Cody Martin was kind enough to invite me to participate in his Dream Big Blog Hop. Here are the questions and answers.
You have the opportunity to hire anybody as your cover artist. If you write children’s books or books that are heavily illustrated, who would you get for the interior artwork?
I don’t write children’s book or books that are heavily illustrated but I have found a cover artist who does fantastic work. He created the cover for my latest book-MY NAME IS HARDLY, and it blew my mind how in tune he was with what I wanted. I gave him a brief outline of the story and what I had in mind visually and somehow he created it.
Jun Ares is his name and he’s based in the Philippines. I found him by emailing some of the top authors in my genre who had covers I liked. His name kept coming up, and I was lucky enough to have him help me.
Who would you co-write your next novel with? What genre? Why?
Sable Hunter follows me on this blog hop. I’d love to co-write a ghost story with Sable. She writes Cowboy Romances but her plots are deep and I know she’s a meticulous researcher, like myself, and she enjoys history. I think if we put our minds to it we could write a hell of a ghost story and scare the daylights out of readers. Now, that would be fun.
Your publisher wants to do an audiobook version of your novel and they’re not sparing any expense. Who do you think can narrate your masterpiece?
Sean Connery or Billy Connolly, or maybe both of them. The protagonists in both books of my trilogy are Scottish and the novels are partially set in Scotland, so I think either Sean (the real James Bond), or Billy (the great Scottish comedian), would be perfect.
They’re really going all out! Your novel is getting a full soundtrack. Who should compose it? If your novel uses a lot of songs, list your compilation here.
Music plays a fairly large part in my first novel-MY TEMPORARY LIFE. I’m listening to two bands right now that I really enjoy, and boy, oh boy, would it ever be great to have their music associated with my work. Calling out to The Gaslight Anthem and Blue October, I’ll happily gift you a copy of my books if you’d like to start working on some new songs. And, if that doesn’t work, I’d like to see Shane McGowan get back together with the Pogues and write some lovely, drunken Irish melodies for MY NAME IS HARDLY.
Congratulations! Your novel is being turned into a major motion picture. As the creator of the original work, you get to pick the director.
Cameron Crowe, great director and he wrote for Rolling Stone when he was still a teenager. I think he might be a man-boy, and that’s what the protagonists from both of my novels really are. Not a man-child, that sounds too immature and they’re certainly not that. There’s a line in the second book that talks about justifying the things we did as children from an adult’s point of view. It’s a really interesting discussion and I think would be a great theme for a movie and Cameron, I pick you, my brother.
The director has some ideas on who to cast, but you get to cast one character. What role/character is it and who portrays them?
When my first novel-MY TEMPORARY LIFE hit the top ten in Amazon’s overall paid charts I thought the world was going to open up for me, and I was sure a movie version of my book was inevitable. Plus, I knew exactly who should play “Malcolm”, the lead character-Gerard Butler. So, I googled and actually found Mr Butler’s manager’s office phone number. I phoned, and somehow I was connected to Mr Manager himself. Unfortunately, he passed. He wasn’t interested in reading my book. I’m self-published and he wasn’t keen on reading unsolicited material. So, the movie of my book is still playing in only one location-in my head (for now), and Gerard will have to wait.
You’ve been hired to write a novel based on a preexisting character or franchise from another medium. Which character or franchise is it?
I want to write about Walt from the TV show “Breaking Bad” or maybe Jesse, the other character from the show. It’s the only show I watch and both of them fascinate me. Or, I’d love to write an episode of a classic old TV sitcom. Maybe a “Mash” episode, or “WKRP in Cincinnati”.
It’s the anniversary of your favorite literary character’s debut. You’ve been hired (yay, work!) to write an anniversary novel. Who is the literary character?
Holden Caufield from “A Catcher in the Rye”, of course. I know it’s been done already but I’d love to take another crack at it.
Thanks for inviting me to do this, Cody Martin!
Next up in the blog hop is Sable Hunter. You can check out her blog right here