John Nolte on His Debut Novel ‘Borrowed Time’: ‘I Wanted to Write Something Timeless, Not Timely’

Breitbart News Senior Writer John Nolte’s debut novel Borrowed Time (Bombardier Books) is available today. You can read an exclusive excerpt here. We asked him five MORE questions about the book’s birth, his influences, and his writing process. You can read the previous five questions here.

       1. What are your influences, and how did those shape Borrowed Time?

My influences are movies, movies, movies…I love movies. If anything, although it’s set in the modern age and beyond, I wanted Borrowed Time to feel like a Western, which is why I set it in the Southwest, in the desert specifically. Mason is based on the classic Western hero, the loner who pays a heavy price for getting emotionally involved.

They say the most dangerous man in the world is the man pushed into action when all he wants is to be left alone. That’s Mason.

       2. Is it true that writing a book is two percent inspiration and 98 percent perspiration?

The older I get, the more I discover almost every cliché is true, and that is one of them. The two percent inspiration came from the Ernest character. Writing Ernest was pure joy (you meet him in the excerpt). He came to me whole. No perspiration required. Yes, he’s a monster, so I’m not sure what that says about me, but I loved writing that character.

The rest of the writing was birthing a beach ball: sweat, strain, endless rewriting, and writer’s block that sometimes lasted months.

Overall, though, I was guided by inspiration. Once I developed the central idea of an immortal man selling his life to wealthy elites to keep his family afloat, it dug under my skin and wouldn’t let go. It became something I had to write. Borrowed Time wouldn’t leave me alone until it was on paper.

Many years back, there was a hotly contested local election that had gained national attention. It went into a recount with the Democrat up a few dozen votes. Then a friend of mine called with a secret. Due to human error, a highly GOP district had not been included in the final tabulation. We were going to win, and I couldn’t tell anyone for a whole host of reasons. The book was like holding onto that secret.

       3. You mentioned writer’s block. Did you find a cure?

There is no such cure, but I did come up with a trick. During those first five years, when I was trying to outline the story, the Charlie character kept tripping me up. Charlie is mentally disabled, a seven-year-old in the body of a 36-year-old man, and everything I wrote about him was pure cliché, was some lazy variation of Lenny from Of Mice and Men. I hated it and knew I wouldn’t write the book if I couldn’t crack this character.

I gave up more than once, but like I mentioned before, the story wouldn’t let go of me. Then, one day, I thought of something: Maybe the opposite of my bad ideas are good ideas. That might sound trite, but it changed everything. So, I did the opposite with Charlie, and it blew the story wide open straight through to the end. In ways big and small, that formula got me over many speed bumps.

       4. What do you hope people take away from the book?

I hope the reader feels a kinship with the characters. Some of the most dangerous people in the world are “well-intentioned” reformers, busybodies with political power, and those arrogantly certain they know better. Most of us just want to be left alone to live our lives. And we don’t care how other people live their lives as long as they leave us alone. That’s what my most sympathetic characters want, but the do-gooders and the government just keep coming and coming…

Above all, I hope closing the book is similar to when you exit a great movie…You’ve been so lost in another world you’re kind of dazed when you reenter the real world. Also, I hope people take the themes and characters home with them. I tried to walk that fine line of not providing all the answers, not in a way that frustrates, but in a way you savor and think about later.

My goal was to write something timeless, not timely.

       5. Will you write another novel?

Honestly, right now, the idea is intimidating. Don’t misunderstand me…While I’m very proud of Borrowed Time and eager for people to read it, I’m not saying I’ve written some sort of classic or even a good book — that judgment belongs to the reader. It’s just that within the context of my abilities, this feels like the best thing I will ever write. Still, if I get another idea that excites me half as much as this one, I’ll have no choice. I’ll have to write it.

John Nolte’s debut novel Borrowed Time (Bombardier Books – September 26) is available for pre-order. You can read an exclusive excerpt here.