Make-Believe Mondays With Art Noble

Today on Make-Believe Mondays I am pleased to introduce my friend, Art Noble. I am going to start out a little differently, beginning with Art's Bio, because it is so fascinating.

Born in Los Angeles, Art Noble grew up in Key West where he lived for four years in the Hemingway Home. He is the son of internationally known artist, Van Noble, who opened the Hemingway Home as an art gallery before it became a museum. He still writes under the Hemingway lamp he acquired when he moved from the home.

Noble holds a BS in Ocean Engineering and an MBA. Professionally, he was an adventurer on the cutting edge of technology, an executive engineer and a teacher. Like scores of other poets and authors, he has acquired and held many jobs including technical writers and commercial diver in the offshore oil field. This gives him an eclectic view of life. He ended his diving career as an Associate Professor of Underwater Technology at Florida Institute of Technology, Jensen Beach. His poetry is published in South Florida publications, The Armadillo Anthology, Underwater (trade magazine), and read on National Public Radio.

Noble has appeared as a bit actor in movies and made commercials. After his participation in the H-Bomb salvage and the first 650-foot saturation dive, he made an appearance on the Today Show and his photograph appeared in National Geographic.

Art, tell us a little bit about the manuscript you're working on now.

Art: The Sacred Female, set in sunny Fort Lauderdale, FL, is a novel of spiritual sexuality. It is the story of Richard and Jeanne, who literally bump into one another and start a dinner relationship that develops much further than either of them had intended. It is the story of how love changed them in way they would never have dreamed possible. They travel this path together as Rich unknowingly skirts involvement in a dangerous criminal enterprise and Jeanne's business grows beyond her expectations.

At times, erotic and sensual, The Sacred Female is about intimate connection between partners and explores both arcane aspects of female anatomy and physiology as well as the significance of finding a mutually spiritual path through sexuality.

Debra: What I've read so far was quite interesting. I'm looking forward to finishing the book.

Ray Bradbury said, "We are cups, constantly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out." How do you keep your creative cup filled?

Art: This is a self-published book and I work on painful feet in the hot sun to pull together living expenses. The rest of the time I am marketing the book, so my muse went on vacation. I'd like to join her.

Debra: I hope you will be able to join her soon under a cool, shady palm tree.

Is there a point when your characters begin to come alive and you can see and hear them?

Art: My characters are alive when I begin. Their character and faces develop in the book.

Debra: Some very famous authors have played with language, creating words for people or places that no one has ever heard of. Have you ever played with words in that way and if so how?

Art: Yes. I have a non-grammatical Swifty in this novel that fits perfectly. I'll let the reader find it.

Debra: Oh, fun. Something to search for.

For some writers, dreams play a role in creating fiction. Has this been true for you? Have you ever dreamed a scene or an image that later wound up in one of your books?

Art: The names of the characters came from dreams.

Debra: As a child did any particular book or author pull you into their imaginary world?

Art: The Tom Swift and Hardy Boys series; Kipling; Edward Ellsberg. Later Robert Rourke and Hemingway.

Debra: I would suspect you know Hemingway's works quite well. Kipling was also a favorite of mine.

If there were no categories for books, no reader expectations to meet, and you could create the wildest work of imagination that you could think of what kind of story would that be?

Art: A Journey to Heaven.

Debra: Now that would be a wonderful story to read.

Is there anything else you would like to add about the role of imagination, and dreams in creating fiction? Any other message for our readers?

Art: I am the strange combination of Engineer/tech writer and poet. Most of my imagination is in word usage, book structure and situational events. The book is written in sonata form, which may be considered imaginative. Commercial diving, designing a seaplane ramp for a private residence and the sexual ectasy in the book are all a part of my experience, except for the female side. I had that explained by a female and related it to the best of my ability.

The Prologue and first five chapters of the book may be viewed at
www.myspace.com/asacred female
along with reader comments about the book.

Debra: Art, thank you for joining us here on this Make-Believe Monday to share a little bit of the magic of writing with our readers.