Hello, and welcome to The Bookmark.

I'm Christine Brown, your host.

Today my guest is Paul McGrath, author of the novel "Left."

Paul, thank you so much for being here today.

- -Well, thank you for having me.

I appreciate it.

- -I'm really excited to talk about this book.

It's a really interesting creative story.

So can you just start by introducing the book to the audience?

- -Well, as you can see, the title is "Left," which is... has some double meaning, but essentially the main character is from the planet Xylodon.

He is a covert operative for the security services on the planet Xylodon and the folks in Xylodon are quite concerned about, the planet Earth with their space technology and some of the other things going on.

And they have a number of covert operatives that they have sent to Earth.

And my main character, Anton-7, is one of those.

And, lo and behold, he gets stationed in Mississippi.

And you might ask, why Mississippi?

Well, there's a Kennedy Space Center not far away, and there's some military bases and some other technology.

Not too far away.

So it it's a good location.

Well, and his two companions, something happens and they leave.

So he gets left.

Hence the title.

Where did you where did you get the inspiration for this story?

Well, part of it was a foot to my backside from my wife, who, has been trying to get me to write for a number of years.

I've always been on sort of the editing side of work for the Houston Chronicle for 37 years.

This is an editor, and but, I started off my journalism career as a writer and lots of stories just sort of, going through my head of different ideas.

And so part of it was my wife saying, you need to sit down and write this stuff.

But the other part was, believe it or not, the, what?

The tragedy at Uvalde elementary, had something to do with kickstarting this book.

A lot of folks, you know, in the aftermath of that, terrible day, well, the offering of thoughts and prayers, well, thoughts and prayers are in action.

You know, we're smart enough to be able to recognize a problem, and we might not necessarily disagree or with all the aspects of trying to solve the problem, but we can sit down and try to do something.

And so.

Guns play a part in this book.

And just as I did in Uvalde.

So that's and there was a tragedy in this book as well.

So that is sort of what gave birth to this.

And this is your first novel.

Right.

This is the first.

And boom.

Two years later I'm almost finishing number four.

Wow.

The bug really bit.

Yeah it did.

Well I fell in love with the characters and it's like I wanted to keep them going and just to see where they lead me.

And I could lead them to.

Yeah.

And who knows, maybe there'll be something after number four.

So you mentioned you have a journalism background.

So the act of writing, the act of editing, not unfamiliar to you, but I bet writing fiction is a whole different experience.

Yes.

You know, I was a I well, I, I'm big on fact checking, but, the there's some real life scenarios that, that, play into this book.

So there's a little bit of news, I try to make it, timely, but, it's, kind of, you know, it's kind of fun being able to write dialog for or, Well, me, I'm kind of on the sarcastic side, as my wife might say.

And, so whereas in real life, when I'm editing news stories, I couldn't add snark.

I can add lots of snark to this kind of freeing yourself from your absolute shackles of truth in journalism.

So the real me comes out.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

But you did mention fact checking.

I mean obviously there's this takes place in our world.

So there's a lot of real life things happening.

Oh yeah.

The, the, our main character, his cover is that he's a biologist doing field research.

So I imagine you had to do some research and some fact checking to make sure that's all accurate.

I did because, you know, help make his cover story.

He has to go in, investigate.

Well, he goes to, to forests and streams and fields and water.

And so I had to find the flora and fauna that was, native to Mississippi and investigate that the towns that they live in, mostly Eudora and Hernando or real towns.

Eudora is named after Eudora Welty.

And so there's a little bit about her in there.

And, there's a interesting scene that takes place at Ole Miss involving a 3D printer.

And I won't say any more than that, but, you know, that's.

Yeah.

So how 3D printers operate that, you know, you had and, and there's one scene in it, what?

You know, it's, you can't make a whole lot of fun of a lot of people in our society these days.

But, you know, it makes fun of Congress.

And so they Congress becomes, yeah, they become a pretty good whipping boy.

There's a key scene where that happens.

How long did writing the first one take?

You've mentioned two years on.

You already got three more, but I imagine the first one, maybe the hardest one.

The longest one wrong.

No, I don't... I don't know what happened.

I sat down in December.

Two years, two Decembers ago, and I just sat down and started.

And it was like every day I could, each day I was able to finish a chapter.

It basically took me.

Well, in about two months, I was done and, maybe two and a half.

And then I was like, okay, what do I, you know, and I, I did that, but I'd start book two.

And so it, I was surprised how, how, how quick it, it took.

Well, that's also what I did.

Couldn't wrap my head around initially as being a journalist.

You're taught to write short.

So how long is a novel?

And, I got up to 35, 40,000 words, and then I'm like, okay, is that.

And people said, well, that's more like a novelette.

Oh.

So I could, I guess so I added some ideas, came, and I added, I think this one is like 55,000 words or more, and the next three are in the 75,000 word range.

So, yeah, I had to, like you said, get rid of the shackles of journalism.

That was another way I had to do that.

- -Well this... that's amazing that it just kind of poured out of you.

I feel like a lot of writers would be jealous that.

- -I don't... yeah, I wish I could bottle it and you know people who are stuck going to, you know, because everybody has stories and people who are stuck pulling them out.

I wish I could, you know, like I say, bottle this and give it to them, but it just flowed.

And, I, I, I would be just driving around and stuff would pop into my head.

Oh, you need to read this and add that or dialog or whatever.

- -This is probably a good story to hear.

I think a lot of times we hear about the difficulty of writing, the torture of writing, and I'm sure that is true a lot of the time.

But also, this is probably true a lot of the time.

Maybe you have a story, and if you just start writing, you never know what's going to happen.

Yeah.

- -Absolutely.

And, if it's... particularly, if it's a story that means a little bit of something to you.

I have a friend who, did sort of a, a memoir of his father's, activities during World War two.

And it turns out his dad was almost like a Forrest Gump character meeting different, key figures during, World War two and, into engaging in different, key battles and, yeah, it's like, man, this was a great read.

And it wasn't just, sterling writing or anything, it was just the story itself.

So maybe that's all it takes.

It doesn't have to be great prose.

You just have a great story.

- -That's a good lesson for- we all have a story.

We know someone with a story.

Just see what comes out.

Try to write it down.

- -Right.

Right.

And send it to my publisher, at Stoney Creek Publishing, and see what he thinks.

So this book is science fiction.

As we talked about, why did you choose science fiction or did it just kind of happen naturally or.

Oh, that's to keep me safe.

Well, I, you know, I well, I had a lot of fun with it.

I did a little a lot of little homage to real, life characters, for instance.

Well, one of Anton's pseudonyms is, Radley Duvall, which is taken from "To Kill a Mockingbird."

And, even his first, persona is Roy McDonald, which he steals from a couple of fast food restaurants.

So I try to use, even though it's fiction, I try to use a lot of real life references.

For instance, Buc-ee's plays a part later on.

Whataburger is going to be very important.

Not that I'm looking for any deals or any, but, coffee is a big theme.

You know, the Xylodonians, they fall in love with coffee.

So I try to use, a lot of real life references and, pop culture references.

So it's a little touchstones for the reader to connect with.

- -Well, I imagine writing a, like a sci-fi alien space exploration story, but set on Earth, you have the ability to stay in the real world, but you also have permission to get a little fantastical or throw in some things that wouldn't normally happen.

- -Oh, absolutely.

Yeah.

With the with your little magic high tech watch you're able to do.

Yeah.

You can do some things that, you might wish you could do while you're driving in traffic, but, you can't, but, Anton can.

- -Are you a big fan of sci fi?

Do you have inspiration that you drew from inside?

- -Oh, yeah, I, absolutely.

I was big on the Dune series.

I read some Heinlein.

Bradbury.

I mostly I read history, so I was more nonfiction then, but I read a lot of, Vonnegut.

Welcome to the monkey house.

Yes.

Yeah, I, I did a lot of reading, and I loved all the genres, really.

- -Well, they always say that writing is also reading.

So it's important to get a varied reading list before you try to sit down and put pen to paper.

- -Yeah, I mean it, it also goes back to those good stories we're talking about even here, even if it's two people on a raft on the Mississippi River, you know.

That's a good story.

- -Well, you mentioned also To Kill a Mockingbird and I'm assuming with the small town setting that was kind of also percolating in the back of your mind as inspiration.

- -Well... Yeah, It was- you see, in... Mississippi is very laid back.

There's... it's a lot of wide open spaces where aliens can come and go and not be seen.

So that was part of it.

And some small town characters, which, one of the Ezra "Gator" Hopkins, the unofficial mayor of Eudora, Mississippi.

He's a central character.

And it's a it's a great way of being able to, humanize, the characters and, build empathy.

And that's what happens to Anton.

He, he first sees this mission to Earth.

It's just a job.

I'm here to, you know, to watch.

And then through people like Ezra is he starts developing this empathy for humankind and where he actually, in many ways, is more empathetic to humans than humans are to each other.

And, he also provides a there's lots of little problems out there, whether it's in marriage or job or litter, that we get so caught up in the weeds that we need somebody on the outside looking in to come provide us some advice or a solution.

That's kind of what Anton and Xylodonians do as well.

- -Yeah, I was going to say that's kind of one of the big themes of this book is we get so, bogged down and this is how it is.

This is our society, this is our world.

What would somebody else who is completely removed from all of that think of us?

If they if they saw how we lived, what we did?

- -Absolutely.

I mean, how many times have we heard somebody say, we've always done it that way?

As if they create a box and you can't get out of it?

Well, these folks, they don't have boxes.

Or if they did, they were a long time ago.

They've learned how to get out of the box.

And, that's why you say that's one of the things that I hope people take away from it.

- -So how do you craft these characters, both human and alien?

Do you- are they based on real people, or can you even say that or are they invented whole cloth or are they maybe based on a story or a show or how do you do that?

- -Wow.

Well, it... There were, you know, there's, Ezra "Gator" Hopkins is sort of a- his name is... he gets his nickname from wrestling a Gator, which is... Bear Bryant got his name from wrestling a bear, so sort of that.

But every it seems like every town where there's a, there's a Dairy Queen or a coffee shop, there's this group of old guys who were the, you know, that they're the unofficial city council and the unofficial mayor.

So that's sort of where Ezra comes from.

There's, you know, there's the bad boy, Johnny Barnes Jr., who likes looking in curtains, and he actually is in- he continues through all four books.

We've all known they had gone to school with the bad boy who gets in trouble.

And, you know, you don't think he's going to turn out well, some of the, like, the sarcastic stuff in the puns that probably comes from me, is and, Ellie's just sort of, an amalgamation of, different women that I've known through through the years, so... - -A little bit of everything.

- -Yeah, I just... it's like you're making a casserole, you start throwing things in and say, okay, this, this work, this work.

And the beauty thing is, if something doesn't work, you can take it out and or redo it.

- -That's the, I think, the beauty of the author.

You can play, you can experiment.

Nobody else is reading it yet.

So you can just try a different thing.

- -Exactly, exactly.

And you know good moods.

Some scenarios around, you know, I wanted to have a bad guy and I thought I created one and created some attention with a certain scene.

And I had to have a dog.

I mean, I'm a dog lover, so I had to have a dog in there.

And, which is also symbolic because of the number six is there's a like in three instances in the book where the number six comes into play.

And that was something that I did on purpose.

Another thing that I did deliberately is I didn't include any.

Broad description of what the xylophone ians look like on their planet.

I sort of did it in vague terms, so I let the reader decide what they look like.

- -Speaking of this holiday, how do you go about world building?

They have- you don't see much of their planet.

But we know that there's a planet.

They have rules, they have structures.

There are missions.

You know, we, we understand there's... How do you build that?

How do you create that?

- -You'll see more of that as we move along.

They have... it has three moons, and one of the moons is a prison moon.

And, one of the moons is also used by, smugglers.

As I say, coffee is a big deal.

Coffee becomes a smuggling item.

You know, here we do dope and guns.

It's all done.

So they want to.

They want their coffee.

And so, that becomes a thing.

But just, I made it in a very, somewhat dry planet so that I could, in addition to the the operatives watching Earth and what the what the humans are doing, the water technology.

The dogs are actually envious of humans water, humans kinds of water technology.

And so they're trying to learn from that.

That's part of what Anton does as well, is, get get the Intel on that is as well as, watching what's going on.

- -And they've been here spying on us for many, many years.

Yeah.

- -For some at least since the first time it something went into space actually.

Apparently the they've been watching from afar and the, atom bomb kind of, you know, we better if we can take a closer look here.

- -What advice would you give to people who want to start writing?

- -You know, it's just don't be afraid to sit down and tap those keys together.

Is I just going back to what we just said a little while ago?

Everybody has stories.

Everybody has, you know, relatives.

I'm guarantee you that they're that, your, your grandparents or if they're still alive, your great grandparents have stories that haven't been written down.

Some of those could be incorporate.

My grandfather gave me a story about catching a ride, a bicycle, being a hobo, hitching a ride on a train to go to a Purdue Notre Dame game back in the 30s.

And it's like, oh man, what a great story that would be.

And so there's all these little inspirations are just hiding, and these are little jewels that people would appreciate.

But it's up to you and to you to bring them out.

We're never going to read them unless you, you know, and even, you know, real life scenarios out there that, you know, this person who just hit the Mega millions.

What a great story behind them and what they're going to do with it.

- -I love that idea.

There's little inspirations hiding everywhere.

That's wonderful advice.

- -Absolutely!

You just have to, you know, sort of recognize them and then act upon it.

- -Find the one that speaks to you, and write it down.

- -And, you know, the grandma and grandpa won't be there forever.

So get those stories down now.

Get, you know, get that information.

- -That's that's wonderful I love that.

Did you enjoy writing it?

Like, was- has this been a fun process for you?

- -Oh yeah.

- -We talked about how fast it went, but was it fun while it was fast?

- -Oh absolutely.

I don't understand sometimes I don't understand how my brain works.

But in, in book four, I am one of the, a friend, a fellow operative of Anton's who of operating here in Texas.

He's in love with Whataburger.

And so he did he thinks a double meat Whataburger is the most perfect food ever created.

And he's also a country music fan, so he actually creates a country song.

So book four has a country song in it.

It's, you know, the, you know, free gift.

Any aspiring country western singers want to borrow that song.

Feel free.

- -Well, I love that you you started writing a book and now you're writing music to - -Well, Lauren told me I couldn't steal lyrics from real music, so I had to come up with my own.

- -Did do you have a favorite character, or are they all just your favorites of how you keep writing about them?

- -Oh, man.

Well, Anton, you know, is, he's got some cool to him.

And, he, he just loves puns, which is, you know, that's kind of like.

And unfortunately, I have that affliction, but, Ellie has her secrets, and, she's very interesting also.

But, you don't.

Ezra.

Ezra is kind of cool.

He's is, you know, I'll just say Ezra doesn't necessarily go away.

- -No, that's fantastic to hear, because I very much love Ezra.

I do want to talk a little bit about Ellie, too.

We haven't talked a lot about Ellie.

Absolutely.

I don't want to give away her secrets, but she's a just a fun character.

She's very no nonsense.

She says what she's thinking.

She.

I admire that in a character.

- -Absolutely.

That's, Yeah.

She, is no nonsense.

She's sort of, a free spirit to, some degree.

She loves kids.

That's why she's a teacher.

And she hates bullies.

And I share some of that, but, she really hates bullies.

Especially anybody who, goes after kids.

And, she sort of becomes the, Oh, inspiration might not be the right word, but she becomes one of the fetishes, I guess, of our main evil doer in this book.

So she's in danger.

Well, I want to talk a little bit about how the book has been received since you've published it.

I want to very briefly mention that it won a Pen Craft Award, just recently.

So congratulations on that.

- -Thank you very much.

- -That's amazing.

So I think that that's one great thing.

I'm sure there's been other great things that how people you've been hearing about the book.

- -I've been receiving quite a bit of praise and good reviews, and different, well, on Amazon in different places.

I've entered some other, contests and we'll, we'll see how it does.

But, you know, I have won awards for editing in the past, and, and when I was the beginning reporter, I won a few writing awards.

But awards were not the reason, not the goal for this.

It was just having fun with the story.

And to see that somebody and some other people who appreciate writing looked fondly upon this book as like, man, that's a man.

That's a big honor to me.

- -Yeah.

- -I feel very proud of that.

It's like, way to go, Anton!

- -That's really wonderful.

Congratulations.

- -Well, Thank you very much I appreciate it.

- -Well, we're unfortunately running short on time.

So on our final two minutes, what would you hope people take away from this book?

- -Well, I want to, I'm going to piggyback on some of the things that we just said.

One is that there... Don't look at this as an anti-gun book.

It's a "what if" book.

It's because there was a big what if.

And so a lot of little smaller what ifs.

So as we were talking about that, you know, I sometimes it takes somebody, a consultant, a therapist, somebody on the outside to be able to look at a problem and provide a solution or take some action that's in here.

But also, the fact that I started on this at age 68 and, just, you know, finally just sat down at the keyboard and told a story, you know, hey, all those hidden stories that you folks have let them come out fine.

They don't have to be long.

Do a collection of short stories.

But, yeah.

Don't keep keeping them in the attic.

Doesn't help anybody.

- -That's very important.

It's never too late to try something new... - -Right!

- -...because look what could happen: You could write an award winning book.

- -Yeah.

And I just wish I'd get the Houston Chronicle review.

- -Good luck.

It's harder and harder to get book reviews these days.

- -I know.

I know.

- -I know, trust me.

- -Man, I was really surprised how few newspapers do reviews anymore.

- -Well, that's why we're here today.

Talk about the book, let people know about it, and hope they find interest in it.

- -Well, thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

- -Thank you for coming, and thank you for talking about it.

- -Absolutely, absolutely.

And Gig 'Em, Aggies!

- -That's right.

Thank you so much for joining us today.

That's all the time we have the book again is "Left" by Paul McGrath.

We'll see you again soon.