T.L. ORCUTT

NOVELIST

You have been writing for twenty years now. Aside from your earlier nonfiction works, who are your literary influences?

As an undergraduate I was influenced by John Steinbeck, a rugged individualist who portrayed the working class with depth, warmth, and often a woven theme of the dark side of capitalism. Steinbeck was the first novelist to teach me description. As a Freshman at the University of Oregon, I remember getting back a final essay in a writing class. The professor wanted to know where I had learned to write description. I said something like, “I don’t know, I've read a lot of Steinbeck.” He smiled and nodded approvingly.

Other novelists of influence are Joseph Conrad, Carlos Castaneda, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Kurt Vonnegut, James Clavell, and Paul Theroux.

People who favor nonfiction sometimes see fiction as mindless entertainment and feel that novels are a waste of time. What’s your response?

Nonfiction is straightforward. Pick a subject you know, follow the rules of academic research, use appropriate authoritative quotes, footnote or endnote, organize well, and drill the point. Fiction is complex. There is multiple character development, point of view, plots and subplots, dialogue, description, and literate writing - all the while trying to keep the reader on the edge of their ass.

While fiction is forged for entertainment, it can weave fascinating information readers might not have otherwise thought to explore. Many novelists, including myself, put a lot of time into research, empowering the story to hover between reality and fantasy - fact and imagination.

You mentioned Carlos Castaneda as fiction. Didn’t he market his works as nonfiction?

Had Castaneda promoted his works as fiction, I think he would have credited history as one of the greatest novelists of the twentieth century. His first book, The Teachings of Don Juan - A Yaqui Way of Knowledge was his doctoral dissertation for the Department of Anthropology at UCLA. By the time he had written A Separate Reality and Journey to Ixtlan, the anthro department was furious. That was the first time an academic institution rescinded a doctoral degree on the basis of fraud, determining that the work was fiction rather than historical research and fact.

The buzz in both academia and on the streets was whether his works actually were fact or fiction. I was teaching with an academic gang at a Midwestern college which found this dialogue amusing. Our thinking was that people are overly invested in historical record, as if it’s the ultimate litmus test for truth. It’s like when people see a movie and afterwards say, “It was a true story!” From a novelist’s point of view, all stories are true. The point of Castaneda’s works was that they portrayed profound possibilities of transcending ordinary consciousness, possibilities of a verifiable separate reality beyond pedestrian awareness. The point was that they could be true!

You said you favored novels with colorful characters. Excluding Jamayah, who are some of your favorite characters in literature?

My first image is of Lennie Small, the mentally challenged giant-child in Of Mice and Men who has an obsession with rabbits. Another is Stanley Kowalski, the caveman in Williams’ play, A Street Car Named Desire. I liked the way King handled Mike Noonan in Bag of Bones. More recently I have become fond of Odd Thomas in the Koontz series and Edgar Freemantle in King's Duma Key.

Who was your model for JAMAYAH or was he completely imagined?

JAMAYAH is a cultural and ideological composite of several gurus with whom I studied and a few chunks of my Simon Cowell style. Stories of my experiences with some of these teachers I outlined in Magicians of the Soul.

How similar is Bob Kramer to you?

About thirty percent, and most of that in younger years, especially the wanderlust and seeker characteristics.

What are you working on now?

Updating this site, it is May 2009. A new rabbit hole is taking me for a ride. I'd be happy to bait you if I knew more about it myself, but it's fresh to me even as it unfolds. Let's wait and see!