Interview with William Bortz

This is what I discovered in my interview with William Bortz:

What is your writing experience?

As far as professional experience goes, I don’t have a lot. My first book was published in January of this year and that spawned a desire to expand my writing ability. I contacted a few webzines about writing for them with little luck. One site did accept me though, a pet magazine. I was pretty out of my element, I mean everyone loves animals but as for the content it was very new to me. I wrote a few pieces for them about exotic pet insurance, exotic lizards, and birds. It was super fun, but not what I was looking for so I ended that endeavor after those three pieces. I’ve contributed to a few other random webzines, but that kind of work just isn’t for me.

What is your book and it’s genre?

My book is Young Adult non-fiction compiled from short stories and poetry.

What is it about?

‘These Ties’ was written during a one-year span of my life, a very strange and memorable year at that. At that time all the relationships in my life were dwindling, not just romantic ones, but personal ones; My friendships, the relationship with my mother, and hearing from my father for the first time in my life. It was frustrating watching all this happen and not being able to control or even understand it. I decided I had to leave for a while and figure out where I was at in life. I headed West for a summer and found love, and in learning what love was I figured out what relationships meant, the importance of them, and to understand why some end and some don’t. In short, the book is about the power of love and how it opens your eyes to a really beautiful world, and how once you understand what love is the strains in relationships fix themselves.

Who are your favorite writers, your favorite book, and who or what are your writing influences?

Some of my favorite authors are: John Green, David Levithan, and Jay Asher. I’ve always loved the young adult genre and these guys do it better than anyone else in my eyes. The stories they tell inspire me daily, I love all of their books. Some of my favorite books are: Will Grayson Will Grayson, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Thirteen Reasons Why, and Looking for Alaska.

When did you know you wanted to write?

Writing has always been something than I’ve done ever since I was in elementary school. I never thought of it as a hobby even, just something to pass the time. In high school I started writing more, almost daily even but in college I basically quit because I became so enveloped in work and school. After I realized that I didn’t like where I was heading I took a break from school and quit my job and started writing, as a hobby this time. It took off really, all I did was write and I had the idea that I wanted to publish a book. Although, ‘These Ties’ wasn’t written to be published at first, it was simply written to be written and later on I realized that the first book I publish should be something that was written for myself first.

How long did it take you to write the first book

‘These Ties’ took a little over a year to be fully completed, and that’s not counting editing and all that fun stuff. It was written very slowly, and after it was all said and done and ready to go into publication I had to sift through and decide what was going in.

What did you do to promote the book.

All the usual stuff. I set up a Facebook page, changed my twitter to fit promoting a book, spent countless hours scouring the Internet for places to promote my book, had a few book signings, and did some interviews, the basic stuff.

My blog - http://afreshnewview.blogspot.com/

FB Author Page - https://www.facebook.com/AuthorWilliamBortz

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/These-Ties-William-Bortz/dp/1770972021/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341334769&sr=8-1&keywords=these+ties+william+bortz
Barnes and Noble - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/these-ties-william-bortz/1108568695?ean=9781770972025
Smashwords - https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/152555