New interview with author Tom Corbett

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Welcome, Readers. I’m happy to have Tom Corbett back for a new interview. Today we’re chatting about his humorous memoir – Confessions of a Clueless Rebel (along with a companion book titled Confessions of a Wayward Academic).

Bio:

Tom Corbett is emeritus Senior Scientist and an affiliate of the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he served as Associate and Acting Director for a decade before his retirement. He received a Doctorate in Social Welfare from the University of Wisconsin and taught various social policy and program evaluation courses there for many years. During his long academic and policy career he worked with governments at all levels including a stint in Washington D.C. where he helped develop President Clinton’s welfare reform legislation. He has written dozens of articles and reports on poverty, social policy, and human services issues and given hundreds of talks across the nation on these topics. In addition, Dr. Corbett has consulted with numerous local, state, and federal officials on various poverty, welfare, and human services issues both in the United States and Canada. He also has testified before Congress, worked directly with the Wisconsin Legislature on important legislation, and served on an expert panel for the National Academy of Sciences. Now retired, the author lives with his wife of 46 years, Mary Rider, and their lovable Shih Tzu dog, Rascal, in Madison Wisconsin.

Welcome back to Reviews and Interviews, Tom.

Thank you so much for inviting me back.

Please tell us about your newest release.

Confessions of a Clueless Rebel is a coming of age story where I trace the profound transitions that I experienced in the 1950s through the 1970s. The story is told with great sensitivity and humor but also contains serious lessons and insights. It demonstrates that everyone is capable of enormous change and growth and even success against all odds. I was raised in a very confining Catholic, working class, ethnic neighborhood where I showed absolutely no promise early on and seemed destined to an average life of no consequence.

Instead, I enjoyed, or perhaps endured, a series of transformational experiences including a stint in a Catholic seminary, radicalization in college, and service in the Peace Corps, among several other adventures. The author both captures the times perfectly and explores the inner growth and development he enjoyed as he forged his own unique world view and purpose in life. As such, it is a story for everyone yet totally unique.

The first Amazon reviews (all 5-stars) talk about how much the readers laughed at the author’s early struggles with life and Catholic girls along with the entire range of emotional responses to the challenges and frustrations faced as the more daunting impediments of life were confronted. One reviewer characterized the reading experience as a roller coaster ride of emotions. That it is. In the end, though, it is a tale of triumph over one’s limitations, a tale of inspiration to all who feel they have little to contribute to the world.

At a deeper level, beyond the humor, here is a more profound story to be found. What should we make of the culture that surrounds and shapes us, particularly in our formative years? Is it a prison or a springboard from which we are to seek our own identity and direction?

What inspired you to write this book?

The deep origins of this work started with my work to develop two edited volumes recounting the experiences of my Peace Corps group (India) from the 1960s. That exercise got me thinking more broadly about my own life and growth. I initially wrote a memoir of my professional life as I struggled with the political and policy battles over what to do with welfare and the poor in recent decades (Confessions of a Wayward Academic). It as a seminal time in our nation’s poverty policy history and I as at the very center of it. It was a view of doing policy from one who did it on the front lines though at a high level.

I realized, though, that was only part of the story. How did I get to become a nationally known policy guru given my extremely humble origins? As a young kid, after all, I as put in a class with the slow kids in my working-class elementary school, not an auspicious start. That story begged to be told, not just because it was fascinating but because it might inspire others. Above all, it is a story shared with great humor and unabashed honesty. If you cannot laugh with as I recount my early speed bumps in life, you clearly take life way too seriously.

What’s the next writing project?

I am well into a sequel to my last fictional work, Palpable Passions. It is tentatively titled Ordinary Obsessions. My publisher says it is superior to the first volume which was well received. I am planning a third volume to make this a trilogy.

What is your biggest challenge when writing a new book? (or the biggest challenge with this book)

Other writers talk about writer’s block and other such hurdles. For me, writing is pure joy. I experience a form of depression when a project is completed and cannot wait to get into the next one. Oddly enough, I wanted to write even as a young kid though no one in my rough and tumble, working-class world had such ambitions. However, I as way too busy as an academic at a top-level research university and nationally known policy expert. Now I have the time and opportunity to explore my childhood dream.

If I have any frustration, it is that I hate marketing my works. I want to keep writing.

If your novels require research – please talk about the process. Do you do the research first and then write, while you’re writing, after the novel is complete and you need to fill in the gaps?

Though all of my works are infused with humor, substantive content and commentary on important policy issues are woven into the narrative. Since I helped run the pre-eminent social policy academic research unit in the country, and taught policy courses for many years, I don’t have to do much additional research. Still, I sometimes need to reacquaint myself with local sites or update myself on emerging political controversies and characters. I do that as I go along.

Writing is a protean process for me. I have a general idea of here I am going but the journey is not laid out in detail. In my fictional works, characters and plot twists take on a life of their own.

What’s your writing space like? Do you have a particular spot to write where the muse is more active? Please tell us about it.

No special spot, wherever I am comfortable with my laptop. Of course, it must be a spot that will accommodate my dog who insists on cuddling next to me.

In truth, whether for memoirs, policy works, or fiction, ideas and narrative are constantly floating through my head… in bed trying to sleep, walking the dog, simply having a cup of coffee. The creative process never stops. Also, the itty, wry sense of humor found in all my work comes naturally to me. It is me.

What authors do you enjoy reading within or outside of your genre?

No particular authors. However, I like mysteries, biographies, and works on political and policy issues.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers today?

One reader commented on my books, “he makes me laugh a lot and think a little.” Good enough for me.

Thank you for coming back to Reviews and Interviews!

New interview with novelist Tom Corbett

Novelist Tom Corbett has come back to Reviews and Interviews and today we’re chatting about his new work of fiction, Palpable Passions.

Tom stopped in back in October to talk about his debut novel, Tenuous Tendrils.

Bio:

Tom Corbett is an Emeritus Senior Scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He holds a Doctorate in Social Welfare and has both taught social policy at the University and has consulted on policy issues at all levels of government in the U.S. and Canada. His most recent books include Tenuous Tendrils; The Boat Captain’s Conundrum; Ouch, Now I Remember; Browsing through My Candy Store; and The Other Side of the World. He lives with his spouse of 46 years, Mary Rider, in Madison Wisconsin.

Welcome back to Reviews and Interviews, Tom. Please tell us about your newest release.

It is titled Palpable Passions. This is a story about how our surrounding culture can prevent us from achieving our dreams and how the human spirit can break those cultural chains. The narrative focuses on two families, one born in privilege in America and the other struggling under the Taliban regime in Kabul. Circumstances bring the two together in the Panjshir Valley of Northern Afghanistan as Osama Bin Laden attacks the United States. The unanticipated connections they make in this remote part of the world helps members of each family find renewed hope to pursue their private destinies. From despair, each finds a path toward realizing the personal passions within, passions they once thought beyond their grasp.

What inspired you to write this book?

I have always been interested in the notion of culture, how it shapes who we are and how some find a way to achieve much either because of it or in spite of it. As an academic, I focused on how phenomenon such as institutional and professional culture informs how we go about our professional lives. As an observer of life, I looked hard at my own past and how I escaped from the tenets and the binds of my own cultural milieu. In this work, I look at two very different families who seek to realize what burns inside them despite political and relational impediments. It is a universal story of finding oneself.

What’s the next writing project?

I have several projects on tap. I am updating and revising an earlier professional memoir, Browsing through My Candy Store, that will be republished this year. I have started a sequel to my latest fictional work, Palpable Passions, that is tentatively titled Original Obsessions. That sequel continues the struggle of Azita Masoud to pursue her dreams and that of Christopher Crawford’s efforts to confront his father’s right-wing politics. A third project involves a possible collaborative work with Peter Adler who also served in the Peace Corps in India in the 1960s.We have been encouraged to turn our earlier works on our Peace Corps experiences into a witty exploration of young Americans stumbling around trying to save the world. Finally, a colleague from the University and I are being asked to publish a second edition of an academic work on Evidence-Based Policymaking. It is a good thing I am retired.

What is your biggest challenge when writing a new book? (or the biggest challenge with this book)

After two fictional works, I find that genre fundamentally different and uniquely challenging. For me, it is like creating a little symphony. I strive to balance several attributes of what I consider good story telling…pace of plot, depth of character, humor and drama, broad appeal intertwined with substance and intellectual gravitas. It is far easier to write an academic work or a memoir, they flow off the mind. I was taken with a comment from a reader recently who wrote that I…” make her laugh a little and think a lot.” That is perfect.

If your novels require research – please talk about the process. Do you do the research first and then write, while you’re writing, after the novel is complete and you need to fill in the gaps?

After seven decades of experiences, I have a lot to draw upon. In Tenuous Tendrils, I drew upon my experiences in academia and the anti-war fervor of the 1960s. In Palpable Passions, I drew on my own experiences living in a remote village in India for two years in the Peace Corps. My works integrate drama, humor, and substance. I delve into serious political and social issues without getting bogged down. A lifetime of debate in the academy and struggling with serious social problems has refined my skills in that area. In the end, aids like the internet and Google Earth help where needed. I tend to reference some things once I have decided on a narrative.

What’s your writing space like? Do you have a particular spot to write where the muse is more active? Please tell us about it.

Not so much a spot as a pattern. At night, as I am falling asleep, I tend to focus on where I am in the narrative. As my brain begins to relax, I let it imagine several alternative paths for pushing the story forward, weighing the alternatives according to my balancing act mentioned above. When I like one, I go over it several times in my head since I am afraid I will awake in the morning and not be able to recall my previous evening’s insights. I try to get back to writing as soon as a I awake in the AM. Once started on the day’s writing, it takes care of itself.

What authors do you enjoy reading within or outside of your genre?

I like biographies, historical works, and political commentary. For fun, I do like mysteries, particularly period pieces such as those by Ann Perry or the classics such as Agatha Christie.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers today?

I feel very fortunate to have time to embrace my writing muse at this point in life. Growing up in a rough, working-class neighborhood, becoming a writer was not a common aspiration. I did put that dream on hold as I stumbled into a career as a policy guru and academic. I have no regrets. I often say that I was very fortunate to be able to fly around the country working on society’s most difficult issues while working with the best and the brightest. I also got the opportunity to teach very bright students at the University of Wisconsin. And they paid me to do it. Getting back to my first love is the icing on the cake.

Thank you for coming back to Reviews and Interviews!