Boy, do we have a fun one today! Don Gillette was one of my earliest supporters and he’s frequently a supporter and advocate for so many authors out there. He’s been around the publishing world for many years and brings his wealth of knowledge to all that he does.

I’m so happy that I got Don to come and do one of these!

Please, welcome Don!

Steve: What does your writing time look like? Do you try and write at the same time each day? Do you have a word count you attempt to hit?
Don: You know, Steve, I would absolutely love to be able to say I have a routine because I think that’d make me more productive, but the truth is I write when the mood strikes me. Sometimes, it’s manic, like 30-40 pages or 3 or 4 short stories without stopping and sometimes there are periods of days where I don’t write a word. When I was a hired gun, deadlines were like gold. Nothing can pull me into a writing jag like a looming deadline. But since I quit that line of work, I like to really think about what I’m writing before I write it—analyze it, go over it in my head. So even though deadlines made me more productive, it’s nice to have the luxury of being able to plan the next day’s chapter or story or whatever without an editor breathing down my neck.

Steve: You’re riding an elevator and BAM! It gets stuck. What two authors (one living and one dead) would you happen to find yourself stuck with?
Don: Jacques Pépin and Julia Child. Nah, just kidding, that’s my appetite talking. I was thinking the obvious—Stephen King—and then I thought, “I don’t know him. What if he’s not all that interesting?” So I’m going with the devil I know—Gabino Iglesias. Very interesting guy who deserves the success he’s seeing. And if William Goldman could be in that elevator, too, I’d be good. Goldman doesn’t get much recognition as a novelist because of his great screenplays, but he was one helluva fiction writer. No, he’s not Cormac McCarthy or Kurt Vonnegut, but he never wrote anything I didn’t enjoy reading.

Steve: Tell me about your newest release (novel/story/poem/novella) and why someone should read it!
Don: The latest thing I’ve got out there is Collected Poems: 1970 – 2020. Most of the selections were previously published, but I also included several new ones. In 1970, at the age of 17, I published my first poem and that poem won me a creative writing scholarship to the University of Tennessee (Martin). The thing was, the scholarship only covered tuition and books and the school was 3 hours away, so room and board would have been a little pricey. I couldn’t afford to take the scholarship, so I went to a college closer to home. I do have an upcoming novel, Dark Voices, which will hopefully be out before spring. The editors have it now and they’re driving me into wall-punching fits. It’s a story of a regular guy who possesses the ability to sense the presence of evil and he’s taken it upon himself to do what he can to stop it. He’s not always successful, either.

Steve: Bonus Question! If you were transported back in time, which Pop Band/Hit Band would you hope to find yourself a member of?
Don: I’d rather play guitar for Gordon Lightfoot, but for an actual band, I would have liked to have been a member of Buffalo Springfield. I know that’s way before your time, but Stephen Stills, David Crosby, Neil Young, and Jim Messina were kind of amazing. And hey–Gordon Lightfoot and Neil Young are both Canadians. Shouldn’t I get extra points for that?

Great choice, Don! Such an amazing band!

Thanks again for doing this!

To find more of Don’s work, check the links!

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Don-Gillette/e/B00ISD24HI

Twitter: https://twitter.com/dongillette