"We will need writers who can remember freedom." Please be still for 6 min and listen to Ursula K LeGuin on the art and biz of writing

Ursula K. Le Guin accepts the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters at the 65th National Book Awards on November 19, 2014:

"The profit motive often is in conflict with the aims of art. We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art—the art of words..."

Ben Loory, author of my hands-down favorite summer read, interviewed by Bigfoot

More about Stories for Nighttime and Some For the Day.

An Interview With Author Karen McQuestion Reveals a Bit of a Cinderella Story

Ebook publishing is a hotly debated subject these days with rhetoric pouring in from all sides. But that aside, the stories and the authors who write them remain the key. One author who has quietly found her charmed path along this heated trail is Karen McQuestion. Recently, I had the pleasure of reading and reviewing for Boxocto her wonderful novel A Scattered Life. She has other work as well including essays that have appeared in Newsweek, the Chicago Tribune, Denver Post, Christian Science Monitor and several an-

thologies. In addition to A Scattered Life, she is the author of three other novels, one children's book and one collection of humorous essays. But here’s the Cinderella part: She originally self-published A Scattered Life as an e-book for Amazon's Kindle. Then within a few weeks, the novel caught the attention of a L.A. based production company and became the first self-published Kindle book to be optioned for film. And on August 23rd, two of her titles, Easily Amused and A Scattered Life will be released by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Today please welcome Karen who has graciously consented to answer a few questions and share her thoughts about her inspiring journey.

Karen, thank you so much for stopping by this morning. A few things I’m curious about . . .

If you were entering the ebook market today, would your approach be any different with regard to, say, pricing, marketing, tagging etc?

I was a knucklehead when I first started out. I can’t tell you what my reasoning was, but I priced my first two books at $1.49 and $1.79. They did sell, but I soon learned that those are odd amounts in the ebook world, and rounded both up to $1.99. If I was starting out today, I think I’d be tempted to price my books low for the first few months to get the ball rolling, and then increase them to $2.99 to take advantage of the 70% Amazon royalty that kicks in at that price.

I stumbled onto the importance of using the keywords and tagging allowed in the Amazon system early in the process. Each book is allowed umpteen tags and up to twenty keywords, so why not use them all for maximum search optimization? That’s my philosophy anyway.

My soft sell approach to marketing online has worked well for me. If I had to do it over again, I’d do it the same.

Also, there’s a lot of (often confusing) cyber talk these days about the unwarranted gold rush fever ebookdom has inspired and dire warnings about its negative impact on the world of traditional publishing abound. According to some this comes at the expense of good fiction. Among other things, they cite the dreadful mountain of ebook slush and the prevalence of piracy. Your experience and your success seem to run counter to these notions. Were you ever concerned about any of this controversy when you initiated the process of uploading your books? Are you now?

I think you give me way too much credit! When I first started uploading books in July 2009, I wasn’t speculating about the future of ebooks. My view was much smaller and more immediate. I wondered if anyone would even buy and read my books. At the time I entered the market, there was no Nook or iPad and most people, when I brought up the subject, said, “What’s a Kindle?” I had no idea this would get to be as big as it has. Without realizing it, my timing was perfect.

As to whether or not I’m concerned about the influx of ebooks, many of them not ready for prime time, the answer is no. Any book that’s out there is already competing with millions of titles. Now there’s more and a lot of them aren’t of the highest caliber? In the scheme of things, this is a small problem. I’d say the remedy is to write the best book I can and hope it compares well.

I so agree with that, writing the best book possible! Can you tell us, what are you working on now?

I have two projects in the works. The one I’ll complete first is an adult fiction. It’s a road trip novel with four characters thrown together under unlikely circumstances. When I’m finished with that, I’d like to return to another manuscript, a young adult novel. I tried working on both at the same time, but found it difficult, so the second one will have to wait its turn.

And one last bonus question: What are you reading now?

I’m reading Regarding Ducks and Universes by Neve Maslakovic. I met her when I went to the Book Expo in New York this past May and we hit it off. When I came home and read her bio, I discovered that she had her Ph.D. in engineering from Stanford University. I’m glad I didn’t know that at the time because I would have been intimidated.

Her writing is so good and I’m really enjoying the book. I’d call it smart science fiction--very character driven. My dad was a big science fiction fan and I grew up in a house with bookcases full of Bradbury and Asimov and all the greats. I can see influences from those authors in this book, but it also reminds me a little of Time and Again by Jack Finney, one of my all time favorite books.

Thank you again for stopping by and for sharing all this great information. For more about Karen, visit her website

Margaret Atwood on the essential love triangle that is publishing

Fantastic interview with the brilliant Margaret Atwood in The Globe and Mail last week. Her comment on the evolution of ebooks:

"The intention is the same: that is, to get stuff from here to there, and from then to now. The author communicates with the book; the book communicates with the reader, and e-books are another connection between them. Whether the technology is printing a text on a Xerox machine or reading it in a book or writing it on a wall, there is always a triangle: writer, text, reader.

...Every time there is a new medium, people get hypnotized by it: the printing press, radio, television, the Internet. It’s certainly a change in the world, which then somehow adapts. A whole section of society was very upset when zippers came in because they made it easier to seduce people in automobiles."

Read the rest here and have a great week!

2 dogs, 2 identities, and 3 Qs for author Ethan Cross

This week, Ethen Cross (the freshly minted identity of a midwestern thriller writer) base jumps to a new genre with his novel The Shepherd.

Per the PR:

Marcus Williams and Francis Ackerman Jr. both have a talent for hurting people. Marcus, a former New York City homicide detective, uses his abilities to protect others, while Ackerman uses his gifts to inflict pain and suffering. When both men become unwilling pawns in a conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of our government, Marcus finds himself in a deadly game of cat and mouse trapped between a twisted psychopath and a vigilante with seemingly unlimited resources. Aided by a rogue FBI agent and the vigilante's beautiful daughter -a woman with whom he's quickly falling in love- Marcus must expose the deadly political conspiracy and confront his past while hunting down one of the most cunning and ruthless killers in the world.

Thanks for taking time to visit, Ethan. How are you? Is launching a book in the current publishing climate turning your brain to patty melt or are you having a great ride?
Hmm, great ride or patty melt… A little bit of both, I suppose. It’s been a wild ride filled with a lot of ups and downs. And it’s amazing how much work goes into the promotion of a book and how easy it can be to fall down the promotion rabbit hole. I think the hardest part of it all has been trying to manage all of the promotion work that needs to be done along with writing. There are only so many hours in the day, and I have yet to shake the shackles of the day job (the darn kids keep crying out for their food and shelter…).

In that case, let's get down to business and plug the book. Brian S. Wheeler's description ("Silence of the Lambs meets The Bourne Identity") was enough to make me take notice, but my TBR pile is tall. Tell me why I should move The Shepherd to the top of the heap.
Without quoting another blurb or running through the standard book description, I would say that my goal with The Shepherd was to write a book that I would want to read. And I love books that are fast-paced with a lot of action. I tried to take the serial killer genre but put a slightly different spin on it (and the book also revolves around a larger conspiracy in which the killer plays a part). There are a lot of books out there that feature the hunt for serial killers; after all, these men are like aliens among us. They think and act in ways that most of us cannot begin to comprehend, which in turn makes them fascinating. But while most novels of this type take the police procedural approach and the following of clues to find the killer (and my book does have some of this), The Shepherd is designed to get the reader into the killer’s head and wonder how the other characters are going to escape. In other words, it’s not a “follow the clues to unmask the killer” type of book. It’s more a “oh my God, he’s in the next room…and he’s got a shotgun” type of book.

Your bio says, "Ethan Cross is the pen name of a thriller author living and writing in Illinois with his wife, two daughters, and two Shih Tzus." Why two? (Identities, I mean, not Shih Tzus.) And what's different about style and creative process between the two?
Why use a pen name? Well, the easiest answer is that my agent told me to. But in truth, I always knew that I would have to use pen names. This is because the publishing industry wants authors to be established as a brand just like any other product. They want people to be able to pick up any Ethan Cross novel and know what to expect. It's a sound business principle. It's kind of like the concept of Pepsi versus Mountain Dew. If you opened up a Pepsi and it tasted like Mountain Dew, you would probably be shocked and disappointed. You may even like Mountain Dew, but you sat down expecting a Pepsi since that's what you bought. It's the same idea with an author. I want readers to pick up an Ethan Cross novel and be able to count on a breathless, fast-paced suspense thriller. I do plan, however, on writing books in several different genres including action/adventure, science fiction, literary fiction, horror, fantasy, or whatever good idea comes along. I love all types of books and stories and have ideas that don't fit into one type of box. But those ideas will fit into a box because they will be under different names. So nobody will buy an Ethan Cross book and get a bad taste in their mouth expecting Pepsi but receiving Mountain Dew instead.

Bonus Q: What are you reading?
I pretty much enjoy any book that’s action-packed, regardless of genre. There are also those rare books that are a slow burn but are still completely enthralling for a variety of reasons, but those are few and far between. I love David Morrell, James Rollins, F. Paul Wilson, Dean Koontz, Jeffery Deaver, James Patterson, Douglas Preston, Clive Cussler, and many, many more. Currently, I’m reading The Fall by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan (on audiobook) and The Dragon Factory by Jonathan Maberry. But I just finished reading First Blood by David Morrell (the book that the first Rambo film was based upon) and Hostage Zero by John Gilstrap.

A broad canvas and the mess that makes it real: 3 Qs for Jasper Fforde, author of the Thursday Next series

With a fresh Thursday Next book available in stores and online this week, Jasper Fforde stops by to answer 3Qs...

Jasper, thanks so much for taking time to visit. I've been hooked on Thursday Next since I listened to The Eyre Affair while driving across Montana. At the time you wrote it, did you see the series continuing indefinitely or did you start with a specific number of books and a full story arc in mind?
The Eyre Affair was originally intended as a standalone book, and indeed, when I wrote it in 1996, that's all it was. I wrote another two and a half unpublished books before it was accepted for publication in 2000, and I was then asked if it could have a sequel. I said 'Yes' because I wasn't going to say 'no' given that I had waited ten years and seven and a half books to be published!

I think they were expecting a similar tale where Thursday fixes up a problem in another classic, but I rarely like to do what is expected and instead expanded on the idea of a 'Bookworld' on the other side of the written page, with Jurisfiction, a Policing Agency, to look after it. I'm very glad I did as it has created a very broad canvas into which I can fit almost any idea I want.

This series is such a natural place for evolving Harry Potter fans to go as they grow up. (As a nerdy, Bronte-addicted teen with a horrible attitude, I would have adored Thursday Next!) Do you find yourself wanting to speak to smart young readers about their complicated world or do you abide by the "if you want to send a message, use Western Union" credo?
I am here primarily as an entertainer. Someone to make waiting times in airports disappear. If a reader enjoys my books and even laughs out loud - I'm happy. But if you're the sort of reader who wants something to think about, then that is there too - there are serious threads running through the books, from comments on the human condition to political satire. I think multi layered books are more enjoyable, and add extra depth to the reading experience.

A literary agent suggested this series to me as an example of brilliant world-building, and I've passed that suggestion to other writers. What advice do you have for authors attempting to create an alternate world that feels this rich and real?
It's all in the detail. Large and expansive set pieces are all very well, but its the mess and clutter that make it real. Hovercars and Rayguns are fun of course, but I'd concentrate more on the drains. Much of our lives is spent with the everyday mundanities of life, not the exciting bits. Okay, so we've got to repel an attack by the seven-headed Zook of Zargon, but where the hell did I put my keys? And shall I drop in the dry cleaning on the way?

Jasper, thanks again for your time. I'm already looking forward to the next Next! Bonus Q, if you're so inclined: What are you reading?
Right now? An autobiography of Roger Moore, that iconic non-acting actor that I remember so well from my childhood. He's a very engaging writer, and an easy read.

Visit Jasper Fforde's website for Toad News, Fforum, and much more (including a pointed message from Jasper's Mum.)

"I'm pretty well adjusted for a writer." 3 Qs for Tawni O'Dell, author of "Fragile Beasts"

Tawni O'Dell's Fragile Beasts is fresh out in paperback this week. Yesterday, we gave you a peek inside the PR kit and steered you toward Tawni's excellent op ed on gender bias in literary fiction. Today, as promised, she takes a moment today to answer 3 Qs.

Tawni, thanks for your time. I know a lot has happened since the hardcover release last year, including the making of a Back Roads movie. How have readers reacted to Fragile Beasts?
I’m happy and relieved to say that my readers seem to love it. I’ve been hearing a lot of, “it’s your best book so far,” which is something you want to hear as an author because you want to grow and improve with each novel but there’s also that part of you that wants to defend your others. It’s sort of the way you feel when someone compliments one of your children and you feel obliged to point out that your other child is equally impressive. But I agree with them. I don’t like the use of vague superlatives like “best,” but I think it’s my most mature and ambitious novel yet and I’m happy with it.

I think the major appeal of the book comes from the contrasts between the dual narratives of the two very different main characters - Candace Jack, a wealthy woman in her seventies, and Kyle Hayes, a deprived boy in his teens - and the two very different settings of modern-day Pennsylvania coal country (my usual setting) and the bullfighting world of Spain in the 1950s.

PW loved the dialogue in Fragile Beasts (as did I), and I know you're screenwriting as well. What are some of the elements key to writing delicious, credible dialogue?
Dialogue comes very naturally to me. It’s the easiest element of novel writing for me and like all things that come easily and naturally to me I don’t like to stop and ask myself how I do it for fear of screwing it up.

I will say that in order to write good dialogue you have to know how people really talk. You can’t write how you “think” people talk or how you “want” them to talk. And in order to do that you have to get out there in the world and be around a lot of different people and be a good listener. I grew up in a family of talkers who were great storytellers, and I was a born observer and mental note-taker. I decided early on to sit back and listen and learn.
You also have to be able to let your characters completely inhabit you. That way when you speak for them you can’t help but sound authentic.

Candace is a complicated character to love - and to write. How did she get into your head? And how did you get into hers?
Candace - like all my characters – just appeared in my head one day. This doesn’t mean I was instantly able to write a novel around her. It took me almost two years of thinking about her before I knew her and her story well enough to put it down on paper.

I don’t go looking for my characters; they find me. I don’t intentionally try to write about a particular type of person and I never base my characters on real people; I find that creatively restrictive. But like all writers, the people and places and experiences of my own life shape my material.

One of the most important people in my life and one of my greatest role models was my grandmother, Naomi, who passed away this summer at the age of 95. Candace began to form in my mind at a time when Grandma’s health began to deteriorate and she had to move into an assisted living facility. In hindsight, I’m sure my preoccupation with her during those years led to a desire in me to create a strong, compelling older female character.

It’s also not surprising to me that part of Candace’s story takes place in Spain. My husband has a home in Mallorca and my children and I have spent our past nine summers with him there as well as doing a lot of traveling throughout the rest of Spain. The country has had a powerful effect on me, and I knew it would end up in my writing someday.

Bonus Q: What are you reading?
I’ve been immersed in rereading all the H.P. Lovecraft and Shirley Jackson I can get my hands on because the novel I’m currently writing, Company Town, is partially a ghost story, and they’re both masters at terror. They’re two of my favorite authors in general but my absolute favorites in the genre. I also just finished reading Blake Bailey’s biography of John Cheever which – like most biographies of authors I’ve read - made me feel like I’m pretty well-adjusted for a writer. I keep telling my family this. They’re still not convinced.

Visit Tawni O'Dell's website for more.

Love/Hate Relationships and the shifting state of the biz: 3 Qs for author James Lepore

Attorney/author James Lepore's latest novel, Blood of My Brother, is about revenge and redemption. His forthcoming Sons and Princes traps a mafia heir between two worlds. I was sensing a dichotomy theme...

James, thanks for joining us. The publishing industry has certainly been a rollercoaster ride since you got into it with your first novel, A World I Never Made. What's your take on where we go from here?
I have the feeling that 2010 will be seen as the moment of transition from the old to the new—and ever evolving—model, of book publishing. The e-reader will, I believe, from now on, be accepted as the way to receive their daily bread by readers of both fiction and non-fiction. Packaging is nice, but in the end it’s content, not packaging, that sustains a reader’s soul. Most of us have at least two or three balls in the air at one time, all the time. Reader’s will always love to read, but in today’s very hectic world (and very scary economy), I believe they will be willing to sacrifice packaging in exchange for the great pricing and the tremendous simplicity and ease of purchase and delivery that comes with an e-reader.

This is not to say that print books will go away. They will, I believe, fall into a different, and more exalted category of acquisition, that of the prized possession. Remember, I said daily bread, not gourmet meal. There will be readers—many, many of them—who will love a book so much that they will have to own it as an artifact, an icon of their experience of reading it. This desire for the physical thing may arise after reading an e-book, or by simply knowing that certain books have to be on your shelf near the fireplace, Jane Austen, for example, or Hemingway or Steinbeck, or Stieg Larrson. Publishers may respond by printing limited special editions, beautifully bound, perhaps signed by the author. Treasures to be cared for, handed down, read aloud to the children.

As this new model expands, traditional print publishers are going to have to rethink their missions, while at the same time self-publishing and other models—most of them not even thought of at the moment—will have more room to position themselves than ever dreamed possible. I can see five writers getting together, for example, to form their own e-publishing company. I say go for it. Keep all the profits!

So what does this mean for bookstores?
I think the big ones are great, but I believe they are going to have to reshape themselves—likely a painful process—in order to survive. The small ones, the indies, will, I believe, be the winners in this brave new publishing world. They will be the places where the special editions of loved books, new and old, can be purchased, where people can browse and feel books in their hands that—since it is not an every day occurrence—they will be willing to pay a premium for. Your readers will not miss the irony of this, hi-tech takes the indies full circle, from esteemed local businesses, to despair, to triumph in a new paradigm.

In five years, God willing, I’ll write anoher piece for you, Joni, and talk about how near to, or far from, the mark I came.

I always ask everybody what they're reading, but I'm curious to know: what books have you particularly loved/hated since you started writing?
I find it interesting that you gave me two starkly opposed ratings categories: Loved/Hated. Here goes: The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo, Stieg Larsson. Loved it and hated it. Hated the long explanatory passges, all that telling. Loved Lisbeth Salander, a young woman who lives life completely on her own terms, and who deals with the blows received from others in a very straightforward way: she gets revenge. The plot is of course a winner too.

The Raymond Chandler Ominbus. (The Big Sleep, Farewell, My Lovely, The High Wndow, The Lady in the Lake). Loved it. Rereading Chandler gives me faith that a great voice can be heard through all the distracting noises of the universe.

The Raj Quartet, Paul Scott. Loved it These were four of he best novels I’ve ever read. Are you interested in any of the following subjects: the dehumanizing effects of colonialization on both sides of the equation; the corrosive power of racial bigotry and religiuos fanaticism on the human heart; the end of the British Raj in India;. love aross brutally drawn race lines? Then read these beautifully written novels.

The Lincoln Lawyer, Michael Connelly. Loved it I wish I had dreamt up Mickey Haller, his Lincoln Town Cars and his great trial skills.

Homage To Catalonia, George Orwell. Loved it. Non-fiction, but it’s Orwell, whose clarity is incomparable, which is especilly needed on the subject of the Spanish Civil War, one of the most remarkable, and, I believe, least understood, episodes of the twentieth century.

Monsignor Quixote, Graham Greene. Loved it. Not one of Greene’s best, but he’s so intelligent that you soon realize you are at the feet of a master story teller.

Visit James Lepore's website
Read an excerpt from Blood of My Brother

Debut Author Angi Morgan's Path to Publication

I love hearing first sale stories, and freshly-minted author Angi Morgan, whose debut, Hill Country Holdup, releases Sept 14th from Harlequin Intrigue has one that's especially inspiring.



BtO: Hi, Angi, and welcome to Boxing the Octopus. When I first met you at the RWA national conference in Orlando in July, you had a smile that could be measured in megawatts - and no wonder, since you were a Golden Heart finalist whose manuscript had already sold and was scheduled for release. (For those who are unfamiliar, the Golden Heart is romance's most prestigious award for unpublished authors, given at the annual GH/RITA ceremony at the Romance Writers of America national convention. In terms of hoopla, it's the genre's Academy Awards event.)

So which came first, the contest final or the sale, and did one lead to the other? Did you have an agent to help you seal the deal?

AM: It’s a bit of a rollercoaster ride, but I’ll keep it brief... Signed with my agent on Oct 1st; won the chapter GH drawing (they pay for you to enter) on Oct 17th; waited until the last minute to enter the GH on Nov 9th; got THE CALL on Nov 12th; tried to withdraw (but it was confirmed I was eligible); signed a contract on Dec 1st; submitted the book, finished edits and proofs by Feb; then received notification that See Jane Run (now HCH) was a finalist in the GH at the end of March. And to make the rollercoaster ride just a bit more exciting, we sold .38 Caliber Cover-Up on May 28th.

I did have an agent, but I sent SJR to both the editor and agent after winning the Daphne du Maurier contest in 2009. My agent is directly responsible for the second sale and its early release date in February 2011.

BtO: How long had you been writing before this all unfolded? And what were some steps that aided your development as a writer?

AM: I’ve been reading and writing romance since Junior High. I joined RWA in 99, got involved in 2000. Through RWA I’ve met critique partners, utilized workshops, learned the craft of writing, volunteered, networked, made tons of contacts... But in 2009, I knew it was MY year. The kids were out of the house, I concentrated on me, my writing, and getting published. I was positive I would sell. I worked hard to get my manuscript in front of the right editor who loved it!

BtO: Love that winning attitude. And you’re right — sometimes it’s as if some internal switch is flipped, and we really do know.

Please tell us a little about your Sept. 14th debut, HILL COUNTRY HOLDUP, along with what's next for you.

AM: Oh, the back cover blurb is so much more exciting. LOL I like to say that HCH is a non-stop, action-packed, edge-of-your-seat heart-twister. It’s a fast read about a mother forced to commit a crime in order to save her son and the only man she can turn to that can help. A missing child. A mother on the run. And the man who saves them both.

BtO: Sounds like my kind of book, and I loved the excerpt from the buying page on Amazon! (See above link.) You've already got me hooked.

AM: I’m running a SNAP THE COVER contest. Details on my website: AngiMorgan.com Take a picture of yourself next to my store book display, send it to me and sign up for my newsletter. I’ll draw for prizes, but also display the pictures on my website.


Thanks so much, Angi, for stopping by BtO today. We wish you all the best with your first release and many more to come and encourage all of our readers to support a debut author by picking up a copy of HILL COUNTRY HOLDUP locally or online through our buying link!

Post a Comment, Snag a Book!

Today I've been interviewed by hilarious romantic suspense author Christie Craig (if you haven't tried her books, I highly recommend them!) over at Killer Fiction, where she's giving an autographed copy of my latest, TOUCH OF EVIL, to one lucky commenter.

Plus, you'll find out what really scares... me, at the end of a day filled with eliciting chills from readers. Stop by http://bit.ly/bsXj3N to enter and uncover my darkest "secret."

Raising the right questions (Kyle Mills talks about writing, life, and Lords of Corruption)

Kyle Mills, New York Times bestselling author of Darkness Falls, completely had me at hello with the compelling prologue to his latest novel, Lords of Corruption.

After four hours of rutted dirt, military roadblocks, and fetid mud bogs, the landscape around Dan Ordman had completely transformed. The jagged, grass-covered hills that made up his world had been replaced by dense jungle rolling into a reddening horizon. Although he’d lived in Africa for almost a year, this was the first time he’d seen the rain forest, smelled the damp rot, listened to the birds and monkeys just out of sight. There was something about it that made him nervous. Probably just the fact that, until now, he’d never been more than twenty miles from the comfortable expatriate community that he’d wrapped himself in. Or maybe it was something more primordial.

“It’s going to get dark on us.”

Understatement of the year. (Click here to read the whole prologue, and read it with your shoes on because you'll want to head for the nearest bookstore.) When our sketchy but likable protagonist, Josh Hagarty, signs on to manage a farming project in third-world Africa, the charity he works for turns out to be less than benevolent. Lords of Corruption takes us on a terrible journey to the dark continent and deep into the even murkier territory of corporate greed, political grasping, insidious underbelly-dwelling, and unchecked balls-out thuggery. Think The Firm meets Feed the Children. With machetes. And prepare to be open-minded. As the adventure unwinds, important questions are raised, and there are no easy answers.

Hooked and inhaling Lords of Corruption, I had a few questions of my own, and Kyle kindly agreed to stop by for a chat.

Welcome, Kyle, and thanks for being here. Before we cut to the chase, how are you? Is it good to be Kyle Mills right now?
As much as I like to complain, yeah, it is good. I get paid to travel the globe learning about things that fascinate me. I’m sure there are better jobs in the world, but it’s hard to think of one off the top of my head.

I read that you were working in a bank and tried your hand making furniture before your first novel, Rising Phoenix, was published in hardcover by Harper Collins twelve years ago. How did that first book deal happen?
At first, my experience was pretty typical. I wrote a book and it was rejected by virtually every self-respecting agent in New York. But persistence counts in this business and I finally got someone interested.

After that, things went really fast. Within two weeks I had a contract and six months later, I had a best seller on the shelves. It was kind of a whirlwind—great in some ways but a little strange in others. I remember feeling a bit befuddled when I started my next book. I didn’t really feel like a writer. I felt like a banker posing as a writer.

Publishing-wise, has it been a pretty smooth ride since then or have there been a few educational bumps in the road?
In many ways, my career has been one disaster after another. For a while, it was almost certain that when I signed with a publisher, the editor who acquired me would leave within a few weeks. Or the entire management team would be replaced with people who’d never heard of me. And then there was my now infamous submission of a manuscript about al Qaeda attacking the U.S. a week before 9/11.

It’s a testament to the loyalty of my readers that I even have a career.

Between Rising Phoenix and your latest, Lords of Corruption, you evolved a lot as an artist. Were you being mentored or do you think your writing has muscled up with the act of writing?
Part of it is just practice. Counting drafts, I’ve probably written five million words over my career. Most, though, is just confidence. I’m willing to go out on a limb artistically now, whereas earlier in my career it was just too scary.

I’m free to explore just about anything I want and to define my genre any way I want. That makes it possible to create more unique and thoughtful books than I could have in my twenties. Maturity. Maybe that’s it. There has to be something good about getting older, right?

The main character in Lords of Corruption is a bit of a scoundrel, and moral ambiguity is something you do well. (As a writer, I mean!) What’s the key to making a morally shady character a sympathetic protagonist the reader can relate to and genuinely like?
I think that the readers have to see themselves in the character. Let’s face it, there aren’t that many Mother Teresas in the world.

To me, moral ambiguity goes hand in hand with character motivation. Everybody is afraid at one time or another, everybody does subtle “what’s in it for me” calculations, and everybody has the potential for good and evil. The question that interests me is where and why people draw their lines and how those lines can evolve.

My sister spent three years in Gabon with the Peace Corps back in the mid ‘80s, and she’s struggled ever since with some of the issues you raise in Lords of Corruption. Bottom line it for us: Is American aid doing more harm than good in Africa?
Like everything in Africa, it’s complicated.

Certainly the aid industry has been successful in alleviating short-term suffering through providing food for famine victims, medical care for the sick, etc.

On the other hand, the grandiose plans of transforming Africa socially and economically have been completely ineffective at best and disastrous at worst. There needs to be a reassessment of our goals based not on theory, but the reality on the ground. Aid strategists seem to believe that there is nothing they can’t achieve with sufficient funds. Of course, both their own experience and the entire span of human history shows this belief to be false. How can you seriously say you’re going to eradicate poverty in Gabon when you can’t eradicate it in the U.S.?

Thanks for your time, Kyle. Last question before we send you back to the salt mine: What are you reading?
I just finished William Easterly’s terrific book, The White Man’s Burden. He’s a guy who spent years with the World Bank and has the presence of mind to admit that he doesn’t know how to fix Africa’s problems. But while he doesn’t have the answers, he seems to be one of the few people asking the right questions.