Byron Merritt: Emerging from the Shadow of Greatness

Interview by Chris Kemp

I probably wouldn’t be writing, much less have my stories on the shelves of local bookstores, if it weren’t for Byron Merritt. Almost six years ago, as the founder of FWOMP, he initiated a critique group that still plays an integral part in my life and motivates me to get off my rear end and become what I always said I would be—a writer.
There’s plenty about FWOMP elsewhere on this website, but one more thing needs to be said: it’s changed a lot of people’s lives. I’m not just talking about current members, either; those who’ve passed through its ranks, however briefly, have inevitably taken a little piece of FWOMP with them.

Now putting together a successful writer’s group, and more to the point—keeping it together—speaks pretty clearly to Byron’s tireless work ethic and dogged determinism, characteristics that allow him to plunge ahead against imposing odds with good-natured optimism. This last point is important, because while I have seen him get angry at times, somehow he stays unflaggingly positive, and that has a tendency to rub off on those around him. This is true even in times of interpersonal static, and as you can imagine—given the ego-driven types that populate FWOMP (I gleefully include myself in this number)—contentiousness occurs with at least a little regularity. Byron’s upbeat energy and mediating presence are key reasons why, after two self-published volumes and all the challenges that go with it, FWOMP remains intact and ready to face the future.

His accomplishments as an organizer and figurehead aside, however, Byron is first and foremost a writer. His work, including his accomplished psychological study, "A Break in the Trail," graces the pages of both Monterey Shorts and Monterey Shorts 2. He founded FWOMP, not to be magnanimous, but to help him improve his writing. And he has improved! Greatly!

With the purpose of these interviews being to shed some light on the creative process from the interviewee’s personal standpoint, we’re going to concentrate on Byron the author in the pages that follow. But we would be remiss if we didn’t acknowledge at least one biographical detail that can’t be overlooked in the context of his work: he is the grandson of a genuine 20th century science fiction icon, Frank Herbert, author of Dune.

Now there is a significant amount of online material available about Byron and the influence his famous grandfather had upon him during his formative years. But a lot of it is framed in general terms, and I thought that getting Byron to speak candidly and in detail about the experience of developing his craft under the shadow of a science fiction master might provide a slightly different slant on the topic. Did having such a formidable presence in close proximity help or hinder him? Serve as a driving force or as discouragement? It’s not the kind of situation with which most fledgling writers have to deal, and Byron’s thoughtful answers make for some interesting reading.
—CK
November, 2005

FWOMP: What’s the earliest thing you remember writing? Did your urge to write come from the inside out, or did it seep in from the creative atmosphere around you?

Byron Merritt:

My first attempt at writing something substantial was when I was eleven. It was a horror tale about this monster that inhabited a spaceship traveling between the stars. It was terrible, but how was I to know?

That first attempt at putting together a coherent story, and many subsequent ones, were definitely influenced by my grandfather. His Dune series was approaching a pinnacle of recognition and popularity in the science fiction genre at that time (1976) and I was pretty taken with the way he wrote (even though my mother had to explain what certain things meant—which is to say most everything). The fact that I was writing a science fiction tale—even though I sucked at science in school—pretty much speaks to how influential my grandfather was in my early writing career.

FWOMP: When we first met you seemed more or less determined to write science fiction. Lately you have drifted away from the genre, with positive results. Was this a conscious move?

BM:

I definitely think that I wrote science fiction up until and after FWOMP formed because of my early life with Grandpa. When I saw how successful he’d become and how intelligent his own writings were, I was pretty smitten with the idea of mimicking (somehow) his success. When I wrote "Monte-Ray Gunn" for Monterey Shorts, I was determined to write in the SF vein, but using my own style (that is, one that contained comedic overtones).

But when it came time to write stories for Monterey Shorts 2, I had a great deal of difficulty coming up with specific science fiction plots, so I decided to just write and let come what may. The results were beyond my hopes. I researched a lot of material for "A Break in the Trail" (http://www.subtletea.com/montereyshorts2review.htm), a historical fiction narrative with a serious psychological focus, and I kind of fell in love with how easily it came to me.

"Finding Anna", my other story in MS 2, is definitely fantasy-based, so I haven’t gotten completely away from SF/Fantasy.

Was it a conscious effort to move away from SF? Yes and no. I knew I was writing differently when I started in on "A Break in the Trail", but had no idea how it would end until I got about halfway through it and discovered the real crux of the plot.

The members of FWOMP have definitely helped me improve my writing and thus assisted me in finding out what kind of writer I am. That’s a huge bonus for anyone in this little niche group: if you can handle the hard-nosed critiques and listen to your fellow authors, chances are you’ll become a better writer.

FWOMP: Besides your grandfather, what other science fiction stories or novels influenced you in some way as you were growing up?

BM:

I didn’t start reading a lot until I was in my late teens and early 20s. But before that, I had read and fallen in love with The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. I’d also enjoyed Watership Down (http://www.fwomp.com/rev-watership.htm) by Richard Adams. Both of those books got read and re-read during my early years. But they’re both fantasy stories. The only other SF that sticks out in my mind are the excellent short stories by Phillip K. Dick, most memorably, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" which is the story the film Blade Runner is based upon.

FWOMP: I know you eagerly approached your grandfather with stories you wrote as a child, hoping for his feedback. How old were when you started doing this? What were your perceptions of your grandfather at the time? How did he react and how did that affect your writing?

BM:

I was eleven years old when I approached my grandfather with my first "novel" (18 pages long). I was so excited to have someone of such high literary standing read my first "Monsters in Space" piece. My thoughts were about how proud he’d be of this accomplishment, and how much praise he’d heap upon me for such a vivid and excellently conceived story.

But the truth is he didn’t much care for it, and told me so by marking up every sentence with red ink, showing me my poor grammar, syntax, punctuation, spelling, plot errors, etc., etc. This had a terrible effect on my writing psyche. After that, I didn’t put pen to paper for nearly two decades. But the thing I finally came to grips with was how eccentric and brilliant my grandfather was. He didn’t scribble his red-inked comments in order to hurt me, but because that’s the way his mind functioned. He was a perfectionist (as his own writings show). It took me a while to "grow up" and get over that devastating experience and, thankfully, I have.

FWOMP: This was an atmosphere in which genius didn’t particularly think highly of formalized education. Did your grandfather’s view of education influence your own in any way?

BM:

Not really. I was pretty much a poster child for education and graduated with honors from high school (even though I’d continued to struggle with science). I think my grandfather hated formalized education because it bored him. Even though he disliked the educational system of the times, he was extremely "well educated". That is, he educated himself by reading tons of material and using his own genius to further his knowledge base. He wrote stump speeches for senators and created a wind-powered car. He even built his own solar collector made from the bottoms of beer cans (each of which he’d drank himself—he was a big beer connoisseur).

FWOMP: You always talk about how you formed FWOMP to make you a better writer. When you founded it, what did you perceive your writing deficiencies to be? Have these deficiencies been addressed?

BM:

My deficiencies were many. I could plot like nobody’s business, but my prose and vocabulary were seriously lacking. When I formed FWOMP I wanted to get together with a group of like-minded writers who had problems with their stories (hoping we didn’t have the same exact ones). My hope was that we would assist each other, and myself in the process, by critiquing each other’s work—not just pointing out our flaws, but giving each other ideas on how to fix them.

In this way FWOMP has been invaluable to me. I think anyone who reads some of my early work and then looks at my stories in Monterey Shorts 2 will be highly impressed at the advances I’ve made. I wasn’t the only one who grew and produced some excellent stories, though. FWOMP gave Shaheen Schmidt, another or our members, an award this year for "Most Improved Writer." And she definitely deserved it. Her stories in Monterey Shorts 2 are fantastic . . . and take a controversial look at American society.

FWOMP: What’s the hardest thing about writing for you, and why?

BM:

Sitting down and doing it. I love to get up and do stuff, so I really have to chain myself down to get the writing done. This is usually accomplished by setting a specific time, usually in the morning or early afternoon, so that my mind and body gets in the habit of having this wedge of time set aside. Sometimes old writer’s block rears its ugly head and I have to deal with that, too. But if I relax, the words tend to come and I just type away, not worrying about spelling, sentence structure, etc. I fix those up later.

FWOMP: What clicks with you most as a writer—what part of the process?

BM:

Definitely plotting and idea formation. I love to put together an idea and see it to its end. I’ve yet to have a problem knowing where my stories will end. I always seem to inherently know, which is kind of weird. But getting to that point can be difficult.
I also enjoy the critiquing process. Although it’s occasionally brutal, it’s almost always helpful in some fashion. Critiquing forces me to take my blinders off and see my stories from someone else’s perspective.

FWOMP: Despite your links with SF and Fantasy, one of your most highly regarded stories is "A Break in the Trail," which is grounded in reality, using a somewhat bizarre, but purely psychological transformation. The response to this story has been uniformly positive. Did that surprise you in any way since it’s relatively new material for you to tackle? And how is your experience with this story influencing your current and future works?

BM:

Even though "A Break" is not a science fiction tale, it does possess a sort of surreal quality when personally catastrophic events happen to Lottie, the young girl in the story. She goes through a bizarre transformation, first forced, and then of her own choice, so I kind of see a common thread running through my work. It’s just that it’s evolving.
I’ve gotten a ton of compliments about how I handled the plot in that story, and wove in and out of Lottie’s past life and into her more current predicament. The high praise surprised me. It was a new genre for me to cover—I guess you could say it’s a psychological western—which I don’t think anyone in our group had previously attempted.

Getting all this positive feedback on "A Break in the Trail" has made me think harder about what I write. I’ve found that I don’t need to write pure science fiction in order to be "a good writer." I think this story proves that I can be effective out of the genre. But if you’re asking if I’ll step away from SF/Fantasy altogether, the answer is no. I love dabbling in them, and I love reading them, too.

FWOMP: What’s the best thing about spearheading FWOMP?

BM:

It makes me write. All writers (I think) procrastinate in some way, but if you’re working with a group of authors who expect you to produce material every month or two, it puts pressure on you to write. The pressure isn’t negative by any means. I love to write and being a part of FWOMP forces me to reach down within myself, pull out these incredible ideas that are floating around and put them into a coherent narrative. Spearheading FWOMP is hard work, but it’s also enjoyable.

FWOMP: What’s the worst?

BM:

When FWOMP first got set up in January of 2000, we decided that anything of importance would be voted on, and the majority would rule. And although this has proven to be a strength of the group, it can also be bothersome. We don’t always agree on everything, of course, and voting is an important part of our structure. But dealing with nine other individuals who have differing ideas about how certain things should be run can put a "thorn" in my side. I do a lot of work within FWOMP (bookkeeping, taxes, marketing, street fair set ups, meeting minutes, meeting schedules, etc.) and I sometimes get irritated when those who don’t give much input into the group sound off vocally about this or that. Ken Jones once told me that there’s an 80/20 rule that goes along with any group’s business: 80 percent of the work gets done by 20 percent of the people.

FWOMP: What can the public expect from FWOMP in the future?

BM:

I’m hoping we’ll produce more titles that the public will enjoy. There has been a lot of talk about doing different things: forming our own publishing company, starting up an editing service, writing individual novels under the "FWOMP Publishing" banner (I feel positive this one will come to fruition at some point), and several other concepts.

Although we started out as a critique group—which remains our prime focus and always will—I didn’t want FWOMP to become static. Never evolving or changing is a sure way to end a venture such as this. So now we’re managing a website (big thumbs up to Frances Rossi for that), reviewing books and interviewing authors, too. It’s a step in a different direction but it all relates to writing. Although some members don’t much care for these aspects, I feel that it places more interest on us as a group, making readers and writers in our area (and beyond) wonder what we’re up to now.

FWOMP: What can we expect from Byron Merritt in the future?

BM:

I’m going to become a world-famous author and lay on the beaches of Hawaii while buxom women fan me with palm fronds and bring me little drinks with umbrellas in them. Oh. Time to wake up.

I guess you can expect the unexpected from me. Many people out there know that Frank Herbert was my grandfather, and so they expect some form of science fiction to spew forth from my loins. But if "A Break in the Trail" is any evidence of the abilities I have, SF may take a backseat.

I am, however, still working on a fantasy novel entitled, Dark Tree. The members of FWOMP have seen the first chapter and given it their universal thumbs up; that’s almost unheard of in our group! So I’ll be plunking away at that story over the next few years, too.

Will there be Monterey Shorts 3? Probably, but not right away. Most of us, including me, are kind of burned out right now so I think we’re taking a little break away from putting out these anthologies. I’d be willing to bet, though, that you’ll see a new title from FWOMP in the next few years.
 

Read Byron's film reviews at his blog site, Film Review Stew.  Also, his comments and reviews for writers at The Fanatical Blogspot.