Something a bit different with this post – a traditionally published author. Yep. We’re open-minded here on the IndieView.

“After going though the ups and downs of the Publishing Process and getting good reviews and the bad reviews, I’ve decided that there is only one way I will ever be a successful writer: I will continue to write.  I won’t spend hours a day – okay, maybe an hour – on the net sending out hundreds of emails and ferociously self-promoting.  I will instead slowly but steadily build up a body of work that may speak for itself.”

Greg Dawe 20 February 2011

The Back Flap

Stark naked consciousness is exposed like a raw nerve as Georgia’s search for her missing boyfriend, Ben, takes her from London through Asia.

On route she discovers that Ben has been using a neuroscience technology – one that offers the potential of complete liberation to anyone who uses it. It is a technology Georgia must embrace if she is to find Ben, but one that is such an intimate catalyst for change Georgia isn’t sure she can handle the side of herself it uncovers.

It is only her desire to find Ben which drives her on; a force which leads her to the Theta Heads and a choice: continue using the technology to hack away at her layers of mental static and find the real reason he disappeared, or let go and face a future without him.

Theta Head – technology doesn’t need a mind of its own, it can have ours.

What is the book about?

Theta Head has a core theme of how technology can connect people with themselves, this as opposed to technology’s more popular use of connecting people with one another.  It is the journey of one woman’s search for her missing boyfriend and how that search leads her to a group of people who use neuroscience to alter consciousness.  It is an almost entirely internal conflict based novel; the central character has to overcome her fear of using a technology that she believes was the cause of her boyfriends disappearance in order to try and find him.

Where did you get the idea from?

I was 16 when I discovered an area of science which seemed to have enormous transformational properties for mankind – neuroscience for self development – and was surprised no body else seemed to have picked up on this.  I thought it would make a neat story.  I didn’t have the maturity at that time to write a novel about it so the project, along with all other writing, was put on hold for the next 15 years while I dealt with the so called ‘real world’ – getting a degree, working dead-end jobs, and finally fleeing to Thailand.  Then I read William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition and something clicked inside me.  It inspired me to start writing again.  For me it was one of those books which spoke to me and invigorated me.  The power of words.

Were there any parts of the book where you struggled? What came easily?

I struggled with almost the entire book, especially the tone.  It took around 5 years to write.  To get published I knew I would have to do something different and fresh and searching for the voice with which to do that was difficult.  There are no maps for these territories, you could say.  It really was an uphill slog and to be honest I don’t think I would try to write in that kind of post-modern style again.  Convention beckons.

We all know how important it is for writers to read. Are there any particular authors that have influenced how you write and, if so, how have they influenced you?

I learn more from other writers than any other way.  Not so long ago I would have said that I tried to emulate other writers – maybe all young writers do – and it’s only been quite recently that I’ve become more conscious of doing this.  For example a few months ago I read a lot of Hunter S Thompson, one of the greats.  Along with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas it turns out he has an enormous body of work out there, 99% of it incredibly well written – entertaining to the extreme, poetic, and insightful.  Many years of experience I guess.  I think the thing I’ve taken away from Hunter is the rhythm of writing, the music of the sentences and paragraphs.  There is neither a comma nor full stop in most of his work I would want to change.  His writing really does sing.

Do you have a target reader?

For Theta Head my target reader was very much a young, i-savvy reader who didn’t read much.  A lot of books out there have nothing to offer the younger reader – that gap between YA and serious novel – who want to be entertained and shown that there are in fact new and exciting fiction out there to be explored.  Finding that audience has been a bit tricky, though.  With nothing like the marketing budget of a big publisher, building awareness has been a painfully slow experience, one I have almost given up on many times.

About Writing:

Do you have a writing process? If so can you please describe it?

Not really.  I was on holiday for 2 weeks last year and wrote nearly half a book.  I have hardly written a word since.  I don’t have a routine to speak of, which is hard, because every time I come back to writing it is like I have to learn it all over again. Maybe that’s a good thing.  I’ve been trying to sit down regularly every day, though – even if I don’t write a single word – just to try and instigate some kind of discipline, build up some buttock-muscle memory.

Do you edit as you go or wait until you’ve finished?

Editing Theta Head took up about 80% of the total time I spent on that book.  I went over the text literally hundreds of times… trying to find the rhythm, the modern voice I was convinced it needed.  I could probably recite word for word almost the whole book.  In the end I think I may have over-edited.  In my search for perfection a lot of the original urgency of the text got lost and I had to go back to the drawing board many a time.  Lesson learnt.  Or maybe not.  One of the things I am looking forward to in my writing career is working closely with a good editor from a big publisher.  That would be gold for me and would bring a whole new dimension to my work.  It’s one of the hopes that keeps me writing.

About Publishing:

I submitted the manuscript for Theta Head to about 100 agents and publishers.  A small Brit press called Caffeine Nights Publishing took me up – brave souls.  I felt elated at getting a contract, albeit from a small press.  However, even with a publisher behind me it’s been an uphill struggle to be heard amongst the thousands of other books which are published each year.

As a hardworking publisher/promoter Caffeine Nights Publishing can do what I cannot.  They can make professional media contacts, both in traditional and online media, local and national, and have the expertise to get the most out of those contacts.  As an author who has researched the topic of his book, in this case an area of neuroscience, I have a good idea about where these contacts can be found.  I then pass this information along to my publisher who will then make a professional approach – whether a review request or interview request.  This relationship is invaluable to me as I wouldn’t know where to begin with the more traditional site of the media spectrum.

Working closely with my publisher has given me invaluable insight into how the business works, how much leg work is involved in getting things off the ground – especially promotion – how much persistence is needed, and how being with a small publisher has many advantages, the main one being author/agent intimacy.  Small publishers are dynamic, able to react quickly to get reviews or interview requests out.  Above all, they listen.  They want to know what my opinions are.  They take into consideration my strengths and weaknesses when it comes to marketing.  And last but not least, they don’t laugh at me when I look puzzled when they say things like ‘you need to develop a platform.’  Plat… what?  Form… of plats?  So now I know what a platform is and I’m slowly developing one.  But like I said, it’s a two way dynamic exchange if ideas and information, one which is evolving every day, and one which I genuinely hope other authors have the benefit of experiencing.

Where do you live now?

I come from the UK but left many years ago and now live in a small fishing village in the south of Thailand.  Nice weather, nice beaches, not a very good place from which to try and promote a book, though!  The Buddhist nature of the people and the slow paced nature of life down here tends to rub off on one, which means I’m not so affected by western psychological neurosis and therefore have a pretty ‘open’ space in which to write.

What would you like readers to know about you?

It took ages to write my first book and when I was offered a publishing contract I was over the moon – vindicated, in a way.  The fact that the book hasn’t sold millions of copies was a bit perplexing, at first.  The fact that there are hundreds of thousands of other books published each year didn’t really register at first.  Also, the fact that my novel is a bit left field didn’t help.  It’s been a painful wake up call that my book probably won’t be a bestseller and sell billions of copies.  After going though the ups and downs of the Publishing Process and getting good reviews and the bad reviews, I’ve decided that there is only one way I will ever be a successful writer: I will continue to write.  I won’t spend hours a day – okay, maybe an hour – on the net sending out hundreds of emails and ferociously self-promoting.  I will instead slowly but steadily build up a body of work that may speak for itself.

What are you working on now?

My second novel.  It is more straightforward in terms of narrative – much more conventional.  It’s not more conventional in terms of core themes and plot, though.  It still takes an idea which may seem a little off-centre and which hasn’t been previously written about before and explores it from a unique perspective.  Another out-there production from Fiction on Edge.

End of Interview

Theta Head is available at Amazon.

Greg Dawe’s web site can be found here.