Click Here To Purchase Seven Wheelchairs: A Life beyond Polio

Today, Norm Goldman Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com is honored to have as our guest Gary Presley author of 7 Wheelchairs: A Life Beyond Polio.

Good day Gary and thanks for participating in our interview

Norm: 

Could you tell our readers something about 7 Wheelchairs: A Life Beyond Polio and what motivated you to write your book?

Gary:

The book is a memoir, one I began when a few writing friends convinced me that using a wheelchair for a half-century gave my writing an interesting perspective on life. When you think about it, I have rolled through the time when people with disabilities were considered "invalids" and "shut-ins" up to the current atmosphere, a time when the Americans with Disabilities Act has opened doors in education, employment, and social settings. In some ways, Seven Wheelchairs is a social history too, and if you press me to tell you why I'm proud of it, I will say I'm happy that my little story will be there to be read decades from now.

The book actually began after I had submitted an essay to my critique group about not being able to use a standard bathroom. I called it "A Pot to Pee in," and it was an ironic and whimsical take on always being alert to the location of the nearest accessible bathroom. That was the piece that attracted the positive reaction.

Then I thought, Why not? I wrote about 30,000 words in three or four days, and ended up after about three months with more than a 100,000 words. The memoir was whittled out of that great tree of information.

Norm:

What was the most difficult part of writing your book? 

Gary:

I think worrying about hurting other people, especially those who might not be able to have their own say. Strangely, I've had some negative reaction from some people in my life, but it has been from those not central to the story--that is, someone mentioned only in passing. Those I cared most about are proud of the book, at least as far as I know. Truth is difficult, and truth is never pure, but I tried to be true about myself and my feelings, and I took care to disguise names and descriptions when another character had a part in my story.

Norm:

Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it? As a follow up, what did you enjoy most about writing this book?

Gary:

I learned that I could do it, at least with a lot of help from the good people at The University of Iowa Press. Nearly everyone thinks about writing a book, but it requires far more patience, far more endurance than I comprehended when I began the project. It took about five years, and more rewrites and reconfigurations than I care to remember. And I learned that some of what I have to say can touch people, which is gratifying. 

Norm:

Do you hear from your readers much? What kinds of things do they say? 

Gary:

Yes, I have. Polio is an antique disease, so to speak, at least as far as the industrialized world is concerned, but there are many out there whose families have been touched by the disease. I also hear from people who are intrigued by my growing militancy about disability access, which I think is a civil rights issue. And I've written op/eds and other pieces about the assisted euthanasia movement. I think many of the responses express some surprise at how candid and introspective much of my writing can be, but I see that element as attempting to find the best truth I can about my world.

Norm:

What has been your overall experience as a published author? 

Gary:

Unusual, I suspect. I won the very first writing contest I entered. I sold the first nonfiction article I wrote. And then reality hit. I realized, as the rejections piled up, that writing is a tough gig, and I needed to think every day about how to get better as a writer. 

I came late to writing. I did not publish until I was past 50 years of age, and that makes me very impatient with the  feast or famine aspect of the writer's life. I've sold essays to prestigious venues, which I thought would give me a leg up on more sales to similar venues, but it hasn't. It seems a writer starts from zero with every piece, the exception being the Big Names.              

And I suppose the elephant in the room when we discuss publishing as a writer is that we must be more salesperson than writer. I'd rather write than market, which I suppose is a commentary on my desire for success.

Norm:

Is there a message in your book that you want your readers to grasp?

Gary:

I suppose I would want a reader to finish with Seven Wheelchairs and realize that there is a … commonality of humanity. Disability does not change that. None of us are as we appear. We each move through the world with dreams and passions. The desire to live  fully does not change because of the constraints of a physical disability.

Norm:

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

Gary:

I write every day, of course. Or, better said: I think about writing every day, and I try to get something into the word processor. I love to write creative nonfiction essays, and I have several out to various venues, several I'm tinkering with, and several that need more than tinkering. 

I have in mind a book-length project, one based on my youth. I was raised as a military brat. To give you an idea of that itinerant life style, I attended thirteen schools in eleven years. I would like to write a series of vignettes, enough to make up another memoir, about the places and people of my youth.

Norm:

Where can our readers find out more about you and your book?

Gary:

Either at the University of Iowa Press site or on Amazon, for the book, of course. And I also maintain a blog-type website--www.garypresley.com--where I post several times a week about writing, about disability issues, and sometimes how one relates to the other.

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