Be Informed with Julia: PEPS Award 2024 Interviews

Twenty Questions with Ed Calkins, Steward of Tara

Next week, I'm taking my fourth at-home writing retreat, and I have two projects waiting for me.

One, I'm looking for errors in my proof copy of "House on Top of the Hill," which is the third book in the BryonySeries Limbo trilogy.

Two, I'm working on line edits in the third book of the BryonySeries Ruthless trilogy by Ed Calkins, Steward of Tara.

That feels like a good reason to repost this blog, which includes the original twenty questions from 2011 before we ever released "Bryony" (the first book ever in the BryonySeries) and the introduction to the reposting in 2015.

We certainly could not have imagined such a writing journey when my family and I first met Ed in a warehouse in 2007 back in our newspaper delivery days.

And we certainly could never have imagined that we'd still be on the journey nearly two decades later.

The journey has developed our writing, developed us as people, and blossomed into friendship.

What's especially interesting to me is seeing Ed's version of the Ruthless dictator (a hybrid of himself) turn into an unreliable narrator, who is then challenged by another character to use his ruthlessness and vampirism for good, which then becomes Ed the author again, who now wants to use his time write a book that doesn't include himself for a character.

So here is the insight for those of us who enjoy art and for those of us who create art: art has the ability to transform us.

Whether that transformation is good or evil is up to us.

Happy Saturday!

When I first started the BryonySeries blog in 2011, I posted this Q&A with the real Ed Calkins in several installments. We did this interview months before the release of the first book, and it has never again been published.

Now for the first time, in living black and purple, is the entire interview with the man that fictionalized himself and allowed me to fictionalize him further for the series.

Just to clarify: Ed Calkins is a real person. He really lives somewhere Chicago-ish and was a supervisor for one of the agents when The Herald-News circulation passed from The Sun Times to the Chicago Tribune. I reported to Ed for my Marycrest route.

Having missed his Ed Calkins parade several years in a row, I offered, as consolation, a one-page monthly newsletter for his imaginary world or a spot in my series as a vampire. His response was, "Immortality, of course."

My attorney drew up the necessary paperwork for Ed to sign off himself. Seriously.

No Ed, is not insane, but wonderfully creative. If you want to know Ed, read the novels, for I dutifully scrawled on brown paper wrapping snatches of conversation overheard in passing at the distribution center while Ed handed out papers or in longer conversations by phone to weave in real dialogue with the imaginary dialogue and overall character arc.

I also spent much time with him, getting to know his "ruthless dictator" persona, as to accurately portray it. In a wonderful and truly humbling act of trust, Ed did not want to read any drafts; rather, he wanted the experience of his fictional self however I chose to write it, a very literary and legally-bound, "Do with me as you will."

It was marvelously empowering.

PS: I did such a good writerly job with Ed that one day, after Timothy had been out of the distribution center for a year attending Joliet Junior College and working at the Renaissance Center, he offered to help us roll papers one night and ran into Ed.

Ed said something to the effect of, "Wow, I haven't see you in a long time." Timothy blinked, yes, literally blinked, in surprise, for he had been reading drafts of Staked! as I had chaptered it off and felt as if he'd seen Ed every day.

Any blog post on this series attributed to Ed was really written by Ed. Just so you know.

And now, the interview:

        1)      Who is the ruthless dictator?

“My son was doing a lot of role playing games, and he was trying to come up with a bard and give him magical powers. I told him there was no need coming up with magical items, because bards are already too powerful, providing they’re not trying to seek notoriety for themselves. Ruthless dictators are not afraid to die. They’re just afraid of how they’ll be remembered. It’s not effective to compose a song or a limerick or an epic poem glorifying yourself. You’ve got to have other people saying it about you. Why not cut the military in half and invent some really good limericks? You can really insult someone into submission.”

2)      Why did you invent him?

“I was bullied as a boy, so it came from the way I would get back at bullies. I would think something negative about them, because verbalizing it wouldn’t go well. In my mind, I called it even. The ruthless dictator really started when I got a ticket running a stop sign when I was delivering newspapers on a really snowy day. If I had stopped, I would never have gotten going again. I really thought the ticket was unfair. As revenge, I picked ten people out f the phone book and thought bad things about them. My wife thought that was pretty corny. Later, I took over the entire town. I didn’t have to conquer a nation. It just had to be a place, at least metaphorically. It had to have its own identity.”

3)      What was your reaction when asked to become part of a vampire novel?

“I was nervous at revealing my ignorance about vampires. I didn’t know a lot about it. I worked quickly to remedy it.”

4)      Why did you accept?

“Immortality, of course. I can’t think about myself in everything. I have to think about 1,000 years from now, and if there’s going to be a three-day holiday in my name or not. There’s a side of me that thinks this could be goofy enough to think this could actually happen.”

5)      Weren’t you afraid of how you might be portrayed?

“No, and a lot of that comes from my survival mechanism as a kid. I learned to play along with the bullies rather than fight them. Part of my comedic outreach is self-deprecating, so it didn’t really seem that anything negative could hurt me. The ruthless dictator would say, ‘Look, there’s no such thing as bad publicity.’ King Midas is much better off than King Midas the Second, even though he was portrayed in a bad light, because nobody remembers King Midas the Second.”

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6)      What if fans expect the real Ed Calkins to be similar to the fictional Ed Calkins?

“He is like him. There’s just that side of him. He’s significant in an offbeat way, enough to where he can claim the stewardship of Tara without blushing.”

7)      The Irish have no solid vampire legends. How do you feel about being the first, real Irish vampire?

“I think other people will make more of that than I will. Being known as the Steward of Tara is more of a crowing achievement in my mind.”

8)      Where did your love of Irish lore and history begin?

“It started with my love of history. Then I looked into mythology, and I used to tell my son a lot of tales and legends. When he reached high school and heard the same thing, my credibility rose in his eyes. One thing I had told him that wasn’t really true is that Ireland was always a backwash of European history, unless your interest is war. Then, it is probably true. There were many Irish warriors. It’s just they tended to be fodder; they were never fighting for Ireland. Ireland is probably the only place where you get a sense of what pre-Christianity was about, so if you want to know Ireland, just study its myth. Even before I was really into being Irish, I had a disdain for the Roman Empire, which, I think, gave me a bias toward the Irish. In all honesty, I’m American, but my heritage is Irish. It only takes going to Ireland to know that.”

9)      How did you research your Irish heritage?

“I’ve read a lot of books. Also, as a college freshman, I got put into an Irish literature course, which I wasn’t very interested in it at the time. I’m not one of those people who have forgotten much of what they learned in college. So it stayed with all these years in a recessive way. The problem is that I’m very bad with names. The proper study of Irish mythology involves heroes, kings, and saints, in that order. They are alive today through the last names. I just don’t know who these people are.”

      10)   When did you begin writing?

“I started with poetry. In the eighth grade I wrote poem that resonated a little bit.        So, throughout high school, I wrote poetry. I was an editor of the literary magazine and the editor in chief the last year. Something bizarre about me is that I can’t finish anything. I have these really organized fantasies, but I’m not a wordsmith. I just lost my hard drive, which means I lost everything I’ve written for the last twenty years. I should be beside myself, but I’m not, because none of the pieces were really finished

       11)   What have you written?

“I actually wrote a historical fiction novel when I was in high school. I had a         fascination for Hannibal, so I put myself on the other side facing Hannibal’s army. I didn’t really know how to handle it, but I did write it.”

        12)   How had you shared your writings in the past?

“I posted them. When I was working on my trilogy, someone would send me an e-mail that said, “Send me your story,” and I’d send them a few chapters. Then I’d get another email saying, ‘That was great. Send me some more.’ So, a lot of it was praise-driven. The problem is that twenty years have passed. The protagonist has become darker and the eroticism is no longer interesting, I hate to admit. In my mind, I’ve reduced the second book to a single, short story. Also, every novel I’ve written was also an idea for a game. I had done a really good job of writing the games, again not finished. The smallest details completely derail a project for me.”

13)    How do you overcome writer’s block?

“The truth is I don’t. My writing block is fear. By the time I do write, it’s only because the ideas have been spilling out over and over and over again through my mind, to where it’s enough already. The details have become an irritant, so I just sit down and write.”

14) What motivates you to compose a limerick?

   “I get ticked off, and my mind starts putting lines together. It’s different with limericks because I don’t have to actually write them. A limerick is not fine art. Because of its structure, a kindergartener is just as good as composing limericks as an adult.”

          15)  Why is legacy important to you?

“I think it’s fascinating to me in the same way history is. Think of Sue, the Tyrannosaurus Rex, which lived approximately 25 million years ago and compare that to the 6,000 years of civilization. In the eyes of God, dinosaurs must be a statement of survivability. Humanity is still an experiment in its infancy. When all is said and done, the history of humans is going to be a lot more significant than the bones of a creature, but we’re not there yet. We’re gong to have to start with many things, including being a lot older than 6,000 years. Maybe there won’t be an Ed Calkins parade that 6,000 years old, but maybe there will a 1,000 years old Ed Calkins Day parade, which will create the much larger tradition of there still being parades.”

16) How did the idea for Ed Calkins day parade originate?

“I discovered that my birthday and Valentines Day had a little conflict when I started dating my wife. The first year I was dating her, we went out and celebrated my February 13^th birthday. Guess what happened on the fourteenth?  I didn’t have Valentine for her. That offended her at the time. My defense was, ‘Come on, it was my birthday.’ I guess where started. Then I started joking with other people that my birthday should be a national holiday. When you couple that with Lincoln’s birthday and the stars aligned in the sky, you can see it was meant to be.”

17)  You’re famous for cookouts, Queen of Christmas contests, candy canes and Santa hat distribution and palette jack races. Why host these things?

“Have fun, of course. Distribution centers can be so dreary. If everyday is like the last, no one wants to get up.

18)   Do you own a kilt?

“I used to, but I gave it away to my brother. It no longer fit, at the waistline. So, currently, I do not have a kilt. They’re not cheap. They can cost a couple hundred dollars.”

19)  For what occasions did you wear it?

“Initially I wore it St. Paddy’s day. I wore it the whole day. I was I in newspapers and, yeah, I went to work with it. My wife wouldn’t let me do it after I married her. It happened this way. I have a way of not taking care of garments. When I was starting to date her, most of my jeans had holes in them. She takes care of her possessions. That how I knew we were serious when she started washing my clothes. But when a woman starts washing your clothes, she gets to say what get discarded and what gets kept. You know my striped shirts? Those were her idea. My wife now dresses me. I used to dress differently.

20)  What are your plans for this blog?

“I’d like make some myths of my own, but that won’t start until the book comes out. I’m thinking it might be fun to add different side stories of the character into the blog, but maybe, too, I might be able to introduce some of the traditional Irish myths. I’ve been wanting write something about the interplay of state fairs in Ireland. There were laws concerning them, such as you couldn’t arrest anyone during a fair and you could not engage in war. All combat had to be resolved before a fair was scheduled to start. I’d also like to write about the Knights of the Red Branch and maybe some adventure that happens to some of the knights. That’s the neat thing about a blog. Speaking from the character, if something doesn’t fit, or if there is something else I want to say, I can always come back with, ‘I was just joking. Here’s what really happened.’ I’m very excited about this. I feel I’m getting closer to that three-day holiday.”

"The Watermelon Gang" by David Rutter

Sue's Diner is delayed for one day because Rebekah isn't happy with the watermelon recipe she invented yesterday.

Another "watermelon" themed project that Rebekah helped bring to life is the biography, "The Watermelon Gang" by David Rutter.

Synopsis: Fred Arthur Rutter was a bright Army kid when he reached China in 1945. The ancient land changed him, as he changed it. All he needed was brains and watermelons.

Rutter was the interim editor at the The Herald-News for a few months last year. He shared his dream of publishing this book. 

So when Rutter's interim editor duties were finished, I connected him with Rebekah helped make the dream a reality.

Rutter graciously answered five questions about his book. And we hope to have a much better watermelon recipe to share tomorrow.

1. What inspired the title?

David Rutter: I realized after being around him as a son and coworker for most of my life that he was one of those people who gathered loyal teammates to his side, simply by his style and unannounced charisma. It had gone all the way back to his childhood when he was the leader of a disorganized kid gang, that I named the Watermelon Gang....When he told me about his life in China, it became clear to me that this style marked his entire life

2. Why did you write it?

David Rutter: It was too good of a yarn to ignore and, besides, I think I owed an explanation to the world about how remarkable a person he was.

3. Why should people read it?

David Rutter: I often tell curious customers that they will learn 100 things about America's War in China that they never knew. What Old China was like before Communist rule. This quest to know the history that has escaped history books is deeply attractive to me. In my case, my many conversations with the Father at the twilight of his life let me into a world I had never known either. I did not even know he'd won the Bronze Star until he was 80 or that he'd walked away from the Army without it in 1946.

4. What do you want readers to take away from the experience?

David Rutter: Learning? Almost all of the book made me open myself to an ancient culture that is barely understood in the West. I realized while I was compiling the idea for the book that my Father had been a child when he entered the Army in 1938 but exited the war as a full formed adult. His best Chinese friend had introduced him to Zen without even telling him what he was learning. I came to see how and why my father was patient and tolerant when no one else seemed to be. He became that man in China. It was an awakening of my appreciation for him.

5. What did you learn from the process of writing this book?

David Rutter: I have found that caring about a topic makes writing more challenging but also more meaningful. If it were easy, anyone could write a compelling book. I cared about this book likely more than anything else I've written. It was not so much a literary exercise as it was a testament to Father's humanness and humanity.  I think I owed my Father at least that much care for his life.

Plus-----I hope readers will see this is less a "war book" than it is a profile that coincidentally occurs inside a war. After all, "Catch 22' and "Slaughterhouse 5" are superficially war books, but far more at their heart.

Buy "The Watermelon Gang" on Amazon.

This Marketing Professional Saw the "Collaborativeness" of the BryonySeries

So 2022 was a challenging year for my family and me on lots of fronts. We battled one emergency after another for the bulk of the year, with emergencies sometimes happening while addressing an emergency.

Because I was recovering from mild COVID on January 1, 2023, I was leery 2023 might be more of the same.

But then I was interviewed by a book marketing specialist in New York (whose blog I've followed for a couple of years). He posted the interview on his blog and gave me a thirty-minute free consultation.

During the interview, I asked for a list of services and prices (BryonySeries has a limited marketing budget), which he sent. 

After an initial review of those services and prices, we are considering the possibility of hiring him for one particular service and see how we work together.

My reasoning for this has less to do with the interview, the services, the fees, and even the initial consultation - and more for what he did with my interview post on the blog.

You see, when we talked on the phone, he pointed out a glaring error on the BryonySeries website, which Timothy maintains. This isn't assigning blame to Timothy.

BUT, because Timothy and I are in and out of that site so often, we both missed it. And we are thrilled this book marketing specialist spent some time on the BryonySeries website, getting a feel for the series, before we talked.

This is where it gets fun.

So when the book marketing specialist sent me the link to my interview on his blog, I saw he didn't run the author photo I attached with the interview questions, a photo he requested.

He actually swapped the photo for one from the BryonySeries website and we're thrilled.

The one he swapped was actually a photo featuring me and Ed Calkins, Steward of Tara.

This means the book marketing specialist spent enough time on my website to pick up AND understand what we're doing, in terms of the project being extremely collaborative among authors, artists, the productions team, the marketing team, the venues in which we appear, and, yes, even the characters turned authors.

Granted this are small teams, consisting of a few people, who often cross over into other teams. We're not a huge corporation. We're just us.

And yet, I honestly couldn't have been more pleased.

Here is the blog post.

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/01/interview-with-journalist-turned-author.html

The reason I chose the photo below for this past.

You see, I purchased those gift cards you see below from the Book and Bean Cafe in Joliet last year to give as a "thank you" gift to people who bought BryonySeries books at  Joliet Public Library event.

The Book and Bean Cafe is very gracious to local artists, including the BryonySeries, including members of WriteOn Joliet.

So I want to return it, too.

Stay tuned for a super broadcast from 2018 from inside the Book and Bean Cafe that was played on a local TV station.

I'll share that tomorrow.

Thank You, Aaron D. Brinker

On Twitter recently, Aaron D. Brinker, who writes in multipe genres (including horror and thriller), asked if any author wanted to be featured on his blog.

So I messaged him.

Brinker's blog is mostly interviews with other authors with a standard questions and answer format.

However, many of the questions are not standard and made me think.

And the post itself was retweeted more times than I could count by other authors (including authors that people I personally know follow, a very pleasant surprise).

However, between working for the media during a pandemic and a smattering of family emergencies, I was not one of the people sharing that post (multiple head thumps for me).

So here it is, for your enjoyment today. 

https://aaronbrinker.com/denise-unland/

And please poke around his website a bit. You might discover a new author.

Thank you again, Aaron D. Brinker, for the opportunity.

Illustration by Kathleen Rose Van Pelt for "Bryony."

Visage at Aunt Nina's Sweets and Treats

BryonySeries Throwback Thursday: An Almost-Forgotten Interview from 2013

I have known Allison Rios for many years.

When I was a freelancer, she was one of my contacts in the public relations department of a local hospital. In 2005, I wrote An Extraordinary Life story about Allie's mom when she died of brain cancer.

I can remember the day Allie asked to talk to me about a non-newspaper subject: self-publishing. She had an idea for a book and wanted information.

She has since written a fiction series about healing, produced a compilation of true stories about brain cancer as a fundraiser for the American Brain Association, blogged, and is the author of her recent novel, Fifteen Years.

I also featured Allie last year as a LocalLit author.

But from time to time, Allie has also promoted local authors on her author Facebook page. While looking for something else this week, I found this gem. I had nearly forgotten it. 

It made me smile. Hope it makes you smile, too.

Featured Author: Denise Baran-Unland

September 8, 2013 at 3:21 PM

Let me introduce you to Denise Baran-Unland, an exceptionally talented writer (in my opinion!). I have read Denise's book "Bryony," in which "the main character, 1970s teen Melissa Marchellis, trades her blood with a Victorian vampire for a trip back into time". I enjoyed the book, and especially the time and research Denise very obviously put into writing it. The details really brought the book to life and allowed me to envision what life was like in the Victorian era.

A little about Denise: she is a fulltime freelance writer that contributes to several newspapers, a hospital chain, and several non-profits. She's self-published two books in the BryonySeries - a third will be released by December - and a companion cookbook that is a fundraiser for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Will and Grundy Counties. She's taught features and creative writing and has overseen a newspaper for a homeschool cooperative and mentored homeschool high school students for the Herald News' former "Teen Scene" section. She is also a founding member of WriteOn Joliet, a local writing group.

The links to her books are at the end of this article - you won't be disappointed in the read! You can also check out the reviews on Amazon (via the links). If you check out her stories, be sure to share your thoughts in a review on Amazon - that's the best way to help an author! Read more about authors and literature on my blog, www.amijustmom.blogspot.com.

And now, for Denise's interview!

What is your background in writing?

  I've worked as a fulltime freelance writer since 1998. I write for several newspapers--primarily the Herald News in Joliet, IL, Adventist Midwest Health and several non-profits. I also take on selected independent projects.

   My fiction writing began in childhood. I wrote short stories in grade school and a novella, "The Inheritance," in the 8th grade. Much of mine "fun" writing fell off in high school and college. I was expecting my third child when I had the idea for the BryonySeries, a young adult, gothic vampire story about a teen girl that trades her blood with a Victorian vampire for a trip back into time.

What books have you written?

   Books one and two, Bryony" and "Visage," are both published. The third book, "Staked!" is in editing. A companion cookbook, "Memories in the Kitchen: Bites and Nibbles from 'Bryony,'" is a fundraiser for "Big Brothers Big Sisters of Will and Grundy Counties." We also released a "holiday edition" to "Visage," but that is now out of print. I'm currently working on two spinoff series: "The Adventures of Cornell Dyer" and "Bertrand the Mouse."

What is your most recently published piece?

  "Visage."

Why you chose to self-publish?

  I enjoy the creative control. My freelance work is for traditional arenas, so self-publishing provides me with the opportunity to gain knowledge in a different area of publishing and to develop new skills.

What do you love about writing?

   The fact that the right words can make people laugh, cry, smile, become angry, open their wallets, fall in love, etc. It's so much fun!!!!!

What is the best book you've read?

   That's hard one. Probably "Gone with the Wind."

What types of books do you read?

   My favorite is pre-20th century vampire and ghost stories.

What genre(s) do you write and why?

   My non-fiction, freelance work is people centered features. My fiction (so far) is classic, gothic vampire.

What does a book need to be considered great?

   Have well-written, realistic characters that leap off the page.

Who are some of your favorite authors (Indie and otherwise)?

   Leo Tolstoy, O. Henry, H.P. Lovecraft

Synopsis

   "Bryony": A 70’s teen trades her blood with a Victorian vampire for a trip back into time.

   "Visage:" After trading her blood with a Victorian vampire, a 70’s teen plunges into a misleading contract, trapping her into another bargain to save a life.

Buy

All BryonySeries books are available at www.bryonyseries.com/Dalton_s_Dry_Goods.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BryonySeries

Bryony: http://amzn.com/0985274808

Visage: http://amzn.com/0985274824

Memories in the Kitchen: Bites and Nibbles from Bryony: http://amzn.com/0985274816

"Boomhood and BryonySeries" Tour Host: Robert Hafey