Author: Bart Baker
Publisher: CreateSpace
Pages: 254
Genre: Young Adult
Format: Kindle/Paperback
With her uncle, the President of the United States, presumed dead and her beloved younger brother, Ozz, missing, Dot Gale is whisked into an odyssey in a different, very strange dimension. With the aid of three friends she makes on this arduous adventure, Scared Crow, Heartless and half man/half beast, Lars, Dot must battle the diabolically deadly Empress West if she is ever to return home with Ozz. Can Dot survive the evil machinations of the Empress and return home to rescue the United States before her wicked Aunt Emily succeeds with her sinister plan to take over the country?
To Purchase After Ozz
What are you
most proud of accomplishing so far in your life?
My
family. All the other accomplishments,
money, success comes in a very distant second.
How has your
upbringing influenced your writing?
I grew up very
working class. It’s how I see the
world. I’ve treated writing like a job
even before it actually was my job.
Also, my family is large and borderline insane with lots and lots of
very colorful, crazy, flawed but loving people, so I’ve been blessed with a
huge font of inspiration. Whenever I’m
creating characters, I have plenty to draw from.
When and why
did you begin writing?
My friends
tell me I was writing all the time as a kid.
I don’t remember that, but I never focus on much more than the present
and the future. When I was 20, I moved
to Los Angeles to chase the dream of becoming a writer. It was a wonderful time, I worked a lot in the
theater, having a couple plays produced and eventually segued over to
screenwriting where I have been blessed to have over a dozen projects produced
for film and television. And then I slid
over to writing novels. My first,
HONEYMOON WITH HARRY, was successful and it’s in the works to be produced with
Bradley Cooper attached as writer and director.
Now I move back and forth between film and novels. Presently I am writing a remake of BEACHES,
the Bette Midler film for the Lifetime Network, then back to the sequel I’m
penning to HONEYMOON WITH HARRY, then the second installment of the AFTER OZZ
series.
Do you recall
how your interest in writing originated?
I’ve always
loved storytelling. I have always had a
very vivid imagination and I loved reading and going to the movies as a
kid. The mix of those things converged
and I knew in college that it is what I wanted to do with my life.
When did you
first know you could be a writer?
I’m still not
sure I am. I’m more comfortable calling
myself a storyteller. That being said, I
never doubted my abilities, but I always figured most people had the same
talents I did, that I wasn’t that special, that anybody could write. It took much longer in life to discover that
wasn’t true. And I’ve had enough success
with getting movies produced, plays mounted and books published that someone
must like what I do. I just feel
blessed.
What inspires
you to write and why?
Well, first
and foremost writing is what I do for a living, so putting my kids through
school and feeding them inspires me to keep at it. But as far as where inspiration comes from
with each project, it is simply second nature to me to be keen on the things
around me that spark my imagination.
Each story has a different source, sometimes they are completely from my
imagination, sometimes I read, see or hear something that sparks me, sometimes
it’s a certain person, or even an image that I can’t shake. But I keep myself open to it all and that
allows me to never be short of material.
I always have more projects to write than I have time.
What genre are
you most comfortable writing?
I think I’m
best writing a mix of humor and heartache.
That’s not really a genre, more of a description of what I believe I do
well. I am known for being able to tap
into the emotions of a character and making the reader feel that. But as I said earlier, I come from a brood of
crazy, colorful people who never cease to make me laugh – either with them or
at them – and so I tend to leaven my pathos with lots of humor.
What inspired
you to write your first book?
I was coming
off a movie project, a film that got made but will remain nameless, and it was
a horrible experience. The people I
worked for were awful and sleazy. They
lied to me all through the process and the my trust in them was so dim that I
literally went into their office with a draft of the script, made them put the
check on the table as I put the script on the table and then we passed them to
each other. It was crazy. But I remember saying to myself over and over
that I was too old for this kind of crap.
I had a body of produced work behind me and I shouldn’t be treated this
badly by these scummy people.
Around that
time, I remember getting an image in my head of two men, one big, one small,
standing at the edge of the ocean, the sun setting. And that was all it took. HONEYMOON WITH HARRY came out of that
imagine in my head. I did not want to
write another screenplay and go through what I had just went through, so
writing a novel really appealed to me. I
knew it would be a challenge and I think if I had known more about the process
I would have talked myself out of it, but I launched in. It took about four months, four very
emotional months, of writing and I had the first draft of the book.
Who or what
influenced your writing once you began?
I wanted to
prove to myself that I could write a novel.
Being a playwright or screenwriter, you certainly don’t think in terms
of three or four hundred pages. So that
was daunting. But I took it chapter by
chapter, never looking too far ahead and just telling this story. Now I’m no longer freaked out by hundreds of
pages of prose. And I love the process
of editing, or fixing and finding new and better ways to say things, more
powerful images. I thrive on that.
What do you
consider the most challenging about writing a novel, or about writing in
general?
Making a
living. Money is huge factor in
everyone’s life. And being a
“professional writer” is difficult.
Making any kind of sale is hard but making it your sole or primary
source of income is wildly improbable.
That being said, I’ve done it.
And thankfully, I’ve been very smart with my money and put it away when
I made it so that I’d have it when the work wasn’t coming.
Did writing
this book teach you anything and what was it?
Each book
teaches me something, about my strengths and weaknesses as a writer. This was challenging because I’ve never
written a YA novel before, and I wanted to aim AFTER OZZ at both teens and
twenties, predominately female (because the book has a female lead.)
Do you intend
to make writing a career?
It is my
career. And I hope to keep doing it with
some level of success until I’m very old.
Have you
developed a specific writing style?
Yes. Sometimes I try and break that style, to
challenge myself or to find a different voice that coincides better with
whatever project I’m working on. But I
have a certain “voice” that I write it that is very specific to me. And I like that people recognize that.
What is your greatest strength as a
writer?
Characters are
probably my greatest strength. I
believe all story comes out of the characters.
What is your
favorite quality about yourself?
I’m
compassionate. I don’t suffer fools
well but I understand when someone is hurting or in need and having been a
writer so long, it doesn’t take much for me to feel some level of their pain or
sadness.
What is your least
favorite quality about yourself?
I’m short
tempered and moody when I’m working.
It’s like living two lives, my actual life with those I love and the
life I am involved in with my characters.
That creates conflict in my life as I don’t want to be disturbed when I
am involved with my characters and I wish they wouldn’t bother me when I am
with my family.
What is your
favorite quote, by whom, and why?
Sometimes it’s better to remain silent
and be assumed a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. --
Mark Twain
It’s such a useful quote and
considering the amount of crazy I hear, the amount spouted by politicians and
people who have a camera put in their face, it pops into my head quite often.
Mr. Baker has worked on film and TV projects for Warner Brothers, Tristar, New Line, Fox, CBS, NBC, ABC, Lifetime, USA Network, Syfy Network, Fox Television, The Family Channel, as well as working on staff on the FX Network series, DIRT starring Courteney Cox.
Presently, Mr. Baker has two projects in development, HONEYMOON WITH HARRY a feature film based on Bart’s debut novel of the same name at New Line with Bradley Cooper attached to star. Mr. Baker has also completed his second novel, IMMEDIATE FAMILY.
Mr. Baker also has eight produced theatrical plays under his belt. An avid fitness buff and political junkie, Bart enjoys spending his free time with his family and friends, and enjoys teaching film/television writing classes at Webster University. Writing is his passion and he feels blessed that he’s been able to make a living doing what he loves and for all the interesting people and events that he’s been exposed to through his work.
For More Information
Visit Bart at his website
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