Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I had been a journalist for 30 years, working for both newspapers and magazines, with most of my career focused on financial services. For the last 20 years, I was managing editor for BAI Banking Strategies magazine. I retired in July 2016 to devote my time to personal writing, such as my first book, Tracking the Queen of Sheba.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Tracking the Queen of Sheba is a memoir of a journey I made in 1984 with a group of American archaeologists in Yemen. I had a journalism fellowship at the time and convinced them to let me tag along as they conducted an archaeological dig in the Wadi al-Jubah in the far eastern part of the country. I published a few newspaper and magazine articles about the trip in the late 1980s but never felt I had the space or freedom to do full justice to the story. Finally, in late 2015, I delved into my 30-year old notes and told the story as I had always wanted to, publishing it on Amazon in August 2016.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Don’t know about unusual, but having been a working journalist for 30 years, I’m very sensitive to deadline pressures. Even now, when I don’t have externally imposed deadlines, I still have the mentality of getting things down within a specified period of time. This drives me to knock out my rough drafts very quickly so I can see the material/themes I have to work with. Then I repeatedly polish and prune, where most of the real work takes place. I also work without any written outline, although I’m constantly outlining and planning in my head. I like to see the story emerge naturally from the writing process, like water flowing down a hill.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
With the travel memoir genre I’m working in right now, Paul Theroux is a big influence. I recently finished his Dark Star Safari, about the trip he took from Cairo to Cape Town.
What are you working on now?
The second installment in my memoir series about the years 1983-84 I spent in the Middle East on a journalism fellowship. This particular book will deal with my experiences in a village in Upper Egypt.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
For me, giving the books away for free as part of the Kindle Select program has worked best so far. That’s the best way to drive downloads.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Stay disciplined. Set aside a certain period of time, every day if possible, and just crank stuff out. Don’t worry about whether your prose sparkles that day, just produce something. I find that the writing process itself generates the ideas but nothing happens if you don’t sit down at the desk and start typing. I also recommend joining a writers group. Writing is still a solitary profession, but a writers group helps enormously in gaining useful feedback and inspiring you to keep producing. If something’s not working, they’ll let you know pretty quickly.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I’ve always liked Mark Twain’s comment: “Use the right word, not its second cousin.”
What are you reading now?
Balancing on Blue: Thru-Hiking the Appalachian Trail by Keith Foskett. I love Foskett’s simple, unpretentious style, which moves the story along briskly.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m planning two, possibly three, more books for my Middle Eastern memoirs. Then, I may try my hand at a historical novel, one set in the Byzantine period.
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?
Sounds like I’d have a lot of time on my hands so I’d bring the longer stuff, like War and Peace (which I haven’t read in 40 years), Moby Dick, Homer’s Odyssey, the complete poems of W.H Auden, and Tristram Shandy for comic relief.
Author Websites and Profiles
Kenneth Cline Amazon Profile