Pump Up Your Book Chats with Vincent Tuckwood

Vincent Tuckwood New Vincent Tuckwood is a story-teller working in fiction, song and verse. At any given point in time, he’s proud to be a father, husband, son, brother, cousin and friend to the people who mean the world to him.

He is the author of the novels Escalation, Family Rules, Karaoke Criminals and Do Sparrows Eat Butterflies? as well as the 2010 poetry collection, Garbled Glittering Glamours. His screenplays are Team Building and the screen adaptation of Family Rules, Inventing Kenny.

Vince regularly connects with his audience at VinceT.net and at his story-teller page on Facebook, often writing poetry in response to their prompts, and encourages everyone to get in touch there.

You can find out more about him and his work at http://vincet.net.

Thank you for this interview, Vince. Do you remember writing stories as a child or did the writing bug come later?  Do you remember your first published piece?

A: Happy to be here! My earliest memory of writing was back at infant school in the UK (equivalent to Pre-K/Kindergarten) – stories about flying sausages, that sort of thing. But before writing, there was story-telling, something my family have always done. My Dad will talk about me sitting playing with action figures, telling multi-stranded stories. The cool thing is that I now get to see my own kids doing the same thing; it’s quite wonderful.

As to my first published piece, it was a script for a comedy review at school. A series of short skits and sketches – fun stuff, I’ve still got it somewhere down in the basement, though I’d likely need an archaeologist to help me dig it up!

What do you consider as the most frustrating side of becoming a published author and what has been the most rewarding?

A: Waiting. Always waiting. Writing a novel is like running a marathon; commitment, focus and concentration over an extended period. And when that’s done, suddenly your ‘baby’ is out in the world and out of your control. Sitting and waiting for others to help it move forward is just horrible for me.

Ultimately, this is why I chose to self-publish, to have greater control over the work from idea to product. And that’s been the really rewarding experience. Any artist will tell you there’s something about seeing your realized inspiration – touching it, holding it, experiencing it – that is just magical.

Are you married or single and how do you combine the writing life with home life?  Do you have support?

A: Yes, I’m married to Jane, a very calm spirit with the patience and understanding to let me be where I need to be to write, both physically and spiritually. I dedicated my first book, Do Sparrows Eat Butterflies?, to Jane as the other half of my sky, unwittingly quoting John Lennon.

In terms of combining writing with life, I worked in a corporate role for two decades, so learned a lot of methods and tricks to balance work and home. Now that I’m writing full time, I don’t have to steal moments like I used to do – I don’t find myself having to write at three in the morning because the stories won’t let me sleep.

The hardest thing now is letting the kids into the process – they’re both under ten and, as I write contemporary drama with adult themes and content, all I can tell them is “Daddy’s writing”; though I have promised them that I’ll write a kids book one day. It’s funny, I did a book fair a few weeks’ ago and my kids were with me. A few days later, my eldest daughter told me her teacher wanted to buy Family Rules. I asked her how that happened, and she replayed my exact sales pitch for the book – so, even though she’s never read them, she’s already able to sell them!

What do you like to do for fun when you’re not writing?  Where do you like to vacation?  Can you tell us briefly about this?

A: I have played guitar in bands since I was 9 years old, and that’s my playground. I play gigs solo and with my band Monkey68, and record my own songs down in my basement studio. I’ve never been a big vacationer – you know, that sense of building it up as an annual escape from painful normality – but I do like to travel and visit with friends. Wherever I am is experience, so I don’t generally yearn to be elsewhere. It’s fun having the kids now because I can experience things through their joy of discovery and exploration. Jane and I often discuss where we might visit that would be a new experience for both ourselves and the kids; like our recent trip to Puerto Rico.

If you could be anywhere in the world for one hour right now, where would that place be and why?

A: Right where I am. I don’t spend time playing “if only…” games with myself. I spent too many years in the corporate machine looking out and wishing to have the time to do what I’m doing right now. Or in other words, I’ve worked very hard to be myself in this moment – why would I wish to be anywhere else?

On a philosophical level, most of materialism is perpetuated by society selling the myth that somewhere else is more exciting than here, that someone who has something we don’t have is happier. Study upon study has shown that pursuing somewhere/something else and not relishing what we have is a route to unhappiness. I stepped away from that myth a year or two ago and choose to be happy right here, right now.

Who is your biggest fan?

A: I could joke that it’s my Mum. I could be honest and say that it’s me. But instead, I’ll say thank you to my friend Dot Nielson at WCNIradio.org who is just a powerful advocate for my stories and songs.

Where’s your favorite place to write at home?

A: I don’t have one favourite place, and don’t tend to attach rituals to writing. I’ve written everywhere and anywhere – my second book, Karaoke Criminals, was largely written in Heathrow Airport and on trans-atlantic flights – though it has to be said there isn’t even a plane in the story! I got an iPad this year, and it was great to be able to go an sit on the front porch last summer and review what I’d written in the previous days.

Do you have any pets?

A: Yup. I grew up with pets and we now have a dog, a couple of cats, a frog and a leopard gecko. The kids are fascinated by animals and I doubt the list above is the end of our menagerie – our youngest kitten has taken to sitting under my laptop when I’m writing, she’s looking at me now.

Tell us a secret no one else knows.

A: I live life pretty openly, and don’t consciously keep secrets. Every one I’ve thought of, somebody else knows about it. I guess I’ll go with this: one scene in Family Rules is directly descriptive of something that happened in my life, though in the book it’s witnessed by Kenny – I’ll let you try and spot it.

What’s on your to do list today?

A: Interviews and guest blogs for the Family Rules Virtual Book Tour.

Finishing the second edition of Karaoke Criminals – I’ve recently been moving all my books to CreateSpace.com so that I can gain greater control over product and marketing.

I’m also sitting in with a local musician here in New London, so having to learn her songs and find the holes where my guitar can fit in.

Now I’ve got a couple of fun questions for you.  If Tom Hanks, in the movie Cast Away, unearthed a copy of your book, how would that help him find a way off the island?

A: It would help him escape reality for a little while – within a few pages he’d be in New York City! Practically, it’s hardly a survival manual – I guess he could burn the pages to get attention, or use them for… No, I’d better not go there!

You have a chance to appear on the hit talent show for authors, American Book Idol, with judges Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, Kara Dioguardi and the newest addition, Ellen DeGeneres, to determine whether your book will make it to Hollywood and become a big screenplay where you’d make millions of dollars.  What would impress them more – your book cover, an excerpt or your author photo – and why?

A: The book cover and author photo is the same thing – it’s a picture of my Dad and I on vacation when I was about 4 years old. I could make a pretty convincing pitch on that picture, so I’ll go with that.

About a year before I published Family Rules, it was my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary and we went back to the UK for a big party. It was great being in the heart of family and friends and seeing the love between and for my parents writ large. During the party, there was a slide-loop of pictures, many of which I had never seen.

As I was chatting with my brother, suddenly this picture appears, of my Dad and I sitting on a beach breakwater. Dad’s got his arm around me, smoking a cigarette, a smiling Jack-the-lad, and I’m staring out at the camera with a scowl – I’m either cold or unhappy about something. I was transfixed; had never seen this picture, didn’t remember the moment.

As I was redrafting Family Rules in the subsequent year, my Dad fell very ill – recovered now, but we almost lost him a couple of times – and that picture just played on my sub-conscious as I moved through the intensity of seeing my Dad cut down. A friend remarked at how my Dad has his arm around me in the picture, how much love there is, how protective he seems, relaxed and calm in his fatherhood.

In writing the book, I often took the best things that came from my childhood memories – being tickled, laughing, being loved – and flipped them on their head, taking my real-life joy and making it a fictional nightmare. These became the formative experiences for my protagonist, Kenny.

So, that picture, when wrapped in the context of Family Rules, could easily be of Kenny on vacation. In the depths of Dad’s illness, I decided to use the picture both as a testament of my love for him, and as a very personal impression of Kenny’s journey.

You just got word that your book has received the 2010 NY Times Bestselling Book Award and you have to attend the ceremony to give an acceptance speech.  Anyone who’s anyone will be there and it’s your shot for stardom.  What would you say and who would you thank?

A: I would say whatever came to mind at the time – I’m not one for notes or pre-prepared statements. I’m pretty sure that I’d ask Jamie Bell and Charlize Theron to star in Inventing Kenny, the movie adaptation of Family Rules – and there’s a good chance I’d give out my phone number and email publicly just in case!

I am full of gratitude for who I am, what I get to be, and for all who read anything I write, so my thanks would overflow; the award organizers would definitely have to play the music to stop me thanking people. Specifically, though, I would definitely, definitely thank my Mum and Dad, my two beautiful daughters and Jane.

I understand that you are touring with Pump Up Your Book Promotion in January via a virtual book tour.  Can you tell us all why you chose a virtual book tour to promote your book online?

A: I was at a Pitchfest in New York, basically speed dating with production companies, and got to know one of my fellow pitchers, James Mace, who writes The Artorian Chronicles. He was doing a virtual tour for his latest book and encouraged me to try it.

On a personal level, I’m very hands-on with my readers and know that when they can contact me, talk with me, and connect with me, they enjoy reading the stories even more. It’s always great fun to do the virtual poetry in response to prompts at Vincet.net and on Facebook.

Thank you for this interview, Vince Good luck on your virtual book tour!

A: Thanks so much, it’s been a pleasure! I’ll see you over on my side of the internet at VinceT.net.

About Family Rules

Family Rules New New York. In this city that never sleeps, anyone could make a brand new start of it. Or so the song goes.

For some people, starting again is no option.

Kenny is adrift in the city, tormented by the scars and memories of his unique upbringing as a child star in the UK, chasing any addiction that can fill the void he carries at his core.

Increasingly unable to paper over the cracks, to numb himself with street corner narcotics, or build an abiding relationship with his junkie soul-mate Ivvy, he turns to stealing cars to provide momentary escape from his increasingly desolate life.

Estranged from his parents, Kenny has no hope or vision of a better future.

Until one night he steals a car from a gas station in New Jersey and is offered an unexpected, final opportunity for redemption; a radically different role to play.

Family Rules is an intense personal account of an invented life, where all the rules of family life are inverted, and of the damage done when the boundary between reality and television is truly no boundary at all.

Book Excerpt:

I slowed to a walk a block from Central Park. More from exhaustion than any rational response to the situation; I was long past caring whether I drew attention to myself or not. Across Central Park West and I was entering the park through Strawberry Fields. I had no choice but to sit down on the first bench I passed; my arms burned with the weight of the kid. Burned.The kid kept clinging to my neck even when I’d sat down.

Over its head and shoulder, I stared at the black and white circular mosaic: Imagine.

The kid’s hair was stuck to my face where I was sweating, strands of it in my mouth.

Some hippy freak was playing a Beach Boys song about five benches around the circle: Sloop John-B. There were flowers on the memorial, dry from being there all day, withered now, petal flakes dropped all around where the breeze had denuded dying blooms. I looked up to my right and there was the Dakota, where Lennon was shot and I was sitting holding a f***ing child I had accidentally abducted from f***ing New Jersey.

A kid who had grown silent in my arms.

As the hippie played Sloop John-B, I began to cry a little.

What was I going to do?

What the f***k was I going to do?

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Family Rules Virtual Book Publicity Tour Schedule

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books kk

Tuesday, January 3

Book Reviewed at Lil’ Maddies Mee Maw

Wednesday, January 4

Interviewed at Review From Here

Thursday, January 5

Interviewed at Pump Up Your Book

Friday, January 6

Interviewed at The Writer’s Life

Monday, January 9

Guest Blogging at Literary R&R

Tuesday, January 10

Book Reviewed at Everyday is an Adventure

Wednesday, January 11

Interviewed at Everyday is an Adventure

Thursday, January 12

Guest Blogging at Everday is an Adventure

Friday, January 13

Guest Blogging at Literarily Speaking

Monday, January 16

Guest Blogging at Waiting on Sunday to Drown

Tuesday, January 17

Interviewed at Literal Exposure

Wednesday, January 18

Book Reviewed at Waiting on Sunday to Drown

Thursday, January 19

Interviewed at Broowaha

Friday, January 20

Interviewed at Blogcritics

Monday, January 23

Guest Blogging at Idea Marketers

Tuesday, January 24

Book Reviewed at Mad Moose Mama

Wednesday, January 25

Interviewed at As the Pages Turn

Thursday, January 26

Interviewed at Examiner

Friday, January 27

Interviewed at American Chronicle

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Vincent Tuckwood’s FAMILY RULES VIRTUAL BOOK PUBLICITY TOUR will officially begin on January 2 and end on January 27 ’12. Please contact Tracee Gleichner at tgleichner(at)gmail.com if you are interested in hosting and/or reviewing his book. Thank you!


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One Response to “Pump Up Your Book Chats with Vincent Tuckwood”

  1. Vince says:

    Hi, all – happy to be here today – let me know what you think and whether you have any questions! Vince

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