E. John Love:a Writer.

Earlier this week,I had an opportunity to sit down with Canadian author Jay Clarke (aka “Michael Slade”).

He’s a former lawyer and the author of over a dozen crime novels,in a genre sometimes referred to as “Mountie Noir”. (It’s a great label –almost as good,IMHO,as “Tartan Noir”,which refers to Scottish crime novelist Ian Rankin.)

Mr. Clarke is currently doing a Writer in Residence at Vancouver Community College,and during that time is making himself available for one-to-one’s with students and staff,as well as conducting some presentations or classes. Check out his personal “Special-X”website.

What did I learn from talking with Michael Slade?

Michael Slade appears highly energized,with a laser-like focus and a rapidity of speech akin to a machine-gun. In answering my questions,he flowed breathlessly from one story to the next,in effect raising me up out of my chair a little,buoyed on his waves of enthusiastic patter. The man has a lot to say,and says it with a quickness and precision that had me picturing him sweet-talking many a jury back in his day.

I had hoped to ask him some questions such as who his favourite writers were,what fiction had influenced him,etc. I had considered my questions around in my mind,but I never asked them. I never even got close to ‘em. That’s because when I spoke,my mouth began telling him about how I hoped to find an Agent or a small publisher to help me repackage and market my first novel. I suppose this is what I was really frustrated by –a lack of success in selling my books.

What he told me was this:the eBook revolution is still a work in progress. The market will soon “tip over”,and eBook sales will eclipse print book sales entirely –not just at Amazon,but everywhere in the market. The tablet and eReader markets are making this happen,and the traditional publishing industry will be changed forever.

What does it boil down to?

My efforts as a novelist are split down the middle by an important boundary,One the one side (the side I love and am blindly devoted to),there lives me,the caring creator,trying to formulate and legitimize a mythical world of characters and events through the written word. On the other side,there’s this realm of unknown results and lack of predictability,where I stuff little messages into bottles and fling them out into the sea,hoping for one of my books to get purchased. On the first side of the boundary,the one where I’m synthesizing out of fragments,I’m in familiar territory. I know I can do it and have confidence that my skill will improve over time with lots of practice. On the other side,it feels like a no-man’s land,with me flailing around in the dark.

All the same,the aspect of both those things is the concept of me remaining in control of the work and the process. Above all,that is what appeals to me the most.

The books I’m trying to write (and Jay,if you read the copy I handed you of my little novel,Owe Nothing,then bless you sir),are vastly different in content,pace,and tone from anything by Michael Slade,whose last novel,Red Sun was described by one reviewer as “Ian Fleming-esque in its narrative drive”. I am still developing my voice.

But,we’re all working in the shadow of the same industry-changing technological tide that is putting more emphasis on writers becoming their own publishers,and paper turning into pixels.

The stigma attached to self-publishing (“vanity press”) is eroding as more readers and writers get involved online,and as the barriers to “getting published”continue to transform.

Jay Clarke also named quite a few famous authors who initially self-pubbed (Mark Twain?) or who had struggled for decades before their big book came (Elmore Leonard!). He mentioned that every author tends to compare himself to another whom he admires,whether newer or older. We’re all influenced or inspired by somebody else.

I believe what Michael Slade was telling me was essentially this:Don’t quit. Keep trying,and keep control of your work,because the sea change is coming…