Today, Norm Goldman, Editor of Bookpleasures.com is pleased to have as our guest Cecil L. Milliner author of , Willie May Medcalf: A Novel of the Old WestBend In The River and Sarah, Come Home.

Good day Cecil and thanks for participating in our interview

Norm:

Cecil, when did your passion for writing begin? What kept you going?

Cecil:

When I was in the fourth or fifth grade I began reading the pulp westerns. I
wanted to be like Zane Grey. I wanted to tell a story. I got some paper and
wrote several one page beginnings. I got discouraged. The desire to write never
left me.

Norm:

When you originally wrote Willie May Medcalf did you have in mind that you would
eventually write two sequels to the book?

Cecil:

No. That was a story that I thought would stand alone.  As a matter of fact, I
thought I only had one story in my system  A few weeks later I was reading
WILLIE MAY MEDCALF  and it struck me that Tom Medcalf who had been told by
Willie May, his mother, that he had to stay home that I decided that was not
Tom.  I felt that Tom was champing at the bits to do something to be on his own.
He had no money . He  had talked to the Captain of the QUEENIE  and had a job.
Now he could get away and do something like be a fur trapper or go down the
Santa Fe Trail. But he had no money. There was only one place to get the money.
His Mother.

Norm:

How long does it take you to write a typical novel, including research, writing
and editing time?

Cecil:

I have a history major from the University of Southern California in Western
American History.  My research was in the order of supplementing what I already
knew. To get there I had to do some research on Albany, New York and Memphis,
Tennessee.

I could not find a map of 1812 Albany or a 1820 Memphis. I did what a
lot of author’s do. I used the liberty to make up areas of the cities. Some are
not entirely correct but I figured, what the heck, it’s a story. In fact, I only
have a picture of the Memphis steamboat landing but not the river bank where the
warehouses are. Only a vague description which I used. 

To get back to the original question, I wrote Willie May in about two months, including research. I
printed it out on my computer printer, bought some hide glue, printed a cover
with a horizon, then glued it as a book.  I printed a second like a manuscript
and then had it copywrited.  Then I contacted umpteen publishers.  Then I paid
to have it published.

Norm:

How do you celebrate a novel's completion?

Cecil: 

That’s easy. After I mail the manuscript in I went to the best restaurant in
Long Beach and ate a big dinner and slept for three days.  Not really.  My wife
keeps me busy in my spare time with honey do lists.

Norm:

Do you have a local writing community or fellow writers that you look to for
support and advice?

Cecil:

There are a couple in Long Beach. I attended one meeting.  All they did was talk
about this and that of writing. It was more of a MEET JOHN OR JANE type of
thing. I never got anything out of it. They had a table to display your books
but no one that I saw looked at them.

Norm:

Can you explain some of your research techniques, and how you found sources for
your book?

Cecil:

The computer. I used the Long Beach Public Library. I never checked out any
books. I read them and took notes while I was there. Then I found GOOGLE and
YAHOO  were the best sources for information. It took some time for me to get
the hang of using them.  They have photos, diagrams,  stories, diaries,  and a
host of other things.

Norm:

How much real-life do you put into your fiction? Is there much “you” in there?

Cecil:

Some. The dialogues are somewhat based on the way my grandfather and grandmother
talked. There were some farmers in the country where my grandfather and
grandmother raised half a dozen kids that were even worse than they were in
their speech. I never used their speech because I thought it would sound too far
fetched.  I have another book called THE RACONTEUR.  It is filled with stories
of me and my hunting and fishing and hitch-hiking and my grandfather’s farm.  I
used some of the information in those stories.

Norm:

What obstacles did you have in trying to tell your stories?

Cecil: 

Time. That was the biggest obstacle.  I had to do all my writing after ten
o’clock PM. The reason is I am a night person. It seems that my thoughts come
freely at night. There are too many distractions like the telephone and TV and
the doorbell during the day.

Norm:

How did you get the inspiration for your books?

Cecil:

Some times I wake up at night and begin thinking about the next chapter in the book. What the beginning would be. Or what would be  the chapter ending.  Or who would come into the persons life. It seemed that as I was thinking about something like that the story would take a life of it’s own. I’d get up and write several pages. Then the next day I would proof what I wrote and while doing the proofing another four or five pages would come to mind.  That is when it is the most enjoyable times. It is like playing a game of tag.  The one who was IT was one of the characters in the book and off I would go another two three or four or maybe fie more pages.  I can say this, the writing is easy.
The proofing is hard and takes a lot of time. Changing whole paragraphs, eliminating dialogue, adding dialogue, adding weather or changing from clear to rainy,.

Norm:

Did you initially have a difficult time fleshing out your characters?

Cecil: 

No. I knew a blacksmith that looked something like Jim Bledsoe.   Willie May was
a cross between my cousin who was a hazel-eyed dirty blond and another girl who
was over six feet tall who was a blue-eyed blond from Sweden.   All my women
characters were a takeoff from the likes of some of the girls I dreamed up after
reading about the pretty Southern Belles.   The men were from characters of the
New England gentry I saw pictures and paintings of. For instance, the fox
hunters of Virginia.  One of my best friends was Charlie Railaigh. Charley was a
blacksmith at a wagon yard my grandfather worked at.  Charlie let me turn the
bellows when I came home from school.  I thought I was in heaven when I was
turning the bellows.   Charley was kind of brawny.

I had not planned on any one in the store with Tom Bledsoe at Fort Leavenworth.
Lisa kind of intruded.  I couldn’t stop her.  She had to be pretty and naïve and
she was.  Katie was pretty and she had a pretty back side and bouncy blond hair
and she turned out to be the highlight of her family.  Willie May was the prima
dona of the whole lot. She was strong on the farm to put up with Will and
protect her children and although she didn’t know what to do in Memphis because
she never encountered anything like that. But when she had to take care of her
kids after Jim walked off she came into her own.

Norm:

How did you create Willie May in your books? Did you plan her out or did she
evolve as you wrote the books?

Cecil:

There was a girl who lived across the street where I lived as a kid by the name
of Johnny May. I figured I could us Willie May.  To get back to the question, I
remember reading years ago about some sixteen year old debutants who had their
coming out party.  Also, in my home town there were at least two coming out
parties that I remember.  One was my cousin Virginia. That was something. I
remember the dresses the girls wore.  That is where Willie May came from, a
debutant coming out party. The rest seemed to fall into place as I wrote.

There was a girl acquaintance that I dated some. Then she dated another young
fellow I knew and she had a child out of wedlock. When I was writing Willie May
I decided she was not going to have a baby out of wedlock. It fit her perfectly.
Then there was my step mother.  My father became very ill shortly after they
were married in the 1930’s. She went back home for a visit when one of her
sisters almost died. My step mother told me that they tried to get her to leave
my father. She went back to him and worked at anything she could to raise us
boys and take care of my father. She finally became a practical nurse and had a
good job at a State sanitarium in Phoenix, Arizona. That was Willie May.

Norm:

Is there anything else you'd like to share with us?

Cecil:

Maybe a little something by the way of go out and do it. It will never get done
if you don’t try something. Like the old saying, if at first you don’t succeed
tray again and again.  I did and wrote three novels.

Thanks once again and good luck with all of your novels.

 To read Norm's Review of Willie May Medcalf: A Novel of the Old West CLICK HERE

 To read Norm's Review of Bend In The River CLICK HERE

 To read Norm's Review of Sarah, Come Home CLICK HERE