Interview with Henry Ball

Emma Dhesi  00:00 

Hello, I’m Emma Dhesi and welcome to another episode of turning readers into writers. If you’re brand new here, welcome. And here’s what you need to know. This is a community that believes you are never too old to write your first novel, no matter what you’ve been up to until now, if you’re ready to write your book, I’m ready to help you reach the end, I focused on helping you find the time and confidence to begin your writing journey, as well as the craft and skills you need to finish the book. 

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Okay, let’s dive in to today’s episode. Henry Ball describes himself as an executive contractor, author and general ruffian. They call him daddy Oh at home. Henry Ball was born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He’s the product of a broken home and a dysfunctional family. 

And Henry Ball learned resilience, ingenuity and a relentless work ethic from his indefatigable mother, Dolores Boone. She helped Henry faced the adversities of his tumultuous upbringing at the hands of a violent and abusive father, who Henry decided was not the model for him.

Dolores is the inspiration and main character of Henry’s debut novel sister of sorrows, his own journey from that tumultuous and debilitating childhood to personal transformation, faith and success is chronicled in the sequel, sons of sorrow. 

Listen to Henry Ball today and find out how he can inspire you to write your debut novel. Well, Henry, thank you so much for joining me today, I’m really thrilled to have you on the show.

Henry Ball  02:52 

Thank you so much Glad to be here. 

Emma Dhesi  02:54 

I wonder if you could start off by just telling us a little bit about you and how you became a writer.

Henry Ball  03:01

So I have followed a career path in the construction industry and in doing various, you know, various things in the construction industry. And I’ve risen up as an executive, I have run my own business. I’m currently the vice president of a midsize construction company here in the Atlanta area. And I have always I did and I should back up, I also went to the Art Institute of Atlanta, for you know, marketing, ad design and things of that nature, but I never really followed that career path. 

However, in my career path, I have always been the person who wrote, you know, the marketing, you know, marketing, I call it propaganda, but, you know, the shows and brochures and things of that nature. And I’ve always been relied on to write, you know, important documents for, you know, the companies I’m involved with, and, and I’ve just always been a little bit I’ve always had a pretty good flair for writing.

I then started writing for a for a sports blog, maybe about 15-18 years ago, called the Bleacher Report. And it’s like one of the biggest things on the planet now, but I was actually one of the first writers and one of the first syndicated columnist with the Bleacher Report, they actually offered me a paid position, but if it wasn’t, it wasn’t close enough to you know, what I was earning to feed my family, so I wasn’t really able to take it at that time. but I, but I did get a good introduction into the writing world and I covered my favorite sports team, which is the LSU tigers, covered a number of football games and went to football games and worked in the press box and things like that.

So it was very, very exciting experience for me, I enjoyed it very much. And, and had always felt like, you know, I want to write a book. In fact, because of my upbringing, which you know, is, you know, chronicled in sister of sorrows, to some degree, I had always kind of thought that the title of my book would be, you can’t get there from here.

Because, you know, I really, in a lot of the things that I learned from my mother, I really was able to kind of transform my life as a young man and move away from the childhood that, you know, my upbringing, and, and learn to become a successful businessman and, and a, you know, good husband, a good son, a good father, and all of those things.

And I, you know, most people, I think, that come up in the same way, in the same circumstances, including some of my siblings, some of my siblings have been very successful. And some of my siblings have struggled, you know, because of, you know, because of some of the things that we experienced, you know, as, as younger people. And so I just kind of always thought that that would be the first book I would write, there’s a story that, you know, I can tell you a little bit later about how sister of sorrows came about.

Henry Ball

But once that book actually started being written, it really wasn’t so much about me, it was about my mother, and her journey and her struggle and, and, you know, the adversities that she faced, and, and there was a, you know, the thing that happened within our family, that that kind of led me or motivated me to, Okay, I gotta go ahead and write this down. And, and, in fact, and I didn’t mention this when I mentioned, the Bleacher Report, but I’ve written other articles for trade magazines, and, you know, I’ve been published in, you know, magazines and things of that nature, nothing, you know, nothing huge or major but, but I’ve been published a few times.

And so I started to write an article, which turned into, you know, the book. And so, so I guess I’ll just tell you that story real quick, just a brief version of it. So one of the things that the book is about is that my mother had a, a another child that we never knew about, in fact, my, that I’m the youngest of six. So So I grew up in a household of six children. Well, we come to find out when I was 42 years old, I think 42 or 43, my mother kind of Finally, you know, told her deep, dark secret, which is that she placed a child for adoption, who would have been the middle child.

So, so I was like, wait a minute, you know, there’s, you know, there’s some things here that I need to know, there’s a story here that I need to know. And, and long story short, you know, my mother was forthcoming about, you know, the fact that, you know, she had this child, I actually reached out to and found my sister, my other sister, my oldest sister now lives with her together in Seattle, Washington, they’re like, they’ve been together their whole life.

But, but so she’s a part of our family now. And, and she should have been for much longer, because she reached out to my mother back in like, 1992 when I was 22 years old. And, and they had a relationship for, you know, like, 18 years writing cards and letters to each other and talking to each other. And, and she wanted to know her siblings very badly, but my mother kind of made her promise that she wouldn’t tell us that she would let my mother tell us herself.

And she kept saying, well, I’ve got to get all my kids together, which was kind of a pipe dream. I mean, we’re all over the country. So we weren’t really going to be in the same room. And by the way, we’re all fully grown. So you know, so, you know, I was like, Mom, you know, why didn’t you tell us this way back when, you know, and, and, and, and so then the other issue was that my sister wanted to know about her father, because her father is not my father, her father, you know, is it was was a different person, which is kind of part of the story.

But my mother wouldn’t really tell us much about him, other than he came from a powerful family and she was scared that it would be you know, that they would try to protect, you know, him and his legacy or whatever. And, and So I, you know, I kind of, you know, jokingly asked my mom, mom, who did you sleep with john F. Kennedy. I mean, you know, you, you don’t want us to know this deep, dark secret, but you know, we need to we’re adults will, will then come to find out, the gentleman passed away, like 30 years ago.

And, you know, it was really just this thing in my mom’s head that he’s from, from back then his family had a little, you know, his family was rich, and, you know, powerful in the, you know, in the Baton Rouge area. So, to her, he was some big, powerful man that they would try to protect, but she didn’t really tell us all of this at the time. And so I’ve just, you know, just made contact with my long lost sister, you know, found out that my mother who’s been keeping this secret for, you know, 45 years now, almost 50 years, is still not willing to open up about certain aspects of it.

So, so and then the other element is, is that, you know, with the adoption of my sister, I had been through the adoption process, my wife and I have a six year old that we adopted, and but we had been through, like, some really, you know, harrowing experiences trying to adopt, we had gone through five years, three matched adoptions that fell through, and, you know, just just some real heartbreaking stuff.

And, and, you know, I can tell you the story about my son at another time, but, you know, he’s, he’s kind of our miracle, you know, at the end of that process, and, and so I was going to write an article about adoption with my sister, my experience, so on and so forth. But I started with my mother’s experience, all the way back with my first sister, my mother had gotten pregnant in high school, she was, you know, she was 16, when she got pregnant, she was 17, when she had my sister, this was back in 1957, when it was not acceptable.

She was going to be the valedictorian of her class, but she literally had to drop out of high school six weeks before graduation, because of the pregnancy. And so that really shaped, you know, a lot of her life. And, and a lot of her potential was blunted because of that. And so that’s really where sister of sorrows starts, but then goes through kind of a, you know, like, you know, the somewhat remarkable history of our family.

And, and I personally think it’s, it’s turned into a very, as you would say, lovely book, and a lovely story. And, and so that’s kind of, that’s kind of where my writing came from. Now, I have also written not quite ready to publish the sequel to sister of sorrows, which is sons of sorrow, which is really my story, it kind of picks up where sister of sorrows left off with, you know, me as a teenager, and then kind of, you know, goes through my journey, you know, through my childhood into adulthood, and kind of a coming of age, and then the transformation of my life and, and, you know, kind of brings us to where we are today.

Emma Dhesi  13:35

It’s an amazing story. I thought for a second you were going to say that it was JFK. 

Henry Ball  13:42 

So you have to read the book, um, he, the person is, is is not. So it’s a fictional memoir. Right. And, and so, the names of, you know, the lay people, my family, you know, most people involved have been changed. You know, I say, to protect the innocent, and some were guilty, too.

But there are some public figures in the book whose names haven’t been changed, like for one, Billy Cannon, who is a very famous football player back in the 50’s and 60’s, a hero to the state about to the state of Louisiana. And in a friend of my friend of my father’s he, several years after his football career when he was a successful orthodontist in Baton Rouge, and just an absolute hero to the whole state of Louisiana, became embroiled and was the ringleader of the largest counterfeiting scheme in the in the history of the country.

And my, my father was an unindicted co conspirator. if you will. That counterfeiting scheme, the counterfeiting scheme itself, and Mr. cannon is, you know, public record. But my dad’s involvement, my dad was the one person that wasn’t indicted and wasn’t, you know, prosecuted because nobody really knew much about his involvement other than Mr. Cannon and my father. Um, and, and so I kind of go into the details of that.

But one of the things about Mr. Cannon is, you know, he was when the counterfeiting scheme happened, Sports Illustrated, ran an article and called him a counterfeit hero. And he lost, you know, he had won the Heisman Trophy back in 1958. So they took away the Heisman Trophy, he was removed from the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he was removed, you know, from the College Hall of Fame.

So, I mean, this man, you know, was at the absolute pinnacle of, you know, his sports and, you know, hero, his home and, you know, Celebrity, and he fell, you know, to the absolute bottom, went to prison. And then he, you know, he made a long journey back to respectability. And shortly before my father’s death, the ESPN ran a program on Outside the Lines called the redemption of Billy cannon.

And, and, you know, so it kind of showed how he had, you know, face the music, and pay the price for his mistakes, and had really climbed back to respectability. And, and by the time he passed away, I think a little more than a year ago, or a year and a half, something like that, but he had regained his status, really, as you know, one of the great heroes of the state of Louisiana.

And so, you know, the book kind of goes through that. But there was also, you know, a huge impact on our family. This all happened when I was, you know, 10-11-12 years old. And, and these things also took place, when we lived in Louisiana through some of the, you know, greatest flooding and storms, you know, in the States history. And so, you know, part of the book, and part of that time in my life was how our entire life really got washed away, we, you know, our home, our home was flooded literally up to the ceilings, and, and, and had to be gutted and rebuilt.

And we walked on concrete floors for two and a half years, because that’s how long it took to actually rebuild our house after this flood, and we lost everything. I mean, I lost most of my clothes. And, you know, I had one pair of shoes for, you know, most of my childhood and they were two sizes too small for me. And, and, and so, you know, we kind of lost everything in that sense.

But we also lost everything in the sense that my dad really lost himself. I mean, he became a very violent alcoholic and, and, you know, unlike Mr. Cannon, unlike Billy Cannon, he never really climbed back to respectability, he never really made it out. And I know I hate that. I mean, it says, Son, I love my father. And I, you know, and I tried to be a good son as I grew up, but but he he left behind a pretty bad legacy.

And, and the one thing that you’ll take from my book, and it’s one thing that has really guided me in my life, I’ve always used my father as an example of what not to be, or an example of who not to be. And and it’s, it’s kind of sad that that’s the best thing that I can say about my dad, but it’s left with me, the the determination that I will never be like that. And my six year old son will always grow up knowing that he had a father who really loved him, and who was there for him no matter what.

And so, um, so, you know, sometimes, you know, it’s strange how good comes from adversity, but that’s, you know, that’s how, you know, good came from that situation?

Emma Dhesi  19:22 

Yeah. So it’s fascinating, both stories. I’m really looking forward to reading them. And did you find them that you’ve mentioned that they’re sort of fictionalized memoir, creative no-fiction? Did you find writing these quite cathartic was a way of kind of therapeutic almost that you’re able to kind of write all this down and get it all out? And and let go of it, I suppose.

Henry Ball  19:48

Well show that is kind of, in fact, what it became. That wasn’t you know, I didn’t really go into it, you know, thinking that way. And really when I started writing, When I started writing it, and you know, you had to, there’s certain things I knew, but I had to, you know, kind of go back and do a little research to make sure I had the, you know, times and dates and, you know, things, right. And I talked to my sister a lot who’s 13 years older than me and has, you know, I had a more adult memory of that time of our life. 

So she was able to help me kind of, you know, put things into, you know, perspective. But it really did do that it, you know, it made me remember a lot of stuff that I had long since forgotten, and wanted to forget. But it helped me to deal with those things in a better way. So, you know, they’re not just forgotten, they’re, you know, they’re, they’re, they’re processed. And, and so, you know, it was, it was definitely a very good exercise for me in that way.

What’s funny is my sister, my older sister, the one, as I said, she was 13 years older than me, is a bit of a writer herself. And she has more, you know, training and education in that field, though, she has worked in, you know, more of the administrative field herself, and, you know, executive administration, but she has, you know, some projects that she’s worked on over time, and what I didn’t realize is that she was kind of trained in editing.

And, and I asked her, my, my book design company, you know, has a professional editor that’s edited, you know, done the final copy, edit, but they wanted me to do it myself as well, and said, if you, you know, if you can enlist anyone else, you know, it’s better to have multiple eyes on it. So I sent a copy to my sister. And, like, she’s, she is as good as the copy editor. And I was like, Wow, I didn’t know you were that good.

And she’s helped me with some stylistic things. But I had a conversation with her yesterday. And she said, I can’t tell you how hard how, you know, joyful, but hard it is, has been reading this book. And she said, she was crying. She was, you know, reading it and crying.

And my other sister asked her, like, why are you crying? And she said, because I know these people, because these, this is me. And this, these are, you know, this is us. And, and, and my other sister Laurie said, Well, you can’t you can’t read the book anymore. And she goes, Well, I have to finish it. I’ve got to finish the edit. And so she said it was you know, it was it was good and productive for her as well. 

Emma Dhesi  22:42

So that’s interesting, because that’s I mean, that’s quite often why we we read fiction is sometimes we want to read about a life that’s completely different to ours. But somewhere in there, we want to read something that reflects our life back to us or reflects a life that we perhaps wish that we had, or personal needs that we wish we we had 

Henry Ball  23:06 

Gotten to that yet. I haven’t written about that yet. But I will. 

Emma Dhesi  23:11 

But yeah, so no, she’s kind of literally seeing it’s no wonder it’s impacting her so much. So you mentioned there, the, the, the company editing company you use so and for those who are listening, and might be getting towards the end or writing their final draft, so they’ve done as much as they can by themselves? What would be your what’s been your experience? And what would you suggest others try to get them from that finished draft right through to a published manuscript.

Henry Ball  23:45

So two things that I did, um, I have my my newfound sister Laurie had a good friend of hers, Elsie Olson, who has unfortunately passed away. But she recommended that I contact LLC and you know, discuss the book with her and that she might be able to help me with, you know, developmental editing and things of that nature. And, and she really served as more of a book coach to me, and I think that was part of her part of her background.

And she, she introduced me to both Lisa Tenor and Stuart Horowitz. And Stuart Horowitz actually wound up doing the developmental elet edit. And I would, you know, I would say that, um, first of all that this is a compliment to his talents and him as an individual. But he really helped me shape the book into you know, not just a, you know, fictional memoir, but a really good story and, and he really helped me to kind of develop that story and to understand how to, you know, how to, you know, follow the process.

He’s written several books, including, you know, several best selling books on how to write best selling books. So he, you know, he knows what he’s talking about. But then he recommended for the book design company 1106 design, Michelle de flipo. And they have been, you know, just phenomenal. And they took the, you know, we talked about the cover earlier, I had some personal artwork done, which was actual, you know, a, an incredibly talented artist took a picture of my mother and, you know, created a book cover out of her image, which was wonderful.

But it wasn’t really, it just, it wasn’t right for the cover. And but so I sent all of that to 1106. They, you know, they read the book, they, you know, they talked to me about what I wanted to accomplish, and, you know, they, they went through their process with all their questioning, and then they came back with several concepts, including the one that Oh, it was a hard decision, because there were two concepts that were just, you know, just knock it out of the part perfect. 

Henry Ball

But one, which is the current cover, which is the, you know, the the lady in the silhouette with the, you know, the swamp scene inside the silhouette just has a very intriguing look, and just perfect for the book cover. And I think you said they really, to me, they just really hit a home run, and everything that I have done with them, including the book trailer that’s going to be coming out really soon. I was a little nervous about that.

Because the the original script that was sent to me, you know, I thought, well, it’s nice, but I don’t know, you know, I don’t know how captivating, it would be how it’s gonna, you know, really attract people. And, and then, just a couple of days ago, the producer, we did a zoom call, and he, you know, he played the, you know, the draft of the trailer for me, and I’m like, oh, wow, you know, it’s like a Hollywood production. It’s awesome.

And I can’t wait, you know, I can’t wait for it to get out there. So I can’t speak highly enough for, you know, for Stewart harwoods, and Michelle de flipo. and her team and 1106, they’ve really helped me take, you know, take my writing and take the book and, and make it a very professionally done production that, hopefully, hopefully will be successful. But I will be very proud of it, regardless of how well it does.

Emma Dhesi  28:00

And well, I’ll try and leave a link to these guys in the show notes. So anyone else can go and have a look at them. I just wanted to take you back to the end the editing process. It was a developmental structural edit that they did. Is that right? 

Henry Ball  28:15 

That I was with Stuart Horwitz, correct.

Emma Dhesi  28:19 

And I wonder if you could just share with us maybe one or two things that you in particular that you took away from that, or when the sort of penny dropped and thought, oh, okay, I see how that’s done? 

Henry Ball  28:31

Well, I think, you know, he basically took my draft, and we talk through things and, and he sent me different questionnaires. And you know, what, you know, how did this occur? What, you know, what do you think about this, and so, we kind of went through this process of him really just, I think, internalizing the story. And then he showed me, and then he, then he, you know, he took the first couple of chapters, and he, you know, he did his developmental edit to it.

And then we talked that through and he showed me how to really develop characters, and how to, you know, I mean, I, I feel like I do a pretty good job with describing scenes and putting, you know, placing people to where they can kind of see what’s happening, you know, with their own eyes, and, and I try to do the same thing with with character development, you know, so that people can, you know, imagine that person what that person looks like, and, and what, you know, what kind of character that person has and what kind of character that person is, and, and Stewart really helped me take that to the next level.

I mean, he, you know, he he is really, to me, very talented and getting to the quarter like he taught I hate to say this, and I hope I don’t mess up the word but, you know, I’ll always have a fairly good and fairly large vocabulary but in describing my mother, you know, my mother was a tireless worker, she worked, you know, night and day to support her children, because she really didn’t have support from her, you know, her two husbands, you know, two separate times two husbands. And, and really she was, you know, she was on her own to, you know, feed and clothe and house, you know, six kids.

And so she was a tireless, you know, worker, and just had the greatest work ethic. And, and so his description of her, you know, person, you know, so he kind of taught me a new word. And it just perfectly fits. Because my mother was tireless, my mother was, you know, a very hard worker, and she taught me a strong work ethic work ethic, really, by example, I mean, she, you know, preached, you know, to work hard, and, you know, do things the right way, and, and, you know, to always be honest and courteous, but never get outworked.

And, and, and she was very much, you know, she was very much that way herself. And she taught her kids to be that way. And, for the most part, we all are, and that has been probably the biggest key to most of our success. So, so, you know, he really helped me to, to not just, I mean, I didn’t have to develop my mother’s character, I knew my mother’s character, he helped me to express it in a will way that others can also appreciate it.

Emma Dhesi  31:37

Well, just kind of been the one to just change tack slightly, and ask you a little bit more about the kind of practicalities of writing. Because I know you’ve said you and your work that you’re pretty high up in the construction industry within the firm that you work. So I imagine there’s long hours involved there. So and you’ve mentioned, you’ve got a young son still young, and have a six year old boy myself, so I know exactly what that’s like. And so how do you find the time to balance work family, and then writing as well. 

Henry Ball  32:12 

So that is very difficult and has become much more difficult with my son, being in the picture. Most of the writing for sons of sorrows, and sister of sorrows actually took place shortly before, you know, the adoption of our son. But I also have like four other book projects, or five other book projects that I’m working on. And I would say those are moving slower than sons of sorrows and sisters are of sorrows did when I when I originally wrote them, but, you know, I am, I am making the time for you know, this process with the publishing of sister of sorrows.

And I also have a, I think, a pretty good business book, that’s going to be you know, kind of coming out fairly soon. And we’re working on the concept with that. My, my business partner, and in the owner of the construction company that I’m with, is, is very supportive. And in actually my partner in our Publishing Company, which is story press.

And, and, and so he’s, you know, he’s supportive of, of my efforts in my writing, having said that, you know, our, our day to day doesn’t allow for a lot of, you know, just, you know, solace and, you know, writing time and, you know, kind of getting, getting together with my thoughts, you know, I don’t have a lot of time for that.

So what winds up happening is, you know, I, I’ve got these, you know, book projects and, and, you know, sometime in the morning sometimes in the evening and you know, on the weekends, I’ll spend a little bit of time writing a chapter or you know, writing a few pages I lamentably and I don’t want to encourage this for any of your readers or viewers.

But I don’t have a daily word count. I don’t have a daily amount that I that I try to put down though I would like to do that and like to get to that but I would say right now, um, you know, I average maybe five or six hours a week all together and strictly writing. I spend more time in some of the other things marketing and, and you know, going through the design stuff with 1106.

I’ve just finished I’ve just finished combining their proofread edits from from their editor with my edits and the last step is going through My sister’s edits, and kind of making those changes, the good thing is, is that her and the editor from 1106, are almost 100%, in agreement with all of the punctuation and, you know, structural edits, but what she’s what she has added that he really can add is some real style and real, you know, kind of understanding of the subject matter.

And so there’s a few things that that she’s, you know, helped me to, you know, really improve on. And, and so, I probably got a couple more days of finishing that up, and really, then the book will be ready to publish the design, as the design is already approved, the covers approved, the, you know, just the back cover things are being worked on.

And, and our intention is for, you know, early December release. So that, you know, is on the market, during, you know, during December and moving forward, and hopefully feel comfortable, that will that will be able to hit that. So. So to be very, you know, very busy and very important.

Emma Dhesi  36:23

And you mentioned that you get about five hours a week of writing time done, that’s a lot, that’s great. Do you find that you say shedule that in ahead of time, so you know, you’ve got that time allocated? Or is it kind of as and when?

Henry Ball  36:36

Yeah, it’s, it’s scheduled, and that there’s a few windows that I intend to be my writing windows, but like you, like you said, you know, the six year old, you know, and in family, we all we’ve got three dogs and, and, you know, I’ve got all kinds of business things and I’m always dealing with and, you know, the one thing about construction, I say this, and I hope that some of the people that work with me don’t see it and be offended by it.

Because I mean, it is very, I mean it very lovingly, but a lot of what I do is babysitting, you know, you know, you have to, you have to make sure that, you know, the the contractors and subcontractors are where they’re supposed to be when they’re supposed to be and they, you know, do certain things the right way. And, you know, so you’re always dealing with, you know, issues that people are facing in the field.  

And, and so I call myself, you know, a babysitter, for the most part, but I yeah, I think I’m fairly good at that. And it’s just part of what I do every day and who I am every day. So I don’t really consider that is, you know, scheduled time. So my, you know, my scheduled time sometimes gets interrupted by that, or my child wants to play tag, um, you know, and you kind of got to play tag when you got to play tag so, so, so it doesn’t always happen, but I try.  

Emma Dhesi  38:10    

And so when you do get those and writing spots, when you do get to your desk, Are you someone who even though I know your first book is sort of part memoir, did you do close it out in advance or make notes about what you’re going to write about next? Or are you very much a discovery writer and you sit down and what comes, comes. 

Henry Ball  38:29  

So I, I was very much a discovery writer and sister of sorrows. But part of the process that Stewart, you know, helped me was to outline and structure. And, and so sons of sorrows was still more of a discovery process, because it was, you know, really sons of sorrows, and sister of sorrows got written together.  

And at one point, it was just one book. And, you know, we decided that, you know, it really should be two books. And so we, we kind of picked the place that the two books would diverge. And, and it became two books. But everything that I have done since then, has been with an outline, and then kind of developing that outline, and has been more structural. And I think, I think it’s improved my writing because of it.   

Emma Dhesi  39:26 

Okay, that’s interesting, and you’ve liked having a bit more structure there to work, work within   

Henry Ball  39:31  

I do. I mean, there’s still a lot of, you know, the creativity process. And, you know, even in the outline, you know, you’re you’re still you know, there’s still a creative process that puts that outline together. And so, you know, there’s, there’s, there’s always an amount of discovery writing involved, but the, the more structural part of it allows me to develop the characters better and to develop the scenes better.  

And to, I think, you know, really kind of, you know, create a universe, you know, that you’re working within and develop that universe. And, and so I feel like that has, you know, been a big improvement, I feel like sister of sorrows happened the way it happened, because that’s, you know, that’s what had to happen.  

And, and in it, you know, and I think it, it probably benefited from just being discovery writing, um, you know, there were, there was never really an outline for it, but the outline for it was really my life, right, the outline was my experience, and, and, you know, kind of putting those into a storied format. And, and, and so, you know, the outline was really there already for that. But what I’ve done since then I feel like has improved my writing.  

Emma Dhesi  41:02   

It’s funny. I’m a discovery writer, and I keep trying to move more towards plotting and planning, I struggle with it, but I kind of keep on keeping on with it. Because I’ve been told, you know, it said, we can speed up the process. I’m kind of all for that. No, I am just conscious of time.

So I wanted to ask you, just a couple more things. One of which is, in terms of the craft of writing is there anyone in particular that you turn to or any books that you’ve read, or any courses you’ve done or anything like that, that you find beneficial and are worth our listeners checking out? 

Henry Ball  41:40

Show, um, two things. You know, one of the one thing about my mother as my mother was in an insatiable, an avid reader, she had, you know, she, she literally had a lot a library that was just a wall of novels, and she had read every one of them, at least twice. And I kind of got this from her. She, she’d start reading a book, and, you know, she wouldn’t sleep or do anything else until she finished that book.

And, and she would read, you know, she would read a 400 – 500 page novel in less than a day, day and a half. I mean, she was a reader. And I am not to that level, but when I start reading a book, I get engrossed in it, and I, you know, I don’t put it down until I’m finished. And one of the people that I just absolutely love, and this is gonna sound kind of cliche, and, you know, it sounds like you know, anybody because everybody knows who he is, would say this, but I just love his writing style is John Grisham.

And I’ve read, I’ve read just about every one of his books, and I love that I love that suspense, and kind of real life legal, legal ease that he brings into his books. And, and so so as a, you know, writers that inspired me, I love john Grisham. I love Clancy. You know, I love those kind of books. But I also love the fictional you know, fictional history type books. I mentioned earlier, Billy cannon, I just got through reading the book about him a long, long run.

And I thought it was just I thought it was a great book, it was awesome. And, and I couldn’t put it down, I you know, read it in a couple of days. And, and so, those are, you know, those are the kind of things that I would say influenced me, from a writer to writer perspective now, um, I think I want to say, you and I connected on Alessandra Tori’s Facebook group. She is awesome.

She has a class for using Goodreads, and any any writer, any of your writers who want to become published authors, and expect to, you know, succeed need to do her class on Goodreads, it only takes about an hour. There’s other materials that you can, you know, then access, but it’s, it’s a very, you know, very good hour and, and really helps you to appreciate how to use good reads to, you know, to promote yourself and to, you know, to kind of move forward.

So, so that’s been great. There’s a bunch of other Facebook groups like hers, but I think for me, hers has been, you know, one of the most effective and then as I mentioned already, you know, Stuart Horowitz and 1160 design if you get to the point where you want to work with, you know, professionals on on finishing your book and getting it ready for publish, they are absolutely, you know, highly highly recommended by me, and also And just one last thing I don’t want to not mention this.

Lisa Tenor who is also a book coach also has a group similar to Alessandra Tori’s. She is absolutely awesome. And and so I, you know, I recommend, you know, I recommend her as well.  

Emma Dhesi  45:23 

Okay, excellent. I’ll find that and link to that. And so I guess the last question would be, you know, sister of sorrows is out soon do you have a release date yet?

Henry Ball  45:34 

I’m sorry? 

Emma Dhesi  45:35 

Do you have a release date yet for?

Henry Ball  45:37 

No, we will, we will probably, we will probably finalize the release date in the next I would say in the next week to 10 days. I’m shooting for the first week of December. 

Emma Dhesi  45:50  

And we’re finally where can listeners connect with you on social media if they want to stay in touch? 

Henry Ball  45:56

So Facebook, you know, mine. It’s just my name Henry ball on Facebook and and then also, you could go to www.sisterofsorrows.com

Emma Dhesi  46:12 

Fantastic. Well, Henry, it’s been a delight talking to you today. Thank you so much for your time.

Henry Ball  46:17 

Thank you. I appreciate it very much.

Emma Dhesi  46:21 

Well, I hope you got a lot out of that conversation with Henry. I know I certainly did. One of my biggest takeaways from him was when you have a passion for something, you will find the time to do it. So although he has a busy job, and many other interests outside of work, he still find the time to write the book, do the research, get it edited.

Find a great editor who really helped him to shape the story of the book, find a great production company who helped him with the design of the book and the book cover. And then of course, putting together a book trailer, which you’ll see if you go to the blog post associated with this interview.

One of the other things I took away from my conversation with Henry was how often a great story is right there in front of us. So his own upbringing, the story of his mom was the basis of his novel sister of sorrows and indeed the sequel that he’s currently writing, son of sorrows.

So sometimes, you know, life is stranger than fiction. And perhaps your story, your next story is right there in front of you. You just have to take a little look around to see the magic.

Well, that’s it for today. I hope you enjoyed the show. If you have enjoyed the show, please don’t forget to leave a review wherever it is that you listen to your podcasts, reviews, as you know, help other people to find the show and help it to grow. Alright, Take care for now. And I’ll see you soon.

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Emma Dhesi

Emma writes women’s fiction. She began writing seriously while a stay at home mum with 3 pre-school children.

By changing her mindset, being consistent and developing confidence, Emma has gone from having a collection of handwritten notes to a fully written, edited and published novel.

Having experienced first-hand how writing changes lives, Emma now helps beginner writers find the time and confidence to write their first novel.