KENNETH BURKE

Beverly A. Rearick: What genre do you write?

Kenneth Burke: Mystery primarily although I've written fantasy and sci/fi in the past.

Beverly A. Rearick: What genres would you like to write?

Kenneth Burke: Right at the moment, I'm concentrating on mysteries. I'm hoping, in fact, that Murder and Uncle Max will generate enough interest to justify a series.

Beverly A. Rearick: Where do you get your ideas?

Kenneth Burke: Observation, reading, and reflection, mostly. Or maybe some higher power plants the ideas in my mind. (That's a joke. I suspect that whatever higher powers exist have more important business to take care of. And, by the way, I hate that question.)

Beverly A. Rearick: Do you pattern your characters after any real people?

Kenneth Burke: All the noble and honorable qualities my characters display are drawn from me: all the others are drawn from my wife's relatives. (In fact, I think most authors put quite a little bit of themselves into all their characters. And at least one character in Uncle Max was modeled on a lunatic dog-enthusiast my wife and I encountered at a dog show. He impressed us both so much that I used him in Uncle Max and my wife used him in a romance novel she just placed with an on-line publisher. This might be a good place to point out that my wife, having written her romance before I wrote my mystery, flat stole the name of a dog I used to own and which I incorporated into my e-mail address. If I have a former nurse as either the victim or the murderer in my next mystery, she will definitely be modeled on someone I know.)

Beverly A. Rearick: What authors do you admire?

Kenneth Burke: Dickens and Conrad in the sort of fiction that is frequently called "literary fiction"; Doyle, Chesterton, Christie, Sayers and Marsh in British mysteries (Agatha rules!); Hammett, Chandler, and MacDonald in American hardboiled mysteries (Raymond rules!), Wodehouse when I just want to be entertained. My tastes are eclectic and, I guess, horribly out-dated. The only thing cutting-edge I want to see is a decent disposable razor.

Beverly A. Rearick: What genres do you read?

Kenneth Burke: Mystery, fantasy (but not much these days) and sci-fi. Georgette Heyer's regency romances were always a favorite of mine, not because I was engrossed by the romance element but because Regency England, which she seemed to know pretty well, was a fascinating place (to be healthy and prosperous in).

Beverly A. Rearick: What other genres do you see yourself writing?

Kenneth Burke: Maybe historical fiction. History has always been my favorite field of study. I'm not sure I have the necessary discipline, though. Reading that sort of fiction by someone who hasn't mastered the period is always disappointing.

Beverly A. Rearick: What do you see yourself doing in 10 years?

Kenneth Burke: Writing, reading, and explaining to my wife that, damn it, Lord Brimley was my dog, not hers. I'm nothing if not persistent.

Beverly A. Rearick: Do you see yourself ever not writing?

Kenneth Burke: I try not to although I can hypothesize a number of situations (death, for one) which might interfere with my writing career.

Beverly A. Rearick: What books do you have planned in the near future?

Kenneth Burke: A second volume in what I hope will become a series about Uncle Max and his nephew, Paul, tentatively titled "Uncle Max in the Dog House."

Beverly A. Rearick: How did you get started writing?

Kenneth Burke: I really can't remember. Writing was always something I liked to do.

Beverly A. Rearick: What age were you when you started to write?

Kenneth Burke: Maybe thirteen. Maybe fourteen. I remember that my first story was a prose version of "Horatius at the Bridge" and my second had to do with interplanetary travel. That's all I remember about either one of them.

Beverly A. Rearick: When is your next book due?

Kenneth Burke: It depends on whether Uncle Max flies or not. Or, come to think of it, it doesn't, because either way I don't know when my publisher would want to bring out a second volume.

Beverly A. Rearick: Was there any author or authors that helped you get your start in writing, or helped you break into the field?

Kenneth Burke: No.

Beverly A. Rearick: What do you feel makes your books unique or stand out from others in your genre?

Kenneth Burke: I think I tell interesting stories populated with well-developed and interesting characters and good writing. That's my story, anyway, and I'm sticking to it. (I also think dogs are naturals for good stories and I wove a lot of bits of information about various dogs and types of dogs into Uncle Max, which I think gives it a little something extra.)

Beverly A. Rearick: What made you choose the genres you write?

Kenneth Burke: Just the fact that they're the genres I like to read.

Beverly A. Rearick: Do you have a special subgenre?

Kenneth Burke: My mystery series, if it gets off the ground, will involve the world of show dogs and dog shows. I don't know if that constitutes a subgenre or not.

Beverly A. Rearick: Do you have a favorite place you like to write?

Kenneth Burke: My desk because that's where my computer is. If computers ever disappear, I'll write in an easy chair with a clipboard and spiral pad on my lap and my feet up on an ottoman. That's how I used to do it in the dark ages.

Beverly A. Rearick: In what order do you write? For example starting beginning to end, combining parts, in random order or in development cycle?

Kenneth Burke: Beginning to end. Sometimes I make major changes which might involve writing a new beginning or end. What's a development cycle?

Beverly A. Rearick: Do you feel that the e-books offer authors a bit more freedom of expression in their books?

Kenneth Burke: I think they offer an opportunity to break into the writing business. I'm not sure about more freedom of expression. A good many e-publishers (I'm thinking mainly about online magazines) put warnings on their sites that seem to suggest that they won't be particularly hospitable to any manuscript that doesn't toe the PC line pretty closely. I could be wrong about this. I once, in fact, almost was wrong about something.

Beverly A. Rearick: What do you feel is, or isn't being done to promote authors?

Kenneth Burke: I have a mystery book online with Jacobyte Books and a fantasy novel online with Atlantic Bridge Publishing. If either of those two companies has taken out a paid ad (full page) in the NY Times to promote my book, it hasn't come to my attention. On the other hand, I learned about this site from my publisher at Jacobyte Books. I'm at a loss, in fact, as to what the publisher should be doing, other than encouraging me to publicize my work as widely as possible. Give me a few more months and I'll be in a better position to judge what the possibilities are and to what degree they should fall on the shoulders of the publisher or the author.

Beverly A. Rearick: Do you feel that the marketing departments have their finger on the pulse of readers?

Kenneth Burke: No idea. Some, I suspect, may and some may not.

Beverly A. Rearick: How do you feel about the review rating systems?

Kenneth Burke: The ones I'm familiar with go from one to four (or is it five?) stars. I'll have a better idea of how I feel about them when and if I get reviewed. I'm all for reviews, however, since it's hard to see how anyone would decide to buy a book online in their absence.

Beverly A. Rearick: Through what venues do you feel most of your books are being sold?

Kenneth Burke: My mystery just went online and I have no idea how it's selling or through what venues. My fantasy novel went online six months or so ago and, as far as I can tell, it's selling solely through the publisher's site.

Beverly A. Rearick: What do you feel is the best part of the publishing industry?

Kenneth Burke: I don't think I have an opinion on this. I don't know enough about the publishing industry.

Beverly A. Rearick: What do you feel needs to be changed about the industry?

Kenneth Burke: I don't know that, either, but I'm reasonably sure that market forces will effect the changes eventually. The nice thing about e-publishing, however, is that, given the number of enthusiasts out there for a variety of literary endeavors and given the relatively low level of financial commitment required for e-publishing, market forces won't control the entire industry.

Beverly A. Rearick: Do you think small press and e-books will be the wave of the future?

Kenneth Burke: I don't see small presses as being the wave of the future. My understanding is that they're being gobbled up at a pretty good clip by the big operators. I think e-books may be the wave of the future. E-book readers are probably going to have to get both better and cheaper before that happens, but they're already making pretty good strides in that direction. The day when you can download, say, twelve books from the library and two or three more from online bookstores and carry them all in a reliable and inexpensive contraption no bigger than a paperback book is coming and will, I'd guess, make real inroads on the print press. I expect that to happen just about the time I sign my first contract with a print press outfit.

Beverly A. Rearick: What of your published books is your favorite? Why?

Kenneth Burke: My fantasy novel, The Thief of Koromel (atlanticbridge.net), is over 160,000 words in length and took approximately forever to write. I like it a lot and I am pretty proud of it. The fact is, though, that I prefer mysteries to fantasies and my favorite book is Murder and Uncle Max (Jacobytebooks.com), which is just under 80,000 words in length and which I had a lot more fun writing. It also gave me an opportunity to write about the show dog world and (relatively few of the dogs I've owned and loved have been show dogs or even pure-breds) about dogs in general.

Beverly A. Rearick: What do you feel is the worst piece of advice anyone ever gave you about writing?

Kenneth Burke: In general, I think the advice "write what you know" is bad. It encourages the outpouring of books about student angst by young people who don't know anything except that they're students and in a permanent state of angst. The advice should be, find out about what you want to write about, master those details that can be mastered, and write about that.

Beverly A. Rearick: What is the best?

Kenneth Burke: After you finishing writing something, submit it to some sort of publisher. That may sound pretty obvious, but I've known people who spent all their spare time writing and never submitted a single manuscript.