“It’s really the landscape that came to me first.” ~Andrew Michael Hurley on writing The Loney, a horror novel
Andrew worked as a librarian and as a teacher of English literature and creative writing. He has been writing all his life, and wanted to write for a living, and had written several short stories prior to writing horror novel, The Loney, which earned him a *Costa Book Award. He mentioned it took him years to write the book. Andrew also remarked that writing his first novel was a big challenge compared to writing short stories, and he admitted that one of the reasons why he wrote the novel was just to see if he could do it. The main conflict that he sees in the book is the clash between Christianity and paganism, and he also notes that he also included the similarities between these two spiritual beliefs as well.
Andrew noted that it was the landscape that helped inspire the book, and it was set on the northwestern coast of England. The area is a lonely place to be in, and Andrew remarks that one could spend twenty minutes traveling by car and still find oneself in an area without people. Andrew wanted to instill the sense of the presence of the place when he visited it prior to writing the book, and he also mentioned that he also wanted to write about faith, given that the northwestern coast of England has a sizable Roman Catholic community and that Andrew, himself, was raised in that faith as a child.
Andrew admits that the final book wasn’t what he originally wanted to write, as his style is organic, in that he allows the characters and the events to grow, and the darkness and the horror of the book thus grew as he wrote the book. Growing the book organically is, for him, part of the thrill of writing, and Andrew notes that he has always been a fan of horror and ghost stories, which, he says, are also based on landscape. Where the characters are concerned, these grew out of the writing, and he attempted to make these characters well-rounded, just like they were real people whom one would meet while walking down the street.
One of the challenges facing Andrew, while he wrote the book, was finding the time to actually write it, as his schedule was busy. He also was challenged where keeping the entire story unified was concerned, as this was a larger undertaking than the short stories he had previously done. While he couldn’t think of the easiest thing where writing the book was concerned, he did say that developing the characters was enjoyable. To those who want to know what happened, Andrew says that he won’t reveal it, as he believes that open-ended stories are the best kind of horror stories, as these stay with the reader for a long time. Andrew remarks that writing the book has allowed him to explore faith and to remember the feelings associated with being a part of a church, as well as to explore his relationship with the landscape.
Andrew is presently finishing off his next novel, which is set on the moorlands, and touches on how the landscape shapes local human culture, and is considering writing a nonfiction book on the relationship between landscape and people. To would-be authors, Andrew suggests that they trust in their own voices and to just keep at it and persevere.
*The Costa Books Award is the premiere book award in Great Britain, and to be given this award is thus a great honor. For Andrew, winning Best Debut Novel and Book of the Year Awards in 2016 might have been gratifying, but it also felt strange and surreal as well. Purchase on Amazon: The Loney, a horror novel by Andrew Michael Hurley, Costa Book Awards Winner for Best Debut Novel and Book of the Year at the British Book Industry Awards 2016
Ron Cooper talks to Alexander “The Engineer” Lim, host of AuthorStory by alvinwriter.com about his latest book, The Gospel of the Twin.
I think there’s a great deal people, Christians or otherwise, who can learn from studying early Christian history.~Ron Cooper
Ron didn’t really get interested in Jesus and Christianity until, ironically enough, he “left religion” while in college, after which he looked at these subjects from a more objective, rather than religiously subjective, viewpoint. He had thought of becoming a poet, and went on to get postgraduate degrees in philosophy from various universities. He had some ideas for novels over the years, and finally produced his first novel in 2007. He hasn’t stopped writing novels since then, as The Gospel of the Twin is his third novel and he presently has a fourth one on the way.
Ron had been fascinated with Jewish history and early Christian history, and points out that there were many different groups, rather than the single, homogeneous religion that is presently represented by the Roman Catholic church. Ron believes, based on his research, that many Christians have a “watered down” version of what Jesus was trying to do, pointing out that the socio-political context of Roman occupation, Jewish resistance to acknowledging the polytheistic Roman religions and poverty provide a clearer context in which Jesus worked his ministry. According to Ron, by the time Jesus was born, the Romans had occupied the land for around seven decades or so. Taxation was heavy, at around fifty percent, and young people could be press-ganged to serve in the Roman army, sold into slavery or, alternatively, join a bandit group that roamed the land and preyed on Roman units and upper-class Jews, and this created an atmosphere of fear. The Jewish leadership was seen by the average Jew as collaborators to the Roman occupation.
Ron notes that, while the present-day view of Jesus’ message is that of securing salvation after death, Jesus most likely was thinking about preserving Jewish heritage without going into hiding or becoming bandits or succumbing to the other pressures that the Jews were then facing. Ron also notes that Jesus most likely made no distinctions between his spiritual message and his temporal one.
Where the historical Jesus himself is concerned, Ron points out that there is little by way of information that reveal who he was, particularly since the gospels weren’t written by historians but written, decades after the fact, by people who wanted to deliver a particular message. There are very few non-Biblical sources, and based on all of these, the facts that can be gleaned about the historical Jesus was that he was born into poverty, probably in Nazareth. He grew up in the more rural areas of Palestine, and as the Roman city of Cephalus was being constructed at the time, he probably went with his father, Joseph, to help out in construction work. The Greek sources that tell what Joseph did describe him essentially as an unskilled laborer, and he most probably did masonry more than he did carpentry. Archaeological evidence revealed that there were people from several different cultures who went to Cephalus, and this would have contributed to Jesus having a more cosmopolitan outlook than he might otherwise have gotten. He was also most likely to have been executed by Pontius Pilate, who historically governed the area from 26 - 36 CE. The historical Jesus was also most likely opposed to violence.
Where Jesus’ work was concerned, Ron remarks that, central to this was egalitarianism, wherein everybody was equal, regardless of situation. The most destitute (according to the Greek word used to describe some of Jesus’ followers) and lepers (who were outcasts in the time period) were as welcome as tax collectors (who were hated by the average Jew because these were seen as Roman tattletales and thus traitors to the Jews), with men and women interacting freely together (which wasn’t done at that time). His ministry would have been influenced by the need to get people to think of salvation when those same people would be wondering where their next meal would come from. Ron notes that it’s likely that Jesus didn’t have everything figured out, and that he most likely created things on the fly, on occasion. Ron also notes that, for around two decades after his death, a small movement was maintained by his close associates in Jerusalem, a movement that didn’t explode until Paul entered the scene.
Where Jesus’ family is concerned, Ron notes that the New Testament names four brothers, and that his family was most likely Nazarenes. Ron also remarks that the Gospel of Thomas, which came out at around the same time as the New Testament gospels, was claimed to be written by Judas Didymos Thomas, with “Didymos” being the Greek word for “twin” and “Thomas” being the Aramaic word for “twin” and Judas being the name of one of Jesus’ brothers in the New Testament, and this attribution was what made certain early Christians believe that Jesus had a twin brother. Ron remarks that there was a certain amount of secrecy noted in that Gospel, and that this aura of secrecy could have played a part in piquing other people’s curiosity about Jesus’ message.
For his part, Ron wrote The Gospel of the Twin from the point of view of Thomas, Jesus’ supposed twin brother, to tell the story of how Thomas struggled to reconcile what he knew of Jesus against what others said Jesus was, and to reconcile, as well, the enigma that was his twin brother. Ron’s own challenge was getting in the mindset of a first-century peasant, which is far removed from the modern lifestyle.
Run the business as though you wanna exit at any time. Always be ready for your exit. ~Randy Long
Randy is a certified financial planner and is a lawyer, has practiced business law and estate planning for over twenty-five years, and has been certified as an exit planner for the past five years or so. He started his career as a financial planner, then went to law school to learn about estate planning, after which he has worked with family businesses. One of his earlier cases was with a family member who had a heart attack and died, but since Randy had helped create a proper exit plan, that family member’s family has been able to live off of the proceeds of such planning for twenty years. His company’s mission is to help business owners prepare for a successful exit from their business, to strengthen the family along the way, and to live their legacy. The BraveHeart Exit was written in support of this mission, to act as a road map for when they finally leave their business. Randy notes that around fifty percent of all present business owners will exit their businesses in the next five years, and seventy percent within ten, and that there aren’t that many people qualified to help them, hence his reason for writing it - that, and the urging of his family relatives who wanted Randy to share his experience with those who would need it.
Randy notes that the best time for a business owner to start planning for his exit is five to seven years prior to that actual date, as a hurried exit could result in some missed opportunities. He also notes that business owners usually don’t know what a saleable business is, as third-party buyers look at a business differently from the way business owners do. The most important part of building a self-managing company is building a good business team that enables the business owner to work on the business, rather than in it. A management team results in a business that is worth more money than one without one, and enables a business to grow faster.
Where percentages are concerned, twenty-four percent of all businesses are sold to the business owner’s children, who would have the potential advantage of growing up in an environment where the business is part of their lives; around thirty-nine percent to the business employees and the remainder to third parties. Randy notes that the nature of the business can also be a factor with whomever inherits it, with farmers being more likely to transfer their businesses over to their own children than not. Some businesses are actually more of a job than a business, such as businesses based around a professional like a dentist or a lawyer, and for these kinds of businesses the leverage isn’t as great as compared to those businesses with management teams.
The exit process starts with three questions that need to be answered: who the business owner wants to transition his business to, when does the business owner want to transition the business and how much does the business owner need from that transition in order to be financially successful during one’s retirement. The next step is to look at the owner’s self-worth and the value of the business. A market appraisal is then done on the business, after-tax-from-sale monies are also calculated, and any gap between what the owner wants and what the business is worth is then estimated. From there, necessary steps can be taken to address that gap, such as creating a management team and growing consistent revenue streams, to enable the business owner to get what he needs by the time he transitions out.
An exit planner, according to Randy, helps a business owner exit his business in a way where the business owner’s own, particular individual objectives are met. He mentioned that one business owner was happy to get three million dollars to retire on, while another got two hundred million dollars. Randy also noted that durability needs to be built into the business, where durability refers to contingency plans to minimize risks should the business owner or others involved pass on prior to the implementation of the exit plan. Among the examples he gave was that of the pop artist Prince, who had no exit plan, which means that his estate’s succession would take years to settle and that the IRS will be the main beneficiary of his death.
I don’t think you can write well about something unless you’re surprised by it.~Brendan Jones
Brendan Jones. Photo by James Poulson
Colorado-born Brendan’s parents were both journalists. He actually grew up in Philadelphia, and at the age of nineteen he transferred to Alaska, where he worked within the fishing industry and where he continually returned to. He started the book in 2005 by creating several different characters and weeding them until only its present female protagonist, Tara Marconi, was the “last one standing.” Brendan got involved with various matters over the years to support himself such as setting up and running his own construction company, as well as writing out blogs and writing for various publications, so it was only around 2013, when he got involved in Stanford’s Stegner program, that he got serious about finishing the book, which was finally completed and published in 2016.
Brendan describes the book as a real “hero’s journey,” with Tara figuring out what home means to her, describing the theme as nostos, which he mentions is a theme of Ulysses and which he describes as a fascination with homecoming and as the root word of “nostalgia.” He remarked that his mother inspired the essence of Tara Marconi’s character, and his experiences with boxing in his youth and his working in the Alaskan fishing industry came into play in the book. Brendan remarked that the scenes where Tara was working on a crab boat were some of the easiest scenes to write, and he also noted that one of the surprises he learned was that there were actually some female fishermen working on crab boats.
Brendan remarks that Alaska is the kind of environment where one’s character really gets brought out, and he also admitted some of his experiences also worked their way into the book. He remarked that writing the book enabled him to get clear on what home meant for him, commenting that home is where one is raised and where the traditions that mean something are present, as well as a community where everyone looks out for each other, regardless of where they originally came from. Brendan is presently working on another novel as well as writing out pieces on what life is like, living on a World War II era tugboat with his wife. He remarks that people should be more present to the world around them, for people aren’t separate from it, and to be aware of the present concerns with its present state.
If you want to have passion in other areas of your life, then really consider sex as a path to having more passion in your life overall.~Alina Frank
Alina had been looking for a way to heal herself of a serious illness when she discovered Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), which enabled her to get the healing results she so desired. She then became a practitioner, attaining several certifications and working with literally thousands of people all over the world, over the course of twelve years from her home, thanks to the Internet, and it was four or five years into her practice that Alina began focusing on healing people who had challenges with sex and intimacy. She thus became an expert in these areas, something she admits she would have not wanted to do while growing up Catholic.
EFT is a healing modality that is also called “tapping,” as part of this modality involves tapping what are effectively acupuncture points on one’s head and upper body, using fingertips. It is used to remove negative emotions and to remove that which is limiting people in various aspects of their lives. Practitioners and trainers are certified by such organizations as EFT Universe and AAMET.)
Alina intended the book to be read primarily by women who are experiencing challenges with sex and intimacy, although men could also get something from it. She notes that regular sex is good for one’s body, resulting in lower bad cholesterol levels and a younger biological age than one’s chronological age, and she wrote the book to reach more people than she could otherwise do with her practice, as well as to help her settle some of her own issues when it came to communicating with her children regarding talking to them frankly and properly about sex. Alina notes that she wrote the book in such a way that those who aren’t familiar with EFT can work on themselves, and that she had received lots of signals from those around her that she should write a book, which she admits that she greatly resisted.
The book isn’t just for those victims of violent sexual trauma, such as rape and incest, who shy away from intimacy, as Alina notes that most concerns with intimacy have sources outside the bedroom, particularly since women don’t isolate the bedroom from the rest of their lives, which meant that concerns in their lives in these spheres interfere with sex and intimacy. Alina gave the example of her own experience, when she got annoyed by men (not women) interrupting her for whatever reason, and she traced it back to when she was flashed at by men in her younger years, and it was through EFT that she was able to heal herself of this concern.
To those who are experiencing concerns with sex and intimacy, the most important point Alina wants to make is to not buy into the excuses that may be used to explain the lack of desire for such, such as “You’re going through menopause,” as even people in their eighties and nineties can enjoy passionate sex. Alina also remarks that a blockage here could also be representative of blocks in other aspects of people's lives.
Writing the book might have been fun for Alina, but she has been gratified by the response to it, particularly by readers who have told her that it touched them and has changed their lives. She wants to be able to train others for the work that she does and has launched a six-month program called “Reclaiming Intimacy” for women who might want to become trainers themselves.
Passion is an essential attribute for a great career, but it’s not enough.~Larry Smith
Larry knew that he would be a teacher since the age of ten, so it was perhaps no surprise that he became a professor of economics after spending some time in private companies to earn some job experience. He was also influenced by his being raised in a farm environment, as economics (supply and demand, price fluctuations, and the like) was what was discussed all the time over dinner.
Larry has also been a career counselor, and over the course of thirty years he collected a lot of data on the experiences of the thousands of students he counseled, particularly when they came to him, asking for advice; and the effectiveness of his advice was related to that Larry specialized in labor markets, so he knew the job market. It was when one of his former students organized a TEDx talk at the University of Waterloo, that he gave a fifteen-minute talk, coming from his frustration at hearing the excuses people gave for not pursuing a great career, about why people will fail to have a great career that brought him into the public spotlight, as the video was recorded and uploaded onto the Internet. Larry received so many e-mails from people around the world about that video, indicating how universal the problem is, that he was influenced to write the book, No Fears, No Excuses. Larry notes that he was also influenced to write the book because, when his students asked him if there were any good books he could recommend to enable them to have a good career, Larry could not, in all conscience, recommend any book, as he found these to be “wildly incomplete” in the information these gave and as he also admits that he is a fan of plain speaking and feels that advisors should also tell their students about the obstacles that they face.
The book is based on Larry’s database of both the successes and failures that his students have had where their careers were concerned, and he remarked that he really had to limit the number of students he talked about in his book. He says that, where excuses are concerned, he suggests that people examine the reason behind those excuses and to be present to the reality of the situation as well as why they believe that excuse. Where fear is concerned, Larry remarks that fear is very useful for one’s survival, but that fear should not paralyze people, and what people should fear most is essentially being seventy-eight and thinking, I should have done this or that.
Larry’s concept of “The Great Sampling” comes from his understanding that people nowadays have a great variety of choices when it comes to careers and that, because of that “huge mass of possibilities,” it would be impossible for a single person to go in-depth into every last thing that interests him or her to determine if that is what he or she is passionate about. Larry thus recommends that a person methodically sample a wide variety of things, starting with subjects that one has a flicker of interest in and then moving outwards from there.
To those who would be interested in creating a great career, the one thing that Larry would say is that the world doesn’t tell one to have a great career, instead it’s telling one to settle for second best, that jobs are “okay,” and that one should lean against that mindset to create a great career. All these considered, Larry sensed that there was a way by which people can get great careers, and the more he worked on his book the more he became confident that he was giving the proper guidance.
Larry would like for people to imagine the best life for them, so they would know what their destination is, and then move to achieve that best life. He also remarks that people might not pursue great careers because they have not tasted, even momentarily, how sweet it could be, or cannot imagine what it is like to not be able to differentiate between a workday and a weekend.
“The real heart of the journey lies not in actually in getting there, but in working through the challenges.”~Debbie Clarke Moderow
Debbie Moderow with two dogs. Courtesy of Doug Sonerholm.
When her children were still young, Debbie and her family adopted a retired Iditarod husky named Salt, even though she was somewhat depressed at the time, and from there, they created their own dog team. Debbie’s children learned how to mush before Debbie and her husband, Mark, did, and it was after her children had participated in the Junior Iditarod, and after her son, Andy, did the actual Iditarod and told her that she needed to do the race, that she considered running the Iditarod, particularly since she was starting to look at her empty nest at the time.
The Iditarod was started in the 1970s by a man named Joe Reddington, who settled into Alaska in the mid-1900s. He was inspired by the way dogs had connected Alaska in the 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as by the epic diphtheria serum run in the deep winter of 1925 to Nome by dog teams and their drivers. The race itself takes place on the first Saturday of March each year, and the course runs a thousand miles, from Anchorage to Nome, and has twenty-two checkpoints along the way, where both dogs and mushers can get checked and rest. Each team needs to send a package - a “drop bag” - of their own supplies at each stop, and preparation takes years.
Debbie notes that full preparation for the Iditarod requires three to four years, that one has to be mentored by a musher, that one has to know their dogs very well and that one has to be dedicated to the lifestyle of living with and raising sled dogs. Debbie says she requires assistance from a ranch hand as well as veterinarians and masseuses to keep her dogs in top form.
Debbie remarks that the humans who undertake this race travel with “sixteen good friends,” and that each dog plays various roles, from leaders to swing dogs (who run right behind the leaders) to wheel dogs (who run right in front of the sled), comparing her dog team to a sports team, where each player has a particular position to fill. She also remarked that there is a social dynamic that comes into play, as each dog has its own particular personality, and it is up to the musher to nurture these and place them in the positions where they are most effective in the team. She notes that running is innate to huskies, as nine-month-old pups who are first put into harness know instinctively how to do so, in the same way Labrador retrievers instinctively know how to swim. Debbie’s dogs are Alaskan Huskies, which would find twenty degrees Fahrenheit hot and are well suited to the rugged, cold, northern latitude environments.
Debbie remarks that the driver needs to know her dogs as well as the dogs know the musher for the team to work effectively. As an example, she knows that, when one particular dog’s ears perk up, that that dog is detecting either another dog team or a wild animal nearby, whereas, when another dog looks at the dog running alongside, that that dog is annoyed with the dog she’s eyeing. She notes that routine and consistency are part of the race, so that, when they are in the race, the dogs know that, once they run into a checkpoint, they’ll get rested, massaged, and looked after, and that, every two hours, Debbie will give them a snack.
During Debbie’s first run, she ran for six or seven hours and then rested eight or nine, which she admits wasn’t efficient, and things didn’t go as planned when they reached a stretch of sea ice under whiteout conditions, and the dogs refused to go any further. Debbie rested less during the second run, and while they initially balked when they reached that same leg where they stopped in the first run, Debbie managed to get them moving and finish the race.
Finishing the Iditarod on her second run made her realize that she had just lived a story she didn’t fully understand, and it was only when she was writing the book that she fully came to understand the story she had lived, as well as her own life to that time. She hopes that people who read her book will understand what it takes to collaborate with a group of sled dogs, as well as inspire them to set out on big goals of their own, goals that might be difficult to get to, but having the kind of journey that still makes the attempt worthwhile.
Debbie is presently working on a book on climate change, as she feels that Alaska’s climate is already being affected by global warming.
