The novel, published by WEbook, follows the lives of some curious prairie dogs, feisty rats and many other zoo animals who discover that different species can cohabitate in harmony.
How is your own life experience reflected in The Legend of Vinny Whiskers?
I love to travel. I appreciate the varieties of people and cultures. The Legend of Vinny Whiskers is about different animals trying to live together. Sometimes the differences are the problem; sometimes the differences are the solution.
You seem to know a lot about these wild creatures, yet you don’t often read about them in fiction. What kind of research did you do?
I didn’t do much research. I read a few animal books and I visited the National Zoo in Washington, DC. Then I started to write. So how accurate is the book? The animals’ physical characteristics, size, and diets are generally accurate. But in the end, nothing was fact-checked. I made up that prairie dogs can climb trees. In the story prairie dogs drink water although they actually get their water from the foot they eat. I’ll probably take criticism for being factually inaccurate one day. Here’s my official position: The book is scientifically accurate to the point the animals start speaking English.
What part of this book did you find the hardest to write? The easiest?
The easiest part was the first draft. The hardest part was everything after that. What I mean is that the first pass was fun, fresh, and new. I wrote my first draft with the single-minded goal of getting to the end of the story. If I ran into some storyline complication, I skipped ahead and wrote on. This aggressive style was exciting, but it created problems for me that were difficult to correct during revision, such as Boomer, the prairie dog hero, becoming a prisoner of the rats. I got Boomer into a mess without knowing how to get him out.
How long did it take you to write this book?
From the basic idea to print: nearly five years. For about a year, Monday through Friday, I wrote for two hours in the morning. My mind is clear in the morning, and ideas come quickly. After a year I had my first draft. Then I started to revise. It was a learning process. I enrolled in writing workshops. Then I discovered WEbook. WEbook.com is a fantastic environment for writing and learning the craft of storytelling. Once WEbook accepted my novel, it took about a year to see it in print.
Is writing your hobby or career? Do you do any other work on the side?
I do a lot of work on the side—lots, lots, lots—don’t let my wife convince you otherwise. I’m a homemaker. I cook, clean, run all the errands. Formerly, I was an engineering diver doing underwater inspections all over the world, but when my wife landed a job in Vienna, Austria I quit diving and become a full-time homemaker. I love it. I clean, pay bills, and shop. I split my spare time between writing and napping. Don’t get me wrong, I take my homemaking job very seriously. I’m an expert at folding. I can clean a toilet in six seconds flat. You don’t believe me? Bring it on.
Some authors can think up a character or setting, sit down and write a novel. Others need to undergo a serious planning process. Which type of writer are you?
Vinny was my first novel and I just jumped into it without planning. I’m working on my second novel now, a character driven sci-fi story, and I’m doing a lot more planning this time.
The Legend of Vinny Whiskers has a timeless quality. It appears to be a kids novel, while the writing and meaning behind the story is strong enough to appeal to adults. Which age group was your intended audience?
I originally wrote the book without thinking about the audience. I’ve since been told that books should always be written for a target audience. It’s my first novel and it wasn’t really strategic. After I submitted the novel to WEbook, they loved it but wanted to focus on a younger audience, 10-12 year olds. This required a major revision because my submitted book was much older. Over a three month period the book was simplified, chapter lengths reduced, and the total word count dropped from 100,000 words to 65,000. What was lost? A lot of stuff about the rats. I’m happy with the final product.
While there’s no sequel to The Legend of Vinny Whiskers in the works, Gregory Kemp does have another project on the god—a science fiction novel for young adults.
You can purchase a copy of The Legend of Vinny Whiskers a variety of online retailers including amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, booksamillion.com, powells.com, etc.
(The Legend of Vinny Whiskers by Gregory Kemp | WEbook, Inc. | May, 2009)
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