An Interview with Nathan Squiers

Appropriately mean and moody photo of
Nathan Squiers, the Literary Dark Prince.

Nathan Squiers is a resident of New York City and writes and works for CHBB.  

An Interview with Alex Granados

Alex Granados 

Alex Granados works in radio and print newspapers and has just taken a step into the waters of Indielit publishing for Crushed Hearts and Black Butterfly Publishing with a new Zombie novel called Cemetery Plot.

He's been doing the rounds lately - skim forward to the bottom of the interview to find four other interviews with other bloggers - to promote his work which is garnering decent reviews on the circuit, as you would expect from someone with his pedigree. Zombielit readers are going to be well served by this novel, it seems.

The Wiz and his magic radar Orb managed to track him down in one of America's finest regions - that of North Carolina - and he agreed to speak around the Cauldron. Here's what he had to say.

Hiya Alex Tell us a bit about yourself. Who are you? How did you come to write? Do you write for a living?

Hi Wiz. Thanks for having me. So, I live in Raleigh, North Carolina. 

They tell me Raleigh is known as 'The City of Oaks,'Alex?

It is indeed, Wiz. 

Because of a lot of Oak trees about?

There are certainly plenty of oak trees. However, I work in Durham, which is about 30 minutes away, as a producer on a local talk show called The State of Things. It's a public radio program hosted by NPR veteran Frank Stasio. When I'm not doing that, I write a freelance column for the local newspaper, the News & Observer. I also practice magic.

Classic IT Crowd Michael the Magnificent "Magician" Sketch 

 You know like disappearing coins and that sort of thing. I got into it a few months ago when I had to watch a documentary for work. It was about this magician who moved to Japan to do shows. 

He learned that the Japanese magicians were great at coming up with tricks but lousy at showmanship, so he made it his job to bring them up to speed. It was weird and engaging. I decided I wanted to be able to do some tricks, too. 

I've been writing since the fourth grade. Our class had a Halloween short story writing contest, and I wrote a story about (appropriately enough) zombies. The class was riveted when I read it out loud and I got hooked to the attention. Been writing ever since.  

How do you write? Are you a methodical 2.5k word a day grinder? Or an inspirational - lock-me-away-for-the-weekend kind of pantser?

I'm more of a 2.5k word-a-day grinder, except my chosen goal is 2,000 words a day. I settled on that during last year's National Novel Writing month. 

I got a late start and was trying to write 50,000 words in 25 days, so it looked like 2,000 words per day would do the trick. I've been doing that ever since.  

Tell us about Cemetery Plot, published two weeks ago?

Apocalyptic Zombie Classic

"This is a weird horror/sci fi hybrid. It came about when I was walking by a graveyard last year. It was one of those places reserved for the well off and relatively famous. The cemetery was, more or less, at capacity and I got to thinking about what would happen on a long enough time frame if we ran out of places to bury people. Would the world just be one big graveyard? "

The story came from there. I wrote two intertwined stories. One set in a world that is overrun with cemeteries due to a virus that spreads through the cremated ashes of the dead. Cremation was outlawed and cemetery space is at a premium. 

Into that story comes Vanessa. She was depressed, living in the 1970s and decided to take part in a Satanic ritual that would turn her into one of the living dead. Instead she woke up years later, unchanged and all too alive. A cemetery tycoon finds out about her and wants to experiment on her to find out the secret of her resurrection. He hopes to use that secret to clear the cemeteries and make room for more bodies... and of course put more money in his pockets. 

That storyline is mixed with another one set in the future of that world. In this future, a zombie apocalypse has taken place, and the action follows a living dead medium who makes his money bilking the rich. The two stories eventually converge and you find out how everything is connected.  

  

Do you think The Walking Dead should have ended at the end of the first series. Has the Apocalypse/Zombie genre reached its peak of popularity and/or creative limit? Or does it have somewhere else to travel?

"It's hard to say. If Season Two were all we had to go on, then I would say, yes, The Walking Dead should have ended after Season One. The second season was very slow going and only picked up the pace towards the end. Not enough to redeem it though. The third season looks like it's livening things up though, so there could be some redemption after all. Give me another season and I'll let you know what I think."

As for the zombie genre. I think it's time for it to go back to its origins in Haiti. The zombie idea got started because of the legend of zombifications in the voodoo religion of Haiti.  But the zombies they were talking about were completely different. They were victims, forced into an existence of servitude to people with powers greater than them. I think there is more to explore in that aspect of the zombie genre. 

Haitian origins? Zombie Flesh Eaters? Are Zombies real, Alex? Here's a chap who explains the origins of the zombie phenomenon.

  “Our source here is ethnobotanist Wade Davis. In 1982 he visited Haiti to see if he could learn the secret of the "zombie powder" that local sorcerers, known as bokors, allegedly used to reanimate the dead. As told in his 1985 book, The Serpent and the Rainbow,  Davis had little to go on but some tantalizing stories and a few contacts. Nonetheless, during his first week in Haiti he managed to meet two alleged zombies who'd been patients at a local psychiatric institute.  What's more, with the aid of a wad of greenbacks he was able to witness the manufacture of a batch of zombie powder. In a chilling passage he tells of a midnight trip to a graveyard where he watched a bokor and his assistants dig up the corpse of a recently deceased infant, portions of which - Davis is a bit vague on the details - were added to a witch's brew of plants, sea worm, toad, lizard, and fish.       As time went on Davis learned a bit about why zombies were created. Typically the victim had antagonized his family or neighbors, who hired a bokor to do him in. The bokor would spread zombie powder on the threshold of the home of the victim, where he would absorb it through his feet. After falling into a deathlike trance the victim would be buried then later summoned from the grave by the bokor, who would exploit the zombie as a slave. During several trips to Haiti, Davis was able to collect eight samples of powder. A number of the ingredients had psychoactive properties, but the most important, he concluded, was a potent neurotoxin called tetrodotoxin, which was extracted from the puffer fish found in Haitian waters. The principal symptom of tetrodotoxin poisoning is paralysis--often the victim remains conscious, but his breathing becomes so shallow as to be undetectable and he appears lifeless. Davis claims some victims were thought dead but revived. Davis tells of providing samples of zombie powder to pathologist Leon Roizin, who tested them on rats. Roizin told him the animals became completely immobilized and unresponsive, though heartbeat and brainwaves were still detectable. After 24 hours the rats recovered, apparently without lingering effects. Davis never actually saw the creation of a zombie and concedes there is much about Haitian society he doesn't understand. But one might conclude that tetrodotoxin was the drug used to create zombies...” (Source: The Straight Dope)

 As for apocalyptic stories... I never get tired of them. I feel as though there is limitless ground for the exploration of the human condition in them. 

How do you market Cemetery Plot? What is your favoured method? Have you any tips for aspiring novelists on marketing their work in this most vicious and saturated of marketplaces?

I've got to say, I hate marketing. I do the usual Facebook posting thing, and I've done a fair number of blog interviews. I've also sent out my novel for review to various places and done a number of book signings locally. I don't really have any marketing tips for aspiring novelists... if anything, I need some! 

"Buy my book! Buy my book!" Indielit - modern
Tin Men (and women).

Marketing is a bloody nightmare, Alex.

You ain't kidding, Wiz.

Does your environment affect your writing? Is there anything about  Raleigh which influences your characters and/or plots?

I mentioned earlier the cemetery nearby that inspired Cemetery Plot. The setting of some of my other novels, or at least one anyway, is Raleigh, though I don't call it that. 

Northern Virginia
newspaper and magazine
editor

Really, all of my stories, characters and ideas come, in some way, from experiences that I've had, and since I've lived most of my life in Raleigh, it becomes the setting for many of them. I used to live in Manassas, Virginia, and I spent a number of years in Morgantown, West Virginia, so those also get jammed into my stories from time to time. 

Sentient zomboids - half alive, half dead - capture you while you are driving to the lake. You are tied up and taken to a cabin deep in the North Carolina woods and prepared for mutation. The previous owners of the cabin have left three books, two CD's and a DVD in a big suitcase you find in the cellar. In your ideal world, what would you wish them to be.

The Two CD's would be: Animals by Pink Floyd and a mix CD of crazy techno. 

Wiz notes: The third best Floyd album and one which divided critics at the time. Contains two classic Floyd moments, but is chiefly remembered for being the album where Roger Waters began to exert control - lyrically, at least - over the direction of the band.

Plus 

Some Crazy Techno Beats






The DVD wouldn't matter. I wouldn't be able to watch it after a couple of viewings. But just for the hell of it, let's say Koyaanisqatsi. 

I'm a bit the same with films, Alex. 

Are you, Wiz?

Yes. Much prefer reading and music. Here's Koya...

The three books would be:

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

Catch 22 PDF

Hocus Pocus by Kurt Vonnegut 

and for a bonus feature....

Hocus Pocus by Focus (live ultra prog version)

...and the collected works of Phillip K. Dick, if such a thing existed. 

What would be your three major tips for surviving a zombie apocalypse if you were the sole survivor?

One: Get a gun. 

Two: Learn to survive in the woods, off the land. 

Three: Find the most isolated piece of forest you can find and disappear in the middle of it.  

Or befriend Daryl Dixon?

That would work, Wiz.

What is your favourite zombie film? And which film, book or CD has had the biggest influence on Cemetery Plot

28 Days Later has got to be my favorite Zombie film, however the movies of George Romero, like Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, etc., influenced me more. 

Classic opening shot in 28 Days Later.
Filmed at 5am outside the Houses of Parliament

Cemetery Plot utilizes many traditional zombie tropes, and those mostly developed because of Romero's vision.  

Which creative person would you invite for dinner. What would they be eating Chez Alex?

I would invite Kurt Vonnegut. 

Vonnegut Quote

He inspired me to write and showed me that reading could be fun. Unfortunately, he's dead, so he would be a zombie. That means that  I would probably be on the menu that night. 

That's OK though. If I have to go, having Kurt Vonnegut eat me for dinner is as good a way as any.  

  

What does 2013 hold for fans of Alex Granados?

I have a novel coming out April 1 from Crushing Hearts and Black Butterfly Publishing. 

It's called Into the Cave. 


It's not horror exactly, more like fantasy. It follows a young boy from an abusive home who discovers that he can create worlds by writing them. He escapes into one of these worlds to get away from his father and ends up losing his identity. The story is him trying to find out who he is and learning to control his power.  

Alex, thanks for chatting with us. It's been an absolute pleasure and I wish you every success in the coming year.

Thanks Wiz!!

Buy Cemetery Plot here:

 http://www.amazon.com/Cemetery-Plot-Alex-Granados/dp/0615711448/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1353356914&sr=8-1&keywords=cemetery+plot

Talk to Alex here:

www.facebook.com/AlexGranadosWrites. 

Read about Alex here:

http://reading-withholly.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/interview-with-alex-granados-author-of.html?zx=bca414d1d2139843

http://bullspec.com/2012/10/31/the-hardest-part-alex-granados-on-cemetery-plot/

http://authorlauradeluca.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/guest-post-by-alex-granados-author-of.html

http://www.sarahjcarr.com/2/post/2012/10/character-interview-alex-granados-is-in-the-hot-seat.html

An Interview with Sinead MacDughlas

In the second of our interviews with authors from Crushed Hearts and Black Butterfly Press, Toronto's Sinead MacDughlas talks to Wizard Watchers about top selling Indie thriller, Learn To Love Me, and life in the land of houses the size of castles, snow, strange Yams and impossibly coloured vegetation, highways extending into the infinite, Vancouver, the North West Passage, elderberries, Neil Young, Rush, David Cronenburg, the Moose, resurrected Bison, beavers, the Maple Leafs, Jazz Festivals and lots and lots of big trees. 

Multi-talented Toronto scribbler
Sinead MacDughlas

Some interviews are like pulling teeth. The interviewee clearly doesn't want to be there; might not like me (I know, I know, it happens), or maybe, might not like Wizards (is there a phobia of such?). 

They might have severe life issues going down or be suffering a severe case of block, but for whatever reason they don't perform. That's where the magic Cauldron comes in. You, dear Watcher of Wizards, might never know which is which: As it comes - or cauldron stirred.

Interviewing Sinead was as it comes. This was sheer joy. 

All I had to do for this one was get on the Wizplane to Toronto, find her big spread out in the Toronto boondocks, sip filter coffee, sit back, put my tape recorder on the arm of the Laz-E-Boy recliner, ask the questions, and let her rock and roll. The delightful and talented Sinead is a communicator that's for certain, so I'll shut up and let her do the talking.

Top selling Indie thriller
Learn to Love Me

Hiya Sinead. Tell us a bit about yourself. Who are you? Are you a professional writer or do you work at something else?

Hello, Wiz! It's lovely to be in the cauldron!

You're not in the Cauldron, that would be a bit silly and possibly a bit cannibalistic.

You know what I mean! 

Allegorically, you're round the Cauldron. Like a campfire...

Yeh, okay! Before I start answering though, is this one of those deals where if you don't like the answers, you crank up the heat? Being Canadian, I don't function well in high temperatures. Just saying.

No, we're cool. Cold as ice, Sinead.

That's great! So. I'm a forty-two-year-old  Canuck, who lived like an urban gypsy until my mid-twenties. I gave marriage a shot then and failed miserably at it. The second one is chugging along much better though.

Congrats!

Thanks. I'm now a stay-at-home mom, raising a three-year-old  boy, a four-year-old girl, a twelve-year-old  cat (who is also a live-in editor of sorts), and a forty-four-year-old  husband. I live in the small town of Georgina, North of Toronto, Ontario.

Toronto. A bit near the magnificent
Woodbine racetrack

 This is all between writing and blogging, of course. We share a little house with a ghost or two, my muses and my live -in editor.

Gunnar - Sinead's "Live-In" Editor

I've always been a late bloomer. Apparently, I was born three or four weeks late, and I've been losing ground ever since.

When did you start scribbling?

 I started writing fiction quite young, mainly because real life was too boring to keep getting out of bed for. I didn't really do much with my writing until 2010, though. I have one more year to put everything I've got into it, before the kiddies go to school and I have to take a *shudders* day job. 

Oh good God, no. Not a day job

Yeh, I know. I'm already practicing for it. *clears throat* "Good morning, may I take your order?"

"The A4 pads are at the back, sir. Next to the pens and the Sellotape". Don't remind me! What books have you written, Sinead? How have they performed in this most cuthroat of markets?

The first is a collection of short stories and prose/poetry titled The Unscheduled Stops. It never did well in ratings, but I don't mind. I self-published it as more of a thank you gift to the people who've cheered me on, and an introduction to new readers.

The second book is my paper-baby. It's a mystery/suspense novel that I began as a Chick-lit. Unfortunately, I have no control over my muses, and they held my brain hostage until I finished Learn To Love Me.  (See above)

If I wasn't so proud of it, I'd have likely begun self-medicating by now. lol Thanks to my friends, fans and fabulous family at Crushing Hearts & BlackButterfly Publishing, it pushed its way up to thirteenth place on the Top 100 list for Mystery/Suspense/Thriller for a bit.

Thirteenth? That is a fantastic result, Sinead. I am seriously impressed! Very few people will understand how difficult that is.

I know. It's a tough category. I think I swooned as I brushed past Bram Stoker's Dracula.haha

The last book is a new release. I wrote a Halloween, ghost-story novelette, Best Served Bloody, for Vamptasy Publishing. It was intended to be a short story for a charity anthology, but those muses ... *shakes her head* 

Cover design by Rue Volley

The proceeds from the book still go to the East Lancashire Hospice though, I'm happy to say.

There's a very noir look and feel to Learn to Love Me. What are your influences?

Life, music and coffee. lol. The look can be entirely attributed to my extremely talented cover designer David J. Ford. Dave was also the first person to read portions of the book for me, and he based the cover on his impression of the first few chapters. In fact, elements of his design altered some of the story elements before the book was complete.

                                                                     
The feel is more a product of my own dark thoughts, my dismay at the society we're forced to survive in, and my need to express it all.

The music? Iron Maiden, Finger Eleven, Sarah McLachlan, Stone Sour, Train, Black Sabbath, Disturbed, Eric Clapton, Mariana's Trench ... I'm eclectic in all things. lol

Literary influences? The Brothers Grimm, (Those boys were disturbed! hahahahaha), Carolyn Keene, Ellis Peters, Stephen King, Clive Barker and J.D. Robb, for a start.

Swoon. Sabbath? My favourite band of all time.

Me too! I love Sabbath.

So, Sinead. Tell Wizard Watchers about your latest project? What are your ambitions for it?

I'd meant to work on my next novel; a paranormal/suspense set in North America 2025-2030. In an odd way, it would be a sequel to Learn To Love Me. However, the muses have other plans for me and now I consider it the transition from one book to the other. It will carry the reader from 1995 through the present, and prepare them for the future. Zander, Emily and Alex, all from Learn To Love Me, play a major role in this book and the next.

My ambitions? I'd hope it will find readers and make them laugh, cry, rage and cheer. And if I can make enough money to fund another book or two, I'd be ecstatic.

Whereabouts do you live? Does your environment affect your writing? Is there anything about Toronto which influences your characters and/or plots?

I think everything in my life influences my writing, really. People I meet get their personality traits absorbed by characters. The places I've lived, (all forty-two of them), make appearances in my stories, as do the various jobs I've worked. 

If someone cuts me off while I'm driving on the highway, I'll have composed their death scene before I've pulled into my driveway. Just kidding!

Sinead's photofit after most recent road rage incident
outside a Newmarket general store. She was wearing
contact lenses at the time. (Image courtesy of Toronto PD)

You're not kidding though, are you?

No I'm not Wiz. That death scene IS already written hahahahahahah. I don't think a writer, or any creative person who is observant of the world around them, can prevent their environment or experiences from affecting their work.

If you were given a one day pass to heaven and could ask your chosen Maker to change one thing about yourself, what would it be and why?

Oh, so many possibilities!  I think I'd ask them to remove my susceptibility to procrastination. I have such ambitious plans, but I so rarely follow them through to the conclusion.

You're walking past a Toronto speakeasy on the way to the deli and you are kidnapped by a Chevyload of mean trilby-hatted gangsters. You are thrown in the bowels of a disused brewery and left to rot until Big Al decides your ransom.  

Jug Ears, the gang's kindly but simple, messenger boy, drops off three books, a CD and a DVD in your gaol. What would you like them to be?

Oh dear! You don't ask easy questions do you, Wiz? 

The books would be a blank notebook (with pen, of course) 

The best book ever written about a
notebook? "A wonderful writer" - Wiz Notes.

A thesaurus. 

The complete works of William Shakespeare. 

Coriolanus - official trailer. Much underrated Shakespeare play.

The CD? Just one? I'd ask for my personal mixed CD #15. It's the one I've made most recently, so it would take me some time to grow tired of it. 

As well as your ephemeral one, I'll sneak this beauty in with Jug Ears, Sinead. 

The best heavy rock album ever?
Almost certainly - and the foundation stone for
heavy metal ever since. - Wiz Notes.

Hahaha Thanks Wiz!! The DVD? I don't suppose they'd bring me "How to make a lazer gun from a DVD player"? Probably not. In that case, I'd choose the full set of Frank Herbert's: Dune. 

Do you think Big Al would let Jug Ears bring me the smoked meat poutine I was headed to the deli for, Wiz? 

Hahahahahahaha...I don't know. I shall ask him. He's a kindly soul.

I've been known to issue some strongly worded threats in the name of poutine, though I probably wouldn't do so to someone as kindly as Jug Ears.

I had to look this up. It's a Quebecoise fast food
delicacy - not suitable for vegetarians or
those with an elonogated colon.

Hahah. You are too kind!! Who is your favourite writer and what would you cook for him/her Chez Sinead?

Anyone who knows me knows that my favourite anything changes from minute to minute. Choosing just one of something is nearly impossible for me, but I'll try. Let's see. I'll narrow the field a little. I couldn't pick just one from my Indie author friends, so I'll go with famous authors. I need to think.

(Sinead goes out to the kitchen at this point. Rings out to the Deli. Calls her friend Marge in the park. Chops carrot. Feeds Gunnar. Stares out the window. Fifteen minutes later, she returns).

I do believe I'd invite Piers Anthony for dinner. 

Partially, because he took the time to personally ring me back in 1992, after I'd called his fan club telephone line to ask advice about securing a literary agent, (which I never did). Also because I love his caustic sense of humour and admire his unapologetic attitude.

Who wouldn't want to have dinner with a self-professed ogre? hahaha. I'd have to forgo my carnivorous habits and prepare a vegetarian lasagna for him. Perhaps I'd bake one of my carrot cakes for dessert.

What does 2013 hold for fans of Sinead MacD?

I hope 2013 will bring a novelette (or novella), a full novel, several short stories, many shared giggles, lots of swag and a few pleasant surprises. hahahaha.

I've also taken on a pen name, Jane Douglas, for the purpose of writing for children. You'll certainly see "Jane's" debut short story, maybe even before the New Year, in an upcoming anthology for an exceptional cause.

Sinead, it's been an absolute pleasure talking to you and I wish you all the best in 2013 and beyond.

Thanks for inviting me, Wiz. It's been awesome.

Contact:

If you have a week or so spare, here are the many ways to contact Sinead.

Facebook Fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/SinMacD.Writer?ref=hl

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SinMacD

Google +: https://plus.google.com/u/0/107511848516702489145/posts

Goodreads: ttp://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5339441.Sinead_MacDughlas

Shelfari: http://www.shelfari.com/sinmacd

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Sinead-MacDughlas/e/B0074CIPV8/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/SinMacD

Author Webpage: http://www.author.sinmacd.ca

Blog: http://www.author.sinmacd.ca/blogging.html

Publications:

The Unscheduled Stops - self published
Purchase Links: http://www.amazon.com/The-Unscheduled-Stops-ebook/dp/B00727M6S8/  http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Unscheduled-Stops-ebook/dp/B00727M6S8/
 https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/101241
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-unscheduled-stops-sinead-macdughlas/1107956624
Webpage: http://www.theunscheduledstops.sinmacd.ca

Learn To Love Me: Crushing  Hearts and Black Butterfly Publishing
Purchase Links: http://www.amazon.com/Learn-Love-Me-Sinead-MacDughlas/dp/0987861840/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Learn-To-Love-Me-ebook/dp/B008UYQNJ0/ 
Webpage: http://www.learntoloveme.sinmacd.ca

Best Served Bloody: Vamptasy Publishing
Purchase Links: http://www.amazon.com/Best-Served-Bloody-ebook/dp/B009UTYWOC/ http://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Served-Bloody-ebook/dp/B009UTYWOC/
Webpage: Still to come. ;)

BIO:

Sinead MacDughlas is a Canadian writer whose main addictions are words, music and coffee. A recovered high school drop-out, Sinead has spent much of her adult life moving around the province of Ontario and working at various jobs, including: taxi driver, advertising graphic designer, library clerk, short order cook, industrial cleaner and retail product consultant for a chain of beauty salons. In November of 2011, she finally achieved a lifelong dream of being a published author.