Interview With Author C.S. Fuqua
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
With more than twenty published books, I specialize in poetry, DF/SF/H and literary fiction, and music-related nonfiction, and in Native American flute, world jazz, new age, and Americana music. My published books include Fatherhood ~ Poems of Parenthood, Big Daddy’s Fast-Past Gadget, Native American Flute ~ A Comprehensive Guide, Muscle Shoals ~ The Hit Capital’s Heyday & Beyond, and White Trash & Southern ~ Collected Poems, among others. My work has appeared widely in publications as diverse as The Christian Science Monitor, Honolulu Magazine, The Writer, Cemetery Dance, Main Street Rag, and Year’s Best Horror Stories. Please visit his websites at http://csfuqua.com and http://csfuqua.bandcamp.com.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Structured Madness is the latest book, published by Tuxtails Publishing LLC. In the 1990s, I began researching the histories and structures of the myriad of poetry formats, both familiar and unfamiliar from cultures around the world. I found that most modern, strictly structured poems tend toward dated language and topics. So, during the pandemic lockdown, I challenged myself to combining traditional formats with modern language and themes. The result is Structured Madness ~ New Poems in Traditional Formats, a collection of 80 previously unpublished poems that explore modern relationships and themes in traditional and modern poetic formats, from the sestina and Shakespearean sonnet to the magic 9, haiku, and luc bat, as well as many others.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Many, including Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Raymond Carver, Carson McCullers, Flannery O’Connor, Shel Silverstein, J.D. Salinger, George Orwell, Graham Greene, Nikki Giovanni, Conan Doyle, Walter M. Miller, Jr., Anthony Burgess, William Soroyan, and Alice Sebold, among numerous others.
What are you working on now?
A mystery novel, set in New Mexico in the mid-1920s, and a children’s book.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I have no idea. My expertise is in writing, but effective marketing remains a mystery to me.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Take advice with a grain of salt. Be true to yourself. Do your best, but strive to do better. Live in the moment by celebrating those who believe in and accompany you on your journey. Persist.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t take it too seriously.
What are you reading now?
Rereading Conan Doyle’s The Sign of Four, Miller’s A Canticle for Leibowitz, and Vonnegut’s God Bless You, Mr Rosewater.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Completing the mystery novel and children’s book.
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?
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
All of Us by Raymond Carver
Author Websites and Profiles
C.S. Fuqua’s Social Media Links
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