Writester.net

Name: Howard Camner
Website: http://members.authorsguild.net/hcamner/
Contact: hcamner@aol.com

Questions

Q: Where are you originally from?
A: I’m originally from Miami, Florida. I’ve left many times but always somehow seem to wind up here.

Q: Can you tell us your latest book news?
A: Latest book news: My last book publication was five years ago already. I have several / too many things going at once now. I’m pedaling a feature film screenplay, there’s a children’s book in the works, possibly a new poetry book, a stage play, and I’m gearing up to get my autobiography going again. That seems to be my focus at the moment, but I move from one project to the other pretty quickly. My attention span is not what it used to be.

Q: How old were you when you first started writing?
A: I wrote my first poem at the age of ten and started getting serious about it at 17. A tough year for a kid, and I desperately needed an outlet that was constructive and not destructive.

Q: When did you first realize you had the potential to be a writer?
A: I first realized I had potential in 1976. A critic wrote a review of a publication I was in and stated that I was “a most original poet, without question”. I perked up at that.

Q: What was your inspiration to write your first novel?
A: My first poetry book happened because I was headlining with the West End Poetry Troupe in New York. We had a show in New Jersey and a publisher of a journal I had been published in a lot was at the show. When I came off stage she asked me if I was interested in putting out a book. Of course I went for it. I may be dumb, but I’m not stupid.

Q: Is there anyone or anything that inspired you to write?
A: The main pivot that turned me to writing was the death of my grandfather. As I stated, I needed an outlet and that was it.

Q: How has your environment/upbringing colored your writing?
A: My writing is “colored” by the places I’ve been and the people I encounter. Most of them are nuts, so that becomes great inspiration. My strength is characterization and it certainly comes from my encounters.

Q: Do you have a specific writing style?
A: My writing style is definitely character-driven, I lean toward the absurd which requires no imagination at all, unfortunately.

Q: What genre are you most comfortable writing?
A: My main genres are poetry and screen writing.

Q: How do you come up with the title(s) for your book(s)?
A: Titles come from either an included poem or an overall idea. My last book “Hiss” is a pretty seething piece of work, so the title came from an angry cat or a warning snake.

Q: Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
A: The message in all my books is “Buy Me”…Seriously I would say that the message is we’re all in this together. It’s a crazy journey with a lot of crazy players on stage…and we just have to be ourselves and let it swirl around us.

Q: How much of the novel is realistic?
A: Everything I write is realistic. I believe all writers write from their real lives. It’s pretty impossible not to.

Q: Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your life?
A: Most writing experiences and events writers think they created somehow comes from their lives. It may be just a moment from reality, but you take that moment and turn it into a good piece of time.

Q: What books have most influenced your life?
A: Two books have influenced my life: The Little Prince by Antoine de saint Exupery and most of all The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. I think it’s the most beautiful story ever written, and it takes two minutes to read.

Q: If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?
A: I might consider Silverstein a mentor only because I learned from him the power that even the simpliest words contain. That thin green book in the children’s section (The Giving Tree) can easily take down a grown man. There’s nothing like it.

Q: What are you reading now?
A: I’m not reading anything now. Too busy writing to read.

Q: What new author has grasped your interest?
A: I’m not interested in any new authors. I prefer the classics.

Q: Is there anything additional you would like to share with your readers?
A: The only thing I would like to share with my readers is that I know it’s easy to leave books behind with all this internet computer stuff and cell phones that can do more and more. I remember the good old days when a phone was attached to a cord in your house. Now phones are cameras and televisions. Books will always be books, but I’m afraid they’ll be disappearing soon. Humanity’s too smart for itself, and that’s not a good thing.

Speaking of which, I see on some bookseller websites that my own books are selling for ten times what they originally sold for. Did I buy the farm and nobody told me? Never mind…I don’t want to know.