Athol Dickson Interview

Q: Let me start with asking you to tell us a little bit about yourself.  

A. My name is from my family’s ancestral Scotland, but I’m a native Texan, but I live in southern California. I love my wife more every minute. I like road trips, boat trips, sushi, chocolate chip cookies, and Mexican food and Mexico in general, and mountains, beaches, good architecture, impressionism, southern accents, dogs, and trees. I like reading, too. I wish I liked exercise and vegetables, but wishing doesn’t make it so. I hate hypocrisy, greed, loneliness, gray days, most of what I see on television, and misused apostrophes

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

A. I started writing because my architecture practice had reached a stage where I was hiring designers to have all the fun while I focused on running the business. I’ve always had a strong instinct to create, and I wanted something artistic to do in my spare time. Since I already dealt with the visual arts for a living and I didn’t want to do more of that after hours, and since I was a voracious reader, something different like writing seemed to be a good choice. So I tried it, and to my surprise, it took.

My genre is hard to describe. I seem to be having phases or periods in my career. My first three novels were from my “Christian suspense period.” They all have strong underlying Christian themes, but are pretty straightforward suspense stories otherwise. The next five have been much more “literary.” They’re still very suspenseful, but the usual villain with a gun is gone, and I started trying to create a kind of poetic sense with the words, and I started thinking a lot more about thematic symbolism. Now I’m working on the first of what I hope will be a series of mystery stories. This is maybe my “good clean fun” period. I’m not making an effort to address any themes consciously, either Christian or otherwise, because I’m hoping to have a broader impact by making my work accessible to readers outside of the “Christian fiction” world. I want to do my bit to push back against the gratuitous sex and violence that has taken over nearly everything in popular culture, by proving that a novel can be a lot of fun without resorting to demeaning gimmicks.

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

A. In the old publishing model when I first started the author simply wrote, and the publisher handled the publicity and sales. That’s an over-simplification, but it’s generally the way things were. In fact, one reason I wanted to write in the first place was to escape the business side of making a living in the arts. I felt trapped in that part of things in architecture, as I already mentioned, so I admired the idea that a literary agent would represent my work to publishers, and publishers would represent it to the public, and all I had to do was focus on the creative part. But those days are gone. Now the author must not only write, but also take the lead on publicity and sales. The transition from the old to the new models was hard for me. It felt like a giant step backwards into the world I wanted to escape when I first started writing. But I’ve made that leap at last, and it seems to be working out. I’m actually starting to have fun with it, especially when I stopped thinking about it as “marketing to readers” and started thinking more in terms of meeting new people. I love to do that.

The most satisfying part of writing is the editing. I love reworking and rewriting and polishing a rough draft. I love working with editors to make the story as wonderful as possible.

Q: You are releasing a collection of new editions of four of your novels under your own imprint. Would you tell us about the collection?  

A: I’m calling it “The Christy Collection” because all of the novels were either finalists for the Christy Award, or else they won. It includes They Shall See God, River Rising, Winter Haven, and The Cure. In all four cases, I’ve written new forewords or afterwords, and I’ve gone through them very carefully to improve the writing. These new editions are much better novels than the originals, because I’ve learned so much about the art of writing in the time since they were first published.

Q: Why did you decide to release this collection?

A: Most authors probably want to do something like this. It’s wonderful to be able to revisit these stories and make all the little adjustments and improvements I’ve had in mind since they were published. In the old days, before electronic books and printing on demand, it wasn’t financially feasible to do a thing like this because you had to print a ton of books all at once in order to keep the printing price per copy low enough to make them affordable for readers. With the new publishing technology, it’s now very easy to do what I’m doing. I think you’re going to see authors doing this in the future. The temptation to go back and improve your older titles is nearly irresistible.

Q: What is the main thing you hope readers remember about your writing?

A: My first goal is always to give readers a good time. I want them on the edge of their seats. I want them to stay awake long after their bedtime because they can’t put my novels down. But I’m not one to start page one with a bullet or a breakup or whatever just to draw a reader in. I think that’s formulaic and manipulative. I want to surprise readers. I hope when they look back on my stories they not only remember that they were a lot of fun to read, but they also think, “I’ve never read anything else quite like that.

Q: What inspires you to write?  

A. God must have put the creative urge in me, like the urge to sleep and eat. Also, (and I know this is strange), I’m inspired by viewing great paintings, much more than by reading great novels.

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

A. I mentioned the new mystery series. It revolves around a pretty interesting guy. He’s a retired Marine who went into the chauffeur business, and ended up driving mostly for movie stars and motion picture directors and producers. His customers get into trouble (as movie stars will) and he gets them out of trouble. Also, he’s grieving the recent murder of his wife, and determined to find her killer. And I guess I should mention that although he still works as a chauffeur every day, he’s a multi-millionaire.

Q: When you’re not writing what do you like to do?  

A. Some dear friends and my wife and I are starting a business called Blended Giving. We’ll be helping benevolent causes sell quality coffee to people who want to support their cause with the purchase, while also helping poor coffee growers in the developing world. We have an elevator pitch that goes like this: “Every bag of Blended Giving coffee yields $1 for indigenous farmers where it was grown, $2 for your favorite worthy cause, and cup after cup of heavenly brew for you.” We’re still in the start-up stage, but should be ready to kick it off in time for Christmas.

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

A. My wife and I try to start each day with a little dedicated time together with our Father, and of course there’s always church. We also get together with friends most weeks to talk about the Lord and read the Bible. But over the years I’ve come to think the main thing is to remember God is with me all the time, and speak to Him with that in mind. So I try not to limit prayers to one time of day, or to asking for things or thanking God for things or even just to praising God. I try to talk to my Father all through the day, kind of like I’d talk to a good friend if he was there with me, because of course, God is.

Q: Where can readers find you on the internet? 

A. I’ve got a Facebook fan page and author pages at Amazon and Goodreads. Also my website and blog, which is at www.AtholDickson.com. I don’t Tweet much for some reason, but I’ve just started to play around with Pinterest and I’m enjoying that.

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

A. Don’t be like me. Exercise and eat your vegetables!