Author Interview – W. T. Keeton

Question 1: Who are you and what have you written (Most recent book, no synopsis).

I’m W. T. Keeton, and I write both science fiction and mystery/thrillers. My most recent release was The World of Erganna back on Feb. 1st.

Question 2: If you had to paint a portrait of any author who would it be?

I’d have to go with Chaucer. Mainly this is because of my limited artistic ability. I think even with my talent-level, I could manage to paint a guy who wore robes and a head scarf with his only distinguishing characteristic being a goatee.

Question 3: Why did you start writing?

I’ve been creating stories all my life, and at one point I wanted to draw comics. Eventually, however, sad circumstances interfered with that (mainly the aforementioned lack of artistic ability), so I just became an engineer instead. However, while that profession allows for massive amounts of technical and legal writing, there’s not much in the way of plot. So, writing novels is how I scratch that particular itch.

Kwestion 4: Where do you write? Do you have a shed like Roald Dahl, or a special room away from the other people in your house. Maybe you write at work when you should be working like that Terry Pratchett did. You should be careful, if your boss catches you you’re done for. Personally I write in my pajamas.

I began to answer this by saying I emulated Francisco Goya by working in a cave, and that the excess humidity was terrible for my laptop. However, that would not be true. In fact, I write in my bedroom or living room, often in the predawn hours of the morning before going to the office.

Question 5: Today a dog untied my shoe laces.

If you can get the dog do that trick repeatedly, you might just be sitting on a goldmine. That’s a how-to pet-training manual every dog person would buy.

Question 6: Do you think question 5 needs to be rephrased?

“How to Train a Dog to Untie Shoes….in Five Easy Steps!”

Question 7: Forget the last two questions.

Okay…but shouldn’t we go back to Question 5?

Question 5 (again): What is the most interesting thing you have learned recurrently?

One of the great things about writing is learning otherwise obscure facts during research. In this way, I’ve learned what life was like in 1991 Wichita, the detailed inner workings of the Irish Republican Army, tons about the ties between Siberian and Alaskan Inuit cultures, that plants are borderline sentient life forms, and much, much more.

Question 6: Have you experienced what psychologists call “The ultimate experience” ? Which is the frame of mind when you are writing and everything is flowing perfectly and the creative buzz is so great you lose track of time.

No, but I have experienced “the penultimate experience”, so it probably won’t be long now. But seriously, for me this takes the form of characters “coming to life” and dictating to me how they will react. When this occurs, it is like interacting with another human being. In fact, given the old Gardner Fox theory of fiction and alternate earths, perhaps this “ultimate experience” is merely when dimensional walls become thin enough to “hear through” (like cheap apartment walls). Thus, we fiction writers are merely chroniclers of true-life events the next universe over.

Last question: Are you happy as a writer?

I’m happy as a writer, yes. There’s something very cathartic about sharing these people who live only inside my head (okay, maybe not just inside my head if Gardner Fox was right…).

***

W. T. Keeton’s, The World of Erganna is available now on Amazon.