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Back to Featured Interviews >> MEET EARLE RICE JR.
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| Earle Rice Jr. |
I spent a lot of time reading, drawing, and daydreaming.
What books influenced you most when you were growing up?
The first book that comes to mind is Sir Walter Scott's IVANHOE. Perhaps my favorites were a series of books by Howard Pease. I don't even remember their titles, but they were all exciting tales of high adventure at sea aboard tramp steamers.
Did you write stories when you were growing up? At school? Or at home as a hobby? As a young child, or as a teenager, or both?
I wrote the usual kinds of things required by schoolwork. English, history, and geography—the humanities—always came easy to me. I could produce "A" quality work with very little real effort on my part.
If you didn't write as a child, then when did you start writing and what inspired you to start?
I suppose my first attempts to write for my own amusement began as a function of my wanting to become a comic-strip artist in the manner of Milton Caniff (TERRY AND THE PIRATES; STEVE CANYON), Hal Foster (PRINCE VALIANT), and Alex Raymond (FLASH GORDON; JUNGLE JIM; RIP KIRBY). Writing was sort a necessary evil for producing adventure-style comic strips.
I sent some of my work to Milton Caniff, and he referred me to Al Capp (LI'L ABNER) in Boston (about twelve miles from my home in Lynn, MA). I sent him some of my work, too, and he invited me to interview with him at his studio on Newbury Street. I did, and he liked my work but wanted me to further develop my knowledge of anatomy over the ensuing six months, then come back to see him. By then, he said, he anticipated the need for an assistant. I began an intensive study of anatomy, but never saw Mr. Capp again. With the threat of Universal Military Training hanging over me (and the rest of America's young men), I enlisted in the Marine Corps on June 1, 1948. I spent the next nine years as a practicing marine. That pretty much ended my art career. My writing career was still to come.
What did you do when you left the Marine Corps?
I worked as a letter carrier while attending San Jose City College, after which I entered the engineering field as a draftsman. For the next 35 years, I worked as a draftsman, a designer, a design checker, a technical writer, and—lastly—a senior design engineer in the aerospace industry. I began writing for the commercial market in 1970, while still in engineering.
How soon after that was your first book published?
My first book TIGER, LION, HAWK, a story of the Flying Tigers, was published Fearon-Pitman Publishers in 1977. I submitted a one-page proposal, it was accepted, I wrote the book, and it was published. My published books now number more than 60, with eight others completed and paid for but never published because of publisher solvency problems.
Which of your books did you most enjoy writing?
I enjoyed writing almost all of my books, but if I had to choose a specific category it would be my military history books. I wonder where that comes from. Hmm.
Do you write every day and do you have set hours that you work?
I write every day, beginning about 8 AM, usually ending up about 5 PM, while sandwiching in day-to-day distractions that inevitably occur.
What are you working on now? When do you expect to submit it to publishers?
Off and on, I've been working on an adult detective novel, featuring San Diego-based, Vietnamese-American private eye Sam Trac. I call it THE KAMA SUTRA CONNECTION. It's about one-third complete. I plan to offer it for publication as soon as I can get it done, or sooner. I contracted to write it with an online publisher some time ago, but my publisher went out of business, and the rights to it reverted to me. Oh! what a tangled web we weave on the Internet!