Christopher is a retired surveyor who has worked in all the oil provinces of Canada, the Canadian Arctic and the Libyan Desert . His post secondary education started as aeronautical engineering but he quickly headed out to learn from the world. As well as time in oil exploration, he worked in oil refinery and gas plant operations and surveyed on a heavy construction project, a dam, where he was a member of the tunneling survey crew and then the check surveyor for the main dam construction.
He lives in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, Canada, with his wife of 37 years and two Humane Society shelter dogs. You can visit Chris on the web at Christopher Hoare.com.
Welcome to Beyond the Books, Chris! Can we start out by telling us whether you are published for the first time or are you multi-published?
The Wildcat’s Victory is my second novel, the sequel to Deadly Enterprise and one of my Iskander series novels. I have a contract for the third, the prequel Arrival, due out in July.
What was the name of your very first book regardless of whether it was published or not and, if not published, why?
Wyrd’s Harvest, a huge historical novel that I wrote in the early 70s. It didn’t fit the market then, and I rather think today I would find it reads poorly. I have the manuscript still and haven’t the nerve to open it.
For your first published book, how many rejections did you go through before you either found a mainstream publisher, self-published it, or paid a vanity press to publish it?
I spent over a year trying to interest agents in Deadly Enterprise and must have collected dozens of rejections before wising up. Agents are more interested in reading queries that focus on solid business plans than promising stories. As Donald Maas says on his informative website — it’s important to have four or five novels published before one can expect a breakthrough. Added to that, I realized that living in a small community way out in the west makes me an alien to New York agents, so I approached two e-publishers and both wanted the novel.
How did the rejections make you feel and what did you do to overcome the blows?
Getting used to them. Over the years I’d had two previous novels accepted and then had the publishers back out — one went broke and the other couldn’t get the grant money she wanted. I just kept on writing.
When your first book was published, who published it and why did you choose them?
When Double Dragon Publishing offered me a contract for Deadly Enterprise
I signed on because of DDP’s good reputation as well as it being the biggest in terms of list. I was welcomed into the fold by a fine group of existing authors and immediately invited to submit a story for their latest anthology. So my short, Ticket, is in Twisted Tales II, volume 2, Out of Time, edited by J Richard Jacobs, nominated for a 2007 P&E award.
How did it make you feel to become published for the first time and how did you celebrate?
I’m not sure what feeling goes along with the words, “about damned time!” Having written on and off for about forty years at the time DE was released, and junked four previous novels, I just sat down to work on the next novel.
What was the first thing you did as for as promotion when you were published for the first time?
I had been blogging about the upcoming release, and then joined as many online social groups as I could handle (actually a few more than I can handle) and joined discussion groups about writing. Not sure how that promotion has worked, but I may have collected readers in different countries around the world.
If you had to do it over again, would you have chosen another route to be published?
Sure, I’d have loved to have been discovered and started with a NYT bestseller, but being realistic I’m satisfied that the route I’m following will see a steady growth in loyal readers.
Have you been published since then and how have you grown as an author?
The sequel, The Wildcat’s Victory, was released on January 31st. It’s available at Amazon.com. I still belong to NovelPro, the most professional of the online writers’ groups and am still working on improving my craft with the growing coterie of published writers in the group.
Looking back since the early days when you were trying to get published, what do you think you could have done differently to speed things up? What kind of mistakes could you have avoided?
I believe trying to become published by the traditional route of agented submissions to corporate publishers is a mistake for most writers. Published credits, marketing plans, and extensive networking are needed there, and it was a mistake for me to waste time chasing those moonbeams. Far better to improve one’s writing with a competent critique group and offer it to the widening customer base for indie and e-published works available through the Internet.
What has been the biggest accomplishment you have achieved since becoming published?
Perhaps ceasing to be a lone, solitary writer and leaving my shell to reach out with advice and assistance to others.
If you could have chosen another profession, what would that profession be?
This is my retirement profession. I’ve already spent almost fifty years working in other fields. I’ve been an engineering student, a soldier, a machine tool operator-setter, a refinery and gas processing plant operator, and mostly a surveyor in oil and gas exploration.
Would you give up being an author for that profession or have you combined the best of both worlds?
I wrote half a dozen novels and a non-fiction book while I worked for a living. Although none were published, I found that having my own contract company in oil exploration gave me the most time for writing. I could have made a lot more money during the times I stayed home to write, but most of my satisfaction has come from writing.
How do you see yourself in ten years?
Older? I hope to keep writing and completing two novels a year for at least the next ten years. Hopefully, I will be able to offer my readers more enjoyment and other writers more help in that time.
Any final words for writers who dream of being published one day?
Work hard to improve your craft. Join a critique group where you can receive solid and helpful critiques of your work, and don’t make the mistake of submitting anything before it’s ready. I’ve started reviewing novels for the Muse Book Reviews, and am disappointed to find that the majority of published novels submitted should have gone through another draft or two before hitting the presses. To paraphrase a popular saying — it’s the quality, stupid.
