Interview With Author Gary Parker
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ll keep this brief. Won a writing contest in 6th grade and liked the way it felt. Kept writing, in newspapers, for magazine articles. Tried a novel and lo and behold, it got published. Have continued to write and now have twenty traditionally published novels to my credit, including a Doubleday Book Club Crossing Main Selection and a Sports Fiction Novel of the Year. I play a guitar (not too well but still) and golf. Hang out with my wife and my 4 grandsons. Write almost daily. Read a lot. You didn’t ask but someone recently asked me about the worst job I ever had. Easy answer: digging home foundations with a pick and shovel in South Carolina heat in the summer while in high school. 24 inches wide and 24 inches deep. Writing is hard but not that hard!
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Judgment Tree. It’s a Civil War novel inspired by true events. A few years ago, a lifelong friend told me a story about James Booth, his great grandfather who deserted from the Confederate Army to go home to see his gravely ill wife. Sentenced to death for desertion, Booth avoided execution only because another man rode into the dangers of the war to find a Confederate officer to pardon him. I expanded that story into an epic that Kirkus reviews calls, “A damning indictment of the excesses of unchecked privilege, delivered with gravitas and grace… A skillfully crafted, searing look at the meaning of honor and obligation during the Civil War, told with flair and finesse.”
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not sure if it’s unusual or not but I know what puts me into a right brain, creative mode so I write three to four days a week, usually at a coffee shop and typically after early morning exercise and an hour practicing my guitar. The exercise, the guitar and the coffee shop seem to be the seedbeds for making the writing happen. If those routines get upset, I find the writing rhythm difficult to find.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I grew up reading classics like Steinbeck, Hemingway, and Wolfe. I also liked science fiction stories like Dune and Fahrenheit 451. Later on, I took to historical tales in the vein of Lonesome Dove and Pillars of the Earth. I’m not tied to any one genre and read eclectically (if it interests me, I’ll read it).
What are you working on now?
I’ve started a new fiction story dealing with the integration of the PGA tour in the late 10950’s into 1960’s. To my knowledge, it’s an unexplored territory and since I enjoy sports, history and fiction, it seemed like a cool path to explore.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I love doing podcasts, radio interviews and digital magazine articles. Plus, the occasional book signing. My own website is garyeparker.net
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Two simple things: 1) think about your motivation for writing. If it’s to get rich and famous, few do. (Yes, you might be the rarest of exceptions). But perhaps the best motive is to write because you have to! You have stories in you that demand to be told. Whether you get rich and famous or not. 2) Once you know your motive, you have to be disciplined. No book ever wrote itself. Sit down. Regularly. Write. As one published author told me years ago. “The only way to write a book is to put your butt in a chair and write it.”
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
It’s not writing advice necessarily. But I like this suggestion. Don’t try to be everyone’s cup of tea. You’re coffee. Or bourbon.
What are you reading now?
I’m reading Dead Wake by Erik Larson and just finished All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren (somehow missed it in high school and/or college along the way).
What’s next for you as a writer?
The story I’m working on as noted above. But also, my goal is simply to keep doing the things that feed my soul and make my writing possible. Reading. Listening. Noting. Staying disciplined. Sitting down in the coffee shop. Sipping the latte (with a shot of honey) And writing.
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’ve actually done university lectures with this title: “Five Books to Take if Deserted on a Desert Island!” Here’s my list: Lonesome Dove, Pillars of the Earth, Grapes of Wrath, A Prayer of Owen Meany and the Bible.
Author Websites and Profiles
Author Interview Series
To discover a new author, check out our Featured Authors page. We have some of the best authors around. They are just waiting for you to discover them. If you enjoyed this writer’s interview feel free to share it using the buttons below. Sharing is caring!
If you are an author and want to be interviewed just fill out out Author Interview page. After submitting we will send it out in our newsletters and social media channels that are filled with readers looking to discover new books to read.
If you are looking for a new book to read check out our Featured Books Page.