Aspiring Author Interview with Michael Lockhart

Let's start off with something simple. Who are you?

It's hard to imagine a less simple question. I won't have an answer until it's too late to give it to you. The short, temporary answer is that I'm a guy who writes, who decided that it was more important to write than anything else I was doing, and worth giving everything else up to do it. I quit a solid career at 42 and started over, from scratch, so I could reach for a measure of authenticity.

    

Could you tell us a little bit about your work in progress?

15 years ago know I wrote the first chapter of an epic fantasy story, something I wanted to be huge. Then I got distracted by less important things like the career I mentioned earlier and it ended up on a shelf. When I finally got back to taking writing seriously, that was the story that took me by the throat. Hand of God is, at the very least, epic in size. I'm nearing the completed beta draft at around 170k words. At its heart, it's the story of two warriors who could be brothers, but who are presented with different paths, each attempting to do the right thing, and unaware that those paths are leading them into a collision course. It's also about politics and greed and the dangers of institutionalism and magic and innocence. In my head, it is part of a series that stretches out four to twelve books deep.

 

What is the first story you remember writing? What was it about?

When I was six I wrote a short story about a famous singer that woke up one morning mute. She was crushed and ran into the woods, despondent. When she stopped running  and her sobs finally drained into stillness, she heard the sound, the song, of the forest as if for the first time and regained a sense of wonder that she'd lost in her focussed rush to be successful and famous. I was far wiser as a child that I was as an adult.

 

Are you more of a “plotter” or a “pantser”?

More of a pantser. I don;t like outlining much. For the WIP though, I wrote a lot about my fictional world's fictional history and politics, social, religious and academic institutions. I didn't want to hem in the story, but I wanted a context to give the world a sense of depth.

All writers need encouragement. Who first encouraged you to write, and who is it that encourages you today?

My Dad was an English teacher, so he started me off young. He essentially skipped me past traditional children's lit (which I tried to fix during university in one semester), from Seuss to Tolkien to Hemingway in the year before grade one. He ended up drifitng out of my life too early to follow the indoctrination through to its conclusion, but a seed was planted. Today it's my friends and that niggling voice in my head that keeps me up at night.

 

Which authors have had a significant influence on your writing?

Hemingway, Tolkien, C.S.Lewis, Frank Herbert, Stephen R. Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series - these were the favorite stories of my childhood. Today I read as much non-fiction as fiction. I fell in love with Rushdie's words in school and adore getting lost in Neal Stephenson's and William Gibson's imaginations.

 

What music, if any, do you enjoy listening to while you write?

Depends on what kind of chapter I'm writing. I have playlists set up for different moods. But most of the material either originates from angsty '90's alternative or dub-step and electronica.  

 

What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses as a writer?

Honestly, I think it's too early to say for sure. I know that self-discipline and procrastination are weaknesses, but that goes beyond writing. I hope that I can count action sequences and dialog as among strengths - the story kind of relies on those two. It's written in third person, but my narrator tries to shy away from describing the inner workings of the characters' mind. That makes conveying feelings and character development through dialog and actions more important, and I like it that way.

 

What do you hope to achieve with your writing?

I hope that the work entertains. I loved using novels as a temporary and vital escape when I was younger. But I also hope that there are truths and themes significant enough in the story to be worth exploring. Again, I loved that in the stories I loved. I'm trying to write a novel that I would have loved and wanted to read again and again.

 

What was once traditionally a print medium is now rapidly branching out into many digital formats. What do you think of this trend?

I like the idea of e-books, I think that the pulp paperback market could happily be replaced by it, and that appeals to the tree-hugger in me. E-books also open things up, making great new literature more affordable to poor people like me, and providing opportunities for new writers outside of traditional routes. Personally, I want to pursue traditional publishing mostly because I don't consider myself an entrepreneur, and don't want to focus on the business side of things if I don't have to. If I can find an agent and publisher to help reduce that load, I'll be a happy camper. But I love the idea that people can carry a library around in their satchel or purse, and that they can discover words that might have never been available without e-publishing.

 

What was the last sentence that you had to re-read over and over again because of its awesomeness? What struck you about it?

"Expression without constraint comes right from the source. It is the quick, rough sketch, however imprecise, that captures the underlying spirit of things, that has power, whether in jazz or art." ~ Archibald Campbell

I read a lot of blogs and e-mail subscriptions. Mr. Campbell is a painter who writes about the creative life with a vibrancy and passion that I love. I loved writing the first draft of my WIP, but it sucked. Really. I was mortified when I went back to start the revising process. The plot was there, and event he most poignant scenes were pretty good, but the narrative in between was far rougher than I would have liked. But then, writing the first one is such a learning process, isn't it? My goal now is to refine my craft to the point where the first draft is much closer to a complete work. It's my hope that I can capture more of the 'underlying spirit' by more skillfully rendering that first draft so that there will be less deep revision and more polishing. 

What book(s) have you recently read that you would recommend to the readers of this blog?

The last book I read was Greg Mortensen's Stones into Schools, about his quest to bring education to rural Pakistan and Afghanistan. It's heartbreaking and inspiring. Right now I'm reading Rushdie's Luka and the Lake of Fire, which is typically wonderful. 

 

What advice do you have to other aspiring authors out there?

I'm in no place to give advice, but I think I'd invite everyone down to the Authentic Cafe for a cup of full strength honesty. We can talk and learn together.

 

An apocalypse destroys the entirety of human literature, apart from the work of three authors that you can magically save with your wizardry – what do you save from imminent destruction?

Rushdie, Socrates, Saramago 

 

Our time is at an end. For our curious readers, how can we follow your progress?

I blog at michaeldlockhart.blogspot.com about the WIP and anything that captures my attention. From there you can find me on Twitter and Facebook. I'll look for ya...

***Are you an aspiring author willing to do an interview for my little blog? If so, click here.***