Today we’d like to introduce you to Bruce Golden
Hi Bruce, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I decided in high school that I wanted to write fiction, but before I could take the first steps on that journey I was drafted out of college into the Army. Some years later I found myself a single parent scrambling to forge a living in the field of journalism. I went from writing freelance articles for magazines to becoming a magazine editor who was hired to design brand-new publications. After more than a dozen years in that field I moved on to radio, where I became an entertainment reporter/film reviewer (among other things). From there I became a television news producer and then spent several years in the non-profit sector as a communications director. All those years I made a living with my writing and creative skills, but couldn’t find the time and energy to do what I really wanted–write fiction. At the turn of the century I walked away from all that, deciding I had the financial means to become a starving artist and only write fiction–speculative fiction to be precise. Over the last two decades I’ve published ten books and more than sixty short stories.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
No one wanted my first book. It took a couple of years to find a publisher for my second novel. As I continued to write, I found minor successes by selling quite a number of short stories, but no major publisher was interested in my books. Then I got lucky. A major television producer just happened to read one of my books and wanted to turn it into a TV series. After writing in obscurity for so many years, I almost couldn’t believe it. The book was optioned and put into development. After several delays, they optioned it again–which meant they were seriously interested in getting the show made. Then COVID came along and shut down Hollywood for a year. In that fabled land timing is everything. I’ll never know if it was the COVID shutdown or something else, but now it seems unlikely such a show will ever be made. If I’ve learned anything from the thousands of rejections I’ve received over the 45 years I’ve been a professional writer, it’s resilience. So when what seemed like my one-in-a-million shot at the big time died . . . I just kept on writing.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’ve always wanted to write speculative fiction (science fiction & fantasy), and that’s what I’ve done for the last 20+ years. If I’m known for anything, it’s always trying to do something new–build new worlds, create new characters and storylines. I have nothing against sequels–I read many of them–but I prefer to start each book with a blank slate. Most of the praise I receive is for may dialogue. I believe I do a good job of writing like people really talk, while also moving the plot forward. While my tales are written within the genres of science fiction and fantasy, they’re really character stories. I don’t write much “hard scifi” where I dive deep into scientific and technological explanations, I just write about people from different worlds, different times, alien cultures. In keeping with the idea of doing something new each time, my recently published book THE TOWER JOCKEYS is the first piece of fiction I’ve written that is not speculative. It’s a novelized version of what happened to me during my two years in the U.S. Army, as a member of one of the military’s most infamous units. The characters in this satirical tale are composites of various people I knew, worked with, or heard stories about. However, the circumstances recounted herein actually did occur. The truth was only stretched (as Mark Twain put it) at times for dramatic purposes. I like to describe the book as “The Catch-22 for a new generation.” or “A tale more uproariously melancholy than M*A*S*H.”
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
The primary advice you always hear given to writers is just keep writing. That’s because it’s true. Somewhere along the way you’ll discover whether those in the business think your writing can make money. And, if not, you’ll find out whether your work, your voice, intrigues and entertains enough people that you want to keep at it. Which is to say, don’t get in the business to make lots of money. The odds are you’ll be disappointed.
