Author Interview: Colin Glassey
A few words with indie author Colin Glassey
Colin Glassey is the author of four novels, one history book, two collections of poetry, 1 book of rules for Role Playing Games, and more to come. He’s had an interesting and lengthy career in the indie writing world. He seems like a bit of a renaissance man, if you asked me. He recently gave me the pleasure of answering a few questions about his life and work.
Q: Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from? Where do you live now? What did you want to be when you grew up?
A: I’m an American, I’ve spent most of my life in California but I’ve lived in England and in South Korea. I still live in California because of family ties as well as force of habit. Growing up I wanted to be a military historian, I broadened my scope to national history by the time I entered college.
Q: What made you want to start writing? What motivates you to keep writing?
The field of history is filled with writers. A few years after college I set writing aside and I wrote software for about 15 years. However, I started an internet blog in 1995, and have been writing continuously ever since.
Why do I keep writing? Like Gene Wolfe wrote once, “If you can stop writing - do it. Only write books if you can’t stop writing.” Later in life I switched to the field of law, again that’s a mix of writing and research but writing accurately and swiftly is crucial.
Q: What is your latest book about?
A: My latest book (to be published in the fall of 2022) is called “The Cure of All Disease”. It’s a spy-action-adventure set in the summer of 2021. It’s about a spy who is working for one of the world’s poorest and youngest nations - the nation of Timor. He steals a critically important laptop which contains all sorts of information. If the data were revealed - it would prove very unpleasant for one of the richest men in the world. The result is that my hero and his girl-friend, a Chinese Marine biologist, end up being chased halfway around South East Asia.
I’ve been to this part of the world and I thought “it’s high time that someone wrote a modern adventure set there.” Plus it tickled my fancy.
Q: When did you start writing (originally, not this specific book)?
A: I wrote my first novel - The Burning Tower - in 2016, in my spare time while I was working for a law firm. This novel was a fantasy inspired by my reading of fantasy and history over the previous 40 years. The idea came to me very clearly in a sudden flash of inspiration based on reading a single sentence in Tolkien’s novel “The Return of the King”. I wrote down my idea an hour later and… I was off to the races.
Q: How did you come up with the idea for this book specifically?
The new book , “The Cure of All Disease” came to me in the fall of 2021 while I was driving to my old family home. Suddenly I thought “I know someone who would make a good character” - and as I considered that character, I knew what he would be doing. I was laughing the rest of the afternoon as I thought through the plot. I debated writing the story because I was working on a totally different project but I told myself: “This is a very fast story, I’ll be done in six months.” It took me eight months, so my guess was quite close.
The global pandemic of 2020-21 is a unique event in world history and I say this having done some graduate level research on the Black Death in England. Nothing like Covid-19 had ever happened before and that allowed me to tell a unique story.
Q: How was this book different than any of your others?
A: The new novel is totally different from my previous books in that it is set in the modern world and it adheres quite closely to reality. My previous novels were all high fantasy novels set in a world of my creation with its own geography, history and cultures. I found writing in the modern world remarkably easy. Making one’s own world is no easy thing and keeping the language of my characters “late medieval” was sometimes a struggle.
Q: How did you go about publishing your book? Would you do it that way again? Why or why not?
A: I sent my first novel to about 50 agents and received no positive responses - which I fully expected. I suspected I would self-publish and that’s what I did. I hired a free-lance editor and I’ve used her on all but one of my subsequent works. I found an illustrator, whose work is great. Thanks to Amazon.com my books are available around the world.
Later I recorded my first three novels in audioBook format and so my first three books are available in paperback, Kindle, and audioBook. I was going to record the 4th novel as an audioBook but it takes time and I’m a bit busy with many projects.
Q: Are you planning on writing more? If so what are you working on now? / When is your next book going to be coming out?
A: I’ll be writing for at least the next ten years. I’ve got many projects in mind. I have to pick and choose from the alternatives my mind comes up with. Like many authors I have more ideas than time to write. As I mentioned, my newest novel should be out by September/October of this year.
After that, I’ve got three non-fiction books in mind, and three novels sketched out. Which will I do?
Q: Can you tell us about your other books?
A: My four fantasy novels are set in the late medieval era and geographically they take place in my modified version of China before the Ming Dynasty took power (before 1368 for those who are keeping track).
I recently finished my history of Vietnam which covers the period 900 CE to 1800 CE, it’s called “A Thousand Blocks of Jade”. That book was more than 15 years in the making and I’m very happy to have completed it. Few Americans know anything about the history of Vietnam before 1955, and not many history books have been written on the subject. I bring a very strong background in Chinese history to the mix, which is vital to understanding the country. My first wife was Vietnamese and I spent almost 30 years living in and with the Vietnamese community in California. My children are literally Vietnamese-American.
My books of poetry were intended for some very close friends. I may re-publish them in a few years.
Q: What helps you to write? Music, pets, reading, specific pen, etc.?
A: I feel the cold breath of my impending demise on the back of my neck, that’s what helps me stay focused. The fear of dying and leaving my work unfinished is what drives me because I’m substantially older than most novelists. I don’t listen to music while writing because I want my entire brain focused on the problem of writing. I lie in bed in the morning and I write until I’m driven out of bed by hunger. I used to get a lot of writing done in my car when I was commuting to the law firm. I’d have to write my ideas down when I parked, sometimes for a half an hour before I went into the office. Driving alone seems to free my mind for creating plots.
Q: What has writing taught you?
A: The more you write, the easier it becomes. That said, I’ve been writing non-fiction (technical manuals, legal briefs, and so forth) for 45 years, so I really ought to be good at it by now. The other big lesson I’ve learned is that you have cut a great deal of life out of your life to write. Writing is a solitary activity, my muse for the last eight years has learned that she needs to stay away from me all morning. In the afternoon, I’m able to be a more normal person.
Q: What authors inspire you?
A: Tolkien is my first and most important touchstone. Then there is the master Gene Wolfe. After that: Roger Zelanzy, early David Brin, Michael Moorcock of the 1960s, Vernor Vinge, Neal Stephenson, & Mark Helprin. Two Chinese authors I love are Feng Menglong and Ling Mengchu, both active in the early 1600s. Historians: John Julius Norwich, John Keegan, Fritz Mote, and James Michener.
Q: Do you go back and reread your writing after it’s been completed?
A: Not after it’s been published, except when I record the audioBook. I like my books, and when I read sections I’m surprised “Did I write that? Neat.”
Q: What is your advice for writers?
A: You must know a great deal about the world in order to write about the world. Go out and do things. Travel. Take odd jobs. Meet people from all walks of life. Read all the time, especially the great writers of the 1800s: Jane Austen, Tolstoy, Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling, etc. Don’t write about yourself until it’s the last thing you want to do. Your own life is the well-spring of your drive to write, you need to protect the source of your desire to write.
Q: Is there anything else you want to add?
A: Because of Amazon.com, the world is filled with writers and novelists. This is good and bad. Good because Indie authors (like me) can escape from the group-think of New York City publishers. Bad because the supply of books has outstipped demand. Most writers will not make much - if any - money. Most everyone should develop a career other than creative writing. Technical writing is not a bad place to start. Likely any steady paying job is a good place to start. The great science fiction author, Philip Jose Farmer, worked at a steel plant for years before he started writing professionally. Lastly, if you do take up the law, you need to quit if you want to write fiction. Legal writing and fiction are antithetical to each other.
I want to sincerely thank Colin Glassey for taking the time to respond and I wish him all the success in the world with his unique work.
You can purchase Colin Glassey’s books by clicking the image below.
Thanks for reading and have an awesome week!