Hey all! Just wanted to post the information for our upcoming NJ brewery book tour. I have a lot of fun at these every year, so if you live in the area or within reasonable driving distance, I’d love to see your face! Below is everything you need to save the date! Let me know in the comments if you plan on attending!
*although not pictured, author Dan Padavona has been added to the May 10th signing.*
Hey everyone! In this edition of Author Interviews, Gayne C. Young, fellow Severed Press author, stops by to tell us about his book, BUG HUNT, and a little about his writing process. Check it out!
So, after holding off for about a year, I’m finally dipping my toes into the Patreon pond. I’ve held off for a few reasons. Firstly, I wanted to make sure I could deliver exclusive content, and more importantly, I wanted to make sure I had the time to do it. Well, now that a few projects have reached their end, I’ll be launching my very own Patreon page later this month. I’m really excited about it. The main attraction is going to be a brand new novel called Paradise Club (details below). It’s going to be quite different because… well, I haven’t written it yet. That’s where the patrons will come in. Qualifying patrons will be able to influence the story by voting on the actions of certain characters. Think choose-your-own-adventure, but with a group!
Anyway, I hope you’ll join me. Let me know what you think in the comments! Here are the details:
Hi! I’m Tim Meyer, author of KILL HILL CARNAGE, IN THE HOUSE OF MIRRORS, LIMBS: A LOVE STORY, and THE SWITCH HOUSE. I’m also a co-writer on the post-apocalyptic series, SUNFALL, and co-host of The Project Entertainment Network’s APERTURE HOUR PODCAST. I’m coming to Patreon to give you exclusive content and a unique interactive reading experience – starting with my serialized novel, PARADISE CLUB. Consider it a choose-your-own-adventure story where qualifying patrons get to vote on the actions of certain characters.
Welcome to Paradise. Sandy beaches. Crystalline waters. An all-inclusive resort with virtually everything you can think of. A true idyllic paradise.
Until some of the guests go missing. Until some of them end up dead. Something is happening at the Paradise Club that wasn’t on the brochure. Elliot Harper – family man and former FBI agent – is about to find out how fast paradise can become hell.
PARADISE CLUB is a serialized novel, written for Patreon first. It can best be described as LOST (tv series) meets THE BELKO EXPERIMENT meets HOSTEL.
So, if you want access to this exclusive interactive novel, monthly short stories, video updates, and sneak peeks at future novels, come join me here on Patreon.
Let’s get creative together.
– TM
$1 or more per month
*Get access to the interactive novel, PARADISE CLUB. (*At least* one chapter a month, 5k-word minimum)
*A Short Story every month. (1k-word minimum)
*Access to a quick weekly video where I talk about life, writing, books, movies, and anything I feel like. Which probably includes beer.
*PREVIOUS REWARDS
*At this level, you’ll be able to vote on the fate of the characters of PARADISE CLUB (majority votes wins). Choose their outcomes. Help shape them. Help them escape their fate. Or damn them to Hell.
*You’ll also get a special “THANK YOU” in the published version of PARADISE CLUB.
*You’ll also get a signed paperback copy of PARADISE CLUB upon its release, personalized to your liking. Or maybe I’ll write whatever I want on the title page. You’ll just have to wait and see.
*ALL PREVIOUS REWARDS
*You’ll also get to be appear as a character in PARADISE CLUB. You can lend me your likeness or just your name – your preference. Your fate will probably remain with me – or other people.
*Every 6 months, I’ll send you 2 signed paperbacks from my backlog. Your choice. Just a thanks for being a Maniac. And if you’re at this level, YOU ARE A MANIAC. That’s for sure.
$15 or more per month
You get all the previous rewards, plus, I’ll hold a monthly Q&A (video), where you can ask me anything about life, writing, books, movies, what my sock collection looks like, or anything that interests you.
This month on the blog, I got to interview fellow Severed Press author, R.F. Blackstone! This was a fun interview to conduct, and R.F. has some pretty interesting books available. Go check them out!
TIM MEYER: Let’s get started by telling people a little about you and your newest release.
R.F. BLACKSTONE: Hi Tim and thanks for having me on the show. I’m an Aussie shmuck living in Mexico City with my wonderful wife. I came from an interesting family; my Dad was a stage actor, teacher and magician with a natural gift for storytelling, which I inherited from him. And that is how I ended up writing books. Now you know and knowing is half the battle!…Yeah, I’m a big nerd but not in the Big Bang sense of the word. More like a proud to be a cinephile and aficionado of the weird and curious nerd.
KAIJU WORLD is my latest book from Severed Press and is a love letter to the giant monster movies of yore and Guillermo del Toro, plus a little bit of Michael Crichton thrown in for good measure. Imagine if you will, a theme park not populated with dinosaurs but instead city destroying monsters! That’s Kaiju World in a nutshell.
TM: What inspired you to write this book?
RFB: Well, for a period of time, a little longer than what you’d expect, I went through a giant monster movie binge. Godzilla, most of them anyway, Kong, Pacific Rim (love the first one!) and then I re-watched all the Jurassic Parks and the idea literally popped into my head, “What if instead of dinosaurs it was Godzilla?” And part of the reason for that thought was because in my opinion the Jurassic Park movies are actually monster movies. They say it in the first one and then in Jurassic World, they have to use animal DNA to fill in the holes, so these aren’t exact clones. And from there the leap to giant city destroying monsters instead was easy.
TM: Which writers influenced you the most?
RFB: Hmmmmm, damn that’s a hard one *strokes beard thoughtfully*…Well, definitely Guillermo del Toro (his The Strain series of books was great), Miguel de Cervantes annnnnnnnd John Carpenter (his scripts are amazing especially They Live and In the Mouth of Madness). Also Brian Keene and Don Winslow should go on the list too…Actually now that I think about it there are far too many to name but those are probably the most influential on me.
TM: What’s your writing process like? How do you approach each book?
RFB: Well it varies from book to book (isn’t that what all authors say?) It could come from a song, a random thought or even watching a movie or TV show and pondering about it. But usually I start writing notes in on of a plethora of notebooks I have lying around the house. (Free tip: always carry a notebook with you everywhere.) Then most of the time I write it as quickly as I can, not because of inspiration but because my attention span isn’t that great when it comes to the books I write. I hate having more than one project on the go. Naturally there is a lot of cussing and bemoaning of how terrible it is and confusion as to why I’m writing this story in the first place.
But, once it’s done I get editing quickly and the moment I’m happy with it I move on. One and done. Boom! Also, I’m not a major fan of multiple drafts, two at most for me.
TM: Do you plot or outline, or make it up on the fly?
RFB: Ah the question of the ages! The single most important debate to rage throughout time! Nobody can remember when it first started but it has been fought over since time immemorial!
I’m a little bit of both. Normally I’ll do a 1-3 sentence outline for each chapter and then discover my way through each one, makes it more fun for me and lets my characters breathe and grow.
TM: Do you do a lot of research for your stories?
RFB: How much is ‘a lot of research’?
No, seriously I’m asking…Okay, since nobody is going to answer that question, I’ll have to answer yours. It really depends on the subject, I mean I’m a fountain of useless information that I’m happy to pepper in each story. But for, example my first with Severed Press, BIG SMOKE was set in Havana, Cuba so I had to do a heap of research for it, streets, buildings and making sure it was based in reality before unleashing a zombie apocalypse on it.
With Kaiju World there was a little bit with just positioning of islands in regards to Japan. But generally I’m lazy and try to write things that I already know a lot about, unless it is something I think could really help the story, then I go all in.
TM: Do you prefer writing novels, novellas, or short stories?
RFB: Novels and short stories for the win. I haven’t done much with novellas just because once I get going, unless I have really limited myself with word counts, it is hard for me to stop. I’ve been self-publishing short stories (10,000 words each) and those have been a great little palate-cleanser between novels. And Novels are just amazing because you can deep dive into the world and characters and, well, let’s face it: Novels with your name on them look amazing on the bookshelf.
TM: What are you working on right now? Can you give us a brief synopsis?
RFB: I have a couple of novels and my first novella in the planning stages and one is soon to be started on. Basically, one is about a woman trapped in a country house being hunted by a demonic hellhound, think Cujo meets Hush (the movie). Another is a zombie apocalypse story that involves a 80s Action Star, a Food Truck owner and a secretary (side note: that one came from a song by the Misfits).
ABOUT R.F. BLACKSTONE
Born in the slightly off town of Newcastle on the coast of Australia, R.F. Blackstone learned how to survive life in the land Down Under where everything can kill you. The son of a stage actor, magician and teacher, R.F. Blackstone had an interesting upbringing learning to see the world in a different way. Now taking that slight skewed way of looking at the world and applying it to his writing.
He has spent 10 years writing scripts before trying his hand at novels. Currently he lives in Mexico City, where he enjoys tequila, tacos al pastor and pumping out stories.
BOOKS:
Tim Meyer 
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