Author Interview: Alton Gansky

Plug time. What book or project is coming out or has come out that you’d like to tell us about?


DIRECTOR’S CUT was just released by Zondervan. It’s the third Mayor Madison “Maddy” Glenn mystery/suspense novel. As with all my series novels, the book can be read as a stand alone. It’s an intriguing plot that includes Maddy, her movie starlet cousin, a dead man in a swimming pool and a movie script that shouldn’t exist. You can read more about it and my other novels at www.altongansky.com. (Notice how cleverly I slipped that in there?)

How long had you been writing seriously before you got “the call?”

I first became interested in writing as a child. I still remember some of the stories I created. That’s not unusual. Children are more attuned to their creativity than most adults. Unfortunately, I had no encouragement from home. My family had little education. Aside from my step-father I was the first in my family to finish high school, go to college and graduate school. I loved reading, but no one in my family shared that appreciation for the written word.

Still, I felt the urge to write but had no idea how to pursue it. I also had a problem then that still plagues me—everything interests me. I studied architecture and worked in that field for a decade. I was a firefighter for awhile and later a business man. In college I majored in the sciences but ultimately took a bachelor’s and master’s degree in biblical studies. I then served three churches as pastor over a 22 year period. I also taught college classes in biblical studies.

During that time, I still felt the desire to write. While working as a project manager in a San Diego architecture firm, I co-wrote a screenplay that was produced by a local college. I tried my hand at short fiction, but never sold anything. I then wrote a few small articles for magazines and placed those but my desire was for fiction. I assumed that, because of my background and education, nonfiction would be the course I’d follow. I sold a dozen or so novels before I sold my first nonfiction book.


Tell us about the call.

I’m not sure I can. I don’t feel called to write, but only by writing do I feel complete. I’m not sure that makes sense, but it is nonetheless true. Some feel that they are called to write like Paul was called to be an apostle. Perhaps all that is true, but for me it was a long, slow, uphill process.

I had written my first book BY MY HANDS, but was so ignorant about the industry that I submitted it to a “pay to read” agent. The response I received depressed me. I put the manuscript on the shelf and left it there for five years.

A friend, who shared the same hunger for novel writing as I, called to tell me that he had landed a multibook contract. I congratulated him and kicked the cat. We chatted for awhile then he asked, “So Al, what are you working on now?”

I knew he wasn’t asking how my new church was doing. I answered honestly, “Well, I have this new church, the kids are young, so I’ve been pretty busy.” He paused then said, “I know how that it is. The pastorate work is time consuming…so what are you working on?” I made a few more excuses and then he asked the same question.

I could think of no way to put him off. My friend is Jack Cavanaugh, a popular Christian writer. After I hung up, I went to the shelf, removed the manuscript and started rewriting. Victor Books bought it and several other titles over the years.

I didn’t receive “a call”—I received a kick in the pants.

What’s the best advice you’ve heard on writing/publication?

Two bits of advice have guided me:

1. Read. Read a lot.

2. Stop whining. Of course it’s hard. What’d ya expect?

What’s the worst piece of writing advice you’ve ever heard?

A good writer doesn’t need to rewrite. The ancient Greeks had a word for that kind of advice…baloney.

What’s something you wish you’d known earlier on that might have saved you some time/frustration in the publishing business?

I wish that I had known how slowly the business moves. In publishing, things move at a snails pace. It’s not unusual for a year or more to pass between the writing and release of the book.

Do you have a scripture or quote that has been speaking to you lately?

Galatians 6:9--And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

Is there a particularly difficult set back that you’ve gone through in your writing career you are willing to share?

I’ve had a couple of books “orphaned.” When an editor leaves a publishing house, often his/her projects get pushed to the side or assigned to an already overloaded editor. Usually those books have poor sales. There’s no one to promote then in house and therefore the book simply dies. It’s hard to see months of work go nowhere because of an employee change.

What are a few of your favorite books?

That’s a tough question and the answer will probably be different tomorrow. One book that has stuck with me over the decades is Arthur C. Clark’s Rendezvous with Rama. The wide horizon’s of Clark’s imagination impressed me and reminded me that writer’s are one of the few people who are allowed to think the impossible and get paid for it.

What piece of writing have you done that you’re particularly proud of and why?

When I finish a book and it finally hits the shelf, I feel a great sense of euphoria which is immediately followed by an overpowering realization that I could have done better. I never read my books once they’re released. I have this unreasonable fear that if I become too proud of a piece of writing, I will no longer be able to do it. Generally, I am most pleased with work that not only entertains but raises moral and ethical questions.

Do you have a pet peeve having to do with this biz?

The only one I’m willing to admit in print is this: Good writing has nothing to do with sales. No one knows why one book sells better than another.

Can you give us a view into a typical day of your writing life?

Early to the computer (no later than 8:00, and I prefer 7:00), e-mail and miscellaneous work, then I try to meet my page goal by noon. I fail most days. Lunch, short nap to rest my computer damaged eyes, more e-mail and other work and then back to putting words on the page. On really good days, I get to slip out to the wood shop and torture some hardwood into furniture.

Some days, I go to Starbucks to work. For some reason, (caffeine?) I get a fair number of pages done in the time it takes me to down a venti, vanilla latte.

If you could choose to have one strength of another writer, what would it be and from whom?

Dean Koontz isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but he is a master craftsman. One of his greatest strengths is his ability to make environment into a character. No one describes a rainy night, like Koontz. That’s a strength, I’d like to have.

Do you have a dream for the future of your writing, something you would love to accomplish?

There’s an old Twilight Zone episode starring Ed Winn. It bore the title, “A Pitch for the Angels.” It’s the story about a street salesman (the kind of salesman that sold trinkets, shoelaces, nail polish, etc. from a portable stand) who wants to make just one special sales pitch, “the kind of pitch that makes angels cry.” He gets his chance when he tries to delay Death from taking a little girl. He makes his best pitch ever and because of that, the little girl lives, even though Ed Winn’s character must take her place in death.

I’d like to write a book, just one book, that could “make the angels cry.” A book of personal significance; a book that doesn’t end when the last page is read.

I have no idea if that will make sense to anyone.

Was there ever a time in your writing career you thought of quitting?

Usually Mondays.

What is your favorite and least favorite part of being a writer?

Favorite part: Being alone with my imagination. Least favorite: being alone after my imagination has gone home.

Parting words?

Writing is tough, demanding, depressing, exhilarating, fascinating, maddening, uplifting, liberating—most writers, me included, wouldn’t have it any other way.