I am going to start posting the questions and answers from the Q&A I am doing over in the Authors & Readers Group on Goodreads. Join us if you can, or add your comments here. Here’s the first!
Question from Marianne:
Hi Brett, That Which Should Not sounds pretty scary, what attracted you to write ‘horror’?
And I am assuming Crimson Tide is the name of a football team, and is that American football or the kind of football we play here in the UK? Actually, I don’t know why I am asking because I’m not really a football fan, but I am curious about that name ( sounds very bloody!), so please don’t worry about answering that ;o)
Last question, when do you find time to write????
Cheers!
Answer:
Hi Marianne! I have always wanted to travel to the United Kingdom. Can I sleep on your couch? I’ll start with the Alabama Crimson Tide and then move on to that boring writing stuff. The University of Alabama is the state university here in, you guessed it, Alabama. Our American football team is the center of our universe. (Our stadium holds over 100,000 people.) To give you something to compare, we are the Manchester United of American college football. We’ve won 13 national championships, more than anyone else, and will be playing for #14 on January 9 against the LSU Bengal Tigers in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, Louisiana (think World Cup final). The name the Crimson Tide comes from a game played in 1907. Our colors are Crimson and White. On a play that won a particularly important game, a sportswriter who was at the game wrote that Alabama washed over its opponent “like a crimson tide.” People started calling them that, and the name stuck.
As for horror, I have always loved it. I think it started back in the 80s. I had a laser disk of Michael Jackson’s Thriller video. I used to watch that thing over and over and over again. I like to be scared. I like stories about good and evil. In a funny way, I think I like horror for the same reason I like Harry Potter. The real world often lacks magic. Everything is so cold and scientific these days. But in horror, there’s still that mystery. I love that.
I write whenever I can. I work a full time job as a lawyer. Like most writers, I can’t (yet?) make a living off of my writing, but maybe one day. I try and write at least one single spaced page of text a day. That just means everything takes longer. My publisher really wants me to finish my next book, but there are only so many hours in the day . . .
Beware The Shadows 