Indie Author Week - Max Shenk

The Spotlight moves over to independent author, Max Shenk!

Max has written a serial novella titled, Meeting Dennis Wilson.

Max is publishing the series via Amazon Createspace and Kindle, in six or seven installments to be issued throughout the summer. A limited hardcover edition gathering all of the smaller books will be published in December.

Max Harrick Shenk is a fiction writer currently living in Vermont, 500-some miles from his home turf of central Pennsylvania. He will add more to this biography when he can think a little more clearly, but for now, the cogent facts include...

* Born 1964, Carlisle, PA.
* Novel MEETING DENNIS WILSON is being published as a series of seven serialized books through the spring and summer of 2013.

* Short story collection WHAT'S WITH HER? available as a Kindle edition and soon to undergo a second printing from New Plains Press.

* MFA in creative writing from Goddard College (2007).

* MA in education from Goddard College (2010).

* Single; divorced twice; hoping the third time will be a charm.

* Author of not only these stories, but of a continuing Facebook fiction project featuring the characters from these stories.

Max can be found on:

WEBSITE / GOODREADS / AMAZON AUTHOR / FACEBOOK

Hello Max! Welcome to the Author Spotlight! Tell us your main inspiration behind Meeting Dennis Wilson.

The characters in this book are a group of characters that I've been working with and writing around for a while. I'd been writing and writing and writing but really didn't feel like I had a compelling STORY. I think that what triggered the story was that, a couple years ago, I had all of my Beach Boys and Beatles 45s stolen from a storage space. This was about 250 records, every Beach Boys and Beatles record I'd bought since I started buying records in 1975. It really got me thinking not just about how the music is important to me (I already knew that) but how the records themselves were relics. I could have told you where and when I bought most of those records, what I was doing in my life, where I was living, other things that were happening. Example: I had four different copies of "I Want To Hold Your Hand." The one that looked "least valuable" to collectors was a copy of the 45 that my first ex- gave me when we were dating. (We met at a bar, believe it or not, and she was sitting by the jukebox and I had extra credits and asked her if there was any song she wanted to hear, and she picked that one.) So that got me thinking about how I could weave music and records through a story as a device: how the records themselves would be prompts for things that happen in the book. It was a great idea for a device, but it wasn't a STORY. The story came from remembering how my sister used to really like Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys, which was something I'd mentioned with Margo (the main character), and then I remembered on the back of a Beach Boys album called SUMMER DAYS that Dennis mentioned he loved touring in summer because he "got to meet all the girls." And I thought: "OK... Margo is going to try to meet Dennis Wilson." And that's when the story crystalized.

Was self-publishing your first choice? What was the most nerve wracking part of the process? 

Yes and no about "first choice." I've discussed starting a peer-reviewed press with some friends of mine from the MFA program at Goddard, and my FIRST choice would have been to have done the book that way... but it seemed to be moving very slowly, and I wanted to get the work out there, and someone mentioned Createspace, and I'd already done Kindle, so I went that direction. I don't know if I ever considered doing this work the traditional "send to an author and agent" way. I'm really not sure why. This always felt and still feels like the right way to go. As for "nerve-wracking," nothing, really. I find some things about the process a little unfamiliar (promoting it, etc), but really, the toughest part of writing a novel is finishing the work, and that's already done, so everything else is a breeze. 

As a self-published author, did you choose to edit Dennis Wilson yourself? What was the biggest change you made to the story and/or characters? 

I've worked as an editor and writing coach, so I felt pretty confident about my ability to edit it myself. I just knew that the main thing was being CAREFUL in editing and proofing: read it aloud so that I slow down and spot errors. No matter how careful you think you're being, there still are continuity errors, typos, all that. But since I'm self-publishing, I figure all of that is my responsibility, and I gladly accept it! As for changes, I really didn't make any major changes when I edited. Just corrected minor gaffes. 

Do you have any unusual writing habits that aide your process and/or character development? 

Boy, THERE'S a loaded question! :) 

I've created Facebook pages for all of my characters and I have them interact on Facebook, both with each other and with other people (a lot of whom aren't aware that they're interacting with fictional characters!). It's really deepened my feeling of who the characters are, what their history is, and how they relate to each other. It's also given me a stronger sense of their voices. Finally, it's given me ideas for the NEXT novel. 

Is there one passage or scene from your novel that you are most fond of? 

For some reason, this is one of my favorites. It's from chapter 16 (which is in BOOK TWO), and it's Brian (the narrator) and Kathy (Brian's girlfriend's big sister) at a campaign picnic for Kathy's dad, who's a US senator running for re-election...

"So, Chris says Margo's gonna meet Dennis Wilson, Bri. How's that gonna happen?" "She's sending him a letter," I said, and then I pointed to my lower lip. "Mustard." Kathy Kelly put her napkin to her lips. "Did I get it?" she asked. Unfortunately.... "No," I said. "On your chest, too... right above the Y--" "--The shirt! Shhiiiiiiooooooot!" Kathy plunged her napkin into her cup of water and dabbed at the fleck of mustard that had landed on the black fabric right between the bottom edge of the collar and the top of the bright yellow BESERKLEY: HOME OF THE HITS logo on her chest. "I mean, it's yellow, it goes, but still...” She sighed hard. “And this is the first time I've worn it." As she dabbed and rubbed, the fabric got wet and darkened, but the stain was coming out. "I should've left this on as ammo," Kathy said. "Like: 'see, Mom... if I'd worn Aunt Mary's dress, it'd be ruined.'" She looked up at me; I had no idea what she was talking about. "That's right... you weren't at that one." She dipped another napkin into her cup. "Lasttime Dad had one of these things, I wanted to dress like a normal human being, right? Well...unfortunately... Aunt Mary had gone shopping, and she got Chris and me these... godawful dresses that Mom wanted us to wear. And we were both begging... 'Please, Mom, don't do this to us.'” Kathy switched to her mom’s voice: dismissive, and with just a hint of Irish brogue. “'Oh, just wear them when you come in. Mary never stays for the whole thing anyway. When she leaves, you two can put your jeans on.'” Kathy was still dabbing as she spoke. “So we wear the dresses... Aunt Mary is running late, so we can’tchange... Mary never shows, we’re stuck in the dresses, getting all these... cheesy compliments from these old men... and then, the capper? In the paper the next morning, Sunday Patriot, page one, above the fold: 'Senator Thomas J. Kelly's oldest daughter Kathleen wears hideous 1959 Pat Nixon couture at her father's campaign function yesterday in Gettysburg. "What can I say? It's a year younger than me," the usually-stylish 17-year-old said.'" Kathy tossed the damp ball of napkin onto the table. “Thanks for the dresses, Aunt Mary.” I laughed. “I remember that picture,” I said. Kathy looked up from her spot. “No, you don’t, Brian. O.K.? No one remembers that picture!" Kathy and I were sitting across from each other at a red-white-and-blue-bunting-bedecked picnic table in shady Quaker Valley Park in the middle of town, listening (or trying not to listen) to the Sinatra playing tinny through the park P.A. system. I was not only Christy's invited guest and boyfriend; I was her and Kathy's Out. As in: Katie Kelly wanted her two oldest girls up front and center with the rest of the family, but Christy said, "Brian's here and Margo's coming, and I don't want them to sit alone," and Kathy said, "Brian's here and Margo's not coming, so I need to make sure those two don't grope each other in front of everyone." So there I was, sitting with Kathy, waiting for Margo, possibly waiting for Marty, and, yeah, even waiting for Christy, who'd gone up front to reload on potato salad and chicken for us."

Thanks so much Max! I look forward to reading this series and congrats on your release of installment three!  

Meeting Dennis Wilson follows the exploits of sixteen-year-old Margo LeDoux, who has a crush on the Beach Boys’ drummer and decides she’s going to meet him... if only ~ sigh!!~ it was that easy! Her best friend Brian and best girlfriend Christy both support her, but they’ve got problems and wishes of their own... meanwhile, her boyfriend Scott is against it (“I’m not having you running off and being some groupie!”). What’s a girl with a crush (or obsession) to do? Find out in Meeting Dennis Wilson!

In book one of Meeting Dennis Wilson, we met the three main characters: 16-year-old Margo LeDoux, who has a crush on Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson, and who decides that she’s going to try to meet him... the narrator, Brian Pressley, Margo’s best friend, and his girlfriend, Christy Kelly, who decide they don’t want to go ALL the way, but just “some of the way”... and Margo’s boyfriend Scott, who declares that Margo “better not send” a letter to Dennis Wilson “or else.” (“Or else what, Scott? What?”)

In book two, the plot thickens as we meet Margo’s softball catcher Tara Longbaugh, whose nickname around school is “Tara Fawcett-Majors,” and who hangs around Margo like a puppy dog... Brian’s best friend Marty Morone, a shy kid who’s obsessed with the Beatles and has a crush on Margo... and Kathy Kelly, Christy’s 18-year-old sister, who’s got a bad case of senioritis and a boyfriend whom she can’t decide whether to take to the prom or never ever see again. As Margo asked in book one, “Brian, how do we put UP with all these people?” Find out in Book Two of Meeting Dennis Wilson.