Q: How did you start writing?
A: It was a long, slow process. I tried to write my first book when I was six years old. I took some school paper, drew pictures of sharks, and wrote captions under the pictures. I created a little foreword page saying something like, "This is my first book. I hope you like it." Then I stapled the pages together. I never showed it to anyone and after a few months I threw it away. After I read The Lord of the Rings (when I was fifteen), I was so inspired by Tolkien's pseudo history I tried to create my own. Naturally, it resembled Middle-earth in many ways. After I finished drawing some maps and writing some notes (in the style of LoTR's appendices), I realized I had just stolen all of Tolkien's ideas. So I rewrote the history and set it on a completely imaginary "other planet". For the next three or four years, I kept rewriting the histories, adding new ideas, changing my maps. Eventually, I reached the point where I was no longer satisfied with writing background material.
So I asked my mother to buy me an electric typewriter for my birthday, which she did, and I wrote my first novel -- starting with chapter five. I knew how the story should progress, but I couldn't figure out how to start it. After I finished that book (without ever writing the first chapters), I set it aside and rewrote my background material. This was tedious work, as I wrote the background notes by hand on college-ruled notebook paper. After I reached another plateau, I decided it was time to write the beginning of the novel. But instead I wrote a full-length story which took place about 70 years before the events in the first novel.
The second book was better than the first. But I still wanted to write the first book. And yet, I couldn't think of how to start it. So, I ended up writing a couple more books, and starting many more. Each project came a little more smoothly, but the one book I most wanted to write just wouldn't come out. Finally, I abandoned the process (after years).
While I was in college, my English professors encouraged me to write again. I took English as a minor and really enjoyed the advanced classes, including Creative Writing and Advanced Composition (essays). Several of the professors told me I could probably make it as an essayist, but at the time I didn't have any interest in that kind of writing. Still, encouraged by the faculty, I went back to my prequel novel and rewrote it twice, both times getting detailed critiques from one of my professors. He helped me improve my writing tremendously, but I was still unable to write the opening chapters of the first book.
I spent a couple of years trying to find a market for the novel the professor and I had worked on. A couple of agents and editors expressed support for me but no one offered any contracts. So, eventually, I gave up on the project and tried writing short stories. I almost sold one, but the magazine which had accepted it lost its funding and folded. I had a couple of other near sales, as well.
By this time, I realized my career as a programmer was going nowhere. I had gone from small job to small job, dealing with a lot of stress and learning from a lot of people. But the money just wasn't there. Maybe I was a bad negotiator. But I finally decided that what I needed to do was find a way to earn some recognition. About that time, I was told to join the BASIS FORUM on Compuserve. There I was introduced to the world-wide Business Basic community, and after a year or so had proven myself enough that people began quietly contacting me about possible jobs. Somewhere in that period, I began writing technical papers for the Business Basic community. Some of them were pretty long, book-length, but many were just essays.
A few years and some magazine articles later, I found myself engaged in lively discussions on the Internet with other Tolkien fans. As the questions grew more interesting and involved, and I as continued to followup with new research, I decided to try writing a history book about Middle-earth. I never quite finished it, but was advised to either make it a little more scholarly or somewhat less so (to give it mass audience appeal).
That research project served as the groundwork for my breakout in Tolkien writing. I began writing the Parma Endorion Web site around the same time, and was asked to contribute some articles to a few Tolkien journals. I landed some contracts to write about Hercules and Xena topics, and then was offered a contract to write some essays about Middle-earth's characters for Toy Vault. Eventually, I applied for and was given a contract to write about Tolkien and Middle-earth at Suite101.com.
Q: You self-published your first book, Visualizing Middle-earth. How did that come about?
A: A friend of mine knew about my abandoned Tolkien history book project. He called me up one day and told me about a company he had just read about. They were offering to publish anyone's book for free. He felt it was an opportunity I shouldn't pass up. So, I checked out their Web site and realized they were a self-publishing services provider. Sort of a vanity press, but not quite. There was no editorial review, but they weren't asking authors to pay to have their books published. I didn't feel I should put the history book into that kind of market, but I had a lot of essays from Suite101 which people were constantly asking me how they could print them out. I thought a collection of my essays would be appropriate. It was a way to earn a little more money from them without risking anything.
I put the book together in about a week. Regrettably, it looks like that much work went into it. Still, for no money down, it turned out to be a great investment. VME is still selling well today. The publishing company changed their program soon after I brought out that book. They no longer offer free publishing services and are now a full vanity press.
