Interview: Thom Young

What have you had published?  

I have had numerous things published but mainly my short stories in such places like 3am Magazine, Word Riot, The Legendary, and other lit zines.  I have had numerous poems published as well in addition to my novellas and novels.

What genre(s) of book do you write?  

I write all genres with my most recent a paranormal romance but I love horror and western and even wrote a few comedy type stories. I enjoy non-fiction as well and use to write music articles for a few websites.

What inspired you to write your first book?

I grew up in Texas so I have always been fascinated with the Texas/Mexico border and I knew that I wanted to write a murder mystery so I started this short story called Laredo Down and it kind of developed into a novella type thing and I was pretty happy with it.

How long did it take you to write “The Fallen Saga”?

It took me about 8 months to hash the idea out first then put it down on paper. I knew that I wanted to try writing a paranormal romance because that genre is very different for me so it wasn’t that easy for me to write, plus I always have various projects that I’m working on at the same time mainly with my poetry books.

What is the working title of your next book(s)?

It is called Damon and it is almost like a prequel to a book that I wrote in 2012 called The Neighborhood.  It is a horror story type thing with a lot of bad people in Dallas, TX.

When and why did you begin writing?

I have always written since a young age in journals or creating stories on my own or sometimes with friends. I can’t pinpoint when I started but when I suffered a severe brain injury as a teenager there was this new found creativity and now I know writing is just part of who I am.

Do you self publish your books or go through an agency?

I started out self publishing and a lot of my books hit #1 Kindle Free in various categories and now I work with a small publisher in Houston, TX and we do limited edition type chapbooks for poetry and for my novels as well.

What part of writing books do you find the hardest?

It sounds obvious but actually finishing a book because so many start and never finish and there’s a sense of self accomplishment when you finish one. Today you can finish one then edit it and then publish yourself on Kindle or whatever platform you want and you can start selling the next day. It’s easier than ever but to actually finish is the most difficult for me and to be satisfied with it.

What do you do in your spare time?

It sounds obvious for a writer but I am an avid reader but I also enjoy traveling. I also drink too much and I’m a horrible golfer. Living in Texas, it’s always fun to take out my guns and go shoot a bunch of stuff.  I also am a serious trout fisherman especially if I catch some.

Who is your favourite author?

I like so many but my favorites are Hesse and Bukowski.

What’s your favourite genre to read?

I love to read poetry and I like conspiracy type things or anything with history.

Do you have any advice for other writers?

The best thing you can do is keep writing and never compromise as long as you enjoy it that is the main thing.  You need to get use to rejection and know when to get away from writing as well.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

My work can be found here.

http://www.amazon.com/Thom-Young/e/B001KMM9D8/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_2

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1900156.Thom_Young

Instagram  @thomyoung

Twitter @thomyoung17

Thanks for the interview

Interview: Curtis Edmonds

What have you had published?
I have published two novels, RAIN ON YOUR WEDDING DAY, which came out in 2013, and WREATHED, which came out last year. Earlier this year I published LIES I HAVE TOLD, a collection of humorous short stories I’ve written over the last five years. My short fiction has mostly been published in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency.

What genre(s) of book do you write?
Both RAIN ON YOUR WEDDING DAY and WREATHED are contemporary romance novels. RAIN ON YOUR WEDDING DAY borders on literary fiction—it’s the story of an aging American football player who is dealing with the loss of most of his family. WREATHED is much more in the chick-lit tradition; it’s main character is a lonely, borderline-alcoholic attorney who meets her dream man at a funeral.

What inspired you to write your first book?
I drew a lot of material from RAIN ON YOUR WEDDING DAY from my own wedding (on which, needless to say, it rained buckets). My parents and my wife’s parents are both divorced, and there was a lot of underlying tension about how everyone would get along. The main antagonist in the book is the main character’s ex-wife, who emphatically does not want him at the wedding. Fortunately, we didn’t have any of the emotional fireworks in our real-life wedding.

How long did it take you to write “Wreathed”?
I started working on WREATHED in late June 2013 and finished the first draft in January 2014, so about six months, all told. It took a couple of more months to complete the revisions after I got the manuscript back from my editor, and then I went through another round of proofreading.
What is the working title of your next book(s)?
Right now, the next book is called THE SNOWBALL EFFECT. It takes place on an interstellar spaceship, and has some romance elements and a murder mystery.

When and why did you begin writing?
I started writing movie reviews in the early 1990’s – the first one I did was for a Jackie Chan movie, although I can’t remember which one. I think writing movie reviews is good practice for anyone who wants to write, because it lets you develop your own voice and it helps you figure out why you like the things that you like. I like to think I was good at it, although I never got to do it professionally—there were a lot of other amateur movie reviewers out there at the same time, due to the internet, and I just never got myself in a position where I could get paid for it. I finished my first manuscript in 2003 and my second in 2009, but I couldn’t get either of them published.

Do you self publish your books or go through an agency?
I am a self-publisher. I don’t take a lot of pride in that, mind you. I’d rather have an agent and a publisher, but it hasn’t shaken out that way. I don’t mind. Every book I sell as a self-publisher is a book that someone sitting in an office in New York City didn’t think I could ever sell, and that’s fine with me.

What part of writing books do you find the hardest?
Finding and correcting mistakes. I like to think of myself as a careful editor, but every time—every single time!—I get something back from an editor or a proof-reader, I feel incredibly stupid for making elementary mistakes. Even after I correct them, you still have problems—even problems you think you’ve corrected. For RAIN ON YOUR WEDDING DAY, I have two of my characters sitting in a restaurant and ordering refills on their coffee from the server. Sounds fine, right? What I forgot was that they were in an American chain restaurant called the International House of Pancakes. Most of those restaurants serve coffee in large pitchers, with a warming element right on the table, so you don’t have to pester your server for refills. Embarrassing. For WREATHED, I somehow managed to put out a print version where the heading for Chapter Nine showed up as plain text. You do everything you can, and you still end up with basic mistakes that you’d never make if you put a moment’s thought into them.

What do you do in your spare time?
I cook barbecue. I am from Texas and live in New Jersey, and you simply can’t get good Texas barbecue in New Jersey. It’s much easier and more effective to make it myself, so that’s what I do. I have a large cast-iron grill with a fire-box attached to it, and every so often I load it up with brisket or ribs or sausage and cook it low and slow at two hundred degrees for hours on end. It’s beautiful.

Who is your favourite author?
Mark Helprin is our greatest living author, and I’ll stand on Phillip Roth’s coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that. I will say that I didn’t much like his last two novels—one was a very silly satire of Prince Charles that just never got over the mean-spirited attitude, and the last one was an overwrought melodrama set in post-war New York. But even in the bad books, the writing is just splendid, and the best of his books are simply irreplaceable.

What’s your favourite genre to read?
I absolutely devour military-based historical fiction. Bernard Cornwell is my current favorite in that genre. I read a lot of military non-fiction, too—I really like the work of Winston Groom, who wrote FORREST GUMP, but does a lot of really excellent non-fiction as well. The one thing I won’t read is romance books, which is odd because I’ve written two of them. Unaccountable of me, really.

Do you have any advice for other writers?
I think all advice to writers is basically variations on the same thing, and that is to be considerate to the poor reader. Your average reader spends his or her days doing mind-numbing, thankless work, all day every day, and then comes home and handles all their domestic chores, whatever they may be, watches an hour or so of television, and then gets into bed with their e-reader to knock off a couple of pages before they collapse into unconsciousness. You owe that person your best efforts. Don’t bore them, don’t condescend to them, and don’t waste their time on boring sub-plots that don’t go anywhere or on characters that are empty-headed puppets. Make your readers happy and the rest will fall into place over time.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Well, obviously you should buy all of my books on Amazon right now, and review them, and tell all of your friends about them. (Don’t tell your enemies, though, because what have they ever done for you? Nothing.) After that, you should do what you like. Drink delicious, tasty beer! (I am a Texan, so I’ll recommend Shiner Bock if you can get it, or Newcastle Brown Ale if you can’t.) Eat delicious, tasty ice cream! (I make my own ice cream, thank you very much, and I’m actually overdue for making some of my favorite flavor, butterscotch pecan.) Take a nice walk by a gurgling stream. Relax.