PAUL MERRILL
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Tell your readers a little about yourself, where you grew
up, where you live now, where you went to , etc. Let them get to know the
personal you.
I
went to Humboldt State College majoring in being a hippie. After my focused
studies learning how to drive a bus, bake bread, and make bellbottom jeans, I
headed to Europe to study Transcendental Meditation. After that followed a
back-and-forth between TM in Europe and junior college in the USA.
I
worked a variety of jobs: as a grocery clerk, postal worker, meditation
instructor, construction worker, garbage man, bread truck driver, UPS driver,
high-rise and residential window washer, commercial real estate salesman,
rehabbed-rented-sold houses, was a landlord, a technical writer, a business
writer, a magazine editor, a cartoonist, and a Christmas tree lot manager.
I
finally graduated from Antioch University with a degree in business at the age
of 31. After my father passed away from Alzheimer's in 2016, I moved to Mexico.
Here I study Pilates and yoga, work on writing projects, enjoy living in a
different culture, and eat the best tortillas in the world.
What inspired you to author your book?
I
was house sitting for a friend in Seattle, Washington. I'd been working on another
book for about a year. One morning I awoke with the idea in my head for Fast
Food Detective and just started laughing. I thought, “I have to write this
as a book. It will only take a couple of months and I'll get back to my other
book." That was 32 years ago. I had to learn to write, and life kept getting in
the way.
Where did you get the inspiration for your book’s cover?
I’d
tried a couple of other cover ideas that didn’t work. One day I was at my desk,
frustrated with my lack of progress, when I took out a piece of paper and drew
a mockup of what I wanted. “Okay,” I said. “This is what I'm looking for.” I
drew an approximation of what the cover should look like, with some borders
around it. That's the cover, you see. Then a friend suggested I put a little
picture in the center with a gun and some French fries. I liked it.
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Who has been the most significant influence on you
personally and as a writer?
I
studied Transcendental Meditation for a long time. I would have to say
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the man who brought TM to the USA, has had the most
profound influence of any person in my life. His audio and video lectures completely
blew my socks off
As
far as who had the most influence on me as a writer… it would have to be the
writer, Neal Stephenson. I had an idea for a book, told Neil about it, and said
I thought he should write it. He said, “No, you should write it; it's your
story.” I thought he was nuts. One day, I walked downstairs, got a piece of
paper, and I just started writing. It was so fun to be able to create your own
reality on paper. Thanks, Neil!
As far as influencing my writing style? I don’t have a clue. A friend of mine found a book on the road that somebody had probably chucked out the window. It was a collection of short stories: Mark Twain, William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce, John Steinbeck, Hemingway… The book was really beat up. I started reading it and was blown away by the skill in which these guys used words.
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What were your struggles or obstacles you had to overcome
to get this book written?
That's
funny. The struggles and obstacles I had to overcome were that I didn't know
how to write! I’d gotten encouragement from my seventh-grade teacher, Mrs.
Porter, and a college professor, Bob Burroughs; that was all. But their
encouragement was always there, in the back of my mind.
I
wrote the basic bones of Fast Food Detective in a couple of weeks in
1989. I’d give it to somebody to look at and they would rip it apart. I would
go back to work. When I thought it was finished again, I’d show it to someone
else and they would rip it apart again. Ego training. I ended up writing the
book in a lot of state parks, sitting in my truck.
Life also got in the way. I’d have to stop and work.
When you come home from work physically exhausted, it's hard to get excited
about sitting in front of a computer. In the morning, you've got to get back to
work. And of course, there was the usual: a breakup with a girl, taking care of
my father, buying and fixing up houses, the challenges of living in piles of
concrete and sheetrock dust, selling Christmas trees in Los Angeles, losing
everything in the stock market... You know, the usual.
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Tell your readers about your book.
It's
the story of an assistant manager of a fast-food restaurant, Larry Gibsom,
who’s big fantasy in life is to be a detective. His midget boss, Pinwhip, comes
back early from vacation to find Larry hasn’t been following his strict rules of
conduct. Larry ends up getting fired.
Down
and out, he stumbles on a book that guides him into his new career—as a
detective. He invests all his money in an office, a gun, and a stack of
business cards. No one calls. He’s dead in the water. Then one night he gets a
call from the richest man in the world; he wants to hire Larry. Larry’s job:
take down Venus Van Damme, the head of the woman’s lib organization The National
Organization of Organized Women, who’s stolen his wife “off to stuff envelopes
and talk about equality.”
Our
detective wannabe Larry follows clues that lead him to Nebraska, where he is
joined by the mysterious and beautiful Bobby Broadski. That’s it; I can't say
anything more. It's a fun read, I had fun writing it, and I think people will enjoy
it.
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Who is your target audience, and why?
My
target audience doesn't have anything to do with age. It has to do with a sense
of humor. I think it would be a great book for kids of junior high school age
and up. At the front of the book, it says: “To those who get that love and
laughter are really what make the world go ‘round.” That's my audience;
they are my tribe.
If you were going to give one reason for anyone looking
at your book to read, why should they buy it?
Do
they like to laugh? Do they value laughter? Are they a romantic? Do they have
the ability to laugh at themselves and the rest of the world? If they do,
they're going to love this book. If they don’t, they need to read it!
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What do you consider your greatest success in life?
Somewhere
in the course of living life, growing up and going through all those ups and
downs, the struggles of being broke then flush with money, being healthy and
being sick; you know, all those things we all go through even when we don't
want to… especially when we don't want to! Those horrible things that make us
better people and make us who we are…
My greatest success in life is a result of all those ups and downs teaching me to love people and to understand that on whatever level I am and whatever level they are, even if those levels are vastly different, that we're both on the same path. And that path is the path to maturity, compassion, and eventually what people call “sainthood.”
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What one unique thing sets you apart from other writers
in your genre?
I'm
nuts.
How do you overcome writer’s block?
I’ve
never had what most people call writers block. I’ve had times when I didn’t
know how to get the plot from point A to point B. But when I sit down at the
computer or the pen, the words come out.
The
only time I ever have what most people call “writer’s block” is when I get
tired. As soon as I find things aren't working, I stop. I wait until the next
morning when I’m energetic, or after my meditation in the afternoon, when I’m
full of energy again.
Trying
to write when you are not at your peak of energy and clarity is a losing
proposition! Not only is it a waste of time, but it puts a negative association
in your mind about writing and not being creative. Meditation refreshes me on
that level; sleep refreshes me on that level. Because of the way I approach
writing (a subject of my blogs) when I put my pen to the paper, I know from the
first scene to the last scene where I’m going.
So,
it's just a matter of being energetic and clear-headed, and having fun. That's
my edge, my secret formula; have fun! Sometimes I get so much energy writing
that I have to run up and down the hallway yelling. As soon as you start to get
tired, stop! Go meditate, eat, walk, take a nap, whatever. And if you're still
not clear and sparkly in your head after that, wait till tomorrow.
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What one piece of advice do you have for new authors.
I
talk about a number of pieces of advice on my blog, so I would suggest they
read those. But the #1 piece of advice is: Make it fun and make it emotional; for
you.
When
you think about your story, when you close your eyes and think about your story
in detail, it should make you laugh, and it should make you cry. It should make
you feel emotions! You should be excited about writing this story and sharing
it with the rest of us. If it's not emotionally powerful for you—I'm not
talking about the reader here, I'm talking about you—change it until it is. Or
get another idea.
Oh, and I just have to say this after whizzing through my book in only 32 years: you haven’t failed until you give up. As long as you're still working on it, where is the failure?
Tell your readers anything else you want to share.
I
think writing is about bringing to the paper all the fun, the feelings of
sadness, the joy, all the emotions that are inside of you, illustrated through
the experiences of your characters. To fill the container of yourself, of your
heart, of your spirit or wherever it is that writing comes from, to fill that
container with emotional experiences, some wonderful, some tough, you have to
experience life. So, go out and do it. Take risks, go places, meet people. Be
safe, but don't hide from experiencing the world. And all blessings and fun to
you!
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