Category Archives: Interviews

An Interview With Evan Guilford-Blake

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evanEvan is one of the other authors under my publisher’s imprint and I really enjoyed his work, so I asked if I could interview him. Here is what he had to say:

 

So, your book, American Blues, was recently published by Holland House books, is that correct? Can you tell us a little bit about how that came to be?

Pure serendipity. I saw one of the publisher’s, Robert Peett, posts on Facebook, contacted him — somewhat tentatively, since what he said interested him literarily — jazz in particular — didn’t include short stories. But I sort-of pitched him, he asked for a sample and liked what I sent. And we went on from there. It took about 18 months but, at long last, it has happened!

 

I take it you’re an American? Were you surprised to be picked up by a publishing house in the UK?

I am indeed an American. And I was indeed stunned, both when Robert asked to see the book and when he accepted it. I never imagined a non-US house would be interested in what is a very American-themed book.american blues

 

You seem to focus mostly on short stories. American Blues, for example, is a series of short stories, isn’t that right?

Yes. Several of the stories are connected via locale and/or references to places. I like the short story as a form, though to be frank, I kind of feel like Kafka’s statement: “I consist of literature and am unable to be anything else.” What I write matters less than that I write.
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An Interview with Lela Markham

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LelaMeet Lela Markham, a writer I know from Authonomy, who will be publishing her fantasy novel soon. I interviewed her about this, and here is what she told me:

 

Your book, The Willow Branch – Book One of the Daermad Cycle, is coming out in October. This is the first in a series, obviously. How many other books will there be?

Epic fantasy series authors tend toward long-arc storytelling. The Willow Branch started as one really long book that I decided to break into a trilogy, but I ended up with five books drafted and already written material for about half of each.

So, the squishy answer is four books, but probably the series will get longer as I flesh out the later books because I’ve discovered that Daermad (the world where the Willow Branch takes place) is a lot larger than I originally thought. Continue reading →

An Interview With W.D. Frank

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I recently interviewed writer (and self-professed lunatic) W.D. Frank. Here is what he had to say:

Some have described your work as dark and frightening. How would you yourself  describe it?

That is an excellent question to start off with. It is also a difficult one to answer.

I agree that my work can be dark…and maybe some of it is scary. I know that I write a lot of characters that my readers know would toss them aside like empty banana peels without hesitation. It is probably wise to be frightened by them. Although, fear has never been a consistently present partner of mine. Maybe it is simply whispering to me instead of shouting most of the time, but sometimes I am not sure exactly which emotion is speaking. Is that odd? I suppose it is. Continue reading →