1. Can you tell us a
little about yourself, your blog, and your aspirations and your hobbies!!
It’s safe to
say that I’ve always been a writer, starting in elementary school when I used
to produce stories to entertain my friends. After college I found my way into
technical writing as a profession, because I had a peculiar educational
background that combined literature and the sciences. (I definitely didn’t need
familiarity with Chaucer and Shakespeare and Joyce in order to do tech writing,
but along the way I’d acquired a knack for expressing ideas more clearly than most
scientists and engineers.) Consequently, I’ve spent most of my adult life
creating documents about subjects like aerospace and mobile telecommunications.
I saw that! You’re yawning already!
But that’s how I’ve paid the bills, and actually the material has often been fascinating.
I’ve worked on everything from draft plans for interplanetary missions to user
guides for trendy new cell phones.
On the side, fulfilling
an urge to be more creative, I wrote occasional features for newspapers and
sent off short stories to small literary presses. Then after a few years life
gave me my real subject, in the form of a child who needed an enormous amount
of help. That adventure prompted me to write my memoir, What
About the Boy?,
and subsequently to blog about it. Also, these days when I read someone else’s
work, I take time to enter a sometimes-lengthy reader review of it on goodreads. That’s an exercise mainly for my own
benefit. Having developed a sense for what works and doesn’t work in creative
writing, I like to apply it in every example that crosses my path.
None of this
makes me an “established writer.” Here I am nearing the latter end of my career
and I still have no clue of how one attains true recognition (i.e., commercial
and/or critical success). On the other hand, the real payoff for me remains the
joy of creating a piece of writing in which I can take pride.
2. How you first got
involved in with blogging/writing, are you an imaginative person?
Every kind of
writing I’ve done has, in one way or another, been a process of taking a
concept or an experience and figuring out what is important about it. Sometimes
the process feels almost like writing a lab report! So I see myself more as
someone who endeavors to think clearly, and to show my thinking so others can
follow it, rather than as being very imaginative. I do very much admire
writing that’s based on a truly original concept. But I also admire writing
that, like Philip Roth’s Everyman, remains firmly grounded in the
unexceptional reality of daily life, and simply enhances our understanding.
3. What do you find
most challenging about blogging/writing about your topic?
On the
surface, the topic of my personal writing is the story of what my family did
when we had a child with serious developmental problems. The challenge is
getting past people’s tendency to think that I’m writing only to give advice or
perspective to other parents in the same situation. For example, I’ve got lots
of friends who are very serious about writing and reading books but who have
not read WATB and don’t pay attention to my blog. Evidently that’s because
disability is not an issue in their lives. Also, Barnes and Noble insisted on
displaying the book with how-to parent guides about ADHD and autism and Downs,
and it’s really not that kind of book at all.
This is
frustrating. I do write specifically about disability and health care and family
dynamics, but I see my real topics as being broader. Disability means a
limitation on one’s options in life—one’s freedom. That limitation becomes much
worse, and more pervasive, in a system in which providers act like gatekeepers,
instead of enabling people to do better. People limit themselves, too, in their
reactions to hardship and frustration. These are my real topics.
In trying to explore
them, I’ve also found myself writing online about music and movies
and even about blogging itself. I’ve occasionally resorted to poetry and flash fiction. In short, I don’t see myself as a
niche writer, and that assessment is supported by the fact that many good
responses to my book have come from people who don’t even have kids.
4. Tell me about some
of the people you have met while working on your blog?
Probably the
most interesting relationships formed along the way have been with other
writers in mutual-feedback situations, such as critique groups.
Some of those
folks I’ve only met online, via websites where people share their work and
offer constructive suggestions. One of many extraordinary writers I met that
way is Kate Kasserman, a lady in illinois who writes and self-publishes
first-rate fiction (sometimes under a pseudonym) but makes absolutely no
attempt to promote it or let the reading public know it exists. She just
doesn’t want to jump through all the hoops, and having done my share of jumping
I can’t blame her. In fact, I admire her choice.
I also
participated in a couple of local critique groups, which met on a regular basis
in people’s living rooms. One memorable writer I met that way is Patrick McMahon, who was polishing his own memoir
when I was working on mine. Discussing successive drafts of your work with
people like this is an enormously educational experience. There’s absolutely no
substitute for it.
5. How would (someone) describe your blogging/writing style?
I have never
been a disciplined writer. That is, I don’t sit down to write at a certain time
every day, and in fact most of my personal writing occurs only after being sparked
by some random thought or impression.
Another
characteristic of my writing is a difficulty in getting out of Edit mode. As
soon as I begin to scratch out a rough draft of anything, my internal editor
begins questioning my word choices. I go back over each sentence and worry
whether it’s graceful enough, and clear enough, and complete enough. This is a
necessary part of writing, but it gets in the way when the main objective is
simply getting a basic idea down on paper.
Both of these
traits have prevented me from writing more than I have in my life, and I don’t
necessarily recommend them.
6. What do you do
when you are not working on your blog?
I’m a family
man, occupied primarily with giving my two younger kids a good start in life
while striving to continue doing right by my older, disabled son.
Music is an
important part of life for the younger ones. One of my regrets is not sticking
with music when I was a kid, so as long as they remain interested I do
everything possible to help them move ahead in that direction.
As for my
older son Joseph, incredible as it seems I still find myself, after all these
years, battling to secure some of his basic rights. I remain astonished by the
failure of doctors and other caregivers to do their jobs
7 .Where do you see
yourself blogging/writing wise in the next 6 months, and 5 years down the road?
What About the Boy? was published in the latter half of
2011, and a huge part of my energies since then have gone into sustaining its
launch. This has meant blogging about it on my own website and contributing related
posts and articles to magazines and other sites (along with a huge number of
radio interviews and other such activities). That process has forced me to
continue thinking about what I say in the book, and as a result some of my views have continued to evolve slightly. It has been a good use of my time,
even though I often suspect that nobody’s listening.
Future
writing is likely to have less specific connection with my book. One way to
expand public awareness of a first book is to continue producing others. That
should be a goal of mine, although there are no other big projects in work just
now. Every so often I write bits of narrative, some of which I
post online. I may
put some of my better efforts together in an ebook and make that available.
Beyond that, we’ll just have to see.
8. What networking do
you do that you feel helps your blogging/writing business?
Like most
writers, I have a Facebook presence for my book, and every so often I tweet about my writing. Apparently there
are readers who discovered What About the
Boy? in that way. Those channels feel pretty low-key, however. The main
thing is just being online and tuned in to what’s being said in general
regarding topics related to my writing. For example, when I see an relevant article
or a discussion and feel that I can add value with a comment of my own, I step
in and mention my book as a shorthand way of introducing myself. When this is
done on a ongoing basis, I think people may eventually notice and want to learn
more.
9. How do you keep
coming up with material/content for your blog? Many people struggle with coming
up with different articles/posts and they only have one blog.
The conventional
wisdom is that bloggers need to be generating fresh content on a regular basis.
I see disagreement as to how often that should occur, but it makes sense that
visitors won’t bother coming back unless they can expect to see something new.
The only way
I can come up with new material is to remain alert to what is happening in the
world and to look for the significance of what’s happening in my immediate
surroundings. Occasionally I post a very simple comment, but usually it’s closer to being a
formal essay. And generating that sort of thing on a regular basis is not easy.
A local weekly newspaper has reprinted two or three of my blog posts, and at
one point they offered to take me on as a regular contributor. I felt flattered
but didn’t pursue that, because I didn’t think it would be possible to generate
enough material.
10. What’s your
strategy with your blog in general?
Mainly, I
write when the mood strikes, and then I consider whether anything should be
done with the result. If it’s a fit for my blog, that’s where I put it. If it’s
more of a mainstream or fictional narrative, I may post it on readwave.
Sometimes I decide to keep it in my back pocket until a good use suggests
itself. I short: not much of a strategy, but I try to stay active.
11. Any specific tips
you have for newbie bloggers who want to make it in the blogosphere?
Look
carefully at what other people are doing. And in that context ask yourself what
kind of online presence you want to have. For example, some people bare their
souls more completely than do others. Don’t forget that anything you put online
is potentially going to be out there forever, even if you wish you could recall
it.
12. What would you
prioritize? Content? SEO? Traffic? Readers?
In a waiting
room the other day I happened to read an article by a political journalist in Time Magazine. He didn’t say anything I
disagreed with. He didn’t say anything at all! The piece was just filler,
designed to take up a page of text. As a result, I don’t feel inclined to read
anything else by that writer. Time
gets lots of traffic and readers, and they probably don’t need to worry about
SEO. But based on this, they might give extra thought to providing meaningful
content.
At the other
end of the spectrum, in my writing I try to say something that will convey
something of value to whoever reads it. Theoretically, if it truly did have
potential to improve people’s lives, the traffic and readership would follow. Either
that theory doesn’t hold, or the quality of my writing could stand further
improvement.
I guess SEO
and traffic are key to success in the short term, but ultimately my vote is for
content.
13. What’s the best thing a blogger can give to his readers?
Readily
accessible information or insight, preferably conveyed in a way that stimulates
them to stop and question their assumptions. If you can pique them to the point
where they want to share it with their friends, then you’ve really accomplished
something.
14. A lot of people are interested in blogging/writing for the money
earning potential. What are some tips for people interesting in making money
from blogging/writing? What are some realistic expectations in regards to what
can be made?
Whatever
you’re doing, the first step to making money is not to lose money. I’ve written
a number of blog posts about the phenomenon of being targeted by people selling get-rich-quick schemes. There must be a lot of start-up
bloggers who find those pitches attractive, because a bunch of people produce
them. Writers and bloggers are promised an unconventional
trick for generating buzz via social media, or optimizing a book’s Amazon sales
page, or improving SEO. Having heard my share of promotional webinars, and having taken the bait more than
once, I can say with assurance that the
product behind the pitch tends to be expensive and absolutely not worth the
money, and sometimes they don’t even follow through with everything they said
you’d get.
I think being
consistent in providing interesting content on numerous related forums can
result in a gradual increase in a blogger’s following. I honestly don’t know
how that translates into income, unless you’re advertising, providing links to
Amazon as an affiliate, and/or selling something directly. I’m not doing this
for money, so I can’t say anything more specific.
15. What motivates
you most in life?
On a daily or
hourly basis, life seems to be a matter of engaging with whatever challenges
are immediately before me. At that level, success and fulfillment come simply from
negotiating those interactions and moving on to whatever’s next. In the long
run, that activity seems unimportant, but it’s still worthwhile if the
experience has been mostly pleasant and maybe someone has been helped along the
way. One of my mottos is that the pursuit is sweeter than the prize, which
means the act of just doing all this stuff, all the time, is its own reward.
Then of
course there are the occasional big undertakings, such as the writing and
publication of What About the Boy? or
indeed anything that requires lots of focus and sustained effort and is outside
the envelope of what I’ve done before. Proving to myself that it can be done
and done well is motivation aplenty. The thought that such a project could also
be of interest to others makes me that much more determined to give it my best
shot.
16. What has been
your strategy for creating visibility to yourself and your blog?
When What About the Boy? was launched, I
wanted to do everything professionally. That meant hiring outside expertise for
things like publicity. I started with a publicist who had me mailing scores of
advance copies of my book to newspaper and magazine reviewers all over the place.
He also lined up a bunch of radio interviews and coached me on how to handle
them. Actually, most of that effort was unproductive. The only reviews of my
book were done by people I selected myself and contacted directly beforehand.
The radio interviews were very stimulating adventures, but I don’t have
evidence that they led to any sales of my book.
When the
first publicist’s contract ran out, I tried a different publicist, who knew
less about the business than he did. Unwilling to believe that this was all
that was available, I tried one more. This last one put me in touch with a film
producer who expressed interest in making a movie of my book. If that project
goes into production, it could be a home run in terms of visibility. Thus far,
however, the lesson to draw from my experience is that a low-budget approach
makes more sense from a business standpoint. One’s writing is more than just a
business, but enough money can be involved that you have to try and keep that
perspective.
17 What was the most
challenging moment in your blog content development process and why?
I launched
and ran my first website 15 years ago and did all the HTML and javascript by
hand back then, but my skills were no longer current when the time came to
create a blog for my book. So I hired a software developer who designed
WordPress websites on the side. Unfortunately, he had a day-job that pretty
much consumed all of his energy. I was still having urgent problems with my
site, and days would go by when he couldn’t look at it. Finally, in
desperation, I found somebody online who could resolve my immediate problem,
and then a coworker mentioned a friend who has since been a perfect resource.
18. Everyone has a
favorite/least favorite post. Name yours and why?
One post that
comes to mind is titled “The Power of Words.” Originally I wrote it as a guest
post for another website. I thought later that because of its message it might
have merited a larger forum, such as a magazine, but the people who had it
seemed very appreciative. Then abruptly they went offline. When I realized that
had happened, I reposted it on my own site.
I had an
epiphany about my family history when writing this piece, which I drew on later
when asked to write a screenplay of my memoir.
19. Name some of the
bloggers whom you look up to and why?
I have to
mention Robert Rummel-Hudson, who is
the author of Schulyer’s Monster,
another parent memoir about a disabled kid. First of all, he had been blogging
for a long time before his book came out, which meant he had a ready-made
platform of fans who were anxious to read it. And as he continues on a regular
basis to post little glimpses into
his life, those followers continue to give him encouraging feedback.
I remember once he put up a simple anecdote about a failure of the printer
attached to his computer—and within hours he had 30+ comments. Frankly, I’m
jealous. My blog posts never get that
kind of response.
A very different kind of blog is Instapundit, run by a law professor named Glenn Reynolds.
What he has is primarily a high-traffic portal (with minimal commentary) to
news of the day, but he also focuses on personal interests such as reported
medical advances, and if you have a book on any subject he’ll post a link to
its Amazon sales page. He did that twice for me, as well as for some friends I
sent his way, and the spikes in sales were astonishing.
20. What is the story
behind the name of the blog?
“Fatherspledge” comes from the subtitle of my book.
My original thought was simply to go with “A Father’s Memoir” as the subtitle,
but the publicist wanted something that conveyed more information, so we ended
up with “A Father’s Pledge to His Disabled Son.” Then Fatherspledge was simply
an available domain name.
As for the
main title of the book, “What about the boy?” comes from a song in the rock
opera Tommy, by The Who. It occurred
to me because when I used to take my son to doctors they seemed to want to talk
about everything except the patient
in front of them.
21. Your connection
with any Blogger Network like Indi blogger or Writeupcafe or any other and the
experience?
Although I
have a profile on Blogger, I’ve had no formal involvement with blogger
networks. Perhaps I should investigate!
22. Which genre do
you feel gets the raw deal?
Maybe all
kinds of writing are unfairly judged by some people. Certainly, memoirs have
their detractors, who may not like the lurid aspects of some well-known
examples, or who look at ghost-written memoirs by celebrities and see them as
garbage. Likewise, although self-published books aren’t exactly a genre, they
too get dinged as a group because of the poor quality of some examples.
We know it’s
wrong to generalize, but given the quantity of books to choose from we have to
do it anyway. There are undiscovered gems within every genre. We in the reading
public need to spread the word whenever we find one.
23. Which one plug-in
would you suggest all bloggers to have?
I like a
WordPress option called the All in One SEO Pack, which among other things
provides a field in which I can fine-tune the blurb that appears if the URL of
a blog post shows up on Google or Facebook. I also strongly advise using
anything available to keep out spam comments and trackbacks.
24. Five adjectives
that describe you.
Methodical, focused,
calculating, independent, optimistic
25. What book would
you say has made the biggest impact good or bad on you?
I’m tempted
to say Tarzan of the Apes, which I
read as a third-grader, because that’s the novel that made me love reading. It’s
not great literature, but for me at the time it was great fun. As an adult I
went out and located a copy of the same edition that I’d had as a kid. Just
wanted to keep it on my shelf as an old friend.
26. Do you get easily provoked by positive/negative comments??
It’s only
fair to be receptive to negative comments, at least with regard to something
I’ve written. If the feedback is fair, it becomes a learning opportunity. And
fair or not, everyone’s entitled to an opinion. A writer should want to be
aware of the range of opinions his or her work inspires.
As I said
above, I write online commentaries about the books I read. I know that authors
frequently feel upset or indignant when they see a less-than-glowing reader
review on Amazon; and not wanting to give offense, I have occasionally
refrained from saying what I truly thought of a newbie’s book. Maybe that’s a
weakness on my part, because the true purpose of such reviews is to help other
readers decide if they should spend money and time on the book. So far, my
memoir has attracted one bad review, and naturally it disappointed me. It would
have meant more if the person had said what she’d been looking for that the book
did not provide. But once a piece of writing is out there in the world, people
can and will do what they want with it. A writer who cannot bear that probably
should think twice before publishing.
27. Do you plan to
write a book, as every bloggers dream it is?
As a young
adult, I did nurture that dream, without having a plan for how to proceed.
Then, for a great many years while my son Joseph was growing up, I had a more
focused idea of what that book would be. I’m glad to say the dream is now
reality.
28. Are you a judgmental person, do you prefer to take sides instead of
standing neutral?
If a dispute
is none of my business, I keep out of it. If I have an opinion in the matter
but am not directly affected, I might monitor what others are saying, simply to
ponder the arguments they’re making. If I see it as a threat to myself or my
kids or kids in general, or the future of my country, I do weigh in. Far too
many issues of the third kind have arisen in the last few years.
29. Your
collaboration with other bloggers, are you much into social networking, tell us
everything about it?
I tend to dip
my toe into various networks, at least on a short-term basis. Currently I’m
participating with a Facebook group called Clean Indie Reads. Everybody there
is very supportive and friendly. I’m reading and of course writing reviews of
some of the books the other members have published. I’m also a staff reviewer
at the readwave site, which means every week I get to see and comment on new
contributions from people all over the world. I do think writers have always
needed to be in touch with their contemporaries, to have a sense for new trends
and moods.
30. What genre
attracts you the most and which genre you avoid?
For a long
time I said memoir was my genre, because I was simultaneously writing a memoir
and studying the best examples I could find. At the moment, I feel pretty much
done with it. I enjoy good examples of almost any genre--historical fiction,
sci-fi, thrillers--and anything that involves a lot of introspection or
speculation and that also brings a story to life in front of me. Two
outstanding titles are We Need to Talk About
Kevin, by Lionel
Shriver, and Peace
Like a River, by
Leif Enger.
I tend to
avoid most of the fantasy being written these days, especially anything having
to do with vampires and wizards and that sort of thing.
31. Your Views on Contests and increasing plagiarism?
[Please see
response to #33 below on contests. I haven’t encountered plagiarism and have
nothing to say about it.]
32. Words for me and
my blogs Desire v/s Destiny and Blogger Interviews and my Website www.MyMagicJobs.com
I like your
format, in which topics are listed as easily-scanned bullet points, with the
details a single click away. At one time or another everyone needs to land a
good job, and then hopefully grow in it, so surely the subject has wide appeal.
The posts I’ve read are short and easily digested. The writing quality is
uneven, but I haven’t seen anything I would disagree with. On the other hand,
on the subject of interviews at least I can think of further tips that no one
here is offering (such as how to react when it turns out an interviewer hasn’t
read your submitted material and was expecting somebody different) (that
happens). Thinking about this reminds me that many years
ago I self-published a little book titled “Get the Job You Deserve.” I’d
forgotten all about that project!
33. On winning the
Award/s, Are they really necessary.
Early in
2008, I happened to see an item in the newspaper about an upcoming literary
contest. One of the categories was “unpublished memoir.” Since the first draft
of my memoir was just coming together at the time, I decided to go ahead and
send it in. To my utter astonishment, it won first place. That was the point at
which I seriously began thinking that I might have written something of
publishable quality. Later that year I began the long and daunting process of
contacting literary agents and publishers to see if
anyone wanted to take it
on.
I suspect
that some writing contests may exist primarily to extract entry fees from the participants.
But based on my experience, awards can be a good thing. Had I not won, What About the Boy? may never have seen
the light of day. And if I may end with a bit of bragging, I reentered the same
contest four years later, this time in the “published memoir” category, and
(with different judges) won again. That validation of the end product meant a
great deal to me.
Rahul Miglani (The Interviewer) : This is one of
the best interviews I have conducted with detailed answers , I am sure people
will love this interview of yours ,Blogger Interviews is glad to have you here
,We wish you all the best for your book and future endeavors
1. Can you tell a little about yourself, and your aspirations
and hobbies ?
I usually get random mails and messages from readers which in
common point out that I write direct from the heart. I love to let the things
be natural in writing. Whatever comes into mind, I put directly on paper
without resistance. Reviews have pointed out that my novel is too poetic and
beautiful in its narration.