Can you tell me a little about yourself and how you got into writing?
I have always been a big reader. When most kids were getting into their Saturday morning cartoons, I was getting into books. I loved them. I loved getting lost in my own imagination, because it was so much better than just having someone show me pictures on a screen. I didn’t realize until the end of college though that writing was a possibility. I kind of a had a weird idea that only a select few people in the world could write, you know? Like you couldn’t just write a book and try to get it published. So, I took a few writing classes, and my eyes were really opened. People that read my little class writing assignments really dug my stuff. And I liked that. And I said to myself, “David, you should try this for real.” Here I am, many years later giving it a go.
As for me, I live in Utah with my wife and four daughters. While I’m very outnumbered in the gender department, I get a whole lot of love from the ladies at home, so that makes up for anything I might be missing. And, since this awesome blog is in the UK, I feel I need to add that I am a big football fan. I have to admit, as an American I usually call it soccer, but in the spirit of using the correct vocabulary, I’m going with football today. I’m excited to watch the European Championships coming up in a couple days. They’re always fun.
Can you tell us a little about your novel, The Boo Hag?
Yes! I love it. It’s the best book you’ll ever read! Okay, I may be a little biased, but I can tell you it’s a lot of fun. It’s the story of a girl, Lenny, who starts receiving visits from a terrible monster called…you guessed it, a boo hag. The boo hag is a skinless woman who goes around at night and sucks the breath out of her sleeping victims, and, occasionally, she steals their skin and leaves them for dead. Lenny would like to keep her skin (imagine that), and so she and a group of friends, and some not so friends, set out to defeat her skinless nemesis.
Where did you get the idea for The Boo Hag?
Wikipedia. Yay for the internet! So, boo hags are from the Gullah culture in South Carolina. I had some of my characters in place, and I had a good idea for the story, but I needed a villain. When I came across good ol’ boo on Wikipedia, I was smitten.
What genre would you class The Boo Hag and is this the genre you prefer to write in?
I call it a Young Adult Paranormal. I’ve heard it called a YA dark fantasy. I’ve heard Science Fiction. So, I don’t know what other people think of it, but I’m sticking with YA Paranormal. This is the genre I prefer to write in. Growing up, I read a lot of more adult paranormal books by writers like Dean Koontz, and I’ve always loved that paranormal element. I kind of missed the YA books when they were for my age, but I’ve gone back to them. I’m kind of like C.S. Lewis’s goddaughter Lucy. In the dedication of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, he writes that he was writing the books for her, but she grew faster than the books did, and by the time he was done, she was too old for them, but then someday she would be old enough to come back to them. I am old enough now to come back to the YA books, and I really love them. I love the passion and the feeling of wonderful uncertainty of those teenage years. It’s fun to read stories that fall into the YA category, but it is even more fun, ridiculously fun, to write them
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What has the response been from readers that have read The Boo Hag?
It’s been really good. It hasn’t been all five stars positive across the board or anything—I mean, it’s not for everyone—but most people have really enjoyed it. The thing I’m most happy about, is that people have told me that they really like Lenny, the main character, and her best friend Anna. I feel like characters make a story. Plot is so important, but if you don’t care about the people, you just can’t stay with the book. That’s how I feel anyway. It’s awesome when people tell me they loved my characters.
Why should we read The Boo Hag in one sentence?
You should read The Boo Hag because it is full of really likeable characters in a fun story, and it’s reasonably price, so you don’t have to pay an arm and a leg to enjoy it! I guess that was kind of two connected sentences. I hope that’s okay J
A last word from the author....
Please come and visit at www.writerunsolicited.blogspot.com Look me up on facebook and at goodreads. I love, love, love feedback. I’m a newbie at this whole writing thing, so I love to hear what people connected with, or what didn’t work for them. Also, I’m not yet working on the sequel to The Boo Hag, but I am about halfway through a new book that I hope to get out in a few months. It is, as of yet, untitled, but it’s a bit of a love story with a little dash of witchcraft. So look out for that too!
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