Interview with C.E. Porch
What drove you to the field of writing?
I love history, and I enjoy being a part of it, even if only in my imagination. Maybe that makes me a backward-looking person, but I am not a philosopher seeking the perfect future or politician looking to get elected. I just want to have a few minutes to enjoy...and take someone with me.
What do you think makes a good book, whether fiction or non-fiction?
I think a good book has to be enjoyed by the person writing it. The reader needs to feel that. I have drafted enough dry legal briefs as a lawyer and loan reviews as banker where personal feelings were purposefully omitted. When I wrote a bank or real estate trust review of a hotel project in Jamaica or the Virgin Islands; descriptions of the beautiful sky, beaches, mountains, the Caribbean Sea, Trade Winds, and the native workers singing as they worked were not pertinent to the dollars and cents of my feasibility report. They were only cursory and peripheral. A writer is free to look around and enjoy. With historical fiction you get the best of both worlds.
What is the hardest part about writing?
When you are writing you are usually five paragraphs behind your thought processes. Not being a very good typist, I make stupid mistakes. Then my least favorite part comes in, EDITING. Things I don't catch the editor does...mostly. While I do enjoy rereading my own stories, after three or four times only looking for mistakes my eyes start to cross.
What is your favorite part of writing a book?
Freedom to create and enjoy experiences.
What is one piece of advice you'd give to aspiring authors?
Just sit down and write.
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