Today is my stop on the Blog Tour for If You Go Down To The Woods by Seth C. Adams where I welcome Seth to my blog where he has kindly provided me with a super Q&A session. I was thrilled to be asked by Kathryn Cheshire from HarperCollins to take part along with some other fab book bloggers. You can find out who else is taking part in this fabulous Blog Tour at the end of this piece so without further ado, here it is:
What inspired you to write this book?
As a fan of genre coming-of-age stories—Stephen King's "The Body" (adapted into the film Stand By Me) and It, Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes, Dan Simmons' Summer of Night, Robert McCammon's Boy's Life—I always wanted to try my hand with similar themes. The teenage years are that nebulous space between childhood and adulthood, and if written with honesty, the subject matter is universal and never gets old. Fear and wonder are emotions we all experience as children and adults, and mining these in the same story can produce compelling results for both reader and author.
What's your favourite and least favourite thing about writing?
The greatest aspect of writing is seeing what's in your head become a reality on paper. But this is also the greatest challenge, because you have to also become your greatest critic. Oftentimes, what is in your head doesn't always translate well onto paper. What makes sense to you in the privacy of your own thoughts may not make sense to a reader, and so if you want to grow as a writer, you have to be able to disassociate yourself from your story to some degree. You have to be able to read the story as a reader would, and be willing to re-write anything that might be problematic from a reader's perspective, in regards to plot, structure, and characterization.
What's one thing your readers don't know about you?
I grew up in the 80s along the California coast, when video arcades ruled the boardwalk, and Nintendo ruled the living room. I am an avid gamer, mostly on PC, and have to structure and limit my gaming time lest it take away from other, more important things—like writing!
Name your 5 favourite movies.
This is a difficult task. I was a Barnes and Noble Music/DVD manager for several years, and watched far too many films both in my childhood and adult years to narrow down my top five, so I'll just name five that I re-watch and never get tired of: Halloween, The Shawshank Redemption, Unforgiven, Planet of the Apes, and Ghostbusters. An eclectic mix, I know!
What is the best thing you have done in your life?
I'm not sure what qualifies as the "best thing", but the most rewarding times in my life are when I have dogs to share my time with. From both an anthropological/archaeological perspective and a personal perspective, that humans and canines have followed a co-evolutionary path for nearly 100,000 years (80,000 years ago at least for wild wolves and early man; 35,000-38,000 years ago for domesticated dogs) is something approaching a natural miracle. No other two species have developed anything even remotely like the bond between humans and dogs, and when you allow a dog in your life, with the awareness that he/she is a cognitive, emotional creature—and not just a pet—something happens to you on the inside. You gain a fuller appreciation for life, and become a more sympathetic, empathetic human being. With their relatively short life spans, you know you will almost certainly outlive a dog, and the loss of a furry friend hits hard and deep, but the years of companionship more than make up for it.
If you had to describe yourself using three words, it would be?
Introspective, cautious, and observant.
What's your next project?
I have a hard drive and filing cabinet filled with completed manuscripts. There are two other crime novels that I have in mind for HarperCollins/Killer Reads, as well as a few suspense/horror novels ready to be delivered, and a volume's worth of short stories I'd like to see published someday. Along with these, I have a good three or four ideas in my head rearing to go, and just have to choose which one I'll pursue first.
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