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Day3

This is how someone who loves but distrusts writing becomes a writer:

I took my editing career with me to Duluth, and worked on manuscripts for a number of publishers. It was a way to support myself and my kids (2 now) and be home with them—distracted, frazzled, and whiny, but home. I’m not so sure they’re grateful for that, now . . .

And I started doing sculpture again: I’d set up outdoor installations that people would encounter on their way to the grocery store or on a walk through the woods. I photographed them and built a portfolio. I started applying for commissions, and got some.

But our newspaper didn’t cover visual art. I nagged the editor every week for months. Finally she said, well, for god’s sake, you do it then! She assigned me a review of a show at the local university museum. I was terrified but I did it. She beat up the story, and so did their regular A&E guy. I thanked them profusely. I did it again next week, and the next month. They taught me how to write for other people.

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What would it be like to live a life without regrets? To remember the past, but not feel it intensely? To see the folly of your ways without being embarrassed that they were yours?

Some people are too hard on themselves. You hear it a lot, but what does it really mean and why does it happen? As one of those people, I think I might try to answer this question, not for your benefit, but for my own.

In my heart, I believe myself to be a good person. Of course, many people I would consider to be “bad”, would probably feel the same way. Yet, within the context of the society I live in, I believe most people would not see me as bad. I am basically law-abiding, kind, friendly, and often generous with both time, and money (when I happen to have some). That said, I'm not entirely devoid of faults.

For one thing, I am quick to anger, and I don't suffer fools easily. That said, I've also seen this as a defect (both these things) and have put time and effort into correcting this. I no longer get angry as fast as I once did, and I never particularly stayed angry for long. Also, I've never been one to hold grudges.

Yet as I look back, I can see the pain and suffering my anger has caused others and, sometimes, I feel as if I can never atone for the pain I've caused. The situation was driven home to me recently, when speaking to my stepdaughter from my second marriage.

John, thank you for taking the time for this interview. You have 30 titles under your belt. That’s quite a portfolio! When did you start writing? And what got you started?

Thanks for considering me interesting enough to interview.

Well, to tell you the truth I now have around 67 publishing credits/acceptances. Two in Necrotic Tissue, just received an acceptance at SNM, and the rest are in various anthologies, webzines and print publications. I received an acceptance at Sonar4’s ezine within an hour and fifteen minutes, my fasted acceptance. It couldn’t have come at a better time when, as a writer, I was feeling down, dejected because of all the recent rejections at the time. One of my publishing credits is 2012: Kin Bin Tin Nah, of which I am so proud!

Oops! I didn't realize...that's even more impressive.

I began writing YEARS ago. I had a blog at www.xanga.com and I would post poems, meandering thoughts and stories. Jezzy from Choate Road was one of my friends, and she kept telling me about this writing group called Edit Red. I finally joined. I almost deleted my site there several times, but I kept at it, despite some harsh critiques of my stories. Eventually, I received an email from Greg Hall requesting my involvement in an anthology. He had already invited Jezzy. This was LONG before Greg and Jezzy created Choate Road. The fact that someone felt my fiction was good enough to be in an anthology lit a fire beneath me. I began submitting stories left and right, hoping that it would somehow help the anthology (it didn’t, lol!). I joined Edit Red back in… 2007. During that time I submitted work to an ezine called The Horror Library, and I was invited into the workshop experience at Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope on November 27, 2007. I came close to quitting Zoetrope many times, too, but now I have a private office with over 350 writers, editors, poets and artists, and I believe there is enough raw talent in that office to set the world on fire.

Written for Lan's Lantern
appeared in Fosfax
republished with permission

In my life, I have written a grand total of three fan letters to writers. One of the recipients, Barry Malzberg, became my closest friend and occasional collaborator. Another, humorist Ross Spencer, also became a good friend. The third was African writer Alexander Lake, who died on Christmas Day, 1961, a month before I wrote to him. I've always regretted not meeting Lake, who has been virtually forgotten by the American reading public, despite a number of bestsellers.

I recently moved Resnick's Library of African Adventure from St. Martin's Press over to Alexander Books. The primary reason was to bring Lake back into print.

Sounds simple, right? I mean, hell, all editors do is sit on their judgment all day and see what comes in the mail.

Well, sometimes it's not quite that easy. Take Lake, for example.

Hell, take the whole damned chronology:

1954: I buy the paperback edition of Killers in Africa at age 12, take it to summer camp with me, read it in its entirety once a week for two months. From that day to this, I am fascinated by all things African, I take 5 safaris, I write 13 books and 18 short stories set in Africa, and I never forget that it is Alexander Lake who awakened this passion in me.

Every so often a person just needs to reinvent herself. Maybe not so often as Madonna, but you know what I mean. Human beings are complex and colorful creatures, and if you try to pigeonhole us, well, we refuse to remain pigeons forever.

This, I guess, is my situation.

Last year was a whirlwind in my world. I published five books. Four of them were related to vampires in one way or another and heck, the fifth one had a vampire story in it too. I love vampires as much as ever, but five is a lot of titles for one year. Meanwhile, I’ve also tried to stay true to my original branding of “erotica with soul,” particularly on my blog and this column. I also continue to like reading and writing spicy romance, but again, this pigeon has been feeling peckish.

So, so far in 2010, apart from doing a bit of promo for How to Catch and Keep a Vampire, I’ve been enjoying getting back into some old hobbies, reading, watching TV and movies, and hanging out with family and friends. Wow, kind of like regular people who don’t have a publishing/writing business apart from their full-time job! It has been very fun and refreshing, but I can never go without writing for long.

Then I had this sudden idea.

•NEW : Non-Static Writing | Begins March 9, 2010

Non-Static Writing : 6 Week Workshop begins Tuesday March 9th 2010. This is an online 6 week advanced course on non-static writing taught by yours truly Max Adams. There is a reason movies are called "moving pictures." Because they move. This course is about keeping those pictures moving within a script. Subjects include opening environments, using open and closed environments, moving characters within enclosed environments, using dialogue to create tension within closed environments, and how to kill a scene in under five secondds with an electronic device.

Course fee is $270. Course length is 6 weeks. Seating is limited. Send email for course sign up to : courses @ seemaxrun.com

[you must type out the above email address without the spaces -- we are trying to outwit spam bandits]

*This class is limited to 12 students; class is open for registration and accepting students -- for info and/or to sign up please email the above address.

Classes panels and workshops taught by Screenwriter Max Adams www.seemaxrun.com Schedule of in person appearances by screenwriter Max Adams including screenwriting classes panels seminars and workshops.

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