1. Who am I? (I added this question to the original, simply because I want to answer it first, and because I had already numbered them incorrectly)
My name is Jared Gullage. I am a resident of Alabama. I am married, currently without children, but I own a cat (practice child).
2. When did you decide to become a writer?
When I learned (circa third grade or so) that I could make up stories and write my ideas down, and when I discovered my father would actually read them and comment on them. I learned that creativity was fun and exciting and gave me a little control over my own worlds. I discovered, playing fantasy in my backyard, that I was creating stories other children my age enjoyed being a part of and helping me to create. Eventually, my parents gave me typewriters and I learned to peck as fast as I could. I wrote stories mostly to entertain myself, but I also learned to incorporate my school learning into my writing, to bolster and puff up my worlds and make them more real. As time went on, I learned how to role play, and again, kids my own age would come to be a part of the stories I created and we would really get into it together. I have been the GM for sessions lasting entire days, and I did this every weekend for years, one a 12 hour long session, and the people leaving that night said they wanted more. We had moments of absolute triumph, watched empires rise and fall, saw love stories, revenge tales, and the defeat of monsters, and for some reason, this all seemed so natural to me (both as a player and a GM). My friends and I bonded extremely closely over this, and several times, we have agreed that what we created was a beautiful act of mutual imagination. I claim credit for a lot of the creative act here (as much as possible, I suppose), because the world was mine (mostly) into which I invited my friends and into which they gladly accepted the invitation. I hope this does not come across as bragging (because it isn't). Merely, this was how I discovered a sort of niche in my life for creative writing and the creation of fantasy. 3. If you are not a full time writer what do you do to pay the bills?
Currently, I am a high school English teacher. My students sometimes call me Mr. G. I really enjoy them, and I enjoy getting to know these future minds of the world as they pass by me. I enjoy being creative about how I teach my class, and I'll be honest and say I've used my students as editors for my novel before it was published. 4. Any tips for your fellow Indie authors?
Hmmm. As far as fantasy is concerned, I tend to take what I see on Earth and ask myself: "What if it were like this instead...." Playing the game "13 Ways to Think of Garbage Disposal Repair" or "13 different writing prompts" or whatever it is people call it is an excellent way to think up new and different twists to stories.
Sometimes, I go into Books a Million or Hastings or anywhere new books are sold and read the first few pages of a book. I do this to get an idea of the hooks. If it hooks me, I think: "How could I do that?" Also, I encourage myself by looking at what I consider 'the not-too-good' books. I won't say which those are for me, but sometimes I look at books that I think I would not enjoy or not think are good (for whatever reason I think so) and say to myself: "I can do better than this, so I can get published too." Again, I don't want to sound arrogant (which is why I won't tell my standards so you won't know the extremely limited number of times I've found a book I think I could do better). It's just a little pick-me-up activity to say: "If this is published, I can get published also" or "hmmm, this author's style is kind of like mine, so maybe I'm not so bad after all." I don't know of many other authors who haven't done this...at least once...in their lives. I also go to these stores and find books to inspire me to go home and get busy. I see something that looks interesting and say: "Hmmm, what have I got going on, or how can I do something like this, but with a different spin." 5. What served as your inspiration for Drinna?
I have many inspirations for Drinna. One of them is how I grew up. The main character is a child who grew up knowing about the outdoor world around her, just like I grew up learning about insects and trees and animals. We've had just about every pet a person can have around where I live (possums, snakes, rodents of various shapes and sizes, ducks, cats, dogs, birds, horses, etc.) so I wanted to write about a character that knew her way around the woods. Many members of my family have hunted or do now, so again, I wanted to reflect that part of my Southern heritage in my novel (even about a pseudo-medieval world).
I chose a female protagonist to introduce my race of creatures, the Kunjels, because I wanted to show how powerful a female could be, how strong a lead she could be. I wanted to show that a female could do and be every bit as much as a male. And among Drinna's people, this is especially true. Kunjels have the capacity for rage, which makes them powerful and dangerous to those who threaten them, but at the same time, they must learn to use self-control and turn their rage only on targets of absolute need and emergency. I wanted Drinna to be a role model, particularly after teaching children approximately her age. Many children in this day and time (not to sound like an old fart here) harbor an excessive amount of rage. This is largely because many of them find they are helpless or feel helpless to control the world around them, and they lash out at people trying to help them because they have never known, or seldom known, positive attention. Some children assume that adults are the enemy, and many are taught in their society to be skeptical, if not downright prejudiced, about 'the other' or people not like them. Again, some of them never question religious beliefs they hold, because all around them are similar people who believe similar things, and sometimes, it is best not to hold onto judgments if they are based on untested belief systems. Drinna was a chance for me to present a character that learned self-control, discretion, and wisdom. She learns to carefully and usefully judge the situations around her, and she learns to seek Truth in every situation.
I hope, in this novel, I have presented a character who teaches young people to stop and think before doing things and to listen and learn from even people they have been taught not to like, to avoid prejudice and to channel the rage they have against an often-unfair world.
6. What other work do you have available?
I have a short-story being published (allegedly) by Drolleries Press, when they find an anthology suitable to put it in. It is called the Cagulant. If I don't hear from them in about a year or two, I"m going to submit it elsewhere (according, of course, to contractual obligations as I read them). I am currently working on a novel online on my blog called The Trochayabite Boy, about a young lad whose mother joined a cult before she died. He must judge what he believes about the gods, who he doesn't know if he's ever met, while protecting his sister and navigating an adult social life thrust upon him. It is an exploration of my thoughts about why good things happen to bad people and why bad things happen to good people and my own personal thoughts about God, Christ, the universe, and everything...42.... I am currently working on a sequel to Drinna, but since I've just published that, the details of that are hush-hush. 7. What sites is your work available on?
Drinna is available, of course, on Amazon as a kindle book. It is available also at www.eTreasurespublishing.com. The Cagulant is not available yet, but hopefully will be soon as an eAnthology, however the heck that works, from Drolleries press. Tell them you want to read it, and maybe they'll expedite the process some. The Trochayabite Boy is in draft form (so don't judge too harshly) on my blog: http://jaredgullagetrithofar.posterous.com/ . Also featured there are a few little mini-essays about creatures, the nature of magic, some history, and whatever else I think of and what to present. I've been getting a few hits there, but would love to see more. Come watch me draft a novel online, if you dare.... I don't know if I'll finish out that novel there, but will get pretty close to halfway through before starting another one. I'll finish and shop it around, and hopefully have some fish on the line to buy it later.
8. Are you currently working on anything new and if so when can we expect to see it?
Like I said, I'm working on the above stuff, and a sequel to my first novel. Don't know when I'll get done with it though. I'm about a third of the way through the sequel and getting close to the halfway on The Trochiabite Boy. Like I said, I won't finish TBB online, but will farm it out or publish it independently on kindle (if I figure out how to do that). 9. Are there any authors that you really look up to?
I grew up on Ray Bradbury (to whom my father introduced me), as well as Asimov here and there (mainly the Foundation series). I loved The Hobbit, but not necessarily Lord of the Rings until a friend of mine introduced me to them. I read, but did not enjoy until later, the Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe and the rest of the Narnia series. When I was little, I thought (mainly because I knew they were Christian allegories), they were corny, but then I solidified my faith a bit, and found they were beautifully done. When I had a more mature faith, I enjoyed the series a lot more. I enjoyed Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game, as well as some of his short stories, Lost Boys, and some other of his works. I really enjoyed Orson Wells' 1984 (well, as much as such a thing can be enjoyed) and Animal Farm. I loved All Quiet on the Western front, as well. My father read to me Great Expectations as well as several other books I would randomly select and especially the Chronicles of Prydain. My father was probably the most responsible for my interest in literary arts at all, and probably my greatest inspiration to creativity. He always encouraged me to 'paint pictures with words.'
10. What do you see the biggest challenge in being an Indie author as?
Well, I'm not sure if I qualify...yet...as an Indie author, but since I am learning how to work with Blogs and such things, and will soon learn to publish through kindle on my own, if possible, I'm publishing myself a little more. The publisher I have is a small and up-and-coming publisher, and I have so far enjoyed the process. The biggest challenge I have seen, however, for me is editing. When I edit my own work, sometimes I don't see things as others see them, and sometimes I get sucked in. Also, sometimes, I'll want to change something, and this might cause an avalanche in the novel where I have to change about fifty more things. I try to edit as I go along, but know that I can't, and when I avalanche, I'll go back and rewrite the whole story sometimes. I know that Drinna took about seven rewrites because the darn characters kept getting themselves out of line and I had to wrangle them back in and set them straight (when it was to their benefit in the story). 11. Have you ever been published in any magazines or any national publication?
I'm currently being published sometime or other in Drolleries Press. Other than that, I"ve had a few poems published (Google me). I hope to work further with eTreasures, if Drinna will take off there, which I guess could be considered sort of National-esque, as they publish from everywhere. I dunno. 12. Do you have a homepage/blog/twitter/facebook etc... that fans can follow your progress or contact you at?
I would love to hear comments on what's going on there. Of course, there's also this place:
I don't really know as much about facebook as I'd like, so I really haven't invested much time there. But, if people started paying attention to it, I would love to deal with that. I'll learn what lives.
14. What is your favorite book/series?
I really don't have one particularly. I have enjoyed the Harry Potter series mainly because it helped introduce my wife and brother in law to fantasy. I have enjoyed the City of Ember series (don't know what the actual series is called). Recently (a la the last five or so years) I rediscovered for myself the Narnia series. I want to get back to Robert Jordan and the Wheel of Time, and I've heard good things about The Song of Fire and Ice. 15. Are there any specific sites that you visit for advice or inspiration?
I love dictionary.com because they have a translator there. I love to go there and find a word for something in another language, twist that around and make it my own, and keep such things a secret. A few times, that's how I get the motif for some of my languages. I am currently enjoying facebook, etc. I really do like (though this has nothing to do with writing fantasy exactly) That Guy With the Glasses, which is just a really good way to relax. I check out reviews of movies on Rotten Tomatoes. A lot of my inspiration comes from movies, etc., where I enjoy thinking about what's happening to the characters. Particularly for writing and learning about writing, I check out www.tvtropes.org where I learn about tropes and overused ideas, so as to avoid them and steer more towards originality.
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J. Gullage
Nice Mr. G. I hope this works out fo you. I hope I will get to read it. I want to be one of the first to read it.
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