I came to writing through what you might call a rather
different path. I work as a pit boss at what is now Atlantis casino in the
Bahamas. It started life as a long term replacement for the mafia controlled
casinos in Cuba which were closed in 1959 when the revolution came.
Consequently I had tons of rather interesting stories come to me over the years
that I thought were worth keeping as part of local history. Being urged by my
colleagues, I put them on a website. I have enough material for rather an
interesting book too, but my wife doesn’t want me to write it!
Working in casinos has given me a lot of insights to people,
especially when they put themselves under pressure. Having said that, my family
and their friends were anything but typical, and I met with some real
characters. I wrote a few vignettes about them too. Since my pit is located
between two giant glass sculptures by Dale Chihuli of The Sun and The Moon, and
Atlantis is on Paradise Island, I like to tell people that they can find me
‘between the Sun and the Moon in Paradise’.
I have been reading science fiction and fantasy for almost half a century,
having picked up “A Princess of Mars” at an early age. I even went to a few
worldcons when I was young and free. That was when I heard the old saws about
SF fans never throwing books away (My garage is full), and our drive to write
the stuff ourselves. I fit that mould perfectly. Once I had written down all
the casino stories I knew, I started writing fiction. That was about five years
ago.
I guess I prefer fantasy, because it allows me to be more
creative. I tend to start with an off the wall idea, and then run with it to
see where it will take me. I try to find ideas or variations that haven’t been
beaten to death already. In this respect I admire the works of Philip K Dick,
but don’t worry, I don’t use artificial stimuli for my imagination. I Liked his
lesser known Clans of the Alphane Moon, and Solar Lottery (AKA The Game Players
of Titan), as being especially imaginative. I also admire Marian Zimmer
Bradley’s Darkover series. My favorite movie is “A big hand for the little
lady”, starring Henry Fonda. It’s a poker movie, and I have been known to play
the game.
I find it interesting that you asked me about my musical
preferences, which are very eclectic. One book I am working on has the idea
that a character’s witch genes from her father got mixed up with her mother’s
musical talent for perfect pitch, making her magic dependent on the songs her
mother listened to while she was pregnant. That one is still very much a work
in progress. I suppose I gravitate to eighties or early MTV, but The Dubliners
do it for me too.
I went to Gordonstoun school in Scotland. Although this
afforded me several glimpses of Prince Charles naked in the shower, it is of
peripheral interest to the house I lived in there. Shaped to be a perfect
pentacle, the legend said it had been built by a mad magician who was supposed
to have sold his soul to the devil, but wanted a place to hide when his time
was up. It didn’t work. I always thought that spending several years living in
a pentacle affected my outlook on life.
I am British, but have lived in The Bahamas for the majority
of my life. I married late to a Bahamian girl, and have two daughters, now 18
and 20. My grandmothers were American and Australian respectively, and several
family members dabbled in writing, with limited success.
I am very active. I play squash, and used to do triathlons.
I always found that I could detach part of my mind while running, and work on
my plot at the same time. I am a fair pool player, having learned to handle a
cue at a very early age.
I don’t use a pen name, but I picked up a nickname at work
because most of my colleagues didn’t think like me. There I am referred to as
Captain Chaos, or ‘The Captain’. That’s why my website has that name.
When I started on my first novel, my motivation was simply a
challenge to myself to see if I could actually do it. I wasn’t writing for an
audience, or to make money. I was writing for me. I didn’t consider ‘Putting it
out there’ until a work colleague and neighbor went the self publishing route.
After that my wife was pushing me big time. I guess that being in The Bahamas,
where there are virtually no writing groups or circles, and no fiction
publishing, I had a hard time seeing the way forward without the help and
advice of an editor. I am really excited to now be able to get this assistance.
As of now I have completed three
novels and am working on two others. I switch between the two whenever I get
stuck!
My most memorable holiday was the
one when I proposed to my wife. We went to Jersey where I had a cousin, Tom. I
had picked out the spot by the romantic ruins of Grosnez Castle in the
northeast corner of the island. We did the tourist bit most of the day, and
towards the evening, I said, “There is one more place I’d like to show you.”
She was tired and reluctant, but it was a fine evening, the spot was very
picturesque, and a couple of bunnies even came out to gambol around. After I
did the one knee bit, and her screaming and screeching died down, she admitted
that she would have left me at the end of the trip if I hadn’t popped the
question. We had been an item for over four years.
When we got back to Tom’s house,
my fiancée, totally unable to contain her news, immediately blurted out, “James
proposed, and we are getting married.”
The uninspiring reply, “I always
thought you were!” was a bit of a letdown, so she ran to the phone, and called
my mother and aunt in England.
When she gave them the news,
their reply was, inevitably, “I always thought you were.” It may not have been
the sort of vacation you recall for all the fun times, but I will never be able
to forget it.
I had several family members who were writers, but for
various reasons had rather limited success. The first was my Australian
grandmother, Werna Mary Brown, later Gordon-Brown. “Werna” was an aboriginal
name, although she wasn’t. Unsurprisingly she preferred to be known as
‘Queenie’. A journalist by trade, she wrote a novel which the publishers in
Melbourne advised her to take to London as they felt it was quite good, and
would do better there. Taking their advice, she embarked on a liner to London called
the Pericles, which promptly sank. She survived, but the book didn’t. In those
days – it was 1908 or 9 - one manuscript was it.
My father, Robert Burnett, went one better. He wrote a
biography of Gauguin, which was published in 1939. It was quite well received,
and was translated into French and German. The overseas royalties, for some
inexplicable reason, never materialized. After the war, he tried to do the bio
on another artist, but someone else published one on the same man while his
manuscript was in progress. This, on top of his very stressful wartime
experiences as a polyglot interrogator, knocked the stuffing out of him.
My mother, also Werna Mary, (she chose Mary!) wrote
anonymous stories for the magazine The Tatler while my dad was struggling, but
never told him. I believe he thought her to simply be thrifty with the
housekeeping budget.
Her cousin, and my godfather, John Marriner wrote stories
for yachting magazines, which he collected into book form, and followed with
other travel books about yachting. Even though he wrote for a relatively limited
market, he was the most successful. Of course he was the only one who didn’t
need the money.
Having these family members showed me that it was possible
to write a book, and I took encouragement from their achievements.
About The Decision
I can’t remember how I came up with the idea for The
Decision. I do know that I thought it was cool, and wanted to know where it
might take me. The concept of a person who could shift sexes was one which I
immediately realized had the capacity to go downhill at an impressive speed, and I had to be very
careful to keep things from degenerating into a story I did not want to write.
Having a character with two completely different outlooks on
life, but the same talents and memories was a challenge, as keeping them
believable to the reader was very important. I wanted the reader to be able to
identify with both, but not to the extent that either would automatically become
their favorite. After all, the main theme was about which way my protagonist
would jump in the end.
Just as significant was the way I treated each aspect’s love
interest. They had to be people who complemented their respective aspect while
still being retaining individuality.
I really enjoyed designing all the characters in the book.
None are based on anyone in particular, but they are all based in some way or
other on the types of people I have come across during my life, and especially
in the casinos where I have worked. It helps that I come into contact with so
many different people every single day.
I can’t hold a tune to save my life, and I had never tried
to write lyrics, so that was probably the thing I worried about the most.
Nevertheless, I bulled my way through that somehow.
I must admit I had great fun writing The Decision,
and allowed myself to go off script, as it were, when I found a twist I really
liked, and just had to be in the book. I hope the readers will appreciate them
as much as I did.
Once I finished, I started wondering: how weird and twisted
was I?
I would like to thank James for an intriguing insight to his life and writing. We look forward to the publication of The Decision.
Thanks for reading,
Celeste
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