Nick Yetto and I follow each other on Twitter and I couldn’t help noticing the unusual cover design of his book Sommelier of Deformity. The book is coming out in July and is now available for pre-order on Amazon.
How did you decide to become an author?
I don’t remember a time when I didn’t want to be one. In elementary school, I’d write adventure stories in serial and pass them around to my classmates. They seemed to like them and kept asking for more, and that feeling isn’t something that ever leaves you. I was always a “writer kid,” always a reader, and by way of these things, a little theater ham. Writing is a compulsion for me. I’d feel empty without it.
How does your professional background help with your writing?
I’m a freelance web designer/developer. The work itself doesn’t inform the writing—not in any ways I can think of—but the lifestyle does. Writing is a freelance occupation, and I’ve been operating in the freelance world for almost fifteen years. Self-starting, project-based, 1099-MISC, yadda yadda yadda. I always looked at the book as another project. When work was light, I’d open Word and plug away at the dream.
Can you tell us more about why you wrote your latest books?
I didn’t write it. My main character did. That sounds glib, but it’s true. I worked on the novel for eleven years. It took the first two to get Buddy right. I think my theater ham childhood played a part here. I wanted to write a comedic novel. I created this ugly, arrogant little man. The parameters of his life began to take shape. “Oh, he lives with his mother and grandfather.” “Oh oh—he’s got the body of Quasimodo, but the heart of Don Juan!” You have these little epiphanies—each one, informing the last—and the character grows in your mind, to the point where you’re able to see the world through his eyes. What would this guy think? What would he do? You build from there.
What advice do you have for aspiring writers?
View your writing as a part-time job, and not as “the expression of my soul’s song” or whatever. If you’re working a 40-hour week, guess what? Now you’ve got a 20-hour moonlighting gig! It’s a hard way to have fun, but this is the life we’ve chosen. Don’t view “the dream” as a dream. View it was “the boss” and the writing as your “shift.”
Surround yourself with loving people. Writing is brain work. A cluttered mind can’t produce. Life will throw plenty at us, and we’ll never fully be able to escape the cares of the day, but we can choose our friends, our partners. I’ve been lucky in these areas. It could have been otherwise. If it had, I don’t think I would have ever finished the book.
What are some upcoming publishing projects you are working on?
I’m working on the screenplay for Sommelier of Deformity. There’s been… interest. “All things in Hollywood are longshots,” and my case is no different. I’m just trying to write the best screenplay I can. Lofty stuff, and a challenge for sure—but it’s the same approach I took with the novel. “Work hard, get it to the point where ‘I can do different, but I can’t do better,’ and then let the cards fall where they may.” I’m enjoying it, and thankful for the opportunity.
Visit Nick Yetto’s author website.
Andrew M. Friday 