I really
enjoyed reading Aachen and so happy that you will share some of your thoughts
on writing this book. This was a decade in the making. Tell me, how did you
make time to write while holding a full-time job and raising four children?
First, let me thank you so much for your kind words about
Aachen and for asking me to do this interview. I always enjoy your blog - you
have an excellent instinct for zooming into the heart of any question.
Well, making time is why this book took over a decade to
become reality. (Actually pretty close to 15 years from first words on page,
and 25 years from initial concept...) My habits have changed over the years.
When I first started, we had no kids (or Elizabeth was on the way, I'm not sure
now) and my enormously supportive wife told me to sit down and write that book
I kept talking about wanting to write. I wrote mostly on weekends then, and I
was fairly undisciplined. In later years, I tended to write while sitting
outside ballet studios or rehearsal halls. For the past few years, I have
established a better rhythm, staying up for an hour after the rest of the
family goes to bed. I also snatch the few odd minutes here or there, as I keep
most of my documents in the cloud and accessible by cell phone. Just yesterday
I was writing in my doctor's waiting room.
Having a schedule and keeping to it is so important, but
faith has to come first, and family second, and writing sometimes gets
sacrificed as a result. I must confess, however, that I've used that
"family first" principle as a crutch during times where the problem
has really been my self-discipline.
Ooofff, I
am also guilty of that, more than I’d like to admit.
I'm not surprised. I think it is
a very common human trait. Even self-sacrifice can end up being done for
selfish reasons!
How many
revision passes did you make on Aachen? What was the process like? How did you
know it was time to hand it over to a professional editor?
At least eight! (That's the versioning number on my final
version, but that doesn't count the formatting and final typographical edit
round. It also may not count the first round, but I'm not sure.
I initially wrote 120 pages that I threw away. The plot was
different then and ill-conceived, and I wrote myself into a corner. After that
(and I was writing solely in journals at that point), I did a rough outline
with an eye toward developing a plot that met what I understood was good
story-telling structure.
The next few drafts were structural. I ripped out sections
that didn't work, added subplots to flesh out the story, and so forth. Then I
worked on voice and writing style and especially fixing all those stylistic
problems that are so easy to fall into - telling instead of showing, use of
adjectives, and so forth. Then into more of a line-by-line edit phase, making
sentences sound better, fixing little problems like consistent naming of
characters, consistent spelling, minor timeline issues.
I knew I needed an editor when I made the commitment to
publish Aachen myself. I had gone through various phases of submittals to
agents and publishers and found the process frustrating. At one point I had a
publisher interested, and we spent time emailing back and forth, trying to
convince her that the book fit her vision for her publishing company. She was
very gracious and encouraging, but finally declined to publish it. After that
it sat on a shelf for awhile, until I started hearing about how self-publishing
had transitioned from vanity presses to a viable model for authors. I made the
commitment to do it, did a copyedit pass on the book, and sent it to an
editor.
Alrighty,
I don’t feel so terrible being on my seventh draft of my historical now – it is
a lot to process.
Historicals pose a bit of an
additional challenge as well, because you need to do the history right. There's
all that research, then while you're writing a draft you think of additional
research you need. And you have to comb through it searching for anachronisms.
Novels are huge complex machines that can be easily broken.
You are a
physicist, and I presume very good with numbers. But you also have a great
talent with words. Have you always been good at both? Please share a little bit
about the writing journey. What were the essential tools to developing the
craft?
Yes, I'm pretty good at numbers! I have always had talent in
both writing and science. In high school I wrote stories. We had a weekly essay
assignment in English class, and I just started writing a novella-length story
in installments instead of the essays. My teacher loved it. I took
opportunities to write little stories whenever I could. I remember vocabulary
assignments in which we had to write a sentence for each word. No reason those
sentences couldn't all make up a story, right? (Didn't know I was writing flash
fiction back then...)
I took a creative writing class in college and subscribed to
Writer's Digest for years. I devoured books on writing in an effort to develop
my craft. I have a stack of stories that I never submitted anywhere. I did make
some submissions, but the closest I got to success was to be a quarter-finalist
in the Writer's of the Future contest back when I was in college. I was very
self-critical, and I had quite a low-tolerance for failure, and so stories just
stayed in notebooks. I still find them from time to time. Some of them I have
no memory writing.
Essential tools? Reading voraciously, writing doggedly, and
studying the craft diligently.
Great
advice!
Did the
character of Stephen come fully fledged to you or did he develop slowly over
time? He is not a typical slave-soldier-student, but he faces many of the
challenges that young men face today regarding doubts, damsels, and dreams. I
really admired how organically he grew to do the next right thing. How did you
achieve the pacing in the book?
He developed slowly. Main characters should always be
special people, otherwise why would we want to read about them? One of my goals
was to put a mirror up to the problems a young man faces today, but to do it
without just transporting a 21st century man back to the 8th century. In many
ways he is me, of course. Even though my challenges and mistakes were quite
different from Stephen's, I could use my reactions to them to model his
reactions to his.
I wanted Stephen to grow in a certain way. I knew he had to
make mistakes, pursue the wrong path, and confront his demons in order to be
the person he needed to be. I constructed the plot to facilitate that growth. I
gave him successes quickly followed by conflict and disappointment, each time
increasing the success and increasing the disappointment, until finally I took
everything away from him.
The hardest part was making him unusual for a peasant of
that age without making him anachronistic.
Notker
was one of my favorite characters and not just because he was a wonderful
mentor and said wise words, but because he stuttered. I stuttered horribly as a
child, and still have moments when I cannot get the words out, so it was a
pleasant shock to realize Notker was going to be one of the good guys and not a
stammering fool. Is he based on a real monk? And if not, I’m curious why you
chose this affliction for him.
Notker is an homage to Notker the Stammerer, a biographer of
Charlemagne. His biography of Charlemagne was one of the sources I used in
researching this book. I don't have any soures describing his stammer, but only
sources saying that he did stammer. Beyond that, his personality is my
invention. He is a big favorite of mine as well, and I even have given him a
cameo in the book I'm writing now! The hard part with him was writing the
stutter in a way that was convincing without making it too hard to read.
Your
villains were especially terrible. You have a few chapters from Lewis’ point of
view. I also enjoyed the few scenes devoted to Lewis’ mother. What a piece of
work! Was it difficult getting into the heads of these people? I can just
imagine you having a good time making them as wicked as possible.
The scenes from Lewis' perspective were added later, as I
didn't feel that the earlier drafts described well enough his motivation.
Writing wicked people is both fun and unpleasant at the same time. There were a
couple of scenes that I did not like to describe, but I needed them there in
order to foreshadow what you learn later in the book. Unfortunately, people
like that are so common in pop culture and even on the news that getting into
their heads wasn't as hard as some of the other characters.
Your
ending made me cry. Yet, it was so very believable. The state of women for most
of history has been sorry. I appreciated that you did not import 20th
century sensibilities to your story. Did you know from the beginning what
Bertrada’s journey would be? Did you ever consider a HEA (happily ever after)
ending?
I'm glad it had an effect! I did work hard to keep
historical versimilitude insofar as character behavior and how they were
treated. I thought for a long time about an HEA, but this ending grew organically.
I think by the time I crossed the 75% mark I kind of knew what would happen,
but some specific items really surprised me when they popped out of my head. I
really loved the character of Bertrada. I wish I could find a way to write
about her again.
I can
imagine you writing a sequel, exploring what it means to achieve holiness
through simple living, like St. Isidore the farmer. Is one in the works?
I've thought about a straight up sequel, showing what
happens to Stephen, but I haven't figured out a dramatic arc that could carry
the story yet. I hope someday to be hit by that inspiration! However, I am
writing two more books set in the same time period. These are more of the
mystery/thriller genre, however. As I mentioned, I did bring in Notker for a
cameo, and the first novel does take place in Orlans about seven years after
the incidents in Aachen. The style of the book, however, is very different. It
is fast-paced, short chapters, and a bit scary.
Aha! The
all-important dramatic questions. I am sure they will come. In the meantime, I
can see that you are completely fascinated by this period. What a great way for
us to learn about it. I have probably learned more history through reading
historical fiction. I will look forward to your next books!
Your
characters came alive for me and I was able to picture them living and fighting
and walking all those miles! Michael and I lived for two years at the foothills
of the Ardennes (in Verviers, Belgium). I drove to Koeln every day for work, passing the
sign for Aachen, so the terrain is familiar. How did you get a sense of place
to write about this? Your descriptions are vivid.
I studied and studied! The inspiration originally came from
a history course I took in college. I studied every book on that era that I
could find and based the towns of Orlans and St. Thomas on real towns. Aachen,
of course is based on the real city. The countryside is out of my imagination,
but specific descriptions of plants and so forth were researched to be
consistent with what would be in that location.
Are some
of the people besides Charlemagne historical?
Not really. Notker is an homage as I mentioned before, and
the book does mention Alcuin, who was a historical figure who did in fact start
the palace school at Aachen. It was in reading about the palace school, and how
peasants could even be taught there, that I came up with the idea. The attack
in the beginning of the book is based on the Battle of Ronceval, as described
in the Song of Roland, but I made the book more consistent with the legendary
description of that battle rather than what historians think probably actually
happened.
Did you
have to learn any special things to self-publish? With a traditional publisher,
you have a team of people helping you, not just your editor, but art directors,
copyeditors, marketing and many more.
I had to study the process, how to write a 'book blurb', how
to format the cover. I did hire a cover designer, which worked well, but I had
to know exactly how the cover needed to be prepared (ie resolution, size, and
other parameters like "bleed"). I had to learn how to format the
document for both print and Kindle, which are different. Formatting the book
was tedious and took a back and forth of a few weeks. Marketing, I'm still
learning about! Though I do understand that even with traditional publishing
you have to do a bunch of your own marketing.
Well,
you’ve done a fantastic job with both the flap cover and teaser. I’ll be coming
to you for help when I’m ready to submit. Speaking of, are you hoping a
traditional publisher will pick this us? What are the chances? I think the
biggest hurdle with self-publishing is how to make your book stand out in a sea
of books. I will make every effort to promote this Gary. You have written a
great story!
Thank you so much for your
enthusiasm and support! I have a quite small circle on the internet, and I need
to expand that, not just to "sell more books" but more to engage the
world in a positive way. We aren't meant to sit in our homes and watch TV all
day. We're supposed to be out there making a difference in people's lives, and
the internet is one way to do that. If I do a good job of that, the book will
find readers, I think. It is so true that there is a great sea of books out
there. It's true of traditionally published authors as well. One thing I cling
to is that this book will now be out there and available forever. It will never
be out of print, so I can take a long view of things. Do I hope for a
traditional deal? That would be wonderful, but that's sort of like hitting the
lottery. It's nice to think about, but I don't dare expect it. However, I have
heard that some publishers are using self-published books as their "slush
pile", watching for books that do well and then snatching them up. There
are some notable examples of that happening.
It is refreshing
to see such a healthy attitude towards publishing. It’s not just about selling
books, rather touching people’s lives. Is there anything else you’d like to
share, Gary? Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions so
generously.
Thank you, Vijaya for asking for this interview. I've never
done one before, and it's quite an honor! Thank you also for reading Aachen and
for your gracious comments. I will probably write many books over the coming
years - I enjoy the process too much to stop, even if it remains just a hobby -
but Aachen will always be my special book. It's funny. I have a Ph.D. in
physics, and I have a very successful career as an engineer, but right now I am
probably more gratified by the accomplishment of writing Aachen than I am about
the others. Of course, it doesn't compare to how I feel about the marriage and
family I have built, but it is the one "material" accomplishment that
I really feel God "called me" to do. I hope anyone who reads it
enjoys it and comes away with something they didn't have before.
Gary, I
know exactly what you mean, both the calling and the pleasure. I do believe our
blessed Lord feels our pleasure as well. God bless you and all your ventures!
Thank you!
