1. Could you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I have been in love with writing for as long as I can remember. Mostly I have written short, satirical stories dealing with dystopian societies. Stage 6 is my first real attempt at writing a full length novel. I attend a local community college in Austin full time while still completing my last year at high school. I have enough credits to be considered a Sophomore wherever I go to college, but I would dearly love to go to Princeton, Stanford, or any of a few other universities.
2. Describe your book ‘Stage 6’ in 30 words or less.
Stage 6 if a fast paced adventure story. It reads like a movie, and in fact most of the inspiration for the novel came from shows like the Walking Dead.
3. What was the hardest part of writing your book?
The hardest part of writing Stage 6 was writing the first few chapters. I eventually settled on taking out the entire first chapter, rewriting the next few, and adding in a Prologue to immediately get the theme of the book across to the reader.
4. What books have had the greatest influence on you?
This is a tough question, because Stage 6 was influenced more by contemporary zombie film than by anything else. I would say though that in terms of influencing my writing, Mark Twain’s novels and stories have had an immense effect.
5. Briefly share with us what you do to market your book?
I use a variety of free and paid services like BookBuzzr to get my book seen by as many people as possible. One thing I have found particularly useful to market a book is to get it reviewed on different websites. Often I will send a free copy of my book in return for a review (unbiased of course) in the hopes that the people who visit that site will find the review interesting enough to check out Stage 6.
6. How do you spend your time when you are not writing?
Most of my time is spent in school, but in the spare free time I have I like to play the harmonica and swim with a local team. I find swimming to be an extraordinarily efficient form of exercise, and I try to do it as much as possible. The harmonica is a beautiful instrument and I’m slowly learning to play it.
7. What are you working on next?
Right now I’m writing a short prequel to Stage 6. It is going to lead into the Prologue, and follow the adventures of The Scientist before his untimely end. I am having a great deal of fun writing this story. It reminds me of the short stories I used to write, and it is absolutely thrilling so far. I also plan on making the prequel free on Amazon, where I hope it will serve as a successful marketing tool for Stage 6.
