#AuthorInterview with Charles D. Williams, author of Visible Magic

Today, Feathered Quill reviewer Ellen Feld is talking with Charles D. Williams, author of Visible Magic.

FQ: Tell our readers a little about yourself. Your background, your interests, and how this led to writing a book?

WILLIAMS: I've been tending trees and land all my adult life, and writing as well. Somewhere along those convergent paths, I found myself at a Zen center in Oahu in 2005, and began to contemplate haiku. Since that time I have written thousands of haiku and published several hundred in four volumes since 2016.

FQ: Have you always enjoyed writing or is it something you’ve discovered recently?

WILLIAMS: Always. My mother read to me as a child. My father was a gifted storyteller. Both parents possessed a great love and respect for the land and all its creatures.

FQ: Tell us a little about your book – a brief synopsis and what makes your book unique.

WILLIAMS: A celebration of the miracles all around us from my observations of living on a Kentucky farm for over 40 years. Visible Magic takes its readers on a journey through the four seasons at West Wind Farm in 2021, 2022, and 2023, with me as their guide.

FQ: What was the impetus for writing your book?

WILLIAMS: To convey to others my experience of the extraordinary.

FQ: Please give our readers a little insight into your writing process. Do you set aside a certain time each day to write, only write when the desire to write surfaces, or ?

WILLIAMS: I have kept over 40 years of daily calendar journals of the farm, a place teeming with life. I walk in the woods and fields and just observe. That is the source I tap.

FQ: What was the hardest part of writing your book? That first chapter, the last paragraph, or ?

WILLIAMS: The hardest part is the most rewarding: careful revision.

FQ: The genre of your book is Poetry/Haiku. Why this genre?

WILLIAMS: American haiku that reflects the Japanese masters' respect for the prime numbers (1,3,5,7, 17) that serve as the structure of the work.

FQ: Do you have any plans to try writing a book in a different genre? If so, which genre and why?

WILLIAMS: No. I find that 17 syllables easily exceeds the limits of my attention span on most days.