Dwight Holing – Modern Western Thrillers

Dwight Holing’s contemporary western thriller series starring Nick Drake owe their success to their readers, who are vocal in clamoring for the next book . . . Hi there. I'm your host, Jenny Wheeler and today Dwight explains how he sees writing as a collaboration and agrees with feted author John Cheever who once said "I can't write without a reader. It's precisely like a kiss. You can't do it alone. " We are delighted also to be offering a Nick Drake Giveaway - two E-book copies of The Sorrow Hand, the first book, in the Nick Drake series  - to two lucky readers. Details of how to enter the draw can be found on the website, The Joys of Binge Reading.com or on Facebook Binge Reading page. Offer closes April 4 so enter the draw now. Six things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode: The importance of a positive mindsetGetting to know your lead characters wellDwight's passion for Oregon's mountain desertsReclaiming humanity after a war with no rulesThe family connection to Raymond ChandlerJack McCoul - urban hustler and ex-con Where to find Dwight Holing:  Website: http://dwightholing.com/ Facebook: @dwight.holing  Twitter: @Dwightholing What follows is a "near as" transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions.  But now here's Dwight. Hi there, Dwight, and welcome to the show. It's great to have you with us. Dwight Holing: Well. Thank you, Jenny, and it's really a pleasure to be here and I'm glad to be on your podcast.  I also want to thank everyone listening in, because it's really readers that have gotten to me to transition from writing nonfiction to fiction. And what I always like to tell readers is one thing, and that is to quote the great American novels, John Cheever, I can't write without a reader. It's precisely like a kiss. You can't do it alone. Dwight Holing - author of contemporary western and urban thrillers Jenny Wheeler: Oh, that's just wonderful actually. And this podcast - we try and target it for readers, rather than other writers. When I looked at the idea of doing a podcast, I thought there were quite a lot of podcasts there for other writers, but I couldn't see so many that were really for readers. So that's really appropriate and it's a good place to start because. we know that we were a very successful nonfiction writer doing travel and nature books, but how did you get to that switched to fiction? Was it the readers who helped you to make that change? Dwight Holing: Well, the change really wasn't an "aha" moment for me when I decided to close the book on nonfiction and open a new one, writing crime fiction novels. I see writing as a journey and I'd always been moving in the direction of fiction as a nonfiction writer. Moving from magazines to novels I wrote mostly for magazines rather than newspapers, and that allowed me to exercise more voice and use experiential viewpoint. But at the same time as writing nonfiction, I was also writing personal essays and short stories based on those experiences and observations and people or characters I met along the way. Some of those made their way into print and literary journals and the like and even won an award or two. Those essays and short stories, in fact, a small literary publishing house in Georgia,