Larry: Yes, I have a very specific method to writing
once the story has grown beyond a few thousand words. I begin each session by
reading what I wrote the previous day for clarity, flow, and style. Only when I
am happy with yesterday’s work do I move on to new writing. That has helped me
a great deal in avoiding repetitious dialog and descriptive prose, and it is
the best way I know to get back into the story.
Paul: If someone had the power to step into your
creative mind what would they see?
Larry: They would see a little guy sitting at a big
desk connected to the rest of me by a mass of pneumatic tubes. He sits there
writing on his pad until a message arrives by tube and thunks onto his desk.
Stopping to open and read it, he then decides to either send it along in
another tube to some obscure part of my brain (this might be a message to
remember to do the laundry), or toss it into the trash can (these are usually
annoying phone calls from solicitors), or copy down the contents of the message
onto the pad and keep writing.
Paul: What is a typical day for you?
Larry: My day begins at 5:30 a.m., a feat unto
itself, especially in winter when five-thirty seems like the middle of the
night. About 6:00 a.m., I sit down at the computer with my first cup of coffee.
I check email, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ and by 6:30 a.m. I am writing. I
write until 12:30 p.m., then go for a walk. Afterward, it’s yard or housework
until about 3:00 p.m. Then I read, play guitar, or do some other non-writing
thing. The rest of the day is spent with my wife and two sons. I like it that
way.
Paul: How
do you find the time to write?
Larry: I don’t find the time to write. I make the time to write. I
begin every day with writing and I feel an emptiness if I don’t. I am difficult
on vacations for this reason, to say the least. Fortunately, my wife
understands my passion and has accepted me for better or worse.
Paul: What
is one thing you hope I do not tell the readers?
Larry: For God’s sake don’t tell them that I have nothing to hide and
that there is no mystery about me left to uncover. It would utterly ruin my
image.
Paul: Do you plot your
stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?
Larry: Each
story begins as an idea. As ideas occur to me, I create a folder, give it a
tentative title, and write a synopsis. I have many such folders. As ideas occur
to me about any of them, I add to the folder. When I need to pick my “next”
book, I decide which story idea is the one I’m most interested in writing, and
then the plot design is done. That said, there are always ideas that come
across my mind’s desk that I think would work well in the story at hand. Those
I work into the story.
Paul: Do you have to do much research for your
stories?
Larry: There
are always hours spent researching things for my books, but I enjoy it. I
really had a blast researching things from the 1950's for my book, A King in a
Court of Fools. This one is about kids growing up in 1956. So, for example, I
had to rediscover my memories of Isaly’s dairy where we used to go for ice
cream and milkshakes, and the South Park Drive-in, and the South Hills Harris
Theater where we would spend Saturdays watching cartoons and movies. That book
was a joy to write and research.
Larry: A Cape May Diamond is my most recent.
Imagine the confluence of a man in his twenties whose life has come to ruin and
a town that has come to the same end after a long history of being the crown
jewel of the New Jersey shore. That is the gist of the story. It is a tale of
tragedy and redemption on both a humanistic and cultural level. The book is the
2013 Winner of the Independent Publisher Book Awards (bronze medal) for best
eBook fiction.
Paul: Do you have any pieces of work that will
never see the light of day?
Larry: I
have three completed novels that I wrote early on that are barely worthy of the
bookshelf where they lay. Printed on a dot matrix printer and bound in a ring
binder, they are truly antiques. I loved them when I wrote them, and some of my
biggest fans (who would naturally be brothers and sisters) say I should publish
them, but I don’t think so.
Paul: Do you enter competitions? Are there any you
could recommend?
Larry: I
have not entered any myself. I have been asked to join the NANOWRIMO contest
(writing a novel in a month) but I simply cannot work that fast. It can take me
a year to write a novel.
Paul: How much marketing do you do for your
published works or for your ‘brand’?
Larry: I
maintain a presence on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. I don’t have an
extensive advertising budget, partly due to the fact that the proceeds of my
best seller, Four Years from Home were donated to the Alzheimer’s Association
in memory of my mother. Ironically, the book with the best sales (and was in
the Kindle Top 100 paid books for quite some time, and a category best seller
for almost a year) made me almost nothing. I use the Kindle Select program to
offer my books for free, and participate whenever kind people offer their blog
up for an interview.
Paul: What do you do when you’re not writing? Do you have any hobbies
or party tricks?
Larry: I
play guitar and have for almost fifty years. Some of my recordings are located
on the music page of my blog. I haven’t performed anywhere in almost three
years, and I’m not nearly as good as I once was, but I do enjoy playing. I can
also play the William Tell Overture on my face and can wiggle my left ear.
Paul: Thanks, Larry, that was really interesting. I wish you every success for the future.
Larry's Website: Four Years From Home
Larry on Twitter: @LarryEnright
Larry on Facebook: Larry Enright
Larry's latest book: A Cape May Diamond (Amazon)
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