Guest author Chris Quinton
May. 7th, 2014 12:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
charlie_cochraneAnother one of my old (as in long time) muckers is here today. The lovely Chris Quinton, who comes bearing gifts, ie a PDF of Caravaggio's Angel as a giveaway to one lucky commenter.
What inspired you to start writing, Chris? - That's difficult to pin down. I've been a voracious reader for as long as I can remember, and the stories I enjoyed most sort of continued in my imagination. It was a short step to making up my own stories, at first in my head, then written down. My dad brought me home an old redundant typewriter from his work when I was about 10, and I taught myself to type. After that, there was no holding me, LOL!
Do you have another job (paid or otherwise) apart from being an author? If so, how do you juggle your time? - Nope, I'm retired, an official Senior Citizen, but I have difficulty sticking to a writing schedule. It isn't easy writing at home - lots of distractions, and I am far too easily distracted. So I usually spend a couple of hours in my local Wetherspoon's pub/coffee house in the mornings, partly for the exercise walking there and back, partly to do shopping for some fresh veg, but mainly to write. But at the moment, I have a lot of editing to do, books to prepare for self-publishing, and promo-work on my latest release from Totally Bound.
What does it feel like watching your first book fledge and leave the nest?- It was - and still is - nerve-racking, waiting for the acceptance/rejection note, then there's an equally tension-filled wait for the first reviews to come in from the various review sites. They're the only ones I read.
Are you character or plot driven? What do you do if one of your characters starts developing at a tangent? - Plots and characters usually arrive together wrapped up in the What If packaging. If - or it's usually a case of when they come up with a tangent, I explore it to see if it works better than my original idea/plan. Usually it does, so it stays.
If you were in a tight corner and had to rely on one of your characters to save you, which would it be and why? - Brandon Kaulana, one of the leads in Sea Change, published by Manifold Press. Bran is an ex US Coast Guard, and works for a sea life rescue centre in Honolulu. He's very useful in a bad situation, and cares about animals almost as much as he cares about his friends.
If you had no constraints of time and a guarantee of publication, what book would you write? - I'd be torn between writing a sweeping science fiction saga with a close attention to people and worldbuilding - much like my favourite SF author, CJ Cherryh - or an historical epic around Richard III, or Alexander, or maybe the Trojan War...
Is there a classic book you started and simply couldn't finish? - Pick any of Dickens' works.
What’s your favourite gay romance/other genre book? And why? - That is so difficult! Seriously, I have so many I've enjoyed over the years. One would have to be The Last of the Wine by Mary Renault - that was the one which first showed me love between men when I was about 12, and I accepted it as normal - then and now.
What's your next project? - I think I've got too many, and they're all screaming for attention. In no particular order, I'm in the process of preparing to self-publish four stories whose rights have been returned to me, I'm co-writing a cop story with Terri Beckett, co-writing a romance based in my hometown with RJ Scott, and working on the first in a paranormal series of my own to be self-published. And then there's several WiPs who keep on sticking their elbows out and shouting for attention.
Caravaggio's Angel, published by Totally Bound, a paranormal romance set on the island of Malta.
What inspired you to start writing, Chris? - That's difficult to pin down. I've been a voracious reader for as long as I can remember, and the stories I enjoyed most sort of continued in my imagination. It was a short step to making up my own stories, at first in my head, then written down. My dad brought me home an old redundant typewriter from his work when I was about 10, and I taught myself to type. After that, there was no holding me, LOL!
Do you have another job (paid or otherwise) apart from being an author? If so, how do you juggle your time? - Nope, I'm retired, an official Senior Citizen, but I have difficulty sticking to a writing schedule. It isn't easy writing at home - lots of distractions, and I am far too easily distracted. So I usually spend a couple of hours in my local Wetherspoon's pub/coffee house in the mornings, partly for the exercise walking there and back, partly to do shopping for some fresh veg, but mainly to write. But at the moment, I have a lot of editing to do, books to prepare for self-publishing, and promo-work on my latest release from Totally Bound.
What does it feel like watching your first book fledge and leave the nest?- It was - and still is - nerve-racking, waiting for the acceptance/rejection note, then there's an equally tension-filled wait for the first reviews to come in from the various review sites. They're the only ones I read.
Are you character or plot driven? What do you do if one of your characters starts developing at a tangent? - Plots and characters usually arrive together wrapped up in the What If packaging. If - or it's usually a case of when they come up with a tangent, I explore it to see if it works better than my original idea/plan. Usually it does, so it stays.
If you were in a tight corner and had to rely on one of your characters to save you, which would it be and why? - Brandon Kaulana, one of the leads in Sea Change, published by Manifold Press. Bran is an ex US Coast Guard, and works for a sea life rescue centre in Honolulu. He's very useful in a bad situation, and cares about animals almost as much as he cares about his friends.
If you had no constraints of time and a guarantee of publication, what book would you write? - I'd be torn between writing a sweeping science fiction saga with a close attention to people and worldbuilding - much like my favourite SF author, CJ Cherryh - or an historical epic around Richard III, or Alexander, or maybe the Trojan War...
Is there a classic book you started and simply couldn't finish? - Pick any of Dickens' works.
What’s your favourite gay romance/other genre book? And why? - That is so difficult! Seriously, I have so many I've enjoyed over the years. One would have to be The Last of the Wine by Mary Renault - that was the one which first showed me love between men when I was about 12, and I accepted it as normal - then and now.
What's your next project? - I think I've got too many, and they're all screaming for attention. In no particular order, I'm in the process of preparing to self-publish four stories whose rights have been returned to me, I'm co-writing a cop story with Terri Beckett, co-writing a romance based in my hometown with RJ Scott, and working on the first in a paranormal series of my own to be self-published. And then there's several WiPs who keep on sticking their elbows out and shouting for attention.
Caravaggio's Angel, published by Totally Bound, a paranormal romance set on the island of Malta.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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Date: 2014-05-07 04:27 pm (UTC)That's going on my 'to buy' list. I honeymooned on Malta a lifetime or so ago and do remember enjoying the island - a story set there is a must for me.
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Date: 2014-05-07 07:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-05-08 05:21 pm (UTC)I need to move to England, to be nearer my favorite authors... :)
Date: 2014-05-07 04:56 pm (UTC)Re: I need to move to England, to be nearer my favorite authors... :)
Date: 2014-05-07 07:09 pm (UTC)Re: I need to move to England, to be nearer my favorite authors... :)
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Date: 2014-05-09 05:53 pm (UTC)I'll be sending her an email, and thank you everyone who joined in the fun.
Cheers
Chris
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Date: 2014-05-09 07:16 pm (UTC)