Terry Sanville

Terry Sanville is a full time writer living in San Luis Obispo with his wife, who doubles as his in-house editor. He sent us a harrowing tale called “Weight”, and boy it has that. One of my personal favorites in this collection, “Weight” is about a woman named Sandra living alone in a house she used to share with her mother. When the city inspectors come knocking on her door, Sandra’s life takes an unexpected turn. Terry comes to us with an impressive pedigree and a literary weight of his own. You can learn more about Terry and his work at (www.terrysanville.com).

We asked Terry a few questions about writing, thinking and well, weight. Terry gave us some very minimal answers but you’ll understand why.

Open Heart Publishing: We are very happy to have to opportunity to work with you Terry. What do you feel is a delusion of insignificance?

Terry Sanville: People who experience delusions of insignificance may have unreasonably low self-esteem. They may feel that they’ve failed to accomplish anything significant, have failed to meet others’ expectations, even though they may receive positive responses and support. I suspect there are more than a few writers who experience these delusions…those who are apologetic about their work, who lack the strong ego needed to forge ahead in the face of rejection, or worse, in the face of no response at all.
My ego is large enough so that I seldom suffer this neurosis. But on days when the blank computer screen stares back at me, and the rejection notices dump into my e-mail box unrelentingly, I’m reminded of that line by the Reverend Johnson in the movie Blazing Saddles, “O Lord, do we have the strength to carry off this mighty task in one night? Or are we just jerking off?”

OHP: What is An Honest Lie?

T.S.: In 600 B.C., the Cretan philosopher Epimenides declared, “All Cretans are liars.” As Creat-ans, we fiction writers must defend this paradox – for it is by writing stories that we honestly expose what is real in this world, those truths that lie beyond history, science, and mere observation. An honest lie often lies at the heart of a good story – take the Bible, for example….

OHP: Not certain that one could be called an honest lie but we take your point. I am a big fan of your story “Weight”, would you indulge me and tell me a bit about your inspiration for the story?

T.S.: Down the street from my home stood a small house, overgrown with shrubs and vines and hidden by trees. An old man lived there. He’d park his truck in the driveway, facing away from the road, and sit for hours, not moving. He died in that truck. Finding no relatives or a legal will, the County opened his house and property for an estate sale. I spent part of an evening digging around the place. Shoulder-high stacks of rusted electric fans and space heaters crowded the backyard, piles of broken and corroded tools filled the garage, and the house had newspapers and clothing stacked to the ceiling. The old man’s compulsion, to horde things to the point where his property became unusable, astounded me. Years later, I did some research, talked with a psychologist friend, then wrote “Weight.”

OHP: It’s a very engaging tale. Why do you feel the need to write?

T.S.: Other than to keep my aging synapses opening and closing, I write because I love to tell stories. Storytelling allows me to create characters, settings, actions, and then bend them in ways that satisfy me. I don’t write to record reality so much as to create it, hopefully in a meaningful and entertaining way. There are few other human activities that allow such freedom – which is another reason why Freedom of Speech is so important.

OHP: Why did you decide to submit your work to An Honest Lie?

T.S.: I wrote a good story. It seemed to meet the theme of “Delusions of Insignificance.” I like the idea of being part of an anthology, where the editors pay attention to writing quality and storytelling – hey, enough sucking up already! But seriously, this project seems to have greater significance than your garden-variety zine – so I gave it a shot.

OHP: For some, the writing and submitting process is a painful one; what is your approach to the process of writing we all have to struggle with?

T.S.: Sometimes, ideas for my stories come from settings, particular characters, or actions that I’ve observed. Other times, tales come out of the ether. Yet other stories are half true tales, taken from my life. (It helps to have lived over six decades.)

I like to mull over an idea for a few days before I start writing…although I often start pounding the keyboard before the idea comes into full focus. The writing itself can help pull things together. For more complex tales, I sometimes prepare a synopsis – one that identifies key characters and plot elements. For stories that have lots of characters (an exception for me), I sometimes do mini-character sketches – but mostly my characters develop as I write.

I like stories that flow. I try to fit characterizations and descriptions into action sequences. I avoid writing thick paragraphs that describe something or someone. I want the reader to discover things as the story moves through time and space, hopefully at a pace that satisfies the reader. I use dialog to show a character’s personality, emotions, and background, and to move the story forward.

Once I’ve completed a draft, I take a week to “polish” the writing – play with word choices and sentence/paragraph structures, eliminate unnecessary words, and “flesh out” sparse elements. I spend a lot of time tinkering with beginnings and endings and I am seldom completely satisfied with the result.

In sum, I really don’t have a process that I always follow – how a story develops is highly variable. But I write every day for three or four hours and produce a couple stories each month – at least get them to a point where my excellent in-house editor (my wife) can give them the once over before the two writers critique groups that I belong to takes their shots.

While I write mostly short fiction, I also have five novels in various stages of completion. Novels require much more research and story development than my shorter works, and maintaining tension and interest throughout is challenging for me. I have some way to go before I feel good about writing long…but stay tuned.

OHP: Most of write because we love o read. Reading, in my opinion creates strong writers. If you have a writer you look up to, who would you say is your writing mentor/ hero?

T.S.: Hemingway. Anyone who can write a powerful short story in six words (“For sale, baby shoes, never worn.”) is aces in my book.

OHP: Do you think writers should call Ernest Hemmingway, Papa?

T.S.: Call Hemingway (one “m”) Papa only if you’re a writer and one of his children, grandkids, or even a distant cousin many times removed. Otherwise, just appreciate the man for his contribution to serious minimalist writing. What a master, and one of my favorite authors who could subtly present human emotion in so few words. I might call Hemingway Papa if I sat in the rooftop bar of the Ambos Mundos Hotel overlooking Havana Harbor and downed a dozen Daiquiris. I’m sure he would appear to me in a vision and give sage advice for cutting all the crap out of these answers.

OHP: Ah, Hemingway; we could all stand to learn a lesson or two from him. You mentioned your wife and her editing prowess, tell us about your family.

T.S.: My wife, Marguerite Costigan, is a published poet and award-winning artist (re http://www.mcostigan-fineart.com/). She is also my in-house editor and knows all those finicky writing rules associated with this crazy English language. While we chose not to have children, we have chosen to have cats – cheaper and very affectionate. Our current feline daughter, Zoë, inspired a recent op ed piece on national health care that will be published in Phati’tude Magazine in NYC.
The name Sanville is French, meaning “without city” – somewhat ironic since I worked as a city planner most of my adult life. We are a scarce breed of vagabonds, Huguenots that emigrated from northern France via Britain to America in the mid-1600s.

OHP: Alright, we are at the home stretch, I am going to ask a few in a row. In your opinion, which is the more important discovery of humankind… plumbing or the written word?

T.S.: Well, since I’m a guy and we can pee standing up and do it just about anywhere, plumbing is less critical. My vote is for the written word as being more important. However, there have been cultures that have developed rich oral traditions for storytelling. I’d like to read more about them but I can’t find much material.

OHP: According to Anatole France “To die for an idea is to set a rather high price on conjecture.” In your opinion, what do you believe is worth dying for? What do you believe is worth living for?

T.S.: I’m not sure that there is anything worth dying for. With the possible exception of Jesus Christ and other larger-than-life martyrs, once a person dies, he/she loses the ability to directly affect change. Therefore, I feel it is more courageous to stay alive and contribute to human culture than to make a political statement through death.

What do I think is worth living for? As a hedonist, I would say: a huge bowl of the salmon bisque at Novo Restaurant in San Luis Obispo, playing a pre-war Martin guitar or maybe a pre-CBS Stratocaster, and traveling with my wife on Plein Air painting trips.

OHP: Mark twain once said “You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” What do you believe he meant by that?

T.S.: I think good ole Samuel Clemens may have packed more than tobacco in those cigars he smoked. But my artist wife tells me that if the image in her head for a particular painting is unclear, then the outcome is often unsuccessful. Maybe Clemens felt the same way – if the concept for a story is fuzzy, if the imagination is out of focus, what the writer produces is a poorly told tale.
But sometimes I think that the very act of writing, however misguided, can help focus the imagination. Myself and other writers have worked this way and have produced wonderful stories. Maybe if Clemens had just kept writing Huckleberry Finn and had not set it down for years, he could have worked through his writer’s block and not inserted that terrible “Phelps Farm Incident” near the end of such a wonderful book.

OHP: Something you have coming soon that you’re particularly proud of?

T.S.: In the next year I hope to complete and begin shopping two novels, “The Long Fall,” and “Deep Water Secrets.” These two works are the first in a series of mystery/adventure stories that take place on beautiful Santa Catalina Island off the Southern California Coast.

This past year, my story “The Sweeper” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. I hope to write more stories that will garner new nominations – I just don’t know what they are yet

OHP: Most people have two stories for doing anything… a plausible excuse and the real reason, why do you really write?

T.S.: I write to satisfy my ego and to differentiate myself from the madding crowd.

An Honest Lie Volume 2 is in production. The final edits are being … finalized by M.E. Johnson, the formatting headache is in the very capable hands of our Publisher Debrin Case and they have left me in charge of keeping you all updated on our progress. Progress is, as ever it does, progressing and at a phenomenal rate. We are all very happy with what we’ve selected and we are certain you will be too.

In the interest of keeping you titillated about what you can expect from AHL V2 we are offering up a glimpse inside the minds of the Authors you’ll be reading. Over the next few weeks we will be bringing you Artist Interviews from each of the featured Authors in AHL V2.

So, without further adieu I want you to help me welcome C.B. Calsing. C.B. graced us with a great tale, “Gran’s Prophecy” , in An Honest Lie Volume 1 and she is back in volume 2 with “Martina Gets the Last Word”. She is also working with Open Heart Publishing to publish her short story collection “All Along the Pacific”. When asked what her inspiration was for the collection here is some of what she had to say.

The first story I wrote that became part of “All Along the Pacific” was “A Common Whore.” I had heard a story from a fumigator about a brothel in Pismo Beach, California. I thought at first about fictionalizing this, but then the character of Lydia just sort of came up out of the soup of information I was dealing with. She’s a complete fabrication, not based on anything historic I had heard, but she really did appeal to me. The story of an abused woman on the run is not a new one, and back in the 1920s, there weren’t a lot of options in that type of situation, so prostitution seemed like a logical place to end up. But I didn’t want it to be a normal story, so I threw in the son, but then realized it would be even more interesting if it were a step-son instead of a biological son that she steals.

I am excited to see what else is in store. There is much more to that story. Stay tuned for much more from C.B Calsing. We asked C.B. a few other honest questions and here are her honest answers.

Open Heart Publishing: Thank you for taking the time to do this interview for us. So, the anthology is titled, “An Honest Lie: Delusions of Insignificance”. I want to ask you a two part question. First, what is an honest lie?

C.B. Calsing: An honest lie or An Honest Lie? Because there is quite a difference, don’t you think? An Honest Lie is a great series of anthologies, each with a different central theme, that is sure to entertain readers. They feature talented up-and-coming writers that are enthusiastic about what they do and eager to share their work with the world.

An honest lie, on the other hand, is a fib designed to make someone feel better, like when we tell a sick friend she’s looking great, or a parent how cute his child is when in fact that baby looks like a shrunken old man. These small fibs lube the gears that make up society and civilization. That reminds me of the movie The Invention of Lying. Can you imagine if everyone were brutally honest like that? The individuals wouldn’t be able to keep society together. It would fall apart. So what if sometimes our bosses tell us “Good job” and then turn around and roll their eyes. It doesn’t matter so long as we don’t see it. We think we did a good job and with a smile on our face we go about our day. We want to believe these lies to be true, and because more often than not they are subjective lies, it’s easier to convince ourselves of that.

OHP: Great answer! Now on to the second part; what is a delusion of insignificance?

C.B.: A delusion of insignificance is feeling that we are worthless. Self-deprecation, self-pity when in fact we are loved, intrinsic in someone else’s life, and completely necessary. I think most people live with these delusions. Otherwise they are over the top in the opposite direction, like egomaniacs. It’s hard to find a balance between confidence and modesty, and a delusion of insignificance goes a long way in the modesty column.

OHP: For some of us writing isn’t a job or even a serious career path, we write because we can, we write because we love it. Why do you feel the need to write?

C.B.: Pashaw. I don’t need to write. I can stop anytime I want. I’ve done it before. I think I went weeks one time with writing a single word. You don’t believe me? I can stop right now. Watch. There. I did it. What? Well, I only started again because I wanted to. I didn’t need to. It’s not like a compulsion or anything. Besides, it’s not going to kill me so long as it’s in moderation, right? Yeah, I know: signs of addiction, blah, blah, blah. Does it affect my work? I’ve only missed, like, one day ever to write. Relationships? Well…

OHP: I lolled at that one. I can relate to the passion for writing and a tempering of that with a little humor. Why did you decide to submit your work to An Honest Lie?

C.B.: In the C.B. Calsing School of Professional Writing, the first rule taught is “Money flows to the writer.” I particularly like royalty paying markets because even at my age, I’m thinking about retirement. That little bit coming in every month or quarter or year… That’s beer money right there.

OHP: Many great writers are very practical people. I believe it comes from the preservatives in ramen noodles. Yet we write anyway. Most people have two stories for doing anything… a plausible excuse and the real reason. Why do you really write?

C.B.: I didn’t really give a plausible excuse to the above answer, did I? I write because I’ve always written. I started when I was three, and my mom and dad would make books with me. Real, cloth-bound, stitched together books. Throughout junior high and high school I wrote derivative novellas and angsty, Goth poetry. By college I’d started in on short fiction that showed a glimmer of originality, and I’ve been building from that for years now. Everyone around me defines me as a writer: my parents, my husband, my friends. When we get together, the question is always “What are you working on?” or “What comes out next?” I’ve been defined by what I do, and honestly I have no problem with that. I can’t imagine not writing.

OHP: Well we are glad to have you with us. Tell our readers something about your inspiration for “Marina Gets the Last Word”.

C.B.: I am a fan of the paranormal and horror, particularly the old masters like Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft. I went through a phase last summer — 2009 — where I was writing a lot of horror stories: werewolves, elder gods living inside Norwegian black metal albums, vengeful women returning as oyster monsters from the briny depths…. Those sorts of things. The one thing that most of the horror sites listed in their submission guidelines is that they were tired of the old tropes. I got to thinking how someone could make a sort of standard haunting story new and different. What made Poe and Lovecraft great to me was not necessarily their ability to craft really scary situations or write in detail about giant, slimy beasts, but the use of their characters’ tension to create the feeling of dread in the reader. Either of these writers could have made buttering toast a harrowing experience if they had wanted to. I decided to create a sort of mundane haunting, a journal that seems to write itself in the hand of a dead woman, and then add to that a character that is a little haunted by something else: his own guilt and, maybe to a lesser extent, booze. This would give me plenty of room to move around the psychology and tension of the issue. Finally I realized the best way to break from the old ideas of a horror short story was to destroy the expectations the readers would have for the ending. That’s how I came up with “Martina Gets the Last Word.”

OHP: Besides short stories what other writing endeavors are you currently engaged in?

C.B.: I’ve written a young adult novel set during World War Two that I need to find time to revise. I love to write historic fiction, and so I took the opportunity during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writers Month (ed.) last year to get this idea I’d had down on paper. This year, I’m working on a fantasy western, I think.

OHP: So, we live during a time in story telling history where the Hero/Villain dynamic is more popular than ever. Who would you say is your writing mentor/ hero?

C.B.: Without a doubt, I can say that my writing hero is Philip K. Dick. He worked hard for years, never giving up, staying dedicated to his genre. My weakest point in my writing is his greatest strength: the ability to make the story about the relationships and people without the bizarre plots or interesting settings overwhelming the story. My work is so often plot driven; I know I need to step back and reevaluate, looking at it with the kind of eye he would have had. I try to think like him when I work.

OHP: Do you have a writing nemesis?

C.B.: I believe I have a writing nemesis, but I’m not sure she really counts because she probably has no idea. She might not even know I exist, though I have taken a class with her. I’ll sometimes check her book’s Amazon ranking against anthologies and things that I’m in. If she’s ranked higher than me, I cry out “Curses!” and shake my fist at the monitor.

OHP: Wonderful. I have just a few more questions for our readers. In your opinion, which is the more important discovery of humankind… plumbing or the written word?

C.B.: Hmmm… Shitting in a hole or having to listen to recitations for entertainment? That is probably the most difficult question in this entire interview. Without writing we’d have no scripted entertainment of any kind. All reality shows on the tele? Ick. I supposed I’d rather poop in the yard and then go watch Glee than consider the alternatives. So the written word wins. Definitely.

OHP: According to Anatole France “To die for an idea is to set a rather high price on conjecture.” In your opinion what do you believe is worth dying for? What do you believe is worth living for?

C.B.: I have — let’s say — a very tenuous hold on my spirituality. I’m also quite pessimistic. As a result, I have very little faith that anything better lies down the road, so nothing is worth dying for. This life may be all I get, so why would I waste it on ideals or self-sacrifice? Everything is worth living for.

OHP: Mark Twain once said that “You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” What do you believe he meant by that?

C.B.: Well, many philosophers would tell us that the world only exists as a reflection of our mind or perception — like why we would all draw a different chair if asked to draw a chair. There’s no one “chair” that exists in the world that we all look to as a perfect example. Everything in existence is colored by our minds and, by extension, our imagination. I’m prone to exaggerate. Sometimes when I describe something I saw, I’ll up the numbers or the scope of the encounter. I don’t realize until after I’ve said — during a retelling of the story — the first number out-loud that I’m probably off. There weren’t twenty cop cars there, but maybe twelve. I have to go back and correct myself. My imagination wants the amazing things I witness in my day-to-day life to be even bigger. Therefore I can never be relied upon to give accurate testimony.