I first interviewed Harold Titus back in May (you can read that interview here), I recently caught up with him to see what he's been up to since, you can find out more below:
What has changed in your life since we last spoke?
Nothing really has changed much in my life since we spoke last May. Most of my reading has been directed toward expanding my knowledge of the English settlements at Roanoke (North Carolina) during the 1580s. I did, however, begin a blog site (http://authorharoldtitus.blogspot.com). Once a month I write two blog entries: one about actual people who appear in my Revolutionary War novel "Crossing the River" and the other about information I've discovered that places the Roanoke settlements story in a broader historical context. I also include book reviews I have written and excerpts from "Crossing the River."
Have you learnt any new wisdom?
What has transpired since May has only reinforced my realization that the best reward a writer receives for his efforts is self-satisfaction, derived from knowing that he has stretched himself in producing the final product and that discriminating readers have appreciated it.
What are you working on at the moment?
I haven't begun writing my novel about Roanoke, so I don't know if I have become a better writer. I do know that the book I hope to begin writing soon will be quite a challenge. I want to focus particularly on the Native American inhabitants and juxtapose their culture with that of the English. I want to make observations about man's nature that is true of all beings at any specific time. One of my main characters will be a young Algonquian woman experiencing the need to break out of her confining, stagnant culture to learn certain things that are not known by her people and to find ways not yet discovered by them to be creative. Because so little is known about individual Algonquians along North Carolina's Outer Banks that English leaders mention in their reports, I must fictionalize their individual histories, family backgrounds, and character traits to make them living human beings with whom readers may identify yet remain historically responsible.
Tell us about your latest release and how we can find out more.
I'm guessing that this project will take at least two years to complete. Maybe more. I don't know how much longer I will be able to continue the current subject matter of my blog site. At some point in time I will probably write about difficulties I have encountered with the current project. I might include excerpts of the writing.
Crossing the River is available from Amazon
By day I'm a video game consultant, and I also volunteer at the German Shepherd Dog Welfare Fund - the charity that rescued the dog I adopted last year. I've also recently started compiling a website covering the history of the village I live, although I'm hoping to draw in some help for that project! Here is scratchpad when I need it, and a place for my personal projects. It's also an archive from back when this was was my writing blog.
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