William C. Pack
Author of The Bottom of the Sky (Riverbend Publishing)
When did you start reading, and what did you like to read as a kid?
Where I grew up, there was no kindergarten. The town was a coal and cattle town, and academics weren’t stressed, so when I entered first grade I could not draw the alphabet. We didn’t have books in the house, so at first I only read in school. Then someone, my parents or grandparents, bought a set of encyclopedias from a traveling salesman, on time. I read them over and over. By the I was about 12, I had become an average reader and a good student. My academic success and appetite for books grew from there.
When did you think about becoming a writer? Was there someone who got you interested in writing?
I don’t remember anyone in particular getting me interested in writing. If I was to give credit where credit is due, I suppose it would be to my English teachers in junior high – especially Bob Sandler, now retired in Billings, MT. In junior high I decided I wanted to be an author, specifically a novelist.
But poverty was still a problem. I left home at 15, dropped out of high school in my junior year (I eventually got my GED), married at 17, and become a father at 18. I was busy making a living, but I read constantly – fiction and pop physics - and I wrote my first novel-length manuscript at 22. It wasn’t until I became ill and retired at 43 (I had Forrest Gumped my way into an EVP position at the largest financial firm on earth), took the SATs, and then earned my undergraduate from Stanford at 46, that I began in earnest writing my first novel, The Bottom of the Sky. For me, it was good to wait. I think I had less to say in my twenties.
When do you write?
When it’s quiet. That means everyone has to be out of the house or asleep, lawns can’t be mowed, phones can’t ring, doorbells should be inoperable. It also means is that I stay up very, very late at night. Writing The Bottom of the Sky took about 5 years, and the self-imposed isolation made me a squirrelly insomniac. I did take the time and hound enough professionals to become a journeyman at full-length fiction, though, having hounded three world-class editor/authors into beating me and teaching me. (When you think you are done, hire an editor - even if you have to do their laundry ... even the socks and junk.) Perhaps a great strength in writing and weakness in interpersonal skills is that I am relentless, and I believe I have high standards and can endure abuse. I don’t get writers’ block, per se. I get plenty down on paper, and then I prune and improve. And prune and improve. If I am not having a particularly creative day, I edit, edit, edit.
What some good advice that you've received concerning writing?
The best advice I received concerning writing is that you need to read only the best, and you need to reveal your own work to stern judges who are better than you. Don’t settle. Don’t hold your best turns of phrase or even chapters as precious. Every word in service of the story. These tips are cliché, but there is a reason they are. And if you feel a little uncomfortable with some aspect of your creation, then it ain’t right. Do it again. And say something worth saying, dammit.
How did you find the publisher for this book?
I only shopped my book to one publisher – no, two, but the first one turned me down two years before the book was finished (my fault for being impatient). The publisher who listened, Riverbend Publishing, is one of only a couple Montana publishers. I am a native Montanan and patriotic about it. I approached Riverbend directly, and they listened long enough to accept 50 pages. Soon they read the whole manuscript. A month or so later, we shook hands (and, oh yeah, never use clichés!). Nearly a year after that, the book was released. Then the road show began. I know I’m drunk and in jail, but what town is this?
I’ve been particularly gratified at the reception at signings, but being an unknown with a regional publisher, the interest of NPR affiliates, a PBS-syndicated show, Voice of America, Forbes, commercial radio, newspapers, and other magazines has been quite validating. I wonder sometimes who invited me to the party. At moments I'm Sally Field – "You like me...!" But The Bottom of the Sky is about abuse of power – the power of adults over children, of men over women, and of corporations – particularly Wall Street and Silicon Valley concerns – over the public and their employees. I think it struck a nerve or two. If folks want to review the review, or TV footage, or mp3’s of the interviews, they can visit BottomoftheSky.com. Please. I'm lonely. So lonely.
What are you working on at the moment?
7 months of full-time promotions finishes at the end of the holidays. Then I crawl back into the Cruddy Study and conjure my next novel. The intrigue will play out at an archaeological site, in Washington DC, in corporate boardrooms, and at a major university. Or somethin' else. I dunno. I figure two years, tops!
Until then, I’m reading the Pulitzer winners because, even if I don’t like a particularly story, they’ve been screened for craft.
William C. Pack has been the subject of an episode of PBS's Between the Lines and has been featured on NPR and in Forbes magazine. Visit his Web site at www.bottomofthesky.com.
