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"I moved to Woodland in November of 1995, to a house on First street, from Nebraska. It was nice to move in November, because in Nebraska it was windy, cold and gray. When we moved here, the sky was blue, the grass was green and the temperature was in the 50's." (Well, I wonder what he thought about December?)
What's your favorite restaurant? Taqueria Guadalajara is good, I like their re-decoration, the way they painted it. They have photos of Mexico, and the map where people put little circles on the town they are from. We've never had a bad meal there. What do you think needs the most attention in Woodland? I think that Main Street could be a whole lot nicer, it's way under-developed and under-used. But it's getting better- the Opera House is nice, and the book store. It seems like there is an opportunity there. Morrisons is a good place to take visitors to get a drink- it's a nice bar. When I get a drink it's just a glass of whiskey and a beer What do you think about the changes in the past 10 years? I was sad to see the Cruise Night stopped. I really liked it when they had it in the downtown area. But it was moved over toward the Nugget, and it totally lost the feeling. But for the first few years I lived in Woodland we went to that cruise, it was cool, it was unique. It was good to see a lot of young people, Hispanic and non-Hispanic out mixing in the street, and the cars and the shows. They stopped having it, and I thought that was sad.
"It's about a fictional West African country going through a civil war. The main character of the novel had been in Sierra Leone 15-16 years prior to the book's setting in the early 1990's. He was in the country to build a road from one town to this other town named Makokota. He met a local woman who was 17 or 18, and one thing led to another and they had a kid. But after the road was finished, he had to return to the United States, but the woman would not go with him. Years later there was a civil war in the country, and he wanted to go back and find the woman and the boy who is now 16 to bring them back to the United States." Would you say that this book is written from the perspective of the African American Culture? Yes, there is a big part of the book that has to do with how African Americans fit in in West Africa. And the whole question of the extent to which African Americans are African, and how much they are American. What most black Americans find when they go to African countries is that they are surprised to find how much they are American- because so much is cultural. And the other part of that, is the amount of American culture that has been contributed by black people- quite a lot. Being part of American culture means that you already have a number of African elements in your culture- foods we eat, popular music, words, sports, history. The character in the book realizes what being American means, and he also gets an idea about what being an African means. Has your book been reviewed? It got reviewed in Kirkus Reviews, and also at a really neat website that features book reviews, Curled Up With a Good Book. There's also an interview with me on that site. The Midwest Book Review posted a good review on Amazon.com. There were also reviews in an alternative weekly in Omaha, and Jim Smith reviewed it in the Daily Democrat. The reviews have all been good-but like everything else, you always want more. How happy are you with your story? I'm pretty happy with it. I worked on it for a long time, and I put a lot of elements in in- there's a lot of stuff going on. The quest of the man looking for the woman and his son. There are some other plots going on, some Graham Greene type plots, some things about gun runners, a crash where he is injured, a battle. Some intrigue.. There are 3 sex scenes in the book, the main character smokes some spliffs, there's some bad language... How long did it take you to write the book? I started the earliest versions in 1993, and finished the first draft in 1999. I couldn't begin to tell you how many hours. What did your parents say about your book? Well, my mom has Alzheimer's...and my dad has macular degeneration and the print is probably too small for him to see, so I don't think they read it. My sister and quite a few of my aunts and uncles and cousins have read it, I was really happy with the response that they gave it- there are 3 sex scenes in the book, the main character smokes some spliffs, there's some bad language and I was wondering how some of my relatives would feel, but I was really happy that they really 'got it'.
I sent out the first 40 pages and a cover letter. 9 months later I got a card saying they (his publisher, McAdams/Cage) wanted to see the whole manuscript. So I sent in the whole manuscript and 3 months later I got a call and they said 'we like it' - it was a really happy day. The first print run was 5,000 copies. I got a small advance, and then I get a standard royalty. They send royalties twice a year. Like a nutcase I check Amazon.com once a week to see the rank of the book, and how well it is selling. Gotta stop doing that. Do you plan on writing another book? Yep, I'm working on another book that is set in this country, where I grew up in southeastern Ohio. It's about a soldier who comes back from Iraq and is trying to figure out why his buddy in Iraq committed suicide. It's looking at what effects the death of a soldier has on families, and whether it is worth it, what effects the war is having. I started it around 2002, before the current war in Iraq. I think I'll be finished with it in the fall of 2005. The current title is 'Daltrey Run'. The family operates a farm, they have a small slaughterhouse where they sell beef, which is being put under by Wal-Mart. What is your process for coming up with a story- do you know the whole story before you start, or do you just add onto the story as you go? Some writers really plan it out ahead of time, create an outline, vignettes, and so on. Other authors just launch into it. I'm kind of on the side of just launching into it. Basically I started out with a vague idea of the story, and a good idea of the characters. I develop the story by a trial and error method. I like to get up in the morning and start writing- sometimes I'll be going through my day and suddenly get an idea of how the story should go or something. I've been working on this current novel for 2 or 3 years and this is how it goes. I just read over it compulsively, and keep tweaking it until it gets together. Did you have any input into the cover? The publisher tells you what the cover will be- they say "here's the cover, what do you think"? And that's what happens.
Do you consider yourself to have a connection with black culture? When I was growing up, you were either 'white' or 'Negro'. On my birth certificate it says 'Negro'. When I was growing up, we were 'colored people'. I was the only non-white person in my high school. So, yeah, I'm an African American, connected with black culture, like I said before. The whole question of race is interesting, because it really isn't a biological thing- it's a sociological and cultural thing. "It's interesting that people can disagree about things. Good, intelligent people can disagree about fundamental things, like whether God exists, or life after death. There's a whole range of things that are basically beliefs? But people who believe don't believe they are beliefs- to them they are facts. Like people who believe in God- they believe that God really exists- to them it is a fact. I want to write a book that deals with this."
You can order Steve's book The Road to Makokota from Amazon.com
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I
spent an evening with a local Woodland novelist, Stephen Barnett.
Author of The Road to Makokota-, a book that is not only available
from our local Next Chapter bookstore, but is available from most of the
big outlets like Amazon.com. Steve lives in Woodland, by way of Ohio,
New York, Sierra Leone, Washington, Canada, Oakland, and Nebraska. He
lives with with wife and daughter near the center of town in a Craftsman
home with more nooks and crannies than an english muffin. We toured his
home, ate a fabulous salmon dinner, and talked about his book, writing,
authors, and life in general. 
What
stands out as your biggest highlight in Woodland? Well, #1- when
my daughter was born at the hospital on Gibson, we had really good nurses,
really good doctors. They had a room with a view of a flowering tree.
It was just a really great experience. We're also really happy with Beamer
School.
Steve
spent time in the Peace Corps, and was stationed in Sierra Leone. His
book is about an African-American who visits that part of the world- Steve
is also African American. While he pulls from his own experiences to write
the book, it is not an auto-biography. According to Steve:
Was
it difficult to get published? Including trying to get an agent,
I got 8 or 9 rejections. It's pretty difficult to get an agent if you
don't have a book published. The agents are trying to make money, and
are very hesitant to take on unproven authors. 
What's
your favorite color? Purple...a book I don't like, but the color
is good.
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