Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Since my senior year in college I have always been interested in the underlying nature of reality. That might sound like a strange statement because, to most people, you’re born, you pay taxes, you die and that’s reality. But, really, that’s just the thin veneer of reality and there is a lot going on beneath the surface in terms of psychology and metaphysics and behind the curtain in terms of political and financial intrigue.
This is what I portray through my writing and this is what I portray in The Vagabond King which is my 1st novel and portrays a boy’s coming of age and coming to grips with life.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is The Vagabond King and was inspired by a spiritual/psychological crisis I had in my senior year of college. In a history test I was asked to decide whether the rise of Napoleon was an example of the great man theory of history or the wave theory.
Without getting into details, the theories are diametrically opposed. It is either this or that. But I saw Napoleon being representative of both things at once. Well, in a dualistic reality, this is impossible. This means that good and bad, right and wrong, this and that are the same.
It was as if life was pulling on a single loose thread in the fabric of everything I had been taught to believe was true and my world view unraveled in a matter of months. I no longer knew what was true and what wasn’t. I had nothing to believe in anymore.
This is the same kind of issue the sixteen year old protagonist of The Vagabond King faces after his mother dies and he discovers the man he was raised to believe was his father is not.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Writers are fairly unusual people so I think that the something that a normal human being would consider unusual would be the norm for a writer.
I’ve written on toilets,
I’ve written on forklifts,
I’ve written by the light of a kerosene lamp,
I’ve written on the back of checks at a wedding,
and those are just the things I can remember.
I find that writing at night is better for creativity and writing in the day is better for editing.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Though I don’t care for fantasy, Tolkien was the first writer who caused me to realize that you could use language to rouse people’s emotions. I loved his heroic use of language. In that same vein I love the historical of Winston Churchill and Francis Parkman. One of my favorite books is Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen which is the pen name of Karen Blixen of Out of Africa fame. I love he imagination and the way she uses language as well.
I terms of imagination I like the works of Italo Calvino, He is always pushing the envelope on creativity.
Then there is Franz Kafka and his great book The Trial. I love the psychological complexity and the metaphysical implications.
I’m also a big fan of poetry with Yeats and Keats being two of my favorite.
The work of Joseph Campbell has also been central to my writing.
What are you working on now?
I started writing a book called The Mythological History of Chicago which has the Chicago fire as it’s center piece. But I’ve put that away temporarily and I am currently working of the first of a series of books which will be titles The House of Mirrors, The House of Cards and The House of Many Mansions.
The House of Mirrors is the coming of age story of a young girl who is abducted by a conman shortly after 9/11. Over the course of about 7 years, ending with the financial crash of 2008, he teaches her that nothing in life is as it appears to be and that reality is a really just a fantasy that we communally decide to believe in. It is our belief and only our belief that makes things real.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I like using book trailers like this one https://youtu.be/BDtKhbAFsac
It gives the potential reader an idea of what the book is about and has a link to a landing page where they can download the first few chapters for free. If they think it is worth continuing to read they can buy the rest of the book.
I think this is a fair and honest way to deal with readers. By the time they spend their money they know what they are getting.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
I think Charles Bukowski said it best in his poem Go All The Way
“If you’re going to try, go all the way.
Otherwise, don’t even start.
This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind.
It could mean not eating for three or four days.
It could mean freezing on a park bench.
It could mean jail.
It could mean derision.
It could mean mockery — isolation.
Isolation is the gift.
All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it.
And, you’ll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds.
And it will be better than anything else you can imagine.
If you’re going to try, go all the way.
There is no other feeling like that.
You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire.
You will ride life straight to perfect laughter.
It’s the only good fight there is.”
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
It wasn’t advice really but a realization that occured to me over the course of about twenty years and was corroborated by other writer, psychologists and philosophers and physicists throughout the ages.
Your thoughts shape reality. In fact reality is nothing but a projection of your thoughts upon the screen of your life. Plato said this in his parable of the cave.
The things of your life are the children of your thoughts. Today’s reality is the product of yesterday’s thoughts.
What are you reading now?
I read a number of things at the same time. I’m currently finishing Les Miserables which I enjoy. But I’m also rereading Your Faith is Your Fortune by Neville Goddard, The Second Coming of Christ by Paramahansa Yogananda and The True Believer by Eric Hoffer.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Beside the “House of” series of books I intend to write along with The Mythological History of Chicago, I would like to write a book about the Irish in diaspora.
I also have a website called http://www.e-novel-advisor.com/ where I teach people how to write and market their novels.
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?
A book on ship building and sailing. The Ferrar Fenton version of The Bible, The Second Coming of Christ, Your Faith is Your Fortune and just one more with the Tao te Ching and one last one The Way of Chuang Tzu.
I’ll stop now.
Author Websites and Profiles
James Campion Conway Website
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