Some personal vanity

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A website for authors and writings has asked for an interview with me. In a continuing effort to bore you out of your skulls and annoy you to no end, I give you the advance copy of the interview so far.

Complete and utter vanity on my part, because I doubt any of you will be interested in this.



Ben Baker is presently a full time newspaper editor, syndicated columnist, author and evangelist living in S. Georgia. He has 4 books in print, several more in the wings and has edited, produced and designed books for other authors.

1. What was the first book you read that inspired you to become a writer?

He's Your Dog Charlie Brown - a Peanuts collection by Charles Shulz. When I "moved beyond" that book, Havilah Babcock and Gordon MacQuarrie were instrumental in forming my love of outdoor writing. Other influential writers are Voltaire, Swift, Douglas Adams, Jerry Clower, Terry Pratchett, Robert Heinlein, Frank Herbert and John Brunner.

1. Did you try the traditional publishing route before going indie and if so, what was that experience like?

For books, yes. It was a waste of time. I spent money, time and effort trying to get my first book "Origins of Hawgin" into the hands of a traditional publisher and got precisely one response, this from a firm in Nashville after I called 'em six months after the query. The reply was "No, we don't think this book will sell."

I sold more than 1,000 copies of it on my own.

Traditional publishing houses are getting ever harder to break into with my line of writing - humor, outdoors, religion and philosophy. Other fields may be easier to get into.

Jim Butcher, author The Dresden Files, said he got into a publishing house on a stroke of luck. His series has since made a ton of money and is into 10 books (I think). He said one thing that DID help was he had more than one book finished and outlines for others. The publisher knew, if the book took off, this was not going to be a one shot deal.

Now my stuff is indie work. It does not give me the market reach I really want, but I take what I can  get.

1. Besides the genre you currently write in, what other genre would you like to try?

Science fiction & fantasy, horror and Butcher's work which combines the supernatural with detective novels is massively appealing to me. Most of my personal library is S.F. and Fantasy. I've got a 3/4 completed S.F. novel in a drawer, had it for 20 years now.

1. What do you think are the basic ingredients of a story?

Characters in conflict.

The conflict does not have to be two people facing each other with broadswords. But there has to be an issue to be resolved for make a god story. This is true even in my philosophical and religious work.

Characters come first. They have to be believable. While you may say a 3 foot female dwarf with a beard wearing lipstick and having to reconcile her female side with the dwarfish view that a dwarf is a dwarf may be unbelievable, it does strike a chord in the people who read Terry Prachett's work. We're willing to mentally search our list of friends and acquaintances (whether we do this consciously or not is beside the point) for some gender confused person we know.

Gimme someone I can see and believe.

Then gimme a problem they have to work through.

You gotta have a conflict. It gives people something to believe in. They need to see themselves in that conflict, then they can relate to the story. Havilah Babcock's problem was fighting through the briars to get to the covey of quail he was hunting. Been there! Done that! Jerry Clower's character's problems were some Good Ol' Southern boys trying to make their way in their world that just didn't always cooperate with them.

1. What discipline do you impose on yourself regarding schedules, goals, etc.?

I started a blog a few years ago. I write at least each weekday in the blog sometimes twice a day and rarely thrice. This is the biggest challenge to my writing and schedule. I have no set time to do this, but I do it. Every day. Finding something that appeals to me enough to write about is sometimes REALLY tough.

I also have a Noon Friday deadline to get my syndicated humor column written, proofed by a fellow worker, and emailed to the papers who run it. This is increasingly the hardest writing task before me. Having penning a humor column now for more than 20 years, I have written about almost every subject I can think of. Fresh material is getting harder and harder to come by. I could drop into formula writing like some fellow humoristas I know, but that is abhorrent to me. It works for them, but it doesn't work for me.

The other writing I do, it happens when it happens.

1. Dogs or cats?

Why choose? I remember years ago my half-Lab Tip laying on the floor with our new kitten Hiss hanging off his jaw as they played together. Archimedes my late bird dog and my late male calico Ocelot (OC for shirt) used to hunt together.

1. Do you think people DO judge books by their cover?

Oh absolutely. I do unless it is an author I know or a genre I want to read. I know when I have book signings, people look hard at the covers before they ever pick up a book. The cover of "A Dog Named Nekkid" drawn by my daughter always makes people look.

1. What's the best and worst things about being an author?

Writing.

1. What are you working on right now?

Aside from this list of questions, this week's newspaper. Book wise, I'm culling and editing and revising "A Hunter's Dictionary" for my "Dictionary" series, a humorous and often satirical look at common terms in various jobs and hobbies. I also have 4-5 religious works I still (yeah, yeah I know) shopping around to traditional publishing houses. I have a friend compiling 3 years worth of blogs into my new blog location http://porkbrainsandmilkgravy.blogspot.com/ and when that's done, I'll be pulling select stories for additional books.

1. Besides writing, what other hobbies or interests do you have?

Reading obviously. With the book "A Dog Named Nekkid" discovered I am a good enough artist to illustrate my own books. N.B. - a chief complaint of "Origins" was there were no cartoons. Consider illustrations in your works.

I hunt and fish. I have recently resumed reloading my own ammunition and am increasingly drawn to black powder firearms and hunting. In December I shot a bison with a black powder rifle.

I am an evangelist and presently preach several times a month in the state prison in my community. This is a later in life passion for me.

I am a passable graphic artist and enjoy building ads and ad campaigns for newspaper customers. I have also designed a LARGE number of logos for various businesses.

I genuinely enjoy my work at the newspaper I run. It will not bother me in the slightest is some day I end my tenure in this realm of existence and I'm still the editor here.

In my community I serve on several boards of directors.

www.southernhumorists.com
www.thewiregrassfarmer.com
www.porkbrainsandmilkgravy.com