Interview with author Craig B. Bass

Today’s special guest is author Craig B. Bass. We’re chatting about his new coming-of-age story, Skipper.

Bio:

Craig B. Bass lives in Idaho and Southern California with his wife and dog. In his earlier years, he wrote and published professional articles. He wrote and published fictional stories as a hobby only. He now writes full time when not sailing. His interest in writing has been life long since reading Hemingway, London, Steinbeck and Faulkner, at an early age. He now prefers writing about subject matters that deal primarily with complex problems of the human condition and spirit. His future interests in writing will primarily be concerned with creative fiction and experimental prose styles.

Welcome, Craig. Please tell us a little bit about your current release, Skipper.

This is a coming of age story about a boy growing up in central Florida in the 1950’s. The boy seeks to know the truth about God and religion, sexual awakenings, love, friendship, hate and betrayal.

His boring and uninteresting life is transported into a magical life of excitement and adventure through explorations of rural ranch life, fishing in remote lakes, and the Gulf of Mexico. A Scout Master provides the opportunity of a life time for these wonderful new experiences, but is there too big of a price to pay? Only the boy can answer this question as he seeks the truth.

What inspired you to write this book?

I grew up in Florida. I was in the scouts as a young boy. I am very familiar with the geography, flora and fauna of the region. There was a period of time when Scout Masters through out the USA were being accused of abusing the boys, very much as the catholic priests were accused. I created a fictional character who was probably a benevolent pedophile. His ways of teaching the boys and providing a place for them to live and learn, was an ideal platform for educating prospective parents on a different concept of how to raise their own children. The boys all become better participants in their own households. Their grades all improve. Obviously, the concept is probably too utopian for the present, as the ending suggests, but it is fiction.

Excerpt from Skipper:

“The perfectly beautiful day could not possibly have been more deceptive in the mind of the boy. Deceptive, because for the unimaginable changes that would soon be occurring to him and his perfect life: a large, dark tornado on the horizon, skipping rapidly and inexorably toward him would have been more appropriate.”

What exciting story are you working on next?

A young man makes the decision to become a medical doctor. He has one little problem. He comes from a very poor family with no resources. His trials and tribulations of achieving his lofty goals provide the story line. He first has to learn how to study. He has to find a way to pay for the expensive endeavor. He has to find a job to pay for all the expenses. He has to make the grades to qualify to get into medical school. How he achieves his goals is the story.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

That is still under consideration for determination of said quest. I know that I wanted to be a writer in 1970’s.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

I now write full time. I am retired. I sail and travel when not writing.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

As a child, I wanted to become a Frogman, the earliest version of the modern day Navy Seals.

Thanks for being here today, Craig.