Schism – An Interview with Clabe Polk
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This week we are chatting to Clabe Polk author of Schism.
Tell us something unexpected about yourself!
I’ve played drums off and on for more than fifty years, also a little piano and guitar. I’ve built three houses from scratch, two I designed. For more than thirty years I was an environmental management and law enforcement professional including specialized criminal law enforcement and chemical emergency response. I have been a sailor, a hunter, a fisherman, gardener, photographer and avid woodworker.
What kind of books do you write?
I prefer to write action books; mostly crime action, but also dystopian action and science fiction. However, I might write any type of fiction except romance or erotica. Besides writing, I also review for other authors in the genre of mystery, crime, action, adventure, science fiction and fantasy.
What inspired you to write?
I've always loved to read. I've always wanted to write books that I would want to read. I believe strongly that writers must be readers first before they can be writers. A lifetime grab-bag of experience is a rich source for story ideas. I've seen and done a lot of different things in my life. Authors need life experiences in order to have enough depth to write convincingly and to have the imagination to go into different directions than many others could go. Actual life experience provided the basis to use my imagination in every way I can conceive.
To me, nothing in the world happens unless it is someone's thought first. Thought gives rise to action which gives rise to creation. Writing communicates visual, auditory, and emotional images in a form that can be imagined by others as well. Writing expresses the joy of creative visualization.
What makes your writing stand out from the crowd?
I try to cut to the chase without being obvious about it. I minimize narration and use dialogue to convey images just as someone actually involved in the action would convey images. As a reader, I’m bored to tears by long drawn out mental or emotional ruminations that occur inside a character’s head. I try to avoid these inner dialogues and if I use them at all, they are very short.
My goal is entertainment for the reader with a minimum of mental investment. I try to make them quick paced and hard hitting. Finally, my characters are real people; no superheroes, no heroines who suddenly inherit magical powers, no super-rich or characters with extraordinary resources in my stories. My characters drink beer and eat pretzels, and don’t always do the right thing. Just like the rest of us.
What is the hardest part of writing – for you?
Writing is the easy part. I have the hardest time with marketing and selling the finished books. I am an achiever by nature; a creator of projects, but not a natural seller of projects. Also, the amount of time spent in marketing and promotion severely restricts the time available for writing. So the tough nut becomes how do you write more books when your time is spent selling the ones you’ve already written. I don’t know. I’m still trying to figure that out!
Where do you like to write – what is your routine?
I write at a desk in my office, a converted upstairs bedroom in my house. I’m retired from a regular job, so I get up when my wife gets up to leave in the morning, sit down at my desk and dig in for the day which most days involves promotion, seeking reviews and marketing in some form rather than writing. Recently, I’ve been mentoring a high school senior through her senior project in self-publishing. That has proven to be a unique and useful experience.
What do you do when you are not writing – do you have a day job?
I’m retired from more than thirty years as a environmental protection program administrator with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. I don’t have a regular day job, but my wife tells me I have plenty to do around the house so I need to put down the writing and get busy!
Do you work with an outline or just write?
I just write. I have the story visualized in my mind, so I focus on getting to, and through, the key points logically as I write. I’ve tried both typing and voice-recognition software, but I find, maybe because of habit and experience, that stories flow much more logically for me when typed, than when spoken.
What advice would you have for other writers?
• Don’t quit your day job!
• Put your butt in your chair, fire up your computer and your imagination and write. Just do it!
• You will probably write a number of books before one hits the jackpot. Keep spinning the slot machine; there’s a jackpot in there somewhere!
• Have an overall plan, but be prepared to change it if necessary. Prepare to spend a lot of time designing and executing promotions.
• Think out of the box! Try new things.
• Free promotions? Right! Let me know how that works for you. People love free books and they will take all they can get, and never leave a review anywhere. Unless you can figure out a tight-knit scheme to get reviews in return, I would suggest not using them; unless of course, you just want all of the people who love free books to love you for giving them free books.
How important is marketing and social media for you?
Obviously marketing is urgent. I doubt many writers write merely to give their work away free. I’m big into social media, but I’m not sure yet how effective social media actually is. It certainly does expose your message to lot of people, but also exposes them to a lot of messages from a lot of other people; it seems to me, to the point of information shut down. Therefore, social media hasn’t proven its value to me yet. The idea behind social media advertising is great, but I’m still waiting for my bottom line to reflect its claims.
What's your next step?
The second edition of Schism, the third book in the Detective Mike Eiser Series was just re-released in February. Angelica, the fourth book in the Detective Mike Eiser Series is scheduled for release in early summer. The Collegial Conspiracy, the Adventures of Harry Morgan Series, is scheduled for release later in the summer. Writing has begun on Fire on the Mountain, the fifth book in the Detective Mike Eiser Series. Finally, there are two books on the drawing boards, one a collection of classic short stories, and a second dystopian novel in the planning stages.
Schism by Clabe Polk is available here.
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