Writers4Higher features Malcolm R. Campbell

 

Welcome to Writers4Higher

The purpose of the Writers4Higher blog: to feature authors in a new light, a fresh look at the way writers use their talents and life energies to uplift humankind. Writers4Higher doesn’t promote religious or political views.

Authors are asked to answer three simple questions: simple, yet complex.

1. Tell me about yourself. Your book(s), your life, your inspiration.
2. Where do you see your writing taking you in the future?
3. How do you use your talents/time to help others?

This issue, Writers4Higher features

Malcolm R. Campbell.

Hi Malcolm. Welcome to the Writers4Higher family.

1. Tell me about yourself. Your book(s), your life, your inspiration.

My contemporary fantasies are linked to wilderness settings because nature inspires me and lends itself very well to magic or to the possibility of magic. I grew up in the Florida Panhandle where I was a member of a Tallahassee Scout Troop that spent many weekends camping at nearby lakes, sinkholes and rivers. This was my first major exposure to the out of doors and it has helped me find connections between my characters and the places where they live. Most of my career has been focused on technical writing, but I always had a manuscript hidden away in a sock drawer. The mega-corporation I was working for laid off our entire division after 9/11. It was quite a blow, but it did change my focus from describing software to telling stories set in places like Glacier National Park, Tate’s Hell Swamp, and the Missouri River.

2. Where do you see your writing taking you in the future?

After Sarabande was released last summer, I wasn’t ready for another long project, so I shifted over to writing short stories. First, it’s good practice, especially when a contest or magazine has strict word-count limits. I’ve been enjoying writing within 500-word and 1,000-word arenas. I love folktales and stories with a folktale-like approach. I’m tempted to head off in that direction. The short stories, whether they ever find a market or not, are allowing me to experiment with a lot of characters, settings and themes that connect magic, personal transcendence, and nature into adventures that could easily happen to anyone, anywhere. I’ve been having fun discovering what it’s like to set a story in my old Tallahassee neighborhood, another on a Florida highway between Tate’s Hell and the Garden of Eden, and another that features a Florida Panther and a Limpkin as its main characters.

3. How do you use your talents/time to help others?

I review about forty books a year on several weblogs with a strong focus on small-press books. This comes under the heading of a “labor of love” because I’m never without a novel on my nightstand anyway, so why not share a little something about the plot and themes with others? While I can’t compete with Publishers Weekly, Kirkus or The New York Times, most small press books never make it to those places. So, I hope the exposure on my blog, Amazon and GoodReads helps. The act of writing walls us off from each other and because it does, I think those of us who don’t have a big publicity machine behind our books can support each other in part by doing book reviews, using Twitter to spread the word about each other’s posts, and from time to time using our blogs and Facebook accounts to discuss writing tips which have worked well for us. It saddens me to see so many talented authors having to fight so hard for support and exposure; sharing the treasures sitting on my bookshelf with prospective readers is important to me as a fellow writer. And, it gives me a real good excuse to keep my nose in a book!

Thanks for inviting me to stop by your blog, Rhett. Now, if only there were a way to have a huge plate of piping hot cathead biscuits while I’m here.

Malcolm

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Would you like to find Malcolm?

Stop by and say hello and check out this talented author's work.

Here are links:

WEBSITE: Malcolm's website

FACEBOOK: Malcolm on Facebook

TWITTER: Malcolm on Twitter

MALCOLM'S BOOKS:

Sarabande: Sarabande on Amazon

The Sun Singer: The Sun Singer on Amazon

Thank you, Malcolm, for your insightful answers. And I'll put those cathead biscuits in the oven whenever you stop by, hon.

Rhett DeVane

Writers4Higher

Rhett's author website

Fiction with a Southern Twist