Facebook Friends: We got asked to do an Author Interview last night by a blogger on Wordpress who writes under the name Brian Young. So these are his questions to me and these are my answers: Tell us about your book! Champion is a book designed to hook readers of all ages from the very first words in the book: Hey... what about my money? Something big happens involving the central characters money in the opening chapter and the readers are pulled into the book to find out exactly what happens. They follow him on the exciting journey of a lifetime as he gets involved in the World of Big Time Sports and meets all the people, goes to all the places, and does all the work and training that eventually offer him an opportunity at the coveted Championship level of Pro Sports. What was it that inspired you to write? I got hooked on writing back when I was in junior high school and my 7th grade Literature Teacher, a tough young woman with a Beatle Bowl haircut and a horrible acne pot-marked face began reading my stories to our class. She never said who wrote them, but I was secretly very proud, and my friends finally began to figure it out anyway. She was one of the people who had gotten me hooked me on books and was the first teacher that I remember who always made sure that we got the Scholastic Book Club Newsletter and book order Catalog. I ordered any book that she suggested and that my meager allowance could afford. I do not know how she survived teaching in that tough neighborhood near La Puente Ca. We were a really hard group to teach and I am sure teaching us was a huge challenge. We were all poor kids and I was usually kicked off the bus for one infraction or another, but it didnt matter and anyway my friend Brian Dunn and I would run the five mile distance over the furrows in farmers fields and across the creeks that separated the towns of Rowland Heights, La Puente and West Covina. Most days we ran fast enough to even have time to stop at our neighborhood 7 Eleven store and buy a candy bar or M& Ms at a nickel a bag to tease the kids still on the bus at the second bus stop. We would run like crazy to beat the bus and arrive at that stop and pretend to have been there for ages, as we ate our goodies and teased our friends who were riding the bus to the next stop while hanging out of the windows ... and asking us for a peanut M&M, or a bite of our candy bar. Brian Dunn would point at the writing on the side of the bus and pretend to read it, Do not feed the animals. :) My parents had bought a brand new 4 bedroom track house for just $16,995 and only had to put 99 dollars down in a big development of 1500 houses on what was just rolling hills and cow pastures before the big need for family housing in Southern Ca in the late 1950s and 60s. So I suppose I would have to give credit for my first inspiration to write to my Literature Teacher in that 7th grade class, and to my Mother who continually encouraged me to write and always had a copy of Readers Digest on our coffee table, as well as making sure that I had a new book under the Christmas tree or wrapped-up as a gift for my birthday. What does the future hold for you and your work? I hope the future holds the release of enough of my works to fill the library shelves with a row of books (all with my name on them), longer than the length of my arm. That is the gift I want to leave for all young readers in the future. What drives you, what are you most passionate about? What drives me and makes me so passionate is my appreciation of the power and skills of Authors that I have read and admired. When I read a passage or even a single sentence from one of my favorite Authors and I find myself banging my fist on the table and asking myself, How can this Author pick the words and write the sentences that affect me so powerfully and make me laugh, or cry, or feel so deeply? Tell us a little something about who you are? I am a simple man who loves to teach and loves to read and loves to write. Where can we find everything YOU on the net? Links to books, websites, Facebook, Twitter and any other you might have. A simple Google search of my name: Miles Cobbett will bring up all the results from around the world in a fraction of a second. -Note please be sure to spell my name with two Bs Cobbett ...there are NO Rs in my name :) Miles Cobbett At what age did you figure out you wanted to become a writer? My dad died when I was 18. I used my journals to vent the frustration of the sudden loss of my best friend. I think I was about 22 or 23 when I declared myself a writer on a Monday. There was no steak dinner waiting for me that Friday -from the efforts of my hard work and instead I had to roll-up my sleeves and do what ever job came along to pay the bills to keep a roof over my head, and keep food in my belly. Rolling the Time Machine forward almost 40 years, I now find that my bank account is getting regular deposits of money from around the world... even when my head is on the pillow and I am fast asleep. What is the greatest lesson you have learned (so far)? To write and keep writing. Describe yourself in 5 words: Reader Writer Teacher Friend Lover Any advice for aspiring writers? Read a lot. Read all the Classics, everything you can get your hands on, and find the little known short stuff that many Authors have left us. Read everything by your favorite Authors. Hemingway is one of mine and he has a wealth of short pieces, some as short as one column inch in a newspaper, or simple one paragraph shorts that are sometimes wedged between his better known / usual short stories in his books of short stories. Oh, and read his Play, The Fifth Column. Any last words? Have fun with writing. It is supposed to be fun and although it is hard, sometimes very hard, it is still supposed to be fun. -Miles Cobbett
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 07:34:21 +0000
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