I met Christopher Fly on Twitter and I reviewed his first work, HERE.
He is a valuable ally there, and I appreciate his wit and interests.
How did you come upon the career of writing, what skills and life
experiences guided you into that role? Do you think writers and other creative artists are born, or are they made?
Christopher Fly: Growing up, I read a lot. There were a lot of books in my house from a wide variety of authors and genres. Edgar Allen Poe was my favorite. H.G. Wells was a favorite as well. I remember reading Norman Mailer’s “Ancient Evenings” and Umberto Ecco’s “The Name of the Rose.” Later I moved into science fiction with Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clark.
In school I had no problem with spelling and vocabulary tests, but I couldn’t figure out how literature worked. I couldn’t easily dissect and understand the complexity of stories beyond the basic plot, and I wanted to know how. When teachers praised me for my writing assignments, I had no idea what I’d done to earn that praise. Writing fiction was an even greater mystery. I decided to overcome the writing hurdle, and I pushed myself to learn how to really understand literature with the goal of writing it, and truly understanding what I was doing.
When I returned to college later in life, I did so with the intent of learning how to write. I knew I needed to read a lot. I took classes in literature from the earliest examples up to modern times. I think that is the key. If you’re going to write, you have to read a lot. Someone can teach you the fundamentals of writing, but it’s not until you read the variety of works published throughout history that you see the fundamentals in action. I read history as well. Analysis of historical events helped tremendously with learning how to organize events in fiction. For me, it wasn’t until I had read a variety of fiction and non-fiction that it began to come together.
As readers of my site have seen, I thought highly of your By The
Gods's Ears, how did you begin and envision your first work? Was it
a result of a lifetime of reading and being entertained and intent, or
was it an organic creation that came from forces you acknowledge but
don't consider yourself in control of?
Christopher Fly: Firstly, I believe in a Creator, an all-knowing and all-loving God who is the source of all things and the source of all inspiration. Essentially “By the Gods’s Ears” is what I call my “kitchen sink” novel: I put everything in it but the kitchen sink. A part of everything I’ve read and experienced in my life has gone into it. It took a long time to write. As I went along, I would add pieces here and there. I’d encounter something new and try to make it fit. There are some things in “By the Gods’s Ears” that have an obvious influences. There are others that not even I can tell you where they come from. All my influences and inspirations get jumbled together in my mind and come out in sometimes unexpected ways.
What writers and creative artists inspire you greatly, and differently but related, what writers and creative artists influence
the written work that you do? Did becoming a writer help you see that
you are a creative artist now, or will that take a while still?
Christopher Fly: I’ve always considered myself a creative person, as I’ve always done something creative, whether it is with visual arts, music, or writing. Writing is something I’ve always wanted to do as a creative person.
Jerry Oltion’s novella “Abandon in Place” was the first story I’d ever read that made me say, “I want to write a story like that!” There’s so much going on there, and the story doesn’t neatly fit into one category. I discovered Stephen King in high school and went on a reading binge of his work that lasted for years. He can tell a great story. Other than those two, I hesitate to list influences because my tastes vary so much. My two examples here demonstrate that. I’ve read other stories by Jerry Oltion, but his novella “Abandon in Place” is the only one that resonated with me. Its influence on me has actually faded with time, and now while I still enjoy it, it doesn’t have the same effect on me as the first time. The same with King. As the years passed, I found myself wanting to write less like him. Two desires remain from those examples. I want to write good stories that don’t neatly fit into one category.
I tend for the most part to find things that influence me in parts and pieces. I might like one story from an author and nothing else. I might like how another author handles a particular scene within a larger work I didn’t like overall. There are some authors who have used one particular word that I liked. Returning to the answer I gave you for the first question, as I have learned how to dissect literature, I take what I have learned and build something of my own.
For “By the Gods’s Ears” I dug back into the early origins of Fantasy: Geoffrey of Monmouth’s “History of the Kings of Britain,” Wace’s “Roman de Brut,” Thomas Malory’s “Le Morte d’Arthur,” and the Arthurian tales of Chrétien de Troyes. I also drew inspiration from folklore with the Irish “Táin” and the Welsh “Mabinogion.” I studied these works in college. They had such a profound effect on me that when I sat down to write this novel, I felt their influence immediately. My modern influences come into play as well, which I think makes for a well balanced story that feels familiar but not old.
What role does metaphor play in your work? Are there aspects of
the work that reviewers and readers have yet to discover? If you
write your work to completion, will that call for more works in that
setting, or, are you eager, even now, to start more works in different
realms?
Christopher Fly: As I said earlier, I call “By the Gods’s Ears” my “kitchen sink” novel. There is lot in it, including metaphors. There are deeper meanings which can’t be understood yet. There are allusions to events in the past. There are allusions to events still yet to come. There are many events which point to something else. There are open ended metaphors which have not yet been completed. Not everything in this novel can be understood in a single reading. If a reader is open to reading it more than once, they will discover more questions that a cursory reading does not raise. “By the Gods’s Ears” is the first book in a series, and if I can follow through correctly, readers will discover even more with the sequels. No spoilers here, but if I can make this work the way I want, the result should be quite pleasing
Where can readers and future supporters of your fiction work find
your work online, and find you online? Has the existence of social
media helped you spread the word, or would you suggest that even with
a vast internet and many small publishers collectively do not do as
good a job as publishers in the past, where authors had full time
staff doing PR, if fewer made it to market?
Christopher Fly: “By the Gods’s Ears” is on Amazon.com in a variety of formats. My publisher has also listed the various print editions of my novel in the Ingram catalog (where booksellers order their books) so you can find and order “By the Gods’s Ears” on any bookseller’s website. My publisher has also pushed to get physical copies into bookstores, so it may already be in your local bookstore. If not, it can be easily ordered.
I’m on Twitter and also on Goodreads. I’ve had some good feedback on Twitter and made some good friends there. Unfortunately, as I work a full time job with an erratic schedule, I find it difficult to spend as much time promoting my work there as I would like. As such, I really can’t say how effective social media is in promoting my book. My publisher does do some advertising, and that shows in the sales reports I get. I do hear the common complaint from writers on Twitter that they spend more time promoting their books than actually writing them. I hope that one day I’ll have enough time to do both.
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