Author Interviews: Alexander Mori
Alexander Mori is an American author living with his rat dog and two cats deep in the heart of North Texas. He writes novels for a living, plays music for fun, and can beat most fifth graders at chess just because. Tyrion is his favorite Game of Thrones character, though Arya is a very close second. Soccer is his sport of choice, but Dirk is his favorite athlete on the planet. He's never met a pizza he couldn't eat and is not afraid of really bad 80s movies. I mean, really, who could be afraid of Bill and Ted? Check out his blog (www.alexandermori.com) if you want to know more about what makes him tick. And definitely check out his novels, available at amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and most other e-reading platforms out there!
1. You have published three books, each of which seem to play with our notions of genre. Exchange Day, where the characters attend a school on the ocean floor, providing protection from the war that rages above. In your stand-alone work, The Elephant Keyhole, the contemporary characters explore a jungle where something, or someone, lurks in the dark. How do you categorize your stories, and does the question and perception of genres help or hurt the marketing of your books?
Assigning a work to a particular genre can be
as beneficial to an author as it can be detrimental. Labeling Exchange
Day as a dystopian, apocalyptic fantasy, which it is on some level,
instantly attracts an audience who loves those types of books. However, as the author, I feel Exchange Day is more than that, and I
worry labeling it as dystopian may turn readers off before they’ve even explored
the blurb. In the end, identifying genre
is important and is a key first step for readers (especially of those who read
digital books) to filter through the eventual millions of titles that will
become available for e-readers.
2. What's the spectrum of your writing
style? Do you stick to specific genres or mediums? (Novels, short stories,
screenplays...) How much unpublished work do you have lying around?
I explore multiple styles and genres with my
current work. Exchange Day is written in third person and follows a dozen
characters, each story interweaving with the others (much like Game of Thrones) to tell a much larger
story. The Elephant Keyhole is a
love story told in first person, and the story is confined to a few days in Thailand. An upcoming project, called Kasper Spat, is also told in first
person, spans twenty years of a boy’s life, and stylistically is much more
poetic than anything else I’ve ever written.
As for mediums, I’ve written a dozen or so short stories and three
feature-length screenplays. Of all the
mediums, I prefer writing novels. I
enjoy the freedom and voice of a novel, and generally when I immerse myself
into a particular story, I like to hang around longer than a short story. I have six or seven unfinished works. Sometimes I return to them with a bottle of
wine and wonder if I should revisit old projects. So far, I’ve decided to move on to something
new.
3. How long have you been writing, and what
is one opinion about the craft you’ve had changed over your career?
I’ve been writing off and on for the last
fifteen years. Only the last two years
have I devoted my full attention to writing as my career. I think the most important opinion that has
changed for me over the years is the importance of reading. And not just reading books similar to what I
wish to write. I am a TRUE believer that
writers NEED to read all the time.
Everyday. Everything. If you want to write vampire novels, I think
you should still read memoirs, young adult novels, and sci-fi novels. The more diverse your reading, the stronger your
writing will become. I used to coast
through a book over the course of a month or two, and now, I finish a book a
week. Sometimes more.
4. Is there any terrible advice you’ve
received for your book or career? Bad advice you’ve overheard someone else be
told?
I’ve received lots of advice over the
years. I’ve followed some and ignored
others. I think all writers should
approach any advice with an open mind, but they shouldn’t be afraid to
understand that all writers work differently, and so what works for Stephen
King may not work for you. And just
because it’s Stephen King doesn’t mean he’s right. The one writing rule that I’ve seen and
probably agree with, but I still break it regularly, is “Don’t use
adverbs.” I try not to overuse them, but
there are points in my story where I want an adverb, so I get an adverb!
5. What are your biggest concerns about the
current literary world?
Ooh.
This is a good question. I am an
advocate of Indie Writers and proud to call myself one. I hope my stories find readers without the
aid of the large publishing houses. My
biggest concern revolves around the balance of power between publishing houses
and Amazon/Barnes and Noble. Currently,
Amazon/Barnes and Noble have given Indie Writers a way to publish their work,
market it, and hope to make a living off of it.
I worry Indie Writers, while currently free to publish work they see fit
to represent themselves, may not have that same options in the future. In the current environment, publishing houses
seem to be fighting with Amazon/Barnes and Noble instead of working together to
benefit both readers and writers. Right
now, an aspiring writer must choose between being represented by a publishing
house that will take considerable royalties for the writer’s work, or she must
choose self-publication and be completely on her own as far as marketing is
concerned. Writers need choices, and
they need help.
6. What trends, tactics, styles, or genres
would you like to see become popular in modern writing?
I want to see the rise of Indie Writing. And for this to succeed, we need good writers
putting out good work to strengthen the reputations of all Indie Writers. For me personally, a work only needs 1 of 3
things for me to gladly finish reading it: a good story, characters I care
about, or beautifully exquisite writing.
If a work has all three, then it should be considered a masterpiece. As far as specific styles and genres, I truly
believe that all stories have readers. I
don’t care for comic books or comic book movies. But I know there are many who love them,
study them, and care for them in ways I will always struggle to
understand. I am happy we live in a time
and place where these stories can be released and can find readers.
7. What trends would you like to see disappear?
I’d like to see comic books and comic book
movies be stricken from the literary world.
Just kidding! I don’t see any
current trends that bother me. I want
writers to keep writing and readers to keep reading. It’s a symbiotic relationship that benefits
both parties. As long as we keep writing
worthy books, readers will keep reading.
8. Where do you find yourself getting stuck
most often—beginning, middle, or end?
I find myself getting stuck most often in the
outlining process. I suppose that would
be the beginning, though this often happens before the writing even
begins. For each project, I write a
loose outline, a basic map of the story, so I can keep the important plot
points in mind while crafting the way in which the story is told. Once my outline is fixed, the writing happens
smoothly enough (knock on wood.)
9. If you could hire someone to do any of
the writing work for you, what jobs would you assign to them?
I’m probably too much of a control freak to
share writing duties with another person.
A long time ago, a friend of mine and I considered writing a novel
together. He’d write the first chapter
and then I’d write the second. We
wouldn’t outline at all, wouldn’t discuss our visions. The exercise gave us each creative license
for our own chapters, and in the end we would see where the story went. After I wrote my first chapter, I did NOT
like where he took the story with the next chapter and thus lost interest in
the project.
In the future, I would not be against
collaborating. I can imagine a scenario
where another writer and I lock ourselves in a room for a couple of weeks and
collaborate over a story. And once the
story was charted, the characters decided, the climax worked out, then one of
us would handle the actual writing of the story. I could see something like that working and
being extremely fun.
I do have to admit, though, that I LOATHE the
editing process, so I’d gladly assign that job!
10. What is an assumption people make about
your career that bothers you?
The assumption that bothers me most comes from
my friends and family who assume my time isn’t important because I don’t have a
“real job.” I know they don’t mean any
harm, but I’ve had family members ask me to spend a week in a different city to
help or spend time with them, and when I tell them I have writing to do, they
roll their eyes. Some are much more
direct by asking when will I be done with this fairy-tale writer nonsense and
get a real job. I’ve written three good
books and will have three more good ones out by March of next year. I’m in this for real, and will be excited
when readers give my work a chance.
11. Tell us a little about Exchange
Day:
Exchange Day has been a passion of mine for nearly a
decade. Ever since I read The Stand in high school, I’ve always
wanted to write a post-apocalyptic novel with intermingling stories that build
to an epic and possibly unexpected ending.
The story follows a group of teenagers who graduate from a school built
on the ocean floor. They take an
elevator to the surface where they will be trained for the war that caused the
school to be built in the first place.
But the world on the surface is different than what they were taught in
school, and they must relearn how to survive.
12. How fast do you tend to write? How long
is your editing process?
I write between 8000 and 10,000 words a
week. My novels average around 90,000
words, so my first drafts take usually 9-12 weeks to complete. After I complete a draft (and after I
celebrate with much wine and music) I let a work sit for 3-4 weeks before I
even look at it again. That’s when the
editing/revising process begins for me.
I re-read the work one chapter at a time, paying careful attention to
pacing, flow, and characterization.
After 2 weeks, usually, the second draft is ready for my first
editor. I work in this manner with two
editors and will end with the final draft, Draft 5, about three months after
the first draft was completed. Revising
is stressful, but it is essential for a succinct and well-written novel.
13. You are from Texas, but both books
feature unique and uncommon settings. Have you been to the jungle? How has your
setting choices affected your writing?
Inspiration for The Elephant
Keyhole came from a two-week long trip I took to Thailand a couple of years
ago. I carried a journal with me and
catalogued most places I visited. I took
tons of pictures. TONS. I try to set my novels in places that I’ve
been, places I can sit and reflect over the sights, sounds, and smells of that
environment. Having been to a place
elevates to a dramatic degree my ability to describe it, and ultimately the
story rises because of that. I try not
to over-describe in my work, as I like writing stories that keep moving
forward. But it’s still important as a
writer to sit down and relax, pen in hand, watching and listening to an
environment so that when it is time, the writer can bring that setting alive.
14. If you met people like your characters, would you get along?
Many of my characters, both good and bad, are fashioned after people in
my life or people I’ve met. Shh. Don’t tell anyone, otherwise, no one will
want to be my friend…
Depth in characterization is important to me. I want my characters to be rounded
individuals, with good and bad traits mixing together like a swirled
margarita. I want sweet and sour working
together to portray a realism readers can relate to. There are characters in my novels, that if I
met in real life, I would fall in love with them. There are others that I might fight. But what’s important to me is that these
characters are motivated by their own feelings and desires, that there are
reasons why they do what they do.
Understanding why a character does something is to understand what makes
that character tick. And when a reader
understands a character, they can begin to care for him or her.
15. What was the hardest part in writing or publishing your first
book?
Exchange Day was my first
book. I remember the first day I started
writing it. I woke up the same time as I
did when I had a day job, which I’d quit the Friday before. I grabbed my computer and drove around my
neighborhood looking for a place to write.
The library was closed. The
bookstores were closed. The coffee shops
were filled with people sipping complicated lattes and surfing the internet on
their computers. Finally, I found myself
at the mall at a table tucked away at the back of the food court behind a large
fake tree. Several youngsters scrambled
around in the bowels of a Taco Bell, preparing for the day’s rush of
shoppers. I opened my computer and had
the hardest time writing my first sentence.
I was nervous. I felt alone. I felt like my friends and family were
laughing at me, waiting for me to fail.
I, in no way, felt like Vonnegut, Tim O’Brien, or Hugh Howey, three of
the more influential writers who inspired me to pursue this crazy dream. I felt like a high school kid skipping
school. That was the toughest moment for
me.
The second toughest moment was when I uploaded Exchange Day onto Amazon and sent an email to my friends and
family. I told them my first novel was
available for purchase, and then I had to lie down because I was too scared to
do anything else.
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