Author Interview with Mel Johnson

Author Interview with Mel Johnson

Name: Mel Johnson

Pen Name if different:I write Adult Fiction under Beau Johnson and G-rated human interest
short stories under my given name. They address different audiences.

What first inspired you to write?I’ve always enjoyed writing for fun. When I retired, for the first couple years I enjoyed the beach, beer, and bikinis. My brain, however, started to become mush. I could tell my memory was slipping. My Aunt Anna died at 56 of Alzheimer’s Disease and I know it runs in families, so I was concerned. My decision to become a writer was in self-defense, to maintain whatever brain power I have left. So far, so good.

How do you come up with the ideas for your stories?The writing teachers said Write What You Know so I wrote a short story about a couple I knew. The husband, Bob, had Alzheimer’s so I cleverly named it Bob and Marie. Failing to come up with any other good ideas I decided to write about an old flame of mine from the Eighties. I knew her pretty good for almost three years back then. A year or so later of scribbling down my fond memories I had 160,000 words on Rhonda. I have been refining that story for the past three years.

What question do you hate the most about being a writer?I have considered myself to be a writer until I published Liberating Rhonda in June of 2016. At that point, I became an author. The thing I
hate most about being an author is that it takes a lot of work to do well. Anybody can scribble something down but storytelling is an art, one that should be crafted carefully. I’ve taken some online and offline courses to enable me to learn various facets about the art of telling a story. Reading good authors is both inspirational and discouraging to me. It’s very discouraging because I’m not nearly as good as them at this point. Inspirational because one day I MIGHT eventually get the hang of it!

Are you indie or traditionally published? I have published online to Kindle thru a small publisher in Florida. He set it up, formatted it, and put it online for a price.

Have you ever tried the other style of publishing?I had an unfortunate and expensive experience with iUniverse where I paid them $1365 to publish my story, which wasn’t finished at the time.
They said 10 % royalties was the going rate. A half-dozen times I was told not to rush, take my time. Nine months later, when I finished Rhonda I ran into a guy who would give me 40% royalties. I sought to cancel my contract with iUniverse but a clause buried in page 12 of a fifteen-page contract stated that said no refunds would be offered after six months. I’ve received ZERO services from iUniverse and no refund.

What are you working on now?
I’m re-editing Liberating Rhonda, the Sixties coming-of- age section of this trilogy. I have a new editor and am learning the tools it takes to
write well. It’s an entirely new education for me. I believe I’m getting a
little better every day and my cognitive functioning is holding steady.

What is your most recent/upcoming release?I’m planning to re-release the second edition of Liberating Rhonda this Fall. The first edition is available on Kindle. The second part of this trilogy, Liberated Rhonda is 100,000 words but needs a lot of editing. It covers The Eighties, when I knew her, in her mid-twenties. I haven’t written a word of the third part yet. My Muse has yet to arrive.

Links to stalk you online:
Authorbeaujohnson.com- my WordPress website
Beau Johnson, Author, Adult Fiction on Facebook