Book Launch! Don’t Never Give Up, by Rich Simms

Posted by David Duhr in ABCs of Writing Comments

Nov
24

Rich Simms’s debut novel, Don’t Never Give Up, is now available in e-book and paperback. In this week’s post, Rich and I have a wide-ranging conversation about the book’s origins, his experience writing and publishing it, and our shared love of the St. Louis/Southern Illinois region.

The first chapter and a half are available to sample at the link above! The e-book is only $1.99, and $14.99 gets you a hot-off-the-presses paperback.

What should we know about you before we start talking about the book? As a writer and as a person.

Where to begin?

The Chevrolet Corvette and I entered the world in the same year. I was born at City Hospital in St. Louis, MO, into a home with my mother and two older sisters. My father was around some of the time.

My parents got divorced, and we moved to Illinois during the summer before I started fifth grade. The following year, we moved to Cahokia, Illinois, which I call the “birthplace of the Midwest.” It was founded in 1699 and is the oldest permanent settlement west of the Appalachians.

I joined the Army in 1972, and after basic training and technical training, my wife and one-year-old son found ourselves at Fort Carson, CO, where we remained for the entirety of my enlistment.

Working as an auto mechanic at a Venture Department Store, I met my current wife, who worked there as a cashier. We got married in 1980 and have been together since then. I have a son and step-son, four grandkids, and a great-granddaughter. We retired and moved to Tennessee in 2016.

During COVID, I read a lot of books and thought I would try to write a story that I had been running around in my head for a long time. I wanted to write a Western that wasn’t all bang-bang shoot-’em-up. I thought about American Graffiti set in the mid-1800s. Once I started writing, the story took a different direction, and I wound up with Don’t Never Give Up.

I am an early riser and usually write as I’m having my morning coffee. I don’t write using an outline, I sit and let the story tell me where to go. I follow the advice of the Sean Connery character in the movie Finding Forester, who tells his student, “Just write.” I let it flow, then edit the story later.

That covers so many of my future questions! The mention of Cahokia fills me with nostalgia. Touring the Cahokia Mounds as a child while attending family reunions in Collinsville and Edwardsville. When I think of Southern Illinois I don’t get any sense of Old West. For the era you’re writing about (mid-19th century), it feels more like Little House on the Prairie. Is that why you set the book in Missouri rather than the Illinois you know so well? Or do you not even consider the book a Western, here in its final version?

The plan was to have a conduit take him to western Missouri to sign on with the Pony Express in St. Joseph, Missouri. As I stated before, I started writing this to be more of an American Graffiti set in the mid-1800s. Rather than having guys speeding around in hot rods, I had them riding horses. I know guys who would have loved to be Pony Express riders. Going as fast as their “vehicle” would go and being stimulated by the potential dangers of the trail. I have been fascinated with the teenage Pony Express riders for that reason. For that reason, I guess you could say this is more of a frontier book than a western, since he used the high pay from the Pony Express to purchase his farm on what was then considered the frontier.

The village of Cahokia was founded in 1699. Cahokia Mounds were occupied between 1050 and 1350 CE, and are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

What was your writing experience before this book? Have you always wanted to write a novel, or did it become something that just felt like a fun project during retirement and then COVID? And did you enjoy the experience? Do you want to write another?

I have no writing experience before this book, except for the required writing assignments for various college classes and two paragraphs in a Corps of Engineers report while in a work-study program at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.

I’ve had various stories that I thought about writing, and I have written some short stories for my own enjoyment. I never thought I would write a book-length story. During COVID, I decided to give it a try and see what came out of it. I started writing, and the story unfolded for me as I went along.

I enjoyed writing and learning about the writing and publishing process. I’m curious by nature, which, at times in the past, has led me to places I shouldn’t have been. I was curious about editing, marketing, and the publishing business. I entered this project for the experience.

I enjoyed the whole process, although I could have done without all the rejections by agents for the book. I have completed the first draft of another story, and I will see where that leads me in the future.

So what do you most want readers to take away from Don’t Never Give Up? What kind of person would you say is your ideal reader? What was the best part of writing it, and what was the biggest hurdle you had to clear?

What I would like people to take away from this story is entertainment. I hope that at the end of the story, they have a smile on their face. The theme is what the title says: Don’t Never Give Up. It is a story of the American dream come true. No matter where you start in life, if you have a goal and ambition, you can succeed.

I think all people will enjoy this story. Mothers, grandmothers, and many men will appreciate and empathize with the characters and the main protagonist’s drive to accomplish his goal.

What I enjoyed the most about writing this was how it started as one story and then turned into something different. It had a life of its own, and I was along for the ride. I also enjoyed learning the publishing side of it. The main hurdle was in between my ears. I’ve never been a top student, and I didn’t think I could ever write a book. But here it is, and I hope everyone who reads it enjoys it.

On our end, so far so good. Our editor described it as being in the vein of Mark Twain and Zora Neale Hurston, which is a cool combo. I know you did some querying. What did you take away from that process, and what made you decide to self-publish? And then once you did, what was your experience of it?

It’s quite flattering for my book to be considered in the vein of Mark Twain and Zora Neal Hurston.

On the advice of friends and family who read my manuscript, I decided to try to get published. I queried over thirty agents who took a pass on it. That’s how I came to self-publish my book. Being a newbie to the publishing business, I’m not quite sure what to make of the process, except that I could do without all the rejection. I’m sure, after being an agent for years, you can tell what will sell and what won’t, but after reading only a few pages of a story, I’m not sure you can get a good handle on what it is all about. I took solace in knowing that Stephen King’s Carrie was rejected 30 times by publishers. So, who knows what might happen?

I didn’t realize that I was one of the first to go through the assisted self-publishing, but the journey has been a pleasant learning experience for me. All the folks at WriteByNight have been very helpful (holding my hand through the whole process) and have taught me a lot.

The only thing I would have done differently is meet all the people who helped me with this project face-to-face, but since they were spread out across the country, I know it wasn’t possible.

I recently completed another book, which is currently undergoing the first edit by my wife, and I will go with WriteByNight and self-publish it as well.

Then I should let you get to it! Before we close this, do you have any words of advice for anyone working on, or thinking about starting work on, their very first book-length project?

Simply: Don’t Never Give Up. If you have a story to tell, write it. If you want to publish it, go for it.