
Nobody grows up wanting to be a major geek. You just wake up one morning
after enduring several grueling weeks of eighth-grade junior high, and you realize
that your social life is hopeless.
Once you get over the shock, you kind of settle into a routine. The
insults. The wedgies. The practical jokes. The girls that smirk
at you, then shake their heads and walk away. To my credit, I only got
beat up once, and that was because I shot my mouth off. As far as total
geeks go I think survived the eighth grade rather well.
I can't tell what started me thinking I wanted to write fantasy or
Science Fiction. It
happened sometime in the eleventh grade. I'd read The Hobbit,
Lord of the Rings, The Shannara series by Terry Brooks, and
The Belgeriad series by David Eddings. To this day I don't know
what I was thinking. I got Ds in English. Writing was my absolute worst
subject, but for some reason the notion never left me and I always knew
at some point in my life I had to try.
A woman in my writer's group recently told me, "Either you're writing is getting better, or I had no idea
I liked fantasy!" Writer's groups are wonderful if you get the right
people. Writing isn't like art or music, where your audience can enjoy
in passing. Writing requires time from your audience, and when you're
starting out there is literally no other way you can get people to read
your stuff.
At the beginning of 2012 I decided to make it my goal of e-publishing the two completed novelettes
that I wrote. Both received honorable mention from the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future
contest. They're too long to try and publish in a short story magazine, and they're far too
short to publish as hard-cover or paperback novels. So, I decided to try the e-publishing route.
You can find them on this website, by clicking the Writing link above.
When I'm not writing, I watch a lot of movies. I'm always looking for a good
story, and when I find one I take copious notes. I read a lot, too. Favorite
authors are Jim Butcher,
Brandon Mull, J. K. Rowling.
Favorite local Utah authors are Dan Wells and
Larry Correa.
In my day job I'm a senior developer at inContact,
a software company that does call center hosting. I program phone systems. I have about ten years
of experience developing in C/C++ and C#. I do embedded development, telephony, and a
smattering of web development. In my spare time I've even written several games.
When I'm not working or writing, I am married and a father of five kids. I live near Salt Lake
City, Utah.

In your opinion, what is the best advice you can give to people who
want to get published and be a writer?
I have two pieces of good advice. The first is, join a writer's group.
Classes and lectures and panels and
workshops can only take you so far. Find one that is going to give
you serious feedback. The worst advice you can get is, "Oooo, I
loved it!"
The second piece of advice is, do it! In the words of John Dufresne,
"Apply a** to chair." There are a lot of things in life with more
immediate gratification, so the first question you ought to ask yourself
is, "Do I really want to do this? If so, then why?"
If you want to write, you need to set
goals and write a lot. I work with New Year's resolutions. The first
one I set was in 2008: I will finish three short stories and get them
in the mail. My 2009 resolution was to research plot ideas for a
novel--which I did complete on a technicality. My 2010 goal was to
complete a novel that I would feel proud to take to an editor or an agent.
What does the W in your name stand for?
That is a secret which I shall take to the grave.
Maybe I'll hold a contest someday. Be the first person to guess Tom's
middle name, and you win a an autographed copy of my latest novel!
Do you work from an outline?
I do. In my point of view, you wouldn't build a house without a
detailed set of blueprints. You wouldn't drive to Disneyland
without consulting a map. You wouldn't bake a cake unless you
had seen a recipie. Some people can turn out coherent prose by
shooting from the hip. I am not one of those people.
I work best in three phases. I start by brainstorming, letting the
thoughts come as fast as I can type them down. Ideas can come in any
order they want. Eventually I get enough material that a story thread
emerges. Next, I arrange the ideas into an outline sketch. The work
is still pretty un-structured at this point. I don't bother with
grammar or style or punctuation. I focus on dialog and what happens
in each scene.
In the third phase I take my sketch and I produce polished prose.
I rely on the creative process during all three phases. If anyone
feels that working from an outline squelches their creativity then
I would say that they're probably going about it the wrong way.
Do you like turtles?
I--what? Okay, serious questions only, please.
What are the odds of getting published traditionally?
That number is hard to nail down, but I can spout a few useful figures
for you. Jim Butcher said on his
website that roughly 3 in 1000 people who finish a novel get published.
Out of those three, only one in ten makes enough money at it that they
can write full-time instead of working.
Most people complete five to nine novels before getting their first publishing
contract. They go through scores and scores of submissions and rejection
letters. On top of it all, there's a certain element of luck.
Still feel like you want to be a writer?
Hey, no one's holding a gun to your head. If you want an easy sense of
accomplishment, try World of Warcraft. If you want someone to think
you're wonderful, get a puppy.
Why did you consider self-publishing?
To be clear, the type of self-publishing I'm interested in is e-publishing.
The rising popularity of e-readers such as Kindle and Nook, combined with
social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, in conjunction with
blogging and email have made it easier than ever to gain a following and
publish your work on your own.
Would I take a contract with a traditional publisher? In a heartbeat.
I think it would be a perfect way to get a little more marketing muscle
behind my stories, and it would also lend a huge amount of credibility
to my writing. Don't get me wrong. At this point I think there are
advantages to both.
However, going the traditional route is far from any kind of guarantee
of success. At the end of the day, the only thing that counts is whether or not your
work is being read. I've seen a lot of writers get lucky with the traditional
route. Some of them are personal friends of mine. The years have gone by and they never
put out anything new. No matter which route you end up taking, the basic
questions still apply. How well do you know your audience? How well do you
connect with your readers? How good are you at getting your stories into the
hands of new readers?
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