Welcome to BookView Interview, a conversation series where BookView talks to authors.

Recently, we interviewed Nom D. Plume, a multigenre and flash fiction author. He has recently released his new book, TALES FROM AN ODD MIND, an outstanding collection of short stories, poetry, and prose.

Nom D. Plume has written for Flash Fiction Magazine. While Plume writes in a variety of genres, autobiography isn’t one of them. 

BookView Review: Does writing energize or exhaust you?

Nom: It’s a bit of a middle ground, if I’m honest. I’m energized when I’m writing and I have to be energized to write anything good but afterwards I don’t feel so much exhausted as I do happily tired. Like you just ran a marathon in space.

BookView Review: How did publishing your first book change your process of writing?

Nom: If anything it didn’t. There were some stories that I wrote just for TALES FROM AN ODD MIND and some that I edited down. My editor and I had several conversations that went ‘Can you please add literally one sentence to this so we don’t mess up the pages?’ and I responded with a variant of ‘There are the perfect number of words, my good sir,’ and ‘Wait, no, actually I can add another entire page to this.’

BookView Review: Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly?

Nom: I don’t think that you need to feel emotions strongly to write, but you need to get an emotional response from the reader.

BookView Review: What was an early experience when you learned that language had power?

Nom: Tolkien made me realize how much world building could be done with a few amazing phrases, and I realized what words could just do with Douglas Adams, like ‘he fumbled with his conscience like one would a slippery bar of soap’ or something to that effect.

BookView Review: What does literary success look like to you?

Nom: People like the book and recommend the book to their friends. People love the characters, the worlds, and the plots. Making some money wouldn’t hurt, though.

BookView Review: Why do you write under another name?

Nom: I write under another name because I want my work to be taken for what it is. Not as what one type of person made, because then authorial intent gets all mixed up and people make assumptions. I could be from Pluto for all you know.

BookView Review: Do you prefer a plague doctor mask or a gas mask?

Nom: Plague doctor mask. I could probably fit three kazoos and a snack in there.