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An Interview With David Hoof

Tell us a bit about yourself. What would you like us to know about you?

Writing is the hardest job I have ever had. The hours are long, my boss is insatiable, and the only thing that would be worse is to do anything else.

What are you doing now? (Career? Married? Single? Children? Pets?)

Married, kids out of the house.

What is your favourite food?

I'm an omnivore. Unless it's still squirming, I'll probably try it.

What is your favourite colour?

My right and left brain are wrestling between blue and green, so maybe after a lengthy fracas, teal will win.

What is your favourite sound?

A storm moving through autumn trees

Who is your favourite person?

Next question.

What is your favourite place?

The Berkshires in October, on a brisk moonlit night. A close second would be Norway's fjords on a clear bright day.

What is your favourite memory?

My wedding. What, you think my wife won't read this?

What is your favourite article of clothing?

Bomber jacket.

What is your favourite word?

ineffable

What is your favourite writers' quote and why?

We have all of Shakespeare and you ask me for one line or couplet better than the rest?

What is your most favourite quality about yourself?

indefatigable. I'm ineffably indefatigable, but usually I don't talk about it.

What is the least favourite quality about yourself?

As with Shakespeare, there are so many choices...

If you could go anywhere in the world right now, where would it be and why?

New England. The right time of year and a place where people respect privacy.

What inspires you to write and why?

I get to answer questions like this and feel more important than I really am. Or maybe it's just that so few people really use the full range of language to express their feelings, so someone needs to try or we'll all end up grunting monosyllables, the same monosyllables at the same cues.

What is your favourite book and why?

Still pondering.

What is your favourite genre and why?

Mystery. More than thrillers, mysteries engage the mind, the senses, the being. In a good thriller one is rarely surprised. In a good mystery, I mean a really good one, the reader is always surprised. In a dynamite mystery, the reader is blown away at the end. If the writer is good, he or she will put down all the clues, but conceal and misdirect.

List your three favourite authors (any genre) and why?

Grisham. His stories are too long, unnecessarily detailed and utlimately slow.

Connelly. Another one who writes overlong stories. Under the harsh light of reality, many of the plots are implausible, disappointing. To make things interesting he likes to pull rabbits out of the hat at the end. That's hare-brained.

Leonard. Once superb, his plots have deteriorated into character sketches about people who are ultimately unlikeable and, therefore, uninteresting.

What do you think makes a writer successful?

Developing a niche and defending it. Tom Clancy was an insurance salesman who couldn't figure neutron flux if his life depended on it, and he's going on about nuclear subs. Go figure.

Whta is it that makes you successful as a writer?

The right book at the right time. Kismet.

What are your goals as a writer?

To die slumped over my word processor.

What is the best tip you can give to fellow writers?

Rewrite, revise, rethink. Ask what makes this story different and better than others of its t type, or others closely similar in nature.

What do you hope to provide your readers with through your writing?

Hard questions, avoiding easy answers. My charactes don't come across as having all the answers.

List your three favourite online writer-resource sites and why (include URLS).

Maybe some day, just for fun, I'll write a spoofy cyber novel titled "Google Me Tender."
At this point I keep turning up so many interesting sites that it would be premature to pick three. I'd only have to change them a day or week later.

If you have published a book, tell us about your publishing success (title, publishing date and company, where it is available to purcahse).

Like some artists, I've gone through several periods, even written as a female (but never dressed as one), and will always look for the voice and tense that's best for the story. Every story is different. If I have to become a different kind of writer to make a story work, that's what I'll do. The story deserves no less.
The last novel is Little Gods by Chiaroscuro Press, which has been praised by Senator John Kerry and others. It's my best. If your best is not your last, you're headed in the wrong direction.

How long did it take you to write your book(s)?

I write quickly, ye olde 'white hot first draft' but I revise laboriously. The process, including feedback from trusted reviewers, usually takes a year and a half, two years. Meanwhile my wife provides the food. For her I cook well.

What would you do differently if you could repeat the same publishing experience?

Marketing by American publishers sucks. Sorry, but a prior book of mine earned $175,000 in royalties in six Japanese editions. The same novel in America sold 4,000 copies and quietly sunk into oblivion. The difference? Marketing. The Japanese said to readers, 'Here's this great book, you should buy it, read it.' and they did. To paraphrase Field of Dreams, advertise it and they will buy. Or, if nobody knows the circus is in town, nobody sees the elephant. If I could go back, I'd spend all of my first advance on marketing.

What have you learned about the publishing world?

Be shrewd, reinvent yourself, don't be shy. Find a common thread with those in the business. In New York, you're only as good as your last book. If they've seen your numbers and aren't impressed, I recommend identity theft or a pen name.

This is your chance to 'Talk Back' to your readers. What would you like to say to them?

I don't know. Most of them are Japanese or Danish or Dutch or Bulgarian, and I don't know any of those languages. But if I could learn only one word in all of them, it would be "Thanks" My foreign rights sales put two kids through college.

What's the one thing that you want them to know about your writing?

Language should sound to your 'mental ear' just like music. It should be lyrical and pleasing. If you just listened to the flow of sounds from someone reading a story aloud, even if you knew nothing about what the sounds meant, the story should still be moving, haunting, memorable.

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