From River’s Edge to Writer’s Pen: An Interview with Harry Soothsayer, author of The Ranting and Raving of a Blithering Idiot

I was very privileged as a child to live on a spit of land on a river’s mouth, enjoying the full fury of the climate that went from 100 degrees to forty with periodic cyclones fifty miles from the most isolated capital city in the world.

Different books have been written about young boys that enjoyed the company of dolphins, pelicans, and other aquatic animals that I can really relate to, as this was my childhood as well. My parents had a bar and small hotel made out of wood and corrugated iron that originally was the beach house of a successful gold miner with stables and servant quarters. Looked a bit like Winchester House in the States. People from the city used to visit on weekends and the family did quite well financially, allowing my two sisters and myself to go to privileged schools.

I excelled at sports and was the junior school champion and dux of the class. For some reason, high school was not something I excelled at as I acquired ADHD where the ability to assimilate knowledge was very hard.

After high school, I joined the family business and worked until the late 80s when the interest rates went to around 20% and sent us to the wall. After that, I statrted a franchise pizza business that also failed and it was then I realised that writing and art were my future road.

I now again live a privileged life, traveling around the country prospecting, writing my blog, and painting. I seem to be able to predict world and local events that have been identified in my book together with suggestions that sometimes get adopted.

You can buy The Ranting and Raving of a Blithering Idiot here.
Are you a writer, too? Submit your manuscript to Atmosphere Press.

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

The title of the book was primarily to catch the eye of a possible buyer and I have at times done, as the title says, a lot of ranting and raving and have also been a blithering idiot—as most people have—but I look at it as a colorful experience that I treasure with an assortment of very attractive women in good relationships, with one marriage that also was good while it lasted.

How did it feel when you first saw your book cover? Or when you first held your book in your hands?

The cover was appropriate as it has a chair that one can sit on and perceive anything that comes to mind, write it down, and put it out to the world. How good is that in today’s world?

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

Writing the blog started out of mental boredom and the stupidity and dishonesty in the world.

I became interested in predicting and solutions that normally were common sense but, as we know, there are other factors at play.

Because of my mental position I only enjoy writing snippets, as you see in my book, as I have a short attention span and don’t take kindly to constructing plots.

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

The most meaningful part of publishing the book was possibly the response I got from the brother of a friend who was given the book to read and who asked if he could purchase two more as he said he couldn’t put it down and was the best book he had ever read!

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

The soundtrack would be Midnight Cowboy.

You can buy The Ranting and Raving of a Blithering Idiot here.
Are you a writer, too? Submit your manuscript to Atmosphere Press.