Interview with author
Budgie Bigelow
said, I never really confine myself to one specific genre as
pompous as that may sound. A lot of what I write is comedy as well. I have a sit-com I've written in short story form. I
write whatever I feel like writing. I haven't really stuck to one
genre.
I see that you just released a compilation of 16 of your short
stories. Can you tell us about it?
"Dusk Vol. 1" is a compilation of the first 16 short stories I
wrote. Most of them did appear on my website, www.budgiebigelow.com.
"I have an entire thirty-thousand word story inspired from a Lana del Rey song, and the story has
nothing to do with the lyrics." - Budgie Bigelow
Can you start off telling me a bit about yourself
and your background in writing?
There's not too much of a background, actually.
I used to write back when I was in high school.
It was probably some pretty poorly written stuff.
Nothing to brag about until 2013 when I started writing again. I was talking to people online
through Twitter, and I got some very good encouragement so I started writing again. That's
how my first two books came about, and so I've
been doing it ever since. So the first book is
"Askharoth." The second one is called "Desperately Seeking Shemale." It was mostly romantic
comedies -- obviously one of the characters in
"Desperately Seeking Shemale" is transgendered,
but it's not erotica. Amazon advertises it like that
but it's not (laughs).
Who or what has been your biggest influence as a
writer?
As far as writers go, I grew up on Stephen King.
In high school I read through most of what he
had then and I've read his work steadily ever
since. As other influences go, when I was talking
to people on Twitter, there were a lot of people I used as beta readers/editors/collaborators.
They've been pretty good influences as well.
Is writing a full-time gig for you?
I'm actually a utility engineer and I write part
time as a hobby. On my breaks and lunches I'll
write and then during my free time at home is I'll
post online as I write.
Horror, sci-fi or both? Why?
I usually write both. More horror than sci-fi because I read more horror growing up. That's actually what I read the most growing up. That being
What has the experience of releasing a book been like for you?
It's been all good for me. I do have a small fan base. Not super
huge, but it's there. The people who do enjoy my writing read
everything I put out and they've been nothing but supportive.
"Dusk Vol. 1" is a little different because it's the first collection
I put out so it will hit a wider audience. I've sold a few copies
of it and consider it my first batch of short stories. Some of
the ones in the book were written around the same time. I'm
really satisfied with how the whole thing turned out. During
the process I actually let my daughter pick the names and
tweaked them from there. So yeah, I'm happy with the collection.
Do you prefer the short story over other formats?
"Askharoth" was an 80,000 word novel. The one after that
was 100,000 words. Short stories are definitely easier to write
because you're not going into as much detail. Harbingerr
(another SubQ author) said it's an exercise in imagination for
the reader and the writer. With the short story, I call them
glimpses in my head as you're not seeing the character's full
life. Something happens and then the character reacts and it's
over. It's short, but it's fulfilling at the same time. The most
common response I from readers is that they would like to
see the stories continue, but you want to leave your audience
wanting more. If I post a 7,000 word short story then I know
that people will be coming back for something else.
Harbingerr and I ran into each other on Twitter, actually. We were Twitter assholes (laughs). We were part of a core
group of specific people that connected through talking about
writing. We would read each other's work and so that's how
Harbingerr and I met. She's been a huge help. She beta reads
and edits for me and she gives me feedback. She doesn't take
your feelings into consideration. She tells you in a way that is
always good advice but blunt. If you spare my feelings, then
you're really just going to hurt me in the long run. She's one
of the few people who get that. I do the same for her. I let her
know too because we want to grow as writers.
What scares you the most as a writer, or in general?
I know when I was younger, for some reason I had a nasty
fear of being eaten by animals. That's kind of a fucked up
one. I had a dream when I was four or five that I got eaten by
a lion. Ever since I've been scared of that... Not to the point
where was running way from dogs thinking they were going
to eat me. I guess you could say alligators and anything that