Today, Norm Goldman Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com is excited to have as our guest, Alan Gottlieb author of Ultimate Excursions.

Good day Alan and thanks for participating in our interview.

Norm:

What in your belief makes a novel vital, alive, good and great?

Alan:

First and foremost, the writing. If the novelist can’t lure readers into a book with clear, powerful sentences, the battle is lost. Almost as important is the development of flesh-and-blood characters – real human beings, not cardboard cutouts or superheroes. Finally, I think a compelling story matters a great deal. I admire writers like Thomas Pynchon and Don DeLillo for their virtuosity. But I prefer novels that tell a story to those that play on our minds like puzzles, and where story takes a back seat.

Norm:

What do you want your work to do? Amuse people? Provoke thinking?

Alan:

I want to provoke thinking, which in and of itself is entertaining. One way to provoke thinking is to shock readers; not for shock’s sake, but to make a point. The element of surprise is one of an author’s most effective tools. Good fiction forces readers to ponder how we, as human beings, live in the world.

Norm:

What was the most difficult thing for you about being a writer?

Alan:

Trying to get published. Were it not for enlightened, small publishers like Paandaa, first-time novelists would be in a world of hurt. The protracted cycle of submitting my manuscript and getting it summarily rejected by agents and publishers was, for me, by far the most difficult part of the process.

Norm:

In fiction as well as in non-fiction, writers very often take liberties with their material to tell a good story or make a point. But how much is too much?

Alan:

As a former newspaper reporter, I see a big problem with non-fiction writers taking too many liberties with their material. You lose credibility as a journalist, or biographer, if you starting making up stuff, or plagiarizing. We’ve seen plenty of examples of this in recent years, involving some prominent writers.  But that’s the beauty of fiction, isn’t it? Who is to say what constitutes taking liberties? If the internal logic of your storytelling falls apart, I suppose that would mean that you’d taken too many liberties as a fiction writer. Other than that, just about everything is fair game for a novelist.

Norm:

Is there a message in Ultimate Excursions that you want your readers to grasp?

Alan:

I believe every reader takes his or her own message from a novel. As the author, though, I was interested in exploring how lies affect people’s futures and fortunes, the slippery nature of truth, and the various ways people cope with life in the late 20^th/early 21^st century.

Norm:

How did Ultimate Excursions come about? What methods did you use to flesh out your ideas?

Alan:

Like Tim Lake, I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador. And, like Tim, a close friend of mine died of a cocaine overdose while on vacation in Peru. Unlike Tim, I was not there when this happened – thank God. But the story of my friend’s death haunted me for years, and I guess writing Ultimate Excursions helped me finally get past it. I’m not a person who readily believes in concepts like “inspiration,” but the idea for the novel came to me, in a flash, while bouncing across Lake Powell in a water taxi during a driving rainstorm. I jotted down an outline and started writing as soon as I got home to Denver. I wrote by getting up in the wee hours of the morning and working for a couple of hours before my wife and daughter stirred. I didn’t use any particular methods to flesh out my ideas. I just trusted the writing process, which took me in some interesting and unexpected directions. Later, I went back and substantially revised major portions of the manuscript.

Norm:

You write with a very vivid and descriptive style. Do you use any particular techniques to help with your writing or to help flesh out descriptive imagery? Are there any writers you admire or look to for inspiration?

Alan:

I just write, trying to avoid any conscious use of techniques. But I love simple, clean prose. In terms of pure style, I’m a huge admirer of E.B. White and Laura Ingalls Wilder. That pure, clean, simple American style is a beautiful thing. In terms of inspiration and outright awe, I look to Cormac McCarthy and Ian McEwan in the contemporary realm. I also love T.C. Boyle’s superhuman way with words and highly entertaining yarn-spinning. 

As an old English major, I also revere some of the old heavyweights: Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Herman Melville, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky. And for pure entertainment, I have found no one better than John D. MacDonald, creator of the Travis McGee series and author of about 100 “paperback originals” written in the 1950s through 1980s. I’ve collected most of his books.

Norm:

How did you approach writing Tim Lake? Did you plan him out or did he evolve as your wrote the book?

Alan:

He evolved. I didn’t set out to write a book with an anti-hero at its core. But as I wrote, it seemed impossible to write Tim any other way. His descent into self-indulgent, self-destructive, self-pity is a necessary precursor to his voyage toward redemption. Whether he ever completes that voyage is anyone’s guess.

Norm:

In the last year or so have you seen any changes in the way publishers publish and/or distribute books? Are there any emerging trends developing?

Alan:

I can only speak from my own, limited experience on this. But it seems to me that small publishers, like Paandaa, are where the action is. You hear horror stories about  big publishers, their inability or unwillingness to support their authors, particularly those of us who are relatively unknown.

Publishing increasingly has become a business driven by the bottom line rather than about getting good work in front of readers. I’m not arguing against turning a profit. But publishing used to seem more like a higher calling. I’d guess that in coming year, e-books, Amazon’s Kindle reader, self-publishing and as-yet unimagined innovations will change the world of publishing profoundly. Look at what has happened to the newspaper business in the past few years. Can book publishing be far behind?

Norm:

Have you had any downfalls or negative experiences working with a publisher/agent, such as rejection letters? If so, how did you handle it?

Alan:

As I said earlier, this was by far the most difficult part of the entire process. I can’t count the number of agents and publishers to whom I sent my manuscript, in various drafts. What I found disheartening wasn’t getting rejected, per se; it was the manner of rejection. I got the sense in most cases that I never had a chance. It didn’t seem as though anyone was reading more than a page or two before sending me a terse, one or two-sentence rejection letter. I truly believed I’d never get published, even though I had perhaps an arrogant sense that my book was pretty good. 

Norm:

Are you working on any books/projects that you would like to share with us? (We would love to hear all about them!)

Alan:

I’ve started working on another novel. It’s in the early stages, and at present I’m distracted by trying to push Ultimate Excursions. I can say this much: it deals with some contemporary geopolitical themes, takes place in the near future, and, like Ultimate Excursions, centers on Latin America, where I spent a few of my younger years, and had a lot of formative experiences.

Norm:

How can our readers find out more about you?

Alan:

I have a website: www.authoralangottlieb.com It includes a brief biography, information about book events, an excerpt from Ultimate Excursions. It also tells readers a bit about my other book, In the Shadow of the Rockies --  a non-fiction, 1994 tome about the first season of the Colorado Rockies Major League baseball team. I’d also like readers to know that I am eager to visit book groups that read my book. My e-mail address is alan@authoralangottlieb.com

Norm:

Is there anything else you wish to add that we have not covered?

Alan:

Ultimate Excursions would make a great movie. I’d love to talk with people about how to make this happen. And speaking of movies, I’m in the process of putting together a short You Tube video about Ultimate Excursions. I’m working with a friend who is a cutting edge, professional videographer. So look for it sometime in the spring of 2008.

Thanks once again and good luck with all of your future endeavors.

To read Norm's Review of Ultimate Excursions CLICK HERE

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