Monday, April 1, 2013

Author Interview - Edward Coburn

Let's welcome this month's author, Edward Coburn.  He's writing a series (The Dog Who Ate the ???), a twenty-six title series that focuses on Adam, a physic "finder" living in a small town, as well as The Last Killer Standing.




1)      What were your favorite books growing up? In grade school and junior high, I’d probably say SciFi, though I did read a bit of Tarzan as well. In high school I read mostly sports books where the star was in high school and, of course, he got the girl. Later I read most anything: SciFi, adventure, and detective.
2)      Now that you have, let’s say—some life experience, what would you tell your younger self? Get serious about something and really try to do your best and not waste so darn much time.
3)      Describe your typical day. Unfortunately I leave for word at the DMV (I am a computer programmer) at 7:00 and my day starts at 7:30. At breaks and lunch, I try to make a few notes to work with in the evening (we’re not allowed to use our work computer for anything personal and also not allowed to bring any computer devices on site such as laptops). Sometimes I run to the library for research or using one of their computers. I leave for home at 4:30, get home at 5:00, supper and then work for a couple of hours. Then a couple hours of TV with the wife. I’d really rather write then, too, but domestic tranquility trumps writing.
4)      Who is your favorite character in your books? I’d have to say Adam in my series The Dog Who Ate The ???. He is psychic and rich, two things I wish I was. His psychic dog, Bagel the beagle, is fun as well.
5)      What do you do when writer’s block shows up, settles in, and makes itself comfortable? I’d have to say writer’s block is really not an issue with me; writer’s laziness is, however. It seems that I am never short of ideas but, sometimes, I just don’t feel like writing (especially after programming for eight hours).
6)      Do you find yourself pulling details from “real life” or does your imagination rule the roost? I use a bit of real life, but most of my ideas come from movies, TV, reading, and listening to books on tape while driving to and from work. I have a very fertile imagination and many times a word or two a character somewhere says will launch an idea. I wrote an entire book (The Last Killer Standing) from an idea for the title of a book. I thought the book would be about something; it wasn’t, but the idea was so good, I used it to write the book.
7)      What was the first manuscript you wrote (even if it never saw the light of day)? I wrote a book called “Sky Search to Turon,” a SciFi book that I don’t remember much about but I do remember it had something to do with Acid wars. The interesting thing is I read a book years later in which there were Acid wars.
8)      Have you ever pursued traditional publishing? Or did you go straight for indie publishing? For many years but, honestly, I think it’s a good thing they weren’t interested. Especially in today’s publishing world. They would have to offer me a lot of money before I would give up the convenience of epublishing.
9)      What Works In Progress are brewing?  Any target dates for publication? I am about to turn over the fourth Dog book “The Dog Who Ate The Drawing” to my editor (Faith, of course). I’m excited about the book because it is about a search for a gold mine and people like treasure hunts. I have already been making notes for the fifth book which will be Elephant and the sixth which will be Flintlock.
10)   How can fans reach you? 
Website is edwardjcoburn.com
Blog for the dog books is http://dogwhoate.blogspot.com/
Blog for The Last Killer Standing is http://lastkillerstanding.blogspot.com/

 

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