An Interview with Patrick C. Greene

Hello, all! Today I have an interview with Patrick C. Greene, author of Progeny, a Bigfoot novel from Hobbes End Publishing. Click here to get it from Amazon either in print or as an eBook.

And now, on with the interview.

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Michael K. Rose: Patrick, could you tell us a bit about yourself and your writing?

Patrick C. Greene: I'm a longtime resident of Western North Carolina, a horror and samurai film fanatic, sometimes-actor/stuntman/screenwriter, full-time dad and husband. My father was a journalist/novelist, so I got an early dose of writing and found it to be as great an escape as any passive form of entertainment. I write short stories, novels and screenplays, mostly in the horror genre.

MKR: Tell us about your new novel Progeny.

PCG: The story goes a bit like this: a writer named Owen Sterling, having just purchased a large tract of forestry from a Native tribe in the mountains of North Carolina, moves there and promptly finds signs of something strange lurking in the woods. After investigating, he determines that he is neighbors with a family of Sasquatches. He makes a decision to keep the monsters a secret at any cost, refusing to allow anyone on his property. This engenders resentment among the local hunters and drives a wedge of secrecy between himself and his young son Chuck, a city kid who comes to visit for the summer, just about the time the hunters are embarking on an excursion onto Owen's land--and the territory of the monsters.

It's my first serious novel (I wrote an earlier one when I was much younger, that I will undoubtedly re-visit sometime soon) and one of the most meaningful writing experiences I've ever undertaken. It is dedicated to my oldest son Deklan, a fine writer himself with whom I will be sharing space in the upcoming THE ENDLANDS VOLUME 2 anthology from Hobbes End Publishing, who are also behind PROGENY.

MKR: How did you come up with the idea for this book?

PCG: Living in a pretty rural area and reading/watching way too much horror, my imagination will often shift to how my isolated surrounding could lend itself to all kinds of interesting scenarios. Having a lifelong interest in all things monstrous, I've often asked myself how I would react if I encountered a Bigfoot type creature. The experience is said to be so traumatic that it leaves one absolutely immobile. At any rate, kicking that around, I saw a story there. It was important to me that the monsters be more than just the Threat of Death--they had to represent a sort of mirror into which some of the protagonists must be forced to look.

MKR: Do you plan a sequel to the novel, or at least more Sasquatch stories?

PCG: I love these characters enough that I could easily see myself doing another one. However, I would have to take it in a vastly different direction. I would never want to just repeat myself, or just throw the same situation into a different setting. There are some other ideas involving Sasquatches and other cryptids in the ol' notebook, so I'll just have to see what happens with this one.

MKR: Tell us a bit about A Shotgun Wedding.

PCG: A Shotgun Wedding is a dramatic thriller I'm writing for a production company called CineFoundry that takes the concept of wedding day jitters to its absolute max. In it, a sweet young lady named Alyssa is about to get married for the second time, after escaping the clutches of her sinister and psychotic first husband. He's believed to be dead--but guess what? He's crashing the wedding. That will likely shoot next fall somewhere in Ohio or possibly North Carolina. There's a teaser trailer and lots of info at www.ashotgunwedding.com. I'm also writing some projects for SaintSinner Entertainment in New Jersey.

MKR: What are you working on now?

PCG: Aside from the aforementioned THE ENDLANDS VOLUME 2 coming in November, I'm eager to start my next novel and also to finish a collection of short stories, but for now, along with spreading the word about PROGENY, I'm trying to raise awareness about a couple of charities that are near and dear to me. Scares That Care is an organization that provides comfort and assistance to ailing children, helps fight breast cancer and helps care for burn victims. They're always auctioning off amazing horror memorabilia, so it's a fun way to give.

They can be found at www.ScaresThatCare.org.

Also, Jackie Chan is doing great things with his Dragon's Heart Foundation. Kids can help him build a school for a dollar!

And finally, the sCare Foundation (www.scarefoundation.org) was put together by the producers of the Halloween film series to help teens in poverty get on their feet.

MKR: Thank you so much for the interview, Patrick! I already have my copy of Progeny and look forward to reading it.

***

You can connect with Patrick C. Greene at his website, Facebook and Twitter. His Amazon Author Page can be found here.

#12NovelsIn12Months Update: One (Almost) Down. What's Next?

October is quickly winding to a close. The evenings are finally pleasant here in Arizona and I am so close to finishing Sullivan's Wrath, so close I can smell it. What does it smell like, you ask? Well, NaNoWriMo is coming up, so you can have a chance to smell it for yourself!

By writing a book a month, I am participating in NaNo by default but I won't be participating in all the discussion surrounding it. I'm just going to hunker down and peck away at the keyboard. And what will I be pecking in November? I had initially planned on writing the third installment of the Sullivan series, but I feel like I want to write something else in November so I can have a little break from Rick Sullivan and his universe. That way I can come back to it in December with a fresh perspective.

So what should I write? Maybe you can help me decide. Here are three of the book ideas for my #12NovelsIn12Months writing project:

1. Darkridge Hall - A reclusive shipping tycoon dies childless and leaves his inheritance to a prep school along with instructions that the money be used to construct a building on the campus. However, he also left behind blueprints for the design of the building. Exactly one hundred years after his death, strange things begin to happen at Darkridge Hall. 

2. Pray For Mars - Two hundred years from now, we have established a permanent colony on Mars. When the charismatic leader of a cult declares that it is against God's will for humans to leave the planet Earth, he sets in motion a series events that could lead to the destruction of the Mars colony. Can the colony's security forces uncover the plot in time?

3. Disreputable - A modern retelling of Henry James's The Aspern Papers with a twist. When a literary scholar discovers that the granddaughter of a writer he idolizes is still alive and, in fact, may have the manuscript of the author's last, unfinished novel, he determines that he will do whatever it takes to get his hands on it, even if that means pretending to be gay so he can seduce the author's great grandnephew, who is now living with his ailing aunt.

So there we have it: something a little occult/paranormal, something a little sci-fi and something a little literary and character-driven. The plan is for whichever one I write to be published after Sullivan's Wrath. Which would you like to read?

Interview: SB Knight, Author of The Blood Chronicles

Today I have an interview with SB Knight, author of The Blood Chronicles trilogy. Book II, Drago’s Revenge, is the next step as he continues to pursue his passion for writing novels that deliver both thrills and chills. His desire is to improve the craft he loves with each novel he writes. He strives to deliver fresh, new ideas and stories in the Dark Fantasy genre. Currently he is writing the third novel of The Blood Chronicles.

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Michael K. Rose: Tell us a bit about The Blood Chronicles.

SB Knight: The Blood Chronicles is a series of three books (Born of Blood is Book I and Drago’s Revenge is Book II) chronicling the life of a family as they struggle to survive. Pursuing them is the apex predator. He is determined to achieve his ultimate goal…permanent immortality. What hunts them is a vampire and he will destroy anything in his path to obtain what he wants. Why is this vampire hunting this family to extinction? They hold the key to all his desires.

MKR: How did you come up with the idea for the series?

SBK: I’m a fan of vampires, first and foremost, and knew I wanted to write a vampire novel at some time. I was watching a show on the History channel about Elizabeth Bathory (the blood countess) and a detail about her life grabbed my attention. I wrote it down and started to make notes to support it. I also asked a lot of ‘what if’ questions. What if a vampire was harder to kill? What if a vampire was not immortal unless certain actions were accomplished? What if a real historical figure and event actually dictated the birth of this apex monster?

MKR: Do you write in any genres besides horror?

SBK: Does Dark Fantasy count? If not, no, Dark Fantasy and Horror are where my muse dwells at the moment and for the foreseeable future. I have a number of novels planned in the genre. Actually, I believe my next novel will be a werewolf story.

MKR: Which writers have influenced you?

SBK: There are so many. First to mind are Tolkien, Brooks, Fiest, and Jordan. I love getting swept into their novels. King inspired me for his insight into writing and his passion for writing. Finally, Hitchcock for his method of building suspense and his outlook on what really chills a reader.

MKR: Book II, Drago's Revenge, will be out at the end of this month. When do you hope to release the final book in the trilogy?

SBK: Let me think, I have a separate novel releasing in March of 2013 and my hope is to have the third novel released in June of 2013. I am currently writing it now.

***

About Drago's Revenge:

The birth of a child is a time for joy and celebration. For Sam and Reba, it is a time for concern and worry. Concern for what could be and worry for what lurks in the shadows. They both know Reba’s baby, Christian, is special. But Drago waits in the darkness, and he also knows how special the child is. He knows what the child’s birth means. Now Drago stalks them, waiting for his moment to strike and claim Christian for his own evil purposes. As he unleashes his sinister plan, Sam and Reba fight to survive and keep their newborn out of his clutches.

Chased by a group of would-be vampires manipulated by Drago, Sam and Reba are forced to abandon their home and find sanctuary in once-forgotten locations. But they are not alone in this fight as family and friends arrive. Will it be enough?

Life will be lost, blood will be spilled, painful memories, and emotions will torment minds…all part of Drago’s revenge.

Special - From now until October 30 you can PRE-ORDER Drago's Revenge for $4.76 (that's 20% off retail price). PLUS, when you pre-order you get Born of Blood for free! That's right, save 20% AND get a free ebook! Click here to pre-order Drago's Revenge today!

When not writing, SB Knight enjoys spending time with his family and being outdoors. During a normal week he can be found on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and his blog. Easily approached, SB Knight enjoys chatting with readers and fans alike. Information about SB Knight, his books, and upcoming projects can be found at www.sb-knight.com.    

#12NovelsIn12Months Update: The First 20,000 Words

It is Sunday night as I write this, and my word count for Sullivan's Wrath, the first book of my #12NovelsIn12Months writing project, sits at 20,063. I know that writing 3K a day means I should be at 21,000, but I was having dizzy spells for a couple of days (yes, I am in a Tennessee Williams play) and my writing output on those days was only around 2K. Fortunately, I had written over 6K on Monday so I was ahead of the game.

Now that I have a full week under my belt, I think I will shoot for 20K a week from now on. This will give me a little flexibility with my daily word count and, to quote Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke, it's a "nice round number."

Quite a bit of time this week was spent in plotting out Sullivan's Wrath. I had a very basic twenty-scene outline, but that has now been expanded to fifty-five scenes. I also created and introduced a character who in this book will help drive the tension as the readers begin to wonder what he's up to and make for an effective antagonist for the third Sullivan novel. This novel is turning out quite a bit darker than Sullivan's War. In addition, elements that I introduced in the first novel are now playing a much larger role. Elements from this novel will play a large role in the last book of the trilogy.

I mentioned briefly that there will be two more novels to bookend the Sullivan Trilogy. With that in mind, I am trying to be very careful to craft this book in such a way that I do not contradict anything that I want to happen in those books. Very soon I plan on writing brief outlines for the third Sullivan book as well as those two bookends, just so I stay on the same page with myself. I also finalized the overall motivation for the things that are happening throughout the series. Readers will see that nothing that happened in Sullivan's War and nothing that will happen in this novel or the next is on accident. Every time I sit down to write, it seems that more and more events in the series become linked to one another. Some of this is intentional, and some of it is happening quite on accident.

An example: In Sullivan's War, the hyperspace entities began simply as an excuse for why Benjamin Alexander's new technology would not be extensively used. However, they have become linked to everything that is happening throughout. I am myself quite excited to see all this unfolding and I hope readers of the series will feel that same excitement.

Wish me luck as I enter my next week of the project. As I mentioned before, if you'd like to support me in this endeavor, financial considerations will end up being my biggest obstacle in preventing me from writing full time. If you'd like to purchase any of my books, it would be greatly appreciated. If you are new to my work, I have several short stories and novellas for sale individually, but you can get everything I've published so far in just two books: my collection Short Stories and Sullivan's War. If you get those two, you can enjoy my entire output to date.

Thanks again to my readers for all the support you have shown me this past year. I will do my best not to disappoint in the year to come.

Best,

Michael K. Rose

#12NovelsIn12Months Update: Apparently I Am Insane

I've had more that one person mention that my #12NovelsIn12Months project is crazy. People have wondered where I'll get the time for edits and revisions or anything else. I tried to indicate in my original post that no, I am not insane, but I suppose it needs some clarification.

To achieve my goal, I have committed to writing 3,000 words per day. That's 21,000 words per week. Contrast this with, say Edmund Hillary summiting Mount Everest or Magellan setting off to circumnavigate the globe, and I hardly think my comparatively meager goal is anything remarkable. Will it take a lot of work? Yes. But not more work than anyone working 40 hours a week at any given job. Less, actually.

And I think that is the best way to approach this, the best way to keep myself on track: by putting it in perspective. I will spend 3-4 hours a day writing. If I write for 6 hours one day, I might be able to spend a little less time the next day, but I expect 3 or 4 to be the average. Suppose I sleep for 8 hours a day. That leaves me with a full 12 hours to do everything else. As mentioned before, right now I am able to focus on writing full-time. I realize that this project would be much more difficult if I were working full-time as well. And honestly, if I were working full-time, I probably wouldn't be doing this.

But it's not crazy, I won't be doing nothing but writing in my waking hours and I know that at the end of it I will have accomplished in a year what other writers may do in a decade. I can well afford 3-4 hours a day to see this done. The reason I am making this project public is because I now have an incentive to complete it. I now have other people encouraging me. If I fail I will not just let myself down, but I feel as though I will have let them down as well.

My total for the first three days: 10,296 words. I'm about 1,300 words ahead of schedule, which frees up a little time later in the month if I need it. I'm off to write my 3,000 words for today. The next update will probably be Monday to give you my total word count after the first full week.

Best,

Michael

The #12NovelsIn12Months Writing Project

Old Typewriter by Petr Kratochvil

I am about to embark on a highly ambitious project: for the next twelve months (October of 2012-September of 2013) I am going to write a full novel every month. I'll give you a moment to clean off your screen and stop laughing. Good? Ok. In anticipation of the questions I'm sure will be asked, I have prepared this Q & A.

Q. Are you insane?

A. No, not particularly. I am not making this decision because I have any severe mental disorders. I have made this decision because I have a dream: to make a living as a writer. As of this November, I will have been at it for a year. The response from readers has been overwhelmingly positive and sales have been encouraging, so I feel I'm doing something right. And while I am very pleased with what I have accomplished in that year, I know that I can do more. I also know that my current situation will not allow me to write full-time forever, so while I can, I am going to take full advantage of the time that I have.

Q. How long is a "novel?"

A. For this project, I will aim for at least 60,000 words per novel. Of course, I fully expect most of the novels to be longer than that. So why 60,000? What constitutes a novel varies widely depending on whom you ask. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America sets the threshold at just 40,000 words. I've seen some estimates as high as 80,000 or 90,000, even over 100,000. But 60,000 feels like a good compromise between those two extremes.

Q. How many words will you write a day?

A. Well, if I write 2,000 words a day, I'll reach 60,000 in a month. But like I said, I expect many of my novels to be longer than that, so my daily minimum will be 3,000 words. For me, this is 3-4 hours of uninterrupted work a day. That will be 90,000 in a month, which means that I may even end up with a few days left over at the end of the month if the novel ends up nearer the 60,000 minimum.

Q. Do you have all the novels already planned out?

A. I have five or so that I have given enough thought to to begin writing immediately. I have very basic ideas for the others but they will need to be fleshed out before I begin writing them.

Q. What are you going to write first?

A. This month (October), I will write Sullivan's Wrath, the sequel to Sullivan's War. In November I will write Sullivan's Warning, the last of the Sullivan Trilogy proper. But the story will not end there. Two of the books I will write over the next year will be, essentially, bookends to the Sullivan Trilogy. One will take place before the events in the trilogy and the other afterward, but they will all tie together. I have several other projects in the works that I will write in the coming year. Most of them will be science fiction, but I also have ideas for some paranormal/horror stories, a historical fantasy and a couple of literary novels.

Q. How are you going to find the time to do this?

A. I can write about 1,000 words an hour. As mentioned, my current circumstances will allow me to write full-time. Writing for a minimum of three hours a day will hardly be a strain. However, I intend to try to write more than that and stay ahead of schedule so I will not fall behind if something comes up. This will allow me to take a day or two off if needed.

Q. How many of these book are you going to release in the next year?

A. I will, of course, have to spend time editing and revising the novels. It is my goal to have at least four of them released by the end of 2013.

Q. Why are you starting now and not in January?
A. Because I can start now. I can write full-time right now. The longer I wait, the less certain my situation becomes. Plus, this month of October begins on a Monday, which made it feel like a natural starting point.

I will keep you all updated on my progress. I'll be using the hashtag #12NovelsIn12Months on Twitter if you want to follow along. I know that I can do this, and I'm hoping that it will be the kick-start that I need to fulfill my dream of being able to live off the proceeds from my writing. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. If you'd like to help me accomplish this goal, the best way to do that is to consider buying my books (just click on the book covers in the sidebar for links) so I can stay solvent while I write. :o) Wish me luck!

Best,

Michael K. Rose