{"id":584,"date":"2010-04-13T21:51:18","date_gmt":"2010-04-14T03:51:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/?p=584"},"modified":"2010-04-13T21:51:18","modified_gmt":"2010-04-14T03:51:18","slug":"kicked-in-the-head-writing-advice-from-james-o-bornjames-oneal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/2010\/04\/kicked-in-the-head-writing-advice-from-james-o-bornjames-oneal\/","title":{"rendered":"Kicked in the Head: Writing Advice from James O. Born\/James O’Neal"},"content":{"rendered":"

James O. Born <\/a>is a law enforcement officer and a writer.\u00a0 He\u2019s also a native Floridian.\u00a0 Those three things add up to award-winning crime novels set mostly in the Sunshine State. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Born\u2019s prose has a little bit of the poetry of James W. Hall<\/a>‘s, the lunacy of Carl Hiassen<\/a>‘s, and the muscle of Randy Wayne White<\/a>‘s.\u00a0 But Born adds layer upon layer of realism, drawn mostly from his years on duty.<\/p>\n

Recently, under the pseudonym James O\u2019Neal<\/a>, Born has written The Human Disguise<\/em> and The Double Human<\/em> (forthcoming in June from Tor), both of which are post-apocalyptic science fiction set in a near-future Miami.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As a fellow Floridian, I picked up The Human Disguise<\/em> with both excitement and trepidation.\u00a0 The Florida in Born\u2019s crime novels is so real, so true that I feared he would predict an equally true future in his science fiction.\u00a0 The result is terrifyingly feasible, and one heck of a good read.<\/p>\n

Recently, I asked Born about his double life as a cop and a writer.<\/p>\n

Jones:\u00a0 You’ve been shot with a jacketed hollow-point by W. E. B. Griffin<\/a>, with an arrow by Michael Connelly<\/a>, and been called \u201cBill the FDA Agent\u201d by David Hagberg…\u00a0 those comments aside, what have been some of the most helpful comments you\u2019ve received on fiction-writing?<\/p>\n

Born\/O\u2019Neal:\u00a0 My two careers share one common element: Everyone you meet on the street has advice for both writing and police work.\u00a0 The one piece of advice I got years ago they can be applied to both is, \u201cDon’t be a dumbass.\u201d\u00a0 If you can live by that simple motto, life and work are a lot easier.<\/p>\n

As far as writing specifically I take it very seriously and study other writers as well as the craft of writing itself.\u00a0 I also listen to my editors and work hard never to make the same error twice.\u00a0 So that I hope, with each book, I become a better writer.\u00a0 It all starts with character.\u00a0 The plot must develop organically from what the character would do based on his history and the situation in which he has been dropped.<\/p>\n

For aspiring writers I cannot stress enough the need to read everything possible.<\/p>\n

Jones:\u00a0 Are there any other similarities between working as a law enforcement officer and working as a writer?<\/p>\n

Born\/O\u2019Neal:\u00a0 Everyone thinks they know how to do your job.\u00a0 It’s not until they get kicked in the head in a fight that they realize maybe they don’t know exactly what they’re doing.\u00a0 Just as when they get kicked in the head (figuratively) by an agent or editor.\u00a0 It takes a little time to realize they may not know exactly what they are doing.<\/p>\n

——<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jeremy L. C. Jones <\/em><\/a>is a freelance writer, editor, and part-time professor.\u00a0 Jones is a frequent contributor to <\/em>Clarkesworld Magainze<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 He is also the director of <\/em>Shared Worlds<\/em><\/a>, a creative writing and world-building camp that he and <\/em>Jeff VanderMeer <\/em><\/a>designed in 2006.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James O. Born is a law enforcement officer and a writer.\u00a0 He\u2019s also a native Floridian.\u00a0 Those three things add up to award-winning crime novels set mostly in the Sunshine State. \u00a0 Born\u2019s prose has a little bit of the poetry of James W. Hall‘s, the lunacy of Carl Hiassen‘s, and the muscle of Randy Wayne White‘s.\u00a0 But Born adds layer upon layer of realism, drawn mostly from his years on duty. Recently, under the pseudonym James O\u2019Neal, Born has written The Human Disguise and The Double Human (forthcoming in June from Tor), both of which are post-apocalyptic science fiction set in a near-future Miami.\u00a0 As a fellow Floridian, I picked up The Human Disguise with both excitement and trepidation.\u00a0 The Florida in Born\u2019s crime novels is so real, so true that I feared he would predict an equally true future in his science fiction.\u00a0 The result is terrifyingly feasible, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":588,"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584\/revisions\/588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}