BookWenches

(Interviewed by Bobby)

Today I'm delighted to welcome author D.W. Marchwell to our little corner of the 'net.

David, I know you addressed your motivation for writing your first novel in the guest blog you wrote for us last November, but would you give us a brief recap? Why did you decide to write romance instead of mystery, thrillers, action, or any of the other genres out there?

I’ve always loved reading.  There’s just something about a good story that can enlighten and entertain while providing a bit of an escape.  I’ve always dreamed that one day I’d be able to do that with a story.  There were several people who helped me along the way; the infamous Sherol and Lenore – as mentioned in the November guest blog – were my biggest supporters.  Even though that encouragement was over twenty years ago, I found myself continuing to write and to flirt with the idea that someone might actually want to publish my stories.  This past summer I finally summoned up enough courage to submit my first novel to Dreamspinner Press.

It’s not a conscious decision on my part to write romance; I do have stories that cover other genres, but I’m primarily interested in writing romance right now.  I think it’s my way of contributing stories that have the kinds of characters and the happy endings that didn’t exist when I was younger.

In both of your novels – Good to Know and Sins of the Father – you have main characters who are school teachers. Is it safe to assume that you drew from your own experience when creating these two characters?

Very much so.  Both Good to Know and Sins of the Father were conceived and written when I was still in my twenties, and certain events in my real life helped to inspire the ideas for the novels.  It’s also the reason why certain characters are musicians – something else I’ve been doing for a long time.

You’re a musician? Do tell! (I personally tried to play piano and oboe back in the day and am now attempting to learn guitar.) What instrument(s) do you play? 

I tried piano as well, but I was absolutely dreadful, and far too impatient.  Even though I played clarinette and oboe and bassoon in high school – we had a lot of vacancies when kids dropped out or moved away – it was always singing that did it for me; it was the harmonizing with my sister during Sunday church services that captivated me.  My older sister and I were a well-known duo in our pre-teen years; after a break while I fumbled my way through puberty, I got back into singing.  I took voice lessons and became a soloist with a few choirs around the city – and even developed a little bit of a fan club.  I still sing, but only for special occasions like at Christmas or Easter or a friend’s wedding, and usually only pieces from oratorios.  [And, if anyone is curious, I’m what was pejoratively referred to as a baritenor – I could sing high and low parts, although the accurate placement of my voice would be considered ‘lyric baritone’.]

Neither of these two novels contains high speed chases or life-or-death struggles; they focus more on the interpersonal dynamics between the characters with a little help from outside influences. Tell me what motivates you to write these gentler, more emotional stories. You were trying to make me cry, weren’t you?

Honestly, I wasn’t!  My only motivation is to make readers forget their problems for a few hours.  I have a great variety of stories in my head, but the gentler, more emotional stories seem to be easier for me to get down on paper at the moment; the other genres are the ones I have to wrestle with for a while.    

Your character Charlie in Sins of the Father volunteers his time teaching High School equivalency classes at the local prison. I understand that you drew directly from your own experiences with this element. Will you tell me a little about this? Why did you volunteer to work with convicts, and what did you get out of your experiences with them?

Uncle Hank was a guard at the prison just outside of my hometown.  He would tell stories all the time about how some of the inmates had never gotten more than a ninth-grade education.  His stories about the men who’d never had a fair break in life made me look around at all I did have, especially the support system I had.  I spoke to my uncle, my uncle to the warden, the warden to me and two weeks later, I was standing in front of a small group of inmates, wondering what the hell I’d been thinking.  I was petrified, but quickly came to see most of the inmates as truly remarkable people who had either made some bad decisions or who had had nothing but bad breaks.  I always had to fight the emotion when some of the inmates would thank me for caring about them.  Within a few months, I began to emphathize with the inmates, seeing their situation and mine as quite similar.  I began to realize that everyone is a prisoner of something – whether it’s an inmate who robbed a bank for whatever reason or a gay man who had to shut his mouth in order to keep the job he loved as a teacher or the people you see every day who go on living with the heartache that a loved one is lost to substance abuse and can’t seem to find the way home.

What do you think makes for the perfect chemistry between your characters? What makes a character interesting to you?

Chemistry, for me, is that indefinable quality in someone’s eyes or smile or touch or laugh, that brief – but life-altering – instant when two men meet and realize, almost instantly, that a life without the other is no longer possible; they recognize each other as soulmates.   

I enjoy writing characters who have big hearts and the best intentions, but who see themselves as flawed.  They see these flaws as something that makes them weak or undesirable.  The interesting part – for the writer in me – is to bring that character to a place where he not only realizes that the flaws don’t bother the people that matter, but that he is loved – flaws and all. 

Do you allow your characters and story to develop as you write, or do you plan everything out carefully beforehand?

It’s probably a little bit of both.  When I start a story, I know where I want to end up.  If the characters start leading me down another path, I’ll follow until I realize it’s not going to be the story I’d planned.  On the other hand, I’m not obstinate about my original plan.  Falling is a perfect example; the two main characters started telling me a story that I soon realized was much better than the one I’d chosen for them.

On your website, you indicate that you are taking a hiatus from writing after you release your next novel. Say it isn’t so! Or, at least tell me that you’re coming back to us (your readers) eventually.

It’s just a little break, I promise.  Since Good to Know was published in October, I’ve written two other novels and four short stories, all for Dreamspinner, and all while maintaining a full-time career.  I’ve decided to take a little break to do some research for two novels that deal with subjects outside of my realm of personal experience.
 

What do you think makes for a great work of fiction? How do you instill that into your work? Also, some writers seem to have a muse, and others do not. What about you? What do you consider to be your muse – your main motivation and inspiration?

Personally, I think a good story is one that will resonate with people; they don’t necessarily have to be a teacher or a gangster or a cop to enjoy the story, but they can recognize the emotional journey that the characters undertake.  We’ve all been faced with those moments in life at one time or another and felt like we couldn’t cope; reading about others who’ve managed to navigate their own troubled waters gives us hope.

To that end, life is my muse; I will sometimes be standing in front of my students or in line at the movie theater or out riding horses with friends when a word or action or situation will suddenly spark an idea.  Once the idea is in my brain, I will let it roll around for a while; I once described the way I write to my sister as typing out the movie that my brain had created from the original idea.

If an aspiring author came to you for advice, what words of wisdom or encouragement could you offer to him or her?

Do not give up!  If you quit telling stories, if you quit writing them down, if you quit submitting them, you’ll never get the letter – or email – that lets you know you weren’t wrong to trust in yourself.  As I hit the ‘send’ button to submit my first novel, I kept repeating this quote:  “You can have anything you want if you are willing to abandon the belief that you can’t have it.”  [Robert Anthony]

Tell me a little about your next story Falling that just came available. What got you interested in heli-logging? That is a quite unusual subject matter! (Nice cover, by the way…yum!)

Interestingly enough, while I was waiting to hear about Good to Know, I became quite fascinated with a show on the Discovery Channel that featured the lives – both business and personal – of a group of men who work as heli-loggers in Duncan, British Columbia.  The men – and their wives – seemed incredibly passionate; the scenery, the adrenaline of climbing 200 metre trees, the love the men showed for their families, it all struck me as very passionate.  And after watching the fourth or fifth episode, an entire story had formed inside my head.

It is a very beautiful cover, but I can’t take any credit for that; the praise rests with artist Anne Cain as well as with Mara McKennan and Elizabeth North at Dreamspinner.
 

Will you share a bit more about David Marchwell the man with us? Do you have a partner, pets, hobbies? Tell me a little about your “day job.” And…what do you do for fun when you’re not writing or trying to get teenagers to think for themselves?

Single (again, dammit!), no kids, no pets, but plenty of hobbies.  I live near the mountains, so I go hiking as often as I can.  I love photography, trying new recipes, baking, restoring antique furniture, reading (of course) and hopping into my S.U.V. and exploring far-away places for weeks at a time.  I’m a very shy and introverted person (my grandmother used to call me ‘taciturn’) and have always been attracted to the quiet and uncluttered moments in life.

Regarding shy and quiet/ taciturn, I’m convinced that’s a sign of brilliance, since that’s a quality I share. Heh. Tell me a little about your photography... do you prefer color or b&w, people or landscapes, conventional or digital?

[Of course, modesty forbids me from agreeing with your profoundly insightful observation about the obvious link between shyness and brilliance.] 

Photography is a recent hobby for me – only about four years old – so I’m more familiar with the digital process.  While my S.U.V. and I are on the weeks-long trips around North America, I have my Nikon with me and make frequent stops to capture something that I find beautiful or inspirational.  I don’t have a preference for subject matter – although I do love snow-covered mountains and anyplace at dawn.  Nor do I take sides when it comes to color vs. B&W; I will sometimes play around with the photos when I download them and try different tints and effects that bring out particular aspects of the photos.  It’s something to do, but alas, I’m afraid I’m discovering I don’t have the patience to learn how to take proper photographs.
 

Who is your favorite writer? Why? Has he or she inspired you in any way?

That’s like asking me which one of my nieces and nephews is my favorite.  I’m relatively new to the genre of m/m romance, but there have been many who have inspired me and remain among my favorite authors of any genre – and I feel privileged to call some of them ‘friend’ now.

If you forced me to pick, however, I would say that I have two favorites:  Margaret Laurence and Gabrielle Roy.  They’re both writers who were born and raised in my home province and whose works I studied at university.  I have everything they’ve ever written and the copies are very well-worn.  It’s hard for me to define what their works do to me, for me... it’s like sitting with an old friend for a few hours.

I’ve never heard of Margaret Laurence or Gabrielle Roy (even though I was an English major, it was in the Deep South and we didn’t really know Canada existed, I’m ashamed to say), but rest assured that I’ll be checking in to them soon. It’s always wonderful to hear what others read and to discover new writers that way.

Gabrielle Roy wrote in French and her works are considered among the finest works of French-Canadian literature.  I’ve always found so many parallels between her life and mine that the differences cannot diminish.  I still find an immense joy in reading her works and in reading about her life.  Her works are probably the books that I’ve read and re-read the most.

And Margaret Laurence led a fascinating life – as far as I’m concerned; born on the Canadian Prairies, but travelled the world and spent most of her life writing about life on the prairies and the hardships and turmoils that happen to families.  I have always been completely captivated by the way she wrote about life on the Canadian Prairies; I knew people like her characters, could smell the fields in my mind as I read her words and always understood the conflicts that her stories presented. 

They are both well-known authors to most Canadians, but I don’t think many Americans would have occasion to read their works, which are – mostly – oriented towards life as a Canadian in Canada.

If I were to peek at your library shelves, what would I find? What would I not find? Do you tend to read mainly in the genre you write, or are your tastes more eclectic? Also, what about music? Do you listen to classical, classic rock, Nashville Country…heavy metal?

You would probably be astonished to find that my library shelves are filled to capacity with books on quotations, biographies and historical non-fiction – one of my degrees is in history.  These are the only types of books that I read all the time, with other genres grabbing and holding my interest for shorter periods of time; I will read m/m for a couple of months and then move on to murder mysteries and then a thriller or two and so on. 

When it comes to music, I’m afraid I’m one of those weird people who like anything that has a nice harmony-melody line to it, regardless of the genre.  Having stated that, however, classical music is the only genre that I actively pursue; if I purchase something other than classical, it’s only because I heard it in a movie or at a high school dance or on the radio...

OK, I knew you weren't going to answer "heavy metal." I threw that in because that's what my own teen makes me listen to. Classical is oh so much nicer, and less likely to cause hearing loss!

Who have you always wanted to meet, and why? If you could sit down with that individual and have a conversation, what would you talk about?

If she were still alive, I would love to meet Gabrielle Roy; I’ve always been captivated by her life experiences and her writing; it would be a tremendous thrill to sit and ask her questions about her time as a teacher, about her trips all over the world, about what inspired her to write some of the most moving stories I’ve ever read.  Mme. Roy is also one of the reasons I decided to study French. 

Among the living?  There are two fellow authors at Dreamspinner Press – Heidi Cullinan and Andy Eisenberg – who have quickly burrowed their way into my heart.  Heidi has been an incredible support for me and helped me to a better understanding of the real story in Sins of the Father.  And Andy?  Not only did she help me with Falling, but she and I have become good friends; we have found ourselves to have a lot in common and I enjoy our correspondence immensely – we’ve decided that we were twins separated at birth.  I’m hoping to take a trip someday soon just so I can meet her – she’s promised me pancakes at IHOP!
 

Please let us know how we can find out more about you and your writing – websites, blogspots, etc. How can we go about purchasing your work?

I have a (very simple) website for now:  http://www.marchwellbooks.ca/.  I also have a page at Goodreads.  I’ve made plans to spend a few weeks this summer to rework the website and maybe start a blog – although I will be the first to admit that my life is rather boring and the mere idea of writing about it puts even me to sleep.

Finally, is there anything else about yourself that you would like to share with us?

I invented Post-It notes... Of course, I’m kidding.  If anybody wants to know more, please feel free to email me – you may find it useful, especially if you’ve run out of sleeping pills.

In all seriousness, I would like to use this space to offer a sincere thank you to you, Bobby and The BookWenches, for being so supportive of my books; I can’t thank you enough for such thoughtful and beautiful reviews.  This ‘newbie’ is quite humbled at your gracious generosity.

And of course, I’d like to express my sincerest gratitude to Elizabeth North and the entire Dreamspinner family for making my dream come true.

And most importantly, I’d like to thank the countless people who have read my works and taken the time to send me an email.  I read and appreciate every single one.
  

David, thank you for so graciously agreeing to share yourself with our readers. I wish you the very best for the future in both your life and your writing career.

It was an absolute pleasure.  Thank you, Bobby.