J.B. Toner studied Literature at Thomas More College and holds a black belt in Ohana Kilohana Kenpo-Jujitsu. He has published two novels, Whisper Music and The Shoreless Sea. Toner lives in Massachusetts with his lovely wife and their daughters, Sonya Magdalena and Rebecca Eowyn.
How long have you been writing and what got you started?
As long as I can remember. Mama used to read me The Lorax every night, followed by The Hobbit as I got older; and something in me always responded with the urge to write back: to stand next to the storytellers I loved and say, “Look, see, I can do that too!”
Are you an outliner or discovery writer? Or somewhere in between?
I keep on trying to be an outliner. I feel like a real professional should have a grip on where his or her stories are going. But I still find, in practice, that the good stories are at least partially writing themselves, and I’m constantly “discovering” along behind them, trying to keep up.
Were you taught anything about creative writing in high school or college that just didn’t work for you?
Not especially. I was doubtless taught many things, good and bad, but nothing that stands out in memory. What I learned in English Lit. was FAR more important: here is great writing, and here are different views on how and why it works. From that, I extrapolated what might work for me.
In your opinion, how important is a writing degree or MFA when it comes to achieving success in writing fiction?
Well, we’ve always gotta define our terms. If we’re talking about commercial success, then having a degree means nowhere near as much as having the industry contacts that a savvy person will make while getting that degree. If we mean actual literary merit, then—well—it’s tougher to say. We study things because others have done those things before us, and wisdom never neglects available intel; but writing, perhaps more than most fields of endeavor, is a broken and solitary thing. I suspect it comes down to how an individual best learns: if you flourish in a classroom setting, you should study in a classroom; if not, then the first thing you need to learn is how you best learn. And then do that.
Do you participate in any online or in-person critique or writing groups?
No. Again, I think it’s crucial to figure out how you personally work best. I stopped reading “how to write” books pretty early on, because I saw one too many versions of “this works for me, ergo this is the correct way of writing.” I know a few writers for whom online groups are extremely valuable, but I’ve found they aren’t helpful for me.
What are your writing goals for the next five years?
In the first week of 2019, Theme of Absence featured “Tell It on the Mountain,” one of my very first published stories. It was a nice day for me. At the time, I mentioned that I had a novel (Whisper Music) that I was determined to publish that year. I successfully placed it with Sunbury Books, followed by another (The Shoreless Sea) with Beacon Publishing, and thus dragged myself, bleeding and gasping, across the STARTING line. Going forward, I must and shall complete the two separate trilogies of which those books are, respectively, Book One.
Do you favor the traditional route or self-publishing?
I mucked about with self-publishing back in 2008-9. It was gratifying to see my name on a book cover, but—again, just in my personal experience—ultimately meaningless. I don’t have the business savvy to promote a self-published book, so no one else ever saw it. I know that route has been rewarding for some authors, but in my own case, traditional publishing is the way forward.
What do you think the publishing industry will look like twenty-five years from now?
Yeesh. It’s hard for someone like me, who understands pure writing but can’t grasp basic marketing, to admit this—but the truth is that literature and technology have never been separate things. We didn’t have novels before the printing press. We didn’t have screenplays before the motion picture. We didn’t have blogs before the internet. The cold, hard fact of the matter is, in 25 years we will almost certainly have direct brain-interactive media, Matrix style. At that point, the publishing industry is likely to alter at an accumulating, accelerating rate, till it’s like nothing we can possibly recognize or comprehend. Luckily, with the amount of alcohol I drink, there’s no way I’ll be around to worry about it.
If you could go back and find yourself five years ago, what advice would you give yourself?
Jeez, I don’t know—buy stock in Zoom? This happens to be a sci-fi trope I have strong opinions about; if I altered my past, wouldn’t I be different in the present, which would then mean I’d have no reason to go back and alter my past, which would mean that whatever I was trying to alter would end up staying the same? Sorry, I know I’m being “that guy,” but this is how I think. In fact, come to think of it, there it is. Earlier this year I was diagnosed, at age 43, with level one autism (which sounds so much cooler than Asperger’s); so I guess I’d tell myself, “Ease up on ourself, bro. Yeah, we’re a mess, but lean into it. Dostoevsky was a mess too.” But of course, that would probably create a paradox that would unravel the very fabric of the space-time continuum and destroy the entire universe. Thanks, Toner. Dick.
Is there anything you’d like to plug? Feel free to share a link.
Who, me? I mean, I guess if you insist… my Instagram is https://www.instagram.com/jbtoner.z/ and my Amazon page is https://www.amazon.com/J.-B.-Toner/e/B07VJ6L4R4%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share
