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| Corvallis Author Rick Borsten |
The room was dead silent. The audience’s hands covered their open mouths, afraid to hear what was next. Rick Borsten's voice trembled and gruffly mimicked a character from his new novel.
“... But Tremain did not think he was brave enough to lie quiet and motionless while a grizzly gnawed on his ass."
Everyone laughed. Borsten’s story-telling ability was as apparent as his writing ability.
The Valley Writers Series hosted a reading by Borsten on April 28th at Linn-Benton Community College. This was the second time Borsten has visited LBCC.
As the room of 32 people sat listening to Borsten, one could sense his uneasiness. He seemed to be a timid, mild-mannered person.
However, as soon as he started reading excerpts from his newest novel his voice changed. His whole demeanor changed. At this moment a fearless Borsten emerged. It was almost as though he became his characters. His hand motions and expressions changed with the voice of each character.
You could feel the intensity of the moment, especially when he read about Dolores Ludlow a character in one of his newest novels. Borsten describes her as a "tough strapping 6-foot 3-inch lesbian eco-warrior and a former college basketball star, who has an overdeveloped sense of justice for the down trodden."
Borsten started writing in his senior year of high school after a serious basketball injury broke his larynx and damaged his vocal chords. Not knowing if he was going to be able to speak again, he turned to writing, something he has always loved doing.
After 40 minutes of reading, Borsten was available for questions.
One audience member asked Borsten how he researches his books.
"I find it really cool, but like it better if I don't have to research it.” said Borsten. He admitted that he gets caught up in the research and finds himself avoiding writing.
How difficult was the process of getting his first book published? “It was horrible back then when I started. I think it is even more difficult now,” Borsten said.
“The first thing you do is try to find an agent, then they ask you to send 30 pages and you just spent five years working on the whole thing and they only want 30 pages. Then when you finally get a response back after six to eight weeks it says, “we really admired your writing but there were some structural problems.”
“I think the letter they write to everyone is a template- it says I really like your writing but we don’t think we can sell it commercially.” said Borsten
Luckily for Borsten he finally found an independent agent who would work with him.
The one thing Borsten hates is finishing a book because as he said, “That is when the hurdles start. However, when you finally get the book published and you are holding the copy in your hands, it is the best feeling in the world.”
Borsten’s advice for new writers … "Read every day, find really good books and read. Look up books that have won awards, read poetry. Also write at least five days a week, if that is hard then start small, write at least 30 minutes a day and then expand it."
Jane White, a fan of Borsten's summed up the discussion when she said, "I loved ‘The Great Equalizer.’ I probably read this 20 years ago and still remember it, and his second novel ‘Rainbow Rhapsody’ has really courageous writing in it, he is a phenomenal writer."
