The Writer’s Dozen: Ron Chepesiuk

The Writer’s Dozen Interview, featuring award-winning author Ron Chepesiuk.

Welcome, Ron. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the writing life with us. Let’s start with something easy: what brought you into writing?

In the early 1980s I was a university professor who had dreamed of being a writer but who had done nothing to realize that ambition. I use to smirk when people told me they were writers, but as far as I could see, did little to advance their professed careers. I promised myself that I would never be like that. In 1981 I got a sabbatical to Ireland, a very literary dynamic country, and I got struck with the writing bug after reading a couple of the books of Jeffrey Archer, at the time, a best-selling British author. I thought that, with some effort, I could write as well as him.

After you realized you wanted to write, how long did you write before your first sale?

I started to send queries to local newspapers back home as well as to some of the biggies. I got to write some non-paying articles about my Irish sabbatical experience for the local newspaper, but, at the time, I didn’t know how to write a decent query letter that could get me a big paying assignment. I heard that Belfast was staging its first marathon. At the time the religious divide in the North of Ireland was quite sharp and the security situation, tenuous, so staging such an event was considered quite remarkable. I went to a newsstand and found an English running magazine (“Marathon Runner”). I queried the mag and got the assignment. It paid a princely sum of 50 pounds (less than a $100 at the time). I spent more money researching the article than I made in pay, but, most importantly, I was in print and had some credibility. I always teach my writing students that a freelance writer is an entrepreneur. So to make money at freelance writing you have to spend money getting established.

What would you say is the best part of being a writer?

Where do you begin with the best part! I love most of the parts—the independence, research, the interviewing, exercising your creative muse, the crafting of the story, seeing my name in print. After about 24 books and 4,000 articles, that experience has never gotten old.

What is the worst part of being a writer?

The emphasis on trying to build the so-called “platform.” I know it’s important, but it never seems to end. You have to spend so much time on the platform when you could be writing. Sometimes I feel like I’m playing the role Elmer Gantry. But if you a professional writer you realize it’s something you have to do to move your career forward.

With so many works in publication, which of your works is your favorite? Why?

My book, “Drug Lords,” would be my favorite, I guess, because of the research that went into and the challenge in crafting a story, given the mass of information I collected and the topic it covered. The book chronicles the rise and fall of Colombia’s Cali Cartel, perhaps the most powerful criminal organization in history. I interviewed over a 100 sources and did a lot of research in Colombia. I’m proud that some law enforcement officials liked the book so much they have read it twice.

Every author is unique in their approach to writing. What is the most unique aspect of your creative process?

I don’t really work with an outline anymore, whether I’m working on a book or magazine article. Right now, I’m writing a screenplay, but I’ve largely abandoned the outline I had. For a book, I’ll know how many chapters I’ll have to write and how they should be arranged, but when I start writing a chapter what I have for a structure is in my head. I’m always thinking about a project, so I believe my subconscious is always working. In any case, it seems to work out and I’ve never suffered from that overplayed and over rated pseudo complex, the so-called “writer’s block.”

Give us a 3-sentence overview of your current WIP.

I will have two books coming out this fall, “Gangsters of Miami” and “Sergeant Smack: The Lives and Times of Ike Atkinson, Kingpin, and his Band of Brothers,” so I am getting ready to market them. I’m also half way through the screenplay I mentioned. It’s about one of the character gangsters in my book, “Gangsters of Harlem.” Writing a screenplay is a different kind of writing experience, but it’s a lot fun. After 20 years as professional freelance writer, I feel my writing career is just getting started. Oops. Is that three sentences?

Which book, magazine article, website or blog has had the most impact on your career?

That’s a tough question. I wish it would be that easy—to narrow it down to a single influence. I guess if I had to, I would say reading Ernest Hemingway’s book, “A Moveable Feast,” as a teenager and dreaming that someday I could lead the life of a writer.

Everyone thinks they know how to write but few do. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received about writing?

Stephen Bach, who wrote a fine biography of Marlene Dietrich, one said, “Publishing is about marketing, not about writing or writers.” That piece of wisdom recognizes that publishing is a business and to be successful—that is, to do it full-time as a career—one has to get good at the business aspect of it.

List your 5 favorite authors/books. Why are they your faves?

Well, I have lot of writers and books I admire and like, but, okay, let’s limit it to five.
1. Ernest Hemingway, “A Moveable Feast,” an inspiring book about becoming a writer. Hemingway is THE master stylist.
2. Fyodor Dostoevsky, “Crime and Punishment,” Still the best crime novel ever written and maybe the greatest novel of all time. At least that’s what the critics say. A great book for any aspiring writer to read and to learn from.
3. John Grisham, “The Innocent Man” or any of his novels. Reading Grisham can teach a writer how to write in scenes and to write a page-turner—in other words, be a best-selling writer.
4. Gary Provost, “Make Every Word Count” or any of his books on writing. The late Gary Provost was the best writing instructor ever and influenced my career greatly.
5. Dominick Dunne, contributing writer to Vanity Fair magazine. Anything by him. I don’t why but I love this guy’s writing and his writing style. It’s so effortless and interesting. So what if a lot of what he writes about is gossip?

What topic would be your dream topic to write about?

Any topic that paid me a lot of money. Just kidding. Probably a topic that could change the world or the direction of a nation…. a book, say, like Woodward and Bernstein’s “All the Presidents,” which helped bring down the corrupt (Richard) Nixon presidential administration.

I can buy one book this month. Why should I choose one of your works?

I guess because they will get a good story that has been thoroughly researched.

What advice on the writer’s life can you share with writers?

Do it! Don’t buy the idea that there is such a thing as writer’s block. It will be become an excuse for failure. Rather, accept the idea that you will have many creative problems during your writing career, but if you stick at it long enough (don’t move from that desk), you can solve them. Remember, too, that writing is largely a craft. A scant few of use will master the craft to the point where our writing becomes art, but almost all of us, if we try hard enough, practice, keep an open mind and learn all we can, can become competent professional writers. I’m a strong believer in the Puritan Ethic without its religious component. If you work hard enough and long enough on your goal, you can achieve it.

Thanks Ron. We appreciate your time and insight at the WIP. Best of luck with the works in progress!
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Bio:
Ron Chepesiuk is the author of 24 books and more 4,000 magazine, newspaper and web articles. He is a two-time Fulbright Scholar to Bangledesh and Indonesia , a consultant to the History Channel’s “Gangland” television series and an adjunct instructor of journalism in UCLA’s online extension program,. His books have won several awards from the IPPY, Foreword Magazine USA Book News and other contests. For more information, see:
www.ronchepesiuk.com,
www.gangstersofharlem.com, and

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