Author Q & A

 Over the past couple of months I have fielded some questions in real life and through direct messages on my social media about writing, some more specific than others. Here's my attempt to answer some of these:

Q. What got you into writing?

A. I had been working on a concept for a few years. I decided in March, 2019 to quit Facebook because social media can be a terrible thing when it gets under your skin. The same day that I deleted my Facebook account I wrote the first 1,700 words of Morbid Fascinations of David Bennett. 

I have wanted to write ever since I was a kid, though. In high school I wrote a never ending stream of short, and admittedly stupid, horror tales. 

Q. What was your first professional writing job?

A. Well, I can't really count serving as a head news writer at my high school radio station since I didn't get paid for that. For a number of years I did writing jobs as part of an independent contractor gig. I made a surprising amount of money writing the long-form descriptions that you would find on the back of Adult DVDs. Hey, it paid my utilities for years.

Q. Why horror?

A. Why not?

Q. Who are your biggest influences as a writer?

A. Clive Barker, H.P. Lovecraft, Bram Stoker, Arthur C. Clarke, Frank Herbert, J.R.R. Tolkien. Each of those authors affected me in profound ways. 

Q. Do I need to read Morbid Fascinations before I read Book 2, Maestra. 

A. Probably would be best. Otherwise you may be a bit confused and not be impacted as strongly by certain events in Maestra. Maestra isn't so much a sequel as a concurrent story that intertwines with MFoDB's timeline.

Q. Were you worried about writing your first book 1st person and making the entire story take place through journal entries?

A. Oh, definitely. In some ways it worked very well but it made for an incredibly challenging book to write. Trying to maintain focus on the story through the eyes of a character who is clearly losing his mental faculties is a rough job.

Q. Is Maestra written in the same style as MFoDB?

A. No. Maestra is 3rd person and more traditional in style. There was no way to write this somewhat epic story in a 1st person manner. It would have been far too limiting.

Q. Why change genres within the same series?

A. I want to push the reader out of their comfort zone a bit, as well as myself. The world is big, wide, and full of different emotions. Writers shouldn't be afraid of reaching out and exploring many ways of telling a story arc. Life has scary moments, funny ones, romance so why not use each book as an opportunity to focus on a different aspect of the journey?

Q. Did you always plan a sequel to Morbid Fascinations?

A. About halfway through the first draft I realized that the story had a lot more to tell. There will be at least four books in the Concentric Worlds.

Q. So, what's next?

A. I am on hiatus until sometime in October or November when I start drafting The Dreaming Sea, a standalone science fiction novel.

Q. Any advice to someone who wants to write a book?

A. Clive Barker once said to write persistently like it's your career. I agree, to an extent, but you also need to know when to pull back and give yourself a break. Don't take so long off that you start to lose the fire for the story. If you're overwhelmed by it just try writing in smaller chunks. Even if you only write a few hundred words every few days it is still progress and it keeps your head in your story without feeling like a burden. Break it down into chunks. Writing 500 words four times per week will let you draft a 100,000 word book in 1 year. It's all about perspective.