Writer Lad Moore is preparing for the release of his third short story collection, Riders of the Seven Hills. Once again, he has chronicled a montage of characters and events that as he says, represent his world of “red clay and blue denim.”
Like his first two offerings, Tailwind and Odie Dodie, his new work will be published by BeWrite Books in the UK. In addition to his three books, Mr Moore has been published more than five hundred times in print and internet venues, including The Pittsburgh Quarterly, Virginia Adversaria, Amarillo Bay, and Chicken Soup for the Soul. His is a six-time contributor to Adams Media’s Cup of Comfort and Rocking Chair Reader anthologies and has won such awards as The Silver Quill, The Wordhammer, and a best-fiction nomination to the Texas Institute of Letters.
Lad Moore has an earthy style often compared to that of Mark Twain, Patrick McManus, and William Faulkner. As to these comparisons, Lad admits to having read woefully little work by the three famous writers, and is surprised and honored to be thought of in that company.
Questions of style and discipline often dominate the curiosity of his fans at interviews and book signings.
“The question I get most is ‘how do you approach writing’?” That question suggests style and content, but usually the root of the question centers around discipline. How can one sit for those many hours and fill all those pages? The answer embraces something even the writer has difficulty explaining. How does one describe a compulsion? It would be easier to list reasons for not writing.
“Writing for me is reaching past flesh into one’s guts. I think Red Smith expressed my feelings best: “There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.”
Lad explains that there is, at the core, a creative mind and a need to share experiences and imagination with others. There is a pride in reading a sentence that bristles the hair on the neck. There is that inevitable soft sigh when the last page is finished and the cover closed. It is the release of truth, release of passion, and yes, the freeing of secrets.
“I just feel it. I don’t have a ‘time’ to write. I don’t have an agenda to fill, a number of pages or chapters to complete, a deadline to meet. I let it flow until it stops. Sometimes it stops because of distractions. Sometimes it's that mysterious dam called writer’s block. But it will flow again, because of that compulsion writers have at their helm.”
As to subject and material, Lad explains: “I don’t force genre. I don’t force theme. My writing includes poems, mystery, passion, anger, and even fantasy. It’s what came out that day. Maybe that is why I am a short story writer. It allows me to hopscotch around my noggin. For in each crevice of my brain lies something to share. I don’t write to satisfy anyone else. I accept criticism and praise as both being useful. My credo was captured well in these lines: ‘Better to write for self and have no audience, than write for audience and have no self.’ - Cyril Connolly
Lad Moore resides on a small farm near the historic steamboat town of Jefferson, Texas.
Like his first two offerings, Tailwind and Odie Dodie, his new work will be published by BeWrite Books in the UK. In addition to his three books, Mr Moore has been published more than five hundred times in print and internet venues, including The Pittsburgh Quarterly, Virginia Adversaria, Amarillo Bay, and Chicken Soup for the Soul. His is a six-time contributor to Adams Media’s Cup of Comfort and Rocking Chair Reader anthologies and has won such awards as The Silver Quill, The Wordhammer, and a best-fiction nomination to the Texas Institute of Letters.Lad Moore has an earthy style often compared to that of Mark Twain, Patrick McManus, and William Faulkner. As to these comparisons, Lad admits to having read woefully little work by the three famous writers, and is surprised and honored to be thought of in that company.
Questions of style and discipline often dominate the curiosity of his fans at interviews and book signings.
“The question I get most is ‘how do you approach writing’?” That question suggests style and content, but usually the root of the question centers around discipline. How can one sit for those many hours and fill all those pages? The answer embraces something even the writer has difficulty explaining. How does one describe a compulsion? It would be easier to list reasons for not writing.
“Writing for me is reaching past flesh into one’s guts. I think Red Smith expressed my feelings best: “There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.”
Lad explains that there is, at the core, a creative mind and a need to share experiences and imagination with others. There is a pride in reading a sentence that bristles the hair on the neck. There is that inevitable soft sigh when the last page is finished and the cover closed. It is the release of truth, release of passion, and yes, the freeing of secrets.
“I just feel it. I don’t have a ‘time’ to write. I don’t have an agenda to fill, a number of pages or chapters to complete, a deadline to meet. I let it flow until it stops. Sometimes it stops because of distractions. Sometimes it's that mysterious dam called writer’s block. But it will flow again, because of that compulsion writers have at their helm.”
As to subject and material, Lad explains: “I don’t force genre. I don’t force theme. My writing includes poems, mystery, passion, anger, and even fantasy. It’s what came out that day. Maybe that is why I am a short story writer. It allows me to hopscotch around my noggin. For in each crevice of my brain lies something to share. I don’t write to satisfy anyone else. I accept criticism and praise as both being useful. My credo was captured well in these lines: ‘Better to write for self and have no audience, than write for audience and have no self.’ - Cyril Connolly
Lad Moore resides on a small farm near the historic steamboat town of Jefferson, Texas.
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