Returning Author: Eric Trant
We are coming up on September pretty quickly here. School has started, the weather is cooling off, well for now at least, and there is already talk about what we’re going to be for my favorite holiday, Halloween. That means we are roughly 2 months from the release of An Honest Lie volume 2.
There are big things going on with this volume. We know how much you liked the first one so we brought back a few of the authors you loved. We featured C.B. Calsing a few weeks ago. This week we wanted to bring another returning author to the page … say hello to, Eric Trant.
Eric blessed us in An Honest Lie Volume 1 with a tale called Apple Tree. He returns in An Honest Lie Volume 2 with One Small Step, a story about dreams and following through with those dreams. A working writer and business man Eric has a unique perspective on his work, and the craft. When I asked him to give us some advice for aspiring bloggers he said.
I’ve been blogging and hanging around online for over a decade. Blogging is an inspiring process that challenges me not only to write something useful for others, but for myself. It’s a meditative introspection that keeps me analyzing my writing skills, and honing my word-craft. It’s like going to the gym, but instead of lifting weights, I lift words, and I talk about words with other writers both big and small and in the interaction, we all grow stronger.”
Indeed my friend, indeed. You can find his blog at http://diggingwiththeworms.blogspot.com/
Eric Trant: If you’re wondering about the title (of my blog ed.), the worms are my muse. They always have been no eyes or brain but five beating hearts, dozens of them wiggling between my ears.
Open Heart Publishing: Nice approach. I am beginning to think I don’t have a muse, only an obsession. We’ve really enjoyed reading your work. From where do you draw your inspiration?
E.T.: Real life is my inspiration. I dream, listen to other people dream, and then marry that up with reality to generate my stories. I spend a vast amount of time watching people and wondering about their lives.
OHP: Are there any authors, besides yourself, who you enjoy reading?
E.T.: Of course; millions. I am currently reading several books — I usually have three or four books going since I flip-flop between them and stash them in the car, next to the bed, by the couch, in the office. I am reading Charles De Lint, Robert McCammon, Neil Gaiman, Cormac McCarthy, and L.E. Modesitt, Jr. I also enjoy blogging among a close-knit group of online writers, both published and unknown.
OHP: I never take seriously the writer that does not read voraciously. Who would you say is your writing mentor/ hero?
E.T.:Cliché, but I have to go with Stephen King. He understands that readers have only one request: Entertain me. That’s all I want to do. I don’t want to make a statement, though I would like to modify your view of the world, just a little. After King come Bradbury and Vonnegut, followed by Cormac McCarthy, who single-handedly almost strangled my muse with his stylistic prose. When I feel the need for inspiration, I read one of these authors and the worms get to digging and I am back at the blank page with pen in hand, erasing the emptiness.
OHP: I agree with King as a writing Hero. I mean the man is good. On the other end, do you have a writing nemesis?
E.T.: YES! Her name is Raquel Byrnes. She is as yet unpublished, but I am certain she’ll land a multi-novel deal somewhere in her near future, because in the real world, evil triumphs. You can meet her at her blog: http://nitewriter6.blogspot.com/
OHP: Since I read your interview I’ve been reading her blog. She is very talented, but I am certain I don’t know the half of it. Why do you feel the need to write?
E.T.: Everyone has a need to share their stories. If you don’t believe me, look at Facebook or any other social networking website. We all want to be heard. Even non-writers want to somehow expose themselves to the public eye. Nobody wants to howl at the moon alone — we want a pack to howl with us, and like every other writer, I do my howling through my stories.
OHP: You really howled with One Small Step but even the most fantastic story must be supported by some sense of what’s real and One Small Step is pretty fantastic. What was your inspiration for it?
E.T.: We all look up and dream about flying off to the moon and stars. Reaching into that darkness has been the greatest collective dream of all humanity from the time humanity took its first small step, and looking back, we’ll see how rudimentary we really were in today’s “modern” society. There is so much out there still to discover and imagine, but we’re beginning to forget our curiosity. We’re taking our genius for granted. We’re bored with the stars and the moon and we can’t even see them anymore for all the airplanes and city lights and televisions and who needs NASA anyway. That’s what this story is about: what’s still out there. It’s about not quitting when we’re so close to flying off to the stars. It’s about never, never quitting.
OHP: So with so many small press publishers out there, why did you choose to submit your work to An Honest Lie: Delusions of Insignificance?
E.T.: I am a returning author, and so I knew what I was getting into with Open Heart Publishing. The publisher and editors are a rare breed of wonderful. So long as they keep publishing it, I’ll keep submitting my work.
OHP: What do you feel is a delusion of insignificance?
E.T.: Let me give you an example of a significant but deluded individual: Your waiter. Hands down, waiting tables is the worst delusion of insignificance. You are treated as an unimportant beggar-servant to be ordered and belittled, yet you can sicken, disgust, or kill an entire room full of people. That’s sounds harsh, doesn’t it, but that’s the reality, and there’s your delusion. These people are not insignificant. Remember that the next time you figure your tip.
OHP: What is An Honest Lie?
E.T.: An honest lie is something you tell because it is either somewhat true, or based entirely on unverifiable speculation. For instance, describing your height wearing boots. For instance, claiming you are a wonderful lover. One is based on a half-truth. The other, if given a chance to prove or disprove, becomes a moot point, as the speculative nature of the Honest Lie has now served its purpose.
OHP: We are always looking for amazing pieces of work, besides short stories what other writing endeavors are you currently engaged in?
E.T.: I am working on my fifth novel, with working title The Gladiator’s Son. I’ll have to change the title because I have absolutely no gladiators. The hookline is this: “On the isolated slopes of the western Andes, a soldier awakens an earthly Andean spirit that attacks his unborn child, and is cast into a dreamlike battle to save his son thousands of miles away.” This spring I revised last fall’s novel and wrote and revised a novella, not to mention two or three short stories. I started a new novel early this summer and have been working on it for about three months. The current piece is still very much in the draft stage, but if it maintains its shape on final revision — which most of my novels don’t — then it will embed a strong father-son element into a horror-fantasy mold.
OHP: Besides writing, what other sorts of deviant behavior do you happen to enjoy?
E.T.: My deviance meter is low these days. I’m building my family and tapping on the door of my forties. I know that’s boring. Writers are supposed to live in South America, or own a chateau in France and spend their evenings in clubs writing fabulous prose over bottle after bottle of wine between long lines of cocaine. At the very least, I need to be a raging alcoholic who eats Zoloft like Tic-Tacs. I’ll admit that I like dark beer. I am German-Irish. What else is there but dark beer? Other than that, I lead a quiet life and try to focus on my home and family.
OHP: My deviance meter is … well, let us say I am more the drunken cliché of a writer; most famous after life. I accept it. Tell us about your family.
E.T.: I have a son and daughter who both inspire me to remain young and enthusiastic and blindly hopeful. We are expecting a son soon who will, according to my older son, “Break stuff.” I’m sure he is correct. We also have two dogs, a Corgi and a Pomeranian. The Pom sits in my lap as I write in the dark hours of the morning. The Corgi sleeps it off until about mid-morning, when he moves from under the bed to the couch.
OHP: It’s been great getting to know you and we look forward to working with you in the future. For now let’s give our readers something to think about. What do you feel about the following quote “Imagination is more important than knowledge?”
E.T.: I agree completely. Education has a way of dumbing you down to the level of whoever wrote the book. Some of the best things I’ve learned are not from reading or learning about the subject, but by doing and learning as I go. Writing is the obvious example, but I would lump on top of that woodworking, computer programming, math, and raising a family.
OHP: Have you ever contemplated becoming involved in a revolution?
E.T.: The US is in the middle of a revolution. It is being fought at the polls, and the latest shot was fired in November of 2008. We’re all part of this revolution, and if you are not, then you need to pick up your weapon — your voter ID — and use it.
OHP: Where do you believe humanity is headed as a whole?
E.T.: In the U.S., most of them are headed to Texas. The rest of the world is headed East, I think, toward China. The ones who don’t make it to China will likely get lost in Europe while trying to figure out what the heck a Euro is and how to exchange it for a Chinese yuan.
OHP: In your opinion, which is the more important discovery of humankind… plumbing or the written word?
E.T.: A combination of both, actually. One gives you the means to accomplish your personal business in private. The other gives you something with which to wipe.
OHP: According to Anatole France “To die for an idea is to set a rather high price on conjecture.” In your opinion what do you believe is worth dying for? What do you believe is worth living for?
E.T.: Right now, I would die for a dark beer, preferably an Irish Black-n-Tan, well-poured. I wouldn’t die for the idea of a dark beer, though. There’s a difference between dying for the idea and living to enjoy the result. I hope I made my point.
OHP: Mark Twain once said that “You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” What do you believe he meant by that?
E.T.: Twain meant that you’d better be able to see what is not there. Often it is the absence of a thing that makes it important. Seeing the world only in literal terms limits the scope of your vision so much that you might as well keep looking at your feet and walking where they tell you to walk. Twain never walked that way.
OHP: Most people have two stories for doing anything… a plausible excuse and the real reason. Why do you really write?
E.T.: On one hand, I write because I must. It’s an obsession and a passion. But really, I have nothing better to do.
Eric Trant earned a BS in Chemical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin in 1994, and is the son of a librarian and English teacher, who shared with him her love of reading, writing, and above all, storytelling. Each morning he rises well before the Texas dawn, and in the quiet writes thousands of words. He is self-taught.
Raised during his formative years in the East Texas Piney Woods, and then later in a small town on the Texas Gulf Coast, Eric maintains an avid fascination with outdoor living. Eric’s blended perspective of rural, small-town, and city lifestyles is at the heart of his stories, often leading the reader deep into the woods where as a child, he and his brother discovered so many wonders. He now lives near Dallas, Texas, where he continues to explore the world around him.
He holds a U.S. patent for a statistical outlier algorithm, and has received numerous technical recognitions as a semiconductor engineer. His most-prized award is a simple plaque reading Anyone can be a Father, but it takes someone special to be a Daddy. This plaque sits on his desk, in front of the embossed US patent.
Eric’s professional career covers a broad range of experience, including over twenty years of writing. As a freelance writer, he has dozens of short stories and five novels to his credit.
Returning Author: C.B. Calsing
An Honest Lie Volume 2 is in production. The final edits are being … finalized by M.E. Johnson, the formatting headache is in the very capable hands of our Publisher Debrin Case and they have left me in charge of keeping you all updated on our progress. Progress is, as ever it does, progressing and at a phenomenal rate. We are all very happy with what we’ve selected and we are certain you will be too.
In the interest of keeping you titillated about what you can expect from AHL V2 we are offering up a glimpse inside the minds of the Authors you’ll be reading. Over the next few weeks we will be bringing you Artist Interviews from each of the featured Authors in AHL V2.
So, without further adieu I want you to help me welcome C.B. Calsing. C.B. graced us with a great tale, “Gran’s Prophecy” , in An Honest Lie Volume 1 and she is back in volume 2 with “Martina Gets the Last Word”. She is also working with Open Heart Publishing to publish her short story collection “All Along the Pacific”. When asked what her inspiration was for the collection here is some of what she had to say.
The first story I wrote that became part of “All Along the Pacific” was “A Common Whore.” I had heard a story from a fumigator about a brothel in Pismo Beach, California. I thought at first about fictionalizing this, but then the character of Lydia just sort of came up out of the soup of information I was dealing with. She’s a complete fabrication, not based on anything historic I had heard, but she really did appeal to me. The story of an abused woman on the run is not a new one, and back in the 1920s, there weren’t a lot of options in that type of situation, so prostitution seemed like a logical place to end up. But I didn’t want it to be a normal story, so I threw in the son, but then realized it would be even more interesting if it were a step-son instead of a biological son that she steals.
I am excited to see what else is in store. There is much more to that story. Stay tuned for much more from C.B Calsing. We asked C.B. a few other honest questions and here are her honest answers.
Open Heart Publishing: Thank you for taking the time to do this interview for us. So, the anthology is titled, “An Honest Lie: Delusions of Insignificance”. I want to ask you a two part question. First, what is an honest lie?
C.B. Calsing: An honest lie or An Honest Lie? Because there is quite a difference, don’t you think? An Honest Lie is a great series of anthologies, each with a different central theme, that is sure to entertain readers. They feature talented up-and-coming writers that are enthusiastic about what they do and eager to share their work with the world.
An honest lie, on the other hand, is a fib designed to make someone feel better, like when we tell a sick friend she’s looking great, or a parent how cute his child is when in fact that baby looks like a shrunken old man. These small fibs lube the gears that make up society and civilization. That reminds me of the movie The Invention of Lying. Can you imagine if everyone were brutally honest like that? The individuals wouldn’t be able to keep society together. It would fall apart. So what if sometimes our bosses tell us “Good job” and then turn around and roll their eyes. It doesn’t matter so long as we don’t see it. We think we did a good job and with a smile on our face we go about our day. We want to believe these lies to be true, and because more often than not they are subjective lies, it’s easier to convince ourselves of that.
OHP: Great answer! Now on to the second part; what is a delusion of insignificance?
C.B.: A delusion of insignificance is feeling that we are worthless. Self-deprecation, self-pity when in fact we are loved, intrinsic in someone else’s life, and completely necessary. I think most people live with these delusions. Otherwise they are over the top in the opposite direction, like egomaniacs. It’s hard to find a balance between confidence and modesty, and a delusion of insignificance goes a long way in the modesty column.
OHP: For some of us writing isn’t a job or even a serious career path, we write because we can, we write because we love it. Why do you feel the need to write?
C.B.: Pashaw. I don’t need to write. I can stop anytime I want. I’ve done it before. I think I went weeks one time with writing a single word. You don’t believe me? I can stop right now. Watch. There. I did it. What? Well, I only started again because I wanted to. I didn’t need to. It’s not like a compulsion or anything. Besides, it’s not going to kill me so long as it’s in moderation, right? Yeah, I know: signs of addiction, blah, blah, blah. Does it affect my work? I’ve only missed, like, one day ever to write. Relationships? Well…
OHP: I lolled at that one. I can relate to the passion for writing and a tempering of that with a little humor. Why did you decide to submit your work to An Honest Lie?
C.B.: In the C.B. Calsing School of Professional Writing, the first rule taught is “Money flows to the writer.” I particularly like royalty paying markets because even at my age, I’m thinking about retirement. That little bit coming in every month or quarter or year… That’s beer money right there.
OHP: Many great writers are very practical people. I believe it comes from the preservatives in ramen noodles. Yet we write anyway. Most people have two stories for doing anything… a plausible excuse and the real reason. Why do you really write?
C.B.: I didn’t really give a plausible excuse to the above answer, did I? I write because I’ve always written. I started when I was three, and my mom and dad would make books with me. Real, cloth-bound, stitched together books. Throughout junior high and high school I wrote derivative novellas and angsty, Goth poetry. By college I’d started in on short fiction that showed a glimmer of originality, and I’ve been building from that for years now. Everyone around me defines me as a writer: my parents, my husband, my friends. When we get together, the question is always “What are you working on?” or “What comes out next?” I’ve been defined by what I do, and honestly I have no problem with that. I can’t imagine not writing.
OHP: Well we are glad to have you with us. Tell our readers something about your inspiration for “Marina Gets the Last Word”.
C.B.: I am a fan of the paranormal and horror, particularly the old masters like Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft. I went through a phase last summer — 2009 — where I was writing a lot of horror stories: werewolves, elder gods living inside Norwegian black metal albums, vengeful women returning as oyster monsters from the briny depths…. Those sorts of things. The one thing that most of the horror sites listed in their submission guidelines is that they were tired of the old tropes. I got to thinking how someone could make a sort of standard haunting story new and different. What made Poe and Lovecraft great to me was not necessarily their ability to craft really scary situations or write in detail about giant, slimy beasts, but the use of their characters’ tension to create the feeling of dread in the reader. Either of these writers could have made buttering toast a harrowing experience if they had wanted to. I decided to create a sort of mundane haunting, a journal that seems to write itself in the hand of a dead woman, and then add to that a character that is a little haunted by something else: his own guilt and, maybe to a lesser extent, booze. This would give me plenty of room to move around the psychology and tension of the issue. Finally I realized the best way to break from the old ideas of a horror short story was to destroy the expectations the readers would have for the ending. That’s how I came up with “Martina Gets the Last Word.”
OHP: Besides short stories what other writing endeavors are you currently engaged in?
C.B.: I’ve written a young adult novel set during World War Two that I need to find time to revise. I love to write historic fiction, and so I took the opportunity during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writers Month (ed.) last year to get this idea I’d had down on paper. This year, I’m working on a fantasy western, I think.
OHP: So, we live during a time in story telling history where the Hero/Villain dynamic is more popular than ever. Who would you say is your writing mentor/ hero?
C.B.: Without a doubt, I can say that my writing hero is Philip K. Dick. He worked hard for years, never giving up, staying dedicated to his genre. My weakest point in my writing is his greatest strength: the ability to make the story about the relationships and people without the bizarre plots or interesting settings overwhelming the story. My work is so often plot driven; I know I need to step back and reevaluate, looking at it with the kind of eye he would have had. I try to think like him when I work.
OHP: Do you have a writing nemesis?
C.B.: I believe I have a writing nemesis, but I’m not sure she really counts because she probably has no idea. She might not even know I exist, though I have taken a class with her. I’ll sometimes check her book’s Amazon ranking against anthologies and things that I’m in. If she’s ranked higher than me, I cry out “Curses!” and shake my fist at the monitor.
OHP: Wonderful. I have just a few more questions for our readers. In your opinion, which is the more important discovery of humankind… plumbing or the written word?
C.B.: Hmmm… Shitting in a hole or having to listen to recitations for entertainment? That is probably the most difficult question in this entire interview. Without writing we’d have no scripted entertainment of any kind. All reality shows on the tele? Ick. I supposed I’d rather poop in the yard and then go watch Glee than consider the alternatives. So the written word wins. Definitely.
OHP: According to Anatole France “To die for an idea is to set a rather high price on conjecture.” In your opinion what do you believe is worth dying for? What do you believe is worth living for?
C.B.: I have — let’s say — a very tenuous hold on my spirituality. I’m also quite pessimistic. As a result, I have very little faith that anything better lies down the road, so nothing is worth dying for. This life may be all I get, so why would I waste it on ideals or self-sacrifice? Everything is worth living for.
OHP: Mark Twain once said that “You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” What do you believe he meant by that?
C.B.: Well, many philosophers would tell us that the world only exists as a reflection of our mind or perception — like why we would all draw a different chair if asked to draw a chair. There’s no one “chair” that exists in the world that we all look to as a perfect example. Everything in existence is colored by our minds and, by extension, our imagination. I’m prone to exaggerate. Sometimes when I describe something I saw, I’ll up the numbers or the scope of the encounter. I don’t realize until after I’ve said — during a retelling of the story — the first number out-loud that I’m probably off. There weren’t twenty cop cars there, but maybe twelve. I have to go back and correct myself. My imagination wants the amazing things I witness in my day-to-day life to be even bigger. Therefore I can never be relied upon to give accurate testimony.
C.B. Calsing was born and grew up in the small Central Coast town of San Luis Obispo, California. As a child, she spent long hours composing stories and plays. Half-way through her junior year in high school, she left to attend Cuesta Community College, where she received her associate of arts degree with honors. Following that, she transferred to Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. There, she completed her bachelor of arts in English. She took a year off, traveled to Indonesia and Ireland, and then decided to return to school to become a certified English teacher. In 2002, fresh out of her studies, Mrs. Calsing and her then future husband moved to New Orleans, where she began her career in education. In 2004, she married. Following her evacuation from Hurricane Katrina, Mrs. Calsing returned to New Orleans and began her master of fine arts degree in creative writing, fiction, at the University of New Orleans. She completed that in 2009, and since then she has been writing and publishing regularly. Now, she teaches middle school English and edits for a prominent e-book publisher. Her work has appeared in college literary journals, anthologies, guerrilla zines, and on Web sites. Her two favorite genres to write are historic and science fiction because both allow her to visit other worlds. More information can be found at her Web site, www.cbcalsing.com, and at her blog, cbcalsing.blogspot.com.
