In his newest novel, The Caddie Who Knew Ben Hogan, John Coyne brings graceful poetry to an indescribable game--charming both golf fanatics and golf losers alike. Just listen to him write:"There was no break in Hogan's rhythm. He swung in one effortless, smooth motion. Remember what W.B. Yeats wrote in his wonderful poem, 'Among School Children': 'O body swayed to music, O brightening glance, How can we know the dancer from the dance?'
It was a perfect shot."
From editing the Peace Corps Writers magazine to writing about the new novel in his blog, John Coyne always brings that elegant style to the page. After reading his latest book, I knew he had to participate in my deceptively simple feature: Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web publishing.
Jason Boog:
Your book has two very different audiences. How are you reaching die-hard golf fans with your book?
John Coyne:
Yes, it does have two audiences and trying to reach them both has been a stretch, so to speak. For the “golfers” I needed to be accurate about the game, and accurate about Ben Hogan and his time period.
I did that through research, of course.
These readers, I hope, find pleasure in the match between Hogan and the young pro, and in learning something new about Ben Hogan. All the stories that are told about Hogan or what Hogan said or did are true to his life to the best of my knowledge.
For the non-golfer I had another challenge. I had to make the “golf” interesting to them and explain what was happening to people who would not know a duck hook from a slice.
Also for this audience [mostly] I added the love story between the young daughter of the country club president and the assistant golf professional. I wanted to say something about the social order of the age, and I wanted to have a tense romantic relationship between two young people.
There really isn’t much on the Internet about Hogan. However, quite a few non-fiction books have been written about the man. Those books you can usually find in the sports section of a good library or bookstore.The Caddie Who Knew Ben Hogan.
Jason Boog:
Even though you've already published seven books without a blog, how do you hope to use this new resource to promote the book? How will you find your readers for, both on and off the Internet?
John Coyne:
My first novels and non fiction books were published before the Internet became a way to promote books.
In creating the website (which was designed by the very talented Marian Haley Beil), I wanted a reach audiences who surf the web, for example, about golfers like Ben Hogan.
I also wanted a blog to create a community of people interested in golf and Ben Hogan. The Internet as we know is endless and one never knows what new connections will be made when someone comes on line. I guess, to rephrase the famous line: if you build a blog, they will come.
Hey, Jason, good luck with this blog.
Just heard from John Coyne who told me I should mention to you the option writers have to create a kind of mini-blog on Amazon which Amazon refers to as "plogs." (Egad.) It's called Amazon/Connect and the writer gets to post whatever information he or she likes to readers who go to that writer's bookpage. I get a lot of feedback from it so if you want to have a look, go to my most recent book, a memoir called GIRLS OF TENDER AGE, and scroll down to my posts.
(And I'm enjoying your interview with John.)
Posted by: mary-ann tirone smith | April 26, 2006 8:08 AM | Permalink to Comment