Arnold Ytreeide made me chuckle more than I expected to reading his responses–so, obviously, I went and bought all his books immediately. Not really–but it wouldn’t have surprised me if I did.
Before we get into things, why don’t you give the reader a brief introduction to you and your work.
I come from Seattle where I was a police officer, television producer, and business man for many years. I moved to Idaho in 1988 and here found my true love. We married, and I wrote a little Christmas story for our kids. Somehow an editor at a publishing house heard about it (we never did figure out how) and asked to see it. I sent it, they called back and said they wanted to publish it, and suddenly I was a published author. That was in 1995, and the book was Jotham’s Journey.
A year after that first book came out, the publisher wanted another, then another. I just turned in the manuscript for #8 in the series, and we’re taking it to 10. Also when it was first published, New Line Cinema called me up, very excited to make Jotham into a movie. But then their company got sold, and the new owners decided – much to their disgrace and humiliation – to make a movie about a different kind of lord and some kind of ring or something. Obviously a bad move.
I also have a self-published adventure series for pre-teens, and several novels. All of my books are, at their heart if not on their shirt sleeves, Christian, though my real goal is to reach a wider market with just good stories – which I thought I had done when New Line called.
I was a university professor for 20 years, and wrote when I could, but I’m retired now and it seems like I’m always fighting a deadline. Which is a good thing – it keeps me young.
We keep up a website at JothamsJourney.com, but other than that I am shamefully little involved in social media.
I’m sure the bean-counters at New Line have spent a lot of time second-guessing that choice…
Are you a native Idahoan? What brought you to Idaho in the first place? (answer whichever question applies) What is it about Idaho that keeps you here?
School initially brought me to Idaho, but only for three years, I told everyone. I’d get my degree, and then be returning to Seattle.
Then the women who I instantly decided would be my wife walked in the door one day, and, well, here we are. She was a widow with two small children and, for their sake, we decided to make this our home.
Are you tied into some sort of local author/bookish group/culture? If so, tell us about it and how it helps you as an author. If you’re not, is there a reason for it?
I’m not, really. I enjoy meeting with other authors, but am so busy (with a lot of things, not just writing) that I can’t seem to make a long-term connection.
What kind of events in the area do you attend—either to sell/promote your books or to network with authors? Are there any outside of this area that you hit regularly and wish we had something like it here?
I’ve done a couple book fairs at libraries, but that’s about it. But with the advent of Zoom and the like, I also do a lot of talks to school children around the world about writing and about my books. I think my record is a high school in South Africa. Those are a lot of fun, and maybe are a way that local authors could reach out to schools and groups in the more remote parts of Idaho, or even the not-remote parts. It’s easy, and takes very little prep and no travel time.
What’s the breakdown of your audience—do you have a strong local base, or are your readers from other parts of the world?
My Jotham series is world-wide, and that is certainly the bulk of my sales. But my self-published series (Mike Danford Adventure Series) also gets strong sales in Canda, the UK, Australia, and parts of Europe. By far, though, the biggest percentage of sales come from the U.S.
I have no way of knowing for sure, but just from the emails and comments we get, I believe I have a pretty big footprint in the HomeSchool market.
Do you think there are particular challenges or advantages to being a writer in the Treasure Valley? (possibly both)
Well, since Doerr lives and writes from here (or at least did) I’m guessing the challenges are minimal😊 I’ve been writing for forty years, and I would say that, in the past, location did actually have an impact on success. But with the internet, that has completely changed – as I said, I spoke face-to-face(ish) to high schoolers in South Africa. In the last few months I’ve taken many online meetings with publishers and movie producers, including a publisher in London. No one cared where I was. And if they want a face-to-face meeting – which is always nice and usually preferred – we can always make that happen. In January a group of three producers came to meet with us, and we actually met in a meeting room at the Nampa Library. So we seem to always work it out.
Certainly we don’t have the direct access to in-person events that we might have in large cities, but that’s about the only drawback I can see. My wife and I often meet with fans at a local Starbucks when asked, but by far these days the most contacts are through Zoom and other social media.
Do you bring Idaho (or some sort of Idaho-sensibility, assuming one exists) to your work? Whether or not anyone else sees it, can you look at some aspect of your writing and think “That’s Idaho” or “I would do ____ differently if I was a Kentuckian or from Illinois?”
Yes, especially in my Jotham series, which takes place in Israel. I’ve been to the Holy Land, and draw much inspiration from those memories, but the wilderness of Idaho looks a lot like the wilderness of the Holy Land, so as we drive around I’m always looking for interesting places in which I can set scenes.
In fact, when New Line was all gung-ho to make Jotham, we scouted the entire south end of Idaho and mapped out shooting locations.
My Danford series is set in a fictional small town on the ocean, but much of the inspiration for that town comes from right here in Idaho. My protags are seventeen and smart, but they also have small-town ethics, and a sense of right and wrong. All of that came from right here. They do not, however, talk a lot about potatoes😊
One final question, is there a book (or two…or 18, if you get really carried away), that embodies Idaho/the Idaho spirit to you to recommend to my readers?
Oddly enough, I’d have to say anything Zane Grey. Though the writing style is antiquated, the stories certainly are not. I read to my wife every night – an eclectic collection of most anything – and a while back we tried a Zane novel. It reminded us both of Idaho!
I’m not sure how odd that is–makes perfect sense to me.
Thanks for your time and participation! Hope you enjoyed it! (I sure did)
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