Friday, September 26, 2014

Interview with Eugene Landon Hobgood, author of the book "Country Roads. The Internal Life of a Mannish Rascal".


Tell us a little about your new book entitled "Country Roads. The Internal Life of a Mannish Rascal".

Country Roads is about an adventurous Black boy in the rural American South of the post WWll era. Randolph Wilford, the protagonist, struggles to understand events that take place in his community, his fertile imagination and his precocious libido.

From where do you get your ideas?

It depends on the project. That is to say, my writing is driven by fictive imaginings and actual events. How the two balance out, depends on the type of novel I am writing. In a historical novel I wrote about Benjamin Banneker, actual events dominate. COUNTRY ROADS is driven by events of my childhood, my imagination and stories told to me by people along the way, in equal measure.

How many hours per day do you try to devote to research and writing?

Research is scattered throughout the day. Mental framing of my stories takes place, mainly during bedtime hours. The actual writing down my thoughts, usually takes under two hours a day.

What was your favorite chapter to write and why?

There is no such chapter. But, some of my favorite scenes, in Country Roads, take place between Randolph and the characters, Mozelle, Cousin Hilda and Miz Mattie. Those women are loosely based on some of the women who shaped my life, as they mold Randolph in the fictive pages of the book .   

Do you write under a pen name?

No.

What's the significance of the book's title?

One day, several years before I conceived the novel, I was playing pool in a bar in Manhattan's Lower East Side. The song Country Roads came on the jukebox. It was my first time hearing the song which made me cry because it evoked childhood memories. It had been nearly forty years since I had visited the country roads with which I was familiar. By the way, the song prompted me to visit those country roads every Summer for the next twenty five years.

How did you find your current publisher, and what experience do you get from that?

I came upon Editions Dedicaces circuitously and fortuitously. A publisher who rejected my manuscript, although he like it, mentioned that he had heard of a publisher who might be interested in the novel.

Is your book in Print, ebook or both?

Both.

Do you ever experience writer's block, and how do you overcome it?

Never. In fact, I will not live long enough to tell the many stories resting at the bottom of my creative well.

What's the main message you'd like readers to take away from the story?

I attempt, in everything I write,  to offer a story that says, "Verisimilitude."

Your thoughts on receiving book reviews - the good and the bad...

Truthfully, my reaction to literary reviews is the same as it once was to theater reviews, when I was an actor. The positive ones raise questions in my mind as well as they thrill me. The negative ones remind me of some of the thoughts I had doing the work. 

What project are you working on now?

Currently I am writing a novel about life in Greenwich Village during the Sixties. I am also working on a non-fiction guide to the pronunciations of foreign names, for English speaking announcers.

What advice would you give to aspiring writer?

My advice to fledgling writers is to try and approach the page as if no one has ever done so before.

About the Author:

Eugene Landon Hobgood was born in Washington D.C. on September 6, 1936. Moved to New York City on January 20, 1958. He was educated in Washington DC, New York City, Verona, Italy and Aswan, Luxor and Ghiza, Egypt. In addition to being a writer, he is a long time Singer and Actor. He holds a 2nd Degree Black Belt in Tae Kwondo, a Certificate in Herbology, and a Certificate in Public Speaking from the Dale Carnegie Institute. The author is also a Marathoner (New York City, 1992).

Eugene Landon Hobgood is a member of the National Writers, the Screen Actors Guild, the Harlem Writers Guild and the Hurston/Wright Foundation. He is the author of four self published works of fiction: "Songs of the Zodiac", "Patapsco. A Novel Of Benjamin Banneker", "Ruwenzori. The Legend Of Moon Mountain" and "Penny Candy".

For More Info:

Author Page: http://papagino.info

Publisher Website: http://www.dedicaces.us (Editions Dedicaces)

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