The Pen Factor Interviews: K. M. Zahrt

Ken Zahrt has seized the reigns of his burgeoning writing career. Since becoming a serious writer ten years ago, Ken has self-published two books (Thanksgiving with Pop-Pop (October 2013) and Odd Man Outlaw (February 2014)) and is poised to release his third, a mystery novel with a literary twist. In June 2015, his short story, Pink Panties, Chocolate Pudding, and a Proposal, was The Pen Factor Runner-up. Guest-judge and award-winning writer Nicholas Shakespeare described it as “well written and fresh”.

Ken’s mystery-thriller novel, Odd Man Outlaw, wades through an increasingly murky trail of evidence surrounding the arrest of security guard, Edward Waters, suspected of aiding and abetting a known fugitive. Ken wrote the entire first draft by hand in composition notebooks on a flight to China in August 2007. The story was inspired by a job he took after college as a security guard at a nursing home. “There was a boiler room at the nursing home where homeless people would try to hide for warmth and shelter in the winter time. The story was built out of that place and evolved over time.”

Odd Man Outlaw by K. M. Zahrt

Ken values the feedback he received from submitting to The Pen Factor. “The Pen Factor is unique. I've never come across anything like it. It's really beneficial to get good feedback to know how your work is resonating with readers. When you send out work anywhere, rejections are inevitable, but there's no way to tell if there's something wrong with your story or if it simply doesn't fit what editors are looking for at that particular moment. The Pen Factor gives you a chance to get some honest feedback in a low-risk environment.”
Ken found his passion for writing via studying film and video at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. In 2006 he won the Department of English's Oldenburg Writing Contest for one of his first scripts and has been hooked ever since. Ken likens writing to a game of golf: “You can play the same course over and over, but the journey and the outcome of each round is different ... That's what's so engaging and challenging about it. The next round might just be the round of a lifetime.”


K. M. Zahrt reads from his book, Odd Man Outlaw

You can buy Ken's book here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0615958125/
Website: http://www.kmzahrt.info/

The Pen Factor Writer of the Month: Rachel Bryan

The Unexpected Serial Killer - Rachel Bryan
November 2015

The Unlikely Serial Killer is a first-person narrative story that delves into the mind of a most unexpected murderer. Intriguing, witty and dark, Rachel Bryan's comedy-thriller is a compelling read from first line to last.

Rachel is based in the Columbia Gorge in Washington State. Strongly encouraged by her grandma, she has been writing fiction since she was 12. After an early encounter with a Stephen King novel ("I was too young to be reading those kinds of things..."), Rachel started delving into darker subject matter which gradually morphed into dark comedy as she matured. The inspiration for The Unlikely Serial Killer came from a lightbulb moment at Baja Fresh when Rachel knocked over a stack of salsa containers she had filled up.

"A lightbulb went off and my first sentence just played out in my head and the story wrote itself from there". The entire story was subsequently finished in under six hours!
Prior to submitting The Unlikely Serial Killer to The Pen Factor, Rachel had never shared her writing with anyone other than her grandma and friends. After receiving such great responses from fellow writers at The Pen Factor, Rachel gained the courage to apply for a freelance job and now writes sports articles for the local newspaper.

"That's what appealed to me so much about The Pen Factor - the feedback. I am always wanting to grow more as a writer and you can't do that without good feedback."

Rachel has started a writing group in her area in an effort to create a writing community. Her writing dream is to eventually publish a book and help others get published as well. 

Read Rachel's story here!

The Pen Factor Interviews: John Cleese

Clarissa: John, are you reading anything at the moment? Have you got anything on your bedside table?

John: Yes, I’ve got two or three, because I tend to do that. I’m just reading Seize the Day by Saul Bello. I haven’t read that for a long time. And I’m reading almost a more technical book on evolution, a simple sort of a school textbook. It’s quite good but I don’t particularly recommend it, because there’s too much trying to get rid of the idea of intelligent design as an argument.

I’ve just bought a book by Anatole France called The Gods Want Blood. He won the Nobel Prize. Let me think what else I’m reading. There’s one I’ve just finished called The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. The truth is, I’m actually writing one myself at the moment. It would just be an evolution book. It’s called The Big Questions and it’s part of a series edited by the Oxford philosopher, Simon Blackburn.

Clarissa: I’ll have to keep an eye out for it! What non-fiction books have inspired you? Have any been life changing?

John: Well, when we talk about changing a life, you’re getting more into areas of self-help, aren’t you.

Clarissa: That’s true.

John: So, for example, I just read a book very recently by woman called Susan Cain, about introversion. And that gave me, since I’m basically introverted, the confidence to understand my cast of mind a little better than I have before. I read a book 34 years ago by Eysenck and that was all extroversion-introversion too. I think that it told me an enormous amount about how my mind worked; so that was very helpful. And in more recent years, I’ve read The Black Swan, and I was quite shocked to realize how bad we all are at forecasting the future. And then I recently read a book called The Drunkard’s Walk.

Clarissa: The Drunkard’s Walk?

John: Yep, by a guy called Leonard Mlodinow, and that’s about probability. Now that had a particularly strong effect. Novels, doesn’t happen so much. Although I recently read Ian McEwan’s On Chesil Beach, and I thought that was almost life changing, because it contained an idea that I just thought was extraordinarily important.

Clarissa: Now of course you wrote a book called Families and how to Survive Them with Robin Skynner, is that right?

John: Robin Skynner, that’s right, yes. That was definitely a self-help book, written in the days when the British didn’t really bother with the self-help book.

Clarissa: Yes, it was sort of avant-garde, I suppose.

John: It was! They didn’t know where to put it on their shelves …

Clarissa: It was actually a friend in Oxford who recommended your book, and he was an analytical grandchild of Jung.

John: That’s very interesting. I’m glad you mentioned Jung because I was going to suggest that Memories, Dreams and Reflections was a book that changed me but I’m not sure how. I think it was about rearranging my priorities.

Clarissa: Do you think dreams are literal?

John: I don’t know but I think that they come in enormously different varieties and I think that the vast majority of them are extremely banal. But from what I’ve understood, the occasional dream, very very occasional dream is significant.

Clarissa: If you had a gun to your head and had to choose between a career in writing or acting, which one would you choose?

John: Oh, you wouldn’t have to put a gun to my head, writing every time! It’s so much more interesting.

Clarissa: Yes, it’s a gorgeous process, isn’t it?

John: And it is also, and I’m sorry to say this for actors, but it’s also far more creative.

Clarissa: Yes, absolutely.

John: Acting is basically interpretative, and the only part of acting that I find interesting, is taking something that I’ve written and performing it in front of an audience to find out whether it works or not.

Clarissa: I suppose they’re restricted, whereas with creative writing you can go into a whole world of your own. 

John: Yes, yes, that’s right.

Clarissa: Last question for you John: what is the most challenging part of the writing process?

John: Getting down to it.

Clarissa: [Laughs.] Yes, it’s that first line, isn’t it.

John: Like I called you this morning, rather than start work. [We laugh.]

Clarissa: Well, you know what, I won’t hold you back, but can I just say how much I enjoyed your show the other night. I just couldn’t stop laughing, it was so much fun!

John: Oh good!

Clarissa: One of the funniest anecdotes, was the one with Michael Palin, when you crept into his bedroom and he hadn’t even spotted you! [We laugh]

John: He had no idea that I was there. None at all!

Clarissa: It reminded me of the time I jokingly sent my big brother to join my sleeping husband in bed, but the joke was on my brother who hadn't anticipated being molested by my husband, thinking it was me.

John: Ha! Oh, how hilarious. That’s very funny.

Clarissa: But listen, thank you ever so much John …

John: Well, I applaud what you’re doing.

Clarissa: Much appreciated. Enjoy the rest of your stay in Australia.

John: Thanks, I’ll go and do my 800 words now.


March 2014, Hobart 

John has since published So, Anyway...: The Autobiography.
A brilliant account of his life so far!