Q: In one sentence, tell me something that describes you as a person?
A: A guy who likes his wife and cats (although he doesn’t own any, he likes petting them) and video games and nature walks and has two pet woodlice and tries to be kind to other people and get plenty of sleep and be naked in the sun as much as possible.
Q: How many books have you written? How many of those are published?
A: I’ve written four books and published four books. I’d hate to go through months of effort writing a book and not publish it. At that point, even if it was awful, I’d probably still commit!
Q: Do you have an upcoming release? If yes, tell me the title and impending release date.
A: I’m 15,000 words into a Christian fantasy novel. No release date yet, but it’ll be this year unless I’m killed in a tragic accident. Also, no title.
Q: Without quoting your back cover synopsis, tell me about the last book you published.
A: Suddenly there is no electricity, cars, or guns, and Charles and Janet have to escape an equally-suddenly lawless society where somebody would just as soon eat your face off as look at you. Now, that probably doesn’t sound funny, but it is. ;)
Q: Tell me something about yourself that is separate from writing.
A:
Q: What is the last book that you read? (Not counting anything you wrote)
A: Web, by John Wyndham. It’s a pretty short book where a small group buys an island and tries to form a better society on it, but instead they all get eaten by highly evolved spiders. The spiders are very cooperative, so in a way it is a better society.
Q: When writing, do you have a system or something you plan, or do you just write?
A: I start out with a general idea. Sometimes I’ve got the beginning and the end in mind. So I start out writing the beginning, and as I go along I come up with ideas for the various things going on in the middle. I write those down, and I’ve got a list of possible situations. With Not Quite the End of the World, my starting point was “post-apocalyptic,” because I really like reading that kind of book so I wanted to write my own. I didn’t have ideas about characters or anything like that; I just create them as they’re needed.
Also, something that really helped me after the struggle with my first book is to finish each day’s writing with a short sentence or two that will describe what I’m going to write the next day.
Q: Why do you write?
A: Because I like to make people laugh and think, and I’m good at it. Mostly because I’m secretly (not so secret now) hoping my books will be as popular as Harry Potter and I’ll buy a small island to live on with my wife. We’ll have sex on the beach while dolphins jump around in the sunset. Fingers crossed that it’s not one of those spider islands.
Q: Any final thoughts that you want to give to your fans or even future authors?
A: For my fans, thanks for reading my books and liking them. Except, should I really be thanking you? You didn’t do it on purpose or anything; you can’t control what you like. I rescind my thanks. You’re welcome. For future authors, just write stuff. Don’t spend a lot of time reading about writing, or marketing your books. Writing is the most important. That’s how you get better at writing, and that’s how you finish things.