An Interview with Wayne King

This interview is reprinted from the website AwesomeGang.com a writers website. It was conducted upon the announcement of King's latest book, a novel, "Sacred Trust".

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.

I’ve had a pretty full life including spending some time as an elected official, in the NH House and Senate; A nominee for the Democratic Party for the office of Governor, Publisher of a Lifestyle magazine called Heart of New Hampshire, CEO of a publicly traded Environmental cleanup company, founder of a group of social entrepreneurs working on development challenges in West Africa, and a private consultant. I’m also an artist in the photographic space with three published books to my credit in that realm.

While “Sacred Trust” is my first novel, I have been writing commentary and OpEds for more than 30 years. I also have three published books of my photographic work.

What is the name of your book and what inspired it?

"Sacred Trust" was written partly in response to a current proposal in my state to build a private powerline called Northern Pass that will have an enormous impact on the people of the state. The frustration and sense of helplessness felt by so many people about the proposal led me to wonder what would happen if a group of citizens decided to fight against the powerline using some unique nonviolent civil disobedience. I also felt that this presented an opportunity to use fiction as a tool for exploring some important current issues. For example, in the age of terrorism how do we maintain a place for the time-honored tradition of civil disobedience? What are the choices and challenges ahead of us as we work to transition from a carbon-fuel based economy to a carbon-free one? How can ordinary citizens fight back against the monied forces of climate deniers and oligarchs?

Do you have any unusual writing habits?

I wish I could tell you that I have some unique secret habit that made me more productive or creative but like many writers I am simply obsessed with trying to speak truth to power and to find ways to reach people that makes them smile, laugh and perhaps to say "ahhh, I never thought of that."

What authors, or books have influenced you?

Wow, that’s a pretty long list. Maybe I should just give you the Sarah Pallin answer: “Ah, you know paperbacks and sometimes hardcover ones, I read magazines and newspapers too.”

OK. I’m being too glib . . . In the non-fiction space I have been very influenced by people like Alvin Toffler (“Future Shock”, “The Third Wave”); Thomas Friedman ("Thank You For Being Late", "The World is Flat", "Hot, Flat and Crowded"); and Jeremy Rifkin (The Third Industrial Revolution”, "The End of Work”, “The Hydrogen Economy” etc.). In the biographic fiction or non-fiction space I think that Pat Conroy writes the most beautiful and moving prose I have ever read. When he describes the south I can feel the trees sway and smell the magnolias blossoming. In the adventure genre I confess to being a fan of Clive Cussler, James Patterson and Dan Brown despite the formulaic nature of their books.

I love the more playful poets: Shel Silverstein, ee cummings, Ogden Nash, Robert Frost (of course); even someone like Gerard Manely Hopkins who did not intend to be playful but achieved the effect by virtue of his style. I use a Nash poem in “Sacred Trust”:

"The cow is of the Bovine ilk, one end moo, the other milk."

I've tried to write some poetry, it is a real skill. Mostly I have combined it with images that have spoken to me and somehow coaxed the words from me. In “Sacred Trust” there is a section where two of the main characters walk around at the Frost homestead in Franconia, New Hampshire and one of them describes Frost's poetry as being like maple syrup, prose, boiled down to its essence.

I read older literature mostly out of guilt; fearing that I will miss some important revelation. Yet I read Shakespeare, for example, not for its stirring symphony so much as to mine the nuggets that seem essential knowledge or revelation. I couldn't tell you what the overall message of the play "As You Like It" is, but I can quote you my favorite passage : "And this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in running brooks, sermons in stones and good in everything, I would not change it." That one paragraph makes all the rest of the stilted (to me) language worth the slog.

What are you working on now?

I’m afraid I’m working on trying to learn how this self publishing gig works! But I promise that I won’t be writing a book on 10 ways to market your self-published book and making a YouTube video! I am exploring the idea of writing a fictional account of the life of an early settler, Able Crawford, who built a trail to the summit of Mt. Washington; but I am also fascinated by his wife Lucy Crawford who wrote a history of the White Mountains. I am also captivated by the story of the Republic of Indian Stream. Indian Stream was a small independent Republic that broke off from the US in the late 1800s because a vague section in the Treaty of Paris - that ended the Revolutionary war - left them with both US and Canadian tax collectors trying to squeeze them for taxes and arguing over whether they were in the US or Canada. Their response was to declare their own independence. I mention Indian Stream in “Sacred Trust” but there is an entire story there if I can only figure out the voice that is called for in telling it.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?

I refer you to the last answer. I’m trying to figure that out.

Do you have any advice for new authors?

Run. Run very fast for the closest exit.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?

Take living seriously, don't take yourself seriously. Though I can't tell you who the idiot was who said it.

What are you reading now?

Stephen King "On Writing", “Thank You For Waiting” by Thomas Friedman. Lucy Crawford's History of the White Mountains is also queued up on my iPad but I have not gotten to it yet. I listen to a lot of books as well. I'm a huge fan of Audible.com and I have a monthly subscription.

What's next for you as a writer?

Hopefully finding time to write despite the amount of work needed to figure out this self-publishing gig.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?

A compendium by Kurt Vonnegut, Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins, Anything by Buckminster Fuller because it would occupy me for months just trying to understand it - Fuller had the finest mind I have ever been introduced to with the exception of Jefferson and Einstein. I'd also bring "Beaches" by Pat Conroy. . .which I never tire of reading and rereading.

. . . Oh, was I suppose to say The Bible?

. . . I'll leave that lie to the President. After all, it would be a violation of the Cub Scout code.