Doug
Holder: When you started this novel "Or So It Seems" you were divorced,
bitter and angry. How about when you finished the novel?

Paul
Stone: It is an interesting arc that I traveled. The novel evolved into
something bigger and less driven by the forces that made me start the
novel. There has always been a novel in me. When I started "Or So It
Seems' I was bitter, I needed to feel like the victim, and my now
ex-wife was the guilty party. I was told that my first attempt with the
novel lacked narrative tension. I sat down to reorder events. As soon
as I did this, this spiritual aspect came in to play. It was if someone
hit me on the side of the head and said: "Now you are going to write
the novel you are supposed to." All of a sudden all these concepts and
ideas came flooding in. I really hadn't wanted to rewrite.

DH: Was it therapeutic for you?

Ps:
Absolutely. It saved at least 20 years of paid therapy. It allowed me
to vent…the time to look closely at something. I moved on from
feeling like a victim all the time. I am no longer a victim but the
author of a novel.

DH: Before you started your rewrite of you
said it was like you heard a voice guiding you. If you had to personify
the voice who would it be?

PS: Well I am not hearing voices! But
I feel there is someone, a muse, or some force, an elder, whatever that
helps me. An entity that wakes me up at 3AM with ideas. I'm in
advertising. I get ideas for my work as well that way -they come from
somewhere. I get a lot from these "voices"

DH: The protagonist,
Paul Peterson, constantly steps back with his spiritual guru-to observe
the material world/ reality. In a way this is like the novelist, right?

PS:
I think so. One of the intriguing conceits of the novel is that
Petersen talks in the present moment sharing the action with the
reader, as if the reader was there. It is almost as if the narrator and
the reader are there at the same time together-going through it. The
first time I wrote this I didn't need the conceit. The 2nd time it made
sense.

DH: The writer Thomas Wolfe holed up in the Chelsea Hotel
in NYC and wrote (standing up) for hours on end. It was described as
"automatic writing" Anything like that happen with you?

PS: No.
I have had experiences where things get done through me so easily all I
have to do is make the pen hit the paper. Other times I have to sit
down and think about it.

DH: A lot of writers self-promote these days. How do you going about getting the word out for your book?

PS:
I took a workshop at Grub Street, given by this lady who recently had a
successful book. I was amazed at how she had treated marketing her book
as if it was an advertising campaign. Up until this time I had not
thought about it this way. But she was very methodical. She had a
website in place; she had pieces that she would send out to the
different publishing arms. She had different elements-it seemed all
part of a brand. So I saw what I was supposed to do. The way I
approached it was I looked at every avenue that was low cost. I made
business cards. I have unique cards that fold out like little books,
with reviews from readers inside. I try to take the least expensive
avenues and try to do it at a high level. A level that people don't
expect from someone who is doing it himself. If you act as if the book
is important in everything you do it will seem important. The book will
be treated importantly.

DH: In the book you write about the advertising world. It is not a flattering picture.

PS:
I think the world would be a much better place without advertising. But
there is always going to be advertising, and it is a business, so I
think of myself as a positive influence. So it is good to have people
in the industry like that. The work I do for W.B. Mason is fun stuff.
People enjoy seeing the TV commercials. But I think there is something
shallow where art is second to commerce.

DH: Can you tell us about your next book that will be a collection of columns you wrote for a south shore newspaper.

PS:
Yes. They were written in many different voices and with many different
subjects. Some were short fiction pieces, one column celebrated
adversity. The columns deal with things I found of interest or
concerned me at the time. The book will be called "How to Train a
Rock." I wrote a series of columns on training rocks. This will be a
diverse collection.

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Back and Forth

Heritage is shadows standing beneath

the pecan tree and black gold

strapped and slumped

from the oak

Rusted relics;

yoke and choke;

sweat and blood spilled

for land and consumption

History is freedom's journey

Is a long walk from manicured, porcelain toe tips

to a soft and tender step,

barefoot, fungus-scarred;

eyes glistening in the woods

Back and forth

Back and forth

95 North is sweet

like the piston of April flowers;

bitter like the citrus' rind;

is a crimson and gold sunrise;

star spangled sky

A blue note specialty song

is bitter; is sweet juice;

a gold filled heart;

a belly pot; a bouillabaisse,

simmering over the ages;

slow cooked and roasted Negros,

red men, white knuckle,

black body swinging

like the bell's hammer

Heritage is blue night,

white star, black line

white finger;

back and forth

on 95 North

Redemption is a bible verse;

an unbroken circle;

a token to take you

back and forth

A long walk is history's course,

from Heavenly father to

Holy hip-hop,

barber shop talk,

the wino's walk;

baked apricot;

cobbled peach;

palmetto tree;

moonlight;

stars shine the sea;

apple for pies;

truth for lies

Back and forth

on 95 North

Southern belt;

the whip's welt;

a cry, praise,

a song, a long river

to the planter's inn

A sin-soaked whisper;

the liar's grin;

the black finger rising

with a raging spirit

A call; a response;

Back and forth

— Bridgit Brown