| TDR INTERVIEW: Jerry Amernic
Jerry Amernic is a Toronto writer. He published
his first novel, Gift of the Bambino (Boheme
Press, 2002) in the spring. The novel had spent 11 years
bouncing between agents and editors.
Michael Bryson interviewed Amernic by email in
August 2002. |
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TDR: Tell us a bit about yourself. What's your background? How do you make
a living?
AMERNIC: I'm a journalist and public relations consultant. I've been a newspaper
reporter and columnist, and magazine writer, and I've had three books
published before this, all non-fiction. But, as for income, I generally
make my living doing corporate PR. I've also done some teaching in the
public relations and corporate communications programs at two Toronto
colleges.
TDR: You recently published your first novel. It has an interesting
pre-publication history, which I think people would be curious to hear.
What happened to the book before it finally landed in stores?
 AMERNIC:
My novel GIFT OF THE BAMBINO sure did have a pre-publication history -
about 11 years of getting nowhere. The manuscript was seen by agents and
publishers on both sides of the border and I have a very nice collection
of letters, many of them saying how wonderful the book was, but no cigar
thank you. And then I decided it was time to try some small literary
presses for a change and a fellow named Michael Bryson suggested Boheme.
They bought and did a very nice job with things.
TDR: Your book integrates local Toronto history with one of the biggest
baseball icons of the 20th century (Babe Ruth). Were you intimidated at
all by the subject matter? Any problems balancing the fictional and the
historical?
AMERNIC:
If a writer feels 'intimidated' by the subject matter, I suggest doing
something else for a living. You should embrace the subject matter with
enthusiasm. I have always been a student of history and now that I'm
getting increasingly into fiction I find that I very much enjoy taking a
historical character and events, and putting them into a novel. It does
require a lot of research, however, but I like doing this sort of thing.
TDR: What kinds of writers do you turn to for inspiration?
AMERNIC:
I guess the writer who most influenced me was James Michener. I just
love his epic tales that weave people around history and archaeology,
but even a great writer like Michener penned a few clunkers along the
way, which is reassuring for the rest of us. I like stories that deal
with history because I am in awe of things old. Any work of fiction that
looks seriously at history is probably a candidate for my bookshelf.
TDR: What's one question you've always been dying to answer (and the
answer)?
AMERNIC:
Why do I write? I write because I am absolutely obsessed with it. It's
like an addiction to a drug. The more you do it, the more you have to do
it. The downside is that it takes a lot of time -- much more than people
know. To write for years without any reward or recognition, as I and
countless other writers have done, requires large doses of insanity and
perseverance. But there was always this feeling that some day I would
make a go of it.
TDR: What are you working on now? What can readers expect from Jerry
Amernic in the future?
AMERNIC:
I now have an agent who feels he can sell GIFT OF THE BAMBINO in the
States and he has already read my next novel, QUMRAN, which has a Middle
East flavour, and he likes it. Since last summer I've been working on
another one that was inspired by a newspaper article I did for The
National Post. It's about the legacy of the Iroquois and how the First
Nations people have been vilified by North American society. I honestly
feel that every novel I've written (this one is my fifth) is better than
the last. You learn as you go. But it's awfully nice to have a work of
fiction in the stores and have someone else call me a novelist. That
really is the highest honour you can get!
Michael Bryson is the editor/publisher
of The Danforth Review.
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