LA Jacob 00:00:05 Hello, and welcome to the October episode of Small Publishing in a Big Universe. I am your host, LA Jacob. First of all, we would like to thank the many listeners of our podcast. Please tell your fellow small publishers, authors, and other friends who may be interested in our work to download and subscribe. We really appreciate it. We hope this podcast will be part of your regular feed every month. Second, we have an interview this month with author Paul S. Moore third, if you have any suggestions or questions for our upcoming ask, the author, publisher, or editor podcast, you can fill out the form at S P B U podcast.com and click on the ask us link at the top. Finally, please support our sponsors Paper Angel Press, Water Dragon Publishing, and Unruly Voices. From our sponsors This month: coming from Unruly Voices, this month is Daily Fresh, a collection of personal essays by author Jory Post. Coming from Water Dragon Publishing this month Seeker, the first book in the Unwoven Tapestry series, a fantasy novel by Morgan Chalut is out now. Stay tuned for more details. Angel’s Fall, Book three of the Z-Tech Chronicles by Ryan Southwick. This novel will not disappoint fans of the series. The Dragon Gem from this month is Death from a new upcoming collection entitled The Storytellers Tarot by LA Jacob. Hey, that's me. It's a story about what death really should be like and hopefully is.
From Paper Angel Press in November from author Michael Thal comes a fictionalized memoir based on the true story of a deaf woman who refuses to let challenges in life stop her from reaching her dreams of living a fulfilling life, disgusted with the Islamic government's depraved treatment of the Jews. Zelias Shirazi leaves Iran for a new life in the United States. There she receives a cochlear implant and finds true love with her soulmate who takes care of her as she battles, and finally succumbs, to Cancer. The Lip Reader will be available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Cobo Smash words and other online booksellers or support your local independent bookstores by ordering it through bookshop.org or indiebound.org. For more information, visit paper angel press.com/lipreader.
LA Jacob: Hi, and welcome back. Today's guest is Paul S. Moore, the author of three novels in the Stories in Glass Series and The Alchemist's Daughter, a recent short story. In our interview, we discuss his works and he offers a cautionary tale to other writers. I apologize for the audio quality at some points. Here's the interview.
LA Jacob: Hello and welcome to Paul S Moore, author of the Stories in Glass series, published under Water Dragon Publishing. Welcome Paul.
Paul Moore: Welcome to my home.
LA Jacob: Thank you for being here. I'm going to dive right in with the first question. What is the Stories in Glass Series about in general?
Paul Moore: On the surface, it's my belief that we live in a world where there's an awful lot that just flows around us unseen that we never interact with. But in my story, that unseen world gets kind of tipped over when a man who suddenly remembers he's had multiple lives goes on a radio show and opens up a can of worms with species that normally swirl around a unseen, but now they get involved.
LA Jacob: 00:04:17 Okay, so it's a supernatural kind of story.
Paul Moore 00:04:21 Um, there are definitely supernatural elements in it. It's more of a, a tip of the cap toward mythical creatures events in our past that we see as supernatural, and they are because we don't understand them, but I believe they're real.
LA Jacob: 00:04:37 The entire series is about this particular man's different past life, or is that just first book in the series?
Paul Moore 00:04:46 In the first book Rules of the Campfire, it sets up the world where he has tipped the can of worms over, uh, and there is a lot of interaction with both. I chose his, my Species, um, angels. There are loyal and fallen angels, and man has a plan. And you know how men's plans go. The three of them interact in a way that in book two songs in a box, the people that have survived Book one now have a entrance to do battle with a human element that's even more depraved than, uh, the Fallen Angels were in Book One. What happens in Book one continue to its resolution in Book three Balls in Play, but none of it would've happened if Aser my main character had not gone on the radio.
LA Jacob: 00:05:38 So your most recent book is Balls in Play, which is the third book in the series. Are there going to be any more in this series?
Paul Moore 00:05:45 Well, my muse keeps trying to draw me into a a fourth story that's based on this series, but it's a total different cast of, uh, characters, but that is unwritten, unedited, and it's so far, it's only in my mind. And, uh, three paragraphs.
LA Jacob: 00:06:05 What is the inspiration for you? The series.
Paul Moore 00:06:09 It goes all the way back to junior high school when a friend challenged us to write a short story and bring it in the next day. I was the only one who did, but I found out I enjoyed the process of writing and in the process of writing short stories, I thought maybe you could write a novel. So I set out to write a vampire story, uh, with the same beginning of an interview on a radio station. I'm six chapters into that when Interview with the Vampire comes out and I just, well, there goes that idea. Thought I was unique. So my inspiration was from a 12 volume set, mostly of history books written at NYU called The History of the World by Great Historians. My grandmother sent away for that to teach history in a one room schoolhouse in a little town called Donovan, Missouri.
Paul Moore 00:07:00 I inherited those books and immediately was absorbed into how history was told back in the day when they wanted to know not only the event, but the ideas that drove the events and the people behind the ideas that drove the events, which gave a complete picture along with three or four other historians who would weigh in and give differing opinions. Many of them very politically incorrect to this day, but still that way of writing history has given me a base to, there's more than that in intellectually honest way. They used to write history, um, at my father's funeral, he was visited by friends from the old, the Old town. They'd been through depressions, a World War, big changes together, and when his friends came at the funeral, I expected war stories. But what they wanted to talk about was walking home after getting these history lessons at my grandmother's school and reenacting these events. They were fired up about history and I wanted to put some of that into my book, though a lot of readers today will confuse myth with something that's false with mm-hmm <affirmative>, the actual definition that it's just unproven and it's a playground for writers, fictional writers, and I had a lot of fun in that playground.
LA Jacob: 00:08:23 Another question that I have is how would you describe the style of your books or your story?
Paul Moore 00:08:29 Each book is a different style. In the first book, rules of the Campfire, I knew I was introducing a lot of characters and, uh, from working with people in the craft, they said that's generally a bad idea. So I decided that Ter could tell these things in short stories that you could take on their own as a short story, and that would cut off a lot of the telling and I'd, uh, just jump into showing that which is more fun for a reader and a and a writer. In book two, the style changes. I don't have as many characters and I wanted to do more of a oh, an an action adventure story. It was a lot less explaining and definitions that have to be cleared up, and I felt like that story just moved right along when it was centered around my character Dorothy, who was meant to be a, a minor character for a plot device and she, she just took over and basically wrote book to herself.
Paul Moore 00:09:37 She has a mind of her own. She's a hyperactive 90 year old child with, uh, some differences in her DNA and the way she was raised in her culture and she's new to the world. She chose the name Dorothy because acid her had told her the dorry of the Wizard of House and she chose the name Dorothy for and see the world. That's not exactly what happens when the plot catches up to her, but, uh, I miss Dorothy, I love Dorothy. I'd like to adopt her. Most of the comments I get from readers, uh, include the line. I love Dorothy. I share that in book three. Nothing has to give because bad guys can't win can they? And all these different unique, quirky characters get drawn together in the same place where they can't all be right and all their plans can't be right. And one of them is chosen to go face the evil human that's ahead of this cult that they who seem to have its way in Book two.
Paul Moore 00:10:41 Yeah, I don't wanna give any spoilers, but it's more of a conversational style between all these characters that have survived the first two books and their unique perspectives on what supernatural things they've been through. And one of those people emerges and it ends up with a madcap finish with hopefully all the strings tied together in a very rapid pace. And I wouldn't call it, uh, happy or an unhappy ending. I would say life goes on, think of these three books as one story at a stage play in three x and you do need to start at the beginning and work your way through.
LA Jacob: 00:11:22 So my next question is, we've found out who your favorite character is in your books. Do you have a particular favorite scene that you found easy to write and liked it a lot?
Paul Moore 00:11:35 Every scene with Dorothy was a joy to me, but my favorite scene because it surprised me that I, if I can blow my own horn, it turned out so well in binding two other characters together, uh, is over a dinner at a quirky restaurant called Pineapple Sams in Panama, where it's the first date and they get to the center of each other's onion, one layer at a time, and it flowed so easily. And when I went back and read it, I thought, dang, I'm not that good a writer. But that was perfect. It is hard work. I liked my story idea, I liked my characters, but my days of staring out the window in grade school when they were telling people where commas go, came back to haunt me when it was on paper. And a critique group in Florida was kind enough to take me in, hit me on the head with hammers until I learned enough of the craft to be passable. So that part of the writing I was in dire need of help, the creative part I can't stop myself from.
LA Jacob: 00:12:38 So what was one of the most challenging scenes that you had to write in your
Paul Moore 00:12:44 Book? There is one scene that was so disturbing to me. I set out to look for the most disturbing behavior. Uh, one of my enemies can do that universally could be condemned.
LA Jacob: 00:12:59 Okay. And you don't have to go into what it is.
Paul Moore 00:13:02 Okay, I'll just say. And I can't, that's the point of how it was difficult. I had to leave clues along the way because I, once I pictured in my head what they did, I could not offend people by describing it. It, it just became too difficult. So I made my reader work a little bit. Uh, they have to know what the word kuru means. They have to put pieces together in different places to know exactly what the guy did. And I'm hoping it's just enough that when the characters around him found out what he was guilty of, just going to berserk, trying to wrestle him to the ground and make him dissipate. I was hoping that was enough. There are answers in the book, but I just can't, I just could not find a way to say it clearly and not discuss to myself and anybody reading
LA Jacob: 00:13:56 It. Now I understand that you have a short story coming out. Can you tell me a little bit about it?
Paul Moore 00:14:02 Uh, originally the Alchemist daughter came from an idea for a, uh, one of the shark stories acid or would tell on the radio. I liked the story, it just didn't fit into the plot and or I couldn't find a way to fit it into the plot. And so I put it back and saved it and it did break one of my rules. I didn't wanna write any characters that were likable because they were pretty or handsome or athletic. I like my characters to have special abilities because I think all humans have different barcodes and I wanna write quirky characters that have high barcodes in some ways and surprisingly low barcodes in other ways. And I think that's what the world's made up of and I wanted to collect a lot of those special people in this story.
LA Jacob: 00:14:54 Now, getting away from your works, and let's go into the process of writing and are you a panther or a plotter or a
Paul Moore 00:15:03 Boat? I'd like to know where the story's going and where it ends up and everything else in between. My characters, once I picture them and their quirky ways, they basically write themselves. When I was with the critique group, I had a deadline, 10 pages to read once a week, and I wrote 10 pages once a week. Since I'm no longer in that critique group back in Florida, I write in between jumping in Rivers and fishing and all the other activities I do, I'm doing a project, uh, making a cribbage board with, uh, a drum and some stones. That takes up time. That leaves me with like three paragraphs for five different stories. And one of these days, one of those five is just gonna say, write me already dammit, and I'm gonna sit down and write it.
LA Jacob: 00:15:57 How long did the books take you to write?
Paul Moore 00:16:00 I think of it as from 1974 to 2019 <laugh>. But once I settled in with this critique group, it took me three years. It was meant to be one story, but Dorothy changed all that and I'm happy she did because I was able to introduce more of the invisible elements that swirl around us unseen and mess up our lives. In the second third book.
LA Jacob: 00:16:27 To get into a little bit of your publishing experience, I assume that Water Dragon Publishing is your first publisher that you've worked with or have you worked with other publisher?
Paul Moore 00:16:40 I have never actually worked with one. I've, uh, I've offered queries and uh, got farm letters. Water Dragon is the very first publishing company I approached that didn't have a first question of what are your credentials for writing this book? They don't want your credentials coming out of ideas and thoughts. They want it coming from, are you famous? Are you a politician? Are you a history professor? Uh, things like that. They won't even read the manuscripts. I paid $300 to a well known agent who said they were looking for something different. They were gonna have an online class. They were gonna go over the first 10 pages. And this person who I won't leave with a name proceeded to tell everybody that I'm looking for something different. But your hero has to be clearly introduced in the first 10 pages and all these other rules that were okay. I thought that's what you were getting away from. So for my $300, I learned not to pay professional agents money to give you feedback. I'd like to pass that on to all other authors too.
LA Jacob: 00:17:54 So how can people contact you?
Paul Moore 00:17:56 Well, there's just, there's good news here. I've had more than little trouble getting a website up. If you go to stories and glass.com, you'll see it's nearly completed.
LA Jacob: 00:18:09 Thanks again to our guest, Paul S. Moore, author of the Stories in Glass series and The Alchemist Daughter. We plan on publishing new episodes every second Wednesday of the month. Watch for new episodes around that time. Next time, we will have Morgan Shalut in an interview regarding her first book, Seeker
LA Jacob: 00:18:38 Seeker, book one of the Unwoven Tapestry series, is a fantasy where a man is willing to alter his understanding of the world. Despite his age, Morgan Chalut has begun a world where the culture is full of intrigue, politics, and propaganda, and one man realizes that the culture and world may not be what it seems. Plus there's a lot of really great fighting scenes. Seeker will be available this month from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo Smash words and other online book sellers, or support your local independent bookstores by ordering it through bookshop.org or indiebound.org. For more information, visit their
[email protected] slash seeker.
LA Jacob: 00:19:35 Music is provided by Melody Loops, additional sound effects by nasa. If you want to know more about small publishing in a big universe, visit our website at S p B u-podcast.com. Tweet us at S P B U dash podcast and like us on Facebook at S P B U dash podcast. Or you can search for small publishing in a big universe. This podcast was recorded and edited by yours truly, LA Jacob. This month's episode was sponsored by Paper Angel Press and its imprint Water Dragon Publishing in Unruly Voices. Thanks for listening and talk to you soon.
Speaker 4 00:20:31 A whisper of silver gray flickered in his memory then faded outta reach. The bridge of their skip ship seemed too large. Something was missing now, someone was missing.
