Featured Author - Ian Stout
Ian Stout is a writer and a traveler. He has visited over 40 different countries, walked the Great Wall of China, sat in Rome’s Coliseum and stood on the roof of Hitler’s Fuehrer-bunker in Berlin. He's seen the ruins of Machu Picchu, wondered why the Leaning Tower of Pisa doesn't fall over and has looked in wonder at Napoleon's home on Elba. His ideas come from his various experiences and travels. The characters he creates have traits and manners akin to the hundreds he has met and connected with, be they a waiter in Montmartre or a cab driver in Mexico City.
A full time writer, Ian does not consider writing his hobby but an act of love, a passion, and a joy. Ian was kind enough to share his thoughts with me. Enjoy :-)
Why
do you write?
I write because
that’s what I am, a writer. When I left home at age eighteen for a walk-about
in Europe I wrote long letters back to my parents and grandparents telling them
how well things were and what a great time I was having. This was my first
effort at fiction and it worked quite well.
After eighteen
months I returned home and wrote a series of travel columns for the Dundas
Star. After that I wrote columns for the Hamilton Herald, the Recorder Group
and finally for the Brabant chain of papers in the Niagara Peninsula. During
that time I also had items published in the Readers Digest, several magazines
and the occasional feature in a daily.
Writing is
something I do, like breathing, and I don’t question it or try to analyze it too carefully for fear of screwing
things up.
Which writers
inspire you?
No writers
inspire me. There are some I admire and whose skill I appreciate, but inspire?
I don’t need inspiration because I am a writer. I certainly do like many
authors but have no desire to be like them. They had their stories to tell in
their way and I have mine. I may love reading Joseph Conrad, James Clavell,
Stevenson or Hemingway, but I don’t to write like them or be like them. I am,
and always will be, Ian Stout.
What is your favorite
book and why?
Shogun, by
James Clavell. I love the way he took a part of Japan’s history in the fifteen
hundreds, a part we know little of, and built a story on that history. His
attention to detail, his descriptions of historical events and his refusal to
be politically correct in his depictions of life in those days is to be
admired.
What is the
easiest thing about writing and what is the most difficult?
The easiest
thing about writing is accepting accolades and compliments. All the rest is damn
hard work. It is a lonely business. Unlike painting, where you can see where
the painter is going, or sculpture, where a figure slowly reveals itself as the
artist chips away, a written work is a complete unknown and cannot be judged
until the last page is completed.
The hardest
part of writing is believing that what you are in the process of producing is
actually worthwhile.
Which book do
you wish you had written?
The Gutenberg
Bible. All I’d have to do is sell one and I’d be set for life.
How do you
market your books?
My books are
published by Fifeshire Press, a small boutique publisher in the east end of
Toronto, and printed and distributed by Ingrams in the United States. They make
it available on over 70 web sites worldwide including Barnes and Nobles and
Books A Million in the US, Angus and Robertson in Australia and the Book
Depository in the UK. It is available in New Zealand, India and South Africa as
well. Ingrams ships copies directly to retailers, wholesalers and libraries
anywhere in the world. I also, in co-operation with Fifeshire, actively contact
libraries, retailers and wholesalers across the continent, do book signings
wherever possible, speak at libraries and make myself available for readings,
interviews and functions.
Any new
release?
My third novel Murder Unedited is now out and available. It is the story of a ‘near
retirement’ police detective who is attempting to solve the murder of a book
publisher in Hamilton. The detective, William Law Deas, is a Scot who views the
world somewhat differently from most homicide investigators.
The official
launch of Murder Unedited is on the 5th of October 2015 at 7
pm in the ballroom of the Hampton Inn on Bronte Road at The QEW. It’s free, the
wine is quite good, and the nibblies by the hotel’s catering people are just
great.
Contact the
publisher: info@fifeshirepress.com
Contact the
author: gian@writerstout.com
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