Bookpleasures.com welcomes as our guest Sandy Graham.

Sandy is a dual citizen of Canada and the United States. He spent 35 years with The Boeing Company in a variety of engineering and management positions.

After retirement, he satisfied a long-standing urge to delve into creative writing. Sandy has authored the Pillage Trilogy, The Pizza Dough King, Murder – On Salt Spring?

His most recent novel, You Speak For Me Now is about to be published.

Good day Sandy and thanks for taking part in our interview.

Norm: What is the one thing other people always seem to get wrong about you?

Sandy: People sometimes think I’m probably a conservative, analytical engineering type when actually I’m a free-thinking, creative individual.

Norm: What pet peeve do you have about other people?

Sandy: People with closed minds and a lack of respect for or tolerance of others particularly irritate me because they are such a menace to society, human dignity and harmony.

Norm: What is your philosophy of writing, and is your writing an art or craft or some combination of both? 

Sandy: Writing should engage readers, make them feel they are living in the story.

I think that takes a fairly simple, quick flowing style without a lot of background description or lecturing.

Having said that, my stories all contain messages and educational value of one sort or another. They tend to interfere with that objective.

My writing is an art form, certainly not journalistic in nature. The words flow from my imagination and middle of the night meditation. I never produce a written plan or outline. However, craft enters the picture during review and refinement of wording.

Norm: Do you think about your reading public when you write? Do you imagine a specific reader when you write?

Sandy: Not a specific reader or reader type. I prefer to think everyone can read, enjoy, and get value from my stories.

Obviously, their reaction to my messages will range from right on to utter rejection.

While I often slip in some tasteful eroticism, I steer clear of outright porn and feel my books are suitable for mid-teens and on. 

Norm: How did you become involved with the subject or theme of You Speak For Me Now? What served as the primary inspiration for the book?  

Sandy: Two unrelated factors were involved. My original objective was to write an engaging story that illustrates how extroverts and introverts relate to each other.

Specifically, to show how they can form a very productive team and how their different operating styles can cause severe problems.

By 2015, the growing threat to democracy in America, due to takeover of the Republican Party and the right-wing media propaganda machine, became something I had to speak out against.

It’s taken four iterations of the story to arrive at the current version. Hopefully, it has lasting value and won’t be overwhelmed by future events.

Norm: What was the time-line between the time you decided to write your book and publication? What were the major events along the way?  

Sandy: The first of the four versions just mentioned was a novel title Ickee Mushta published in 2015.

It quite accurately forecast what happened in 2016 but it was more or less obsoleted by subsequent events, so I pulled it off the market.

Next, I tried a Charles Dickens serial approach, releasing a chapter each week. Readership remained low.

Late in 2019, I published a hard-hitting version titled Eclipse of Our Soul which dealt more with the couple’s adult life.

Increasing violence culminating in the Capital insurrection left me fearing for my family’s safety and prompted me to withdraw it from the market.

However, I refused to give up on the plot and the book’s fundamental message.

This version is the result of removing most of the specific criticism of politicians and the administration, placing the emphasis more on a societal level, and reducing the pontification. I feel the result is a more gripping story.

Norm: What were your goals and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel you achieved them?  As a follow up, what purpose do you believe your story serves and what matters to you about the story?  

Sandy: I have a deep concern that democracies around the world are threatened by forces advocating an authoritarian form of government.

To me, that means replacing human equality and a universal pursuit of happiness with economic and social inequality plus increased poverty levels and degraded living conditions.

The human brain, even an intelligent one, falls victim to lies and myths spewed out by media propaganda.

The result is a significant percentage of the population closed to rational argument.

My goal was to couch an alternative message in an engaging work of fiction in an attempt to make some of them think twice about the road they want to travel down.

I feel the story is engaging. Initial feedback indicates it is even powerful. Those on the side of democracy will likely see it as a rallying call. I don’t delude myself with respect to those on the other side but hope, even if vainly, that it will have some positive effect.

Norm: It is said that writers should write what they know. Were there any elements of the book that forced you to step out of your comfort zone, and if so, how did you approach this part of the writing?  

Sandy: You’re a difficult taskmaster, Norm. While a lot of my writing is couched in what I know about, many unanticipated things crop up.

For example, the idea of who actually won the Civil War never dawned on me until triggered by something I read. It led to the main theme of a battle between universal human welfare and the rich maintaining their wealth and power.

A fundamental part of my makeup is a drive to create new things and concepts. With one exception, that tends to mean my comfort zone is not bounded.

The exception, mentioned earlier, was the possible provocation of reprisal from extremists. My approach to alleviate that involved desensitizing the rhetoric and stressing the positives more than the negatives.

Norm: How did you go about creating your three principal characters, Emma Simon, Johnny McEwan, and their toddler son, Peter.

Sandy: I wanted John to epitomize the flamboyant extrovert personality. Making him an attractive, intelligent man with considerable musical talent to entertain the audience he craved served that purpose.

Emma was to be the strong, quiet introvert heroine. To throw as many obstacles in her road as possible, she became deaf and a woman of colour, though still attractive and clever.

The whole concept of Peter as a child musical prodigy emerged as the story developed. He became a strong contributor to the emotional impact of the story.

Norm: Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?  

Sandy: The book sharpened my focus on human nature and the workings of the human brain.

It made me think seriously about the dangerous plight of life on our planet; human, other animals, and plants. It also caused me to observe and analyse the behaviour of friends and strangers more carefully.

Norm: What is your secret in keeping the intensity of the plot throughout the narrative?

Sandy: Conflict. A writing coach once told me every page should contain conflict.

I thought not allowing someone to brush their teeth without dropping the toothbrush a little extreme, but yes, conflict is important. Suspense is also important.

I feel moments of intense emotion interspersed in the story contribute greatly. If a passage makes me choke up a pit each time it is read, it’s fair to assume it will entertain readers the same way.

Norm: Where can our readers find out more about you and You Speak For Me Now?

Sandy: My Website

Norm: What is next for Sandy Graham?

Sandy: I have a half written historical fiction novel centered around some of my maternal ancestry.

Based on a distant relative’s extensive research, my mother descended from the elopement of a captain in the British Army occupying New York during the American revolution and the daughter of a sergeant in the Revolutionary Army.

After the war and a few years on Log Island, they joined the United Empire Loyalists and settled in Nova Scotia. I also have a growing collection of short stories and vignettes that may someday become a book.

Norm: As this interview comes to an end, if you could go back ten years and give yourself one piece of advice what would that advice be?

Sandy: Please let me go back sixty years. For ten, the answer is perhaps to question the advisability of getting involved in political topics.

It’s led to a lot of anguish and at times put a strain on friend relationships. But then I hasten to say the gravity of our political situation cannot be ignored.

And Norm, thank you for this interview. Your questions are so thought-provoking, it feels like I just went through a doctoral oral exam.

Norm: Good luck with all of your future endeavors

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