Your novels are reality based. Does this make it easier for the composition to flow, in that; can/or do your characters change as the story progresses?
That’s a good question. I think even if a writer writes fantasy, character is critical and everything the character does has to be congruent with the plot. Nothing drives a reader to distraction more than a character who behaves illogically, in a way they don’t expect. My characters always evolve – that’s part of the function of a writer – but I try to keep them consistent. I think the tightest character I have ever written is John Dexter in Carla and that is because of the sensitivity of the subject matter (mental health). Very few books have a released mental patient as their main protagonist and I didn’t want him to be a freak. He behaves how we would all behave in the situations I presented.
Can you tell us about the idea and inspiration behind the wonderful Wizards Cauldron?
I like meeting people, Teresa, and what better way to meet people than a chat show on the Internet! I am in this business to make a shedload of cash, (cue hysterical, ironic laughter), and to make friends and The Wizard’s Cauldron seemed like a good way to achieve the latter. I like selecting the videos and the graphics, the opportunity to have a laugh and I like to see what people are doing in Indie. It’s just like a real chat show. Some guests are so interesting you could keep them going for five or six weeks. Some are so dull you wonder why they agreed to be interviewed. Some like to chat, others do it purely to sell books. Some became decent friends and regular contributors – Mary Ann Bernal, Ngaire Elder, K-T Meador, Brenda Perlin, Lelani Black in particular –and some others never said thanks. That’s life. I’ve had two or three people who never bothered answering the questions I sent them, including a major Indie publisher who prides herself on her brilliance in social networking, and a bloke who writes a
Mark Barry