-Interview by Desi D

1. What is your favorite line in a song/book/movie? And why?

I’m one of those people who love a movie quote, so I’ll pick a couple. THE CROW is a wealth of great quotes, so I’m going to skip the more obvious ones and go with, “Is that gasoline I smell?” because it’s a perfect moment on the road of vengeance. A perfect foreshadowing a split second before the event.

The opening of Stephen King’s THE DARK TOWER is a great one, too. “The man in black fled across the desert, and the Gunslinger followed.” It’s simple, but it’s also a promise of things to come and a rapid depiction of the events of the book. He’s just introduced two characters and hinted at a story arc.

2. As a writer, how would you describe your inspiration? And your process?

My process is sprint writing. I can go days without writing then suddenly pound out thousands of words per day when I get the mental energy to do it. I like to work on novels in my office on a desktop computer and short stories on my laptop wherever I happen to be. I used to write out short stories via pen and paper, but the faster I get at typing, the worse my handwriting gets. So now it’s all via computer. I do still use paper if I need to work something out or jot down notes, and I keep a composition book for each novel as I write to make notes of anything I need to come back to, because I don’t edit as I write. I just plow on forward.
My inspiration comes from all over the place. A lot of it is simply seeing or hearing something and thinking, “What if?” What if this had happened instead, for example. Or what if this choice went in this direction. I love a good what if. Other media, things I witness on the daily, and news stories are all great fodder.

3. As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot and why?

My mascot would be a frazzled owl, up all night working away. In anything I do I tend to do my best work in the evening and the middle of the night, so it’s got to be a night critter.

4. What is it about the art of storytelling that excites you? And of course, what is the next story we can look forward to reading from you?

I love listening to people’s stories and I love telling them. It’s just something I’ve enjoyed since I was a kid. Maybe part of it is being the oldest of five kids and craving attention (my sister is the youngest, and we have three brothers between us, and the boys often required my parents’ attention the most…), but I have memories of telling stories even when I was little and the only kid. My parents were both voracious readers and my godmother taught me to read before I even started kindergarten. My parents would read to me at night before bed. My grandpa liked to tell a story, too, in an Okie Cherokee kind of way, with a slow, thoughtful drawl, and my grandmothers were big readers, too. Storytelling is in my blood. It’s just that I veered off and got great glee from freaking people out and scaring them.

I’ve got a few things coming out. One of them is an upcoming short story that should be releasing relatively soon (no date yet) in an Alice Cooper charity anthology where each story is based on one of his songs. The anthology is DISMEMBER THE COOP and my story “Inside Me” is inspired by the song “Poison.” My debut urban fantasy novel will be out in March, though I don’t have the official date on that, either. It’s the first of a series and is titled MYTH STALKER: WENDIGO NIGHTS. I’m waiting on the cover image now, which is one of my favorite parts of the process. A cover somehow makes it official each time (after the contract, of course).