Shopping Bag
My AccountThis interview was conducted by contributor Nicole Krueger. You can keep track of what Nicole is up to on her wonderful blog Books and Bards.
Back when I was a cub reporter at my first newspaper job, my editor asked me what my career goals were. I would always answer, “Journalism is just a stopover for me. What I really want to be is a novelist.”
You can guess his response: “Yeah, you and every other reporter, kid.”
It’s true that far more journalists dream of becoming novelists than actually become them. S.W. Capps is one of those rare journalists who actually managed this mystifying feat. His first novel, Salmon Run, was published in 2007 by Inkwater Press (a company I now work for, hoping that rubbing elbows with honest-to-really-real authors will bring me closer to the dream I still haven’t given up).
I think most people can find a little of themselves in Salmon Run. From the outside, Woodrow Salmon has everything: a great career, money, a beautiful wife. Yet he’s miserable. Something is missing.
While wading in the Pacific, he barely escapes an attack by a scuba diver—a hit man, hired by his bloodthirsty wife. Alone, on the run, and robbed of everything he knew, Woodrow stumbles forward to rediscover dreams long forgotten and a life long abandoned.
Capps will be in Portland this Sunday, Sept. 27, to read and sign books from 4-6 p.m. at The Clearing Café. In the meantime, he offered his perspective on being a writer in the Pacific Northwest:
You have a background in journalism; how did that translate into writing a novel?
I grew up in southern California and found out early in life that I loved to write—short stories, novellas, news pieces, you name it. When I was about eight years old, a friend of the family gave me an old Underwood typewriter, and I was hooked for life. I must have typed a thousand stories on it, all the way up through college when computers took over. With my ardent love of writing, I decided to major in journalism at the University of Southern California. After graduating in 1987, I moved on to become a TV news reporter in Texas and Oklahoma. It was a difficult experience, one fraught with moral and ethical dilemmas, but it helped me as a novelist in a number of ways—the most obvious being that it allowed me to write every day. And with the severe deadline pressure, reporting forced me to think on the fly, ask the right questions, and organize my thoughts. But perhaps most importantly, it exposed me to all different types of people.
Where did you get the idea for Salmon Run?
After leaving the world of television news, I moved back to southern California and started my own business. In the process of running the company, I wrote less and less, and eventually not at all. From the outside, it looked like a charmed existence (great business, nice house, money) but inside, where it counts, I was miserable because I wasn’t doing what I loved. That’s when I started thinking about the fictional journey of Woodrow Salmon. Everyone has a gift in life, some obvious, some not so obvious. And each of us is meant to use that gift. When we ignore it, or worse yet, abandon it (like Woodrow did) we can never find peace. That’s the premise of Salmon Run: Use the gifts you’ve been given or, like it or not, life will force you.
What is it that drew you to the Pacific Northwest, and how did the region impact your novel?
I fell in love with the Pacific Northwest when I drove up here to visit friends nearly two decades ago. I always felt it would be a great place to raise children and the perfect environment to hone my writing skills. So when I sold my business in 1999, I moved my family to Brush Prairie, Washington, and began a full-time writing career. Salmon Run partially takes place in the Pacific Northwest, and the region’s natural beauty provided great inspiration for numerous scenes throughout the novel.
What do you feel the Northwest has to offer writers?
The Northwest offers an infinite number of opportunities for writers. First and foremost, there’s a built-in network of writers, editors, and artists here in the Portland/Vancouver area. Through organizations like Willamette Writers, one can find publishers, workshops, critique groups, etc., with information or inspiration just a phone call away. But, as an added bonus, the Northwest offers something equally important to the writing process—the weather. In my ten years here, I’ve found the rain to be a perfect writing partner. Sunshine can lure even the most disciplined writers away from their computers. But rain, well, let’s just say it keeps you on task.
Where do you prefer to do your writing? What places inspire you?
I like to lock myself in my office with one set of blinds open. Outside, I can see the rolling gray skies, the glistening green grass, and the rain dripping through the Firs. That’s my inspiration—my escape, if you will. For me, writing is an escape, a chance to ignore the everyday world altogether. I know it’s a selfish endeavor, but for those four or five hours a day, nothing else matters. Not the bills. Not the phone calls. Not the yard work. And when things are clicking, when the story seems to be writing itself, when it feels like you’re eavesdropping on the dialogue rather than writing it, then you’ve found the magic we’re all searching for.
What types of books do you read, and what authors have influenced you most?
I’m an eclectic reader, diving into everything from Dostoyevsky to Stephen King. But my favorite all-time authors are John Steinbeck and David James Duncan. Each has an incredible command of the English language and rare storytelling talents. But their ability to weave words—to create sentences that absolutely wow their readers—is nothing less than amazing.
Are you working on any other writing projects?
At the moment, I’m putting the finishing touches on my second novel, Train in the Distance (Inkwater Press, 2010). It’s the story of a young reporter forced to confront the sinister forces behind the corrupt TV station he works for. Needless to say, I was able to draw on my own experience as a journalist for the book. And early feedback has been positive. Train in the Distance finished as a quarterfinalist in this year’s Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards. In fact, readers can download the first chapter for free on Amazon.com. They can also access my website for more information, reviews, photos, video interviews, etc.
