Ask the Author: Marcus Clark
Answered Questions (9)
Marcus Clark
Rabbit Angstrom and his wife, Janice Angstrom. From Rabbit Run to Rabbit at Rest, we see them arguing, loving, fighting, bickering -- but always entertaining.
The first four Rabbit books (by John Updike) are wonderful, capturing the essence of US over a 30 year period.
The first four Rabbit books (by John Updike) are wonderful, capturing the essence of US over a 30 year period.
Marcus Clark
2016-05-18
Hi Felix,
You are correct, I somehow left an old website listed on Goodreads.
I have 3 blogs now.
http://marcus-clark.blogspot.com.au/ this blog is an introductions to all my available books.
http://read-all-night.blogspot.com.au/ This is my main blog, with articles, book reviews, and links to my novels.
http://find-the-best-books.blogspot.c...
The purpose of this website is to help you choose which books to read. There are other websites that assist in choosing your next book to read, but most of them use automated methods— that is the best selling books are usually the ones recommended. If you believe best-selling means best, then you might also believe McDonalds has the best food in the world. Best Selling is only one guide to quality.
Hope this helps,
Marcus Clark
Hi Felix,
You are correct, I somehow left an old website listed on Goodreads.
I have 3 blogs now.
http://marcus-clark.blogspot.com.au/ this blog is an introductions to all my available books.
http://read-all-night.blogspot.com.au/ This is my main blog, with articles, book reviews, and links to my novels.
http://find-the-best-books.blogspot.c...
The purpose of this website is to help you choose which books to read. There are other websites that assist in choosing your next book to read, but most of them use automated methods— that is the best selling books are usually the ones recommended. If you believe best-selling means best, then you might also believe McDonalds has the best food in the world. Best Selling is only one guide to quality.
Hope this helps,
Marcus Clark
Marcus Clark
Some would say you choose your own hours. But that is not always good. Sometimes I have gotten up every day at 5 am, so I could write, other times I often stayed up till 2 am writing. You might end up working every holiday. Or you might have trouble starting, and have to threaten yourself with the sack!
Being your own boss sounds nice, but most writers have a day job. It's rather like movie actors, singers, or sports people, for every one that makes it to the top there are a thousand who don't.
I think the best thing about being a writer, is reading something you've written that absolutely delights you. It might not delight anyone else, but you have the feeling you have created something unique and worthwhile, something that never existed before.
Being your own boss sounds nice, but most writers have a day job. It's rather like movie actors, singers, or sports people, for every one that makes it to the top there are a thousand who don't.
I think the best thing about being a writer, is reading something you've written that absolutely delights you. It might not delight anyone else, but you have the feeling you have created something unique and worthwhile, something that never existed before.
Marcus Clark
I am writing about a boy who sees his father, a hard-working farmer, commit suicide because of a ten-year drought that drives the family into horrendous debt. His father is forced to shoot his cattle as they starved to death. The boy grows up vowing to find a way to help people who have been destroyed by unreliable weather predictions.
The story involves climate change and weather predictions. It was poor weather forecasts that caused his father to stay on his farm, working himself into debt and poverty because he was led to believe "next year will be a bumper year".
The story involves climate change and weather predictions. It was poor weather forecasts that caused his father to stay on his farm, working himself into debt and poverty because he was led to believe "next year will be a bumper year".
Marcus Clark
Becoming a wealthy author is as easy as winning the lottery, and it often seems, just as quirky. Publishers often have little idea of what will be successful, for example 12 publishers rejected the first Harry Potter book. And on the other side, they promote books that do not earn their keep.
Self publishing, is worth a try, but with 3 million titles now available, and a thousand new books being published every day, it is not getting easier to be discovered. If you are not "discovered" or promoted you will not sell many books. Romance and fantasy appear to be the best sellers.
Give it a spin if you wish, you might get lucky. But for some people, writing is inherent, whether they ever find a publisher, or make any income, they still continue to write.
Finally, I suspect the best way to go into writing, is probably via journalism. You will learn many things you need to know, and you will be paid.
Self publishing, is worth a try, but with 3 million titles now available, and a thousand new books being published every day, it is not getting easier to be discovered. If you are not "discovered" or promoted you will not sell many books. Romance and fantasy appear to be the best sellers.
Give it a spin if you wish, you might get lucky. But for some people, writing is inherent, whether they ever find a publisher, or make any income, they still continue to write.
Finally, I suspect the best way to go into writing, is probably via journalism. You will learn many things you need to know, and you will be paid.
Marcus Clark
Most writers will tell you there is far more perspiration than inspiration. If you wait for inspiration, you might never get started. And if you start, you will stop when the inspiration leaves. You have to apply discipline and willpower. Any inspiration you receive is a bonus, and it usually comes when you have used a fair amount of perspiration. "The harder you work, the luckier you become."
Marcus Clark
I think the term "Writer's block" makes a bit too much out of an everyday problem. It elevates it into something special.
We all have problems, if you have a problem at work, what do you do? You keep thinking about it. You keeping trying different solutions. You ask around. You keep at it. You give it a rest and then come back to it. You have to do these things because it's your job.
Well writing is not that different (it's your job). You do all the same things. The one thing you don't do is to sit back and wait for inspiration. If you keep working on the problem, you may well get a flash of inspiration, but it is not likely to come to you if you have done nothing. It is more likely to come to you if you do everything, then do nothing for a while.
We all have problems, if you have a problem at work, what do you do? You keep thinking about it. You keeping trying different solutions. You ask around. You keep at it. You give it a rest and then come back to it. You have to do these things because it's your job.
Well writing is not that different (it's your job). You do all the same things. The one thing you don't do is to sit back and wait for inspiration. If you keep working on the problem, you may well get a flash of inspiration, but it is not likely to come to you if you have done nothing. It is more likely to come to you if you do everything, then do nothing for a while.
Marcus Clark
INSIDE MYSTIC LODGE
Having had a life-long interest in psychic and psychological matters, I decided to write a novel about psychic healing. That meant creating a character who required healing, but it had to be more than a case of flu, it had to be something dramatic.
In Arthur Koestler's non-fiction book The Act of Creation he gives a simple explanation of how ideas are "created". It is by holding the problem in your mind constantly, as you go about your daily activities, your subconscious keep searching, trying to match an answer to your problem.
So it was with me. Walking around a lake one day, wondering what kind of illness I needed for my character, I was blocked by a young girl in an electric wheel-chair. She was steering it with a lever, controlling it with her chin. All that week I had kept my problem in mind. Suddenly, I knew what I would write about. If I had not had the problem in my mind, the answer would not have come.
So here is how my story starts:
"When I was twelve years old, I almost killed my sister. I have often thought it might have been better if I had. Instead I turned her into a paraplegic. We were down at the creek, fooling around in and out the water. I told her I would race her to the other side of the creek from the big tree. I pretended to do a running dive, but stopped at the last second; she didn’t. Cheryl dived into the shallow water to the sound of my gleeful laughter, and came up a paraplegic.'
Kent Alpine has a debt to repay to his sister. His life’s mission is to find a way to help her walk again. At first he studies medicine, but realising he is not as gifted as other students, he turns to the thing he excels in: psychic healing. He joins a mysterious group working to improve the health of children who have terminal illnesses. "
From there it's a process of allowing the characters to behave in a way that is consistent with their personality. Then I start to make life difficult for them . . .
Having had a life-long interest in psychic and psychological matters, I decided to write a novel about psychic healing. That meant creating a character who required healing, but it had to be more than a case of flu, it had to be something dramatic.
In Arthur Koestler's non-fiction book The Act of Creation he gives a simple explanation of how ideas are "created". It is by holding the problem in your mind constantly, as you go about your daily activities, your subconscious keep searching, trying to match an answer to your problem.
So it was with me. Walking around a lake one day, wondering what kind of illness I needed for my character, I was blocked by a young girl in an electric wheel-chair. She was steering it with a lever, controlling it with her chin. All that week I had kept my problem in mind. Suddenly, I knew what I would write about. If I had not had the problem in my mind, the answer would not have come.
So here is how my story starts:
"When I was twelve years old, I almost killed my sister. I have often thought it might have been better if I had. Instead I turned her into a paraplegic. We were down at the creek, fooling around in and out the water. I told her I would race her to the other side of the creek from the big tree. I pretended to do a running dive, but stopped at the last second; she didn’t. Cheryl dived into the shallow water to the sound of my gleeful laughter, and came up a paraplegic.'
Kent Alpine has a debt to repay to his sister. His life’s mission is to find a way to help her walk again. At first he studies medicine, but realising he is not as gifted as other students, he turns to the thing he excels in: psychic healing. He joins a mysterious group working to improve the health of children who have terminal illnesses. "
From there it's a process of allowing the characters to behave in a way that is consistent with their personality. Then I start to make life difficult for them . . .
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