Welcome to In Conversation, William A. Glass, everyone! As many of your might recall As Good as Can Be was featured on my site. It is such a great read and now you can find out more about the author!
Tell readers about yourself. I am so excited to interview you!
Hi Carly-Rae! We’ve been friends for a long time, so you know my background. However, your readers might be interested to know that I coach college soccer in South Carolina. I’m crazy about soccer, but I also enjoy writing novels. Thankfully my wife, Bettina, indulges my hobbies. She and I find time to pursue activities we both enjoy, like hiking and camping. We love staying in touch with our three grown sons. Each is in an exciting career, so they always have interesting stuff to talk about.
As Good As Can Be is a coming-of-age story. Tell us more about it.
As Good As Can Be is about a military family on the skids. It’s a coming-of-age tale that chronicles the hijinks of a rebellious boy at odds with his teachers, siblings, and alcoholic father. The story plays out on army bases in various countries around the world during the cold war. The genre is historical fiction.
What inspired you to write As Good As Can Be?
I was inspired to write As Good As Can Be by a desire to make the story known to my children and book lovers everywhere. This way, I’ll be leaving something behind for posterity.
Dave Knight is the protagonist. He faces many difficult challenges throughout the novel. Tell us, how did you come up with his story? Was it based on a true-story you read?
Many writers model the main character in their novels on themselves. So Dave Knight’s story closely parallels my own. Like him, I grew up in an out-of-control military family, lived in several foreign countries, and never spent more than a year or two in the same school. I rebelled against authority and was constantly in trouble. This background gave me plenty of fodder for the novel!
Did you always want to write a novel?
Writing a book always seemed like a daunting task, but when I retired from business and took up soccer full time, I needed something more to do. I had writing a novel in mind but also considered grad school. So first, I enrolled at a university. I planned to take the hardest course first to see if I could handle it. That was statistics. The first day I was in class with a hundred other students, and the instructor was making Excel jump. He flew through the lesson, and I was lost after the first moment. Afterward, I dropped the class and started work on my novel.
How has your writing journey been?
That’s a great question! The answer is that my writing journey has gone better than I ever could have dreamed. I finished what several reviewers have called “a sprawling family epic” and found a publisher. The book’s 400 pages make it long for a novel, but readers tell me that once started, they can’t put it down and race through it in no time. My number one priority was to make As Good As Can Be vastly entertaining, and according to the reviews, I succeeded. So, I couldn’t be happier with my writing journey!
Walk us through a day in your life when writing. Do you have to write in the morning in your favorite place?
I don’t have a typical writing day. That’s because my job as a college soccer coach keeps me hopping. Often after practice, I’ll head home and spend a couple of hours writing. Sometimes I wake up early with an idea for a scene fresh in my mind and will tiptoe out of the bedroom, into the den, and start work. Perhaps my most productive writing time is on the team bus. In this manner, five-hour road trips fly by, and the next thing I know, it’s game on!
Any fun facts you want readers to know about yourself?
Thinking of fun facts about me, I have to reflect on the difference between my current surrounding and those I had previously. Right now, I’m sitting in the tiny cubicle my college allots to the coach of a non-revenue sport. This has been my situation for the past nineteen years, ever since I retired and took up coaching. But in my previous incarnation as a Vice President for a world-renowned consulting firm, I had a corner office on the 27th floor of a downtown skyscraper. I have to admit, however, that the view I have now of moss-draped oaks and palm trees is an improvement. Since we’ve left the big city behind and are now in a rural area, I often ride my motorcycle to work. It’s a blast! I compare it to commuting on a roller-coaster.
Can we expect another novel soon?
My next novel is entitled Knight’s Plutonian Shore, and we are on track for a June publication date. The story follows Dave Knight’s rambunctious business career replete with wild conventions, strip clubs, and boozy golf outings. Readers who have gotten to know Dave will wonder if, somewhere along the line, his love of poetry and fine literature might lead him off the self-destructive path he’s on.
I hope you enjoyed today’s Exclusive Author Interview with William A. Glass! I really enjoyed chatting with Author William A. Glass!
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