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interview with Tyler Tichelaar

Poje

Painless

Bill Poje
Xlibris (2008)
ISBN 9781436370486
Reviewed by Sandie Kirkland for Rebeccas Reads (4/09)

Painless

Today, RebeccasReads talks with Bill Poje, about his new novel, “Painless.”

Bill Poje was born in 1963 in East Grand Rapids, Michigan. He earned an accounting/business administration degree from Aquinas College in Grand Rapids in 1986. He also received an MBA in the concentrations of finance and operations from the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt in 1988.

At the age of 16 Bill managed a new\used book, comic book & baseball card store. This exposed him to a diverse set of literary influences. His favorite authors include Anais Nin, William Faulkner, Raymond Chandler, Sergio Leone, H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Edgar Allen Poe, J.R.R. Tolkein, Robert E. Howard, Richard Matheson, Robert Bloch, Heinrich Boll, Will Eisner, William Shakespeare, Robert Frost, and Louis-Ferdinand Celine.

After college Poj lived and worked in a variety of locations and industries while travelling the globe. In 2007 he was working and living on Grand Cayman Island and commuting to Grand Bahama Island. The Pojman was the financial controller for the largest exporter out of the Bahamas. The Pojerino decided to give up this life, move back to the USA to live in Jacksonville, and to write and publish Painless.

RR:  Hi Bill, thanks for agreeing to this interview with RebeccasReads.com.  To start off, could you tell me a little about the protagonist of Painless, Augustus "Aug" Valentine, and a little about his history?

BP:  Hello Rachel!  It is my pleasure to be interviewed by Rebecca’s Reads!

Aug grew up in Livonia, Michigan.  The house is near the Idyl Wyld golf club on Fairway Lane.  Livonia is a mostly white middle, upper middle class suburb to Detroit that grew with the “white flight” from Detroit.  He was born in 1966 so his early teens were spent in the heyday of Ted Nugent as well as disco.

Aug’s parents engaged in a lot of criminal and “hanky panky” activity, and they were successful at it.  In other words, they were like a lot of parents in the world.  Unfortunately for Aug the schemes of his parents did not pan out as planned and tragedy occurred.  Aug moved to northern Philadelphia to live with his Uncle Mark and family, went to Villanova, and after graduation  in 1990 he was tapped by his Uncle to start Trove Import Export company in Fort Lauderdale.

Aug is a tall attractive man.  He married the beautiful blonde Laurie he met while in college.  Trove grew but Lauire’s health diminished and tragedy again entered Aug’s life.

Painless starts in 2005 with Aug about to be robbed of smuggled jewels.  The tragedy’s of his past dictate his future.  As Aug follows his destiny he feels a kinship as an ordinary man of the world, a John Doe of our society, caught up in storm of activity that he used to watch from the sideline.  This is similar to US society.  Most US citizens knew some of what Wall Street and the Government did but that was always something that affected someone else.  Now all John & Jane Doe’s feel personally caught up in their activities.

RR:  I know that you grew up in the Midwest, but that you've recently lived in The Cayman Islands, worked in the Bahamas, and have currently moved on to reside in Jacksonville, Florida.  These are all extremely tropical destinations!  I assume that your experiences in these places have lead to your writing of symbolic hurricanes?

BP:  Actually, the hurricane concept comes from the desire to have a story that will be accepted on a mass market and that would be adaptable to film presentation.  A “big finish” is needed for an exciting story or an exciting movie.  It does help that I either went through or evacuated from a series of hurricanes in the last 4 years.

Hurricanes are a part of nature and society.  In both cases the turmoil roots out weak growth and changes the landscape.  Only the strong and well prepared survive.

The financial hurricanes of today are hitting the dreams of many people and changing the landscape.  The hurricanes are bigger than any person or government or belief system.  But, with any good novel that works on multiple levels, one can see the symbolism in the story or one can just enjoy the ride.  I’d like to think that the reviews received so far indicate that people really do enjoy the ride!

RR:  I see that you are currently working on a couple of projects, including a sequel to Painless.  You don't have to say too much, but can you give us any kind of scoop on it?

BP:  Blindless appropriately starts on “Valentine’s” Day in 2007.  The survivors of Painless seek understanding of what happened to them in the first story.  Aug has also been in a “hunting accident” involving a deer blind.  The truth of these past events opens eyes and minds and leaves the protagonists “blind less.”

The novel starts with Aug celebrating Valentine’s Day with Icky Vicky and Painless readers will surely guess that this means only one thing…a series of action packed events are about to unfold as well as tragedy.  There is an extended chase scene through South Beach in Miami and the climax involves an extended car chase scene along the Schuylkill Expressway (A.K.A. the “Sure Kill” Expressway) in Philadelphia after an ice storm

RR:  You're also working on a dark comedy; I'm interested in this.  Can you tell me more?

BP:  This is “Project NLM” with NLM standing for the title of the book.  It is certain to be a controversial text filled with the humor and action of Painless.

The primary plot of the story revolves around Kidokezo Koo.  Kidokezo is the mayor of Detroit.  His skin color is white but his birth certificate states that he is black because his birth mother was black.  Birth certificates are supposed to show the ethnicity of the mother since, in lieu of DNA testing, the only racial make up that is positively known is that of the mother.  So, despite the fact that he looks white Kidokezo is a black mayor of Detroit.

The Mayor has been a bad boy.  It appears he has been sexting and has perjured himself.  There are also allegations of corruption.  So he does what all politicians do who are in trouble.  He engages in “deflection” as a tactic.  Mr. Koo is championing a social cause.

Kidokezo has revenge on his mind for a few different things.  So do others.  The primary action of the story is a road trip from his mansion in Orlando to Detroit.  Personal vendettas are addressed along the way in a manner designed to promote the “social cause.”  This occurs through media manipulation of events that occur.

The novel is intended to point out the hypocrisies of both political correctness and media manipulation in the USA in a modern day context.  The story does not pull punches.  Of course, it well thought out with all the juicy “soap opera” and “movies for guys who like movies” scenes included.

RR: That sounds quite a plot!  I’ll be looking forward to the finished product.  How far along are you in the writing process?  Is this something we should expect this year? 

BP: I am writing Blindless and NLM concurrently.  My opinion is that the first 3rd of the first pass of each text is complete.  Painless went through 6 full revisions but I expect that these two texts will only require 4 or 5 since I learned so much from the first novel.

It will probably take about a year to get both novels published from today so, maybe, May of 2010.  The issue is that I am so busy with the marketing of Painless and there is some location research that I must squeeze in for both texts so it will take a little while to finish the process.

RR: In addition to the sequel and “Project NLM,” you’re also working on poetry, essays and short stories… are these separate projects, or something your compiling together for a single publication?

BP:  These are all separate projects.  All 3 are more “literary” in nature so I would not expect that they would have mass market appeal.  To “exist” and build a support system in the industry I must first with products that can sell on a large scale.

The poetry occurs as I envision “things.”  For example: I saw a video of The Eagles performing Life in the Fast Lane live on the Farewell Tour this morning.  It struck me how sober they looked and how they looked like they were going through the motions for a song they wrote 35 years ago while they robotically went around stage with blue tooth ear pieces to communicate with each other.  A vision of “Don Henley now” speaking to “Don Henley then” came to mind.  This seemed better suited to a poem than a short story.

Not all poems are so simple.  I have a complex piece about the christening of the new Yankee Stadium this year.  This is metaphoric for the new Yankee stadium being economically and politically built in the USA today.  It is an exceptionally difficult piece and will require massive amounts of re-edits.

The essays are about what it is like to be an “independent” American today.  For example, if you look at the major media outlets they appear to be far left or far right.  Plus, our lives are dictated by polls and survey of anywhere from 300 to 1,200 people statistically extrapolated over all American society.  I believe that “people” are mostly a composite of both ideologies but the socio-political marketing construct is structured against the concept of the individual.  The essays are arguments about our communal existence.

The short stories are vignettes of moments of crisis\decision that people I have known either directly or indirectly have faced.  They are situational based. 

Incidentally, while my novels and stories are fiction they are rooted in realties of our communal experience.  Fanciful lands and weapons are not used nor are plots driven by either the “idiot principle” conceit (where characters acting stupid drives the action) or by characters with “special “abilities (outside the realm of normal societal expectation).  It is easy to write a novel with “CGI” characters or professors who are at the top of the field of cryptology; my interest is in entertaining with more realistic characters who may experience the unrealistic.

Anyway, if I make enough money to allow publication of the poems, essays, and short stories I will.  They are more a labor of literary love than a quasi capitalistic adventuresome venture about the world we share today.

RR:  At sixteen, you managed a new\used book, comic book & baseball card store.  Would you say that this experience and exposure to written works contributed directly to your becoming an author later in life?

BP:  Undoubtedly.  In my youth I was exposed to more varied genres of writing (and hence varied genres of society) than most people get in a lifetime.  For years I have looked at writing but I never felt I was mature enough to craft material that would meet a standard that I find acceptable.  Now that I am old and have lived a lifetime full of experiences the capability to create complex yet relevant plots and characters is clear to me.

RR: Is Painless your first published work?

BP:  Painless is my first work.  I went ahead and self published because I knew my vision is new from what has been done before.  Since the vision is unique and I have no name as a writer no agency will care about working with me.  So, I went it alone from the beginning.

It is funny for me because I now visit the sites of agencies and they have statements like “we will suggest topics or plot outlines for you to write about.”  I personally have no shortage of stories to create.  This, then, is the definition of the difference between a writer and an author.

RR: I hear from many authors that marketing and publicity is the most stressful part of having a book published.  Is that true in the case of Painless?

BP:  I cannot speak for everyone else but I can state my perspective.  I am a businessman first and an author second so I was already prepared for the marketing and publicity work.  This is reflected in the cover design.  I have a 20 second “skinny” on the book that I can give anyone that works great when people see the cover.  Since I have done sales before I am not stressed by the selling; I knew when I first started the process that I would have to do this task.

The biggest stresses I felt were self editing the complex portions of the text and also the review process.  Constructing the “John Doe”, the economic, and religious metaphorical and social commentary sections of the text…and having those sections of the “work” for the reader instead of “losing” the reader…was very stressful.  It is personally believed that these sections came out excellently as the reader comments I have received have consistently stated that, while the book is challenging to read, it never insults the reader’s intelligence.  There is a story that people enjoy for the ride, but the reader also takes away many concepts about our society from the novel.

Getting reviews is very stressful for me because Painless is not “genre specific” nor is it the “same old, same old.”  Reviewers review based upon the reviewers “frame of reference” so how will reviewers react to a text is not constructed via a “rule ridden” frame of reference?  So far the answer is that readers like the text, in my opinion, a lot.  But each new review or commentary fills me with trepidation because one never knows!

RR:  Starting next month, it looks like you’ll be going on quite an extensive tour in to promote your book, mostly in The South, with a few stops in your home state of Michigan.  That’s pretty exciting.  Have you ever done anything like this before?    

BP:  As a businessman I am used to “dog and pony” so I was prepared for this eventuality before writing Painless.  No one will sell your product with as much vigor as you will.  But I love to meet people and to talk to them so doing book signings is actually a lot of fun for me.  I easily talk to 100 people at each event.

The Michigan book tour will actually expand into about 25 to 30 locations.  The dates just have yet to be confirmed.  I plan to be busy at signing events all the way into the foreseeable future.

The Borders\Walden’s chain stores\managers have been very positive about Painless.  There are stores from coast to coast that will be happy to do store events.  For 2009 I will be in the South and East but in 2010 I plan to expand other cities such as New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and even throughout Texas which will include not on the Dallas area but also Houston. 

RR: Are you currently writing full time?

BP:  Between book signings and “life”…yes.

RR: Any advice for that fledgling author looking to write his first novel?

BP:  The first advice I have is that you decide first “What is your purpose.”  My “purpose” is to create novels that have mass market appeal but that also say something.  This means appealing to both men and women as well as International.  My poetry and essays and short stories may not have this focus but the novels must contain the elements that generate mass appeal.

“Mass appeal” doesn’t necessarily mean appeal as large as Harry Potter or Twilight.  My work won’t generate that “puppy love” style following but that doesn’t mean that the entertainment value to generate financial success is not there.  That is my purpose.

The second thing is: Write the story from start to finish and then revise and re-edit and expand.  People tell me “I have ½ a novel written” but if you haven’t finished a draft then who do you know it is ½ a novel?  Finish a full story and then go back over it again and again.

Painless went through 6 full unique revisions.  For each revision I tracked my Word statistics like Word count, etc.  The % of text change from Revision 5 to 6 was 1%...that is when I knew I was done.

Lastly, if you self publish and you want to have a big selling novel, pay top dollar for the high end of a reputable publishing group.  I used Xlibris and I have been very happy.  Painless is returnable for book stores because I invested to have that happen otherwise I wouldn’t be able to get the title in stores.  Don’t skimp on your self.

RR: Bill, thank you so much this interview.  Good luck with your many endeavors!

.: Review of Painless
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