Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am co-author of a popular book on the evolution of the human “pecking order” which was published in 1972 and another one on how astrology bedeviled the singing emperor Nero published in 2005, among others.
Since my first kids’ book is a complete break, I picked the pen name Bruce Boyce for this series because these are the middle names of my great-great-grandfather who lived on St Helena and whose beautiful sister Charlotte, who was known as “Rosebud” by the French court, was a frequent guest of Napoleon during his imprisonment there – a brush with greatness that I am very proud of!
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Almost everyone is interested in where they came from.
I felt I had accomplished something when I was able to trace my ancestors on my father’s side back to the late 1600’s in the person of a humble hide tanner in London. His contemporary on my mother’s side was a French Huguenot fleeing persecution.
But 300 years is of course a mere drop in the ocean of the story of our lives. TIME TAXI was fueled by my yearning to trace my genes further back … to Medieval times … to Roman times. Even further back to the Stone Age. Why stop there? I wanted to go back to when I was a lemur-looking creature. And further back to when my genes lived in a tiny nocturnal mammal that scurried to avoid the heavy tread of the dinosaurs. Further back … even further back to the first fish that crawled out of the primeval ocean, to the first microbe that stumbled on the miracle of reproducing itself, the Adam and Eve of everybody’s genes.
Since I am a teacher by training (I taught briefly in South Africa and London) I felt challenged to present the wonderful story of human evolution to children in a way that would be both informative and fun. TIME TAXI was born.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not really. Like Hemingway (I think it was) I normally write for only two hours a day, always in the morning after my walk in the lovely Santa Monica mountains above Malibu, every day except weekends. I am most put out if the Person from Porlock comes calling while I’m writing – Google it if you don’t know who that is!
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I always say that Camus’ Outsider (aka Stranger), read when I was an undergrad at Rhodes University in South Africa, was the first book to light me up. Since then there have been so many, although Robert Ardrey’s African Genesis was a huge influence on my first book, The Dominant Man: The Pecking Order in Human Society.
What are you working on now?
Promoting Time Taxi! I’ve just finished the trailer:
What do you think?
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I don’t know much about promoting books although it’s a most interesting learning curve.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
It’s probably best to decide at the outset if you want to make a living out of writing (good luck!) or if you’re doing it for fun.
If you need to make money it’s all about choosing a genre and sticking to it (unless you’re JK Rowling of Harry Potter fame who has written a very good adult detective story Cuckoo’s Calling).
Otherwise self publish and be damned!
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Choose a genre.
What are you reading now?
Gone Girl. It starts out as a rather vapid comedy of manners about well-washed New York yuppies and then keeps getting creepier. Fine use of adjectives.
The best novel I’ve read recently is The Orphan Master’s Son. Creepy all the way!
What’s next for you as a writer?
Time Taxi Book 2 if enough kids clap their hands.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
I love Conrad’s Heart of Darkness although it’s rather thin. Four of the thickest books I could find. Dostoevsky perhaps.
Author Websites and Profiles
Bruce Boyce Website
Bruce Boyce Amazon Profile