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***The CRC Blog welcomes submissions from published and unpublished fiction genre writers for INSIDE THE EMOTION OF FICTION. Contact CRC Blog via email at caccoop@aol.com or personal Facebook messaging at https://www.facebook.com/car.cooper.7
**** Marlon Fick’s The Nowhere
Man is the twenty-first in a never-ending series called INSIDE
THE EMOTION OF FICTION where the Chris Rice Cooper
Blog (CRC) focuses on one specific excerpt from a fiction genre and how
that fiction writer wrote that specific excerpt. All INSIDE
THE EMOTION OF FICTION links are at the
end of this piece.
Name of fiction work?
And were there other names you considered that you would like to share with us?
The Nowhere Man (Jaded Ibis,
2015). I began writing the novel in 2001
with the title Bolivar’s Daughters. I
never dreamed of changing the title, but the publisher, just a month before the
final proofs, decided she wanted it changed. I went through a dozen titles, all
of which I hated. I settled on The
Nowhere Man, grudgingly.
Fiction genre? Ex science fiction, short story, fantasy
novella, romance, drama, crime, plays, flash fiction, historical, comedy, movie
script, screenplay, etc. And how many
pages long? It isn’t a sub-genre
novel, at least it isn’t meant to be. It was meant as a novel, but it was since
classified by a reviewer at Flinders University in Australia as a
“post-colonialist novel.” I’m not
opposed to genres, though; in fact, I’m working on a semi-science-fiction thing
now.
Has this been published?
And it is totally fine if the answer is no.
If yes, what publisher and what publication date? Published by Jaded Ibis in 2015. This novel does have a sequel, which I think
is better, entitled Rhapsody in a Circle,
which takes place mostly in Pakistan and Mexico. It’s in circulation.
Unbridled Books said they liked it a lot but they’re “full up” now.
What is the date you
began writing this piece of fiction and the date when you completely finished
the piece of fiction? I
began TNM in 2001 and finished it in 2009.
I sent it to Debra Diblasi, then the publisher for Jaded Ibis, where it
sat on her desk for about two years. I didn’t send it anywhere else, but out of
the blue in the early part of 2012, I got a phone call from Debra asking if it
were still available. I’d completely forgotten about the manuscript, moved on
to other projects, and never even bothered to circulate it. She was crazy about it, so I spent quite a
lot more time re-writing from 2012 to 2013. Then she wanted some pages done
differently, so that was another 6 months of re-writing in 2015. 
Where did you do most of
your writing for this fiction work? And
please describe in detail. And can you
please include a photo? I
wrote the first seven hundred pages in a rented apartment in Kansas City with
funds I received from an NEA for poetry. I’d actually finished my NEA project
before their money arrived, so I used the money and the time to write the first
draft of the novel, which was considerably longer than the final version. I
re-wrote it in Mexico City. Again in Colorado Springs, and lastly in Wenzhou,
China. The final editing was in Arizona.
What were your writing
habits while writing this work- did you drink something as you wrote, listen to
music, write in pen and paper, directly on laptop; specific time of day? Writing habits…
When I’m teaching, most of my writing is academic and instructional. The
sort of time it takes to write a novel or poetry—well, this is a whole
different kind of schedule. I can only write the way I want to write on breaks
(winter and summer), although sometimes I steal some time away or cram on
weekends. I only write with a pen and a
notebook on first drafts. For subsequent
drafts, I move to the laptop.
I don’t have any special rituals—like Goethe, (Left) for
instance; he always drank 6 ounces of wine before he worked. I may have coffee. Also, I’m not as regulated as a lot of my
writer-friends are because I’m a full time teacher. So, when I get the
opportunity, I write like a crazy person, sometimes for as many as twenty hours
in a stretch. The first draft of Rhapsody in a Circle and I wrote the
first draft—between four and five hundred pages—in two months. You have asked an interesting question,
though—what do writer’s use? I’ll have
to confess that I do go through a lot of cigarettes. I’m not worried about
that, given tobacco is a vegetable and vegetables are one of the four major
food groups. How very fortunate,
tobacco. Even so, both novels caused me
to lose a lot of weight. I lost around
thirty-five pounds due to forgetting to eat—from 150 to 115. I was pretty skinny.
What is the summary of
this specific fiction work? Both novels tell the story of Bolivar Collins, his life and times, from
childhood on. Collins is a bookish and intellectual little kid who can’t really
cope with reality, so he buries himself in books and sees everything through
whatever book he happens to be reading.
He generally reads philosophy, so one day he interprets what’s going on
around him through the eyes of Immanuel Kant, the next week it’s Hegel, then
it’s Schopenhauer, and so on—until Philosophy ultimately fails him.
By the time Collins reaches his twenties he
is beginning to make bridges to the real world, connections with real people,
like his first wife, Marie Ella, in Congo. Unfortunately, the two become separated
by the civil war (then, Zaire). So, he
drifts and ends up in Cuba. Again, he marries and has a family, which becomes
the most important thing. 
In gratitude
to his family and the country that adopts him, he agrees to serve Cuba and he’s
sent to assist with their efforts in support of Nicaragua’s Sandinistas, which
puts him in direct conflict with the US CIA forces backing the Contras.
I’ll stop there to avoid having to write a
spoiler alert. The sequel picks up with
Collins’ life again twenty years on.
Again, he’s settled down and living what we might call a “normal” life,
when he’s suddenly taken by a Cartel and forced to work for them in the Middle
East, while they hold his family hostage. 
Pakistan is a wild ride, particularly since there was (and still is) a
war with the Taliban. To put it another
way, the geopolitical world has a way of getting in the way of our own plans,
and usually not for the better.
Can you give the reader
just enough information for them to understand what is going on in the excerpt?
An excerpt… The following is from page 82, The Nowhere Man. Collins is very sick,
in a bed somewhere in Paris after having been medevac’d out of Zaire with
Malaria, so he’s hallucinating. Someone
calling himself “Steve’s friend” has come to get information from him about a
guy named “Kabila,” back in Zaire. “Steve” is a CIA agent we met earlier who
tried to recruit or “outsource” Collins. Kabila was supposed to have put
Collins in touch with “Ntamby,” a relative of Robert Mbutu. You can google Mbutu. He was real.
Please include the
excerpt and include page numbers as reference.
The excerpt can be as short or as long as you prefer.
The
doctor is naked too. White chickens are milling around on the ceiling, pecking
at the ceiling upside down.
--You
met Ntamby.
--Ntamby.
Yeah. I know Ntamby.
--Then
maybe you know things about Kabila.
--Ntamby’s
uncle. Why are they fucking in front of us?
--How
popular is Kabila in Lisala?
--Oh
everyone likes likes Kabila.
--I
see.
--Why
are they… right in front of us…
--No
one else is here. Just me and you. I want you to remember Lisala.
--Who
are you?
--I’m
Steve’s friend.
--Steve…
--How
strong is Kabila in Lisala?
--Oh
he is very strong.
I
think I was singing…
--He is strong, so very strong and we are
weak, but yes, Jesus loves me… yes, Jesus loves me… Yes, Jesus loves me… the
Bible tells me so…
--How
well armed?
--Two.
--What?
--He
has two arms.
The doctor and nurse were about to climax. My
fever she said is breaking. It’s breaking! Oh! It’s so cold. Oh! It’s so hot! I
am hot and sour soup. White room where the chickens are hot and cold and upside down, and dropping eggs on
me.
END SELECTION
Why is this excerpt so
emotional for you? And can you describe
your own emotional experience of writing this specific excerpt? You asked if I had any emotional connection to the
passage. That’s hard to answer. I might have, but honestly I cease having any
ties to my work once it’s out of my hands. I must have when I wrote that or
anything else, but it becomes very abstracted from me almost immediately. Wish
I could tell you more.
I never helped
the CIA. It’s almost all fictional, but I do pick up my work from time to time
to remember places and people. I did get Malaria in Africa. I did love a woman
there. Apart from that, all biographical connection to the text is
non-existent. My poetry may be a little closer to my own interior, but you
shouldn’t go in there unless you’re very heavily armed. Even then, you’ll never
manage to find your way back out.
Were there any deletions
from this excerpt that you can share with us? And can you please include a
photo of your marked up rough drafts of this excerpt.
9/10 I don’t keep old drafts around after work is
published. Also, I wouldn’t share (and don’t)
marked up drafts. It’s the current paradigm to talk about the “writing
process,” and that’s fine, but it’s not for me.
The idea of showing anyone something before I’m finished gives me the
willies. Fortunately, paradigms change, so I doubt we’ll be making much ado
about process in fifty years.
Other works you have
published?
Books
XEIXA: 15 Catalan Poets. [Translation and Edition. Poetry] Tupelo Press,
2018.
The Nowhere Man [Novel]. Jaded Ibis: Seattle, 2015. 200 pp.
The River Is Wide/El río es ancho: Twenty Mexican Poets. [Translation/Edition. Poetry]
University
of New Mexico Press. June, 2005. 460 pp.
El niño de safo. [Poetry.
Spanish] Trans. Bernardo Perez, Judith
Sabines, Alí
Chumacero, Elva Macías et al...., Fuentes
Mortera: Mexico City, July, 2000, 92
pp.
Selected Poems. [Poetry]
Fuentes Mortera: Mexico City, November, 2000. 178 pp
Histerias Mínimas. [Fiction. Short Stories] Fuentes Mortera: Mexico City,
November,
2000, 98 pp.
Music
“On the Way.”
[Original Music, Album, Cd]. Feral Child
Recording Company. 1 Oct.
2014
“Golden Days.”
[Original Music, Album, Cd]. Feral Child
Recording Company, 24 Dec.
2013
Journals, Anthologies, Etc.
“Sappho’s Child,” and
“Reading Palms in the Morgue.” [Poetry, Anthology]
Devouring
the Green, Seatle: Jaded Ibis Press, 2014:
“Winter Signs.”
[Poetry, Contest Winner], St. Petersberg
Review (7) 2014:
“Zocalo As the Sun
Goes Down.” and “The Angel over Mexico City”[Poetry] Colere ( ) 2013:
“The Betrayal.” Sign
Posts (New Hampshire State Poetry Contest Winner) 2013
“Eight Mexican
Poets.” [Poetry, Trans.] Prairie Schooner. 78.2 (Summer, 2002):
87-97.
(Additional translations in the Marlboro Review, Cortland
Review,
and International Quarterly.)
“Remembering Octavio
Paz.” Literary Journal of ITESM. 15
Oct. 2011
“Dark Matter,” and “The Myth about the Child.” [Short
Stories] Lips. 25
“Ecologists Stall
Saltworks Plan.” [Article]
El Financiero International Edition.
13 Sept. 1999: 4
“Poet, Writer Watches
Over Environment.” [Article] El
financiero International Edition.
27 Sept. 1999: 18.
“Transfiguration.” [Poetry] Café
Review
“Lost Gospels.” [Poetry] The American Literary Review
“The Sources of
Light.” [Poetry]Prairie Schooner 39.2
Spring (1999): 124-125. Contest
Winner
“Omaha.” [Poetry,
Spanish] Trans. Lillian van den Broeck. El
Financiero. 31 Dec. 1998.
“La
poesía estadounidense es eclectica.” [Article, Spanish] El Financiero,
12 Sept.1998.
“Crows.” [Poetry] The Boston Review. 22.5. Oct/Nov.
(1997):22. Reprinted in http:://WWW.POLISCI.MIT.EDU/BOSTON
REVIEW/
“Melissa’s White
Dress.” [Poetry] Boston Phoenix.
August Supplement. 1997. 1997:10.
“The Sex Therapist,”
“Twisted Willows,” Nursery.” [Poetry] Field
54. Spring (1996): 10-
17.
“Fate.” [Poetry] Beloit Poetry Journal. 46.2 Winter
(1995): 28-31.
“The Flood.” [Poetry] New England Review. 15.4 Fall (1994):
93-94.
“White Carnations.”
[Poetry] Taos Review 6 (1995).
“To My Wife.” [Poetry] Antioch
Review 51.1 Winter (1993): 88.
“Anniversary.”
[Poetry] Denver Quarterly 27.3 Winter
(1993): 42.
“B & B.” [Poetry] Mudfish 6, Fall (1991): 79-82.
“Aubade on the Avenue
of Everlasting Peace.” [Poetry]Taos
Review 5, Spring (1992):
77.
“My Hands and Your
Hands.” [Poetry] Coal City Review 3,
May (1991): 17.
“Trade Winds 1.”
[Poetry] Black River Review 5, Summer
(1989): 9.
“The Ogoué River Dance
of Ella Marie,” “Pan Africa.” [Poetry] Mudfish
4, Spring
(1990): 37-38.
“Kandinsky.” [Poetry] South Coast Poetry Journal. Spring
(1987): 2.
“A Slow Figure in the
Key of Minor Sleep.” Kansas Quarterly.
Winter/Spring (1989): 167.
“Orphic Sonata,”
“Apologies to Verdi,” “Ernst Juenger.” North
American Mentor. Winter
(1984): n.p.
“Aria.” Orphic Lute. Winter (1984): 12.13.
“Canopy.” [Poetry, Anthology] The Phoenix Papers. Stanley
Lombardo, Ed. Penthe:
Lawrence, KS, 1993: 124-125.
“Looking for Small
Bodies.” [Poetry, Anthology]Pig Iron 15,
The Third World. Jim
Villani and Naton Leslie, eds.
Youngstown: Pig Iron Press. Spring (1989): 167.
“The Language of
Death: Notes on Brenda Hillman’s Death
Tractates and Bright Existence.” [Article] Taos 6 (1996). Anna Sobelman, Editor
“Alternative
Offerings.” [Article] Africa Forum
1.1 Spring (1992):4.
The Origin of Form in Contemporary Poetry. [Dissertation] University of Kansas Library
and U of Mich Press. Microfilms. (1992).
300 pp.
This month, Houston and NYC. In a couple of weeks, Kansas City,
etc…. If any of your readers are
interested in having us, we’d be thrilled.
Jeffrey Levine had the wonderful idea to send us to Spain in 2016 to dig
up all the really important poets who were silenced and forbidden to
read/write/speak/publish in their own language. 
We hope the book will remind people of what we stand to lose under Nationalism (the polite word for Fascism).
Just recently I had a short exchange with a clerk at our
grocery store in Spanish. The white lady behind me screamed at us: “You belong
in my president’s cages!” She was referring to the cages used at the detention
centers not very far south of where we live in Texas, at the border.
Links: I have an author page in FB: Marlon L. Fick
My regular
FB page is Marlon Fick
My email
addresses are fick_m@utpb.edu and marlon1927@yahoo.com.mx
INSIDE THE EMOTION OF
FICTION links
001 11 15 2018 Nathaniel
Kaine’s
Thriller Novel
John
Hunter – The Veteran
002 11 18 2018 Ed
Protzzel’s
Futuristic/Mystery/Thriller
The
Antiquities Dealer
003 11 23 2018 Janice
Seagraves’s
Science
Fiction Romance
Exodus
Arcon
004 11 29 2018
Christian Fennell’s
Literary
Fiction Novel
The Fiddler
in the Night
005 12 02 2018 Jessica
Mathews’s
Adult
Paranormal Romance
Death
Adjacent
006 12 04 2018 Robin
Jansen’s
Literary
Fiction Novel
Ruby the
Indomitable
007 12 12 2018 Adair Valerez’s
Literary
Fiction Novel
Scrim
008 12 17 218
Kit Frazier’s
Mystery Novel
Dead Copy
009 12 21 2019 Robert Craven’s
Noir/Spy Novel
The Road
of a Thousand Tigers
010 01 13 2019 Kristine Goodfellow’s
Contemporary
Romantic Fiction
The Other
Twin
011 01 17 2019 Nancy J Cohen’s
Cozy Mystery
Trimmed To
Death
012 01 20 2019 Charles Salzberg’s
Crime Novel
Second
Story Man
013 01 23 2019 Alexis Fancher’s
Flash Fiction
His Full
Attention
014 01 27 2019 Brian L Tucker’s
Young Adult/Historical
POKEWEED: AN ILLUSTRATED NOVELLA
015 01 31 2019 Robin Tidwell’s
Dystopian
Reduced
016 02 07 2019 J.D. Trafford’s
Legal
Fiction/Mystery
Little Boy
Lost
017 02 08 2019 Paula Shene’s
Young Adult
ScieFi/Fantasy/Romance/Adventure
My Quest
Begins
018 02 13 2019 Talia Carner’s
Mainstream
Fiction/ Suspense/ Historical
Hotel
Moscow
019 02 15 2019 Rick Robinson’s
Multidimensional
Fiction
Alligator
Alley
020 02 21 2019 LaVerne Thompson’s
Urban Fantasy
The Soul
Collectors
021 02 27 2019 Marlon L Fick’s
Post-Colonialist
Novel
The Nowhere Man
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/02/21-inside-emotion-of-fictions-nowhere.html
The Nowhere Man
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/02/21-inside-emotion-of-fictions-nowhere.html
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