Ask the Author: Howard M. Tillison
Answered Questions (6)
Howard M. Tillison
I was an avid reader from the first day of school until I was about 32 years old. In those days, conventional wisdom said that children should not be taught to read before starting school, but I have no doubt that policy simply held me back at least 2 years, because I WANTED to read as long as I can remember.
In school, I was always singled out as one of the best creative writers. My problem at that point was that I had nothing to write about, because I had not lived enough to know anything except what I had read. There is a huge difference between coming up with enough of an idea to write a short story, compared to the bulk and complexity of a full-length novel (which I consider to be a minimum of 100,000 words, or about 320 pages).
Over the next 10 to 12 years I had a number of real-life adventures and learned, I suppose, too much about relationships between men and women. So, when I was about 32 years old, I finished Tom Clancy's "The Hunt for Red October," and could not find anything else I wanted to read. I'd had ideas for books for a while, and so I set out writing "Wolfgang's Revenge" to fill what I saw as an empty niche in the market.
The characters I created in Wolfgang's Revenge are composites of people I had already known in real life. The book is really all about the quest for stimulation that many people fulfill with their jobs and romantic lives, and how the achievement of success in those areas is often not fulfilling because, suddenly, there is no more struggle to achieve that which is missing. The comfort which results in boredom often leads to a quest for something more, and every time you upset the equilibrium of comfort, there's a chance the next stop will be disaster. That's really what the book is about; people who cause their own problems and have no idea how it happened.
In school, I was always singled out as one of the best creative writers. My problem at that point was that I had nothing to write about, because I had not lived enough to know anything except what I had read. There is a huge difference between coming up with enough of an idea to write a short story, compared to the bulk and complexity of a full-length novel (which I consider to be a minimum of 100,000 words, or about 320 pages).
Over the next 10 to 12 years I had a number of real-life adventures and learned, I suppose, too much about relationships between men and women. So, when I was about 32 years old, I finished Tom Clancy's "The Hunt for Red October," and could not find anything else I wanted to read. I'd had ideas for books for a while, and so I set out writing "Wolfgang's Revenge" to fill what I saw as an empty niche in the market.
The characters I created in Wolfgang's Revenge are composites of people I had already known in real life. The book is really all about the quest for stimulation that many people fulfill with their jobs and romantic lives, and how the achievement of success in those areas is often not fulfilling because, suddenly, there is no more struggle to achieve that which is missing. The comfort which results in boredom often leads to a quest for something more, and every time you upset the equilibrium of comfort, there's a chance the next stop will be disaster. That's really what the book is about; people who cause their own problems and have no idea how it happened.
Howard M. Tillison
I've never had writer's block. My problem is finding time to let the story flow out into print.
Howard M. Tillison
It's pure joy for me. Fortunately, I've always had a "real job" to support myself, so the need to sell books has never influenced my work.
Howard M. Tillison
Live about 20 years or more in the real world before trying to write about it. No matter how talented or imaginative a young person may be, without real-life experience to call on, it's awfully hard to make up an original, interesting story in your head.
Howard M. Tillison
I am currently working on a novel about a retired Navy SEAL who returns to his home in a little mountain town in Tennessee and becomes the county sheriff. It deals with superstition and occult spiritualism in the context of real people who are affected by things they cannot explain. An airplane crash on a foggy night leads to an investigation of the "ghost lights" which are commonly reported in the mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina.
Howard M. Tillison
"The Boys Who Could Fly" is based on some autobiographical incidents combined with historical events that resulted in boys growing up in a home without a father. It is written from the point of view of an adult reciting a memoir in the first person, but it deals with the memories and mysteries of childhood, a time of life when we deal with events in the moment without the knowledge and experience to understand the actions of the adults who surround us.
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