Interview with Jeff Burlingame, Author of George Varnell

What’s the story behind the story? What impressed you to put in writing George Varnell: The Life and Times of a Pioneering Sportsman?

Once I discovered a couple of fundamental items of George Varnell’s life story from his household, I knew I needed to write the e book. I discovered he was a personality (and an necessary one) within the historical past of The Boys within the Boat, Daniel James Brown’s wonderful e book that’s now being made into a movie by George Clooney. I discovered he was Gonzaga University’s first basketball coach, and sports activities followers (and lots of others) know the way profitable that program has develop into. I discovered he was a well-known sports activities author and a record-setting soccer referee on the highest degree. I discovered he was an Olympic athlete and a star school soccer participant. It wouldn’t be attainable right now for one particular person to do all these issues. Well, George Varnell did, and affected the course of historical past on many ranges within the course of.

What’s your favourite style to learn? Is it the identical as your favourite style to put in writing?

Nonfiction. I like a well-researched, well-written, and in-depth tackle one thing I’ll solely have cursorily identified about.

What books are in your TBR pile proper now?

My e book pile, as does my music record, nearly at all times consists of authors I do know or have met, or those that are telling tales of individuals and issues with which I’m acquainted. That’s a long-winded method of saying I like impartial works. Lots of small-press and even self-published books.

What scene in your e book was your favourite to put in writing?

I loved telling of George Varnell’s transfer from Kentucky—the place he was a star soccer participant and half of a nationwide rules-related controversy—to Spokane, Washington, a then-young metropolis that Varnell had such a profound influence upon. The scene options disaster, rebirth, and the laying of the groundwork for a lot of legendary moments to observe.

Do you will have any quirky writing habits? (fortunate mugs, cats on laps, and so forth.)

I would like nearly full silence. I’m not one of these novelists who can participate in National Novel Writing Month and hammer out 50,000 phrases in thirty days. That’s partly as a result of doing the analysis for the books I write includes looking for needles in data-filled haystacks, and that takes a while. Then, when these needles (hopefully) are discovered, I nonetheless must assemble them in a style that hopefully is pleasant to the reader and doesn’t stall the narrative.

Do you will have a motto, quote, or philosophy you reside by?

It’s Marianne Williamson’s quote: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond all measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. …” It’s such a strong method of taking a look at life. My not-so-poetic model: “Don’t be afraid to take risks. But always try to leave an open door behind you.”

If you could possibly select one factor for readers to recollect after studying your e book, what would it not be?

My want for readers is to at all times keep in mind the spectacular energy of the standard human spirit. And George Varnell had spirit in spades.