The Interview - Alan Webber

In my job as a salesman before email, I had to write introductory letters to hopefully get a customers attention before I followed up with a phone call. Over time my writing improved and as an avid reader I decided to try my hand at writing a novel in my spare time. It took ten years to write my first novel, called Whipping Post, mostly at night or on the weekends. After finishing I tried to find a publisher or agent to no avail. I enrolled in a class at a local junior college where I found out the teacher had her own small publishing company. She liked the novel and took it through the process of getting published. The book had tepid sales, primarily because neither of us knew how to market a book. Eventually she went out of business owing 5-6 authors money. 

Twelve years later I had licked my wounds enough to try it again. Semi-retired, I had more time to write and the book, called Roll Me Away, took two years to write. Once again I tried to find a publisher or agent who might take me on, and once again was met with nothing but rejection. I decided to self-publish through Archway as I felt this was a very good book. Since that time, I have also started the process to reintroduce Whipping Post to market the books as a set since they use the same main character, trucker Tim Harrison. 

I pursue it while the idea is fresh and hot. You can always come back to your current project - it won't go anywhere. If I don't pursue the new, I will forget the new, or lose energy about it. 

I have used the same central character in both my novels, a trucker named Tim Harrison. Tim is really not like me or anyone I know, although when I was asked you would portray him in a movie I always said a younger Sam Elliott. Since Tim is a trucker, he is reasonably easy to write about as I have been around truckers my whole life. Most everything Tim does or says would be replicated from any trucker in the country trying to make a living for his family. My intention when I first started writing about truckers is to try and clean up their image a little by explaining they are just people too, trying to make a living to support a family the best way they know how. The problems come when the trucker is gone for long stretches at a time and the family back home sometimes strays into areas they shouldn't. Owning my own trucking company also puts me in a position to write about the owner of the company that Tim works for. 

I write completely spontaneously with no clear conclusion planned out. Sometimes I surprise myself this way. 

John Grisham or Harlen Coben. Easy reads and good stories. I don't normally read female authors so have no recommendation there. I personally like Greg Isles or the Lincoln/Preston novels. 

Don't know. I just have so many words in me that have to get out. That is why I have stuck around for question 21 out of 30. 

Honestly, not much as I have been in trucking my whole life. In class we were told to write about what we know, so I took them up on that advice. As I tend to include historical information in my books, the internet is a great place to find what information I need. I use a lot of dialogue, and they talk like truckers, a language I'm well versed there as well. 

I have another book started in a different genre that deals with murder in the art world, but I have found the internet has all the information I need to hang on a story. 

I did notice when looking for publishers or agents they were often only looking for women, people of color, or gay folks. As I didn't fit the mold for those three groups, I tried my hand at writing a novel about a female truck driver, which I have had some trouble with from a female perspective. I had my wife read each chapter when done to see what advice she could give me for intent and/or accuracy, which has been a great help. But I took the story into child slavery, again getting my information from the net. The wife didn't like the turn I took with it, and as I had my own reservations about the subject, the book has remained unfinished. 

Yes, as previously explained. I wrote about a trucker and I have over 50 years in the trucking business. 

Neither - I explained this in a previous question. 

Trucker Tim Harrison is trying to make an honest living. 

Truckers are people too, with their own problems, wishes, and needs, just like the rest of the people. 

NO

My book cover ideas were the most challenging critiques. In the end, the experts were probably right though, even if it did cost money. 

The book review is the best compliment you can get. 

Don't expect to make money from your writing - do it for yourself. The publishing game is loaded with thieves and it seems as if agents have gotten lazy, so beware of the issues you will have trying to publish. If you use a self-publisher, expect to spend a lot of money. Know that the NY Times best seller list is a joke. I have taken to writing poems and short stories while waiting to see if my novels take off. 

Favorite line - "With no f****** emotion, the damn thing reached into your chest, ripping your heart out and showing it to you in derision just before you fell dead to the earth, your  last earthly sight." 

Trying to write about child slavery. It just didn't feel write, a feeling my wife later confirmed. The book is still in limbo over this. 

My character does not do that - he is real, he is honest, and he has troubles like anyone else. I really have no opinion on book boyfriends, a term I am not familiar with. 

A little. Just get up and do something else. The block will go away, or at least it does with me. Sometimes I had to start a new novel for it to unblock. 

Golf or spending time with grandchildren 

Often, mostly from a historical nature. I knew the industry, dialogue and the geography, I just need to tie it all together with some history. 

Yes I did, both novels. When the first one gets reissued, the covers will be similar in fact. I like to design my own creative things. 

John Grisham- The Exchange

Neil Gaiman - Norse Mythology 

Joe Concha - Come On Man

More books about truckers, I guess. Probably published posthumously as I don't seem to be able to catch a publisher or agent. I have read enough books that I know my books are damn good. 

No

A cartoonist when I got in school in 1975. Wanted to work for Disney. I was 49 y/o when I first started to write a novel. Had no idea if I would get it published.  

Haven't finished it. 

My first novel took 10 years. 

My second novel took 2 years.

I have 3 other novels started in various stages of completion. I won't publish them under the conditions currently created in the market by unscrupulous publishers and agents. 

I have offices in two homes that I spend most of my time in. 

Yes, always. Classic rock and roll. Ringo Starr's "It Don't Come Easy," is playing right now as I type this. 

"Got to pay your dues if you want to play the blues, and you know it don't come easy..."

Golf

Most of the characters were based on people I know, except oddly, the main character. I can't say it influenced my writing other than to give people I know a plug if they read the book and find themselves in it. Obviously, I don't use real names, but if you read it, you can tell. For example, I used to ride motorcycles with a small group of avid bikers. I used them in a bar scene, slightly changing names. 

Yes. The primary character of both books is a truck driver. Just like John Grisham writes thrillers around a lawyer, I have written a thriller around a trucker. I personally was a truck driver for two years and now own my own trucking company. With over 50 years in trucking, I feel I am well-versed in trucking, rather than writers who try to write from the passenger seat. There are lots of connections in the story to my own life and acquaintances. Many of the people in the book, or locations are after people or places I knew in my life. Most of Roll Me Away takes place in El Paso Texas, where I have an office, or Cave Creek Arizona, where I live.