About Sam Sackett:
Ph.D. UCLA, 23 years a university professor. Burned out on teaching. Went into journalism, advertising, public relations.
Then ended up in career management for 15 years. Now retired. I’ve wanted to write all my life. As a professor, most of my writing was scholarly, academic. I would start historical fiction but then put it aside because it needed more research than I had time for. Retiring gave me the time I needed for the research and for completing projects I’d started. Since 2009 I’ve published five novels and three collections of short stories.
What inspires you to write?
My mother used to read to me, and I loved the books and wanted to create similar books.
Tell us about your writing process.
I write by the blind grope method. I get started and often have an ending in mind but don’t know how to get there. I am interested in character development: how circumstances change characters over time.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
I listen to my characters. For the book about Huckleberry Finn I just listened to what Mr. Finn told me.
What advice would you give other writers?
My advice is to begin by imitating a writer you admire. Eventually you will learn how you are different from him or her and will find your own voice. I started by imitating Leslie Charteris, then Ray Bradbury. I showed Bradbury one of my stories; he told me I was too slow getting into the story and rewrote the first two pages into one page. But I could see that our styles were incompatible, so I rewrote his page sentence by sentence. Except that there was one sentence I couldn’t figure out any other way to say, so that one sentence in my first published story is by Ray Bradbury.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I have read enough to know that certain book patterns are popular. Reading books that follow these patterns is like reading the same book over and over I don’t, perhaps because I can’t, follow these patterns. Hence I have had no success inveigling traditional publishers even to look at my books. Eventually I stopped trying and began to self-publish.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
There will always be printed books, although they will have competition from other forms and genres.
What do you use?: Professional Cover Designer
What genres do you write?: I used to write science fiction but now mostly write historical fiction. I have published one fantasy novel. I enjoy comedy, and try to write it.
What formats are your books in?: Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
Link To Sam Sackett Page On Amazon
All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit, to allow you, the reader, to hear the author in their own voice.
