Fiction-Trail: Author Smackdown!
Every week fiction-trail will choose
an author and contributor of Fiction
on Steemit and bite at them with our very own mouth of madness!
This week we speak to the fantastic, time-traveling & supernatural loving @johnjgeddes! Lets see which of the multiverses he claims for his own!
FT: How and when did you first learn about Steemit?
JJG: I first learned about Steemit from my son. I was complaining to him about my Twitter followers re-tweeting my links and not providing feedback. I wanted to share my writing, but found people on Twitter not only wrote in 140 characters, but didn’t want to read much more either!
FT: How difficult did you find it to get traction on the platform?
JJG: I found it easier to gain traction on Steemit than on Twitter. On Twitter, I was stuck at 64 followers for the longest time before people discovered me. With hard work, I gradually grew a following but quickly found out that the famous writers I’d chat with on the site bought most of their followers. Twitter wasn’t going to be the effective platform I desired.
FT: That is surely good news for those starting out. Can you give us an insight into your history as an author
JJG: Oh boy! I'll give you the condensed version.
FT: Having seen your back catalogue, yes please!
JJG: I was first recognized as a poet, by winning a prize in a contest judged by Canadian poet Earle Birney, and was mentored briefly by Raymond Souster who promised to introduce me to Leonard Cohen and other members of the Canadian literary scene. Ray had good intentions but his plan scared me off. I’m a very shy person who prefers to shun the limelight.
In terms of my career,I taught Literature and was a head of an English Department and a Curriculum Dean. I retired to write and wrote my first published novel, A Familiar Rain, which is currently being revised. I also have an Indie novel on Amazon Kindle called Epiphany and several other novels in queue.
In addition I have written over 500 stories, hundreds of poems and many essays.
FT: A popular question. If you could be an animal what would it be?
JJG: Sorry, but I honestly don’t think that way. I have trouble enough trying to be human.
FT: What excites you as a reader and as a writer?
JJG: The love of words and the music they make inside me. I admire the style of Fitzgerald and Nabakov, and am drawn to the wonder and innocence of St. Exupery. In terms of poetry, I love Rilke, Pasternak and Yeats.
FT: Has Steemit changed the way you write?
JJG: I adapt my writing to steemit. I write shorter sentences and paragraphs and try to provide visual breaks for the reader. Finding the right images is time consuming and frustrating though—I can never seem to find images that match the pictures in my head. I end up compromising a lot. Did I mention I’m a perfectionist?
FT: You are quite a prolific writer on steemit. Do you have a store of work or is everything new?
JJG: I’m constantly writing, and if I re-read one of my pieces, I’m revising. Of course I have an extensive archive of unpublished work. For example, I wrote a short story a day for a year responding to Andy Meisner’s prompts on Storypraxis. He ran out of steam before me but I carried on an invented my own prompts and now have about 500 pieces. I don’t suffer from writer’s block.
*FT: You stories often include elements of time travel, the supernatural and of course love. What is your favourite genre? *
JJG: I don’t deliberately choose to write in a specific genre—actually, I don’t deliberately choose to write on a topic at all. I’m an intuitive writer and everything is at the whim of inspiration and the subconscious. I have a devil of a time writing cover letters and book pitches because I see most of my writing as cross-genre
FT: What would you say is your finest Steemit post in any category not necessarily the most lucrative?
JJG: I wrote a story for steemit called The Ashes. It didn’t get the reception I hoped it would. I’d like to re-steem it because so many factors come into play such as the time of day, the tags chosen and the length. It was a longer work and now I’ve learned to break the longer stories into two or three parts.
FT: And finally. What advice would you give to a new steemian wishing to write and potentially get noticed on Steemit
JJG: My experience on steemit has taught me that if you consistently produce good, original content you will attract a loyal following. I’m embarrassed when I make a typo or spelling mistake or an error in formatting—that to me is inexcusable. Writing is a communication and posting something that is poorly edited and formatted is being discourteous to your reader. I strive for a spirit of excellence in everything I post and am my own worst critic when I fail. I don’t measure myself by others—I want to keep growing and developing my craft.
A splendid delve into the enigmatic @johnjgeddes, a study in steemit writing excellence! I recommend you check out the splendid work on his blog here!
Follow for featured authors each week where we can learn of writing, fiction and odd favourite animal choices.
published by @fiction-trail, written by @meesterboom
Thanks, @meesterboom, for posting this great interview with a marvelous author! I'm very happy to have learned a bit more about his background today.
Your interview has brought to light a story I somehow missed, which I can now go and read! Thanks again! 😄😇😄
I am glad you enjoyed. That's what we are trying to do with these interviews and I think it is paying off! :O)
eesh! I see in responding to you I made at least two typo's. Now I'm going to grind my teeth all night. Thanks for the opportunity to re-introduce myself, @meesterboom
I apologise! I should have caught them. No need to grind teeth you can blame me!
you're very gracious, @meesterboom...Thank you
Hi @fiction-trail, I just stopped back to let you know your post was one of my favourite reads yesterday and I included it in my Steemit Ramble. You can read what I wrote about your post here.
Thanks @shadowspub!
@johnjgeddes - could you provide a link to the Ashes story, or re-submit it? Thanks!