interviews with Greg

​Pat Rullo, host of Speak-up Talk Radio, interviewed Greg about his book, The Gills Creek Five. That interview can be downloaded by clicking here. A previous interview with Greg about A Seed for the Harvest can be downloaded by clicking here. Other interviews with Greg can be found on Edgy Christian Fiction and New Asian Writing.

Below is a transcript from an interview over coffee with Greg’s publishing industry friend and avid reader, Stephanie McKendrick.

Stephanie: For starters, tell me what led you to start writing? Was it something you've always done or studied in school?
Greg: No, I've just always been fascinated with a well-told story. But I never considered writing one of my own until I was in my late 20s, early 30s. I developed an idea about time travelers from the future being responsible for the JFK assassination. I started outlining the story, doing research, and drafting some initial notes, which I still have, by the way. But my son came along about the same time, and I had to table the whole project. That was the first time I saw myself as a potential author, but I never finished the JFK story.
Stephanie: You should; I'd read it.
Greg: Well, we'll see. But I think Stephen King beat me to it.
Stephanie: You know, speaking of that, most best-selling authors are known for a specific genre, theme, or series. But your four novels are each very different. Tell me about that.
Greg: Well, first of all, my motivation has never been to mass-market my books. The novels I've written are simply an expression of ideas and experiences at different times of my life. Someone advised me early on to simply "write what you would want to read."  So, I guess you could say I had a target audience of one. Even so, I did look into agent representation when I realized I might have something substantial, but that wasn't a realistic possibility.
Stephanie: How so?
Greg: Well, as you know, agents need authors to be available to market and promote their books. With a full-time job, I simply wouldn't have been able to attend conventions, book signings, conferences, meetings, and all that. So those discussions didn't go very far. So, I fell back on the independent route and set up my own company, Rolos Tuesday Publishing.
Stephanie: Where did the name Rolos Tuesday come from?
Greg: It's an old Sally Forth comic strip reference. I'm a fan.
Stephanie: I'll have to check that out. So, you mentioned that your novels were from your own life experiences. Are they autobiographical?
Greg: No, I wouldn't say that. People often ask me, "Did that really happen?" And while real events, people, or experiences may have inspired certain storylines in my books, I'm quick to tell them it's just fiction. So, people who know me don't have to worry about ending up as a character in one of my books. 
Stephanie: But your first novel, A Seed for the Harvest, seems very introspective and character driven. None of that came from real people or events?
Greg: When I wrote A Seed for the Harvest, it was a period in my life when I was leaning heavily on my faith to get me through a tough time. The story and its characters were both a comfort and a source of motivation for me. It was sort of an alternate reality for me while I was writing it. Ironically, the story inspired me to put my faith into action, just as the main character did in the book. So, my fiction writing led to a few real-life events, rather than the other way around.
Stephanie: You wrote your second novel, The Gills Creek Five, as a comical stage play. That was a pretty drastic departure from A Seed for the Harvest. How did that come about?
Greg: One of my favorite movies is Twelve Angry Men, the original 1957 version. I had seen it on TV around that time and was just fascinated by how the story was told through twelve unnamed men in a jury room arguing with each other. No action, no scenery. Just dialogue. And I thought, what if you did the same thing, but made it funny? I've never served on a jury before, but I'd been in a few men's small groups at church. So, I used that as the setting. And once I developed the characters, the story pretty much wrote itself. 
Stephanie: How do you mean?
Greg: Well, before I even started writing The Gills Creek Five, I spent a lot of time defining the five characters. I had learned a lot from writing my first novel and wanted to be a little more methodical the second time around. I wrote each of their backstories and came up with examples of how they talked, based on their personalities, to make sure their lines were distinguishable to the reader. And I developed story arcs for each of them across the nine scenes of the play. So, once I finally started writing the dialogue, the characters just came to life. I almost felt like a spectator to the whole thing.
Stephanie: You added an epilogue in a second edition of The Gills Creek Five a few years after it was first published. What inspired that?
Greg: Even after the first edition was published in 2017 and won a few awards, the characters just kept living in my head. Once I had an idea worthy of adding to the play, I wrote the epilogue and gave some closure to each character's story. I really enjoyed writing for them again and think it wraps things up nicely.
Stephanie: I haven't read this one, but I saw where you published a short story about the Apostle Paul also in 2017. How was that received?
Greg: [laughs] I wouldn't know; I don't have any feedback on that one. Some Believers may feel I took some liberties with Paul's story, but that's the point of fiction. But I worked hard not to conflict with anything in scripture. My goal was to present a story that allowed readers to connect with Paul personally. We all know about the physical hardships he encountered in his ministry: the beatings, the stoning, the shipwrecks, imprisonment, and so on. But Letters from Damascus is meant to shine light on what Paul may have experienced emotionally after his conversion. His lost relationships with family, friends, peers, and maybe even someone he loved. He was human after all. I know, for me, as I wrote the story I began to have greater empathy for the personal sacrifices Paul must have made for Christ. That was my hope for readers as well.
Stephanie: You switched gears in 2023, away from Christian fiction to a coming-of-age story with The Sea Turtle. What inspired you there?
Greg: Actually, it was a Woody Allen movie called Midnight in Paris I had watched on Netflix or Amazon Prime, I think. Say what you want about Woody Allen, but I find his ability to weave his own life, opinions, personality, and aspirations into his screenplays – in completely disassociated settings – and bring them to life through his characters, while making fun of himself at times, is just amazing. And after watching that movie, I asked myself, "What story could I create from my own life the way Woody Allen does from his?" And I drew a complete blank. 
Stephanie: [laughs] Really?
Greg: Yeah, I had nothing. I don't know art and literature the way Woody Allen does. I've never traveled abroad or had romantic affairs in some historic setting like Paris. My life seemed pretty boring by comparison. But then I thought about my summers at the beach growing up. And all the bumps and bruises of adolescence I experienced while I was there. And that became the basis for The Sea Turtle.
Stephanie: So, what I think I'm hearing you say, Greg, is that The Sea Turtle is more autobiographical than your first two novels.
Greg: Um. 
Stephanie: I got you.
Greg: [laughs] Yes, you did. The setting and several plot points did come from my own experience during those summers. But the story and characters themselves are completely fictional. I promise.
Stephanie: I'm curious; what was it like to get into the mind of a twelve-year-old protagonist?
Greg: Well, kids do think and process things differently; so I had some fun with that. My experience raising my own son definitely helped with the perspective. But writing The Sea Turtle was really enjoyable for me in a nostalgic sense. The reviewer at Kirkus Reviews said anyone who looks back fondly on their childhood summers should relate well to it. That's my hope, anyway.
Stephanie: Your latest novel, The Ballad of Walker Owens, is very different from your other three. Again, that kind of goes against publishing industry Marketing 101, you know.
Greg: [laughs] It does; I know. That's not the way to build a loyal base of readers, for sure. But, like I said, I write what I want to read. If that sells, fine. If it doesn't, that's fine too. I don't have any delusions about being the next Cormac McCarthy or Stephen King. I'm just a guy who enjoys telling stories.
Stephanie: So, tell me about your experience writing Walker Owens. It's really a story within a story, isn't it? 
Greg: It is. It's told as a father telling his own story to his disbelieving son, from the son's point of view. The son then serves as his father's ghost writer for a novel based on the story. So, it's told both through their dialogue and through the son's written narrative.
Stephanie: The book has country music, time travel, romance, family issues. That's a lot to roll into one story. What was your source of inspiration for all that?
Greg: The Ballad of Walker Owens was sort of an amalgamation of a lot of story ideas, some I'd already written but never published. Some go back to the JFK time traveler story, and others come from my own college-age experience. For the musical storyline, I actually took acoustic guitar lessons before writing it to help me understand some of the basics of music theory and playing guitar. It gave me the confidence I needed to write for a character with country music ambitions. And while time travel is a key part of the story, the dynamic between the son and his parents, along with his romantic relationship problems, are what I enjoyed most about it.
Stephanie: How about the pencil sketches in the book signed by the father in the story, Phillip Johnson? Who drew those for you?
Greg: Believe it or not, I drew those. In fact, the last one is actually a sketch of my wife from a picture taken on our wedding day. It's now framed and hanging in our house.
Stephanie: Nice. I noticed your About the Author paragraph on Amazon mentions that your four novels share the same story universe. I think I picked up on some of that, but it’s very subtle.
Greg: It is. There are a few "connect the dots" elements across the four books, the main one being the Lost Bean café and its owner. You'll find references to that in The Gills Creek Five, The Sea Turtle, and The Ballad of Walker Owens. There's also a direct reference in The Gills Creek Five and an inference in The Ballad of Walker Owens related to the author of A Seed for the Harvest. And an event that's discussed in The Gills Creek Five actually takes place in The Ballad of Walker Owens. Just a little fun to tie them all together.
Stephanie: Nice. Last question for you: Where can I get a "Walker Owens Live in Concert" t-shirt like the one you're wearing?
Greg: [laughs] I'll get one for you.