Ron Seybold has been a member of WLT since 1993 and is registered for one of our upcoming fall classes. He lives in Austin, TX.
Scribe: In what genres do you write?
Ron Seybold: I’m writing historical fiction for my forthcoming book, Monsignor Dad. My first novel, Viral Times, is near-future sci-fi, a mix of pandemics and computer network virtual reality. I’m also finishing up my memoir, The Road to the Perfect Game, about my dad-and-son solo baseball park road trip with my Little Leaguer. I like telling stories of all flavors.
Scribe: What authors would you like to have coffee or a beer with and which beverage?
RS: I think a lot of us would like to enjoy a tankard of mead with Shakespeare, but he’s going to have to speak with us through his poems and plays. (I loved performing the latter.) Among living authors, I’d say Richard Russo (Empire Falls) with a beer; Steven King with a coffee, of course; and Jeanette Walls with an oversized mocha latte — just imagine the stories I might hear from her, the ones she had to leave out of her memoir, The Glass Castle.
Scribe: If you were stranded on a deserted island, what book would you want to have with you to keep you sane?
RS: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Michael Chabon’s epic has a love story and the ’40s’ passions for a new art form (comics!) in a historical setting, family devotion, and the language is beautiful. Not to mention Nazis and sections set in Antarctica and Levittown. Big, sprawling, Pulitzer Prize book with a vocabulary to teach you every time you read it. A book so good, you’re sorry it’s ending, so you’re glad to read it again.
Scribe: What have you learned from your association with the Writers’ League?
RS: There’s so much. A marvelous class on creating novels from bestselling romance novelist Jodi Thomas at the luscious week-long Summer Writing Retreat in Alpine. Marion Winik on writing memoir and personal essay. The technique and experience of pitching a book to agents at the annual conference. Most recently, Margo Rabb’s Saturday class on organizing a novel. I found my first content and development editor at a WLT class — taught by the late, great novelist-in-stories, Karen Stolz — as well as a writing ally and partner in Karen’s class almost 12 years ago. Then there’s the riches of the library, which I wrote about in another edition of Scribe. It’s a great resource, this organization, that helps us writers grow.
Scribe: Where do you see your writing taking you (or you taking it) in the future?
RS: My writing will be leading me into exploring memoir for the first time, and certainly not the last, in The Road to the Perfect Game. I’m enjoying historical fiction, since I come from 30 years of journalism training and practice; that’s what’s helping my latest novel, Monsignor Dad, move through its initial draft. There’s going to be a chance to do a treatment for a TV pilot, too, about vets (since I am one). There’s drama everywhere to share. I will also write nonfiction on creativity coaching practices and techniques, based on my own services in that new field. We’ve got a lot to share, us coaches.
Scribe: Is there anything else about you that you would like to share with the world? An opportunity for blatant self-promotion!
RS: I’m a creativity coach, author, editor, and actor, and so I lead events like my Creativity Kickstarter Day Retreat. It’s based on my training in the Creativity Coaching Association. Great way to get ready for NaNoWriMo! This day retreat is Oct. 24-26 at the studio of the Writer’s Workshop in Austin. We’re growing stories every day. I also lead weekly creative writing groups at the studio, and I’m forming a second Monthly Memoirs Manuscript Group that starts Nov. 1. Details about it all on my website, workshopwriter.com. Current WLT members can get a discount on the retreat!
