In the last 35 years, J.P. White has published essays, articles, fiction, reviews, interviews and poetry in over a hundred publications including The Nation, The New Republic, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, The Gettysburg
Review, American Poetry Review, and Poetry (Chicago). He is a graduate of New College in Sarasota, Florida, Colorado State University and Vermont College in Fine Arts. He is the author of five books of poems and a novel, Every Boat Turns South. www.jpwhite.net
Q: It’s rare today to find an author who does nothing but write for a living. Do you have a ‘real’ job other than writing, and if so, what is it? What are some other jobs you’ve had in your life? Have they influenced/inspired your writing?
I’ve worked as a freelancer writer for the last 30 years in the areas of book and magazine promotion and alternative health. I’ve also worked as hod carrier and carpenter and in the early 1980s I delivered boats in the Bahamas and Caribbean.
Q: What compelled you to write your first book?
I’ve been a widely published poet, but there were a number of stories that didn’t lend themselves to the poetic form. I just broke out and took a chance.
Q: Have you always wanted to be a writer?
I started out writing songs, then poems, then stories. I wanted to be a blonde Bob Dylan.
Q: Tell us briefly about your book.
Every Boat Turns South is the story of Matt Younger, a 30-year-old boat delivery captain who returns to Florida after a 13 year absence to make a confession to his dying father. Matt wants to tell his father about a failed boat delivery from West Palm Beach to St. Thomas, but the water wants to hear about Matt’s role in the death of the favorite son, Hale.
Q: What are you working on at the moment?
I’m writing a historical, prohibition novel in the voice of a thirteen-year old who sets out in a sailboat to rescue her father from three men who have kidnapped him and taken him to Canada. It’s called Whiskey amp; Hard Water.
Q: Do you have a favorite character? Why is s/he your favorite?
My favorite character is Phillip who is the ace mechanic. He is strong and resilient and it broke my heart to create more trouble for him than he could handle.
Q: How did you feel the day you held the copy of your first book in your hands?
I felt great relief that my persistence and hard work had paid off.
Q: What type of music, if any, do you listen to while you write? Do you need the noise or the silence?
I need the quiet of my own office surrounded by the books I love. When I’m driving around, I listen to Dylan, old and new.
Q: If you could live in one of your books, which one would you live in? (If you’re promoting your first publication, feel free to talk about an unpublished piece.)
I feel like I did live out many of the scenes found in Every Boat Turns South. Some of them I wouldn’t mind repeating.
Q: How do you balance out the writer’s life and the rest of life? Do you get up early? Stay up late? Ignore friends and family for certain periods of time?
I lead a fairly reclusive life because otherwise I get no writing done. It takes an enormous amount of time to write and sadly one must be stingy or nothing gets done.
Q: The main characters of your stories – do you find that you put a little of yourself into each of them or do you create them to be completely different from you?
It’s probably a failure of the imagination, but many of my characters are based on people I’ve known or wished I had never met.
Q: Is there an established writer you admire and emulate in your own writing? Do you have a writing mentor?
I think Cormac McCarthy and Philip Roth are the two most memorable American male writers currently in good form. They couldn’t be more different from one another, but they are each wildly original and have influenced countless others.
Q: When growing up, did you have a favorite author, book series, or book?
I loved Robert Louis Stevenson and devoured everything he wrote.
Q: What about now: who is your favorite author and what is your favorite genre to read?
I think the British novelists are always intriguing: Pat Barker, Ian McEwan, Anne Enright, John Banville among others. The Brits are writing at the highest level in the novel form.
Q: When they write your obituary, what do you hope they will say about your book/s and writing? What do you hope they will say about you?
J.P. White found a language with which to make the divine mystery of life even more perilous and beautiful than it already is. He was a good father and friend and he valued courage and laughter above all else.
Q: Where you have lived and what you have experienced can influence your writing in many ways. Are there any specific locations or experiences that have popped up in your books?
I’ve had the good fortune of living in many different places including the Bahamas and the Caribbean and those places turn up in my stories.
Q: What is your writing space like? Do you have a designated space? What does it look like? On the couch, laptop, desk? Music? Lighting? Typing? Handwriting?
I have large windows in my office that look out on a marsh, woods and lake. If you have vertigo you wouldn’t like it because my room sits about thirty-five feet up.
Q: Is there anyone who has inspired, motivated, encouraged or supported your writing?
My 92-year-old mother first read poetry to me when I was ten and sick in bed. Imagine, Keats, Shakespeare, Browning, Donne, Wordsworth and others instead of comic books which I craved.
Q: Is there any particular book that, when you read it, you thought, “I wish I had written that!”?
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
Q: Is there anything you’d go back and do differently now that you have been published, in regards to your writing career?
I wished I had taken a class or two or worked up front with an editor.
Q: In my experience, some things come quite easily (like creating the setting) and other things aren’t so easy (like deciding on a title). What comes easily to you and what do you find more difficult?
It’s easiest for me to enter the head of a character and figure out how they would talk. Hardest is creating an over-all plot structure that consistently pulls the reader along.
Q: Have you ever had a character take over a story and move it in a different direction than you had originally intended? How did you handle it?
When I first wrote Every Boat Turns South, the father in the story took over and it was a challenge to cut him back and allow the son to direct the emotional traffic of the tale.
Q: Do you have any book signings, tours or special events planned to promote your book that readers might be interested in attending? If so, when and where?
I have done a number of readings from the book and updates can be found at my website.
Q: It’s one thing to write a book and another to edit it. How do you feel about the editing process? What was it like to edit your book?
Fortunately, I had the sense and the means to hire an editor to help me sort out extraneous scenes and trim the story down to its essential bones.
Q: Now that you are a published author, does it feel differently than you had imagined?
It’s quite gratifying to hear from readers from just down the street and as far away as Iraq. I never get tired of that.
Use this space to tell us more about who you. Anything you want your readers to know. Include information on where to find your books, any blogs you may have, or how a reader can learn more about you and writing.
I am a blue water sailor, not just an armchair sailor. I sail a 25′ Cape Dory out of Lake Minnetonka just west of the Twin Cities.
I can always be reached at:
www.jpwhite.net
www.facebook.com/pages/JP-White/140853289214?ref=ts
J.P. will be on virtual book tour May 3 – June 25. Visit his official tour page at Pump Up Your Book to find out more about his exciting new book, Every Boat Turns South.
Amazon or Barnes & Noble are the best way to obtain your copies, although it will be available to order in most bookstores.
