An Interview with Scott Mallory

I have lived and worked in San Diego, California, since 1983, but grew up in NW, Missouri. I have always had an intense interest in history. Not just the how and why, but the who was affected. The people behind our history holds fascination. Poetry and verse are just one of the ways I express that care for humanity.

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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?

Originally, the poems I wrote came nearly fully formed and my job was to get them written down before they were gone. Eventually, as I begin to intentionally craft someone’s story, I leaned into medieval forms, the quatrain as an example.

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

I have been a manufacturing jeweler since 1983. Spending two thirds of my life talking to people to be able to create their dreams has definitely had an influence on my writing.

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

From the moment I decided a book was my direction, the title was there. I strive to put my reader in the middle of it. You get mental snapshots of the 98th Pennsylvania marching out of the early dawn light moving toward Confederate fortifications on yonder hill. When the B-17 you’re in loses an engine and the day goes from “Oh dear” to “Oh poop” to “Well, we’re dead now.”

I strive very hard to take history from “In 1864 this guy did that” to “This one man leading his company against a hell storm of musket and cannon fire, in spite of knowing he will most likely not survive it.”

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

Using ProWriting aid to do the editing. Nothing like arguing with a computer to keep the form you wrote something in because the fellow was from Alabama and his grammar was not what the program thought it should be.

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

Pink Floyd Us and Them, the entirety of The Wall, and The Final Cut – 2004. When the Tigers Broke Free still brings me tears.

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

To both feel the humanity and some compassion for your distant ancestors and those of peoples you may never know.

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

Hearing back from people who have read it and been moved. One of the poems is about a ground crew chief during the bombing campaign out of Libya. I spoke to someone who was involved in Desert Shield. His health failed from the poor conditions just before Desert Storm. But he said I nailed just how dreadful that was. And that it hadn’t changed. The other was a man whose father had flown B-17s from England in WWII. After reading the aircraft poems, especially Lament for a Cold October Thursday, he came back to thank me for giving him just a bit more of his dad back for a bit.

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