Michael Parker - Author Interview: Story

Pick one of your favourites among your published fiction stories or a story which is an interesting example of published fiction. What makes this story one of your favourites or an interesting example from your fiction?

THE DEVIL’S TRINITY. This was an attempt of mine to write a thriller about international terrorism. But instead of using the standard technique of suicide bombers etc. I used an entirely different approach in that I involved techniques that would be almost improbable, but maybe not impossible that could achieve an effect more harmful and cataclysmic than 9/11.

What genre(s) do you consider this story primarily to be, or how would you describe this story?

Thriller

What is a published fiction story by another author you would compare this story to and why are they similar?

I can’t think of another author with whom I could compare this novel, but I would put my work in the same league as Frederik Forsyth, Stephen Leather and other similar writers.

To what extent did you use any pre-existing story formula, template, paradigm, plot design, archetype, or theory or principle of story/plot structure in planning, writing, editing or rewriting this story?

I don’t. I get an idea and just build on it, using research to help me achieve a story.

How would you describe the first chapter, scene or section of this story in one paragraph?

A yacht is rammed in the middle of the night by a ship carrying no lights: a ship that is not under power but deliberately stopping. I would describe that as ‘chilling’.

What makes this chapter, scene or section an effective opening for this story?

It is this kind of opening that makes a reader want to know how I plan to elaborate on what could appear to be an impossible situation. A page turner!

What major stages, twists or turns does the story conflict take in this story before the conflict is resolved (or not resolved)?

I like to include parallel dramas if I can which help to add the twists and turns that hold a reader’s attention.

How would you summarise the major sub-plot or sub-plots in this story? If this story has no sub-plots, how would you describe the main sub-plot or sub-plots from one of your favourite published fiction stories by another author?

I couldn’t summarise them, they are simply essential to the fabric and build-up of the story.

What does the story gain from the sub-plot or sub-plots?

It gains immeasurably providing there is the right balance between the plots.

To what extent would you describe your story discussed here as typical or atypical of your fiction stories?

Typical.

Author website: www.michaeljparker.com



Indu Sundaresan - Author Interview: Narrative Style

Which narrative point of view (first person, second person or third person) do you use most in your fiction, or do you often use different points of view for different stories, and why?

I had to look over my books to answer this question! My first impression was that I write mostly in the third person omniscient and this is true of my novels—The Twentieth Wife, The Feast of Roses, Shadow Princess and The Splendor of Silence. But in going through my collection of short stories set in contemporary India, In the Convent of Little Flowers, I see that five out of the nine stories are in the first person.

In just having gone through this exercise (of not really being aware exactly, ahead of time of what POVs I use in my storytelling), I realize that it is not a conscious decision to write in one or the other POV. It’s what works in that particular story, that particular telling of the story.

I’d originally begun The Splendor of Silence in the first person and wrote about 150 pages before I realized that it wasn’t really working, so I rewrote this novel in the third person omniscient and it went much easier.

Do you use present tense or past tense most in your fiction, or do you often switch tense for different stories, and why?

I’ve used both past and present tenses in my work. There’s an immediacy in the present tense, a sort of looking-over-the-author’s-shoulder result that can be very effective if you want to pull the reader into the story at the first word. In my novel-length fiction, the past tense has worked better, because it’s helpful in creating a sense of distance (in time and in space), and the reader is pulled more slowly into the world I’m creating and has time to absorb all the details that might not be immediately familiar to him or her.

Pick one of your published stories. What combination of point of view and tense did you use for this story, and why?

The Splendor of Silence is set in India during four days in May of 1942, and is the story of an American soldier, Sam Hawthorne, who finds his way to a tiny, desert kingdom in northwestern India called Rudrakot during those four days. Sam’s in Rudrakot to find his missing brother Mike, AWOL from one of Rudrakot’s regiments, and he has just returned from Burma, where he infiltrated behind Japanese lines to escort and bring to safety an American missionary.

While at Rudrakot, Sam falls in love with an Indian woman, Mila, daughter of the local Political Agent, who is betrothed to the prince of Rudrakot, Jai. Splendor opens twenty-one years later, with Sam’s and Mila’s daughter, Olivia, who opens a trunk of treasures in Seattle for her birthday, and begins to read a letter from an unknown narrator telling her of those four days in May of 1942, of her parents’ love story, and of the times as they were then—during World War II, five years before India’s independence from British rule.

So, the timeline in Splendor flits around three time frames—opening and ending in 1963 in Seattle, USA; the main narrative taking place in May 1942 in Rudrakot, India; and a third narrative in about 9 scenes set in Burma in April 1942. The Seattle narrative is of a few pages only and bookends the novel.

I have section markers for each narrative—as in “28th May, 1942, The Kingdom of Rudrakot, Somewhere in Northwestern India,” or “April 1942, A Month Earlier; Somewhere in Burma” to make it clear to the reader where the story is going.

The two main storylines run somewhat parallel to each other and are detailed and intense in their own right—as an author, if you are to ask so much dedication from the reader, to follow you along in different time frames and different storylines, and different geographical places at the same time, then you must resolve all these storylines into one comprehensive whole. And this, of course, is what happens by the end of The Splendor of Silence—you’ll see why these simultaneous journeys began, how they connect with each other, and how they come to a resolution.

To further differentiate the stories in Splendor, I set the main, Rudrakot, May 1942, narrative in the past tense, and the Seattle, 1963, and the Burma, April 1942, narratives in the present tense. The change in tense was important because it distinguished the jump from one time frame/narrative to another.

To what extent is the vocabulary and manner of speech of the narration in this story different from your own everyday expression, and what does this contribute to the story?

This is important in a historical novel—the tone, the rhythm of the language, the vocabulary even, has to fit the context of the story, else the reader is unlikely to believe in the authenticity of the tale.

Did you tell this story with one narrator or multiple narrators, and why?

Splendor is ‘narrated,’ loosely by the letter writer, the person who tells Sam’s and Mila’s daughter, Olivia, the story. So you’ll see a first person narrative in the beginning, in the voice of the storyteller, and you don’t know, as indeed Olivia doesn’t, who’s telling the story. And, yet, it’s a distinct voice and the clues to the narrator’s identity are present in the very first page of the letter.

The narrative then shifts, for the Rudrakot and Burma scenes (hence the main body of the novel), into an omniscient viewpoint, with the understanding that this is still the story being told in the letter. The letter writer comes back a couple of times in his/her unique voice, in first person, to fill in a few gaps in between, and then the story lapses back into omniscient narrative.

I employed this method for a couple of reasons: one, to fill in the background and context of the novel (India, both political and social at this very critical time in her history before independence) I needed an omniscient narrator; two, the letter-writer is also an important character in the novel, as the reader and Olivia discover by the end.

Did you make the narrator of this story a character involved in the main action of the story, or did you make the narrator one which is not a charcater in your fictional storyworld, and why?

Please see last paragraph of answer to the previous question. Short answer here—yes, the letter (and the novel) is ‘written’ by an important and essential character in the novel.

What is one of your favourite fictional stories, in which you think is narration is written well, and how would you describe what makes the narration work so well for you as a reader?

I have many favorites, both in contemporary authors and those who are no longer alive. A recent, relatively unknown-today book I read comes to mind here, The Massingham Affair by Edward Grierson, published in 1962. It’s a crime/mystery novel, based on an actual attempted robbery in 1891 at a lonely rectory in Northumberland and the story of a young lawyer, who some forty years later attempts to bring justice to the two poachers convicted for the crime.

I read this book not just for the mystery/crime factor, but also because Grierson sets the stage, the world in which the characters live, so well and with so much authority. The book has a leisurely narrative, and Grierson takes his time in introducing the characters and building the world around them in a manner which is realistic and drew me in as a reader.

Do you usually provide direct access to the thoughts of characters in your stories? If so, do you usually provide access to the thoughts of one character or multiple characters in a single story or point of view, and why?

Yes, it’s important to let the reader know, or see, what the characters are thinking to a certain extent, for their actions then follow their thoughts. In an omniscient narrative, as in most of my fiction, this is easy to do—the action follows many characters around, and while with them, the reader is privy to their thoughts.

To what extent does the narrative style of novels you read have an impact on why you read them, and why?

I believe good storytelling (and hence good narration) is key to a well-told story. This means exposition on the world in which the story is set, which includes the place, the setting, the weather, the political climate, and even, the characters’ experiences and their thoughts.

Author website: www.indusundaresan.com



John Eppel - Author Interview: Characters

Pick one of your favourites among the characters from your published fiction stories or a character which is an interesting example from your published fiction. What makes this character one of your favourites or an interesting example of your fiction?

It occurs to me that all the main characters in my novels are suitably detached variations of, well, me! The most fully developed, I think, is George J. George, who appears in my sixth novel, Absent: the English Teacher.

All these quasi-autobiographical characters have in common the seeming contradiction of being European Africans, who suffer varying degrees of alienation, the most common being that they feel dislodged from both cultures. This sometimes results in mixed feelings of guilt and indignation.

Apart from George, I have treated these losers with little sympathy, satirizing them unmercifully. George is also satirized, but only in the first half of the novel. Once he destroys what is left of his identity, and leaves town with his charge, the orphaned little black girl, the genre changes, I hope, into tragi-comedy.

This emerging sympathy for my anachronistic white protagonists may have something to do with political developments in Zimbabwe since about the year 2000. You don’t kick a man when he’s well and truly down.

What kind(s) of character do you consider this character primarily to be, or how would you describe this character?

Physically and morally weak, but kind-hearted; artless; not very materialistic. George is a middle-aged, single, school teacher who, after a series of misadventures, ends up working as a ‘houseboy’ for a nouveau riche black family. This role reversal lends itself to some curious situations. It brings George down to the very nadir of his existence – a necessary situation for the process of (possible) redemption to begin.

What is a character from a published fiction story by another author you would compare this character to and why are they similar?

Perhaps Paul in Evelyn Waugh’s Decline and Fall, but only up to a point. They are similar because of the school setting, the stints in prison, the Satirical treatment.

To what extent did you use any pre-existing character formula, template, paradigm, character design, archetype, or theory or principles of making or analysing character in planning, writing, and refining this character?

My writing comes out of my sub-conscious world. There is very little planning. That is one reason why my novels are so short – novellas, really. So I don’t really know how to answer this question except to acknowledge a debt to my favourite prose writer, Charles Dickens.

How would you describe the first chapter, scene or section of this story in one paragraph?

The opening paragraph of the novel might just do it: “When George J. George mistook his white Ford Escort for the moon, he knew that his time was up. He would turn his face to the evening star and, guided by the nests of whitebrowed sparrow-weavers, keep walking. Would he walk alone?”

The evening star is in the west; the nests of sparrow-weavers face west; George is going west!

Pick one of your published stories. How would you describe the introduction of the main character, or one of the main characters, in this story?

The story I’ve chosen is “The Weight Loser”. The character’s name is Dutch Willy, and he’s a typical Rhodie (recalcitrant white Zimbabwean). He decides that the only way he can lose his massive beer-belly – “it flowed over his belt like excited bread dough” - is to spend some time in one of Zimbabwe’s notorious prisons. He achieves this by insulting the President, in a public place.

What makes this an effective character introduction for this story?

The ironic humour. There is absolutely nothing funny about imprisonment in Zimbabwe. It’s a veritable death sentence.

What major changes does this character go through, or what major challenges does the character encounter and how does the character respond to them?

His dreadful time in prison might just have been worth it if he had achieved his aim but, as the narrator records, at the end: “I noticed that the process had been partially successful. He was as thin as a rake, but his paunch – his Rhodesian Front – had refused to capitulate and was, by contrast, larger than ever”.

How would you describe the most important minor characters in this story and the changes in their character, or the challenges they encounter and how they respond to them?

The story is too short for any development of minor characters; consequently they are caricatures or flat characters. The most important would be the bullet-headed CIO operatives who arrest DutchWilly after urinating on him.

What does the story gain from the minor characters?

Fear. As I write, SW Radio Africa has published a 2008 list containing countrywide addresses of over 76 offices and buildings from which the notorious Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) work. In these offices they torture and sometimes kill perceived enemies of the state.

To what extent would you describe the characters in this story as typical or atypical of characters in your fiction stories?

Fairly typical, I’d say. Satire, parody, pastiche… can be effective ways of writing in a country where the rule of law has collapsed, and the security forces are partisan, to say nothing of corruption. What did Alexander Pope say: ”Those who are ashamed of nothing else are so of being ridiculous.”

http://www.weaverpresszimbabwe.com/the-authors/17-john-eppel.html



Paul Michel - Author Interview: Short Story Writer

What kinds of fiction did you read as a child and teenager, and did you have some favourites?

I read everything I could get my hands on, from Homer to Edgar Rice Burroughs. I loved the adventure books of Zane Grey, I devoured science fiction in the 1960s and 70s, I read lots of classics, the Tolkein books, Dickens….there wasn’t much I didn’t read.

Would you say your childhood and teenage reading has had a distinct influence on how you write fiction now, and why?

Yes. I think that because reading was such a central source of entertainment in my childhood that today I write in many senses in order to entertain (as opposed to writing to instruct, lecture, persuade, etc.) I like to think that readers of my work, whatever they may think of my style or plots or characters, ultimately are glad they took the time to read it.

Pick one of your favourites among your fiction stories or a story which is an interesting example from your fiction. What makes this story one of your favourites or an interesting example of your fiction?

My story “Not the King of Prussia” (Glimmer Train, 2010), an elderly man must re-examine himself and his marriage in the days and hours before the arrival of a distant, orphaned nephew who will be coming to live with them. I think it’s a good treatment of some of the wants and worries that are visited upon folks who have long given themselves over to solitude and the confines of a small world, suddenly faced with a larger one.

Who is another author whose fiction writing you admire and why?

Anton Chekhov is unmatched in his ability to create a recognizable, convincing inner character of any sex, age, background or condition in such a few lines of narrative or dialogue.

How would you summarise one of your short stories in one paragraph?

My story “Cryptography” (Inkwell, Fall 2008) is the story of a boy who begins to come of age while his older brother is away in the service, and whose developing new perspective persuades him to regard this brother as much less of a hero, when he does come home on leave, than he did just a few short months before.

How would you describe the appeal of this short story to readers?

I think it is a timeless and universal story, in a way, of how things we admire and love can change in our eyes as we change, and the consternation and pain that such transformations can cause.

How would you summarise a scene or sub-section from this short story in one paragraph?

The boy awakes the morning after his brother and friends have been out carousing, to find them drunk and sloppy in the living room, with his angry parents in schock, and only one of the soldiers—who heretofore had seemed the least appealing of the group—behaving as it seems to the boy that a man ought actually to behave.

How would you describe the contribution this scene or sub-section makes to the short story?

It’s the turning-point, really, for the boy—a confirmation of his worst, barely-acknowledged fears that his days of sibling hero-worship have come to a crashing end.

Do you aspire to primarily write novels in the future, or are you more interested in writing short stories, and why?

I enjoy the longer form and can imagine always having a novel-in-progress from here on out, but I don’t intend to abandon the short story form. Sometimes a break from a novel to dive back into some shorter pieces is just the tonic that both forms need to be fresh and alive.

Do you read many short story anthologies, and why?

I tend to read collections more than anthologies, because I like to get a big chunk of a writer’s oeuvre to work through rather than just one piece in a broader anthology.

What lengths of short stories do you usually write, and why?

With some exceptions my stories tend to weigh in at anywhere from six thousand to eight thousand words. That just seems to be the slice I cut for myself, and I cant really say why, though I do consciously try at times to produce much shorter (and longer) pieces.

Do you submit for many short story competitions, anthologies and magazines, and what are your main motivations for this?

I submit less when I’m working on a novel, but I do still tend to send out more work than a lot of writers I know, and as a result I’ve been quite lucky in terms of numbers of published pieces—over two dozen now and (hopefully) counting. My motivation is simple—i.e. to get published. (Certainly not to make money, as short stories seldom do.)

Author website: http://www.paulmichel.com/