August 1 Interview: Michael Thaxton - Poet, Photographer

1. Tell us a little about your published works.

I have 3 projects that are currently out on Amazon. Each one of them is different. My first book, “Wunderlust, The Photos of a Traveling Muse” is just a book of photographs that I really enjoyed putting together. My second book “Poetry of the Image” was an interesting project. We took my photography and teamed it up with poetry from poets around the world. All the proceeds from that book go to help homeless veterans. My current project “Musings, An Exposé Of The Soul” is a book of introspective poetry I wrote exploring love, heartbreak and more.

1. Does writing energize or exhaust you?

Writing flows in spurts. I tend to do most of my writing first thing in the morning or at night just before I go to bed. As well I wake up at all hours of the night and I can write until I fall asleep. The answer is neither, I write whatever is on my heart at the moment.

1. What are common traps for aspiring writers?

Deadlines, I mean I hate being under pressure to write. I have other friends who set a timeline and can put out 400 pages and I know others that hate the process, they just want to write at their leisure. Social Media is another trap, we get so wrapped un in Social Media that we lose track of time. I know that I have had to back off a little just to get “Musings” out.

1. Does a big ego help or hurt writers?

I am not sure that a big ego helps anyone. I know that someone who puts their heart and soul into a book, and to see if fail is heartbreaking. Other authors I have seen with big egos out there pushing books, and seem to have no problems, and I have seen others use tactics that are just disgusting to try and use sympathy for book sales.

1. What is your writing Kryptonite?

Not enough time in a day. I wish I could be like a zombie and not need sleep or rest, I could write a lot more and get more done in a day.

1. Have you ever gotten reader’s block?

Yes, for a few years I couldn’t pick up a book. My attention span would be so short that to read a page would take me a week. It had to do with I wasn’t happy with my life, I was in a dark period. When that period was over I was able to read books and enjoy them again.

1. Have you ever considered writing under a pseudonym?

Yes, and I actually am. I won’t reveal the name but he has an edgier writing style. His subject matter has a lot of heat, sensuality yet he keeps it classy. He leaves a lot ot your imagination and goes for the mind to make you imagine the scene he is writing.

1. Do you try more to be original or to deliver to readers what they want?

Original, to be honest, my writings are me. I found that being honest with my emotions and speaking from my heart is better than trying to deliver what a reader wants. They tend to realize that reality from the soul spoken to another soul speaks volumes.

1. Do you think a person who can’t feel strong emotions can be a good writer?

Every writer I know has strong emotions, I believe a true artist has issues somewhere. History shows that the best people in their genre has suffered pain, agony, depression, and more. I am still reeling from the death of Chester Bennington from Linkin Park committing suicide on Chris Cornell’s birthday. The reality of losing a friend, and having a life long history of drug and alcohol abuse along with depression and anxiety makes for a perfect storm and a life lost. No matter what people need to know he didn’t take the cowards way out. He just could not longer handle the issues in his head. He was overwhelmed and I can believe in his mind, the world would be better off without him.

I know in my life, when I had my desert periods I had to fight to keep alive, it wasn’t until I got help after a messy break up that I realized I had PTSD and had to get treatment. I was one of the lucky ones, it worked, and with the help of family and friends I have conquered a lot of my skeletons. I can’t guarantee I won’t have a relapse but I can look at each moment as a separate moment in time that needs to be dealt with as it comes.

1. Are you friends with other authors?

Very much so, I have a group of people I let read my work as it is in progress. If I get negative feedback I tend to either go back and rewrite or scrap the project all together. I believe we need to work together to create relevant art. How can you get better if you don’t let others in your field help you? It is because of another author I even started writing. She saw the potential in me and encouraged me. Another writer took the time to show me how to write poetry properly instead of just lines on a page, showed me form and how to express the emotions by using the way you would speak it, not read it. In poetry especially, they tend to hear it as they read it. The emotions, the pauses, the tempo all play into how you write.

1. Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?

Each book is its own – I never know what project is really next. I have two novels sitting there waiting to be finished, another a short story anthology, another book of photographs, and probably another book of poetry. The only ones I would say that will have connections are the photography. I have several ideas and we will see what comes of them.

1. If you could tell your younger writing-self anything, what would it be?

I am glad to see this question, it made me look back at my life. I have always been a dreamer, and I wanted to write as a younger me. I never did though, and then for about 30 years, I put down both my camera and my dreams, I wish I had pursued both earlier. The success I have seen in the past couple years of picking up the camera and the start of my writings has made me overcome a lot of anxiety and depression. So to my younger self, pick up the art and become who you are today.

1. How did publishing your first book change your process of writing?

So that would be my third project of mine where it is all my writing. It changed because I had learned form, instead of ramblings. It changed me to look at the whole instead of a thought. As well I learned to format a book, how to put it together, the cover, the back, all the extra stuff. There is so much to a book that people don’t realize that is more than just the poems, or storyline.

1. What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel?

Bloodcon by S. Coop. This is the book that got me to write, as well as this book is an incredible love story, as well as a vampire book. I never got into Vampire books until this one. If you need a great read, keeps your attention and the twists it takes makes you want to finish the book.

1. Do you utilize real people to base your characters on?

Yes, most of my poetry is based on situations in my life. One of the novels I started “Shark Bait” is a murder mystery where I kill off a lot of my ex’s. It was very therapeutic to finalize those relationships. I think most writers are cursed as narcisstic and one way to rid themselves of the pain is to write it out.

1. How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?

Three half – finished, “Shark Bait”, “Ree (or Keisha) and Me” unsure of the title right now and “Neptunes Daughter” Each one of these is different and not sure if I will ever finish all of them.

1. What does literary success look like to you?

I would say sales, but in reality it is just getting my stuff out there, and

taking the chance. To finish a book to me is success, it really isn’t about much more than that. I am teaching my children that if you dream it you can do it. My middle daughter has written a book I can’t wait to read. She asked me to help her publish it. My youngest son has taken a huge interest in photography. So success is seeing my kids interested in and surpassing me.

1. What’s the best way to market your books?

I wish I knew – I have been successful in other parts of my life and marketing myself is no problem, marketing books is a whole different thing. I am learning and willing to listen to others. The one thing I do know is self promotion is key to any of it.

1. What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?

None – I just write what comes to my mind. I have experience in so many things from my past, I just incorporate that knowledge, if I do need any research I am pretty good at looking at just what I need for that moment and then write it out.

1. Do you write full-time? If not, can you tell us your ‘day job’?

I do write full time – but I also have a “day-job”. I really hate that term because it insinuates that my writing is just a hobby. But I am a computer geek by day. I work for a hospital in IT. I also am a professional photographer, as well as I have been a DJ on radio and private events for 30 plus years. I am a father of 5 and grandfather of 5 so far. I am very involved in my church. I do all the social media, graphic design, and run the audio/video team as a leader. None of these are part time positions and I keep very busy. As well I own a publishing company, that is still in the startup phase and working towards that being full time.

1. How many hours a day do you write?

Each day is different, for the last week I have written only one poem, and nothing on the novels, some weeks I will write as much as I can. It can be 5 minutes of 5 hours depends on what my schedule is. I found though since I decided to take public transportation to work and I have 90 minutes each way to work, I tend to do a lot of writing during that time.

1. Have you read anything that made you think differently about fiction?

Fiction is most of what I have read in my life. It really depends on the genre, there are some genres I just can’t read. I am pretty selective about my reading, I do support independent authors as much as I can. I buy books all the time from people I meet on facebook. And not Kindle versions, I want the real book in my hand. But nothing has really made me think differently about that genre.

1. What are your ethics of writing about historical figures?

I haven’t and not sure I will. If I do it will be about two photographers, Matthew Brady from the civil war era, and Ansel Adams as a contemporary photographer that changed my life and my view of the world through the camera.

1. How do you select the names of your characters?

As I stated earlier, my “Shark Bait” book I had to find names that were similar to the characters they are based on. I didn’t want to use the real names as I want to protect them from backlash when that book comes out. As for “Neptune’s Daughter” I used a name I had been loving for years and never got to use for a child, so I used the name in that book as the main character. In “Ree (or Keisha) and Me” I used a variation of her real name “Ree” but may change it to Keisha just to make it different, and for my character in the book I used part of my pseudonym as the male lead.

1. Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones?

Yes, I read them. So far I have no bad reviews on my books. But I have had bad reviews on my facebook page. I asked why they felt that way. I take them personally believe it or not, but I also find a way to accept the criticism and work to make my next piece better.

1. Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?

Yes, can they figure out who in my life each poem is written about. My life has been an open book, and if they do any research on me it should be pretty obvious who the piece is written about. I can tell you that through all my experiences, the most obvious things are actually not who most people think they are about. I mix things up on purpose so that a combination of people are one in some pieces, but the subject matter focuses on that one experience.

1. What was your hardest scene to write?

The first scene murder scene in “Shark Bait”. He was intimate with a ex girlfriend and then how he went from intimacy to murder in a flash. That was not only the hardest, but also the most revealing on how emotions in reality are. I really had to do a lot of self introspection and self therapy to make sure I was in control. It brought out a lot of emotions I had never felt before, and to know a person is capable of that is really scary.

1. Do you Google yourself?

I have – most of what I find goes back to my DJ career, but I find nuggets that surprise me at times. And since there are several people with my name, I find funny things where people have confused us. I don’t spend a lot of time doing that anymore.

1. What was your favorite childhood book?

I have two “The Jungle” by Sinclair Lewis and “A Wrinkle in Time” – Madeline L’Engle. I’m not going to get into why but both of these books are very influential on my style of writing. My favorite author is Tom Clancy though, his debut book “The Hunt for Red October” is the book that I wish I could write. His style of intruige, mystery, and description is amazing.

1. What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?

Marketing – getting people to know I have a book out there.

1. Does your family support your career as a writer?

Yes and no. My Uncle is my biggest supporter, he buys everything. My kids aren’t really into my stuff, and know much about it. My extended family, those are my friends I call family, support me fully. I lost my dad 10 years ago, he wrote a novel I have in my safe, it was never released, I am thinking of rewriting it and publishing, and I lost my mom this year, she got to see my first book, it was actually released on her 69th birthday and dedicated to her. It was only a few months later she passed.

1. How long on average does it take you to write a book?

“Wunderlust” took about 2 weeks to put together, “Poetry of the Image” from start to finish about 3 months, “Musings” took a week because I had a massive collection of poetry to choose from when I put it together.

1. Do you believe in writer’s block is a ‘thing’?

Writers block is real. I go through it all the time, it is a temporary thing though. You need to find the inspiration and time to just relax and let things come to mind. Keep something to track your thoughts, and then come back and piece them together to make it work.

Be sure to check out Michael's Amazon Page

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