Welcome Glenn Berggoetz to our blog today!
Please tell us about your latest book.
Lorene’s Salon is told from the perspective of Mabel, a wife and mother living in rural Mississippi in 1958. Mabel iconoclastically dishes on society, being a mother, her husband, the unsolved murder in her town, and anything else that happens to be on her mind.
What can we expect from you in the future?
I continue to work on novels while I await the release of the third album from my band Norwegian Soft Kitten – I play guitars and do most of the singing for the band. I’ve also been doing interviews for and promoting Norwegian Soft Kitten and some of the twelve feature films I’ve written and directed.
How do we find out about you and your books?
Most of my social media promotion is done through my author page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/glennsbooks/.
How much of your personality and life experiences are in your writing?
Quite a bit. There are certainly chunks of me in my main characters, and my supporting characters are typically infused with aspects of my friends and family.
When did you first think about writing and what prompted you to submit your first manuscript?
I wrote my first short story while a junior in college, and in the years immediately following graduation from college, I began writing novels that I submitted to publishers because I thought they were magnificent. None of them were published. A few years ago I pulled one of those novels out and began to read it, and five pages into the manuscript, I could understand why the novel was never published.
Do you have a set schedule for writing or do you just go with the flow?
There’s no set schedule for me, but I do go through stretches where I’m able to write on a consistent basis early in the morning – usually between about five and seven a.m.
What about your family, do they know not to bother you when you are writing – or are there constant interruptions?
Since I live by myself and my writing is usually done early in the morning before anyone might call or text, I’m rarely interrupted while writing, which is fabulous.
What do you do to relax and recharge your batteries?
Read or watch old episodes of Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist.
Where do your ideas come from?
I wish I knew. Mostly they just seem to appear out of the ether, but in the case of my novel Fading to Black, which is about a man with dementia who’s struggling to make an amends for an event that occurred sixty years earlier before his mind is totally gone, the genesis of that book came from having breakfast on a Saturday at a buffet and seeing an elderly man who clearly had dementia being treated incredibly rudely by his caretaker as the elderly man tried to navigate a large, crowded restaurant. In seeing this man’s struggles, I immediately knew there was a story there to be told.
Do you feel humor is important in books and why?
Absolutely. My second and third novels, Waiting for Evening to Come and Fading to Black, were both incredibly serious tales, so I felt the need to write a novel that was infused with dark humor when I wrote my fourth novel, Lorene’s Salon. Writing about a protagonist’s journey with humor makes my own days brighter and not so disheartening. The novel I’m currently working on, When Things Got Interesting, also takes a more humorous look at the world around us.
What kind of research do you do?
As someone who majored in history as an undergrad, I love digging into the research behind my novels. Since Lorene’s Salon takes place in rural Mississippi in 1958, I did a mountain of research on the politics and economics of the late 1950s, I dug into pop culture of the ’50s, I researched what foods were popular at the time, I researched Mississippi politics and culture of the time, etc. The novel I’m working on now, When Things Got Interesting, takes place in a wealthy suburb of New York City in 1962, so I’ve been thoroughly enjoying researching the culture, politics, economics, films, foods, drinks, etc., that were popular and important in ’62.
Please tell us about yourself.
I work as an English professor at Purdue Fort Wayne, mostly teaching writing classes but also occasionally teaching American and British literature. I play guitar for the band Norwegian Soft Kitten, and we’re hoping to have our third album released within six months or so. NSK has been played on more than 400 radio stations spanning more than fifty countries. I’ve also made twelve feature films as a writer/director with the action/comedy To Die is Hard making it into the Top 20 of two major entertainment websites’ list of the greatest B movies in cinema history. I’ve also done a lot of acting, playing the lead in To Die is Hard as an English professor who takes on a gang of terrorists, and I played the lead in the horror/comedy Auto Shop of Horrors where I got to play a serial killer car mechanic, among other roles.
What are some of your favorite things to do?
Write, hike, read, watch curling, play guitar, lollygag, and travel to places like Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, and Portland to visit with friends and family.
Who are some of your other favorite authors to read?
I did my master’s thesis on some of Kurt Vonnegut’s novels, and Vonnegut has long been a favorite of mine. I also love Leo Tolstoy, Stephen King, Kate Chopin, William Faulkner, and Somerset Maugham.
What do you think of critique groups in general?
If people enjoy being in a critique group, that’s great for them – do what brings you happiness!
Where do you see yourself in five years?
Writing and working as a professor.
How many books have you written, how many have been published?
I wrote three novels in my early to mid-twenties, and none of them were ever published. Since then I’ve had four novels published. I’ve also had a stream-of-consciousness chapbook titled Guernica Still Burning published, and as an independent filmmaker of minor note, a number of years ago the Hal Leonard company published my book titled The Independent Filmmakers’ Guide: Mak Your Feature Film for $2,000. On top of that, I used to be a golf teaching professional, and I co-authored two golf instructional books.
After you've written your book and it's been published, do you ever buy it and/or read it?
I buy copies to give out as donations to fund raisers and raffles and to send to people to review. I have read some of my books after they’ve been published, but since I average twelve or so drafts of each novel before I send them out, I’ve already read each book about a dozen times by the time they’re published.
Among your own books, have you a favorite book? Favorite hero or heroine?
Lorene’s Salon is my favorite as I adore the main character, Mabel, who narrates the tale. Mabel is an iconoclast, and I really enjoy her take on the world around her. I’m also utterly enamored with the main character of the novel I’m currently working on, When Things Got Interesting. His name is Bobby, and he’s an eighteen-year old who’s just graduated from high school, and I adore the way he playfully balances a world in which he’s sometimes still viewed as a child, and at other times viewed as an adult.
What is the most rewarding thing about being a writer?
Sitting up in bed at five o’clock on a frigid winter’s morning with a steaming mug of instant chai latte by my side and creating a whole new world through words as the world sleeps around me.
If you weren't writing, what would you be doing?
I’d still be a professor, and I’d probably write a lot more songs for Norwegian Soft Kitten.
What is your greatest desire?
To write something that is good enough that someone a hundred or two hundred years from now reads it, and that someone realizes they’re glad they read it.
Are there any words of encouragement for unpublished writers?
Don’t write because you want to be famous or make money from your writing, write because you can’t imagine not writing.
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