Featuring one of THE best writers out there today, Michaelbrent Collings. This man is a genius when it comes to the written word. I do believe it is genetics, a great library, and an innate ability to use words as friends, not food. Also the bazillion years he has spent honing the craft.
I first found Michaelbrent on my doorstep a long time ago. I think the first book I read was Mr. Gray. I loved it. In fact, I wrote Michaelbrent and asked him if he had an autistic son, because he nailed that character. My son is autistic, so the parts in the book with the boy made me cry. It was so real, the mannerisms, the characteristics, everything.
Nest book I read was Apparition. This still haunts me to this day and I have it on audio books too, although I am to afraid to listen to it. Apparition made it to the very first SOLSTICE LIST: BEST HORROR NOT TO BE MISSED.
Michaelbrent is a man of faith, a man who adores his wife and a great father. He also happens to write really creepy things. It is a privilege to call him a friend.
I first found Michaelbrent on my doorstep a long time ago. I think the first book I read was Mr. Gray. I loved it. In fact, I wrote Michaelbrent and asked him if he had an autistic son, because he nailed that character. My son is autistic, so the parts in the book with the boy made me cry. It was so real, the mannerisms, the characteristics, everything.
Nest book I read was Apparition. This still haunts me to this day and I have it on audio books too, although I am to afraid to listen to it. Apparition made it to the very first SOLSTICE LIST: BEST HORROR NOT TO BE MISSED.
Michaelbrent is a man of faith, a man who adores his wife and a great father. He also happens to write really creepy things. It is a privilege to call him a friend.
1.
When did you start writing horror?
I started very young. My father was
THE world expert on Stephen King (no, I'm not kidding) when I was a kid, so I
grew up with the sounds of typing or screaming – or both – gently lulling me
to sleep as my dad read horror, watched horror, and then wrote about both in
his home office next to my room. I was doomed. DOOMED.
2.
Have you written in any other genre?
I've written sci-fi, thrillers,
fantasy, YA, paranormal romance (eek!). I've also written screenplays in a
variety of genres. That said, my reading fans get irked when I stray too far
from the scary, and my inbox starts filling with gentle hints: "Write more
horror or I will murder you." "Please finish The Colony Saga or I
will murder you." "I hate you and I will murder you."
Okay, that last might not be about my
CHOICE of writing, per se, but still… there's a definite pattern.
3.
What makes you uncomfortable?
When I'm using a public toilet and
someone tries to open the door to the stall I'm using. Suddenly there's all
this pressure (pun not intended). It's ridiculous, because this guy isn't going
to judge me, he's not BETTER than me, who THE HECK DOES HE THINK HE IS, ANYWAY,
and BESIDES –
Okay, I should stop now. It just got
weird.
4.
Does your family read your work?
Yes. My wife is my favorite audience.
She is the final quality control before each book or script goes into the cold
cruel world, and I love seeing her face when I surprise or delight her…
or gross her out or creep her out or freak her out. Some things are priceless.
Also, since my dad is a horror writer himself, as well as being a senior editor
for a horror publisher AND the aforementioned experto numero uno, he reads most
of my stuff. My mom, too, because she is my mommy and she loves me and also I
occasionally manage to write something that doesn't gross her out too awfully
much.
5.
Does your writing make you uneasy?
When it stinks. Or when I think it
stinks. Or when I think it might stink. So yes, most of the time it does.
6.
Who would you say you write like?
I get a lot of comparisons to Stephen
King and Dean Koontz. That's probably not unusual given the long shadow they
both cast over the horror landscape, but I suspect the comparisons are apt
given the environment I grew up in. Plus I steal their works in progress from
their computers, drug them so they won't remember, then market them as my own.
Sorry, guys!
7.
Who are your favourite authors?
King, Koontz, Orson Scott Card, Tim
Powers, J.K. Rowling, the guy who writes all the fun jokes on the back of
Cheerios boxes, Dave Barry, Robert McCammon, Shane Black, William Goldman, the
list goes on.
8.
Who influences you as a writer?
My dad, first and foremost. He was my
first teacher, and continues to be my best one. I also enjoyed classes with
David Gerrold – who was tough but knew his stuff. And all the authors whose
pages dance their way under my fingers teach me something (for good or for
ill).
9.
Do you remember what your first horror book was
that you read?
Bram Stoker's Dracula.
10. How
old were you?
I think I was seven-ish. I started
reading early, so by six I was already well into pulp fiction and my father
took me aside soon thereafter and showed
me the "classics" shelf in his home library and told me that I had to
read one of those books for every trashy book (he didn't call it that, but I
think that's kinda the implication) that I chose to read. I picked Dracula because, well…
because DRACULA, man!
11. Is
there any subject you will not touch as an author?
Probably not. But there are certainly
ideas that I choose not to vindicate or validate with my writing. I think some
writers view their "art" as being above the world, as somehow being
more important than their audience. But to me, that's therapy, that's not art.
Art is something you take out into the world, and as such it should make the
world a better place. Not that all art has to have a happy ending –
sometimes it's important to talk about why the bad guys win. But art that seeks
to degrade, to carry messages that all is not well and never can be –
that's the kind of thing I choose to eschew. Not judging those who do that,
they have their reasons, but I made a decision a long time ago that since I was
taking up space in this world I had a responsibility to leave it better than I
found it. Kind of like campers are supposed to do. Only with less trail mix.
12. What
was the best advice you were given as a writer?
One: WRITE. You can't get better as a
writer by navel gazing.
Two: (and this one came from my dad):
Imagine each word you put on the page costs you a thousand dollars. That one's
great because it really focuses you in on what you're doing, creates economy of
phrasing, and when you DO choose to get wordy it's for a specific effect,
rather than just because you're having typists' diarrhea.
13. If
you had to start all over again, what would you do different?
I'd go to a less expensive law school.
Or maybe not. I have a wife I adore, kids
I love. I make a living writing, and if I changed anything, well….
Nah, I'll stick with what I did.
14. How
many books do you read a year?
It varies. To be honest it depends on
how much my kids leave me alone when I go to the bathroom, or, as I like to call
it, "My tiny office with a lock."
15. Do
you write every day?
Just about. Monday through Friday
absolutely, unless I'm traveling for a convention appearance or something like
that. Saturdays I often do writing-related work, if not actually hammering keys
(I'm an indie, so I do cover design, layout, PR, etc.). Sunday I take off for
church and family time.
Bio:
Michaelbrent Collings is an international bestseller, one of the
top indie horror writers in the U.S., and has been one of Amazon's top selling
horror writers for going on three straight years.
Website: http://michaelbrentcollings.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/mbcollings
Facebook: http://facebook.com/MichaelbrentCollings
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