It's Mention Monday!
Today we have with us
Today we have with us
Jonathan Gould who is the author of
Magnus Opum
Welcome!!
Tell us a bit about yourself:
Do you work another job when you are not writing?
How should I put this? I regard fiction writing as my job. It’s just that at
the moment, it’s not a particularly lucrative one. For that reason, I also have
a “hobby” which pays substantially better. It involves writing content for
online university courses. It’s quite an enjoyable and interesting hobby but it
does take time away from my real job.
Thinking about writing. Well maybe not exactly. I do have a bit of an
obsessive mind so when I have a story idea going, I get pretty overtaken with
it. But otherwise, I have a pretty broad range of interests. When I can take
time away from the afore-mentioned hobby, there’s lots of stuff I like to do.
Sport and music are high on the list, but the main thing would be spending time
with my family – so they can say “will you stop thinking about writing for a
second?”
What is your favorite color? Why?
Green. Why? Because frogs are green and they’re my favourite animal. Why are
they my favourite animal? That’s obvious – because they’re green and green is
my favourite colour.
What is your favorite season? Why?
Definitely Autumn. The weather is great – not too hot or too cold. Plus the
football is just starting and I love football. Though the way my team is going,
maybe not so much at the moment.
If you could live anyplace on earth, where would it be? Why?
Anywhere there’s good food and good conversation and good music and a good
book to read.
If you could have any car, what would it be?
One that got me where I wanted to go without breaking down. Cars to me are
transportation – nothing more and nothing less.
Tell us about your writing:
It’s something I always seem to be doing. When I was a little kid, I used to
write stories – when my parents moved house a few years ago, they found them
all up in a cupboard. I began thinking seriously about “being a writer” in my
late twenties – not going to tell you how long ago that was. It’s partly a
dream and partly a goal I guess. It’s something I love to do and something I
think I’m reasonably good at so it’s worth pursuing.
How many hours a day do you devote to writing?
It’s really hard to quantify. After time spent on my “hobby” and time with
the family, it’s about stealing whatever time I can. I tend to work in bursts.
For several weeks or months, I can be amazingly productive, and then I can go
for years without producing anything.
Do you have a set routine or do you write when the mood strikes?
As above, it’s really about when I can make the time. It’s also about having
the brain-space to let the ideas come and the writing flow. With all the
distractions in life, it can be hard to get your brain into that creative mode.
Definitely quiet. If I have music on, I start to tap my feet and clap my
hands and sing along, so I won’t end up getting anything done.
Tell us about your book:
It’s a humorous fantasy. I like to describe it as Tolkien meets Dr Seuss.
Just like in The Hobbit, it’s about a
character who is kind of small and shy and not very bold at all, who goes off
and has a big adventure in a world that is very different from ours, yet at the
same time all too similar.
What is the name of it and is it part of a series or a stand alone novel?
It’s called Magnus Opum. At the
moment it stands alone. Whether any sequels emerge remains to be seen, but I
have no plans at present.
Where did the idea come from? How long did it take to write?
From a variety of places. Partly from reading Tolkien and other fantasies of
that ilk and thinking it would be fun to try my hand at a similar sort of
story. I especially wanted to try a different approach to epic fantasy. It
seems like the same stock characters are always reeled out – wizards and elves
and goblins and the like. I wanted to create a world populated by a bunch of
totally different and new races.
How long it took to write is another difficult question. I wrote bits of it
in bursts, then left it for quite a long time, then came back to it. All up,
from beginning to publication, is probably close to 10 years.
Your other work:
I have published two other books:
Doodling – the story of a man who
fell off the world (because it was moving too fast). I like to describe it as
Douglas Adams meets Lewis Carroll
Flidderbugs – a mix of political
satire, fable, and funny little story about a bunch of bugs with some very
peculiar obsessions.
As for works in progress, I’m currently working on a sequel to Doodling, tentatively titled Scribbling. There’s also a YA fantasy
novel I’ve been plugging away at for ages which I really want to get back to.
The tentative title is Beyond the Flame
– and this is the first time I’ve actually announced that so there you go – you
just got a scoop.
Watch a Video Trailer:
Where can readers connect with you?
Via the links down below – I’m easily tracked down, reasonably friendly, and
I don’t often bite.
Website: Blog: http:daglit.blogspot.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jonathangouldwriter
Twitter: @jonno_go
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4747714.Jonathan_Gould
Where can we buy your books?
Amazon
Thanks to Stacy for having me here today - or is it yesterday? These time difference things confuse me.
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