I'm delighted to introduce my guest and fellow Muse author
S.S. Hampton Sr. author of
Better Than A Rabbit's Foot
Welcome Stan,
We are keen to learn more about you and your writing.
So, I'm putting you on the spot now.
Okay, Wendy, I can tell you something about me.
I'm a full blood Choctaw from the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, a divorced grandfather, and a member of the Army National Guard. I'm nearing retirement from the Guard, unless I can get a deployment to
I'm studying to be an archaeologist. Actually, my interest is underwater archaeology, but I need to learn to swim better first, and become scuba qualified – in
You certainly have a full life and such diverse interests. Quite inspirational. No wonder you are a writer. This makes me wonder, who inspires you?
As this blog is focused on fiction writing, then, Stephen King, Tom Clancy, and Frederick Forsyth, to name just three. King is a great horror writer, though sometimes I think his novels are a little long. Clancy writes military fiction, which is one of my favorite genres; I enjoy the way he weaves technology into the story of people. Forsyth was a journalist first, and his writing is a wonderful blend of journalism and storytelling, as well as blending fact with fiction.
I can see how those writers reflect elements in your own career. So, you are a full blood Choctaw. I find that fascinating. Would you say your childhood provided you with a wealth of story material?
No. I was adopted and raised by my Anglo “grandparents” who had raised my mother and her twin sister. I’m what’s called an “Apple” – red on the outside, white on the inside. I really knew nothing of my Native heritage, beyond the stereotypical media image, until I started exploring it in my 30s.
'Apple', what a great expression. I hadn't heard that before. I'm betting the result of your 'exploring' will find its way into a future story. What about photography? Your expertise in photography must give you an exceptional eye for detail. How does this transfer into your writing?
Photography is about composition, lighting,
and contrasts – in B&W, shades of light and dark, or in colour,
complementary, or even complete opposites. Describing clouds for example,
especially when setting a mood, I remember how a red lens filter brings out the
contrast. The sky is darker, the clouds are darker, the whites are a little
whiter, and the way they blend from one to the other is interesting.
I try to
capture that feel, when describing clouds or anything else for a story. It’s
the same when photographing, for example, a woman dancing at dawn in sheer,
flowing clothing. It’s the way the dawn provides a backlight that is flowing
across the horizon and the sky in that time when the night is yielding to morning.
It’s the way her form is silhouetted by the rising sun, and the way the
sunlight is muted by the folds of cloth, and even the shape of the cloth as it
“flies away” from her, or wraps around her, as she dances. Trying to describe
something like that is difficult for me, but I hope I manage to accomplish such
detailed descriptions.
I had to double check, and amazingly, I do address non-military topics. I wrote The Ferryman (Melange Books), which is a take on the Greek myth of Charon, the ferryman who carried the shades of the dead across the
So your short stories have been published in anthologies. Congratulations! Is there something about the short story that makes you prefer this form of expression over the novella or novel?
It’s faster! It’s shorter, faster, and
(hopefully) I can produce more writing. I still want to write novellas or
novels, but I don’t have the patience to devote the time to writing and
editing. I’d probably feel like I’ve wasted time if I only produced two or
three per year. And being middle aged, not that I feel like I’m in a race with
time, but…
Producing more than two or three short stories a year is pretty impressive, to me at least. It takes me a year to write one short story before I'm happy enough to send it off. I guess that's why I tend to live inside my novels - working on one major idea for a long time. But you have to find so many ideas. No doubt your bank of interests and accomplishments makes this possible. Do you ever find writing is a chore?
Yes! I should write every day, but I don’t.
I generally write when the mood strikes me, or when a deadline looms, meaning a
submission deadline, or I promised a publisher something by a certain date. If
I try to write every day when I’m not in the mood, it’s difficult to do so. And
yes, like I said above, writing only when I’m in the mood is a waste of time,
but hey, I’m human, and middle aged.
About the main characters in your stories, are they based on particular acquaintances or a composite of many?
Generally, at this stage, neither. Once in awhile I may add an actual personality trait to a fictional character, but never enough to where someone could say a fictional character is based on a real person. It’s hard to explain, but even though I’m writing fiction, if I base a character on a friend, or if a character is a composite of several friends, and I write that that particular character is killed or crippled, it gives me an uneasy feeling.
I can understand that. It's probably for the same reason I don't like writing in the 1st person. I become too protective of my main character when it's I. :) In Better Than A
Rabbit’s Foot, your newly released story from MuseItUp, your sergeant ponders the benefit
of carrying a lucky charm. Did you carry a charm?
Yes. Our unit was tasked with providing security for supply convoys headed into
Do you draw on personal experience in your stories or stay with what you observe in others?
I
draw on my personal experiences insofar as it concerns living a military life.
From those who’ve actually experienced combat, I try to remember how they
described it. And of course, there’s research, reading books, magazine
articles, and newspaper articles in which combat is described. I think the
greatest compliment a writer can receive is when someone says the story
captures the feeling, and describes “it,” as to how things really were. I read
somewhere once, that after Stephen Crane wrote “The Red Badge of Courage”—he
never served or observed combat, if memory serves me right—veterans and critics
praised the realism of his writing, meaning capturing the fear and confusion
inherent in any battle. Apparently he appreciated the praise.
Yes, he would appreciate that kind of praise. We'd all like to reach that level. Stan, would you like to introduce your main character from your latest release? Has he appeared in any other short story of
yours?
In Better
Than a Rabbit’s Foot, Sergeant Jerry Stanton is a young, ordinary soldier
deployed to a convoy support center in northern Kuwait Stanton
If there was something Jerry Stanton could request of
you, the author, what would that be?
IfStanton
I remember late one night I stepped outside of my air conditioned tent to have a cigarette before turning in. A Soldier I knew from my first days in the Guard (I joined in 2004, and about 120 of us volunteered to deploy in 2006) came up and sat down on the concrete traffic barrier. It was just small talk, but then he started doing most of the talking while I listened. There was nothing profound, he was just talking out loud—but he mentioned the IED that struck his gun truck a few days before. Our battalion was less than three weeks into the mission; a Soldier from the battalion we were replacing had been killed. Then, a Soldier in one of our other companies was killed. A gun truck in our company was hit. Then, his gun truck was hit—he was knocked out but otherwise uninjured, and another Soldier had been lightly wounded. But still… So I lit another cigarette, and listened. After awhile, the kid sort of smiled at me, said “Good night,” and went off to get some sleep.
Ah, now there's a good answer from a writer. That's how you become a sponge to all sorts of knowledge as well as being a good friend. Thank you for your open answers, Stan. It's been a pleasure conversing with you.
If
I remember late one night I stepped outside of my air conditioned tent to have a cigarette before turning in. A Soldier I knew from my first days in the Guard (I joined in 2004, and about 120 of us volunteered to deploy in 2006) came up and sat down on the concrete traffic barrier. It was just small talk, but then he started doing most of the talking while I listened. There was nothing profound, he was just talking out loud—but he mentioned the IED that struck his gun truck a few days before. Our battalion was less than three weeks into the mission; a Soldier from the battalion we were replacing had been killed. Then, a Soldier in one of our other companies was killed. A gun truck in our company was hit. Then, his gun truck was hit—he was knocked out but otherwise uninjured, and another Soldier had been lightly wounded. But still… So I lit another cigarette, and listened. After awhile, the kid sort of smiled at me, said “Good night,” and went off to get some sleep.
Ah, now there's a good answer from a writer. That's how you become a sponge to all sorts of knowledge as well as being a good friend. Thank you for your open answers, Stan. It's been a pleasure conversing with you.
SS Hampton's short story Better Then A Rabbit's Foot is available at
MuseItUp Publishing and Amazon
and learn more about Stan at MuseItUp publishing Author Page
