AN INTERVIEW WITH:
ANTAEUS BALEVRE
Tell us one of your first experiences where you realised that language had power.
I was ten-year-old street punk when a librarian named Mrs. Florence Munson sat with me and had me read Mark Twain's "The adventures of Huckleberry Finn." As an inner-city youth, I was fascinated that words could make me "see" what the characters were doing. The woman literally saved me from a life of violence, because I decided I wanted to be able to do what Samuel Clemens did.
If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would you say?
Never lose sight of your dream and keep everything you write so you can see how much you've grown on your journey.
Have you ever written under a pseudonym?
Unfortunately, I don't have any of the poetry I wrote as a child, but I did write under a pseudonym. Where I grew up, if you even read poetry, you were considered gay. That made you fair game for "Beat Downs."
What kind of research do you do for whatever it is you’re writing?
I do some research on the internet, but if I can, I try to get the information I need first-hand. For instance, when I wrote "Tormod's War" There was a chapter where Tormod has to make a sword from scratch. I went to a bladesmith and asked if I could spend the day with him. I could have obtained the information I needed from the internet. However, my body would not have felt the heat of the forge, or my eyes seen the sweat running off the smith's forehead. My ears wouldn't have heard the clang of the hammer meeting the hot metal, or the hiss as the white-hot blade was plunged into the oil. The more of your senses you convey with your writing, the more your readers will experience. How can a writer tell their reader how to make a flame from scratch, if they have not done it themselves? It's more than rubbing two sticks together.
What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters of a different gender to you?
I have trouble writing about my female characters. I mean no offence when I say this, but as my wife tells me, women think differently than men, and they react to the same situations in a different way. For example, as a male, I can never know what it feels like to carry a child or to give birth to one. If I wrote about that from a man's perspective, the emotion wouldn't be there. A man may read the passage and say, 'Humm," then continue reading. On the other hand, a woman will read that same passage and say, "What does he know?" and put the book down.
That’s where my wife and my Beta Readers come into the picture. In today's "write what you know" environment, it's almost a requirement to have a diverse group of Beta Readers.
Do you believe in the dreaded Writer’s Block?
NO! I may just be lucky, but I have never experienced Writer's Block. I do believe that people experience times when they can't write because they have pushed themselves too hard and need a break. I usually have a few projects in progress at one time. When I get bored with one project, I jump to another or start a new one. That may be the reason I haven't had that experience.
In my opinion, Writer's Block comes about because the writer did not create an outline first.
I was ten-year-old street punk when a librarian named Mrs. Florence Munson sat with me and had me read Mark Twain's "The adventures of Huckleberry Finn." As an inner-city youth, I was fascinated that words could make me "see" what the characters were doing. The woman literally saved me from a life of violence, because I decided I wanted to be able to do what Samuel Clemens did.
If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would you say?
Never lose sight of your dream and keep everything you write so you can see how much you've grown on your journey.
Have you ever written under a pseudonym?
Unfortunately, I don't have any of the poetry I wrote as a child, but I did write under a pseudonym. Where I grew up, if you even read poetry, you were considered gay. That made you fair game for "Beat Downs."
What kind of research do you do for whatever it is you’re writing?
I do some research on the internet, but if I can, I try to get the information I need first-hand. For instance, when I wrote "Tormod's War" There was a chapter where Tormod has to make a sword from scratch. I went to a bladesmith and asked if I could spend the day with him. I could have obtained the information I needed from the internet. However, my body would not have felt the heat of the forge, or my eyes seen the sweat running off the smith's forehead. My ears wouldn't have heard the clang of the hammer meeting the hot metal, or the hiss as the white-hot blade was plunged into the oil. The more of your senses you convey with your writing, the more your readers will experience. How can a writer tell their reader how to make a flame from scratch, if they have not done it themselves? It's more than rubbing two sticks together.
What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters of a different gender to you?
I have trouble writing about my female characters. I mean no offence when I say this, but as my wife tells me, women think differently than men, and they react to the same situations in a different way. For example, as a male, I can never know what it feels like to carry a child or to give birth to one. If I wrote about that from a man's perspective, the emotion wouldn't be there. A man may read the passage and say, 'Humm," then continue reading. On the other hand, a woman will read that same passage and say, "What does he know?" and put the book down.
That’s where my wife and my Beta Readers come into the picture. In today's "write what you know" environment, it's almost a requirement to have a diverse group of Beta Readers.
Do you believe in the dreaded Writer’s Block?
NO! I may just be lucky, but I have never experienced Writer's Block. I do believe that people experience times when they can't write because they have pushed themselves too hard and need a break. I usually have a few projects in progress at one time. When I get bored with one project, I jump to another or start a new one. That may be the reason I haven't had that experience.
In my opinion, Writer's Block comes about because the writer did not create an outline first.