Interview with Author Gary Dickerson
Author Gary Dickerson was born in Glenn Cove Long Island New York, New York in 1956. They did not stay there long after he was born. The trailer was way too small for his growing family. They moved upstate to Kerhonkson, New York. His dad was in construction and followed where work took and dragged them along. From there it was the life of farms and auto mechanics. They moved several times around the area before settling down in Palentown New York. “Don’t bother to look for it on any maps. Way too small to be found.
I went on the road in Maryland with several poets on nightly poetry open mic events and went on tour in Staatsburg Pennsylvania during the spring of 2004 and 2006. In the spring of 2012 I released “A Collection of Poems Miracles” a collection of poems I wrote after the death of my mother. I released a second edition of A Collection of Poems Miracles in the August 2020 with a sample of Eversoul the Secret in the back. Almost a full first chapter of the novel”.
Poetry did not fill Gary writing needs as he had hoped it would. He began fantasy writing after being involved in role playing fantasy games. Eversoul the Secret is his first Novel. He has been crafting it slowly to bring it to the fullest it can be. He cannot release anything less than his best storytelling. “This is where I feel I belong writing fantasy. Soon I will retire and more books I am hold back in the wings of my mind are coming. Eversoul is the first of three books planned. The Secret, The Cost, and the Judgement will be the complete story line. After or perhaps during their development Mrs. Birtha’s Horse Ranch The story of an orphanage that gets dragged into a hunt for their Master Lord Baltimore who suddenly disappeared. And a Space Opera 20 years of Boredom and 20 minutes before death. All coming to Amazon Kindle books”.
A collection of Poems: Miracles can be found at:
Tell me more about your latest book Eversoul the Secret
Eversoul has been growing in the back of my mind for a long time. The theme ties around the concept of how often we lie to protect those we love and the cost it extracts from our relationships. Jack discovers he has been lied to all his life. Now those that lied to him need his help. Without Jack the prophets say the cause is lost. Around every corner Jack finds more lies than the last. Does he forgive them and join them against the evil, or walk away from it all or join the other side? It is a task to decide truth from lies even from his sister Cassandra, and his dead mother.
What was the most challenging aspect of writing this book?
There has been many challenging aspects with Eversoul. I have change the characters around Jack to create greater interaction, and conflict. Mapping out the lines of deceit, Betrayal, Honour and to whom? Keeping the web active and without compromising it was not easy. Learning new software, alongside of learning the broad scope of storytelling has taken up most of my spare time. Developing Characters has been cool as I strive to make each different. Finding time to write was a challenge too. I spent a year with everything in storage and only limited time to write.
What is your normal procedure to get your books published?
I explored that subject early on and I should have just left it alone. I was discouraged when I heard how difficult it is to break into the traditional publication firms. For an unknown writer it is a difficult to make it over the fence into the spotlight. I decided it would have to be self-publishing for me. Amazon has a great program for the driven person to get into print. I tossed together some poems and started learning how to approach the software in KDP. I like the control in KDP and plan to publish more there over the course of the next decade on KDP. I have also found some other self-publishing press that I might look into as well.
Do you view writing as a kind of spiritual practice?
Interesting question. I find poetry very spiritually moving. I think I dig into dark places that I don’t when writing a story. Even with that said, I do find individual scenes moving when I write them. They touch on real experiences I had as a youth. When I bring them to the page they are as alive as the day it happened.
How many books have you written so far?
I have poetry chapter books: Moonwinds and Soul Walking that I would like to rerelease as one book with two sections. They are currently out of print. I have released “A Collection of Poems Miracles” with a chapter of Eversoul in the back of the book. I have another novelette which needs some TLC set in a fantasy setting. It is nameless at this point but would be easy to pick up and finish. Somewhere I have a space novelette I was working on too. There are many poetry books hanging in the air waiting to be wrapped up and sent on their way. “Tangerine moons” “CJ” too name a few. The list in my head is endless.
What’s the best way to market your books?
This is what I think is the hardest part of writing. You could hand this over to someone else to do. Or charge forward a learn how to take charge. I have been reading a lot on this subject and there are a lot of opinions out there on it. In the end I feel I am the writer and I should hire someone to set up a market plan. I had a website set up that receive little to no traffic. I am going to set it up again and make some changes to my approach. It will be on Host Gator and up real soon.
How hard or easy is it to establish and maintain a career in writing?
I believe this is where and how most authors fail. It is not easy to do this well without a marketing plan. Authors often are mistaken when they put their baby on line to sell and nothing happens. Your market has to know where to find it and that it is out there for them. Good Reads is a great place to get exposure. Facebook can help you get some notice too. It will not be easy but once a good marketing plan runs its course in gets easier the next time around.
What is your advice for aspiring writers?
Read. Write and read more. On you Tube there are classes from Brandon Sanderson. They are his college level lecture classes from his teaching class on Fantasy writing classes. Write it. Complete the story. Go over the story and fix the characters, and plot holes that were not intended. After you have the story, the conflicts, and characters polished, then grammar spelling and the little stuff. Have a group of beta readers read through it and look for inconsistences and paragraphs that confuse them. Fix that and do a final edit yourself. I like letting my computer read it back to me so I can hear the story. You might be surprised how many errors my ears found that my eyes missed
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