The 131 Preview Review Presents M. Glenn Hedden

The 131 Preview Review Presents M. Glenn Hedden, author of

The Silent Bell and Other Stories.

        M. Glenn Hedden is an aspiring author currently residing in Omaha.  Glenn was born and raised in northwest Iowa and received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Grinnell College.  Living a pleasantly uneventful life, he can usually be found at home when not at his day job as a help desk technician. He enjoys gardening, cooking, death metal, and spending quality time with his two cats. Glenn’s a fairly run-of-the-mill fellow for the most part, but with better tea.

           After reading the first short stories in The Silent Bell and Other Stories, I have to ask is there anymore written?

Glen: The third story is being worked on now. The basic stuff is there, but I'm still revising it - which is usually more like rewriting.

        Ahh.. Okay, what made you decide to go with a compilation as your first published work?

Glenn: Well, I'd like to say I have some sort of grand plan but honestly short stories are just so much easier. I'd like to put together a novel at some point, but short stories seem like a good place to start and find my style.

             So, you're still searching for you voice then? How long have you been writing?

Glenn: I've only been seriously writing for the past few months and even that comes and goes. I spend a great deal of time thinking about writing and planning what I will write, but not so much actually writing. I've always played with writing a bit, though, even as a child.

              You say that it comes and goes, I can relate to that. I'm sure a lot of us can.

Glenn: Yeah, it seems a common affliction among the writerly types of folks.

           That it is. So do you find that you have a lot of outlines and post-it notes scattered around the house?

Glenn: No, not at all. I sometimes wonder if I'm doing it wrong, if I should be like that. Mostly, though, I just go over ideas in my head repeatedly and eventually sit down and just bang them out. I suspect as I get more into novel length writing there will be a lot more note taking going on, though.

           Assume nothing. Aside from research for historical accuracy, I plan nothing, and my first debut novel was almost 500 pages at 11 pt Times New Roman. Some are planners others are feelers... You may be a feeler.

Glenn: It's entirely possible. I generally end up throwing out most plans I have as I put stories together anyway. 

           Yep...  Feeler all the way. LOL! I noticed in reading The Silent Bell and At the River’s Edge that neither story goes over the 13 p marker, was that deliberate on your part or a Happy Coincidence?

Glenn: Just a coincidence. That's just where the stories decided to end.

            Interesting... I have to ask, as you do not tell us, in The Silent Bell, what was Nemo's actual name? Did you plan for him to actually have one or no?

Glenn: Nemo is his middle name, so it is his actual name. I suppose you can make up any first name you like for him; the first name itself isn't really important, but his middle name and his use of it certainly is.

          Would you care to share what inspirations brought you to writing pieces with such literary depth? You use a lot of cues and your grasp of Irony is rather well developed.

Glenn: Well, I've found that I am usually most moved by single moments. If I'm reading a book or watching a movie or telly or whatever, it's always one little moment that ends up really impacting me. So when I'm feeling creative, I always get these ideas about these little moments that are just saturated emotionally and that's where these stories are coming from.            

            I want these stories to be sort of the deep flow beneath the still waters of these little things that happen all around us, all the time.

           You have a way of drawing in a reader, that I haven't seen in short stories, for a long time.

Glenn: Thank you, that's very encouraging. Honestly, I'm constantly afraid they're terribly boring!

              No, they are short though.

Glenn: Yes, I hear that a lot. Hehehe.

            Reading them I kept imaging where the story was going to go from there, the writer in me turns the last page and goes...  But... But... But I wanna know! LOL

           Which is the really cool part, to get people wondering and talking. The metaphysical speculations of At The River's Edge, could be classroom argued.

Glenn: That's another thing a lot of readers come back to me with. I like hearing that, because it tells me the story was successful. A few people were almost angry with me after reading The Silent Bell and wanted me to change the ending or add more onto it, but I can't do that. That's what happened, that's the story.

             At the River's Edge came out really nicely, I think. There were readers that I thought would absolutely hate it but didn't, and there's certainly a lot of room in there to interpret what exactly is happening. Of course, I know what is happening, but it's nice that I managed to pull that one off.

            The other stories to follow these two, are they of the same line of thinking? More from a Literary perspective, keeping them linked topically, seeing as they both draw on the past connections of the characters, is that use of "flashback" going to be a running theme?

Glenn: Somewhat, yes. I want them to be from a literary perspective, absolutely, and there probably will be a flashback theme going on throughout. That's a big part of what makes the moment matter, what makes us care about it, so it would be difficult to put one of these together without looking back at what led up to it.

            It's a very cool perspective, especially for an admittedly "Young Author." Do you have any particular writers you feel have influenced your direction in to this genera?

Glenn: Oh, almost certainly. I think everything I've read that I cared about has had some sort of impact. It's very hard to single anyone out as being a big influence, and I would really have to put a lot of thought into it.

             Fair enough.  How many shorts do you anticipate to put into The Silent Bell and other stories?

Glenn: The original plan was five, that's what I was thinking when I put the cover together and starting planning out a timetable. That's another one of those plans, though, so there very possibly will end up being more. We'll have to see how things progress in the next couple months. Ten might be better.

            From a writer's perspective, and a reader, I would say based on your current length, ten would be better. Your style as it is now, makes me want to read more, so five would feel like a teaser.

Glenn: I feel the same way, truth be told. They're rather short so at this pace it would end up being sixty or seventy pages, which really isn't much.

           Whom did you plan on going through for your publication? Were you simply planing on digital? Or also paperback?

Glenn: Right now I'm planning only digital through Smashwords. I'd like to be all confident and whatnot and say I was going to go hunt out a traditional publisher, but who wants that hassle? Digital independent publication is so easy, there's no risks, and I get to keep all the rights.

           Too true! Too true! Smashwords has a very good reach, I use them and Amazon for both of my works. As long as you do not sign up for KDP Select you retain all of you rights with amazon. (just food for thought) As for 60 or 70 pages, it isn't too little either, I know a few authors who don't often go more than that length in novella form.

Glenn: KDP is definitely going to have to do without me. Initially, I had looked at it as an option, but I wouldn't even consider it now. And yes, the length would be fine for digital only, but I think I can put out more. More is always better, right? 

Pardon me, I meant KDP Select; I do plan on putting it on Amazon.

            So long as the content is engaging yes, always. If its good I'll want more, so will other readers. You're on the right track so far.

Glenn: Well thank you.

             You're welcome. Why literary fiction? Say as opposed to Sci-fi or Fantasy?

Glenn: That's just what I wrote. After I finished The Silent Bell I knew I liked it, but I wasn't sure at all what to call it. It was actually another author that called it literary fiction, I had been afraid to do so myself. I thought it might be presumptuous of me or something, I guess.

             Interesting, that would bring us back to your feeling the work instead of planning it.

Glenn: Definitely. I'm as surprised as anyone that I'm writing literary fiction, when I first decided to actually go through with putting something out there I had just assumed it would be Sci-Fi or Fantasy. Turns out I was wrong.

             Sometimes it's good to be wrong.

Glenn: I'm pretty pleased with this particular instance, yeah. Hehe.

          Do you set a mood when you sit down to write? IE. certain music or a show on the Telly, or is it just you the computer your thoughts and the cats?

Glenn: I may still put some horror out there at some point, though, you never know. I've actually had to pull myself back a couple times when I start writing in that direction.

              Never pull back!! If something strikes you get it down, if it doesn't fit this book, it will fit another!! <- Best piece of advice I can ever pass along.

Glenn: Not really, I mostly end up just sitting down and putting something out there. Sometimes there's telly or music on, there's almost always a candle burning and some fresh coffee or tea, though.

I just might, we'll have to see. 

              Coffee is my Crack... Your bio says you have the better tea... Favorite Flavour?

Glenn: Right now I am absolutely in love with this organic green Chai  There's this seller called Davidson's that sells tea by the pound. I have a pot sitting on the warmer almost every night.

             Green Chai? Sounds yummy. I like a strong bergamont, or catmint when I can find it, and store it high enough that the cats can't sniff it out!!

Glenn: That's always a challenge, those little furballs like to cause trouble. I've had to come up with some creative solutions to houseplant placement problems, too.

             Yeah, we have to barricade ours or the buggers will sleep in them, lost a pretty spider plant that way.

Glenn: Sadly, I also must list a spider plant as one of the many plants lost to my older cat. He ate that poor thing down to a nub and I discovered he can jump higher than I had given him credit for.

          How creative? I'm sure many of my Wee hours readers have similar problems, have any that really worked, cuz my barricades often come up short.

I have one that eats the flowers off this little plant I have of an unknown species, all I know is it has little pink clusters that never get to bloom any more!

Glenn: Luckily my current place has a mantle that I can get most of them on. I have a ficus that I had to end up putting on the tallest stand I could find in one of the tallest planters I could find and it looks like it will survive the loss of its lower hanging leaves. I have a pothos that I hung over the breakfast bar. Previous apartments have been bigger problems, I've had cat free rooms and plants balanced on wall radiators and all sorts of things.

             Little pink clusters? Sounds like it might be a purple queen.

            I don't know, it's not a big plant, but the leaves are sort of pink veined, so it looks like a really full prayer plant, I just know this one cat always eats it.

Glenn: Ahh, that no longer sounds like a purple queen. Hehehe.

            Yeah, no one seems to know what it is, but it's pretty even without the flowers. If I am correct, you said that The Silent Bell and Other Stories is slated for a fall release, any idea when in the fall? As I'm sure my readers will be greatly wondering.

Glenn: I'm shooting for October-ish. I'm going to try to have all the stories finished by late summer, July or August, and then am planning a couple months to devote to formatting and all that happy stuff.

           I'll be sure to make some kind of announcement on Twitter, so if anyone is itching to know, that'd be the place to check in at.

            Awesome! Fortunately Smashwords has a very comprehensive style guide and if your looking to go to print, Createspace, through Amazon has templates that really migrate well into Smashwords.

Glenn: A story or two may also stray and find its way into the greater wild of the interwebs before then. 

           That would be a great marketing tool, letting some of the work or similar float around freely to help promote.

Glenn: Yes, I plan on making full use of that style guide; it's on my Kindle as we speak. I was a little nervous, but this was quite a nice little chat!

            No problem, I do what I can to help.  It's why I do the 131 Preview Review.

Glenn: Well I think it's a great idea and I'm very glad you're doing it.

         Thank you! And Thank you for taking the time to chat with me. And I don't mean to sound solicitous, but if you find the formatting and editing tedious, I do that as well with The Fresh Eyes Edit, where I will go over up to 131 pages for only 10.00 USD. Something to keep in mind.

Glenn: I'll keep it mind. :) Thanks for everything!

          You're more than welcome! I look forward to seeing more from you in the future.

Glenn: Thank You!

Until next time, My readers of The Wee Hours.

Happy Writing!

Keep your eyes open, as The Silent Bell and Other Stories is slated for publication Fall of 2013. 

       Until then go on over and read my Interview with M. Glenn and do find him at the venue below and show some support for this rather talented up and coming Indy Author.

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