Interview with Mark Rice
What motivated you to become an indie author?
I started writing stories because I have a poor memory and thought I'd save interesting incidents, ideas and thoughts rather than let them occur and then vanish into thin air! I enjoyed English at school and had an encouraging teacher for my early teenage years but then encountered the opposite type of teacher in my later years and he almost single hand'dley robbed me of my confidence and self belief. Isn't it strange how strangers opinions matter more than family opinions? Anyway I kept a small flame lit inside me and began to write for my own purposes about 20 years ago.
What do your fans mean to you?
I'm honoured to have readers of my work and am eternally grateful to you folk who used up some of your own precious time to sit down and read my work. Thank you so much.
How has Smashwords contributed to your success?
Its early days but I am hopeful I will be answering this question in the near future saying "Hugely".
What is the greatest joy of writing for you?
Successfully capturing the moment, conveying the moment to someone who wasn't there but now feels they were.
What are you working on next?
I have half a dozen books in development and I will be publishing again soon. One is a sci-fi story based less than two hundred years into the future and another is an unusual dark murder mystery which takes me out of my comfort zone so I'm eager to see where the story goes with this one.
What inspires you to get out of bed each day?
The moment I wake up I'm 100% alert. I'm a morning person. I'm inspired to get writing each day because the alternative is to revert to working for someone else each day and waste a day of my life! This life is not a rehearsal and all of us need to make the very most of each day that we have on this earth.
When you're not writing, how do you spend your time?
Good question. I spend a lot of time in the garden, if its not raining and I run most days just 6.5 kilometres along country roads. I find the running really sparks great ideas for writing and life issues. I come in the door after a run and have to jot down the ideas that occurred on the run. I love photography and have thousands of pictures of plants, flowers and creatures of the garden. I also love popular music and have over 500 singles, 45's from 1965 - 1980 which I play on my record player.
How do you discover the ebooks you read?
Smashwords is a great site to find ebooks to read. I generally look inside the book before buying it so I get a feel for the writing.
What is your writing process?
Things happen in life and afterwards I think, I must record this event and I do. So much of what I write is personal and then I layer over the actual happening the fiction. Characters appear as the story develops itself. I know the core story but getting from start to finish is often a mystery journey for me.
How do you approach cover design?
I want the cover to be personal, of my own design and relevant to the story or stories within. So all but my first book of short stories, "Fur Coats and other stories" have pictures of my own on the cover.
Describe your desk
My desk is a light coloured varnished pine kitchen table that sits in our kitchen and from it I look out on our garden and watch a brown hare hop his way up and down the lawn. The table sits six and we've had it for 18 years moving it from house to house. We eat our meals on it, we played table tennis on it. We've stood on it. Its more than just a desk.
Do you remember the first story you ever wrote?
I wrote a story at school when I was about 9 year of age about a sailor on board a sail ship caught in a storm and the teacher accused me of plagiarism and I had to write on 100 times "I will not copy other peoples work"!! I hadn't copied anyone else's work and it set me back a bit so I am still low in self confidence many years later.
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