Scott A. Borgman
Central Wisconsin
‘To learn what’s truly important in life, all one needs to do is look in the eyes of a small child – one who still looks upon the world through innocent eyes – who has not learned about lies, hatred, and selfishness, but knows only the emotion of love. It is they who are the real teachers. They are the ones we should strive to learn from, and be more like. If we could learn to see once more through innocent eyes, imagine how beautiful our world would become.’
-Scott Borgman
Good morning, Scott, and welcome to Vision and Verse, the Place for Art and Authors.What have you written?
Here’s a list of my current publications, all are digital
books available through
www.smashwords.com
and various retailers:
From the Heart – A
short collection of poetry.
The Ebook Writer: One
Author’s Journey – a short recollection that started with a childhood dream
to where I am today.
The Exiled: A
fiction story that at its core seeks to teach lessons about humanity – both
where we are today, and where we could one day be. Book 1 in the Exiled trilogy.
The Exiled:
Continuation – Book 2 in the Exiled trilogy, it takes places a little over
twenty years after the first book. This
time, there may be no way to win the game.
The Exiled: Infinity
– The final book in the Exiled trilogy reunites old friends and enemies in one
last game. This time, the fate of
humanity depends on an unlikely alliance between enemies if it hopes to have
any chance to survive.
Province of a Thief
– A story set in a fantasy world filled with sneaky thieves, deadly assassins,
and powerful mages, it is the first in what will certainly be multiple tales in
a world I created from the ground up, and continues to grow.
What is your favorite
genre to write?
I have always been a lover of fantasy since childhood. Magic, dragons, elves, dwarves… they captured
my imagination at an early age. Since
then I’ve always wanted to write in that genre.
Province of a Thief is my
first work set purely in that genre, and without a doubt I can say it is the
genre I am most passionate about.
One would think that would be an easy genre to write in, since
absolutely anything one can imagine can be possible in such a world, but I can
certainly attest that it is far from that!
Even mystical creatures and powerful mages have to be believable. That sounds strange, doesn’t it?
Favorite food?
Fries Cheese Deluxe, or as my wife and I used to call it for
years: ‘Fries, cheese, and stuff.’ My
wife has made it for years. It’s a very
simple dinner that anyone can make, and it is delicious.
Cook up a bag of frozen steak fries in the oven (regular frozen
fries work too, but we always use steak fries).
While they’re in the oven, brown a pound or so of meat (depending how
many people you have – my wife uses 1 ½ lbs. for us and our three children), and
toss in a large can of Manwich - like you were making Sloppy Joes. Then heat up a jar of Tostitos Cheese Salsa
as well in a microwave (we go with the medium – mild is too mild for us, but
we’re too chicken to try the hot variety *laugh*), and you’re all set!
Fries on the bottom, meat over the fries, and the cheese
sauce over that. Mix it together on your
plate if desired (I do!).
Tea or coffee?
Definitely tea.
I
never acquired a taste for coffee, and being married to a British girl, tea is
a staple in our home!
I used to drink it
straight with a lot of sugar before I met her.
Now it’s milk instead of sugar.
Pizza or ice cream?
Pizza for dinner, and ice cream for dessert! *laugh*
Where would you like
to visit?
I would love to go overseas and visit the old castles in
England, Scotland, and Ireland, as well as Stonehenge. I’ve always been fascinated with that era of
history. I’m sure that has had some
influence on my love for the fantasy genre, because it incorporates some of the
aspects of that time period.
Favorite musical
artist. Do you listen to music when you
write?
I don’t listen to music when I write. In fact, it’s just the opposite. Most of my writing is done late at night into
the early hours of the morning because everyone is asleep and it’s quiet. I find it much easier to write with silence,
as it keeps my mind on the story and doesn’t drift to anything that may
distract me.
As for a favorite musical artist, while I enjoy most kinds
of music, I would have to say that Vivaldi is my favorite, his Four Seasons
piece in particular. My father loves
classical music, and when I heard it at a very young age, I quickly came to
enjoy it myself.
What makes you laugh?
I asked this question out loud, and my wife answered with
‘you have a warped sense of humor.’ I’m
still trying to decide if that was a compliment. *laugh*
I believe she was referring to the idea that I can find
humor in even the smallest things.
Laughter can be the best medicine, and I think that far too often we
take life too seriously. Such
seriousness can become like a dark cloud that always hangs over us, and lessens
the whole experience of life itself.
I love a good comedy, a silly prank (‘Japanese dinosaur
prank’ on YouTube comes to mind); even a simple phrase during a conversation
can bring on a fit of giggles. That’s
not to say I don’t take things seriously – I take my devotion to my family, and
to my writing, extremely seriously. But
there’s always time for laughter.
The beauty of laughter is that it’s a natural stress
reliever, among other things. It does so
many other good things for the body, and it’s contagious! Make time out of every day to laugh – whether
it’s finding something new that strikes you as funny, or something you know
always makes you laugh. That’s one of
the keys to enjoying life!
How old were you when
you started writing?
I first began writing when I was about 9 or 10. I used to sit in my bedroom with notebooks
and start writing stories that popped into my head. Of course, at that age, I would get an idea
and start writing, and then halfway through a different idea would come to mind,
so I’d open a different notebook and start writing that idea.
English was by far my favorite subject in school. My teachers throughout grade school and into
high school always told me I had a gift for writing, even back then. Anything that required writing I enjoyed –
though I had a tendency back then to procrastinate.
I remember once in grade school we had to do an Anthology
report – it was a large assignment, so big we were given three months to do
it. I waited until the night before it
was due. My mother was furious with me
for waiting until the last minute! I
must have drank a gallon of hot tea that night in order to stay awake, and
missed the first morning classes the next day to finish it up.
When I got the assignment back, my teacher had written a
note on the final page that said something to the effect of: ‘Well done,
Scott! I can tell you really worked hard
on this, and it was done so well that I ended up reading more than I intended
to!’ My mother thought I should have
gotten a D for that assignment. The
teacher gave me an A++. I believe my mother
grounded me for a week. Ahh, memories!
Describe your perfect
evening.
I actually had one such night very recently. It was a beautiful night outside, and the
cold had finally given way to a nice warm evening. My family and I had a wonderful dinner
together. We laughed, and talked about
how our day had been.
After everyone had gone to bed, I sat down to work on my
current project, a follow-up to my latest book, Province of a Thief. I was
working on a particular scene, one that I knew when I sat down how it was going
to play out.
Halfway through the scene, an aspect of the story suddenly popped
into my head that literally made my mouth drop open in shock and stop writing
for a few moments. It was not planned, I
had not even considered such a thing, but suddenly there it was.
That is one of the greatest treats of being a writer. Our job is to delight and entertain with
nothing more than the simplest of tools - words. Our purpose is to bring out emotions within
our readers, and throw in twists and surprises within the story that aid in
that quest. But sometimes, even when we
know how the story goes beforehand, we can be surprised ourselves.
Where do you get your
inspiration?
My son, Cameron, who passed away at the age of 3, has been
my inspiration. Anyone who has seen my
Author’s page on Smashwords, or my Twitter, or even my Author’s page on
Facebook will see that I choose not to use a personal photo of myself, but a
mold of my son’s hand as my image.
I want people to know that there is a true meaning behind
the image. The image is not only to
honor him, but it is a symbol of my love for writing, and my hope that my work
can reach out and touch others, as my son Cameron did to so many people.
Cameron has been and continues to be my inspiration. Though words cannot express how much I miss
him, he has been my greatest teacher, and the one person that I hope is as
proud of me as I will forever be of him.
What do you do when you
get a writer’s block?
Usually I fight with it for a few hours. Writer’s block is never fun, but it is a
roadblock that happens to us all from time to time. It’s not always a case of being stuck and not
knowing what happens next, but more often than not for me it’s a case of something
I feel just doesn’t flow right.
Eventually after several attempts and deletions of said
attempts, I typically save everything I’ve done to that point, and take a
break. Sometimes it’s only a few
hours. Sometimes it’s been as much as a
few days. Patience is a virtue, as the
saying goes. So I wait until it comes to
me.
I’ll watch a movie, read a book, play a game… anything to
take my mind off the project for a while until the solution presents itself to
me. It can be frustrating, but that
comes with the territory, and I’ve learned it’s far easier to accept the blocks
and wait them out, because when the right flow finally comes to me, it’s always
well worth the wait.
Who is your favorite
author?
There are quite a few authors that I am fond of, but I would
have to say that Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman are my favorite authors who
have written many books set in the Dragonlance world.
Best book you’ve ever
read?
I have quite a few favorites, but I’ll just list a few:
It, by Stephen
King (incidentally, my wife does not like clowns, but since I first read this
before we met, I get to claim this by default!)
Dragonlance:
Chronicles series, by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
Who is the one person
who has influenced your life the most and why?
My son, Cameron, without any hesitation, has been my
greatest influence in my life. Before he
passed away, I was like so many others - rushing around, taking the little
things for granted, thinking that a good life was determined by wealth and
material possessions.
When Cameron passed away at the age of 3, I suppose you
could say my eyes were opened. I
realized that those things are insignificant.
What really matters, is each other.
It’s not about competing with each other to see who has the biggest
house, or the flashiest car. It’s about
helping each other up when one of us falls, and cheering for each other when
one of us succeeds.
As children, we teach ourselves to love – and it’s an
unconditional love, because we don’t know about greed, selfishness, lies, or
hatred at that age. As we get older
though, we forget that first, most important lesson, because we become exposed
and influenced by those very things.
It took the death of someone very close to my heart to
realize that life isn’t about what we can get, but what we can give to each
other. Cameron loved unconditionally,
friends and strangers, because that was the only thing he knew.
So he is both my inspiration, and who has influenced me the
most in my life. In my own small way, I
strive to do what Cameron did for so many others – touch their lives, if even
for only a few moments.
If you could sit down
and have a conversation with ONE person, living or dead, real or fictional, who
would it be and why?
On the serious side, it would be an honor to meet and speak
with Morgan Freeman. He’s such an
amazing actor that brings an excellence to every role he plays that one
couldn’t see anyone else in that role afterwards. On the humorous side, Conan O’Brian never
fails to make me laugh with his ‘Clueless Gamer’ bits.
What advice would you
give someone who aspired to be a writer?
Believe in yourself first and foremost. Write with passion, not just from the head
but from the heart. And whatever kind of
genre(s) you pursue, remember that it’s not the story itself that brings out
the emotions of a reader, but the characters that live within the story.
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