Author Interview

Who or what inspires you as an author?

The who would be the subject of my book, and that is George Eliot.  So the what is a very practical answer: I was writing my dissertation to get my PhD here in English at TCU, and I had to write my dissertation to get my degree.  Having a great subject, like George Eliot; some motivation, like necessity to finish a degree; and then a little bit extra motivation from a super advisor and mentor to turn that into a book.  That was the formula.

Who or what motivates you as an author?

You know what?  It’s really a strange answer.  Most people are going to say “Oh, I'm compelled to bring out the works of whatever.”  A part of me is very compelled to write on George Eliot’s poetry because until my book it had never been written about.  People have always written on her novels, and very few people had written on her poetry and only recently.  And so there were little smattering of articles here and there.  Here she is one of the most important authors of all time, and no one has written on one whole genre of her work.  So I feel compelled to do that because I want to bring to light her work.  In graduate school, you’re just on this treadmill of writing and researching and writing and you just kind of keep doing that when you’re done.  At least I do.  I find some pleasure in the academic process of giving papers and learning from others’ papers and transforming those papers into articles.  I think that the English department here at TCU prepared me well to continue with the publishing process.  And again, Linda Hughes is amazing.  Having a good mentor or teacher that really cares about you can make all the difference in the world. 

What authors or books inspired you as an author the most?

George Eliot.  Every novel that she wrote was amazing. 

Most often, where, when, and how do you write?

Never here.  This office is for meeting students and piling papers on my desk.  I come to campus to teach and to meet students.  I do my work from home.  I have an office in my home.  To answer the question: summer, winter break, but mostly summer.  My kids are at school from nine until three, and so from nine until three that’s when I do my work in my office.  How is by sheer will and power.  During the semester it’s a little trickier.  For example, right now I had an article accepted by Victorian Poetry, and it was an article that took me a long time to write.  So I’m really excited about finishing it.  So I have reviewers’ comments that I have to incorporate, and so I have to make a few revisions, not many but just a few.  It takes time.  So I’ve been doing it one half of a footnote per week.  On a Tuesday when I’ll get one or two hours, I’ll try to spend my first hours of the day doing that because that’s the best time of the day that my brain is working the best. 

How is technology changing print culture, specifically regarding authors and readers?

So for a fun answer, I can say that I only listen to books now.  I don’t read any books unless they’re academic books that don’t exist on audio.  Because I commute to campus and I have times here and there that I have 10 minutes or a 45 minute commute or on the airplane that I can listen.  So I get tons and tons of audiobooks, and that’s how I listen to my “for fun” reading.  My work reading, of course, I still have to read the old fashion way.  If [academic books] were available on audio, I would get it.  I don’t think that printed books are as important as they used to be.  I just gave an example of why.  My book is not a book that is on peoples’ home shelves.  It is a book, hopefully, that’s in universities’ libraries that people can reference.  It’s also online.  If anyone needs to reference my book, they can go to their school’s library and they can access the book.  They don’t have to walk into the library, even though I hope the book is in the library.  But I don’t think it matters if the book is in the library anymore.  More and more we have the books online, and as a researcher I'm quite grateful for that.  I'm grateful for the times that I'm in Dallas doing my research and I really need some information that I can find the article online.  I think we’re on the precipice of something different happening.  I feel like we’re really going into a non-print world, and I'm participating in that by ordering audiobooks and by making available online my own book by giving permission to Ashgate to do that.  I think it’s not a bad thing.  I think it’s okay.  I know a lot of people say “Oh, but I like holding books.”  I think that that’s okay, but I don’t think we’re going to be there for much longer.  When I write an article for a journal, I sometimes feel that it’s irrelevant because I feel like I’m going to receive a copy of that journal and everybody else who subscribes will receive that journal and the libraries that subscribe will receive that journal in print.  Most everyone that accesses that article will be accessing it online.  So why do we need that print copy?

When you write, who is your intended audience?

Either other scholars of 19^th century literature and culture and poetry or students that are taking classes in those areas. 

How is the current technological revolution changing your audience?

I don’t think it is.  I think that the audience is still the same.  They’re just accessing the articles and the book online.  Actually it’s no change for me because I’m a new author.  I only got my PhD in 2012.  So I’ve only been writing publishing for three years.  They will always be accessing my stuff online. 

What do you think reading and authorship will look like 50 years from now?

I wonder if people are going to be reading long works or if they’re going to just be reading blogs and short pieces.  I don’t know.  It’s hard to guess.  I think authorship will be the same, but maybe people will start producing shorter works.  There will probably be more people who become famous via online processes rather than traditional publishing.

How did you find a publisher and how long did that process take?

I had the best process ever.  I asked Linda Hughes. 

How long did it take you to get from word document to a printed book?

I think I submitted in the fall of 2013.  I wrote the dissertation in 2012.  I wrote the book in summer of 2013 full time.  I submitted it in the fall or winter of 2013, and it was in print in summer of 2014.

How much did you manuscript change during your publisher’s editorial process?

Not much.  My editor didn’t have a lot of suggestions.  I hired Bill to be my editor.  He was an excellent editor, and he helped me on sentence level.  There were no structural changes.  It was just sentence structure, word changes, and things like that.  They were not major.  By the time I submitted it, the complete manuscript the first time, that copy does not look much different from the completed copy. 

Do you have a definite and specific organization and structure in mind as you begin writing?

No.  I went to a writer’s workshop about a year and a half or two years ago, and they suggested a structure for articles.  They suggested this double triangle.  It’s kind of like your introductory paragraph with your thesis and then a secondary one with background information and then you’re thesis restated again and then your body paragraphs and then conclusion.  I thought “That’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen; I’ve never done that before.”  And I structured my article I recently mentioned to you that way and apparently was okay because it was not commented on by the reviewer.  For the book, it’s just basically one article is a chapter. 

How would you describe your writing process?

I write very closely to the final product.  I teach people to write crappy first drafts.  I teach people to write that way because I think that’s the best way to write.  For some reason, I write very close and slowly.  I think it through and I write it out.  The changes I usually make are not too major, but I teach the opposite.  Don’t tell my secrets.  I think it’s important to be able to write a bad first draft and not be attached to it and be able to throw it away and start over or throw this part away and start over and not feel badly about it.  I think it’s important to embrace the ugliness of your writing the first time.