Ask the Author: Raymond Walker, Ray T Walker
Answered Questions (11)
Raymond Walker, Ray T Walker
Julian May's Pleistocene;, Adventure, walk, write and fish.
Oh plus if any of my books were then discovered in the twentieth century they would be the equivalent of The Dead Sea Scrolls.
Oh plus if any of my books were then discovered in the twentieth century they would be the equivalent of The Dead Sea Scrolls.
Raymond Walker, Ray T Walker
I pulled my arms and legs, from the sucking weed and mud reaching towards the gibbous, silver moon and the breath of life. I will place her where she placed me, deep into the mud and murk, she, will feel the eel's nibbling her eyes and nose as the air vanishes.
Raymond Walker, Ray T Walker
Oddly for "Summer" reading the books on my current reading list seem a tad "Wintry" but these are simply those that I fancy reading at the moment. The Snow Child and The Quiet Girl. Wolf Winter. Last Breath. and I am happy for people to recommend others.
Raymond Walker, Ray T Walker
Many of the mysteries in my own life have become books, others will become so given time. The mystery of how people fall in love, the way's of the ancients, how stone circles came into being, a fascination for death. But I suppose the simple answer is really that everything is a mystery to me, every time I look upon a mountain and imagine the gargantuan effort and energy expended in it's creation. Each time I gaze upon the sea and imagine it's long story and the countless millions of other stories all included in its immense whole. Every time I see a burial mound, I imagine who is interred there, their life and times. Everything is a mystery.
Raymond Walker, Ray T Walker
A difficult question, one that there are so many possible answers to. I tend to like reading about dysfunctional relationships and so the obvious ones jump to mind first. Candide and Cunnegonde, Arthur and Guinevere, Captain Quire and Gloriana. I am rather predictable in that way. Yet despite my proclivity towards dysfunctional relationships I also like ones that are rather twee and lacking in conflict.
Raymond Walker, Ray T Walker
I have only ever been troubled by writers block once and it was of my own creation. I wrote a great book only to lose three quarters of it after my computer crashed. In the days before pen drives, HD drives, SD cards, cloud storage etc, It was devastating. I was angry of course railing against life, the universe, everything and anything that I could think of to blame (as you can imagine Microsoft came in for a great deal of my spleen).
I swore to never write again, six months of hard work lost, etc. etc.
Yet eventually I calmed down and decided to rewrite the novel but no matter how I tried it was not as good as the original (not even close) I suspect (now) that I was trying so hard that I was making it difficult for myself. I wrote and rewrote the novel eight times. On the ninth, I just hit publish. I was desperate for it to be finished and away out of the road.
I was stupid, the worst novel that I have ever written. On my website I even tell people not to buy it. Yet i needed to bring that out to know that I still could do it. Soon after that I started writing again for real and producing something worth reading. I suspect that writers block is simply our own mind playing with us. Have I got an easy answer to it when it strikes I do not other than. You are still a writer keep on writing.
I swore to never write again, six months of hard work lost, etc. etc.
Yet eventually I calmed down and decided to rewrite the novel but no matter how I tried it was not as good as the original (not even close) I suspect (now) that I was trying so hard that I was making it difficult for myself. I wrote and rewrote the novel eight times. On the ninth, I just hit publish. I was desperate for it to be finished and away out of the road.
I was stupid, the worst novel that I have ever written. On my website I even tell people not to buy it. Yet i needed to bring that out to know that I still could do it. Soon after that I started writing again for real and producing something worth reading. I suspect that writers block is simply our own mind playing with us. Have I got an easy answer to it when it strikes I do not other than. You are still a writer keep on writing.
Raymond Walker, Ray T Walker
Most of the time there is very little that is good about being a writer. Usually the pay is bad, you are working long and unsocial hours, you usually end up with a sore back from being propped upright typing all the time, myopic, from staring at print and a keyboard constantly. Tubby from sitting all the time, from drinking too much, tired with all the thoughts spinning round your head, possible scenarios, outcomes, twists. Miserable at going over and over your manuscript time after time perfecting what you thought was perfect all along, schizophrenic at being many characters and speaking with their voices every time that you need to.
Yet when you hold that first completed book in your hand (and believe me, wither it is the first or twenty first) a feeling of pride and accomplishment sweeps over you. For the first time in a year or two, you don't notice the pain in your lower back, the fact that you have to squint to see things correctly now, the fact that you have to concentrate to understand other people as you have been living in your own head for so long. Instead you see your book (YOUR VERY OWN BOOK) ready for all to read and It feels great. When you get your first sale it is repeated, your first good review, When someone stops you and says, you're ......../......... the author.
So yes, it is a hard road that you tread upon but it is not without it's compensations. Good luck.
Yet when you hold that first completed book in your hand (and believe me, wither it is the first or twenty first) a feeling of pride and accomplishment sweeps over you. For the first time in a year or two, you don't notice the pain in your lower back, the fact that you have to squint to see things correctly now, the fact that you have to concentrate to understand other people as you have been living in your own head for so long. Instead you see your book (YOUR VERY OWN BOOK) ready for all to read and It feels great. When you get your first sale it is repeated, your first good review, When someone stops you and says, you're ......../......... the author.
So yes, it is a hard road that you tread upon but it is not without it's compensations. Good luck.
Raymond Walker, Ray T Walker
I could give loads of advice but it would be different advice to each and every aspiring author if I knew them but in general terms, write a good book, one that some will enjoy (you will never please everyone- so do not try to) even the greatest of writers are not universally liked. Write about yourself at first if you have to and then expand, sometimes a character is better if it is someone you know. People watch.
Raymond Walker, Ray T Walker
I am currently working on my next Novel; "The Sea shall give up its Dead"
Which is a rather macabre piece about long dead (and recently deceased) sailors suddenly regaining life and returning to the place they know, the town of Campbeltown in Argyll, Scotland. The search for explanations, What they are like, are they revenants or have they truly come back to life and if so what are they back for. All will be revealed come summer next year.
Which is a rather macabre piece about long dead (and recently deceased) sailors suddenly regaining life and returning to the place they know, the town of Campbeltown in Argyll, Scotland. The search for explanations, What they are like, are they revenants or have they truly come back to life and if so what are they back for. All will be revealed come summer next year.
Raymond Walker, Ray T Walker
This is rarely a problem for me as I have always more ideas than I have time to write them. In fact I grow frustrated at times that I do not have the time to get everything down on paper that I wish to tell. I suspect that compared to some I am a slow writer. I have noticed people producing three original novels or more in a year. That is just not possible for me unless they were very short novels indeed.
The things that inspire me are many and various; Nature, history, love, romance, fright, eeriness, science, horror, reading something, The News, and so many more things that were I to list them all you would have all fallen asleep by now, perhaps you have anyway.
The things that inspire me are many and various; Nature, history, love, romance, fright, eeriness, science, horror, reading something, The News, and so many more things that were I to list them all you would have all fallen asleep by now, perhaps you have anyway.
Raymond Walker, Ray T Walker
The Idea for "Moonchild and other Tales" has been around for sometime now. Back in early 2000' I completed a series of short stories called "A River of Tears" which was surprisingly well received for a book of short stories. In fact two of the stories went on to win awards and I have always looked back on that book with fondness and I have always promised myself that at sometime I would write a sequel to it.
As things do, however, many other books got in the way and despite a few attempts I never did complete it and so the years passed. I wrote a number of tales that could be included in the book but few that truly fit the ethos of the tales then last year out of the blue I completed my novel "The Miscast Fate" early (the first time in my life that I have done so) and had time to spare conjuring up tales that could be included in a second volume of "A River of Tears". Alas (as is more the norm for me) I ran out of time and so It was decided to add the very best of the tales from the first volume of "A River of Tears" to the best of those that were written for the second volume and add a couple of other original stories to the mix and so was born "Moonchild and other Tales"
As things do, however, many other books got in the way and despite a few attempts I never did complete it and so the years passed. I wrote a number of tales that could be included in the book but few that truly fit the ethos of the tales then last year out of the blue I completed my novel "The Miscast Fate" early (the first time in my life that I have done so) and had time to spare conjuring up tales that could be included in a second volume of "A River of Tears". Alas (as is more the norm for me) I ran out of time and so It was decided to add the very best of the tales from the first volume of "A River of Tears" to the best of those that were written for the second volume and add a couple of other original stories to the mix and so was born "Moonchild and other Tales"
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