Welcome to My Bookish
Pleasures. We would love to get to know you and your book! When did you begin
writing?
Assuming early school essays and such don’t count, I started
writing scientific articles and reports in graduate school. After I started
technical mountain climbing in my 30s, I wrote a few trip accounts for friends
and family, but I didn’t put a lot of effort into this, and never sought to
publish them. An exception was an article about a climbing trip my wife and I
made to Scotland. It was a particularly entertaining story because the
conditions were absolutely miserable, but we made the best of it. A climbing
magazine published it, but unfortunately the editor snipped out much of the
humor, which was disappointing. My memoir Through Dangerous Doors is my first
major popular publication.
Describe your writing
process. When and where do you write?
I’m retired from work, so
I can write pretty much any time I feel like it. However, I’d say my most productive
writing is in the morning. I have a home office, so I write there. I share this
with my wife, who often works from home given the COVID-19 pandemic. I bought
some noise cancelling headphones for times when she’s Zooming or on the phone.
Can you tell us about
your most recent release?
Through Dangerous Doors
is a memoir covering six decades of a life full of both involuntary and
voluntary risks.
I experienced a poor and free-ranging childhood in the racist South of the
early 1960s. My father died when I was eight, and my family grew dysfunctional.
As a result, I sought sanity and solace through activities such as rock
climbing solo and driving muscle cars. I graduated from university, but I
sought to escape the South
Moving to Alaska and the Western US, I worked in a series of dangerous and
brutal jobs. I discovered mountaineering. I then met and married my wife Linda,
who became my main partner in climbing and skiing difficult mountains.
Simultaneously, I trained in the science of risk, and became a respected
professional risk scientist.
The memoir is structured as a series of dangerous but
rewarding doors, all leading to a lifetime journey of adventure and risk.
How did you get the idea
for the book?
I happened to read a couple of memoirs in succession,
shortly before I retired from my career. I don’t read much nonfiction aside
from articles on the Web, so this was unusual. One was Westover’s excellent
memoir “Educated.” Although her childhood was weirder than mine in several
ways, it made me ponder the risks associated with a poor and suboptimal upbringing,
as well as the positive effect of education. I won’t name the other memoir (you
never know who might review your book), because I thought it was way too long,
dreadfully boring, and unworthy of the acclaim and prizes it received. It did,
however, make me consider that perhaps I could do better. This book also
emphasized the value of good editors, which apparently the author lacked. If
nothing else, my book is tight, in large part due to a good editor.
Another influence was associated with retirement. I was
asked to give a short talk on risk and how it has affected my life during my final
corporate meeting. As I considered what I would say, I realized I’m one of the
few risk scientists I know who has experienced a personally risky life. So, I
thought a memoir focused on risk, from the perspective of somebody who has both
studied and ‘lived’ risk, would be interesting to readers. It’s probably been a
shock to some of my work and academic colleagues, and I would have been
reluctant to publish it while I was still working (I wouldn’t have had the time
to write it, regardless). Although most of my colleagues knew I was a mountain
climber, they didn’t know about my risky early years. However, I’ve received
positive feedback from many.
What was the most
challenging aspect of writing your book?
I didn’t anticipate the
large amount of work involved with editing. I wrote the first rough draft in in
a couple of weeks. It took a year to edit it, with an excellent lead editor
guiding me. Part of this challenge involved the pandemic (talk about risk!),
which slowed and continues to slow many aspects of life.
By the way, I mention the
COVID-19 pandemic in the book’s Coda as an example of the large-scale risks our
society faces, and the need to think rationally about risk. The editor
questioned this, as in the early days it was unclear how bad the pandemic would
get, how long it would last, and so on. It turned out to be much more severe
than I and most scientists anticipated, partially due to behavioral and
societal reasons. It’s one of the greatest failures of risk management in
recent history. I’m glad I retained the statement in my book.
Do you find it easier to
write nonfiction?
I found it easy to write
a memoir, because it’s all about me! I had previously written a large number of
scientific articles and reports during my career, which was great training for
relating ideas in a clear and concise fashion. This wasn’t what most people
would consider to be “popular” literature, however. I was unaccustomed to
popular prose, but my editors helped with this. I think writing a popular
nonfiction book about science, or history, or any other subject would involve a
huge amount of research. I’m therefore unlikely to do this, as it’s too much
like work. In contrast, see below.
Do you have plans to
write fiction?
I’ve written a poetry
collection and a short story collection. I self-published the poetry
collection, because as far as I can tell there are no rational rules or
processes for getting poetry published, or for that matter what even
constitutes good poetry at a particular time in our history. It’s almost worse
than music in this respect. I think my poems are good, but I have no idea
whether anybody else thinks so. I just wanted to get them in a permanent
format.
I’m exploring different
publication avenues for the short stories. I hired a couple of different
editors to critique the stories, and they gave me completely different
feedback, so this was of limited value. However, one editor mentioned that one
story in particular could easily be expanded into a series or novel. I’m
thinking about it.
Getting back to the previous
question, I found it quite easy to write the poems and stories. They just sort
of popped in my head, and I wrote them down. In fiction, the writer can create
their own worlds. Whether their stories are good or not is a different
question.
What projects are you
currently working on?
I recently moved from New
Mexico to Colorado, during a pandemic and a crazy housing market, so this has
taken up a lot of my time. I also want to get back to playing music, which has
been on hold due to the move and the pandemic. However, I would like to publish
any or all of the short stories, so I need to start investigating this. I would
also like to record an audio version of the memoir, but this is a long and
arduous process.
What advice would you
offer to new or aspiring nonfiction authors?
Write what you know, or can reasonably research, and expect
a final manuscript draft to take a lot longer than you would think. I highly
suggest hiring at least one editor to critique the manuscript before trying to
submit it. Your friends and family can review it, but they are less likely to
critique it thoroughly and fairly, compared to a paid professional.
Publication is a lot of work. Traditional publishing is
difficult to break into these days. It’s easy to self-publish, but it’s
expensive if you hire good editors, proofreaders, and so on (and if you aren’t
willing to spend this money, you will have problems). You will also have to
market yourself. Some publishers are moving toward a hybrid model in which the
author pays an upfront fee and has access to professional editorial and
marketing staff. This is the model I chose, and it has worked out well for me.
