Interview With Author James Porter
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a husband, father, grandpa, writer, actor, and dreamer. My career has been in computers and information technology, but my art is writing and spending time with family.
I started writing stories around the age of six or so, and dabbled with it off and on since then. During the COVID pandemic, starting in 2020, I resumed the practice as a form of mental therapy. One story, a shaggy dog story involving Mary and Jake and Grandma Gaught, proved to be the seed that grew into “Our Better Nature”, my first novel.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
“Our Better Nature” started as a shaggy-dog short story, that ended with the punch line, “Grandma Gaught runs over the rain, dear”.
That turned into the novel about wiccan women who can wrangle the weather, and use that power to take on the global industrial complex, with the goal of curing climate change.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write early in the morning, before the rest of the house is up. Sometimes VERY early, if my brain gets an idea in the middle of the night, and won’t let go.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Heinlein, Bill Watterson, Vonnegut, Asimov, Christopher Moore, Terry Pratchett, A.A. Milne, Tolkien, and many others.
What are you working on now?
What happens if two planets are in ALMOST the same orbit, and come near each other every few centuries?
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Still looking! Maybe this one!
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep your day job. Write for fun, at least at first. This was same advice a seasoned actor gave to a high-school student about becoming an actor.
Beyond that, read. Read everything. Read a lot. Then write, a lot. Write the terrible bits. Write the implausible stories, the awful characters, the ridiculous settings, plots full of holes. Then rewrite, or throw them out and start over. But write. A lot.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write. You can’t edit a blank page.
What are you reading now?
Just finished “Project Hail Mary”
What’s next for you as a writer?
Returning to writing short stories for awhile, before tackling another novel.
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?
Time Enough for Love
Collected works of Bill Watterson
Cryptonomicon (it’s big enough to be a boat!)
Author Websites and Profiles
James Porter’s Social Media Links
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