An Interview with Ira White

Born in California and lived in Idaho, Vermont, and Oregon. I spent a lot of time in the country and in the mountains camping, fishing, backpacking. I hold a B.A. in English and have written three books: Enchanted Shores, We Won’t Forget You Mr. McGillicuddy, and The Children of Raven’s Reach. In addition, I also write poetry and a weekly “Rants in the Pants,” where I rant about everything from peaches to politicians.

I retired from the USDA after twenty-four years as a food inspector. My activities now are writing, gardening, photography, and caring for my two dogs, who take me for a walk every day to keep me fit.

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Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?

My parents read to me, even as a little baby. They read Grimms’ Fairy Tales, Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales, and Uncle Remus and Brer Rabbit. When I was three, I attached myself to Mom’s leg and wouldn’t let go until she promised to teach me to read. By the time I was five, I had read all the little kids’ books I could find. When I ran out of little books, I went searching for another, which I found in the bookcase by the door. The Watchtower people had left a book on martyrs. Dad saw me reading that book and told me when I finished it, he would give me something I would like. It turned out to be Tom Sawyer. Dad led me through a lot of classics, which I devoured. The reading started a fire in me to write. By third grade, I was trying out my writing wings, starting with a poem and one of the many started but not finished novels. I can hardly remember a time I didn’t want to write.

What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?

I grew up working in my dad’s meat shop and working in the fields harvesting grapes, onions, and berries. I worked my way through college as a janitor in a huge regional bank building that also contained the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts organizations, along with the local FBI office. I worked in food factories and was a teacher for a time. I worked in a camper factory and for a precious metals exchange. I had my own business for a time, mostly painting and cleaning up rentals. For a short time, I was a cook at Campbell’s Soup Company and made Swanson TV dinners. After that job, I started divorcing myself from highly processed foods. I retired from the USDA as a food inspector, where I was IIC (inspector in charge) of several plants for more than two thirds of my twenty-four-year career.

Tell us the story of your book’s title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?

The working title started out as Confessions of an Oligarch’s Sorcerer. I came up with that title in a brainstorming session and was quite proud of it and very attached to it as well. However, I noticed that while a small minority of people reacted favorably, most were not too enthusiastic about it. I kept on writing with the working title for some time. One day, as I was talking about my book to a friend, he told me the word “oligarchs” was a poison word that would put many readers off.

I was shocked! My title, my baby, couldn’t be the wrong title to attract readers. After a lot of self-examination, I came to the conclusion that my friend was correct and so I went in search of a new title.

I had finished writing most of the beginning chapters at this time and had decided to add a raven as my sorcerer’s familiar. I was casting about for the new title but also for a direction to go in. From the beginning, the children were of top importance in the story. I didn’t have a clear direction to go until, while going through some of my older files, I came across a blog I started called Raven’s Reach. It was at this point that a lightning bolt struck, and I saw the old farmhouse in my mind and the children there. This combined with the title of my blog as the name of the property and thus, my title was born. After all, the book was not about the sorcerer or the oligarchs, except in their relationship to the children who were the object of the story.

I trolled Facebook with my new title and got an overwhelming positive response that told me I was on the right track.

What part of publishing your book made it feel real for the first time?

I have started so many stories that were never finished that it has given me a complex. I felt the topic and what I did at the start were good, but I wasn’t convinced I would actually finish the work. After the vision that brought me my title, I continued to write. I would get up at 4:00 a.m. to write, write for a couple of hours, and then tend to the real world. In the afternoons, I would meditate on my characters and their backstory, the direction the story was taking, and run a few scenes through my head. During one of these sessions, the main character I was meditating on started telling me I was off track. He then gave me some ideas to get back on track. It was at this point that I knew there was no stopping me from finishing this book. From that point on, the book became real and the characters became real to me. Through meditating on them, I learned their background stories, parts of them the reader would never know but I had to know in order to make them real to my readers.

If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?

Well, you would have to play Do You Believe in Magic by the Lovin’ Spoonful. In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel would be a must for one of the love scenes. Tank by Emerson, Lake, and Palmer would be needed for some of the action scenes. We would also need Rhiannon by Fleetwood Mac and Heroes by David Bowie.

What’s one thing you hope sticks with readers after they finish your book?

There are three important themes in the book that I want readers to take away from their reading. One is that you cannot use evil to do good. The second is that our children are the most important thing in our lives. The third idea pairs well with this last one: love is the most powerful force in the Universe.

What was the most rewarding/meaningful part of publishing your book?

The most rewarding and meaningful part of publishing my book is to see that I have finished a story that discusses important issues and wrapped them up in a narrative that keeps readers reading.

What creative projects are you currently working on?

I am currently involved in promoting my work. On the side, I write a weekly column on my website, www.irawhite.com, called Rants in the Pants. In addition, I occasionally work on a poem and have been going through my writing and thinking about putting out a poetry book.

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