Coffee and Tea with Wattpad Writers

D. L. Mackenzie, author of "The Last Adventure of Dr. Yngve Hogalum"

I interview author D. L. Mackenzie a few days ago on his writing experience and his novelettes of "The Magnetron Chronicles." Mackezie's stories are witty and entertaining as well as short and sweet. He loves the steampunk genre and is addicted to words. 

1. When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

Well, I was quite drunk at the time.  Really, I had joined some old high school friends at an informal reunion in Las Vegas.  We were catching up with one another in a very nice little bar at the Monte Carlo hotel casino.  We were taking turns asking questions of the others and then we would each answer in turn.  Eventually, one of us asked a question like “what did you hope to be doing by now?” and when my turn came to answer I had to admit that I had once dreamed of being a writer but had made precious little progress toward realizing that dream.  My friends goaded me relentlessly, and by the time I returned home I was committed to seeing it through.

2. What was your first novel that you wrote? Can you describe the experience of writing a full length book for the first time?

The first book I wrote was the unfortunately titled “The Last Adventure of Dr. Yngve Hogalum,” although I don’t consider a novel because it’s not long enough.  I eventually published four more short “novelettes” in the series and recently released a novel-length compilation called “Rise of the Hogalum Society.”  The truth is I never intended to write a novel because I had the crazy idea I could publish my stories in serial form online for free and eventually turn a profit by some mysterious process I never quite nailed down.  I gave up in frustration three years later and shelved the project until inspiration struck one day.  From the first short story, which morphed into a web serial, which developed into the first novelette, which led to the novel-length compilation, it took--no kidding--about thirteen years.  I think I’ve finally got the hang of it now.

3. What do you love most about writing?

It might sound dumb but I just love words.  I enjoy coming up with stories and plots and characters and the like, but I tend to play around with the wording until I feel I’ve expressed myself with the precise meaning, mood, and connotation I was shooting for, almost like a puzzle or brain teaser.  For some reason, this is endlessly entertaining to me.

4. What do you do when you're not writing?

My wife and I love to go hiking in the mountains surrounding Phoenix, and when it gets too hot, we walk closer to home and do some swimming.  I’m a music lover, too, with extremely eclectic taste.  I’ll listen to classical, jazz, rock, world music, etc., sometimes all mixed together into bizarre playlists.  Unlike many writers, I absolutely cannot listen to music when I am writing, though.  I get mentally involved in the music and lose my train of thought.

5. Above all, what do you think makes a good story?

I like a story with a message, or a moral, if you like.  Preferably, it should be buried deep in the plot, not thrown in your face.  Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five is a great example of this kind of storytelling.  He never makes an overt antiwar statement in the book, but you cannot come away from it without an appreciation of the absurdity of war.  He touches on concepts such as free will and the basic foolishness of humanity, but it’s all under the guise of a story that’s entertaining in its own right.

6. Where do you get the motivation to write a novel?

I’m always thinking about stories, so in a way I’m not motivated to write so much as I am obsessed with getting my ideas written down before I forget them.  At the same time I am a ponderously slow writer, so a novel is a big deal for me, and not every concept deserves a novel-length treatment, either.  I suppose that some concepts just seem so rich with possibilities that I can’t keep a lid on all of the ideas that start flowing.  When that happens, I can’t resist laying out the structure for an actual novel, even if I don’t end up writing it.