MARK MELLON
MARK MELLON
Books
MARK MELLON
I’m a novelist who supports his family by working as an attorney. To provide more detail about my checkered life:
My experience as a mover extends to one week working at the end of summer of ‘75.
The lifeguard/swimming instructor job took place over three summers at Ft. Belvoir, VA. I also worked briefly as a lifeguard at an indoor pool at the Navy Annex opposite from the Navy Yard in Anacostia, Washington, DC. The pool was very large, built in WWII to teach freshly drafted sailors how to swim. By the late ‘70’s, the hastily constructed roof had started to fall, a chunk of concrete had almost killed a retired officer, and a flak net was strung up under the roof to catch debris. The pool was freezing and used by Navy Seals who swam laps for hours with hundred-pound scuba tanks on their backs. Among other fun experiences I had in this place, I got thrown in the pool by a bunch of Marines and met the worst exhibitionist I have ever seen (Roxanne the “Fox”).
I worked as a door-to-door salesman during my period spent hopelessly flailing with no idea what to do with myself after graduating from the University of Virginia in ’78 with a BA in history. One product was a lifetime supply of color photo enlargement certificates (a dog, I quit that after about a month); the other was carpet cleaning. I lasted about three months doing this. My sharpest memory of this period was going into a living room to measure the carpet for an estimate. Over the mantelpiece was a full length, life size portrait of a young woman stretched out stark naked over a couch, a miniature white poodle strategically positioned over her crotch. My God, I thought, absolutely stunned, that’s the tackiest thing I’ve ever seen. Why would anyone have that in their living room? I later figured out from a poster on the stairwell that she’d been a stripper back in the ‘50’s and the portrait showed her in her glory days.
The carpenter’s helper was a job that my uncle scored for me in San Antonio while I was waiting to enter the Army. I was a complete fish out of water among Texas good old boys, basically a foreigner to their minds. Most of my time was spent with this old, closeted homosexual carpenter named Jack Johnson. He spoke in a deep raspy voice, bore more than a passing resemblance to Popeye, and was perfectly miserable. He railed at me constantly, with good reason since I absolutely stank at carpentry. Among his other traits, he had a habit of constantly saying “Do you follow me? Do you follow me?” This was ironic, since among other qualities, he was hopelessly inarticulate.
My Russian translator experience was in the Army in the last stages of the Cold War. I learned Russian at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA. I was also stationed in Nuremburg, Germany and Ft. Polk, LA. I traveled a fair amount while I was in the service, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, and a good chunk of rural Bavaria. My time at the Presidio and two months spent in Berlin before the Wall fell were some of the happiest days of my life.
Other odd, assorted facts about me:
Writers I admire: Kingsley Amis, William Faulkner, Henry Fielding, Samuel Johnson, Jonathan Swift, Vladimir Nabokov, Cormac McCarthy, B. Traven, Joseph Conrad, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, Dashiell Hammett, Jose LaTour. This is a very partial list.
Music I like: Rolling Stones, Pissed Jeans, Pentagram, Sun Ra Arkestra, Southern Culture On The Skids, Dion and the Belmonts, the Crystals, the Ronettes, Mingus Big Band, Elvis Presley, Janis Joplin, Can, Amon Duül, Annabouboula, Blue Cheer, Blue Oyster Cult, the Midnight Creeps, the Cramps, Sex Pistols, Siouxsie and the Banshees. This is also partial.
Favorite movies: two. The Wild Bunch (my bad side) and The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen, Terry Gilliam’s version (my nice side).
I once climbed the smallest of the three Great Pyramids. The view was unbelievable.
One of my aunts was shoved not once, but twice, by Lyndon Baines Johnson.
Q. WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO NEW AUTHORS THAT YOU WISHED YOU HAD RECEIVED YOURSELF WHEN YOU STARTED?
A. Get over any reluctance about submitting your work. For a long time, I was convinced I couldn’t write anything that would be good enough to be published. I was grateful to find out that I was wrong.
Q. DO YOU VIEW YOUR WRITING AS A KIND OF SPIRITUAL PRACTICE?
A. No. I basically turned myself into a writing machine a long time ago so it’s more of a mechanical thing for me nowadays although I’d still be nowhere without inspiration and who knows where that comes from?
Q. WHEN YOU READ YOUR BOOK REVIEWS HOW DO YOU HANDLE THE BAD ONES?
A. I remember what Kingsley Amis said: “They may well ruin my breakfast, but they damn well won’t ruin my lunch.”
Q. HOW DO YOU FEEL WHEN YOU DO GET A GOOD REVIEW?
A. On top of the world.
Q. HAVE YOU EVER CONSIDER WRITING UNDER A PSEUDONYM?
A. No. I want credit for my work.
Q. ARE YOU TRYING TO HAVE EACH BOOK STAND ON ITS OWN OR ARE YOU TRYING TO BUILD A BODY OF WORK WITH CONNECTIONS BETWEEN EACH BOOK?
A. Some of stories are interconnected, the Melkart yarns, the Ring stories, to give two examples, but most are independent of one another.
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Q. DO YOU WRITE EVERY DAY? HOW MANY HOURS A DAY DO YOU WRITE?
A. I don’t write every day, but when I do I write a thousand words for each session. This can take from two to three hours.
Q. HOW MUCH OF YOUR PERSONAL LIFE DO YOU INCORPORATE INTO YOUR WRITING OR DO YOU MAKE UP EVERYTHING?
A. I make everything up.
Q. HOW DO YOU CONNECT WITH YOUR READERS? DO YOU OFFER THEM A FREE BOOK? DO YOU OFFER THEM A NEWSLETTER?
A. I try to stay connected with people on Facebook and through my blog on my website.
Q. DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE AUTHOR? CAN YOU TELL US WHY? EVERYTHING?
A. I admire a lot of writers, but if I had to pick just one, I’d say William Faulkner for his amazing feel for the past and its weight on the present day.
Q. HOW LONG DO YOU RESEARCH BEFORE YOU BEGIN YOUR NEXT BOOK?
A. I used to spend as much as a year reading up on a subject, but nowadays I write and do the research as I go along.
Q. WOULD YOU GO BACK AND REWRITE ANY OF YOUR BOOKS? WHY?
A. I might edit them again, but I wouldn’t do a major rewrite. If it wasn’t good in the first place, why try again?
Q. TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF. ARE YOU MARRIED? HAVE CHILDREN/GRANDCHILDREN? IS THERE A SPECIAL DOG/CAT/BIRD IN YOUR LIFE?
A. I’ve been very happily married for over thirty-five years to Irene Williams. We have two children, our son Frank and daughter Jan. We also have two dogs, Dazzle and Czarina.
Q. DO YOU HAVE A DAY JOB OR ARE YOU A FULL-TIME WRITER?
A. I work as an attorney to support myself and my family.
Q. ANY HOBBIES? DO THEY HELP YOU IN YOUR WRITING?
A. I took up horseback riding originally for the experience since my fiction involves a lot of that, but quickly came to love the sport for itself.
A. DID YOU JUST KNOW YOU WANTED TO BE A WRITER OR DID YOU HAVE A PARTICULAR EXPERIENCE THAT MADE YOU WANT TO START WRITING?
A. I’ve been writing stories since I was seven years old, so I guess I was just born this way.
Q. WHAT IS CURRENTLY LACKING IN OUR CHILDREN'S EDUCATION TODAY IN YOUR COUNTRY?
A. Not qualified to say.
Q. DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE CHILDHOOD BOOK?
A. Good Night, Moon was a particular favourite of mine along with And What Do You Say, Dear?
Q. HOW DO YOU COME UP WITH THE TITLES FOR YOUR BOOKS?
A. Various sources. A lot of the titles are references to other writings or expressions such as my current short story, “Gringo In A Strange Land.”
Q. WHAT ARE YOUR TOP THREE FAVORITE TYPES OF MUSIC? DO THEY HELP YOU WITH YOUR WRITING?
A. I like rock’n’roll, Latin Jazz, and country music to name a few and listen to music all the time while I write.
Q. WHAT DOES YOUR WRITING SPACE LOOK LIKE?
A. I used to have my own office, but currently I’m working out of the dining room at our new house.
Q. WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST DIFFICULT PART FOR YOU WHEN IT COMES TO WRITING?
A. Knowing how to end the story.
Q. WHAT DOES YOUR FAMILY THINK ABOUT YOUR WRITING?
A. My wife also writes, but in a different genre (romance). We respect each other’s work, but don’t read it because it’s mutually not our cups of tea.
Q. IF YOU COULD PICK ONE OF YOUR BOOKS TO BECOME A MOVIE BLOCKBUSTER, WHICH BOOK WOULD THAT BE AND WHO WOULD YOU LIKE TO PLAY THE CHARACTERS?
A. Melkart And The Amazon Queen no doubt with Jason Momoa as the battling Bronze Age badass.
Q. WHEN WRITING DO YOU TRY TO GIVE YOUR READERS WHAT THEY WANT OR DO YOU GO FOR ORIGINALITY?
A. I try to give them plenty of action and keep them interested to the end.
Q. HOW DO YOU MARKET YOUR BOOKS? WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE WAY? WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE WAY?
A. I plug my work on Facebook and on my website. My favourite way to advance my work is to get published so people will see and read my work. My least favourite way is to plug stuff by myself.
Q. DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF AN AUTHOR OR A WRITER FIRST? WHY?
A. If I’m more successful, maybe then I’ll be an author. For now, writer will do just fine.
Q. HOW LONG, ON AVERAGE, DOES IT TAKE YOU TO WRITE A BOOK?
A. Usually, it takes me under a year to write a novel.
Q. DO YOU OUTLINE YOUR BOOK BEFORE WRITING IT OR DO YOU JUST PLOT ALONG AND HOPE FOR THE BEST?
A. Usually, a mixture of both although some novels are more tightly plotted out beforehand than others.
Q. HAVE YOU PUBLISHED IN A TRADITIONAL WAY, OR SELF-PUBLISHED OR BOTH? WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THIS METHOD?
A. I don’t see much point in self-publishing without a pre-existing audience.
Q. DOES WRITING EXHAUST YOU OR ENERGIZE YOU? HOW?
A. Both. It wears me out doing and revs me up when I succeed in being published.
Q. DO YOU HAVE OTHER WRITERS THAT HAVE HELPED YOU ALONG YOUR WAY? HOW?
A. Dashiell Hammett is the exemplar of the hardboiled style, which is basically how I write currently.
Q. WHAT DID YOU DO WITH YOUR FIRST BOOK ADVANCE MONEY?
A. I’ll let you know when I get one.
Q. WHAT IS THE MOST DIFFICULT THING YOU HAVE FOUND WHEN WRITING CHARACTERS OF THE OPPOSITE SEX?
A. Getting into the female mind.
Q. WHAT IS YOUR OPINION ON PROFANITY IN BOOKS TODAY? IS IT OK TO USE? WHY?
A. Depends on context.
Q. ARE YOUR CHARACTERS ‘REAL’ OR DO THEY COME OUT OF YOUR IMAGINATION OR DO YOU BASE THEM ON SOMEONE YOU KNOW?
A. I’ve used all three methods over the years.
Q. WHEN DID YOU START WRITING?
A. Seriously at age thirty-five after reading the first volume of Anthony Burgess’s autobiography.
Q. WHAT IS YOUR WRITING KRYPTONITE?
A. The television.
Q. AN AUTHOR'S PATH IS NEVER EASY. WHAT KEEPS YOU GOING?
A. If you don’t try, you have zero chance of success. If you do try, you have a chance however slim that may be.
