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About Gregory G. Allen
Gregory G. Allen moved from Texas to New York in the late 80s and has been in the entertainment business for over twenty years as an actor, director, producer, songwriter, playwright and author. He’s had over ten shows that he has written produced on stage, been the recipient of musical grants from BMI, ASCAP and the Watershed Foundation, and has had short stories and poetry published in Off The Rocks, Muscadine Lines: A Southern Journal, The Oddville Press, Perpetual Magazine, Loch Raven Review, Word Catalyst Magazine, and Rancor’d Type.
He is a member of ASCAP, The Dramatist Guild, and the Theatre Communications Group. He now lives in the suburbs of New Jersey and for the past five years he’s managed an arts center on a college campus. Proud Pants: An Unconventional Memoir was published this summer and is available as a digital download on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. This is his first novel.
For more information on Gregory, visit his website at www.ggallen.net orhttp://www.facebook.com/author.gregory.g.allen.
The Interview
What inspired you to write your first book?
Well With My Soul is actually my debut novel and I wrote it first as a play. After hearing it read by a cast, I knew I needed to write it as a novel and tell the story of the fifteen years of these brothers.
Do you have a specific writing style?
I’ve heard from readers they can really hear my voice in my writing (both books and blogs) and that is a very nice compliment to hear. I know I prefer writing in 1st person POV and that I don’t like to play by the rules. My writing will have a twist and a turn and not always go exactly where readers expect.
How did you come up with the title?
The title is based on the religious hymn It Is Well With My Soul – one of my all time favorites. I felt the irony of the title with the truth of the story was a great fit.
Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
I want readers to understand that choices we make can really affect others around – for years to come. I’d also like for them to take away that we can change our opinions about major things in our lives as we grow and mature. We are never too old to stop learning.
How much of the book is realistic?
There are many elements of Well With My Soul that could have happened to people and/or may have. It’s certainly not science fiction. It is much more realistic.
Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life?
I’ve taken certain experiences that I’ve gone through or others I’ve known have told me about to help create this story. I still consider it fiction as so much is made up, but it has some elements of truth hidden under the surface.
What books have most influenced your life most?
When I read Augusten Burroughs Running With Scissors – I knew I wanted to write. I’ve also loved the Tales of the City series as well as A Prayer for Owen Meany.
If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?
I would have to say Mr. Burroughs – though he doesn’t know it. He wrote with such rawness and truth that I knew I wanted to write in a way that did not sugar coat or pander to anyone to make reading a completely ‘comfortable’ experience. I think people should be taken out of their comfort zone when reading and go to places they would never go.
What book are you reading now?
I’m just about to start Chasing Amanda by Melissa Foster.
Are there any new authors that have grasped your interest?
Well, they are new to me as I just came upon them within the past six months. Arthur Wooten. Brandon Shire. Jack Urquhart. David Hallman.
What are your current projects?
I stay very busy managing an arts center that has theater, dance, concerts each weekend…but in addition to promoting Well With My Soul, I’m preparing my next novel to come out in 2012. (A female protagonist that discovers a gruesome past through therapy and has to patch her life back together.)
Name one entity that you feel supported you outside of family members.
My best friend since 5th grade has read every single thing I’ve ever written. (That’s over 30 years as friends.) She also acts as a life coach for me with major encouragement and support.
About Well With My Soul
Well with My Soul introduces two brothers who, although close in childhood, have drifted away from each other and closed the door to engagement and emotional connection. The older brother, Jacob, flees his small Tennessee hometown to seek a new life in New York, where he imagines he will overcome his self-hatred and growing sexuality as a homosexual. The younger brother, Noah, stays behind and feels trapped by his role as caretaker for his aging mother. As they grow apart, both brothers go through a series of traumatic events that irrevocably alter their lives: while Noah, shackled by familial duties, finds courage in the sorrow of the past, Jacob’s frenzied search for freedom leads him into a labyrinth of fear and doubt which alienates him from his true identity and wreaks havoc in the lives of those closest to him. Covering the wild times of the 1970s and the restraint of the Reagan years and told through the perspective of both brothers, Well with My Soulis about the families we inherit and the families we build. It is an unflinching exploration of the way that we deal with what most unsettles us, at times using it for the highest form of inspiration, and at other times letting it confine us in previously unimaginable ways.
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