Ask the Author: Roy A. Teel Jr.
Answered Questions (9)
Roy A. Teel Jr.
I am not a fan of fiction as a general rule, I live in a world of reality and it is a sobering world at that. I'm not one for flights of fancy, of magical worlds, things that go bump in the night, or science fiction. I live in and write about reality only fictionalized, however with that being said, if I could enter a world of pure justice I would enter the world of the Iron Eagle, I would love to mete out justice on the merciless and see justice done the way I deal with it in my fiction.
Roy A. Teel Jr.
That's not really a fair question, if it is a mystery to me I would not be able to use it as a plot for a title. I do however, often wonder where the time goes.
Roy A. Teel Jr.
Dagny Taggart and John Gault from Atlas Shrugged. The two characters were both passionate and powerful. Taggart and Gualt nurtured in each other their passions for the betterment of humanity while at the same time allowing themselves to be both powerful and vulnerable within the confines of their private relationship.
Roy A. Teel Jr.
For me writers block can only be dealt with by continuing to write. I have been known to start a book and get twenty, thirty, even forty thousand words into it and I hit a block. I just set it aside and start a new writing project, nine times out of ten, I will come back to what I was working on days weeks even months later and the problem will have resolved itself and I'm back on track and finish the book.
Roy A. Teel Jr.
For me it's when one of my readers tells me that my writing touched them. When a fan writes to me to tell me how much they enjoyed my writing, in those moments I find the greatest joy in writing. It's when someone has been touched by my words that I really see how much I love to write, even if sometimes the readers are telling me my books scared them. :-)
Roy A. Teel Jr.
Writing is personal I have found that there is no one size fits all writing style or manner in which to write. I have been writing professionally since 2004. The first thing I would suggest is that the writer first and foremost work on their craft. Workshop, with other writers to find the genera they feel the most comfortable in.
Second: Write, everyday it makes no difference if you feel the inspiration on any given subject make it a habit to spend at least a half hour to an hour just writing. I have found for me that using that discipline has allowed me to find inspiration sometimes long after I have written something.
Three: Read, read something every day, a book, the news, an article that interests you but read. I have found that if I don't read I can't write.
Fourth: Don't write scared, write what you feel what inspires you, don't think about the audience when your writing think about your craft the writing will find it's audience but before it can you have to write it.
Fifth: Get thick skinned, when you write and then release it to the general public you have to let it go. You have to take the good reviews with the bad you will have to learn to take constructive criticism and your readers are the best place to get that criticism. Also remember that not everyone is going to like what you write, it's just a fact, one that you have to live with. However, if you have done your job well as a writer and not only written a great manuscript but also taken the time to have it professionally edited, and taken the time to present the best possible product for your audience you will reap the rewards.
Finally, if you want to start writing because you want to be the next New York Times best selling author, or want fame and fortune you are writing for the wrong reasons. If you write what you enjoy, that recognition may happen but if you are going into writing as a profession to get rich and famous your going into it for the wrong reasons very, very few writers will ever attain superstar status.
Second: Write, everyday it makes no difference if you feel the inspiration on any given subject make it a habit to spend at least a half hour to an hour just writing. I have found for me that using that discipline has allowed me to find inspiration sometimes long after I have written something.
Three: Read, read something every day, a book, the news, an article that interests you but read. I have found that if I don't read I can't write.
Fourth: Don't write scared, write what you feel what inspires you, don't think about the audience when your writing think about your craft the writing will find it's audience but before it can you have to write it.
Fifth: Get thick skinned, when you write and then release it to the general public you have to let it go. You have to take the good reviews with the bad you will have to learn to take constructive criticism and your readers are the best place to get that criticism. Also remember that not everyone is going to like what you write, it's just a fact, one that you have to live with. However, if you have done your job well as a writer and not only written a great manuscript but also taken the time to have it professionally edited, and taken the time to present the best possible product for your audience you will reap the rewards.
Finally, if you want to start writing because you want to be the next New York Times best selling author, or want fame and fortune you are writing for the wrong reasons. If you write what you enjoy, that recognition may happen but if you are going into writing as a profession to get rich and famous your going into it for the wrong reasons very, very few writers will ever attain superstar status.
Roy A. Teel Jr.
I am working on the conclusion of book eleven in the Iron Eagle series. This series is so huge and so encompassing it takes up all of my days and nights.
Roy A. Teel Jr.
I read, and I read and I read, and what I read for the most part is news. It is from the pages of the news local and world that inspiration is drawn in then I sit down at my keyboard and I write!
Roy A. Teel Jr.
The Iron Eagle Crime novel series was inspired in me in 1979 after one of my childhood friends was brutally murdered by the serial killer William Bonin aka The Freeway Killer. It took thirty years for me to finally sit down and write this series, the Iron Eagle is in fact a protector, and I had imagined what might have been had the Eagle existed outside of fiction to protect my late friend. The concept has morphed in my imagination and while all of my novels in the Iron Eagle series are fiction, the stuff that happens to people in the pages of my fiction happen to people in real life every day of the week.
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