Well, here we are. The last ‘scheduled’ 3Q’s. The reality is, I’ve emailed out the questions to a bunch of people and some simply haven’t got them back to me. Hey, it happens. I have a few Special 3Q’s coming up to coincide with book releases, but as for the daily ones, today is the last of those at this point. And I figured, why not go out with a bang! I decided to reach out to a guy I greatly admire and who is always willing to do an interview when I ask him – ME! Lol! The truth is, I’ve had people comment or DM asking when I would do one, as they wanted to see my responses. So, today – I ANSWER THEM ALL! That’s right. EVERY SINGLE 3Q’S QUESTION since the very first one, back with David Sodergren!
So, sit back, grab a snack and tell your friends and family to leave you alone for 3-7 minutes.
Let’s begin!
Steve: What does your writing time look like? Do you try and write at the same time each day? Do you have a word count you attempt to hit?
Steve: Hey, Steve, thanks for having me! Really appreciate it! I do all my writing during my breaks and lunch at work. I usually get a solid hour in each day. I mentally plot out what I want to accomplish, then once lunch hits, eat like a maniac and get sprinting! I don’t have a word count I try to hit, simply a target of where I want to get the story to from where it was. I can add or subtract in editing later.
Steve: Out of all your releases, do you have a character you could write about forever?
Steve: I would actually say I have three. Scott, the main character from my two Wagon Buddy novellas. Balder, a character that keeps making himself known in Piece of Me, a short story and the Piece of Me sequel coming at some point, and Jane from the Jane: the 816 Chronicles (which I re-released in An Endless Darkness: The Novellas). Those three have all been just wonderful characters… although Bruiser from Churn the Soil does seem to have become a hit with readers!
Steve: Tell me about your newest release and why someone should read it!
Steve: Well, my newest novel is ‘Churn the Soil,’ a cold-weather, folklore story set in the fictional town of Basco along the Yukon/Alaskan border. It follows police officer Brown as he tries to figure out what killed a girl in a sacred section of land. People have been enjoying it so far, it came out on February 17th and has some killer artwork from the talented Greg Chapman.
Steve: Bonus Question! Did you have a favorite wrestler as a kid?
Steve: Oh yeah, easily Jake ‘the Snake’ Roberts. I think partly because of the snake he brought to the ring with him, but also for the DDT. It just seemed like an honest and physical finishing move. A lot of the other wrestling finishing moves always seemed pretty lame, big elbows, dropping a leg on someone, etc, but the DDT seemed violent and something that would actually stun someone long enough to get the three count. I loved Jake so much; I named a dog after him and I currently have a Jake Funko Pop and a signed 8×11 picture of Jake (THANKS AGAIN J.R.!) staring at me as I write this response.
Steve: You decide to host a writer’s retreat. One weekend in a luxury house on an island. What three other authors do you invite to come along?
Steve: Hmmm… damn, tough question bro! I think I’ll go with three folks who have been hugely helpful and influential in my life – David Sodergren, Mason McDonald and Duncan Ralston. So, that’s who I’d invite. But I’d also need someone to lead the writer’s retreat, so I’d get Andrew Pyper to do that, and I’d need someone to keep us all in check and help us with our marketing angles and editing, so I’d also invite J.H. Moncrieff and make it a massively fun weekend!
Steve: You receive an invitation in the mail from one of these two people. The invitation invites you to have dinner and spend the night in their home. Do you accept the invitation from Victor Frankenstein or Dracula and why?
Steve: Easy – Dracula. Even though I’m not a huge consumer of vampire stuff – movies, books etc, I’ve always wanted to see and visit that part of the world and I bet his castle has some trippy hidden passageways and most likely even a werewolf or two.
Steve: You end up at an estate sale and discover an unpublished manuscript from an author you love. Do you keep it just for yourself or do you share it with the world?
Steve: I’ve always loved seeing how others have answered this question. Some have taken it as just a fun question, while others have considered it seriously and have looked at the ethical implications. I’m going to say, I would read it and then contact whoever is in charge of that author’s works at that point. If they’re still alive and this was acquired in a manner not on the up-and-up, I would absolutely be sending it back to them pronto.
Steve: Bonus Question! You wake up in a comic book. What is your comic book character and what is your superpower?
Steve: Kind of odd that you keep throwing ‘bonus questions’ in, but whatever. Well, when I was younger I always thought being invisible would be awesome simply because then I could go into the girls showers etc. You know, like a lot of pre-teen/teen boys dream. Now, I’d love to be invisible and whatever I was holding was invisible, so I could just sit and read or whatever and no one would know I was there! And maybe my invisibility also allows me to have like $100,000,000 in the bank because the government messed up and they paid me that cash to keep my trap shut, so I never had to work. Yeah, that’d be alright.
Steve: If you could write a story for another author’s fictional world/series, which would it be and why?
Steve: I’d actually go with Tracey West’s ‘Dragon Masters’ series that my son and I have been reading. They’re a ton of fun and I love how they’re filled with magic and dragons and problem solving.
Steve: Bonus Question! Do you have a cherished book?
Steve: You bet your ass I do! A few. A hardcover of The Neverending Story by Michael Ende. We named our son after the amulet, so it has special meaning for us. ALL of my signed Andrew Pyper books, but the hardcover of Oracle I have means a ton, because it shows to me that Andrew does completely trust my fandom of his work and meant a lot in terms of our friendship.
Steve: If you started a series and for some reason had to have another author finish it, who would you choose?
Steve: Oh, easy, David Sodergren. I think he knows my writing inside and out and while our styles are similar but different, he’d easily do anything justice and then some.
Steve: Bonus Question! If they made a movie about your life, what actor or actress would you suggest they get to play you?
Steve: Oh, look… another bonus question… As for the question, it would be Travis Fimmel. There was a time where we looked pretty identical, especially with hair style etc (ask my sister, Jodi) and I’ve often joked about my years playing his double on the set of Vikings.
Steve: You win the lottery, and the only condition is that you need to fund another author’s book to be made into a movie. What book would you choose to be filmed?
Steve: God, so, so many. ALL of Andrew Pyper’s books. ALL of David Sodergren’s books. I’d love to see Without Condition by Sonora Taylor or Crossroads by Laurel Hightower. WOOM by Duncan Ralston. Or Salvage. Anything from Christian Galacar. Broken Shells or Revolver by Michael Patrick Hicks. I’ll stop there or I’d go on forever. Oh, and Return to Dyatlov Pass by J.H. Moncrieff. OK, I’ll stop.
Steve: Bonus Question! If you could be an extra on any TV show, which one would it have been and why?
Steve: ‘The X-Files’ would’ve been amazing to be on. Just to say you were on it. Same with ‘Fringe.’ But also ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ or ‘Californication.’ Those would be sweet as well.
Steve: You’re riding an elevator and BAM! It gets stuck. What two authors (one living and one dead) would you happen to find yourself stuck with?
Steve: I’d say it would be very cool to be stuck with H.P Lovecraft to just ask him about his mythology. Not about his personal beliefs because he was clearly an awful human about most things. But it would be so great to ask him about all his creatures. And Daniel Kraus. Between his own work and his novelizations and working with big name folk, that would be so cool to chat with him. And also, he’d grill Lovecraft with me. Lovecraft probably smelled weird.
Steve: Bonus Question! If you were transported back in time, which Pop Band/Hit Band would you hope to find yourself a member of?
Steve: Well Pink Floyd would be fucking amazing yeah? But I’d say maybe even like Duran Duran or Tears for Fears. Or, if I wanted to keep it Canadian, I feel like The Spin Doctors went through the craziest of musical experiences and I’d been cool to be a fly on the wall seeing that whole thing occur.
Steve: What does your process look like once you finish your first draft? Do you immediately dive back into it, or do you take some time away?
Steve: In the past, I usually dove right back into it, but now, I have SO MUCH on the go, I work on something, leave it be as I work on something else and come back to it so that I can see it fresh and be a bit rougher on it and ignore my personal feelings.
Steve: You win a very prestigious award and are invited to receive it. The award is a bronze plated copy of the book that means the most to you in your life. What book is it and why?
Steve: Damn bro, good question. I’d have to go with ‘The Demonologist’ by Andrew Pyper, simply because what that book did for me and how it showed me what was capable as a Canadian writer.
Steve: Of the books or stories you’ve released, which is your personal favorite and why?
Steve: I kind of feel bad that I asked this to people, because now that I’ve having to answer it, I feel like I have to pick a favorite kid! YURI has always been a favorite (which has been re-released in An Endless Darkness: The Novellas) because I think I really nailed the tone of that novella. Wagon Buddy is a fine piece of work. The Window in the Ground I think is almost perfect. And The Stranger I think also nailed the tone and the ‘big picture’ aspect. Mastodon and Churn the Soil definitely hold special places for me, because I think I nailed almost all aspects in those two and I consider them a summer vs winter two set adventure/horror sibling pair.
Steve: Bonus Fun Question – You’re on a camping trip when suddenly a wild animal confronts you. You take off running and it follows. What animal are you confident in thinking you could outrun?
Steve: I’ve always liked the joke that I don’t need to outrun a bear, I just need to outrun whoever is with me. But in all seriousness NEVER FUCKING RUN FROM A BEAR. Honestly, most animals would outrun me, even when I was at my fastest, because animals run through that environment every day. I don’t. So, I’d have to go with something like a wild turkey or maybe an animal that can’t climb and I can get up a tree just high enough to not get gored. I’ve had run-ins with cougars, bears, elk and deer before, and in each one I knew that if I would’ve ran, I’d have been attacked or worse.
Steve: Do you believe cryptozoological creatures exist? If so, which one do you think has the best chance of being proven to exist?
Steve: Easy, yes, and Bigfoot. I think we have far too many people who’ve not spent any time in the mountains and have forgotten just who massive and sprawling in scope they are. You could realistically and legitimately get completely lost in a forested area the size of a city block and if you got disoriented, you would never find your way out. Now, expand that by say, the size of New York. Or Los Angeles. Scientists find new species all the time. I think, just knowing how MASSIVE mountains are (and I grew up in the mountains), it is possible for a hidden group of creatures like them to survive undiscovered. Remember, there are still tribes that live in the Amazon rain forest that are almost never seen and have no contact with the outside world. It’s possible.
Steve: Bonus Fun Question – What was the best practical joke you’ve ever been involved in?
Steve: I haven’t actually done too many practical jokes that I can think of. I mean, scaring people yeah. I don’t know if this counts but for years, we used to send my sister, Jodi to the basement first to turn on the lights down there so we wouldn’t be devoured by the monster under our stairs. We figured if she was attacked and eaten by the beast it would be no big deal.
Steve: What’s the one thing you’d change now if you’d have known it when you started writing?
Steve: For me, I think it would be to find a solid editor right away. I’m lucky that I did connect with David Sodergren not too long into my ‘career,’ but I still had some poorly edited releases in the beginning, which I’m now working on re-releasing and re-edited to not suck so much.
Steve: Bonus Fun Question – Would you rather be lost at sea or in the mountains?
Steve: Easy, mountains. You can find food, find water, make shelter, and survive for some time in the mountains. Not so much out in the open ocean. Plus, you gotta deal with exposure and dehydration out in the ocean and who knows what the hell lives down in the deep, dark sea. Any forms of teeth or tentacles might find you at any given time. At least in the mountains, I would know I was being hunted the entire time and would do my best to be armed with a spear or whatever I could fashion.
Steve: Great point! Thank you so much for doing this, Steve! I really appreciate it!
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Website: stevestredauthor.wordpress.com
Books: author.to/stevestred
Twitter: https://twitter.com/stevestred
Steve Stred - The Official Website 