any comparison my best seller. It outsells the other seven books combined.

I understand that your latest books collect articles you wrote.  Correct?  Where did they originally appear?

That is correct. The last three books are short historical stories regarding Norway. Most of the articles were originally published in "The Slooper," an online and paper magazine for the local lodge of Sons of Norway.  The book versions are expanded, both with regards to text and pictures.

 

Very good.  What's next?

I have started the third and final book from the Viking age, but at the moment the progress is not as fast I would have liked.

Let’s finish up with a process question: how to you write?  Do you do it in the same time and place every day?

No, though mostly at home and in the evenings. I have on occasion rented a room in the Poconos for a couple of days when I want to get something finished without interruptions.

Well, then I'll let you get back to work!  I look forward to your next book, and thanks for your time, Jorgen.

Jorgen Flood's books can be purchased from Amazon or Smashwords. His website is at www.jfloodbooks.com

Interview with Author Claire Mulligan

I interviewed Claire Louise Mulligan, author of the collection “Reading Abigail and Other Stories,” and the novels The Reckoning of Boston Jim and The Dark. She is just back from the latest writing festival in Vancouver (her former home), where she read alongside such famous authors as Eleanor Catton, the 2013 winner of the Man Booker Prize.

How long have you been writing?

I wanted to be a writer as long as I can remember. Ever since I was a child.

Do you have a favorite author, one whose writing inspires you, or just an author you'd like to write like?

There are so many. But one is Rose Tremain, an English historical novelist. Her latest is Merivel: A Man out of Time.

So many novels today are plot-driven. The narrators are interchangeable. One-of-a-piece. But in Tremain's books, the character development is as important as the plot. Other than that, I love a poetic approach – a prose style that's distinctive without being overdone.

Are there any Canadian authors (besides yourself) that you'd care to name that Americans should be reading?

Definitely, more people should read David Adams Richards. He's very Canadian.

When readers become authors, they sometimes claim that they've lost the ability to enjoy reading. That is, instead of just reading for pleasure, they get involved in the mechanics of a story. Do you ever feel that way?

Sometimes, especially when I'm doing book club stuff. I tend to get very analytical. But that's OK – I'm in awe of great writing.

You've won or been nominated for many awards. Your first novel, The Reckoning of Boston Jim, was nominated for the 2007 Giller Prize and for the British Columbia Book Award. Once you've won or been nominated, is there pressure for to continue that with subsequent books?

Sure. Awards get you on the map.

Let's end with this: you've done many interviews. Can you tell us the stupidest question an interviewer has ever asked you?

My latest book, The Dark, has a theme of spiritualism. A radio interviewer once asked me “Do you believe in ghosts?” What does that have to do with anything? It's as if, if you're not a believer, you shouldn't be writing about ghosts.

Do they ask a writer who writes about zombies if he believes that zombies exist? Of course not. And they probably wouldn't ask if I believed in God – that's too personal. But they feel free to ask about ghosts. It's as if belief in ghosts lies somewhere between science and religion.

Another question I couldn't answer was “Why do Canadians support their writers more than Americans?” How would I know the answer to that? You'd have to do a sociological study to come up with an answer.

All I know is that it's true. Canada treats its writers like movie stars.

Thank you, Claire.

Claire Mulligan's website is www.clairemulligan.com She will speak to the Brandywine Valley Writers Group on Tuesday, 19 November, 2013 at 7 pm. Admission is free, but we meet upstairs at Ryan's Pub in West Chester, and the restaurant expects attendees to purchase some food or drink. For more information on this event, please go to http://www.meetup.com/Brandywine-Valley-Writers-Group/events/149486072/

Brandywine Valley Writers Group Meeting

Great session tonight with New Media Guru DON LAFFERTY at the Brandywine Valley Writers Group meeting in West Chester, Pennsylvania, USA.

What did you miss?  Well, you can download some of Don's information on Social Media Starters for Authors here.

But you won't get to ask Don questions on a download.  So I suggest you come see him when he speaks to the Main Line Writers Group in 2013.  It's definitely worthwhile.

My Story "Potemkin" to Be Published

Good news!  One of my newer short stories, "Potemkin," has been accepted for publication in The Rusty Nail Literary Magazine!

The publication date hasn't been announced, but I will be sure to mention it in my blog.

My thanks to the members of the Brandywine Valley Writers Group and the Main Line Writers Group, who critiqued an earlier version of "Potemkin."  And to the Chester County Book and Music Company, which allowed me to read it at an authors' event there!  (We are going to miss this place terribly when it closes down!)

Few stories are perfect when they come out of our printers.  We need critique groups, listeners and editors to catch our missteps.

And a big THANK YOU to the audience members who laughed in all the right places!

Figment buys Inkpop

Congratulations to tiny startup Figment, which out-performed the minions of Rupert Murdoch's HarperCollins Publishing! The Wall Street Journal reports today that the more-successful Figment is buying HarperCollins' Inkpop, a smaller, competing site for young adult writers. The Wall Street Journal reports that the acquisition should give Figment some 200,000 members.

Of course, Figment's website puts the acquisition more politely:

We’ve got some really exciting news: Our ranks are growing. The writing community inkpop is joining Figment as of March 1, 2012.

Inkpop, which was founded by HarperCollins, is a lot like Figment: a place for writers devoted to sharing and improving their work.

Since Figment first went live in December, 2010, our membership has grown beyond our wildest expectations, both in number and in quality, and we’re thrilled to be bringing inkpop’s writers into our vibrant and engaged community.

I learned about Figment from its Chief Technologist Nicole Valentine. Nicole gave an excellent presentation about Figment at the last meeting of the Brandywine Valley Writers Group. Her presentation was so successful that she is scheduled to repeat it at the Wednesday 21 March meeting of the Main Line Writers Group.

It's good to see the little guys win one over a multinational conglomerate.

Good-bye, Mr. Movie

Last night I was driving home from managing the South Jersey Comedy Cabaret when, as usual, I turned on the radio to listen to Steve Friedman, "Mr. Movie."

It was then that I learned that Steve Friedman had died last week at the age of 62. I hadn't caught his obituary in the newspapers, and he wasn't quite famous enough to make the national news.

He had suffered from kidney disease for years. He was on dialysis and needed a kidney transplant, but was unable to find a viable match. This wasn't for lack of donors: his radio fans loved him so much that several offered one of their own kidneys.

Steve loved doing his radio show, sharing his encyclopedic knowledge of movies with his fans. His nationally-syndicated show originated here in Philadelphia.

Steve Friedman was also a guest at my writers organization, the Brandywine Valley Writers Group. In fact, he was our first guest during my administration as president.

Last Saturday night Steve finished his radio show, went home, and died in his sleep. I'm grateful that I got to listen to his final show.

He will be missed. I will probably end up listening to the BBC as I drive home from New Jersey. There's no one who can replace Steve Friedman.

Jay Black, Dena Blizzard and Nick DiUlio Read Their Work at PA Bookstore

Someday I’ve got to learn how to delegate.

My writers’ organization, the Brandywine Valley Writers Group, has regular public readings at bookstores. I’m the current president of the BVWG. For our May reading, I delegated the responsibility for organizing the reading. The result: in May, we had three readers and one audience member. ONE!

For our June reading, I was determined to have good readers and a sizable audience. So I did everything myself. I sent our press releases. I posted it as an event on Yahoo and Facebook. I emailed so many reminders that people got sick of them. And I stacked the lineup with good, funny writers: comedian-screenwriter Jay Black, comedian and former Miss New Jersey Dena Blizzard, and editor-reporter Nick DiUlio.

I know that their presence drew at least three audience members, all of them fellow stand-up comics: Norm Klar, LaTice Mitchell-Klapa, and Jason Pollock. So I already had a larger audience than last time. (Jason has already put his version of this event on his blog.)

I had dinner with my readers before the show (except for Jay Black, who was coming from another gig in North Jersey.) We ate at the Magnolia Grill inside the bookstore, so we didn’t have far to travel. But the Chester County Book and Music Company is a BIG bookstore, reputed to have the largest selection of books east of the Rockies. The speaker’s area isn’t visible from the Grill.

Now I LIKE the people I was dining with, and I lost track of the time. So it was almost time for the event to begin when one of the BVWG officers showed up and said that I was needed. I left my guests—who hadn’t finished eating—and hurried over to the speaker’s area. Where I found another officer of the BVWG already at the lectern, organizing the speakers. (And putting herself on the lineup, which I had already arranged to fill our allotted time.) I realized that I should have delegated someone to be in the speaker’s area while I was dining with our guest speakers.

But it turned out all right. Even with her unanticipated addition, we kept to our time, since a few speakers went short. I took the opening spot – the least desirable, since people are still arriving. (In fact, Jay Black arrived during my reading. My dinner guests missed it entirely.)

Nick DiUlio read a fine personal essay titled “Yes (I Think) We Can: Surviving Family Brunch in a Post-Election America.” It can be found here, on his website, About Twenty Pounds of Headlines.

Dena Blizzard read a short piece from her blog, and a very funny article she wrote for HybridMom.com.

And, to my amazement, Jay Black wrote a hilarious piece just for this event. I hope he posts it on his blog (or gets it published somewhere).

Was this event a success? Well, we had about 25 listeners (some came and went over the course of 90 minutes). That’s as many as most professional authors on book tours get.

My guest speakers all said that they’d like to do it again. Perhaps I’ll schedule another such event before my term as BVWG president ends in August, provided I learn how to be in two places at once. Or learn how to delegate.

And the Winner Is...

Last night I entered a "Battle of the Bards" -- a competition for writers delivering their work orally. I won first place.

An event like this is as much about how you present your work as your work itself. Fortunately, I read a comedic piece, and I made the audience of 25-odd people laugh. Nine of the twelve contestants were poets, and no one else read anything humorous, so I stood out well.

By the way, while I am currently the president of the Brandywine Valley Writers Group, this event was staged by a different writing organization, the Chester County Writer's Workshop.

It's been awhile since I came in first in a competition. I still find it hard to believe that people voted for me instead of one of the hot girl poets!

I don't know how long this link will be up, but here are some photos of the event. The MC is Tom Lillard, the guitarist is Jake Michaels. Poet Andrea Daniels took most of the photos, and Julie Latham was the main organizer.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=18glzfwk.6rukxez8&x=0&y=-eh5fir&localeid=en_US

A Drinker with a Writing Problem

Last night was the annual holiday party of the Brandywine Valley Writers Group, at the Four Dogs Tavern in Marshalton, PA. Our timing was bad -- it had been alternating rain and snow all day. Of our forty-some paid members, only seven braved the weather and showed up.

I had to go; I’m currently the president of the Brandywine Valley Writers Group.

For the party, we’d budgeted about $200 for appetizers (for liability reasons, attendees buy their own drinks). As it happened, the seven of us shared about $100 worth of appetizers. That’s a lot of food, but not a huge amount, since it was upscale, expensive stuff: goat cheese and prosciutto on flatbread, crabmeat tortillas with wasabi sauce, and so on. (I think there were also truffles garnished with larks’ vomit, but I didn’t try any.) To drink, the Four Dogs offers a selection of craft beers. I forget the name of what I quaffed, but it was something like Happytime Stinking-Bastard IPA.

The attendees enjoyed the venue so much that they asked why we were holding our monthly meetings at the West Chester Friends Meeting House. We pay the Friends $500 a year for the use of their facilities, but the Four Dogs will let us meet there on Tuesday nights for free (as long as we gorge ourselves).

That’s a question I’m going to propose to the group at our January meeting. There are drawbacks: Marshalton is not as centrally located as West Chester. And some of our members might be in recovery and unwilling to spend time in a bar.

But that $500 a year rent is our major expense, and it would be good to save it.

Another advantage of meeting at the Four Dogs is avoiding censorship (even if it’s self-censorship). We’re always careful of what we say inside a Quaker Meeting House.

This is also true at our other venue, The Chester County Book and Music Company, where we do our public readings. Unfortunately, the area set aside for authors to read is inside the children’s book section. Even though our readings at the bookstore start at 7 pm, it’s amazing how many kids are still around that late.

I recall one of our members, Scott Pruden, reading from his novel in the children’s section. Shortly after a line that went something like, “A white woman be serious when she show you her titty,” I heard a child’s voice behind a bookshelf going “Mommmm!”

So it would be good to have a place to meet and read our work without risk of offending anyone. But I will let the group discuss it, before I make a Presidential decision on our 2009 venue.


Oh, the title of this blog entry is from the Irish writer Brendan Behan (1923-1964), who sometimes described himself as “a drinker with a writing problem.” He also said he drank only on two occasions: when he was thirsty, and when he wasn’t.

Too Many Writers Groups?

Last night I was in Wilmington, DE, for the fourth meeting of a new writers group. I enjoy getting out to socialize with other writers. Writing is a solitary profession, and meeting others who do the same thing reminds you that you’re not a crazy person.

But I’m now in three different writers groups: one in my home town, one in Bucks County, PA, and one in Wilmington, DE. And I wonder if I’m spending too much time in (and commuting to) writers groups, and not enough time simply writing.

As long as these meetings serve as a self-imposed deadline for writing, I suppose they’re worthwhile for me. I wrote a short comedic essay for last night’s meeting, and I’m sure I would’ve put that off without a deadline.

I’m also told that I generally make useful comments at these groups. At last night’s meeting, I referenced Jane Austin, Donald Barthelme, the Brontë sisters (and their brother, Branwell), James Maberry, Petrarch, Darrell Schweitzer, and Shakespeare. I’m not sure if that’s profound or pretentious. Probably it’s both.

I usually write short, funny pieces for these groups. You never know for sure if something is funny until your audience laugh. When I read my new piece out loud last night, I got laughs in most of the right places…but not all. I also got a good suggestion on where to end it. Finding the right “button” to end a piece is always one of the hardest tasks.

So I expect I’ll be at the next meeting of the Wilmington Writers.

However, I’ll plug the writers group of which I’m currently the president: the Brandywine Valley Writers Group meets monthly in West Chester, PA. For information, go to www.bvwg.org or click here.