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Writing to Heal. The More I Wrote, The Lighter I Felt.
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May 19, 2022
At the age of ten, Leith C. MacArthur began writing short stories and poems that tended toward the macabre. After writing his first novelette, Gerry the Germ, at 12 years old, he went on to write The William Snow Series. including The Death of Harry Crow. Listen in as Leith describes his harrowing journey through life to become the writer he was born to be. It’s quite a journey! #drugabuse #addiction #writingtoheal 📌 Subscribe to the Channel: https://YouTube.com/cgmusc Watch all shows on Roku: https://bit.ly/3IS43I5 Follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/carenglasser Follow us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/carenglasserlive Follow us on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/carenglasser
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karen glasser here and welcome to the
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author spotlight interviews with
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best-selling authors from all around the
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world so whether you're here live or on
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replay make sure to say hi in the
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comments tell us where you're watching
0:13
from
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today we are welcoming leith macarthur
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to the author spotlight
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as a young boy leith became fascinated
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with the craft of writing after reading
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edgar allan poes the raven at the age of
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10 he began writing short stories and
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poems that kind of tended towards the
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macabre
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two years later he wrote his first
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novelette jerry the germ
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leith went on to write six novels before
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focusing on several related stories that
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eventually became the william snow
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series including the death of harry
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crowe so without further ado welcome to
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the show how are you this morning leith
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hi karen i'm great how are you doing
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i am so awesome it ought to be a sin i'm
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we should all be centered we all need to
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center ourselves
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of course was that easy i know wouldn't
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it be easy if you just kind of arranged
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the camera and it would be lovely i
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think we should work on that that'd be a
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great you know product to sell out in
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the community
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okay you know we're gonna we're gonna
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name this show today writing to heal and
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the reason that i wanna name it that is
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that in fact that is exactly what your
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writing ultimately did for you and i
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actually think it's done for so many
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people that have written have actually
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read what you have written
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we talked about the fact that writing is
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kind of cathartic so let's just start
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right there
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how does writing manifest itself with
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you when you start to write and i'm
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we're going to go back to your journey
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and how you got here but
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just right off the bat in terms of
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manifesting that cathartic piece of that
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well i i think the first time i
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experienced writing as catharsis was
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in a personal growth workshop back in my
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late 20s
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and
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since then through endless
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psychologists and strengths i've been
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told
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how i feel i mean everybody tells you to
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write that down right write that down
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right uh but the truth was that i the
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first time i wrote how i felt
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uh i felt better it's really that simple
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um i mean i could go on and on i suppose
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but uh why don't i try leaving at that
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for now let's let's leave it at that and
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now we're gonna go we're gonna jump
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backwards so you have quite the journey
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i mean we're not gonna sugarcoat this in
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any way shape or form so let's just
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how let's just talk about your journey
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all right so there is there's drug
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there's alcohol abuse there's jail i
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mean your your
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journey to get to where you are today
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was not a straight line so let's talk
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about it
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wow the way you put that it just kind of
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shocked me i know really but look at you
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you're here and that's i think that's
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the message so let's talk a little bit
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about the journey
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ah
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my goodness um
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well i mean i don't know how much you
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want me to go into it but i
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i did get heavily involved in drugs and
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alcohol when i was a teenager and in
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fact i did so because i
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i felt responsible for my grandfather's
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death that's a long story and i won't
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get into it but
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as it turned out i did not kill him but
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i thought i had wow
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and so i started drinking and drugging
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to cover up those feelings
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and i
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did that for 47 years
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until i finally got clean when i was
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66.
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wow
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wow
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and and you really started writing in
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your 30s i mean after being told we
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talked about this even before we came on
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by your mom that you this was not going
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to happen this was not something you
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could be successful with but you started
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writing in your 30s while you were under
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the influence and while you were on this
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journey um and
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some amazing books you wrote
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but i know that um because you've told
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me i don't know from personal experience
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but i know from what you've told me is
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that as you got clean the writing got
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easier so before we talk about the
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series of books i want to talk about
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your memoir and artificial life now that
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book is actually not available anywhere
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but it really is
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discussed i think it describes your life
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right and it describes the
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futility of a life that when you make
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all these decisions you're doing it
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under the influence
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how did this book
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that's not actually available which i
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find fascinating all by itself i think
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we have to do something about that but
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in the meantime
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how did
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why did you write this
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you know it's interesting you just
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mentioned that we should probably do
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something about that i was just having a
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conversation this morning with a dear
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friend
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about why i haven't published an
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artificial life yet and
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i think i realize that i'm avoiding it
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yeah it's leftover energy from when i
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was not feeling too good about myself
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i think i am i'm just afraid to put it
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out there because it's pretty
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i mean it's uh it's very real
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but i i called it an artificial life
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because when i got clean at the age of
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66
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i realized that
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uh to my shock and dismay that i
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couldn't count on any of the decisions
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i'd made
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during the past 47 years as being
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grounded in any kind of
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reality or
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balance you know i was always
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under the influence of something alcohol
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drugs various types of drugs and
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therefore how could i
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how can i count on what i actually felt
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or didn't feel right
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so for the first time in my adult life i
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was feeling
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i think if you want to put it this way
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correctly or more truly than i ever had
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before
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and so
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i felt like everything before that
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time had been
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artificial so unfortunately it was an
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artificial life a half a century of
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not knowing
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wow so we will talk about that um after
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doing something today i mean you say
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that um after you were finally free of
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the drugs you began to as you say it get
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in the groove of writing what does that
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exactly mean
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well i think that you had mentioned
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earlier that it got easier i don't know
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that it got yeah it it's probably easier
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it got easier but it became more
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fluid in the sense that i didn't have
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these nagging
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agonies
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about myself getting in the way i didn't
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have myself hatred anymore
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and i didn't have my history and all the
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terrible things i did when i was taking
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drugs and drinking it so
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that those impediments were no longer
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before me i could just write and i
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didn't judge it i didn't judge the
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writing i just did the writing
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and therefore it was cleaner and so i
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suppose it was easier but
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it just sort of started
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flowing out of me in a way that it
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hadn't before
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and it was better it was just simply
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better
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it was more realistic and more uh it was
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less dramatic
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less dramatized less
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uh it was just simpler and cleaner
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do you think you would have been
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a better
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different worst writer have you had you
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not gone through this which you've gone
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through do you think it has affected the
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way you have written and and since then
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the way you write or is it just several
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tracks going at the same time you just
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happened to be abuser and you also were
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a writer
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yeah i can't really speak to what it
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might have been i i
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i mean i shy away from that kind of
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perspective because i i it's not real i
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don't know
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i if i hadn't done drugs and alcohol
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maybe i never would have written i don't
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know
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but i do know that uh there was a clear
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difference and
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what i also know is that i had to write
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i mean i in spite of the
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drugs and alcohol and all the trouble i
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was getting myself into and the
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i mean i was there's no question i was
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suffering my soul was suffering for a
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long time and so you in spite of that i
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had you know it just burst out of me
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finally
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that i had to write
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and so
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i wrote
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as
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you know as drugged and
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drunk as i was or wasn't
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so i didn't i didn't write that way
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anymore it's that simple
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so let's let's get into the william
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snow's series um
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how did that come to be i know that you
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wrote books and then they kind of came
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all together and it became a series how
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did how did this come to be and then i
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want to throw up a picture of the most
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recent book sure well i wrote a few
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books uh a supernatural thriller called
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the duplicating man and a couple of
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of other thrillers that weren't were not
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related to each other but then there was
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a
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it was a tragedy in my family uh
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and it had to do with uh abuse and
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and i the person who committed the abuse
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got away scot-free and it
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i was enraged by it
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and remember i was drugging and drinking
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at the time and i was an angry person to
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begin with so uh i
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knew that if i could fi if i if i could
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have put my hands on that guy i think i
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would have killed him wow and i couldn't
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and thank god i couldn't because that
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would have changed everything but
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um
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i sat down and i just started writing a
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story about a guy who's
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whose sister has been uh
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abducted and murdered and who commits
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his life to finding missing children as
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a result of that wow i didn't realize
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halfway through the book that i was
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writing my
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my anger and my hatred of that person
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that had done this terrible thing so
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uh let's not let's be clear my sister
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wasn't abducted and murdered that was
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just i know that yeah i know that just
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that so uh
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i i really didn't realize until probably
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three quarters of the way through the
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book that i was writing how i felt so
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you know to get back to what you
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mentioned earlier about writing
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to you know to uh to heal
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uh i was clearly writing to you and i
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noticed when i was done with the book i
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didn't
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i didn't have quite the anger that i had
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prior to that towards this individual
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that got away scot-free
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it's interesting what you're saying
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because a lot of people you know um will
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talk about journaling in the same way
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where you you when you can just put it
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all out there and write it down it's
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it's sort of back to the catharsis i
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mean it's sort of just you get it out
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there and now it's there is that some is
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it similar do you consider writing like
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journaling or is it two different
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animals
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i
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you know i've journaled also
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i'm actually glad you asked the question
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because i hadn't really thought about
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this but i i
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last year i came across across a bunch
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of journals that i'd written over three
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decades i forgot that i'd done it
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and i read these passages and it was
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heartbreaking i mean i was really really
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unhappy
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i was really struggling to find out who
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i thought i should be or
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how i could
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fit into society without doing damage
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that i was
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and i saw in writing in reading those
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passages that they were actually similar
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to the way that some of my characters
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felt in my stories so
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i think it's very similar for me i don't
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know about anybody else but for me it's
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been it's been
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much like journaling only in the sense
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that the difference being that i'm
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making up the stuff in that
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right
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but you're pulling but you're also
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pulling from your experience and your
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life experience one of the books is the
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death of harry crowe
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um
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so what's this about what's the book
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about
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well it's about a
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it's a strange story about an accident
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that occurs in which
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four people and a dog are killed
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and
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uh it's just an accident nothing
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extraordinary about it extraordinary
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about it other than the fact that these
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poor people died but
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four years four years later after the
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fact uh
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a person is murdered and then another
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person goes missing and then
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another person goes missing and
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um
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one of the people the family of one of
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the people who've gone missing asks our
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hero williams know
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if he would look into the disappearance
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because he has a reputation for finding
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missing children this is the guy that i
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created
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to kill off the guy who had done the bad
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thing you know so
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so snoke sets out on this what he thinks
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is simply a missing person or missing
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child case and he eventually discovers
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that there's an inexplicable link
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between the accident from four years ago
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and the current murder and this spade of
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kidnappings and people going missing and
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and it uh it's
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bizarre to put it bluntly it's a very
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unusual
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connection and it isn't really uh
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it isn't really revealed until late in
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the book
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now this book is available on amazon yes
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correct um so i'm gonna encourage people
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to go on over there pick it up get a
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copy i you know wherever books are sold
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kind of thing um because it's it's great
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and um i really love the idea though
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that your your story ultimately comes
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out in your story and and that and i
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think that that is basically what
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happens with all of us we grab those
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things that have happened to us or we
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have happened to it
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and we pull it with us as we move
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forward in this wonderful thing that we
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call
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life
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um
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so
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if i may i just like to say something
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about
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writing as catharsis i mean it really is
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quite it really is quite simple and a
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lot of people make it out to be very
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complicated and
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but it i don't think it is i think if
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you feel something and it's something
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that you cannot express
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you cannot speak it to somebody or you
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don't know that it's okay to talk about
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it and you sit down and write that
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feeling out
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there's no question that you are
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expressing yourself and therefore you're
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getting out this it's like it's like an
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infection that you're that you're
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opening up and you're letting it
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you know it's you're letting it out bad
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stuff out i mean it's it sounds terribly
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simple but it is
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there is no question that it feels good
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to do that i mean it's like screaming
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it's like the primal scream if you
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remember
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yeah well
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that leads me to ask then um
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what what
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um guidance what
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what what could you tell people that are
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a want to be a writer uh have been told
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that they shouldn't be a writer or they
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don't think they have a story to tell
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how do people start what would you tell
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them to do
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well i could suggest a couple of things
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both of which would perhaps the best
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advice i ever got about writing one of
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them is to write what you know which i
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know you're familiar with but it really
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is true if you
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if a person particular particularly if
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they're writing fiction
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and they're creating things out of this
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you know this uh
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fertile
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uh ground that they have in in between
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their ears then
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they should still write what they know
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which is
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anything that you've experienced or
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anything you've read a lot about which
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brings me to the second best piece of
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advice i ever got which was to read
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read read read read and read so the more
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you read the more
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you understand how other people write
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and you get a sense of that kind of
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not i mean everybody has different
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styles but there is a certain rhythm and
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and there's a cadence to writing and i
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think if you read a lot you get a sense
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of what works and what doesn't
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so i always like to ask the authors that
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come on the show um do you ever get
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writer's block
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[Music]
15:47
[Laughter]
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in it i'm laughing because i'm
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so what do you do when you're when you
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get writer's block uh
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this is what i do so i i'm working on a
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book called the weight
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uh
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w-e-i-g-h-t not
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weighting uh the weights the heavy and
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uh
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and i'm above
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i don't know seven chapters into it and
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i've been stuck for a month maybe six
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weeks and that's unlike me i write every
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day every morning three or four hours i
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almost never miss a beat
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but i have been so stuck it's really
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frustrating so what i do
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i have been stuck before of course
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is i just sit down and i start at page
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at page one word one and i start reading
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it and i realize i wind up editing it
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and as i edit i start getting into it
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and i read all the way up to where i
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stopped and got stuck and and then i am
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able to go a little bit further uh i'm
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really stuck this time so it's going to
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take a while longer apparently but it
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works such a great but that's a great um
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idea i think is to reread what you've
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done i mean i i reread my journals just
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like you do um i'm a journal keeper um
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which i'm gonna have to toss all of them
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as i get to a certain stage because we
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don't want other people reading i think
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thoughts um
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so
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why do you do this i mean you could do
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almost anything and you've done a lot of
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different things
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why have you just
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settled now and not just settled now but
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you are a writer this is what you were
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meant to do
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why what do you how do you think you got
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here why well because i mean i
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it took an awful long time for me to
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figure that out um
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i i just remember as a kid not knowing
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what i wanted to do
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although
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that's only after 12 when my mother said
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don't write because it just won't get
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you anywhere
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because i stopped writing but before
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that i i wanted to be a writer i just
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forgot you know as an adult i forgot
17:45
that as a kid i wanted to be a writer
17:47
right and i so i you know as i said
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before it burst out of me and i wrote i
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wrote a bunch of books and all that but
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i didn't consider myself a writer i was
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just somebody who was writing but i was
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not a writer and i didn't become a
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writer which is what i was born to be
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uh until i got clean until i got clear
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about myself
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and once i was clear of all the as i
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said those impediments
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i was able to sit in it and just
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how could i not know my write written 13
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books and i've written
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right now
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journals and journals and journals how
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can i not be a writer i'm a writer what
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you're differentiating one who writes
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versus one who is a writer so there's
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definitely in your mind and i can see
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the distinction
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someone who simply is
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rights versus someone who is a writer
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and that is who who you became we're
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going to give people um uh some places
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that they can go and follow you um
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on your website
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see mcarthur make sure you put the c in
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there
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and on
18:50
macarthur and it's i have that domain
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too oh well there you go okay so you
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heard it here first you can put either
18:55
one in and you're going to find them uh
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instagram
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at least see macarthur on twitter
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macarthur leaf backwards and on linkedin
19:05
just put in leith macarthur and you will
19:08
find him there any last thoughts to our
19:12
audience
19:13
um
19:14
to
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people that you know you're speaking to
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when you write your books what's that
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message you want to make sure people
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walk away with
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uh i'm on goodreads too by the way um
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um
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okay could you refrain could you say ask
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me that question again please
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then you have to assume that i actually
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remember what i say
19:38
um
19:40
do you have a message do you have a
19:41
message for people basically what's your
19:44
message for people that might want to
19:46
write or or might want to tell their
19:48
story or just don't know what they're
19:50
supposed to do what is your message to
19:52
them
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uh
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my message is love is everything it has
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nothing to do with what you ask me right
20:00
no but that has everything to do with it
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okay
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because until i i mean this sounds corny
20:06
and triton over
20:08
until i got clean and therefore was able
20:11
to appreciate myself because it started
20:13
out with appreciation but then i
20:14
eventually came to like who i am
20:17
i like who i am a lot and then i loved
20:20
who i am and once i loved who i was i
20:22
was able to love freely unlike anything
20:25
i've ever experienced before so love is
20:27
really
20:29
and love to me is writing and everything
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else
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that's a great answer please that is a
20:34
fabulous answer actually do what you
20:36
love love yourself then do what you love
20:40
that's actually very profound i don't
20:41
think you even knew you were going to do
20:43
that i want to put up good reads though
20:44
i'm sure if they just look for you on
20:46
goodreads at least macarthur they can
20:48
find you there
20:50
i want to thank you this is our second
20:51
time having a time to chat and that must
20:55
mean something to all of my audience
20:56
because you know i never do repeats but
20:58
i i
21:00
i don't and i really appreciate
21:03
who and what you have
21:05
done and become and i hope your message
21:08
resonates with our viewers out there
21:10
that um your story is your story but it
21:13
doesn't stop you from ultimately if you
21:16
don't let it don't let it stop you from
21:18
becoming
21:19
the person the writer that you are
21:21
so thank you well i thank you karen i
21:24
really appreciate it i didn't know you
21:25
didn't do repeats and i'm really honored
21:28
i don't know what else to say except no
21:30
it wasn't i i just don't um but your
21:33
story really hasn't has had an impact on
21:35
me so i really wanted to share it with
21:37
my my larger audience out here so
21:39
leith have a phenomenal day you guys you
21:42
have a choice as to where you spend your
21:43
time you chose to spend it with us we
21:45
are eternally grateful go out and give
21:47
somebody an awesome day and we'll see
21:49
you next time on the next author
21:52
spotlight goodbye everyone
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