Thursday, March 15, 2012

Interview - John J Smith - Finding Katie


Please describe your novel twitter style 140 characters or less.

A young man’s sister becomes missing, and while he ventures out to find her, he stumbles on to a world he never knew existed.

What is the one thing you wish you knew before you tried to get published?

How difficult it is to get there. The journey can be very frustrating. Writing is only a minor part.

What to you is the best part of being a writer and what is the part you wouldn't mind giving up?

The best part of writing is you get to see your ideas, thoughts, and stories on paper and that someone will read it (besides family and friends) and say they like it. Writing in itself is very rewarding, but to have feedback from a stranger, wow.

Marketing for me is something I wouldn’t mind giving up. I’m not sure how other writers feel but marketing takes time and I’m horrible at it. In addition, it takes away the precious time you might have for writing.

What city would you love to set a story in but the right one hasn't come along yet?

Maui, Hawaii. It’s paradise but I have not been able to put a story there that hasn’t already been done. You’d think that would be easy. I absolutely love the place but I draw a total blank when trying to bring it into one my stories.

Vampires, Shifters, Zombies, Angels - who wins the final ultimate battle?

Angels. Hands down. They have the ultimate strength and a mission that is beyond all comprehension. Everything listed above is against humankind, Angels, good or bad, focuses on the survival of humankind. (Note: Just listen to the good ones J )

If you could witness any historical event past, present or future what would it be and why?

The Gettysburg address. That had to been an awesome speech to write, and to listen to, especially when you consider the era in which it focused on. I’ve listen closely to speeches written today, and other than Kennedy’s “Ask what” I have not heard anything that pulls at me as the Gettysburg address. Kennedy’s was good but Lincoln’s was great.

Anything else you would like to share today?

I often get asked, do you outline and plan the direct of your story or does it just take off on it's on?

I do outline but I start with a short blurb (log line) first to see if the story fits on cyber paper as it does in my mine. If I feel good about the log line, I then write an outline, looking at the characters and plots to see how they fit. From there, I move the outline to index cards and play with the story line. Finally, I write a short synopsis to see how everything fits, however, the synopsis and index cards are usually a reiterative process until the story starts taking place and flows the way I had hoped. That doesn’t mean the story cannot stray off in a different direction but my plots and characters very rarely change.

About John J. Smith:

John writes under two names John J. Smith and pen name Jonathan Black. Why does he do this?  He has been told when a reader sees his work they have an expectation, hence the two names. He has won several awards under each name.He has been called a prolific Fiction writer. he enjoys writing romance and mainstream as John and paranormal and paranormal romance as Jonathan.Several of his novels have been converted or rewritten into screenplays; for which he has also have won several awards.John J. Smith resides in Plano, a suburb of Dallas, Texas.


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