Interview with J. Boyce Gleason
1) Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I grew up in a sleepy little town outside New York City called Briarcliff Manor. There were less than 100 kids in my graduating class in high school and I’ll bet half of them were with me in the first grade. Growing up, I always thought of myself as a “student-athlete” because I liked both school and sports. That said, I was probably a better student than athlete because I wasn’t particularly good at any sport where I couldn’t knock you down.
I was very lucky to be admitted to Dartmouth College where I became a history major. While I’m sure the course material was the same at other schools (history is history, after all), the professors there had the ability to transport you across time to the events that shaped history and I was transfixed by how all roads of the past lead to the present. I also spent a lot of time in France while in school, first on a Language Study Abroad program to become fluent in French and then later on in my senior year, I went back again as an assistant teacher. I lived with a family in the Loire Valley and that experience changed how I thought about the world, our country and our history.
After school, I worked on political campaigns, went to Capitol Hill and became a press secretary. Oddly enough, I was one of the (very) few people to work on both sides of the political aisle. From there I went to work in the private sector and became a public affairs/crisis management consultant. Ultimately, I became president of my firm which at the time was one of the top ten public relations agencies in the world.
I began to dabble with writing early on in my career. I had a weekly column for the Potomac News. I wrote short stories and poetry. But I never really took it seriously until I was offered a six week sabbatical at work and used it to start a novel. Once I began in earnest, I couldn’t stop.
2) What do you write?
I spend most of my time writing historical fiction. I’ve written two novels, one, called “Anvil of God,” was self-published - which was probably a mistake - but it did very well, winning several national awards and receiving many favorable reviews from the likes of Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, HNS and others. The second, called “Tempting Franklin,” which I’m trying to pitch to agents as we speak. It’s a peek behind the veil of Ben Franklin’s first four years as an adult. My tag line is: Ben Franklin’s first forays into love and politics leave him stranded and penniless in London.
I also have a blog which is mostly memoir focused on my days in Briarcliff Manor and still write short stories and poetry, but writing novels is my main focus for the time being.
3) If you could live in any time period, when would you live and why?
Tough question. There are many on my list. Medieval Europe, Colonial America, the dawn of America’s industrial age, Berlin before WWII, France at almost anytime. But, I would have to settle on colonial America, just prior to the Revolution. I have always been astounded by the personalities that drove our nation’s quest for autonomy. Jefferson’s eloquence, Washington’s leadership, Franklin’s ability to create consensus, Madison’s Constitution, Adams’s obstinacy - that would be great to see in action.
4) What’s the last great historical fiction book that you read.
Great is a high threshold. Maybe Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry or Herman Wouk’s Winds of War. More recently, Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.
5) What are some of your favorite historical fiction books that you have ever read?
See above plus anything by James Clavell, Eco’s Name of the Rose, Zimmer-Bradley’s Mists of Avalon, Cornwell’s Sharpe series, Vidal’s Lincoln.
6) If you could bring any three historical figures with you to a deserted island, who would you bring and why?
Helen of Troy - because if you’d have to be deserted with someone, why not the face that launched a thousand ships? At the very least we’d get rescued.
Benjamin Franklin - I’ve got soooo many questions to ask him.
Churchill - I could have said Roosevelt; they both could give such insight into WWII, but, Churchill enjoyed a pint or two in his time and if I were deserted on an island, it would be nice to have a drinking buddy.