Movie Master Interviews mckbirdbks
A dialogue with one of HubPages' most popular fiction writers and poets
Mike, can you tell us a little about the person behind mckbirdbks?
I am Mike Friedman. First I would like to thank you for this opportunity. I am a Marine Corp brat as the saying goes. This period allowed for a roughly two year stay on Oahu, Hawaii, which is a pretty nice playground. At age ten ‘we’ were discharged and landed in California.
I have spent a good deal of my time, when I wasn’t working and raising children, reading. So much so, that at age forty a co-worker asked about a book and bet me (gentleman’s bet), that I could not find a first edition, the title happened to be ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. Out of that Mockingbird Books (mckbirdbks) was founded, that was over twenty years ago. Mockingbird Books has been quite an experience for me. I have found many collectible titles and have shipped books all over the world. While I was pursuing fame and fortune, read that- getting the bills paid, the book buying and selling activity paid for a couple of nice European vacations.
How did you find HubPages and did you have any writing goals when you initially started writing Hubs?
I received an email one morning from my middle daughter Tracy. She told me that she had joined something called HubPages. She sent a link to her Hub. She suggested I might like HubPages and that I might make a little money. So, here I am, and she was right I do like HubPages and have made a little money. My ‘daughter equal billing rule’ demands that I mention my oldest Michelle, and my youngest Kate.
Other than a few, ‘Oh, my aching heart poems” and too many eulogies, I did not write prior to HuPpages. I found it a challenge to view all the work of so many talented artists here at HubPages and come up with suitable submissions. Then once I had published a few Hubs some veteran Hub personalities kept encouraging me to continue. Epigramman took time to comment on my early Hubs and continues to encourage me.
I am more a reader than a writer. After reading works by, The Suburban Poet, Saddlerider1, Sunnie Day, and Hyphenbird, I realized how high the bar had been set. Once learning from these and many other fine writers I pushed myself to submit more polished works. There is an art to writing that I had taken for granted as a reader. There are artists that wander around Hubpages and they taught me to see differently.
Your Emerald Wells Café series is a huge success and very popular with Hubbers, the last one published was number 23 and I noticed the first one in the series was titled part 1 of 3. Can you tell us how the series has evolved?
Emerald Wells Café, where do I begin? Initially, I was searching for an idea for a Hub. In my ‘Hub idea’ file was a line ‘The Eternity Well’ that I thought I could develop into something. I wrote the first instalment of Emerald Wells Café from that.
The first comment came from Maggie May…” Great part one, cannot wait for more..superb writing!!!” Then Hyphenbird followed with “I could smell the coffee and meat frying and think I even saw the dust fly off Harold's boots…” and Truckstop Sally, with “Oo-la-la . . . Harold. Can't wait to read more!!”
Basically, they hooked me; I didn’t realize it at the time. There was no stopping after that. I struggled for an ending, part three. Then it was suggested that an epilogue was in order. Writing the series became a challenge. Many of the ideas that grew into Hubs were hinted at in the comment section. I admit that I played to my audience. Guest appearances began, Elvis and Jimmy Stewart stopped in. Speakeasy night came to pass, because the regulars needed more in common than eating.
I am pulling this thought out of the air, but Emerald Wells Café is a micro-HubPages. People come together regularly, begin to learn about each other, share their stories, for the most part they are well received, well-behaved and well respected. We stop by to say hello to each other then go about doing what we need to be doing.
Speak Easy Nights at the Emerald Wells Café involve your characters writing their own poems, as the writer just how challenging is this for you?
In hindsight, the poetry allowed me to develop the characters. Each has their own style based on their history. As it became necessary to focus on who they were, each of them became more fully developed as characters. From the comments I know that some readers began to feel close to the characters. I think it is because the characters have told their stories through their poetry. How they met and why they are friends is all found in the poetry. The pressure rises when I am preparing ‘Speakeasy Nights”, I have joked about the characters submitting inappropriate poetry and sending it back to them for a rewrite. Especially Gabby!
You have written poetry and Hubs on a wide variety of topics, do you have a favourite subject or style of writing and what inspires you?
This is a tough question for me. Emerald Wells Café is a light and easy going series. That I am writing it is a complete mystery. Those closest to me would describe my style more closely resembling the mood in, “I Should Have Died for My Country” and “Murder Once Done”.
Looking over the titles of the Hubs I have written, they show that I am slightly political, slightly bookish, and slightly a romantic at heart.
As the world closes in on us, I believe that it is important for us as individuals to record our own histories. We should not leave it to historians and media conglomerates. It is important to those that will follow and necessary to fight the packaged mindset that has become so apparent in the mainstream. This inspires me, as do books with ideas in them that can’t be recalled.
Is there a special Hub you will always remember? It could be yours or a fellow Hubbers. What made it special for you?
Genna East has cut words from stone as fine as any diamond cutter in her “Daniel of Lucid Dreams…A Poem.” Her metaphor is of the highest calibre. Saddlerider1’s, “This Boy” touches me; he hits way to close to home. Mickey Dee’s, “Semper Fi Rodney Watson – The Duke of Earl” is a work of art that has left a lasting impression. I feel each of these works is award worthy and well worth your time to read. Each of these three pieces symbolizes distilled emotions that we can all share and comprehend.
Is there anything you would like to say to the HubPages Community?
I have found the HubPages community caring, supportive, generous, entertaining, enlightening and endearing. There is so much talent gathered here that I am amazed. There are many here that write on par with any of those authors fortunate enough to have found a publisher. I consider it a privilege to have been welcomed here. The quantity of books I have read this year has dropped. All the good writing I need to find, I find here.
I must have overlooked something important to you, take this as an opportunity for you to ask and answer your own question!
I have endeavoured to ‘give back’ as much as I have received here on HubPages and at Emerald Wells Café. You have shared your garden with me, I have gone on an adventure with “Peeps”, and run through the hollows of Tennessee with pirates, I’ve wandered western streets, and danced the Tango. I have done all of that from this chair.
I am going to close with two inside jokes. I have a date for margaritas in Mexico once the revolution begins and I have promised tickets for the premier of “Braids – Angel’s Field”, once it is published, discovered, a screenplay is written and then of course filming.
For all of that I have to say Thank You.
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