Interviewing author Robert E. Goswitz…
Steve: It’s my honor and pleasure to interview today historical fantasy author Robert E. Goswitz. The Dragon Soldier’s Good Fortune is his debut novel. Robert, why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself?
Robert: First, let me say something about my family. I’ve been married to my lovely wife Jody for thirty-nine years. We live on the banks of the beautiful Bark River in Hartland, Wisconsin. We have two adult children. Son Rob is engaged to be married next summer—he is a supervisor at Whole Foods in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Daughter Andrea is a married law student at the University of Wyoming, Laramie.
I was a special education teacher in the Waukesha and Wauwatosa School Districts for thirty-five years. I was awarded the U.S. Army Bronze Star and Combat Infantry Badge for my service in Vietnam.
Black Opal Books published my debut novel, The Dragon Soldier’s Good Fortune, on July 21, 2018.
Robert on reading and writing…
Steve: Why did you decide to write The Dragon Soldier’s Good Fortune?
Robert: I came back from Vietnam in August of 1972 with a headful of stories and no particular notion of how to write them. But I knew I had a great story to tell. I got out of the Army on a Friday and started graduate school on a Monday. I became a student, a teacher, a lover, a husband, a homeowner, a father—all fulfilling and wonderful things. I lived a great life but had little time for writing.
My story ideas sat in a desk drawer for decades. I was able to sketch out twenty memorable Vietnam episodes but never really had the time to develop the writing chops that would do justice to my stories. When I retired in 2007, my wife encouraged me to get back to the story.
I traveled the nation for six years, going to writer’s conferences to learn my craft. I joined writer’s groups and began getting feedback on what I had. The Military Writer’s Society of America allowed me to connect with published writers in my genre and opened doors for me I would not have found on my own. I met my editor and literary agent through friends at Military Writer’s Conferences.
Steve: What problems did you encounter in the writing process?
Robert: My story started out as a memoir. Once, an agent in a pitch session stopped me in mid-sentence to ask, “Tell me how your memoir is different from the one hundred Vietnam memoirs already published?”
Not having a good answer made me realize the story needed a distinguishing quality. Vietnamese folklore became a rich resource for story elements. No one else I had read in the Vietnam War literature space was using it.
The challenge was to make the dragon believable. Early readers approved of the dragon, and I was encouraged to give her a larger role. My memoir was morphing into a work of magical realism. I began pitching it as infantry action with a mystical twist.
Through the guidance of my literary agent Jeanie Loiocono, we added more about the dragon, and Black Opal Books signed me to a publishing contract because they loved the dragon.
Steve: How much of your creative ability is innate and how much of it is learned?
Robert: For me, story telling is innate, story writing is learned. It’s one thing to tell a story to an audience; it’s far more difficult to put that story on the page in a coherent and entertaining form.
Steve: Should writers read in their genre? Are you an avid reader?
Robert: Reading Tim O‘Brien, whose work is held up as the benchmark by which all Vietnam War Literature is measured, gave me hope that my story was worth telling.
I’d consider myself a regular reader rather than an avid reader.
Steve: What are you reading now?
Robert: I’m reading She Weeps Each Time You’re Born by Quan Barry, who fled Vietnam with her family as a child when the North Vietnamese took over. She now teaches English at The University of Wisconsin-Madison. Barry draws on Vietnamese folklore and tells her story as a folktale. The lyrical beauty of her prose lifts this tragic tale of desperate escape. It makes me weep with happiness that such a beautiful thing could be created.
I’m about to read Virgil Wander by Leif Enger, who creates his own mid-western mythology with his tales of the common man whose life has a touch of magic.
Steve: How do you discover your plots?
Robert: Being a seat-of-the-pants writer allows me to sit back and relax while writing, waiting to see the plot reveal itself. I don’t write mysteries, but I enjoy the mystery behind organic plot formation. If I write that one true sentence that strikes a natural tone in my writer’s ear, the story follows a natural course that leads me to the place it needs to be.
When I write the wrong word, I am able to correct, revise, and shape the narrative in successive layers of editng.
Steve: What comes first, plot or character?
Robert: Character leads the way to plot. I write in surges of emotion and imagery. A cinematic image of my character starts running in my mind’s eye, and I try to get those images on the page in a logical sequence that reveals the characters and advances the story.
Steve: Comment on the challenges of writing dialog.
Robert: Dialog allows the reader to find out what is on the mind of the character, how he feels, what she wants. Dialog must also advance the story. I like short and punchy dialog that offers an emotional hook or surprises the reader.
Steve: How do you handle POV?
Robert: I use third person omniscient POV. I want the reader to know more than the characters do. I use it to build emotional tension that has a payoff late in the narrative.
Robert on the publishing business…
Steve: Do you use editors or agents?
Robert: I have had four editors. My most helpful editor was Joyce Gilmour of Editing TLC, who organized, formatted and examined my work in microscopic, hawk-eyed detail. Faith, my editor at Black Opal Books, brought my story up to a professional standard with great insight and a gentle touch.
I met my literary agent through friends in my Military Writers’ circle. It took a year and a half of courting to get Jeanie Loiocono of the Loiocono Literary Agency to read my manuscript. But she guided me to a publishing contract with Black Opal Books eight months after I signed with her.
Personal questions for Robert…
Steve: What’s your favorite place to eat out?
Robert: So many choices. I love barbecue when I’m down south and any of the many seafood restaurants when I’m near the ocean. There is a small-town biker-bar not far from my home that serves an amazing burger or brisket or fish-fry.
Steve: What is your favorite other place?
Robert: The highlands of Scotland during the summer solstice where people see you on the street, know you’re an American, approach, and say, “Come, we are having drinks.” Scotland is a mystical and magical place where I feel at home.
The desert southwest of the US is a great place to wander and wonder how could nature have possibly created this.
Steve: Favorite movie?
Robert: The Revenant—Leonardo and Tom Hardy make great adversaries. The visceral struggle for survival faced by trappers in the unforgiving wilderness is portrayed brilliantly.The grizzly attack was so believable. A great movie!
True Grit—the Jeff Bridges version that mines the literary beauty of Charles Portis’s blunt but poetic prose to narrate fourteen-year-old Miss Maddy’s hell-bent but half-cocked pursuit of her father’s murderer across the 1873 western landscape.
The Treasure of Sierra Madre—a study of how men are corrupted by their insatiable desires.
Steve: What’s in your refrigerator?
Robert: My wife’s diet food, which I am learning to enjoy because she prepares it with love. I also have a collection of what I consider normal food (“You know, that’s bad for you.”) Our refrigerator displays a constant battle between dietary forces.
Steve: Thanks, Robert, for your candid and entertaining answers. I’m sure readers of this blog will want to check out your interesting debut novel. Readers can also read more about Robert at http://rgoswitz.wixsite.com/mysite and at https://blackopalbooks.com.
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Comments are always welcome!
Rembrandt’s Angel. Scotland Yard Inspector Esther Brookstone obsesses over recovering a Rembrandt painting stolen by the Nazis in World War Two. Paramour and Interpol Agent Bastiann van Coevorden tries to keep her out of trouble. But the trouble keeps coming to this pair. They’re Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot on steroids, 21st century sleuths that will go all out to bring bad guys to justice. Available on Amazon and Smashwords and all the latter’s affiliated retailers (Apple iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc) as well as in your favorite bookstore (if they don’t have the book, ask for it).
In libris libertas!
