This time around Western Fictioneers is interviewing Charlie Steel. What an interesting perspective Charlie has given on writing, research, and how he became a writer. Read on. I'm sure you'll find something you can relate to as you take your writer's journey.
Charlie, when did you realize you wanted to be a writer?
At
age 8, when I started reading, I thought, "I can write too."
I had broken into my father's library and quickly devoured Zane
Grey, Max Brand, William MacLeod Raine, Jack London, Gene Stratton
Porter, and James Oliver Curwood. Thank goodness for Webster's
Dictionary ( I still mispronounce the words I learned on my own at
that early age). Secondary to that, and ever since I can remember, I
have always had stories in my head.
Did you choose the genre of Westerns or did it choose you?
I
knew so much about the WEST, and it felt comfortable to write in that
genre. (I hate the word genre, as a good story is a good story no
matter time or place.)
What was the nudge that gave you faith that you could and wanted to
be published?
In the early '60s, my first vignette was published in a college paper at
age 17. It was well-received. Then I did two plays that earned both
Pitt & Balcony Theatre and Michigan State University tens of
thousands of dollars.
I
didn't write a good query letter, didn't edit very well, and after a
hundred or so rejections, I gave up submitting for some 40 years.
But I kept on stockpiling hundreds of short stories, some plays, and
enough material for over 80 books. In 2002, I met an editor who read
some of my work and began to help me. I was published in 2003 and
haven't stopped. I don't self publish, and I like smaller
publishers; they are much kinder to a writer.
All
of my 500 plus manuscripts from over 50 years of writing have to be
edited and some rewritten. That takes 3 months to 2 years. Editing
is horrible and my worst enemy. I will never submit a story to a
publisher until it is as good as I and other professional editors can
make it.
Do you think your life experiences influence or hinder your writing?
Yes,
my experiences have definitely influenced my writing in many, many
ways. To begin with, I was precocious as a kid, living in a very
small town. I burned down a barn (accidentally) at age four and was
the first four-year-old to be arrested for arson. The police
eventually took me out of lockup and turned me over to Dad. My
father levitated me and performed extreme discipline, yelling, "Four
years old and already arrested and in jail." (Lucky I lived
through that.) At age 19, I joined the Army, was lifted out by the
government because of my test scores and personality traits. Then I
trained and served behind the Iron Curtain monitoring Russian
activity. After discharge, I went back to Berlin as a civilian with
higher pay and performed the same functions for several more years.
I then worked my way through eight universities, earning five
degrees, including a Ph.D. Later I was hired as a Child Protection
Worker in a high-risk city. In that capacity, facing drug-dealers
and guns while trying to remove children, with or without police
assistance, was in many ways more dangerous than being behind the
Iron Curtain. It forced me to see the "belly of the beast"
and nearly destroyed my health. I don't understand my proclivity for
dangerous jobs, but I did them to the best of my ability.
Writers
write based on what they know and have experienced. Going back to my
childhood, I worked beginning at age six doing chores around the
house. My parents were stern taskmasters, and I was responsible for
helping keep the much-needed garden weeded and watered. Later, I
worked for others. I was hired as a grocery store worker at age 10
to help purchase my own clothes. Among many other jobs were oil
field worker, construction, foundry work, and salvage diver.
(Nothing really out of the ordinary as all of us born in the '40s
worked from childhood on. We had to; most of us were poor.)
I understand you have an upcoming release. Where did the idea spring from?
STRONG
WOMEN OF THE WEST Anthology is my latest and will be
released by Condor Publishing, Inc., in January 2021. I wrote this
book as a tribute to my mother and all strong women wherever they may
live. My mother was tough and did everything she could to keep me on
the "straight and narrow," and sometimes not so gently.
She would have won World War II if they had put her in charge. She
declared war on dirt and on bad behavior in our house—she
won. I admire strong, intelligent women. To me, intelligence is a
beautiful thing and lasts a lot longer than good looks, which, of
course, is superficial and overrated. The idea of writing about
strong women came naturally, and some of the stories in this work
were written decades ago. Women make up half the population or more
and should have been running this world ages ago. (Look what a mess
men have made of it.)
I have to ask are you a plotter or a pantser?
All
my life stories came into my head—beginning, middle,
and end. The majority I never wrote down, and they are lost forever.
But some 500 or more, long or short, were written as they came to
me, nearly fully composed. (Of course, they all needed rewrites and
further research.) My best books or short-stories are those I wrote
non-stop within a few days as fast as I could type. But as stated
before, the editing takes forever…
Do you follow a routine or write when the muse
strikes?
I used to write every day. I am old, and now I take my time. Besides,
I have those many manuscripts that are finished and need editing.
I
also have many other stories that are not complete. It is a terrible
thing not to finish a manuscript. I am currently attempting to work
on some of them. In my conversations with other writers, I am not
alone in this.
Which is your favorite to write, short stories,
novellas, or full-length novels?
SHORT
STORIES capture a world and define it, mesmerize, and end with a
concise conclusion. The short story is my favorite because it makes
the reader think, wonder, and fill in the unwritten details.
Is there a process where you find your next story, or does the idea
just hit you?
It
smacks me in the face…and pleads to be written down.
We all have something that makes us unique. Is there anything else you feel people would like to know or would be
surprised to learn about you?
Reading
saved my life when I was a child. I started school too early
(four-years-old) and was in a fist-fight nearly every day throughout
grade school. Books were my world, along with avid fishing and
hunting. What fish and game I brought home, the family ate. There
is no better meat than venison.
Do you write in other genres?
(Science
Fiction, don't tell anyone. A book of short stories will come out
someday.)
What are your favorite areas of research, and why are they important
to you?
Any
credible book, article, or interview helps a writer. Most research
material available to a writer is endless. Details sometimes on a
rarified subject are hard to find.
The
Indian experience (my Indian friends do not like the term Native
American) and their decimation, for example, has never really been
told as to how gruesome it was. The deliberate elimination of
Indians, tribe by tribe, from the East Coast to the West Coast is our
shame and our holocaust. Historians didn't tell the truth (and often
still don't) and did not document exact details, and they
participated and exulted in the Indian's demise. We are fortunate
that any tribe exists today. In this very present time, treaties and
promises have not been kept. Indians still live isolated and in
abject poverty; treaties are still broken, and land is still stolen.
Wish I could write about it in more detail, but it is such a horrible
history, beyond human understanding.
Research
is essential; we try to get it right. All writers make mistakes, but
hopefully, we do the best we can.
Thank you Charlie for the interview. Wishing you the best on the upcoming release. For those who would like to know more about Charlie and his books, check out the following links.
Amazon Author Page - Charlie Steel
Charlie Steel - Website