Interview With Author Gregory Pastoll
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am very keen on any creative pursuits. I enjoy making up stories, and writing anything, whether fiction or serious, whether in prose or rhyme. I have published 15 books, including three for children, two for general audiences (one of these comprises 220 of my own self-illustrated limericks) one script for a musical for young audiences, one book of poetry, four for mechanical engineering students, and four on education .
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is a non-fiction one, explaining teaching methods for instructors of engineering, written because I used to teach the subject of mechanics and developed a fair amount of experience in getting students optimally involved. However, I have many more children’s stories up my sleeve, and am eager to get onto publishing those.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Sometimes I start with a word or a phrase, and expand that into a story. For instance, while working on making stage props for a musical of mine that was about to be performed by middle-school children, two of the young participants also helping asked me how I think up these stories. I said to one of them: ‘Will you please give me the name of a city you like?’, and to the other one: ‘Give me the name of an animal you like.’ They came up with ‘Paris’ and ‘a whale’. Right, I replied, the next one will be called ‘A Whale in Paris’. It took me six weeks to write the script and the lyrics, while lecturing full time. Eventually that script was published in book form.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
A A Milne was my first inspiration. Among the first books my mother read to me were his ‘When we were very young’ and ‘Now we are six’. They got the rhyme machine jiggling in my head. Many others have fuelled my fire for writing. Among them are Edward Ardizzone, Roald Dahl, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (The Little Prince), Aesop’s Fables, Shakespeare, Alexander Dumas, Roger Duvoisin and Anthony Hope (The prisoner of Zenda).
What are you working on now?
I am adapting one of my play-scripts into a story book for middle schoolers.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I really haven’t done much promotion for my fictional works, because I have been too busy creating. In the case of my technical books, I wrote individual promotional emails to academics who taught my subject, all around the world,. I found their addresses from university and college websites. That provided an initial push which soon resulted in a steady stream of sales. Not spectacular sales, because it is now rare for departments to prescribe textbooks, but there are enough students who need help so that they look online for books on the topic.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Two pieces of advice. Shakespeare advised: ‘Unto thine own self be true’. So, only write about what you know. It is a bad idea to try to write about topics, people, times and places with which you are not familiar. And don’t try to write like someone else. Just be you. The second piece of advice is to put away new writing and come back to it on several occasions, weeks or months apart. When you see what you have written with fresh eyes, you can make sure it is looking the way you want it to.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
An author once mentioned that one should have as many books in publication as possible. She said that if people like one of your books, they will be inclined to look for more of them. I think she wrote in one genre only, so her audience was well-defined.
What are you reading now?
A book called ‘Fake History: 101 things that never happened’ by Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse. She has researched deeply to debunk a whole array of historical myths that get bandied about as ‘the truth’, such as that ‘Queen Elizabeth the first bathed once a year, whether she needed it or not’.
What’s next for you as a writer?
To keep on writing the various books that I have begun, and which I dip into from time to time, so that I can polish them up
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?
Definitely, number one: ‘The Story of my Life’ By Giacomo Casanova. It was banned for years on account of his descriptions of his serial womanising. However, he was one of the most intelligent and entertaining writers ever, and had many adventures in other spheres that are astonishing and better than most fiction. No. 2: ’88 Short Stories by Guy de Maupassant. Absolutely masterful in his depiction of character and his sting-in-the-tail endings. No 3: anything written by Christian Jacq, the French Egyptologist I have his novel ‘Rameses, under the western acacia’. His writing (translated, of course) is like diamonds, every sentence insightful, brilliant and economical. No 4: A big fat book about the great art of the world.
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