I was recently interviewed online by NovelPASTimes http://www.novelpastimes.com, a blog for Historical Fiction Lovers. Here is Part One.
Tell us a little about what you write.
I write both fiction and non-fiction. Currently, my books fall into the historical-fiction/action-adventure categories. My previous books have been journalism textbooks, a corporate biography of Japan’s Kikkoman Corporation, and a compilation of columns I wrote while covering Japan.
My writing for the past few years has been devoted to historical fiction. “Finding Billy Battles” was the first in a trilogy of novels about William Fitzroy Raglan Battles, his early days in 19th Century Kansas, and his eventual journeys and adventures in the Far East, Latin America, and Europe. Subsequently, I have added Books #2 & #3 to the series. Book #3 was published in 2018 and I am proud to say in 2019, it won the all-around Best Book of the Year Award from the Chanticleer International Book Awards as well as the Grand Prize in the Goethe Historical Fiction Awards.
Currently, I am finishing a novel about foreign correspondents in Asia entitled: “Asia Hands” and I have outlined a prequel to my Finding Billy Battles Trilogy that focuses on Billy’s “shadow-riding” cousin, Charley Higgins, who skirted the law during most of his life, but who was one of Billy’s most loyal friends. After those two projects, I will probably spend time writing my own adventures as a foreign correspondent in Asia and Latin America.
Are you a full-time writer or do you hold a day job?
Writing is my day job. I have been a full-time writer since graduating from the University of Kansas and joining the Chicago Tribune in 1969. I have written thousands of newspaper, magazine, and opinion columns from more than 65 different countries. As a dean and professor at the University of Illinois, I wrote textbooks, newspaper columns, and articles in various magazines and journals.
What is the biggest challenge/obstacle you face in protecting your writing time?
The biggest obstacle in protecting my writing time is Southern California. The weather here is almost always beautiful and sunny. The fact that I live in the Southern California wine country just north of San Diego doesn’t help either. The temptation to get out of the house, go to the beach or enjoy a long leisurely lunch at one of the nearby wineries is sometimes too great to ignore.
What historical time periods interest you the most and how have you immersed yourself in a particular period or epoch?
Growing up in rural Kansas I was always fascinated by the state’s 19th Century history. Kansas was a pivotal state before the Civil War because it entered the union as a free state and was populated–especially in the Northeast–by abolitionists.
Kansas was a terminus for the Underground Railroad. After the Civil War, it became about as wild and violent as any state in the union. Cattle drives from Texas, wild cow towns, outlaws, legendary lawmen and fraudsters of every stripe gave the state a wicked reputation. At the same time, the 19th Century in America was a time of fantastic growth, invention, progress, and expansion.
For some, such as Native Americans, this growth was not a pleasant experience, and in some cases, it was quite deadly. For others, the possibilities seemed limitless. Prosperity seemed restricted only by one’s determination and effort.
Introduce us briefly to the main characters in your most recent book.
William Fitzroy Raglan Battles is the main character in the book. His father is killed during the Civil War, so he is reared by his mother, Hannelore, a second-generation German-American woman who has to be both mother and father to her only son. It is a tall order, but Billy grows up correctly and is seemingly on the right path. His mother, a hardy and resilient woman, makes a decent living as a dressmaker in Lawrence, Kansas. An ardent believer in the value of a good education, she insists that Billy attend the newly minted University of Kansas in Lawrence. She is a powerful influence in his life, as are several other people he meets along the way.
There is Luther Longley, an African-American former army scout who Billy and his mother meet at Ft. Dodge in 1866. He escorts them the 300 miles to Lawrence and winds up being a close friend to both Billy and his mother. There is Horace Hawes, publisher and editor of the Lawrence Union newspaper who takes Billy with him to start a new paper in Dodge City.
There is Ben Minot, a typesetter and former Northern Army Sharpshooter, who still carries a mini ball in his body from the war and a load of antipathy toward The Confederacy. There is Signore DiFranco, the Italian political exile Billy meets in Dodge City. There is Mallie McNab, the girl Billy meets falls in love with, marries, and with whom he hopes to live out his life.
There is the afore-mentioned Charley Higgins, Billy’s first cousin, who sometimes treads just south of the law, but who is also Billy’s most devoted compañero de Armas.
Then there is the Bledsoe family– notably Nate Bledsoe, who blames Billy for the deaths of his mother and brother and who swears vengeance. Book one of the trilogy ends with Billy meeting the widow Katharina von Schreiber, a mysterious baroness who in Book #2 propels Billy into a series of misadventures and dubious situations.
What drew you to write this story?
I was intrigued with the idea of a 19th Century Kansas boy forced to deal with a string of tragedies and misadventures who eventually makes his way to the Far East in search of himself. How would he handle himself in such strange places as French Indochina, the Spanish-controlled Philippines, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc.?
I spent most of my career as a foreign correspondent in Asia, and I often wondered what it would have been like to have been in that part of the world in the 19th Century. This book gives me (and my readers) an opportunity to find out.
Tell us a bit about Book #3 in the trilogy.
“The Lost Years of Billy Battles” picks up Billy’s life in 1914 in Chicago where he is working as an assistant managing editor for a newspaper and enjoying a rather sedate life. Then, one morning the telephone rings, and Billy is suddenly thrust back into a life of peril and adventure in Mexico during its revolution, and as the world is on the verge of World War I. In places like Veracruz, Billy comes into conflict with German spies and a passel of shady characters. Later he meets up with some old friends from his days in Kansas, joins the U.S. Army’s hunt for Pancho Villa, and eventually winds up back in French Indochina and the Philippines. Events conspire to embroil him in a variety of disputes, conflicts, and struggles–events with which a Kansas sand cutter is hardly equipped to deal. How will he do? You will have to read Book #3 to find out!
A reader once asked me this question, and I thought it was a good one. Is there ever a time when you feel like your work is truly finished and complete?
I don’t know if that ever happens. I do know that at some point, YOU MUST LET IT GO! Writing a book is a bit like rearing a child. Eventually, after you have imbued the child with as much of your worldly experience and wisdom as he or she can grasp and absorb you have to allow your creation to encounter the world. It’s the same with books.
Writers can fiddle with plots, characters, endings, and beginnings ad nauseam and never feel the book is ever finished. My advice. JUST FINISH THE DAMNED BOOK! Get over it and get the book out into the public domain. Readers will let you know if you have finished the book–and if they like it.
If you could be a character from your favorite historical novel, who would you be?
Woodrow Call from Lonesome Dove OR John Blackthorne from Shogun.
What is the most significant misconception the general public has about authors?
I don’t know if those who do not write for a living understand just how difficult writing is. Many believe that writers work from inspiration and that the words merely leap onto the page (or into the computer). In fact, while inspiration is a beautiful thing, it is not what makes a good writer or book. Writing requires significant research, whether fiction or non-fiction. It needs a facility for organization and a keen sense of plot, pacing, and story.
I don’t believe writers are “born.” They evolve as a result of significant experience in the craft. Finally, not all writers are brooding, intractable alcoholics or unbearable misanthropes who feel their creations contain irrevocable and definitive truths that most of humanity is too stupid to comprehend. In fact, most successful writers are excellent storytellers, and they like nothing more than to have their stories read by as many people as possible–even if those stories don’t always possess immutable truths.
Ernest Hemingway once said: “Hell, there’s nothing hard about writing. You just sit at your typewriter and bleed.”
END OF PART ONE. READ PART TWO TOMORROW
I loved this interview, Ron. Excellent responses! Thank you for sharing, I learned a lot.
PS…for the first time in a month or so, I can now leave a message. Perplexing, right?
Thanks for the comment, Gwen–and for your patience in finally getting to comment. I hope that issue is now resolved.
I loved this interview, Ron. Excellent responses! Thank you for sharing, I learned a lot.