Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Ten Questions Plus 1 with author Warren Hately, author of Zephyr: Phase One






Are you a person who makes their bed in the morning, or do you not see much point? Why do you or don’t you?
No I don’t see the point. I am only going to get back into it. Never as soon as I wish, I might add. Conversely, this means only getting the pleasure of climbing into a freshly-made bed about once every month or two when all the linen is changed.

Do you get road rage? What pisses you off the most about other drivers?
In light of my star sign being Libra, I try to balance my rage at other drivers when travelling alone by being understanding, sensitive and annoyed with impatient drivers when I am behind the wheel of the family 7-seater.

What is the most blatant lie you’ve ever told?
I don’t know if I could recall for sure. I told some doozies when I was in early high school, but that was a very competitive time. I still don’t think any of the lies I might’ve told come close to some of the bullshit I have heard friends tell women to get laid. Going back a few years now, but from those experiences I certainly came to the perspective that when you lie you actually give more of yourself than when you tell the truth and some people and situations just don’t deserve the effort and energy a lie takes. I prefer to be brutally honest and let the chips fall where they may, be we all know where that goes.

Has the dog ever eaten your manuscript? Did you still give him treats afterward or was he/she in the proverbial doghouse?
I don’t have a dog and would probably murder it if it ate my manuscript, particularly given this would probably involve eating my laptop. Many years ago I had a friend studying ninjitsu who came home to find a housemate’s dog had shat all over his 2000AD comic collection. He applied a martial arts choke to the dog until it passed out and put it in the bin. It survived though.

What inspires you?
Inspiration wells within. I don’t understand my own compulsion to write. If I could exorcise myself of it, frankly I probably would. Like Hesse paraphrasing Novalis in Steppenwolf: “Most men will not swim before they are able to. Is that not witty? Naturally, they won't swim! They are born for the solid earth, not for the water. And naturally they wont think. They are made for life, not for thought. Yes, and he who thinks, what’s more, he who makes thought his business, he may go far in it, but he has bartered the solid earth for the water all the same, and one day he will drown.” I feel much the same about writing. In a practical sense I get lots of ideas, particularly for screenwriting, from news headlines.

Tell me your biggest pet-peeve…the one that really bothers you that is a part of who you are? Why does it bother you so much?
My world view. I hate being proven right about so many things, yet life conspires to do so many times over.

Before there was sliced bread, what do you think was the best thing and why?
I think before sliced bread, people were probably pretty jazzed just to have ordinary bread. I can’t for the life of me imagine what the first person who crushed grains into flour was thinking.

What is your worst quality, or the one you wish you can change about yourself?
My enormous @#$& has made life difficult at times, at least romantically. It’s not the benefit you might think.

Tell me about one of your relatives and the reason you think they are so great.
Maybe it’s just me right this now, but I’m not feeling that one.

What tips would you give to a new writer just getting started?
Don’t do it. Go do something that gives you money and esteem on a daily basis. Leave the rest of us who have little other choice to continue the good work.

Tell me about your writing project in your own words, not something from your blog or from a blurb. What is your writing truly about.


My Zephyr series is an ongoing chronicle attempting to put my mark on the superhero genre, which like much of speculative fiction, is really just a way to explore ideas about the world and the larger universe through action storytelling. I’ve been a fan of mature comics like Watchmen, the Authority, Planetary, etc, since I was younger, but my interest in doing something within that loose genre was really only sparked after I started reading American Psycho and I tried to imagine how the very specific dynamics and narrative voice of that kind of transgressive fiction would work applied to what I call alt.superhero storytelling.

Get in touch via my Twitter @wereviking or check my zephyr.warrenhately.com site for regular updates and free fiction.

No comments:

Post a Comment