Today I have a great interview with talented writer Robert Eggleton, author of
Rarity from the Hollow. Enjoy...
Why don’t you begin by sharing a little about yourself.
Thanks for the invitation. I was
born in 1951, the oldest son of an impoverished family in West Virginia. We received government
surplus food called commodities. My alcoholic and occasionally abusive father
had PTSD from WWII. It was called shell shock back then.
My mom did the best she could, but somebody had to support
my family. I worked odd jobs until I got a minimum wage one in a drug store
when I was twelve. I’ve made payments into America’s Social Security fund for
the next fifty-two years.
In the 8th grade, I won the school’s short story contest: a
redneck semi truck driver became so obsessed with the conflict between Jewish
vs. Christian theology that he lost concentration on the road and caused a
terrible accident. I decided that I wanted to be a writer and dreamed of
getting rich. As it often does, life got in the way. Between school and work, I
was too exhausted to write any more stories until recently.
I continued to work at various minimum wage jobs during
high school and college. Work, antiwar activities and school kept me too busy
to write stories, so I wrote poems on scraps of paper. One was published in the
state’s 1972 West Virginia Student Poetry Anthology. Another was published in a
local zine. I graduated in 1973 with a degree in social work and received an
MSW from WVU in 1977.
After college, I focused on children’s advocacy. The
Vietnam War and the draft had ended. My new political cause became children’s
rights and welfare. I was involved in this emotionally charged work for the
next forty years. It supplanted my need to write fiction. Instead, I wrote
manuals, research, investigative, and statistical reports.
In 2003, I became a children’s psychotherapist at our local
community mental health center. It was an intensive program for kids with very
severe emotional disturbances. One day at work in 2006, during a group therapy
session, I met the real-life role model for my fictional protagonist. Lacy Dawn
had been severely abused, but was so resilient that it was inspiring to
everybody who met her, staff and her peers alike.
I started writing fiction. Three short Lacy Dawn Adventures
have been published in magazines. My
debut novel, Rarity from the Hollow, was released in 2012 by Dog Horn Publishing, a small traditional press located
in Leeds. In May 2015, I retired from my job
as a children’s psychotherapist so that I could concentrate on writing fiction
that introduces Lacy Dawn to the rest of the world.
Can you tell us about your book, Rarity
from the Hollow?
Sure, but
I don’t want to spoil anything for its readers. This novel, similar to the
truck driver’s introspections that I mentioned before, is full of contrasts:
harsh reality amplifies outrageous fantasy, bitterness blends into acceptance
and empowerment, tragedy inspires comedy, and a biography of a victim becomes a
science fiction story. It does not fit neatly into a genre, such as romance,
horror or even speculative fiction.
This
novel was written for an adult audience, but does not have graphic sex scenes,
a lot of violence or any of the other similar content that one might assume to
be attributable to an Adults Only classification. It is sweet but frank and
honest with no holds barred. It addresses the complexities of real life for
some people, but presents sensitive topics that might trigger emotional
distress with comic relief. My intent was for readers to enjoy the experiences
that I created with everyday words and colloquialism, but not to gloss over
realism in the way that some YA titles accomplish.
In a
nutshell, Rarity from the Hollow is
about a little girl who learns to be the Savior of the Universe with the help
of her family and friends. It’s up to readers to decide which scenes are
dissociative as a result of Lacy Dawn’s traumas and which scenes are pure
fantasy and science fiction.
Your book integrates
serious social issues into its narrative. What led you to write a novel that
included these issues?
The short answer to your question is tradition.
Historically, fiction has fueled social activism, debate, and the adoption of
evolving or devolving social policy. Frankly, while I've read nonstop for
decades, when I started writing it, I was not aware of the big debate in the
marketplace about whether fiction should or should not be pure escapism. I now
belong to a writer’s group in cyberspace with members who debate this very
issue. The focus seems to be on whether the inclusion of serious topics in
fictional works would help or hurt sales.
Did the GLBTQ titles increasingly being
released, and the popularity of television shows such as Modern Family, influence the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that
same-sex marriage was a Constitutional right? I don’t know and the answer
wouldn’t make any difference to my products. I simply write what I know, what
I’ve experienced in my own life, and hope that readers enjoy the comical slant
that I place on complex issues.
I do believe that all artists have an
opportunity to have a positive or negative impact on society. Artists aspire to
achieve an audience. They need one as much as they need oxygen or food. There
are many examples of fund-raising campaigns for various wonderful causes put
together by popular artists. It was in remembrance of George Harrison’s Concert
for Bangladesh that I have
donated author proceeds to a child abuse prevention program in West Virginia.
Why did you decide to
use the SF/Fantasy genre as the underpinning of the novel, as opposed to
another genre?
I selected the SF/F backdrop for this story
because it was the best fit by process of elimination. The novel also has
elements of horror, mystery, romance, self-help, and thriller. It is not a good
example of the historical or western genres, although the social issues that we
talked about before have been present throughout history, including in the Wild
West.
In today’s reality the systems in place to help
maltreated children are woefully inadequate. I felt that the literary,
biographical, nonfiction genres wouldn’t work because the story would have been
so depressing that only the most determined would have finished it.
I felt that the story had to be hopeful. I
wanted it to inspire survivors of child maltreatment toward competitiveness
within our existing economic structures, instead of folks using past
victimization as an excuse for inactivity. I didn’t think that anybody would
bite on the theme of a knight on a white stallion galloping off a hillside to
swoop victims into safety, like in the traditional romance genre. That almost never actually happens in real
life, so that genre was too unrealistic as the primary. There was already
enough horror in the story, so that genre was out too. What could be more
horrific than child abuse?
The protagonist and her traumatized teammates
needed fantastical elements to achieve empowerment. But, as in life, one cannot
overcome barriers to the pursuit of happiness by simply imagining them away.
That’s where the science fiction came into play. It provided a power source. I
tied the science fiction to Capitalism because in today’s reality it will take
significant financial investment by benefactors to significantly improve the
welfare of children in the world. Our governments are unlikely to do so in the
near future because of the politics.
What did you find most
challenging about writing Rarity from the Hollow?
Writing comes easy for me, but the third scene
in the story was especially challenging. It was a domestic violence scene that
triggered my own psychological distress. Tears blurred my vision each time that
I reworked it. The only other challenges were the typical ones that all writers
of anything experience, such as proofreading what you intended to write instead
of what’s actually on the page. After I submitted a story to a publisher in the
early morning hours of July 4, 2014, I still found typos that I’d missed.
Your book is also, in
part, a satire. Was that a conscious choice to offset the more stark aspects of
the novel, or did it evolve as a natural process of writing?
I’ve always loved to read the puns, the double
entendres, and satire in the works of others. I’m sure that had a big impact on
what I write. Some of the satire in this novel evolved as a natural process,
while other sections were inserted because I had found the narrative in need of
a lighter tone to offset stark aspects. If I found a place during the drafts
that I felt was too “heavy” for me to read as its writer, I figured that it
would be way to much for the reader.
Do you having any
writing inspirations or favourite authors?
I’m not sure that you have enough
bandwidth for me to make a complete list of inspirations and favourites, so
here’s a few. Ferlinghetti, the poet of the Beat Generation, showed me how to
enjoy my anger about political and societal issues. Similarly, Vonnegut’s anger
in Breakfast of Champions helped me
stay strong as a children’s advocate and as a writer, and how to experiment
with my writing style outside of commonly accepted structures and formats. The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Harry Potter series reinforced my faith
in the potential of adolescent morality and the future of the world. Watership Down by R. Adams was such a sweet adventure that some of
this element just is a necessary ingredient of even the scariest or saddest
story. The versatility in cross-genre and the use of humour by Bradbury had to
have been a subliminal inspiration, especially now that I think about it. Dean
Koontz has been masterful. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by D. Adams and Another
Roadside Attraction by Robbins pushed me into the wilder side of writing
regardless of censorship, as did the Fabulous
Furry Freak Brothers comics. And,
Stephen King’s use of everyday horror convinced me that alarming scenes can be
created by using almost anything as a prop.
What do you like to do when you're not writing?
Is this a
trick question? Nobody can always do what they like to do, but the activity
that I like most is reading. Of course, there are other activities that I
enjoy, such as watching WVU sports, gardening, home repairs, family events, and
my son, he’s 41, always has something new and fun to show me, usually from the
internet.
What’s next for
you?
Hah!
This is another trick question. I will
continue to write fiction for eternity.
Author Bio:
Robert Eggleton has served as a children's advocate for over forty years. He is best known for his investigative reports about children’s programs, most of which were published by the West Virginia Supreme Court where he worked from 1982 through 1997. Today, he is a recently retired psychotherapist from the mental health center in Charleston, West Virginia. Rarity from the Hollow is his debut novel and its release followed publication of three short Lacy Dawn Adventures in magazines: Wingspan Quarterly, Beyond Centauri, and Atomjack Science Fiction. Author proceeds have been donated to a child abuse prevention program operated by Children’s Home Society of West Virginia: http://www.childhswv.org/
Find out more about Robert Eggleton and his books and these websites:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13603677-rarity-from-the-hollow
https://www.facebook.com/robert.eggleton2
https://twitter.com/roberteggleton2
Rarity from the Hollow
Lacy Dawn's father relives the Gulf War, her mother's teeth are rotting out, and her best friend is murdered by the meanest daddy on Earth. Life in the hollow is hard. She has one advantage -- an android was inserted into her life and is working with her to cure her parents. But, he wants something in exchange. It's up to her to save the Universe. Lacy Dawn doesn't mind saving the universe, but her family and friends come first.
Rarity from the Hollow is adult literary science fiction filled with tragedy, comedy and satire.
“The most enjoyable science fiction novel I have read in years.”
—Temple Emmet Williams, Author, former editor for Reader’s Digest
“Quirky, profane, disturbing… In the space between a few lines we go from hardscrabble realism to pure sci-fi/fantasy. It’s quite a trip.”
— Evelyn Somers, The Missouri Review
About the Author: I recently retired after 52 years of contributions into the U.S. Social Security fund so that I could write and promote my fiction. I’m a former mental health psychotherapist in West Virginia. But, after coming home drained from working with child abuse victims, I didn't have the energy left to begin its self-promotion. Author proceeds have been donated to a child abuse prevention program in my home state. http://www.childhswv.org/ A listing of services that are supported can be found here: http://mountainrhinestones.blogspot.com/2015/06/review-giveaway-rarity-from-hollow-by.html.
Purchase links:
Link for excerpt of the 1st Chapter: http://www.wattpad.com/12596126-rarity-from-the-hollow-excerpt
