Author’s Name: Andrew
Joyce
Bio: Andrew
Joyce left high school at seventeen to hitchhike throughout the US, Canada, and
Mexico. He wouldn’t return from his journey until decades later when he decided
to become a writer. Joyce has written four books, and a collection of one
hundred and forty short stories that is comprised of his hitching adventures,
written as veiled non-fiction called BEDTIME
STORIES FOR GROWN-UPS. His novel, REDEMPTION:
The Further Adventures of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, has hit #1 on Amazon in two categories twice in
the last year. He has just published his latest novel, MOLLY LEE. He now
lives on a boat in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with his dog, Danny.
Genre: Historical
Fiction/Action
Links:
Interview:
1) What
inspired you to start writing?
One morning I went crazy. I got out
of bed, went downstairs, and threw my TV out the window. Then I sat down at the
computer and wrote my first short story. It was soon published in a print
magazine (remember them?). I’ve been writing ever since.
2) What advice
would you give a new writer just starting out?
Read . . . read, and then read some
more. Read everything you can get your hands on!
3) Who is
your favorite author and why?
John Steinbeck and this is why:
"The afternoon came
down as imperceptibly as age comes to a happy man. A little gold entered into
the sunlight. The bay became bluer and dimpled with shore-wind ripples. Those
lonely fishermen who believe that the fish bite at high tide left their rocks
and their places were taken by others, who were convinced that the fish bite at
low tide."— John
Steinbeck, Tortilla Flat
Have ever read anything as beautiful?
Well, I have and it was all stuff Steinbeck had written.
4) What comes first, the plot or characters?
When I start a book I have only the
first sentence and the last paragraph in my head. Then all I have to do is come
up with 100,000 words to fill in the blank space between.
5) Tell us something about your
newest release.
Molly Lee is about to set off on the adventure of
a lifetime . . . of two lifetimes.
It’s
1861 and the Civil War has just started. Molly is an eighteen-year-old girl
living on her family’s farm in Virginia when two deserters from the Southern
Cause enter her life. One of them—a twenty-four-year-old Huck Finn—ends up
saving her virtue, if not her life.
Molly
is so enamored with Huck, she wants to run away with him. But Huck has other
plans and is gone the next morning before she awakens. Thus starts a sequence
of events that leads Molly into adventure after adventure; most of them not so
nice.
We
follow the travails of Molly Lee, starting when she is eighteen and ending when
she is fifty-six. Even then Life has one more surprise in store for her.
6) What is
the hardest part about writing for you?
Marketing! The prevailing wisdom is
that you have to be on Twitter, on Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr, and
Instagram to name just a few.
If I’m posting on all those sites,
then I’m not writing. How many times can I tweet that I’m a genius and that you
should buy my books? And what else is there to tweet? Who cares what I had for
breakfast. And I really don’t care what is “trending” and couldn’t care less
about commenting on it. The same goes for the rest of those social media sites.
I’ve given up on trying to sell books
on social media. Instead, what I do is beg book bloggers for reviews. And
believe me, it ain’t easy. For my last book, REDEMPTION: The Further
Adventures of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, I had to go through a list of
3,500 bloggers. After visiting each blog individually (3,500!!!) to read their
review policies, I found 300 that would maybe
give me a review. Thirty responded. It only took two months of eight to ten-hour
days, but it worked! Sales were good because of the exposure I received from
those initial reviews, and the book—two years later—is averaging 4.5 stars from
300 reviews (132 on Amazon).
I can’t wait to stop marketing Molly
and sit down at the computer and bang out my next book. I already have half of
it written in my head.
7) What is
your work schedule like when you are writing?
I like to write in the early morning
hours when things are quiet. I usually get up around 2:00 a.m. and go to work.
The commute is not long . . . only a few steps to my computer.
8) What did
you want to be when you grew up?
I never wanted to grow up, and I
believe I have succeeded.
9) How do
you do research for your books?
This is my favorite question. I
research my butt off. I write (for the most part) historical novels. I must
know about the era; the nomenclature . . . everything. I’m presently
researching women’s undergarments of the 1890s. If there is anything you need
to know about pantalettes, just ask me. As to the how . . . I must admit that
I’ve gotten lazy. I used to go to the library; now it’s all on line. Google
Scholar rocks!
10 What
group did you hang out with in high school?I had no friends in high
school. Sill don’t . . . come to think of it.
11) What would we find under your bed?The monster that lives there.
12) What is something that you absolutely can't live without?Oxygen . . . vodka is a close second.
13) If you could spend a day with anyone from history, dead or alive, who would it be, and what would you do? What would you ask them?I’d love to spend some time with Jesus. I’d take Him sailing (I live on a sailboat) and ask Him so many questions, He’d probably get out and walk home.
14) Do you write in multiple genres or just one?I have 142 short stories
that cover everything from the detective genre to science fiction and
everything in between.
15) Is there a writer you idolize? If so who?John Steinbeck.
16) What are your favorite TV shows?I do not own a TV.
17) Do you have any other books on the horizon?
Yes
I do, but right now my attention is riveted on a big, tall, frosty glass of
vodka and cranberry juice (with extra lime). So I’ll have to go now. It’s been
a pleasure. Thank you.
No comments:
Post a Comment