The Case of the Disappearing Interview

I don't know how...but something happened with the interview with author Chris Ward. The last few questions got cut off. Sadness! Good thing I still have his info. Here's the remainder of the Chris Ward interview!!

DSP: Other than this most recent story, do you have any ideas for different books that might be published in the future? Care to give us a teaser?

Chris: Dozens.  In fact, I just put out another one called The Man Who Built the World, which is a kind of paranormal drama.  I wasn’t one of these people who started writing when self-publishing came along, I’ve been churning books out for years and have four or five in the back catalogue that will eventually be published if I can make them good enough, although several more than will stay on the hard drive forever.  I have VERY high standards for my own work, something few self-publishing writers have.  If I don’t think it’s capable of rubbing shoulders with traditionally published books it ain’t going out there.  Even now, less than half of what I write I consider good enough.  I just wish some of the so-called writers choking Amazon with poorly written junk would go away for five years and learn their trade first.

DSP: Who is your greatest inspiration to write? What person makes you believe in yourself, and how?

Chris: Iain M. Banks is my favorite writer, he’s just a god, even though some of his later work is a little too political for my tastes.  I also love Stephen King, particularly his older stuff.  He’s the author I always tried to emulate, and I think I write easily as good, if with a little more brevity.  In terms of non-famous writers, my father and my grandfather, because they always encouraged me, whether it was by letting me batter away on the family’s prized typewriter or by driving me round to my grandparents’ so I could use the only computer in my family at the time, a little green screen Amstrad.  I don’t know if they thought I had potential or not, but if they did I like to think that I’m going some way towards justifying the faith they showed in me, and there is a lot, lot more to come yet.  I’m barely getting started.

DSP: Do you have any aspirations to be similar or comparable to another author? Why?

Chris: Not particularly.  I cross genres a lot.  Tube Riders, for example, is straight up sci-fi, whereas I have a couple of early horrors that Richard Laymon could have written and one book (that will remain nameless) that is more like Chuck Palaniuk.  I like to push myself, try different styles, different genres.  I’ll probably never be rich for this very reason, but if I make enough money to only have to work part time and my writing gets respect then that’s good enough for me.

DSP: Okay, one last question, and this one is different for every author, not to mention completely off the wall! What do you believe is the greatest unsolved mystery of all time?

Chris: Definitely the Mary Celeste.  I’d love to know what happened to that ship.

Hope you enjoy! Stay tuned for an excerpt from his awesome series!!