Tell us something unexpected about yourself!
- I was in a car with my grandparents on the way home from shopping. I was on my grandmother’s lap in the front seat. She suddenly told me that I should get in the back seat and fasten my seat belt. Another care drove through a Stop sign and hit my grandfather’s car head on shortly after I had fastened my seat beat. My grandmother flew through the windshield onto the street and died instantly. I would have been crushed or thrown through the windshield if I had been on my grandmother’s lap. My grandmother somehow knew that something was going to happen and had saved me.
- I slipped and fell head first into a grain silo on the farm were I worked as a teenager. I was buried alive in the corn / wheat grain. The farmer had heard me hammering on the walls of the silo before I was completely covered in grain and passed out. The last thought I had before I had passed out was that I was going to die. The farmer later told me that all he saw was my feet sticking out of the grain. He had tied a rope around my feet and together with two other people pulled me out.
- I was in a serious accident in which the car I was driving went off a twenty foot bridge embankment. I suffered an Open Skull fracture (compound) and a Closed Skull fracture (simple). I was in a state of severe shock. A farmer found me in his barn after the accident. I had climbed out of the car and had tried to milk his cows. I was covered from head to toe in blood but refused to get in the ambulance when it arrived. There are six weeks of my existence that are a total blank due to the severity of the skull fractures. I have no memories of this period.
- I auditioned and was accepted as an actor / model for a well-known actor talent agency in the early 1980s.
What novels affected you the most growing up?
Wow, I can not list all the written works that have influenced me. There are too many. I can list ten that could be considered as more influential than others.
- “Call of the Wild” Jack London
- “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” Robert M. Pirsig
- “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” Richard Bach
- “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare”
- “A Course in Miracles”
- “Silas Marner” George Eliot
- “Treasure Island” Robert Louis Stevenson
Equally influential are Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mark Twain, Henry David Thoreau and Lao Tzu.
Where did the idea for your current book come from?
“Simplicity of Life” is the second book in a three book “Life” series. The ideas and insights for this book started to take shape as I was working on my first book “One Moment in Life”. I realized that the topics of each book are associated with questions that require real soul searching. That is the reason why the books will be designed in a stepping stone manner for the reader. I offer the reader signposts in each book that may be useful in answering deep philosophical questions. “Simplicity of Life” and the other books in this series consider ideas and insights about our existence, the universe and life. The books can be read individually or as a series.
Do you think there’s any way you could ever run out of ideas for books?
No, I have never experienced this problem. I have always been told that I live in my own world; full of creativity. I feel that there is so much magic to be discovered in life. A tree is not just a tree; it is everything other than a tree. This is how I see everything in the universe. I love expressing and sharing my ideas, imagination and fantasy through the written word. The ideas flow like a never-ending stream.
What is your routine for writing and has this method changed over the span of your career?
My writing style is a mixture of spontaneity and use of the writing skills I learned during my education. I consider what it is that I wish to share. I tend to keep the initial ideal short and fundamental. I do research for lengthier manuscript projects; then I simple start to write. Every project is somewhat like a puzzle that magically fits together. The puzzle pieces are constructed through free-form writing although there is always an intuitive desire for structure within the written segments. It all just somehow falls into place at the appropriate phrase of the manuscript project. I have always used this routine in all my writing projects.
How important is marketing and social media for you?
A person interested in promoting what he or she writes has many options. The key in promoting is to stay active. This means using all available resources that have proven to be respectable. There is not a sure-fire method in promotion. Self-publishing authors can use mainstream social media platforms to promote themselves as an author and present their books. A well structured website is also very useful. Word of mouth is perhaps the best method in becoming established as an author. Speak with people about what you write and ask for feedback. These are a few ideas concerning marketing and social media that I feel are important.
What advice would you have for other writers?
Writing is not really something that is done for a reason. If you have a desire to write; then simply do it. The details will fall into place. It is truly about the joy of writing and sharing, not about the results of both. Stephan King stated this nicely in two quotes:
- “Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it’s about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well.”
- “When you write a book, you spend day after day scanning and identifying the trees. When you’re done, you have to step back and look at the forest.”
What are you reading now?
There are two books that I am currently enjoying; “The Light: A Book of Knowing: How to Shine Your Light Brighter and Live in the Spiritual Heart” by Keidi Keating, and “The Man with a Thousand Faces” by Joseph Campbell.
What’s your next step?
My third book in the “Life” series should be done by late summer 2017. I have several manuscript projects now in planning. I will start writing the next book immediately after the third book is published. The projects will be in diverse genres; some of which include:
- A non-fiction novel which will reflect on human interaction with life as seen through our experiences. This book may be very enjoyable for many people of all ages
- A novel about my search for love that started as a young boy. This may be in the form of a biography.
- Three books for children. I have these more or less written in my mind. The next step is to put them on paper.
- A science fiction novel based on spirituality. This book will have something for everyone; spiritual experiences, time-shifting (wormholes) and earth history. It is the story of a woman that is trying to make sense of her existence, her mortality and life. She will be accompanied by a dog with extraordinary abilities.
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