Q.1) Tell me about you. Who you are? Where do you live? What do you do for a living? When did you decide to be a writer?

Who am I? I've tried all my life to find out. But seriously, I was born on the farm I eventually inherited from my parents. I live here with a dog and three cats I dearly love. I did some farming but now I mainly survive and collect rent. I loved books and since I was hopeless at most everything I read. I wanted to write more than anything except maybe fish. Because I had little confidence in my own abilities and learned little in high school, I was well into my twenties before I began to try.

Q.2) How and when did you meet Piers Anthony? How did you both decide to write together as collaborators? How was your experience working with him?

Piers Anthony and I corresponded before we met. Both joined the National Fantasy Fan Federation with some idea of using it to locate other fans who wanted to write. A woman named Alma Hill started a small group of [sic] wouldbes exchanging letters and criticizing manuscripts. Andrew Offutt was in the group. So was Frances Hall and George Barr and others. Piers and I and others tried collaborating through the mail. Piers was undoubtedly the most talented member of the group and the most highly educated. People who have the most talent are often hard to get along with because they believe in themselves much more than the rest of us. Piers and Andy Offutt both had egos that those of us with lesser abilities had to adjust to. Their belief in themselves was well justified, but when what sounds like excessive claims is combined with what are often abrupt manners others may become more than a little irritated. However those of us who were serious about writing stayed with it even when our correspondents and collaborators were difficult. Certainly none in the small group were perfect and without question each of us did behave rather idiotically at times. Be all that as it may, Piers was responsible for bringing Andy Offutt into the group. Andy was the only one of us who had sold anything with the exception of Alma Hill who I believe had a few stories published decades earlier. Andy lived and worked as an insurance agent in the town of Moorhead, Kentucky; when the college had a writer's workshop he signed up and persuaded Piers to come and Piers in turn persuaded me to come. Thus did three hopeful science fiction authors meet one another face-to-face at that long ago conference.

I have a total of seven books done with Piers Anthony. These consist of the five book fantasy, The Ring and the first collaborative novel, E.S.P. Worm. I attempted other books but none were published. What topics did I want to talk about in my novels or short stories? Interesting question. I know the answer had to have changed from time to time. Mostly I was just trying to tell an entertaining story. But as far as big themes that I haven't really tried to explore I can think of a couple. One, if I had just the right material and was confident I could handle it I would like to talk away about what I know to be true about religion: that it can be either good or bad depending on the individual and the circumstances. I'm certain some are in a sense saved by their religious faith while others are slowly destroyed. Hypocrisy enters into it but there is also the mental set that separates people because of their beliefs and leads to wars, crimes and atrocities.

Oliver Stone produced a movie entitled Savior I rented recently. That movie was supposedly based on a true story and is hard to watch because of the realistic brutality. What is clearly shown in the film is that morality simply goes out the door when people learn to hate their neighbors because they are of an unacceptable religion. Another big theme I would like to have the talent to exploit in fiction has to do with the way individuals are judged on superficialities and in a sense forced into a role they otherwise would not have occupied. Many authors have dealt with this, many very well.

Q.4) Can you share with us your experience as writer. The Ups and Downs, the hardships, the glorious moments. I know you told me that you have a hard time to find publisher that will publish your work, can you explain more about this? Have you ever consider to try to publish through the Internet? Note: You should talk with Piers about his involvement with Xlibris if you haven't yet.

Writing for me was, in my mind at least, a great struggle against great odds. I learned little in school outside of the basics, and certainly never found that wonderful, understanding teacher many write glowing accounts about. (I'm not saying my teachers were all bad, but not one that I recall ever took those extra steps. Obviously a kid who doesn't seem especially smart, who is picked on a lot and doesn't participate in activities isn't worth a teacher's time. This is a quite human way of looking at things and is what I mean by superficialities.) Glorious moments? I suppose just when I sold something--I can't recall ever having become really ecstatic. Always it seemed that there was the mountain, and the mountain impossibly high. The first such moment was when I actually was paid for an idea I submitted to Mad Magazine for a "Human Training Book for Dogs." That elation was real but lasted no longer than it took me to realize that there were not to be repeats. The Internet? Well I've been considering but haven't anything I feel strongly about and I've this mental hang-up about paying for publishing. In the past what has been called the Vanity Press racket has been the ruin more often than the success of many an author.

Q.5) Do you have any hobbies? what do you do in your spare time?

Do I have hobbies? I did once. Spare time? I have little, and yet most people would say that I don't even work. I try staying fit, which is a real struggle at times. I walk with my dog a lot. I think about the fishing I would like to do and the trips I would like to take. Somehow every day fills up with tasks of no great importance. Cleaning, cooking, time consuming housewifey stuff..

Q.6) I am curious. In this age and time, you don't have a computer at all and still write your letter in a typewriter--something quite common a decade ago but that now seems to be disappearing. What is your view about the new technologies that have appeared in the last 20 years? How do you feel about them? Do you consider yourself a techno-phobic or do you have other reasons not to have followed the tech fashion?

You know I haven't a computer but I do have the word processor I'm using. True, things look great once they are printed, but I find the lighted screen hard on the eyesight and there are so many ways I foul up that I often look on the typewriter with nostalgia. What is my view about the new technologies that have appeared in the last twenty years? Frankly I think some are excessive. It sometimes seems as though there's no thought given to impact--how this new discovery will change society and what it will eventually do to all of us. Oh I enjoy renting a movie now and then, but kids who live for their VCR games and their Internet are apparently learning less than they need to learn and are wasting their time more than I did listening to the radio and reading comic books. This of course is just my impression--there are two sides to everything. But when I consider where we're going as a society-there I have to doubt. The Internet means more available information? Maybe it does, but isn't there much that kids and even older people would be better without? Too much of everything, seems to me, and no real evaluation of what's worthwhile and what's [sic] illusional. Instant communication? Sounds worthy, but the flipside is that instant may translate as less thoughtful. As a sometimes listener to public radio I listen to things said on Beyond Computers where experts tell of new developments. Last Sunday while I was mopping I was surprised to hear a gentleman talking about the Back to Pencils or something with a similar title. Seems a few individuals have become disillusioned with the instant communication and are trying to revive the slower, often more cerebral I gather, certainly more polite forms of communication between friends and relatives. Never having accessed the Internet I'm only guessing that pencil-communicators may have a legitimate point.

Q.7) Do you believe in God or are you like Piers Anthony, an agnostic? What is your take about religion?

The comedian George Carlin has a routine where he explains what Christians believe. There's this big man in the sky watches your every move, and if you ever break one of his rules, any time in your life, you go to hell and you burn; this of course is done from loving kindness. That's basically what we all believed once. Carlin was "born" Catholic and I was "born" Presbyterian, but the childhood beliefs were exactly the same. In some cultures Carlin would have been told to hate members of other religions and the same is certainly true of all of us. It isn't just the Greek Orthodox Serbs and their Moslem neighbors as depicted in that movie I mentioned. There's a lot that religion has to answer for. But do I believe? In God? Not unless your definition goes beyond churches. I believe in nature and goodness and much that the religious claim to believe in, but a personal God? That's left behind in childhood. I have no objections to others believing in things I see as illogical or at best unlikely. I believe people should practice their religions if they come by them honestly. I deny nothing, and though I hold no firm belief in anything supernatural, I certainly have and do consider such things. There's one stipulation: Isaac Asimov used to sometimes advise aggressive fans: "Your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins." That's the way I think of religion. I may attend a funeral or wedding in a church but I don't regularly attend and I have no liking for those sincere souls who seek to proselytize. Everyone should make-up their own mind is what I think. This makes me either an agnostic or a freethinker, meaning that I neither proclaim or deny but try always to keep an open mind.

Q.8) Now, that we are almost near to the new Millennium (either if you follow the 2000 or 2001 date what do you think about the times that you have live in this the 20th century? What do you think what the most impressive, or life changing event that had happened in your life time that affect you in a positive or negative way?

What do I think about the past century? Well as we all know times have certainly changed. Some things have changed definitely for the better and in other things the jury is still out. I don't always agree that what is called progress is for the general good. My father so hated to see horses replaced by machines that he continued to farm with horses long after tractors were known to be the established thing: Nor did my father learn, ever, to drive a car or other vehicle--I'm sure he could have, he just didn't. Sometimes when I look at the changes I feel that go-slow urge. Horses were once very much a part of daily life and they served men well and were beautiful; today the pollution of horse manure has been replaced by the pollution of internal combustion engines. Progress? In some ways, perhaps. But look at the quality of life. Has that always improved in all ways? I'm not so sure. Insecticides promised to rid the world of harmful insects. Good? Consider the harm that is done--the big price paid by the bird populations and the environment in general. Pesticides and herbicides were touted highly as advances that would help feed the world. At what price? NO one wants to contemplate hungry people but is the picture of unhealthy people in an overpopulated world advancement? I say go slow on these things. I say be careful; we've been warned. What's the one single life changing event I can think of? Undoubtedly the atomic bomb. When all those good American boys came home and shed their uniforms and the world was at last safe for Democracy the unexpected thing happened as the cold war began. Should it ever have started? Not, I think, if the world leaders had really wanted world peace. There should have been disarmament--I'll believe that until I die. There wasn't??instead there was hate your enemy the Godless Communist propaganda at each and every turn. That, believe me, was sickening to all of us who had dreamed constantly of the lovely world we were all promised. I knew that while I was still in high school and I hated not the Godless Communists, none of whom I knew personally, but the fact that the world leaders and the common and not so common people they supposedly represented had so sickeningly screwed up. The atomic bomb was there--it couldn't be uninvented. Some of my generation, I'm not sure how many, must have used the atomic bomb in their thoughts as a recurrent excuse not to plan. The future wasn't there--only death. A few years, a decade at most. Why try to care for or about anything? Psychologically I know many of us must have been harmed. Add us, those who only saw the movies and read the books, to the roster of those who were damaged irreparably in their hopes and aspirations.

Q.9) What are your plans for the future?

Plans for the future? I'm not certain. I'd like to write something I can see published and take some pride in. I'd like to take some trips, do some fishing, enjoy life to some extent. Much depends on how I deal With local air pollution and the allergies that seem to me to be caused by them.

Q.10) Finally, any advice for hopeful writers out there? Positive or negative.

Advise? I remember someone once started giving advise with "Never take advise." There's something to that. I believe you have to deal with your own doubts but not deceive yourself so that you are over confident. You have to write regularly, I do believe--daily or nightly if possible. You have to keep going even when you want to quit. All of us are different with different demons. Stay as healthy as possible and keep well away from self-destructive behavior. If you can do as Piers does and keep a notebook of ideas to refer to, that is a great advantage. (Alas I never was able to--and I tried. Say Piers is the most creative and the most gifted partially because he can do this, as lesser writers, speaking for myself, can't.) Persevere and accept that success seldom comes fast and without difficulty. [In a final note] [Y]ou have to be introspective by nature; if you aren't constantly analyzing yourself there's probably no way that you'll ever write fiction..

This Interview is copyrighted by Marisol Ramos © 2000. This interview was done through traditional mail and I received it in January 12, 2000. You need the permission of PATH manager, Marisol, to use part of this interview for your website or any other medium. To ask permission just e-mail Marisol at marisol@ piersthread.com. Thanks, MR.

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