Interview with:David Bowles [davidbowles]
WRITING
 | What did you first read? How did you begin to write? Who were the first to read what you wrote? As a young boy, I loved to hear about my grandparents and great grandparents. My parents, aunts, and uncles told wonderful stories and painted vivid pictures of every event. I grew up reading about history and touring the many museums, libraries, and state buildings of Austin.
As an adult, I got interested in genealogy and researched my family history. I really wanted someone to write those stories, but I couldn't find anyone else to do it. So I decided to write them myself. I started out writing my family history as nonfiction narrative for my children and grandchildren. However, my pedantic writing was so boring my family didn't even want to read them.
I tried to make the stories more interesting by imagining events that might have happened and creating new characters. I had so much fun and knew I had found a new calling as an author of historical fiction. However, I haven't forgotten what I learned from working on my family history. All my stories are about real people, and everything I write is consistent with real history. Even when I invent characters and events, they could have actually happened without changing history. |
| What is your favorite genre? Can you provide a link to a site where we can read some of your work or learn something about it? I write historical fiction because that's what I love. My love of writing began with attempting to write nonfiction family history before turning to fiction, so what I write conforms to known history. People I write about are either real people or characters that could have lived in that time and place. Events either really happened or could have.
You can find out about my work at http://westwardsagas.com. You can also read an excerpt of Spring House, the first novel in The Westward Sagas at http://westwardsagas.com/SpringHouse_ChapterExcerpt.pdf. (...) |
| What is your creative process like? What happens before sitting down to write? I do an incredible amount of research, not only because it's important to me that my stories are true to history but also because I love it.
Although I don't write a formal outline, I have an idea of what I'm going to cover in each book. |
| What voice do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? I write in third person because first person gets tiresome after a while. |
| What is required for a character to be believable? How do you create yours? Characters have to have flaws as well as strengths just as real people. Many of my characters are real historical people, and I research everything I get my hands on about them to portray them accurately. I have fun creating the fictional characters in my stories, letting my imagination run wild. |
| Are you equally good at telling stories orally? Yes, I am known as a tale-spinner, and I love telling stories to audiences large and small. |
| Does reader feed-back help you? Definitely. I have received a lot of very valuable feedback from readers of Spring House that has given me great information to use in future books in The Westward Sagas.
In fact, readers of my blog at http://westwardsagas.com/blog have given me great help in learning about specific historical characters.
I have a group of beta readers who check facts for me as well as point out anything that needs to be clarified or changed.
My readers are a great source of help and information for me. |
| Do you participate in competitions? Have you received any awards? I have entered Spring House in a handful of competitions.
In April 2007, National Indie Excellence 2007 Book Awards announced that Spring House was a finalist in the Historical Fiction category. |
| Do you share rough drafts of your writings with someone whose opinion you trust? Yes, I belong to a wonderful group of authors who read and critique each other's work. This group has been outstanding in helping me hone my writing. In fact, I recently wrote a blog post about these great writers: http://westwardsagas.com/2009/06/16/critique-pov-and-good- (...)
After the first draft, I work with a professional editor to polish the manuscript and make it the best it can be. |
| Do you write on a computer? Do you print frequently? Do you correct on paper? What is your process? I write on the computer, but I print out my work to read and edit. I make all my corrections on paper then transfer them to the computer. |
| What has been your experience with publishers? My books appeal to a well-defined niche, and I have an author platform that lets me reach that niche. Therefore, I chose to self-publish my books and market directly to my niche market rather than try to go through traditional publishers. So I don't have any experience with publishers. |
| What are you working on now? |
| What do you recommend I do with all those things I wrote years ago but have never been able to bring myself to show anyone? Take them out and review them. You may find they are better than you think. Or maybe they can be rewritten and made better. At the very least, your old work may give you ideas for new projects. |
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David Bowles
San Antonio, TX
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