Reviewer & Author Interviewer, Norm Goldman. Norm is the Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com.
He has been reviewing books for the past twenty years after retiring from the legal profession.
To read more about Norm Follow Here
Today, Norm Goldman
Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com is honored to have as our
guest John DeDakis author of Fast Track and his most recent novel, Bluff.
John is an
editor and writer for the Emmy and Peabody-Award winning "The
Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer."
A native of La Crosse, Wisconsin, John began his journalism career in 1969 at a campus radio station at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he was tear gassed while covering an anti-Vietnam War riot in 1970. He earned a B.A. in Journalism from that university in 1977 following a stint in the U.S. Army where he worked from 1972-74 as a Special Events Reporter at The American Forces Network - Europe, based in Frankfurt, Germany. DeDakis is a former White House Correspondent. During his career, he has interviewed such luminaries as Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and Alfred Hitchcock.
Norm:
How did you get started in writing?
John:
I became attracted
to writing at a very early age -- probably five or six. My dad
was a lawyer, my mom was a third grade teacher, and books were all
over the house. I was fascinated by the printed words and the smell
of the musty pages. When I was about six or seven, I sat down
at my mom's Royal typewriter and banged out a rudimentary
nonfiction book about my hometown of La Crosse, Wisconsin. I
wrote a second book at age 9 entitled "People in my Life."
It was about, um, people in my life. Both books were
pretty awful. But it was a start.
I never set out
to be a writer. At first, I planned to become a lawyer, go into
practice with my dad, and then go into politics, but the Vietnam War
and Watergate soured me on a political career, so I eased into
broadcast journalism, instead. For probably 20+ years, my
writing was just-the-facts, ma'am journalism, but within a year of
becoming a writer at CNN in Atlanta in 1988, I was promoted to copy
editor. It paid more, but it was tedious. So I took my
atrophying creative side and started delving into writing.
My
first project was researching a biography I planned to write about a
friend who was murdered, but the work became too time-consuming and
expensive -- plus the information I was uncovering caused too much
consternation in the man's family, so I turned to writing fiction.
That was 1994. I read books on writing fiction, went
to some writing conferences, and began writing my first novel, Fast
Track.
Norm:
What keeps you going?
John:
For
me, writing is its own reward. I find that if I don't have a
writing project going, I feel off-center. Another thing that
keeps me going is the positive feedback I get from readers, many of
whom I've never met, yet they take the time to send me an email to
tell me how much they enjoy my work. It's rewarding -- and
humbling -- to be told that something I wrote resonated and connected
with someone.
Norm:
Have you transferred your
skills as Senior Copy Editor on CNN's “The Situation Room with
Wolf Blitzer” to the writing of your novels?
John:
Yes.
Absolutely.
Norm:
How?
John:
Broadcast
writing is meant to be conversational, so when I write fiction, I
usually do the dialogue first. It's only in subsequent drafts
that I add descriptions and actions. Also, at its core,
journalism is curiosity with a heavy dose of skepticism.
Consequently, I bring those qualities to my writing and embody
them in my heroine Lark Chadwick. Finally, broadcast journalism
is always struggling to keep the viewer's attention. The
challenge is to keep the viewer (or in my case, the reader) from
getting bored, so there's a heavy emphasis on brisk pacing and lean
writing that keeps the story racing head-long toward its
conclusion.
Norm:
What has been the best part
about being published?
John:
The wonderful people I've
met. I write to connect with people, so it's always a thrill to
be able to introduce people to my books and to hear when someone
likes what I've written.
Norm:
How did you go about
creating the characters of Lark Chadwick and Lionel Stone in your
novels?
John:
To me, the creative process is a mystery
-- the mystery of uncovering things hidden deeply in the
subconscious. Lark (and I have no idea how I came up with her
name) is my alter ego. She's probably what I'd be like if I'd
been born female. I began writing as a woman only because when
I first started toying with fiction, someone suggested that I write
in a way that stretches me in a new direction. Lionel is a
composite of a couple editors I've worked with, plus he, too, is
probably what I'd be like if I were an older, more experienced
journalist. Bottom line: I think all my characters --
even the bad guys -- lurk inside me somewhere.
Norm:
Did
you find the writing of your second novel, Bluff easier than the
first one, Fast Track?
John:
Yes. I think so. It
took ten years before I found my current agent, Barbara Casey, who
got me the book deal at ArcheBooks. Barbara is the 39th agent I
queried. Fast Track went through 14 major revisions before it
was published. It went from being a 155,000-word mishmash to a
tight and lean 75,000-word mystery-suspense novel. And I feel
it kept getting better with each revision. Bluff, on the other
hand, only had to go through 7 major revisions and took about half
the time to write. My current work-in-progress, Troubled Water,
is flowing (so to speak) much easier than my first two books -- and I
like it the best. A good sign, I guess.
Norm:
Is
your work improvisational or do you have a set plan?
John:
I
really need a roadmap, otherwise I feel like I'm spinning my wheels.
The roadmap doesn't lock me into a specific destination, but it
at least gives me a target. During the rewrite process, I'm
still free to lurch and swerve in new directions -- and frequently
do.
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?
John:
In
nonfiction, I'm not a big fan of taking liberties with the facts.
Frankly, it's unethical. But fiction is something else,
entirely. I definitely take liberties with setting. My
settings are based on real places, but then I change the name of the
locale so that I have more freedom to make the place conform to plot
needs. How much liberty-taking is "too much"? That's
probably for the reader to decide.
Norm:
What do
you see as the influences on your writing?
John:
I
first became attracted to good fiction when I was taking an American
History class as an undergrad at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
We were learning about the Dust Bowl of the 1930s and had to
read John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath." History
came alive for me -- and so did the idea of writing fiction. I
make no pretense about being a "literary" writer, so my
influences are primarily people like Sue Grafton and John Grisham.
Their writing is lean, clear, and straightforward. I also
like Greg Iles and Pat Conroy.
Norm:
Did
you learn anything from writing your books and what was it?
John:
I
learned several things. Here are a few tidbits I picked up along the
way:
Try to hook the reader right from the start by having something happen to the main character
Don't get bogged down with description. Instead, sprinkle it throughout, often as dialogue tags
End a chapter by making the reader want to turn the page to find out what happens next
When writing a mystery, think of ways you can make the reader believe that every character might be the villain
Don't make your hero (or heroine) perfectly good or your villain perfectly evil. We all possess shades of both
Have at least one (and preferably two or three) subplots that will give your story more texture and will help to propel your main story forward
Norm:
Where
do you get your information or ideas for your books?
John:
Fast
Track is derived from the suicide of my sister 30 years ago and a
fatal car-train collision I witnessed as a kid. Bluff is
based, in part, on a hike I took along the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu
in Peru. Troubled Water comes from a brush a friend of
mine had with the law. Book four -- still untitled (and
unwritten, for that matter) will be based on a trip I took to the
bucolic village of St. Davids, Wales. (Now all I have to do is
come up with a plot.) In book five (also untitled), Lark will
be a reporter in Washington who has some, shall we say, significant
dealings with the President of the United States. (They always
say "write what you know," so it helps that I was a White
House Correspondent for the last three years of Ronald Reagan's
presidency.) I think book six will be set in Florence, Italy --
but we'll see. Ask me in a month after I get back.
Norm:
Do
you hear from your readers much? What kinds of things do they
say?
John:
I'm spoiled because I only seem to hear from
the people who like my books. I'm sure there are plenty of
people who don't like my writing, but they mostly -- and mercifully
-- leave me alone. The nicest compliment I've gotten has come
from people who tell me that long after they've finished reading one
of my books, they find themselves thinking about the characters.
Nice.
Norm:
Where can our readers find out more
about you and your books?
John:
My WEBSITE
My AuthorsDen.com writing
website
You
can find (and friend) me on Facebook.....
And my books are
available on Amazon.com
That
should keep you plenty busy.
Norm:
Is there anything
else you wish to add that we have not covered?
John:
Since
I became a published author in 2005, I've come across many people
who've hired me to give them critical feedback about their
manuscripts. If you're interested in my services in this area,
there's more information about this on my website, as well as a way
to send me an email.
I've also begun to lead day-long
workshops around the country for aspiring and/or struggling writers.
I provide you with a step-by-step plan on how to write and
market a novel, how to stay organized during the process, and how to
revise and edit your work. Again, my website has all you need
to know on how to bring me to your community.
Norm:
Thanks
once again and good luck with all of your endeavors.
John:
And thank you, Norm, for this
opportunity.
Click Here To Read Norm's Review of Bluff