Today, Norm Goldman Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com is pleased to have as our guest J. B. Bergstad author of Screwing the Pooch.

Good day Jim and thanks for participating in our interview.

Norm:

How did you get started in writing? What keeps you going?

Jim:

Writing began for me when I discovered “share time” in the first grade. Since that early age I have lived my life responding to life’s stimuli with the question: “what if,” and that curiosity has spawned the creation of my fiction. The joy and insanity of life and my insatiable curiosity keep the home fires burning brightly.

Norm:

What do you see as influences on your writing?

Jim:

Curiosity, curiosity, curiosity and three writers who have influenced me a great deal and will continue to do so in the future: Edgar Allen Poe, Louis L’Amour and Elmore Leonard.

Norm:

What do you believe makes a good story?

Jim:

A good fiction story embraces conflict and resolution we, as average individuals, can relate to in ways that are meaningful to us on a personal level.

Norm:

Is your work improvisational or do you have a set plan? As a follow up, is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?

Jim:

Strictly improvisational. Usually I will have a phrase of some kind beat a tattoo on my brain. Or a “what if,” situation will come to mind. For instance, fact: My neighbor broke his leg. What if: he broke his leg running away from.... Or what if: my neighbor’s leg was broken by two men who...etc. The challenge is completing the journey in a way the reader can suspend disbelief and live, breathe, taste and smell the scenes and settings.

Norm:

What do you want Screwing the Pooch to do? Amuse people? Provoke thinking?

Jim:

My main goal is to entertain. People are free to take what they will from the stories. I think we have way too many so called experts and would-be philosophers telling us why and how we must live our lives.

Norm:

Why did you name the title of your book Screwing the Pooch?

Jim:

All seven stories have one common theme. The character or characters in each story have either made a disastrous mistake or when faced with life changing choices made the wrong ones. As in life, some survive and some don’t. The phrase “screwing the pooch” was popularized by Tom Wolfe in his bestseller, The Right Stuff. It is the cleaned up version of an old military phrase: “f—king the dog,” which was the definition of goofing off or avoiding a work detail.

Norm:

Are the stories and the characters in your book based on events and people you know or have encountered or are they strictly fictional?

Jim:

All the stories are fictional. I have, however, drawn on my personal life experience and characterized bits and pieces of interaction with people I have known over the years.

Norm:

What did you enjoy most about writing the stories contained in Screwing the Pooch?

Jim:

The two greatest joys are in solving a literary problem with the story and typing the final period after the final edit.

Norm:

What has been your overall experience as a published author?

Jim:

Very little to date. I’ve done several of interviews of this type and they are always fun and thought provoking for me. I’ve expended most of my energies in the marketing of Pooch and that endeavor is a learning experience in and of itself. 

Norm:

Do you feel that writers, regardless of the genre owe something to readers, if not, why not, if so, why and what would that be?

Jim:

I think all fiction writers owe their readers entertainment and escape. Those precepts, in the final analysis, are why the reader spends his or her hard earned money on a book. Non fiction writers have an even greater responsibility to the reader in that their presentations must be factual, honest and free of bias of any kind, in my opinion.

Norm:

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

Jim:

I’m hoping my newest novel, Hyde’s Corner, will be ready for release within the next ninety days. After Hyde’s, I will follow with one of three mystery/suspense novels I have in the works: Rainy Days and Deadly Ways, Hank Straker, SA or Heart Stopper. Excerpts of Hyde’s Corner are available at: Hyde’s Corner, (http://www.hydescorner.com)

Norm:

Where can our readers find out more about you and Screwing the Pooch?

Jim:

Thanks for asking, Norm. Updates, excerpts of Pooch, and writing and publishing tips are available at MY SITE

invite all your readers to visit both sites and when they do, I guarantee they won’t be disappointed.

Norm:

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

Jim:

I’d like to thank you, Norm, and all your readers, for their time and consideration of my work. Life is so precious and fleeting, and so to those who choose to spend time with my books, I am humbly grateful.

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

 Click Here To Read Norm's Review of Screwing the Pooch

Click Here To Purchase Screwing the Pooch