The Ten-year Season: An Interview with James W. Fried
By Kaycee Weldon, freelance journalist and interviewer
During his professional career, James W. Fried worked as a teacher, a lawmaker, a banker, and a lobbyist. He also wrote four novel manuscripts and over fifty short stories. Our interview occurred shortly before his debut novel and six of the short stories were submitted to agents and short story publishers.
Before we get into your writing, let’s talk a little about your background. You were a political science major in college, right?
That’s right.
But you didn’t immediately go into politics when you graduated?
No, I became a public-school teacher and taught first graders for three years.
What was that experience like?
It was a great experience. But it was the toughest job I ever had, that’s for sure. I’ve had a deep appreciation for schoolteachers ever since.
When did you jump into the political world?
Politics really was my first love. While I was teaching, a legislative seat opened up in my area. I ran for it and won. I served five terms in the Oklahoma House of Representatives.
Then you became a lobbyist?
I started out as an investment banker. And I helped organize our company’s government relations program in several states and in D.C. Ten years later my wife and I started a lobbying firm that we operated over the next twenty-five years until we both retired.
When did you get interested in writing?
I’ve always been interested in writing. The exposure I had in my career provided lots of story material. All I had to do was keep my eyes and ears open. Politicians, investment bankers, and lobbyists are great storytellers, and their stories can often be turned into works of fiction. All it takes is a little imagination. I wrote almost every day, stealing an hour or so when I could, and by the time my professional career ended I had a ton of short stories and novel material that I’d accumulated. I destroyed most of it because it wasn’t anything I’d want the world to see. But I’ve kept a little.
Nothing published yet?
I haven’t published any fiction yet. Years ago, my brother, Jack, and I co-authored a nonfiction sports book called The Winning Edge. I was just starting out as a member of the Oklahoma legislature and my brother was a young lawyer. We were—still are—loyal supporters of the University of Oklahoma football program. The Oklahoma Sooners had won the national championship in 1974 and was the favorite to do it again in 1975. So we came up with the idea of writing a week-by-week account of the upcoming season. We approached OU’s head coach Barry Switzer with the idea, and he agreed to let us shadow the team that entire season. The Winning Edge was the result of that work. We self-published the book and, with the help of a strong advertising campaign, turned it into a decent marketing success.
Self-publishing is a tough gig. Was it worth it?
Yes, the experience was worth it, although I have no desire to self-publish again. But I learned a lot about the publishing business while writing and marketing the book because we did virtually everything ourselves. We wrote it, financed it, got the book and dust cover printed, secured advertising, then sold and delivered copies to bookstores. Oh, and we edited it too. Relying on self-editing is another thing I will never do again. I’ve discovered the value of having a professional editor.
I learned more from that self-publishing experience than from all the creative writing courses I’ve taken and all the books on writing I’ve read. There is something about going through the entire process with your own capital at stake that makes a lasting impression.
I learned two other things: I really love the process of writing; and I love the freedom that writing fiction gives you. That’s what I’ve been writing all these years—fiction.
You’ve worked on your novels and short stories but haven’t published anything.
I haven’t tried to publish them. That’s what I’ll do now.
Why have you waited until now?
I’ve enjoyed the process of writing, but I’ve had to squeeze it around a full-time career. Of course, there is nothing unique in that. Many writers must carve out time to get their writing done. Now I have a portfolio of work that is completed or well on its way to completion. Writing and submitting now gives me something new to experience. New challenges and surprises.
You say that you have four novel manuscripts. Do the stories have a common theme?
I’ve had the opportunity over the last half-century to participate in pretty much every national, state, and local debate. I participated first as an elected member of a legislature, and then as a contract lobbyist, representing dozens of clients. In both capacities, I’ve seen the process up close—the pushing and pulling of competing groups as they try to move a state or the nation from one place to another. I’ve lived that process.
Having said that, we can all recognize times in America’s past when our democratic process buckled under the pressure of uncompromising forces that refused to find common ground. Slavery is the most obvious example. We had the constitutional means to resolve the issue, but it took the Civil War to make it happen.
There are questions today that are equally divisive and almost as impossible to resolve to the satisfaction of a clear majority of Americans. Issues like global warming and climate change, abortion, capital punishment, gun control, racial injustice, and the move toward illiberalism. These issues continue to split the country apart. Our political leaders have gone to their respective corners and seem unwilling or unable to find acceptable compromises.
Those issues form the background for my four novels. My challenge is to present them in an interesting way. They can’t be preachy. And they must be more than just boring exposition. The trick, I think, is using the big issues as a backdrop for the real-life stories I’m presenting. There must be intrigue and romance and all the other things that make fiction interesting. At least that’s the way I see it.
Let’s talk about your short stories. You said you wrote a lot and then destroyed most. How many stories do you still have?
I’ve kept fifty-five stories.
What are you looking for in a short story?
When I write a short story, something or someone has inspired me. I try to put that event or person inside a work of fiction.
As time goes by and I look back at a finished story, I am transformed to the very point in time when I wrote it. I can visualize the actual person or event that caused me to sit down and put words on paper. I can remember where I was when I wrote the story and what was happening in my life at that time. In that way, the stories also serve as time markers.
What I’m looking for is simply an engaging story. I’m not trying to change the world. I just want to write something that is interesting to write and, hopefully, interesting enough for someone to read. And I like to use my short stories to experiment with the craft—to try out new techniques and test different subjects.
And your plan is to release the novels and short stories over the next few years?
Over the next decade. You might call it, My Ten-year Season.
What happens after all those stories are finished and submitted?
I’m a storyteller. I’ll just keep writing.