Going On Tour With Ty Johnston

I’ve been very fortunate this year.  I’ve landed an awesome job with a great blogging company, I’ve gotten myself back into writing mode, I’m currently working on my NaNo thing, and I’ve had the pleasure of meeting some very cool authors.  One of those authors is a killer writer by the name of Ty Johnston.  I met Ty when he did an interview with me because of one of my other blogs, The Prompt Writer, which he added to his list of the 100 Sites For Fiction Writers.  And though I was completely humbled by the honor, I didn’t think I’d ever have the chance to pay him back for his utter coolness.  Well now I can.

Ladies and gentlemen, step right up and take a ride on Ty Johnston’s Blog Tour.  I’m more than happy to be part of this huge event and I want to personally thank Ty for asking me to do this.  And to do the whole “eye for an eye” thing, I’ve decided to do my post in the same way he did his for me.  I had the pleasure of interviewing him.  The following is from the man himself and I do hope you’ll all check out his site, and his new book.

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Fantasy author Ty Johnston’s blog tour 2011 is running from November 1 through November 30. His novels include City of Rogues, Bayne’s Climb and More than Kin, all of which are available for the Kindle (http://www.amazon.com/Ty-Johnston/e/B002MCBQRU/ ), the Nook (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/ty-johnston ) and online at Smashwords (http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/darkbow ). His latest novel, Ghosts of the Asylum, is officially available for e-books as of November 21. To find out more, follow him at his blog tyjohnston.blogspot.com.

1.) When did you realize that you wanted to be an author?

I honestly can’t remember a time when I did not want to be a writer. Even as a child growing up in the 1970s, I started writing and drawing my own comic books when I was about five. I wrote my very first novel in fourth grade. It would be called fan fiction today, but back then it was just a rip-off story about James Bond. Ha!

I think comic books were a huge influence on me wanting to be a writer, but in ’77 Star Wars came along and that changed everything for me. Also in 1977, I believe I was first introduced to the fantasy genre through a televised Rankin/Bass animated version of The Hobbit. Those elements kicked things off for my speculative genre interests, and turned me towards literature.

2.) Where do your writing roots lie?

Physically, in my home state of Kentucky. From a literary point of view, like many children of the 1970s, I first discovered fantasy through J.R.R. Tolkien and soon after the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing games. About 1980 I discovered Sword & Sorcery literature through the Thieves’ World anthologies. I read my first horror novel in the early ’80s, that book being Stephen King’s Pet Sematary, and that opened up new doors to me for how to tell stories, specifically dark stories. The first novel I ever remember reading was Black Beauty by Anna Sewell, followed up soon after with The Three Investigators series of novels originally by Robert Arthur.

I’m not sure that answers your question, though it does give an idea of my earliest influences. Over the years I’ve found myself affected by a number of writers, those who I don’t wish to emulate, but who have urged me toward particular themes or topics. Hemingway comes to mind, as does Truman Capote, Alexandre Dumas, and Steven Erikson.

3.) What would you say is the easiest part/hardest part of being a writer?

The easiest part? I’m not sure there is an “easiest” part to being a writer. Each task has its own rewards and difficulties. Perhaps it would be interacting with readers and fans. My favorite part of writing is working out the plots in my head, but that’s not necessarily easy.

The hardest part? Answering these questions. Just kidding! Actually, for me, the hardest part comes with rewriting and editing. It’s not that I find editing particularly difficult in and of itself, after all I was a newspaper editor for nearly 20 years (not that that’s the same thing as being a book editor), but by the time I’ve reached the editing stage, I have my latest story out of my system. I told the tale, I know everything that has happened, so it can seem like pulling teeth to have to jump back into a story. If I can set a story aside for a few months, this feeling of tedium is not nearly so strong, but when I finish writing a piece and then jump right into writing, I frankly become quite bored. I need time to put distance between myself and my stories, so I can come to a tale with fresh eyes and possibly different ideas.

4.) Who’s writing style would you say you most closely resemble?

Hmm, that’s a tough one. My style probably leans most toward that of late fantasy author David Gemmell, though I mean in no way to compare myself with his talent. And to tell the truth, while I enjoy Gemmell’s writing, I wouldn’t necessarily call myself his biggest fan. But as a storyteller, I see myself doing (or attempting) a lot of things Gemmell did with his writings.

5.) Outside of writing, what is the one thing you’d most like to do during your lifetime?

Oh, gosh, writing is so much of my life, I can hardly imagine doing anything outside of it. Maybe world peace? Or playing more video games? That’s it. Those are my two options. World peace or video games. I wonder which one is more likely to happen?

To be serious for a moment, I’m not sure I would have a single, major goal for my lifetime. But I do have some interests outside of writing. For instance, I’m off-and-on involved in animal rescue, mostly with abandoned pet rabbits. Though somewhat related to writing, I do study quite a bit of philosophical and religious related works, mostly in relation to history, so perhaps I might wish to accomplish something in that area, though it would likely be writing related.

6.) What is the one piece of advice you’d give to up and coming writers?

Learn to write.

Stop laughing. Or cursing. I’m being serious. I run across too many beginning writers who don’t seem to know the basics of solid storytelling. I see characters who act and speak unrealistically, plots and events that jump all over the place and/or make no sense, and often seemingly little thought given to what lies behind a story, the particular themes to a tale (what an author “wants to say” in any given piece).

I don’t mean to belittle those who are learning or struggling with those basics. Everyone has to learn. But don’t slap something together, especially a first novel, then tell me (and readers) how great it is. It’s quite rare a first novel is solid reading material. Let the readers decide whether something is great or not.

As for learning those basics, one of my favorite pieces of advice is for beginners to study screenwriting. Screenwriting breaks storytelling down into basic formulas, almost like simple math, without the writer having to worry so much about their prose. Once those basics are learned, the rules can be broken.

7.) Where do you see yourself as a writer in the next ten years?

I try to not look ahead further than my next writing project, though I always have somewhat vague, distant goals in mind. I’m working on an epic fantasy series that could eventually contain 40 to 50 novels, so over the next decade I hope to be further along with those tales. Then there are a hundred other novel ideas jumping around in my head, and I hope to have at least a few of those out of my system. One of my difficulties as a writer is that I’m always coming up with new ideas, but I try not to force myself into a strict schedule of what stories to write next. I prefer to finish a novel, then give myself a month or so to figure out what my next project will be, to find what draws my interest.

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I want to again thank Ty for allowing me to interview him and be one of the hosts for his latest book, Ghosts Of The Asylum.  I’m hoping that Ty will be kind enough to furnish me with a full-on press release when the book comes out November 21st so that I can put it up here on my blog for the whole world to see (Ahem, Ty?  Old buddy?  Oh Pal O’Mine?)  But until then, be sure to stop by his site and check out all the other titles he’s got under his belt.  He may come from the days of Star Wars and Dungeons & Dragons, but his work is truly a one-of-a-kind.

First Day Of NaNo

Hi Kids,

It’s the first day of NaNoWriMo and my fingers are already numb.  I’m happy to say, though, it’s only the first day and I’ve already put more than 3500 words down for my story.  I’m going to do it this year if it kills me.  I want to be able to say that I won the NaNo challenge this year, and I think what’s going to take me over the line is that the story I’m working on is one that’s been brewing in my head for quite some time now.  I won’t give too much away just yet, but I will say that I’m taking an old fairy tale and giving it a modern twist and seeing it through the eyes of the bad person.  But I’ve only just started, so who knows where the characters will end up taking me before it’s all said and done.

This is my 5th year of NaNo, though I’ve only managed to make it through to the end once before.  And that story is lying on my hard drive somewhere, just waiting for the day I pull my head out of my back-end and get it polished up.  It’s an interesting story and I’m sure if I worked on it a bit, I could turn it into something worth having published.  Trust me, I’ve read enough e-books in the past year to know that mine isn’t nearly as bad as some I’ve read.  But then again, it’s nowhere near as good as some I’ve read.  But if I continually compare my writing to that of those who I think are beyond my own scope, I’ll never have the spinal column to put one of my own out there.  And I’m not talking about authors like Stephen King or John Grisham.  They’re way beyond my range.  But I have read a few newer authors who blow my work out of the water.  I’m talking about authors like Andrew E. Kaufman and Ty Johnston.  Seriously, these two gentlemen are some of the best authors I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading and virtually meeting.  Check them out, read their books, see what I mean.

I’ll try to do regular updates throughout the month.  With doing this, my regular thing at Blog Engage, my real-world job, and still being a mom/wife type person, this could be a very busy month.  But truthfully, I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

If you’re doing NaNo this year, add me to your buddy list.  You’ll find me listed as CRSENTER.  Happy Writing Kids!!!!!

My Paranormal Idea

I know most of you will agree that the last thing I need is another blog, but this time I just couldn’t help myself.  This one came out of a personal dare I put on myself and now I have to see it through.  I’d like to introduce you all to my latest endeavor, Para-Mythic.  This site is about everything paranormal, mythical, legendary, and everything in between.  It’s about ghost stories, paranormal books and sites, television shows, aliens, gods and goddesses, and whatever else I can think up as time goes on.

One of my duties at Blog Engage is to do a weekly column called What’s Your Niche.  It a little thing where I come up with various ideas on blog topics that have the possibility to make a profit, but I try to avoid the Make Money Online venue all together.  In last week’s column, I came up with the idea of doing the Paranormal niche.  And it really seemed to go over quite well.  So well that I even got excited about it and that’s how Para-Mythic came to be.

So, my goal is to see where I can take this site from Halloween to Halloween.  Even though I’ve already gotten the site set up and a couple posts up and running, I’m not going to call it official until Halloween.  Then I want to see how it goes within the next year.  I know it’s all going to be on me to make it or break it, but I’d really like to see this one take on a life of it’s own.  I’m kind of proud of this one, and very excited too.

So please feel free to stop by and let me know what you think of the place, if you have any requests for future posts, or if you have any suggestions or advice.  I’m really hoping that even though I’m starting this endeavor around Halloween, I’ll prove that this is a subject that works all year round.  Time will tell.