10 Questions with Writer Michael McCarty (@michaelmccarty6)
.jpg)
This Author Spotlight
features
Michael McCarty
Author of
Rusty the Robot's Holiday Adventures
and more than
30 other books!
He is a five-time Bram Stoker Finalist and in 2008 David R. Collins’ Literary Achievement Award from the Midwest Writing Center. He lives in Rock Island, Illinois with his wife Cindy and pet rabbit Latte.
1.How did you get into writing and why do you write?
I’ve been writing for a long time. My first published
article was of an interview with a teacher for the school newspaper and that
was in grade school. Ten years later, my first paid article was a record review
of a Pink Floyd album. Ten years after that, I had my first national
publication, an interview with Frederik Pohl for Starlog Magazine. In
2003, my first book came out, Giants of The Genre from Wildside Press. I
haven’t stopped since.
2.What do you like best (or least) about writing?
What I like best about writing; that it’s like magic. You
take nothing and create something. Abracadabra, Hocus Pocus, Alakazam! Boom,
you have a book. I like doing book signings a lot too, because I get to meet
the fans, which is always fun.
What I like least is editing, it is like operating on
yourself without using any anesthesia. Promotion is a necessary evil, like
voting. (Laughs).
3.What is your writing process? IE do you outline? Do you
stick to a daily word or page count, write 7 days a week, etc?
I didn’t start out using an outline for my first book Liquid Diet & Midnight Snack: 2 Vampire
Satires but I ended up zigging and zagging all over the place for about a
decade.
I decided to try a 20-page outline for Monster Behind The Wheel;
my collaborator Mark McLaughlin and I took 5 years to write that novel. Since
then, I haven’t used an outline because, if I don’t know what is going to
happen, neither will my readers. My plots are by the seat-of-my-pants; I guess
if I give up wearing pants I won’t be able to write anymore (laughs).
Ten years ago, I tried to stick to a four-page-a-day quota. But
after 30 books, I write when I’m inspired, after that many books, you get that
luxury.
4.Who are some other writers you read and admire, regardless
of whether they are commercially “successful?”
Most of the writers I like best, I have interviewed in my
interview books such as Giants of the Genre, More Giants of the Genre,
Masters of Imagination, Mythmakers and Esoteria-Land. That is over
150 people including: Ray Bradbury, Dean Koontz, John Saul, Bentley Little,
Peter Straub, Joe McKinney, Richard Matheson, Whitley Streiber --- you get the
idea.
5.Should the question mark in the above question be inside
or outside the quotes?
In the United
States, periods and commas go inside quotation marks. The British do it the other way
around.
6.What’s your stance on the Oxford Comma?
The 'Oxford comma' is an optional comma before the word 'and' at the end of a list. As an English Major and Journalism Major in college, this stuff was shoved down my throat, like a worm to a baby birdie. Now that I am graduated and the author of over thirty books, I say, who gives a bloody hell about the Oxford comma (laughs).
7.What is your book Rusty the Robot’s Holiday Adventures
about and how did it come to fruition?
Rusty the Robot’s
Holiday Adventures by Sherry
Decker and Michael McCarty was recently published by Pie Plate Publishing. This
is my first kid’s book and I had more fun than Kim
Kardashian at a pie-eating contest.
8.What’s your current writing project?
I’m doing another short story collection for Damnation Books
called Laughing In The Dark; it should be out early 2014. This is going
to be my sixth short story collection. These are all kooky and spooky twisted
tales, I think my fans will really enjoy it. William F. Nolan, the author of Logan’s
Run wrote the introduction and Bram Stoker and World Fantasy Winner P.D.
Cacek wrote the afterword.
9.What book(s) are you currently reading?
Zombies Don’t Cry by Rusty Fischer, Paranormal
Properties by Tracy Lane, The
Adulterer's Unofficial Guide To Family Vacations by Leslie Langtry and Forever In Vein by
Jody R. LaGreca.
10.Who or what inspires your writing?
Dreams, nightmares and my zany life and friends.
Finally, is there
anything you’d care to add? Please also include where people can read your
published stories, buy your book, etc.
Thank you for taking the time to interview me. And thank you
to all my fans for supporting me for all these years. Please check out my
books. Here are some of my latest and links to them. These are available as
trade paperback and kindles. (If you want them in Nook, check out Barnes &
Noble.)
Michael McCarty is on Twitter as @michaelmccarty6. Facebook! Like him on his official page: http://www.facebook.com/michaelmccarty.horror. Or snail mail him at:
Michael McCarty
Letters
P.O. Box 4441
Rock Island, IL
61204-4441
Comments
Post a Comment