Donn Taylor Interview

Q: How did you get your start writing fiction and what genre do you predominantly write in?

A: I write suspense and mystery. Years ago in college I thought rather vaguely about writing a Western in the manner of Ernest Haycox. (I did write a passable short story then, but did not publish.) But those were troubled times. I was recalled for the Korean War and stayed for a career. Afterwards, I went through graduate school for a doctorate and taught for eighteen years. All of that and family responsibilities kept me too busy to think much about creative writing. (Got plenty of tech writing and academic writing.) But after retirement I joined a local writers’ group and planned to write a suspense novel imitating Gavin Lyall’s The Wrong Side of the Sky. It didn’t come out that way. The book took off on its own and became The Lazarus File, published originally by the now-defunct Panther Creek Press, but recently released as an e-book by Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas. I enjoyed having done it, so I’ve kept doing it.

Q: What does your writing space look like?

A: To be honest, my study looks like Hurricane Ike made a curtain call accompanied by a tornado. I have one of those corner desks with a wing going down each wall. The computer screen goes in the middle with the keyboard before it and a pair of cheap speakers behind it.

On the left wing are paper roses given by Mildred and a five-year-old daughter of a friend, a corkboard for handy reference information, clerical stuff, my phone, and pictures of Mildred and me at age 21. (From heaven, Mildred is still my inspiration.)

On the right wing I have my own books plus Roget’s Thesaurus and a dictionary. Beside them rests my MacAir laptop, and beyond it are shelves holding a black-and-white laser printer, a multipurpose inkjet, and my Internet modem.

On the walls are my diplomas, plaques for two awards from colleges where I taught, an original watercolor and a Stratford-on-Avon poster from former students, and an 80-second score of “Happy Birthday” arranged for five instruments by a grandson and given to me on my 80th birthday. (He played all the instruments on the recording, and it takes exactly 80 seconds.) In a burst of hubris I also framed my assumption of command order from Vietnam.

On the windowsill are my Army name sign with wings and crossed rifles, a stained glass US made by a son-in-law, and the silver cup from my Vietnam unit. Below them on the desk are a metal bust of Goethe, a Bavarian cowbell given me by the mayor of Leutkirch, Germany, when my aircraft supported the Seventh World Sport Parachute Championships, and a small statue of a monkey sitting on a book by Darwin and contemplating a human skull.

All of that proves nothing except that if you hang around long enough you collect a lot of stuff. There also are two file cabinets filled with a great deal of junk paperwork that I probably will never need.

Q: In this busy world, how do you find time to connect with God and how does this impact your writing?

A: Before my retirement, my prayers were fragmented, hurried and to the point. But Mildred studied prayer and specialized in it. She gradually taught me what she had learned, and I have gradually put her teaching into practice. We also read the entire Bible together. In recent years I’ve set aside prayer time near the beginning of the day, barring emergencies. It isn’t a constant connection but, as Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote, “I greet Him the days that I meet Him,/ And bless when I understand.”

My writing is rarely doctrinal, but my books are always set in a God-created universe ruled by God’s moral laws. This is never preachy, but the moral universe is always there.

Q: What part of a writing career do you find most difficult?

A: Marketing does not come naturally to me. It’s no great exaggeration to say that I’d rather be skinned than do it.

Q: Would you tell us about your current book release, Murder Mezzo Forte?

A: It’s a sequel to Rhapsody in Red, carrying the same hero and heroine forward. Professor Preston Barclay (“Press”) still has musical hallucinations, and Professor Mara Thorn (recently converted from Wicca) still carries a basic dislike of men. Press and Mara are accused of being two thirds of a love triangle with a newly murdered faculty member, and they’re also suspected of the murder. Their attempts to prove their innocence get them in trouble with the police and the college administration, but their discovery of industrial corruption among trustees puts their lives in jeopardy from an invisible criminal organization.

Q: Where did you get your inspiration for this story?

A: For this book I kept the basics from Rhapsody in Red. But I’ve long been fascinated with Renaissance psychology’s view of the Imagination as a power for great good or great harm. As Shakespeare wrote, “The lunatic, the lover, and the poet/ Are of Imagination all compact.” So, although the novel’s plot involves suspense mixed with comedy, the question of illusion vs. reality keeps entering the considerations.

Q: Tell us a little about your main character and how you developed him/her.

A: Preston Barclay and Mara Thorn are coequal, though Press is the narrator. Their characterization results from two what-if questions: 1. What if a professor actually said what the rest of the faculty was thinking but didn’t dare say? And 2. What if a Christian denominational college’s religion department hired a Wiccan in the name of Diversity? Press, suffering from musical hallucinations, wants mainly to be let alone to teach history. Mara, after a bad teen-age marriage, distrusts men and is determined to succeed on her own with no help from anyone.

Q: What did you enjoy most about writing this book? Least?

A: Most: Because of my personal value system I enjoyed satirizing the follies of small-college administrations (Why is it that the least qualified people end up in administration?). And I enjoyed satirizing the built-in conflict between political correctness and genuine intellectual development. It was hard to keep those threads subordinated to telling the main story. But of course I enjoyed portraying Press’s weird sense of humor and his awe at Mara’s ability to quote anything she’d ever read. Yes, I like to put a lot of comedy into my suspense.

Least: It’s the same with all my books. I know beforehand the ending and the major turning points, but somewhere around the midpoint of each book I don’t know how I’m going to get there. It’s kind of like the third lap of a mile run when oxygen debt begins to set in. The only solution in both running and writing is to keep bashing ahead. In running, you either finish or you don’t. In writing, you just clean up the mess later. Writing a novel is a lot like running a middle distance race: In each case it feels a lot better after you’ve done it.

Q: What is the main theme or spiritual message of this book?

A: In keeping with the theme of illusion vs. reality, “A man’s heart deviseth his way; but the Lord directeth his steps.” (Proverbs 16:9)

Q: Would you share with us what you are working on now?

A: More adventures of Press and Mara in the jungles of academia. Press teaches a summer term at the state university, and Mara is there for research. Naturally, they have to solve another mystery.

Q: If you could have dinner with 2 people, who would they be?

A: If they could be historical figures, I would love to meet Dante Alighieri and discuss his allegory in The Divine Comedy. My second choice would be the British naval hero Horatio Hornblower. I’d like to ask him how he rescued the European slaves from their African masters without paying a cent or firing a shot.

But if we mean living people: I would like to talk with Hoover Institute scholar Thomas Sowell, probably the best mind writing columns today. My other choice would be Senator Ted Cruz, a brilliant gladiator for integrity in politics.

Q: Do you have a favorite hobby?

A: Not at present. I played church-league basketball into my middle fifties. After that, I ran 10Ks until the wheels came off. I suppose you might say that now I enjoy revisiting the poetry I have loved all through the years. Re-reading a poem like Tennyson’s “Ulysses” is as good as attending a symphony concert.

Q: What is the most rewarding thing you have ever done?

A: Becoming a Christian is most rewarding, and marrying the loveliest creature God ever made runs a close second. Behind those wonderful events comes serving my country in Korea and Vietnam.

Q: Where can readers find you on the internet?

A: I post something every day at www.facebook.com/donntaylor and www.facebook.com/authordonntaylor. (Five posts weekly are for laughs. Wednesdays are for quotations, and Sundays are for scripture.) My Web site is www.donntaylor.com, and I’m at www.twitter.com/donntaylor3. I blog several times a month with others at http://authorculture.blogspot.com.

Q: Anything else you’d like to tell or share with us?

A: If you think grandchildren are fun, just wait till the great-grandchildren begin arriving. Four have showed up so far, with the score tied between boys and girls.