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
Bookpleasures.com today is honored to have as our guest Dr. Michael E. Glasscock III author of The Life and Times of Jamie Lee Coleman that is scheduled for publication by Greenleaf Books in September, 1914. Dr. Glasscock has worn many hats including being a world-famous doctor and surgeon in otolaryngology. He is eighty years young and has discovered creative writing late in his life. He he still performs inner ear surgeries to correct hearing loss at his own clinic in Houston, the Glasscock Hearing Implant Center, and has invented two popular hearing aide devices. Ironically, he suffers from hearing loss himself. He also happens to be an actor and a licensed airplane and helicopter pilot.
Norm: Good day Dr. Glasscock and thank for participating in our interview.
When did you first consider yourself a writer and what has influenced your writing? As a follow up, did you read any special books on how to write?
Dr. Glasscock: I have written scientific articles for peer reviewed journals for years. I also have written short stories for my own pleasure. It was about 20 years ago when I first decided to write a novel. Books I’ve read: Elements of the Writing Craft by Robert Olmsted, and Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell
Norm: What helps you focus when you write? Do you find it easy reading back your own work?
Dr. Glasscock: Training as a surgeon makes one pay attention to detail and requires a lot of discipline. It’s in my blood. Also, I just absolutely love writing, creating characters and dialogue. It’s a wonderful escape for me. I tend to create in passion – just be spontaneous and let it flow - and then come back later and, as John Fowles once said about editing, raise the child with discipline and learning.
Norm: Are you a plot or
character writer and do you have a specific writing style?
Dr. Glasscock: Character driven and I prefer first-person narrative.
Norm: Is your work improvisational or do you have a set plan?
Dr. Glasscock: Well, I start with a simple outline, but then the characters and their immediate situations seize control. I don’t really spend much time plotting the stories out, I just start writing and my imagination takes over.
Norm: What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
Dr. Glasscock: I’m not sure I have one. One thing - even when I’m at the clinic, if I have an hour between patients, I’ll run up to my office and keep working on a story.
Norm: Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
Dr. Glasscock: Everything! And just making the time to do it.
Norm: Why do we like to read fiction?
Dr. Glasscock: It helps us understand the human condition.
Norm: What served as the primary inspiration for The Life and Times of Jamie Lee Coleman and could you briefly tell our audience something about the book? As a follow up, what would you say is the best reason to recommend someone to read the book?
Dr. Glasscock: When I practiced otology in Nashville, I had a number of Country Western singers as patients. I found them to be humble, talented individuals with a wonderful sense of humanity. I try to capture some of their complexities and contradictions in the character of Jamie Lee Coleman, who is a gifted-but-troubled singer/songwriter. The novel traces his life from his dirt poor rural roots through the honky tonks of Nashville and New Orleans to the Grand Ole Opry and beyond. His loves, his triumphs and his losses. I think the best reason to read this book is that it recreates a time and place in our country’s history that is vanishing from memory. I grew up in a small farming community in Middle Tennessee some 50 miles outside Nashville. I try to bring that world to life.
Norm: Where do you get your information or ideas for The Life and Times of Jamie Lee Coleman?
Dr. Glasscock: From my friends in the music industry. I’ve learned so much from them and hold them dear.
Norm: Where can our readers find out more about your and your writings?
Dr. Glasscock: Michealeglasscockiii.com – with my middle initial “E” – is more about my professional career and other things of interest to me, including writing. Michaelglasscockiii.com is my author’s website. My page on goodreads.com is most current.
Norm: What is next for Dr. Michael E. Glasscock III?
Dr. Glasscock: More novels!
Norm: As this interview draws to a close what one question would you have liked me to ask you? Please share your answer.
Dr. Glasscock: What drives you at age 80? We only have a short life span while on this planet. We must make the most of that time.
Norm: Thanks again and good luck with all of your future endeavors.