Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a native of the Great Plains, having grown up on a farm in the Platte River Valley of western Nebraska. I love the wild beauty of the Plains and nearby Rocky Mountains–the too hot, too cold, too empty, too full of life extremes. Typically, the awesomely diverse and the awesomely stark are much the same, even as they are different. Although I have lived in Michigan, North Carolina, and British Columbia, the western plains, mountains, and desert are in my heart.
As my day job, for over thirty years I have been a faculty member and administrator in higher education. Teaching broadly in the liberal arts, including creative writing, my professional publications include educational materials, poems, and 29 short stories for young readers. I have been a member of SCBWI since 2003. The Wood Cow Chronicles, a series of middle-grade fantasy novels, is my first full-length novel.
As an author, I’m drawn to eccentric, unexpected characters: those who surprise because they hear a distant galaxy, see a different music, create their own fragrance rather than get hooked on a soundtrack; the child who has her own ideas about how the emperor is dressed; the lunatics and rebels who tell stories on the boundaries.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Helga: Out of Hedgelands, Volume One, of the Wood Cow Chronicles is my latest book.
One of the most important reasons I started writing children’s fantasy is that Virginia Hamilton’s fine collection of African-American folktales – The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985) – brought the meaning and power of fantasy alive for me in ways I had not previously appreciated.
The title story (which concludes the book) imagines slaves escaping the brutality of slavery by magical flight—soaring away over the heads of the Master and his Overseers. It is important to know, however, that what is really occurring in the story is that some of the slaves are remembering and recovering the magical ability to fly that had been theirs in Africa. The wings on which they had flown in Africa were lost during the Middle Passage and slavery ground that memory out of the people’s minds. It is the recovery of the magic that was always inside, but forgotten, that brings freedom to the “people who could fly.”
For me, this stimulated an important insight into the meaning and power of fantasy. Imagination is often the only tool we have in breaking through the barriers or chains that limit our possibilities. The main point of fantasy, I would suggest, is its liberating influence. When we rely on imagination to enter worlds or experiences that are not otherwise available to us, we gain access to an infinite range of degrees of freedom. Running on imagination, our minds and hearts are no longer bound by such “obvious” constraints as common sense, the speed of light, or prejudices of mind. Fantasy enables us to experiment with the infinite frontiers of what is possible and impossible, believable and unbelievable.
In the opening to her brief epilogue to the title story, Hamilton puts it this way:
“The People Could Fly” is one of the most extraordinary, moving tales in black folklore. It almost makes us believe that people could fly.
Ah! The story allows us to experiment with the possibility that people (slaves) who are seen by the Master to have no capacity for anything other than labor, may actually possess wondrous powers! In almost believing that people could fly, we open the door to seeing these same people in a very different perspective. Experimentation in the realm of imagination is dangerous business—tell the tales to enough people, and some folks may come to actually, truly believe the ‘impossible” is possible. What happens when folks forced to till the land under the crack of a whip begin to experiment with the idea that they might be able to fly? What happens when the Master’s own minions begin to experiment with the same idea? These are pathways that fantasy opens up for us.
Hamilton finishes the epilogue to “The People Could Fly” by expanding on the idea with which she began:
“The People Could Fly” is a detailed fantasy tale of suffering, of magic power exerted against the so-called Master and his underlings. Finally, it is a powerful testament to the millions of slaves who never had the opportunity to “fly” away. They remained slaves, as did their children. “The People Could Fly” was first told and retold by people who had only their imaginations to set them free.”
I take Hamilton’s central point to be that the most memorable and extraordinary fantasy tales are not merely entertaining flights of fancy or slight journeys into magical realms for the sake of passing time. The tales that leave a mark on us affect the way we look at the world so drastically that we never quite return to the way we used to see things. We gain new perspectives without which we can no longer explain the world.
Marston Bates once observed that, “The outstanding peculiarity of man is the great control of custom, of culture, over behavior.” His argument—the compelling argument of anthropologists and social scientists for generations—is that custom, learned habit, and cultural parameters typically set the limits of what we believe to be good, possible, true, lovely, beautiful, and believable. In most cases, throughout human history, progress has been possible—indeed, empowered by, the capacity to imagine worlds beyond what most people considered normal, natural, or consistent with common sense.
Fantasy, especially children’s fantasy, including the idea that cows should, indeed, be allowed to talk—and think—perhaps encourages us to wonder about many other creatures, people, and dimensions of thought that “common sense” keeps us from hearing and seeing. Possibly, we may even discover that there are cows within ourselves waiting to speak. Our capacity to hear things that are, in our “common sense” world, unheard and unheard of, is one of the degrees of freedom we can preserve for ourselves and offer to others. And, for children—kids of all ages—these degrees of freedom are precious and worth nurturing. That is why I write.
A natural relative of fantasy, and close collaborator, is the sense of humor and need to play that are part of human nature. Common sources of humor playfully set up situations, or create images, that strike us as absurd or unexpected. In this way, humor, like fantasy, encourages flexibility of mind. As we set up situations that are incongruous in light of the “givens” in our experience, we both laugh and have the opportunity to see things in fresh perspective.
When this humorous sensibility turns to symbols of power and authority, or highlights injustices or idiocies of leadership, a subversive possibility arises amidst the fun. Perhaps the given order of things is not “just so for always”—but might even be improved upon?
Essentially, humor is a matter of how we look, and re-look, at things we normally take for granted. When something we think we well understand is shown from an absurd angle, we often find it funny. In my own writing, I am drawn to the exuberant and boisterously absurd images that, in my experience, make a child laugh themselves silly.
All of the problems that haunt us today were created by people with a passionate desire to live in the world as they know it to be. In such a world, some laughter and fantasy may help us be a little less certain about what we know to be impossible. Simply put, Wood Cows think differently.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
My writing space is actually in a small closet in our house–under a stairway, yes, like Harry Potter, but much smaller. The closet has just enough space for my portable laptop computer stand, my comfortable writing chair, and a collection of books and keepsakes I keep on a couple of shelves. The virtue of this somewhat unusual writing space is that I write with the closet door open and sit so that I have a wonderful view of the mountains. This arrangement allows me the pleasure of a fine view of the mountains, without having my writing clutter spread about in the main rooms of the house!
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Some genre writers I have most enjoyed include JRR Tolkien, JK Rowling, Roald Dahl, Cathrynne Valente, Susanna Clarke, and Brian Jacques. In the background, behind those apparent influences, lies the fact that I cut my teeth on Dr. Seuss and other silly picture books and later became a great fan of Calvin and Hobbes and the Far Side comics. Those influences emphasized the power of humor and taught me the importance of imagery and visual absurdity as part of storytelling. Additional influences include writers whose works taught me to appreciate the power of the absurd in storytelling. These include some classics like Don Quixote, as well as the works of Dickens, Dostoyevsky, Kurt Vonnegut, and Art Spiegelman.
Beyond authors, my writing draws energy from the music of the US Civil Rights Era. I also rely on some places that offer compelling natural or social settings that inspire the strong imagry of my stories. Some of those places can be found on my blog at the following link: http://blog.woodcowbooks.com/2012/11/16/places-that-inspire-the-wood-cow-chronicles/
What are you working on now?
I am currently completing Volume Two of the Wood Cow Chronicles series, which will be released in Fall 2013.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
The Amazon KDP Select program has been a very useful piece of my promotion strategy. The Free Days offered through KDP Select have been an essential, but not sufficient means of introducing new readers to my work. I have reached the Top 10 on the Kindle Free list every time my book has been free, and have reached #1 twice and #2 once in the last three Free Day segments. It’s hard to imagine how I would have made as much promotional progress as I have without participating in KDP Select.
Beyond that, it should also be said that simply scheduling KDP Select Free Days is not sufficient. You must also post to as many Free Day listing sites as possible, especially those with wide followings; develop a credible social media presence on at least a few of the key platforms (I especially like Twitter as a place to start); and develop a clear, do-able long-term promotional strategy, with associated actions, that takes you month-by-month through the year. A new author needs to have an absolute minimum of one promotional action/event each month. Thinking strategically over at least a year helps an author to plan the workload and manage costs most efficiently. Obviously, the author is monitoring the results of the plan as it is implemented and making adjustments based on what is being learned. However, although adjustments to a plan are always needed in light of results, having a basic plan which provides an overall framework of action is much more effective than throwing a series of promotional actions at the wall to see what sticks.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Writing is work. Results come from that work. There is no shortcut. Start writing and calibrate your writing to the amount of ADDITIONAL work you can handle in your life. Don’t expect to be able to simply begin writing, and then promoting your work, within the normal flow of your life. If you already have a full-time job and a family, as I did when I began, and do now, think of writing as a second job you have taken on. That is really what it is. It may be a great and wonderful second job, as I think it is, but, nonetheless, it is a second job. I think it’s good to frame writing in this way because, just as I must structure my life to effectively complete my other responsibilities, realizing I have a second job also helps me to attend to my duties with that. All of this is just to repeat my opening thought: Writing is work. Results come from that work. There is no shortcut.
The other piece of advice I would offer is to keep the focus on continuing to learn daily. Most of what I have learned about writing, that has really helped me to progress, I have learned from others. Much of that learning has come from the myriad of amazing writers and bloggers who now populate the internet. One of the reasons I have found Twitter so helpful is that you can identify some key bloggers or other creative professionals who serve up helpful information every day. It is easy to set up a list of people who have strong track records or perspectives that keep my thinking fresh, and quickly scroll through the combined Twitter feeds of these folks each day. Pick out the gems as you scroll to investigate more deeply, and you have a constant stream of new ideas, perspectives, tips, and advice to keep you learning. There are other ways to get such input, but I’ve found that drinking a cup of coffee while I scroll through the posts from my selected list of Tweeters usually puts at least a few new ideas in my head each day.
Of course, the other reason to use Twitter is that it provides a great way to build relationships and connections that helps me get the word out about my writing. That is important and I do put a lot of effort into that part as well. But, in my view, as a writer, I’m only as good and successful as my capacity to keep learning at the cutting edge of whatever I’m working on. In this day and age, finding my own personalized way to reliably sift gems out of the general stream of internet chatter has been an invaluable tool.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
My mother, who grew up in the depths of the Great Depression, always told me, “Get a good education. It’s the one thing that no one can ever take away from you. You can lose everything else in life, but education stays with you forever.” That was the best advice I ever heard. Education has been the doorway to so many wonders in my life, including writing.
What are you reading now?
I am both a creative writer and a social scientist. So, my reading is wide-ranging, spanning novels and graphic novels, classic literature, children’s stories and novels, as well as history and scholarly works.
I just this morning finished Freedom Papers: An Atlantic Odyssey in the Age of Emancipation, by Rebecca Scott and Jean Hebrard. Freedom Papers is the wonderfully written, moving, and altogether engrossing story of a single family’s odyssey over nearly 250 years. The story begins with Rosalie, an African woman sold into slavery, through successive movements of her and the later family through Haiti, Cuba, New Orleans, Mexico, France, and Belgium.
This astonishing story of one family’s unending commitment and struggle, over two centuries, to gain security, freedom, social standing, and dignity will help you see the issues of race and freedom in a much richer, deeper, and entirely human way. The book is simply a tour de force. Highly recommended.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I will be releasing Volume Two of the Wood Cow Chronicles this Fall. Fans can look forward to seeing some of their favorite characters from Volume One return and, also, they will be surprised to see how some minor characters and subplots from Volume One turn out to have immense significance to the story that unfolds in the new novel.
What is your favorite book of all time?
I like books in the way I like colors. I really, honestly don’t have a particular favorite. In a flower garden, if all the flowers are alike in shape, species, and color, my eye finds that much less interesting and delightful than if the flowers are many-colored and diverse. The variety lends greater interest. Just as I find a flower garden, with a variety of the diverse colors and types mingling together, a delightful experience, I approach books in a similar way. Many types, genres, perspectives, and styles of story-telling give me the greatest enjoyment.
Author Websites and Profiles
Rick Johnson Website
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