Let's welcome author Orrin Bradford to the blog. Orrin, tell us a little about yourself.
What got you into writing?
My journey to becoming a writer started in the fourth grade when my next-door-neighbor took pity on my single mom who I was driving crazy to come out and play with me the summer we moved to Raleigh NC. Mrs. Crabtree just happened to be the children’s librarian at the main library and she had the perfect solution, a stack of books hand-picked for a boy my age.
It worked. Once I finally opened the first book, I was hooked. While I don’t remember what the book was, I’m pretty sure most of those books were either science fiction or fantasy. Even back then, I had the thought that one day I’d like to give back by writing my own books.
It's never ceases to amaze me how one persons kindness can help shape the life of a person. Will you share a short excerpt from your novel?
From Fantastic Fables of Foster Flat book 1
Ellenore Mishner discovered the Muse sleeping on her porch when she returned from her volunteer work at the local soup kitchen. Once again, she'd been convinced to help out at the homeless shelter by her best (and if truth be told, only) friend, Allison McKemp, the same way Allison always convinced her to do crazy things -- by making her feel guilty.
“You have to go. It's the right thing to do. You should want to help out those poor wretched people,” Allison had said. What had ever happened to, “It'll be good experience for your writing,” a common theme Allison had used in years past to spur Ellenore out of her tight little shell of a life?
Well, maybe even Allison realized that ladling soup to an endless line of crotchety old men with halitosis from their rotten teeth might be a good writing experience for a Hemingway or Faulkner, but not for Ellenore, who only wrote stories of romance. She trudged up the walk to the white cottage with jade green shutters that had been her home for the forty-seven years she'd been on Earth.
Ellenore looked up from the sidewalk where she'd been concentrating her gaze to avoid walking on a crack so she wouldn't break her mother's back, even though her dear old mom had been dead for almost five years. Old habits were hard to break, and she'd avoided those dangerous cracks for close to half a century.
But for some reason on this day, she found herself suddenly staring at a large lump of fur, leaves, and horns that had pushed aside the two rocking chairs that were normally lined up neatly on the porch. In the process, she stopped dead in her tracks on a crack. On the other side of town in a poorly manicured graveyard, Mrs. Mishner's backbone crumpled into a heap of dry bones.
Ellenore's first inclination was to run screaming from the yard that had been her haven for so many years. But a combination of realizing the beast on her doorstep was snoring pleasantly away and her recent memory of Allison McKemp's advice from years ago, "This will be a great experience for your writing," kept Ellenore standing open-mouthed before the beast. Something told her this might just be the time Allison had been talking about.
Ellenore pulled the dull gray wool coat closer around her frail body, suddenly chilled despite the day being warmer than most for this time of year. What is that? She wondered as she finally noticed where she was standing and quickly skipped a couple inches forward.
She didn't have long to wait to have her question answered. No sooner did she think it then the mountain of flesh shuddered, looking strangely like a South Pacific island during an earthquake. It stretched its full length of eight or nine feet, licked its thin lips with a fat purple tongue, and turned its black-pupil eyes flecked with rims of gold dust full upon the diminutive Ellenore.
When you pick up a book, which do you prefer: print books or ebooks?
Either works fine for me, but what I most enjoy of all is immersion reading which is reading and listening to the audiobook at the same time. This allows me to read faster while really getting into the story because I tend to speed up the audio to 1.5 to 1.75. I know, narrators hate to hear that but hey, I read faster that way so I end up buying a log more book, audio and otherwise.
I speed up the volume to. Lol. Glad I'm not the only one. Currently, what are you working on?
Actually, I’m working on three projects which isn’t that unusual for me because they are at various phases of the process.
I’m writing the first draft of Rabble, the second book in the Cosmic Conspiracy series.
I’m in the final stage of revision with my beta readers for Ghost Elephant, book three of the Zak Bates Eco-adventure series.
I’m also about to do a big promotion for the two books of the Fantastic Fables of Foster Flat series, which is where the excerpt is from.
I think it's good to keep busy. Three projects is a lot. I normally try to limit myself to two or I can't keep it all straight. Tell us a little bit about your main characters of the Fantastic Fables of Foster Flat series.
Her name is Mimi Rawlins, and she’s the narrator of the stories that make up the two books. Think about many of the books of Ray Bradbury that are composed of interconnected short stories. Or if a series of original Twilight Zone episodes were connected by a common locale, ie in this case, Foster Flat. I enjoyed creating Mimi so much that I ended up bringing her back in the later books of my FreeForm technothriller six-book series.
How did you decide on what to title each book?
Well, I live in Flat Rock, North Carolina so it wasn’t much of a leap to come up with Foster Flat. Both are located in the NC mountains, and both are magical and mysterious in their own way.
Is this a stand-alone novel or part of a series?
Fantastic Fables of Foster Flat has evolved into a series. I so enjoyed writing the first book and discovering new story ideas from the area around me, that book two was a natural. And yes, I’ve started collecting stories for a third book.
I love how writing can evolve. I learned to give an estimate of how many books will be in a series, because sometimes there is just more to write. What is the easiest part of the writing process? What is the hardest?
I love the brainstorming and outlining of stories as well as developing the characters. I’ve always loved stories with unexpected twists so it’s fun to see how twisty and curvy I can make my own stories. For sure, there are plenty of that in both of the Fantastic Fables books. That’s why I gave book one the subtitle of Suspenseful Tales with a Twist.
The hardest part for me is the editing and writing of blurbs/descriptions so for the most part I don’t do either any more. I farm both out.
Blurbs! I think those are my nemesis. Do you have people read your drafts before you publish? How do you select beta readers?
Yes, most of the time. I find my beta readers from my “Amazingly Awesome Readers” which is also the name of my newsletter. When I need beta readers, I put the word out through my newsletter describing what type of feedback I need and so far my readers have been very generous with their time and input. (Thanks, guys and gals.)
Who designed the artwork for your cover? Or did you design it yourself?
Victor Habbick designed both covers for the Fantastic Fables series which I think are two of my all time favorite covers. He’s done several other covers including the covers for the six books of the FreeForm series. http://www.victorhabbick.com/
I think that's great when you find a designer who can see your vision or sometimes even comes up with something better than you were dreaming. What are your hobbies aside from writing, if any?
I love sports especially softball and pickleball. I use both to destress after a full morning of writing. My typical routine is to write in the morning from about 9am to 12 or 1 pm, then break for an hour or two during which I play pickleball, then devote the afternoon to marketing and promotion.
It's funny I just found out what pickleball is a couple months ago. I had never heard of it. I hear it's great fun. Since you wrote in this genre, do you think you will ever write in other genres?
Probably not. I love everything about science fiction and fantasy, both reading it and writing it. For me they are all about wonder, awe, and possibilities.
Any last words?
Just that if you also enjoy the books and stories of Ray Bradbury as well as the original The Twilight Zone, I encourage you to check out Fantastic Fables of Foster Flat and Fantastic Fables of Foster Flat Volume Two. From June 24 - July 3 both books will be available at discounted prices.
You can also learn more about my other books at:
or on my Amazon’s Author page at: Author.to/wbswift
My author’s Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/wbradfordswift
Orrin Jason Bradford's Multiverse on Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/245108559236914/
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