Grayson Michaels
Fiction/Paranormal
Thank you for stopping in to meet a new author, Grayson Michaels. He's a multi-genre author who spends his day job keeping people and their homes safe from fires! Yes, ladies...he's a fireman! His first book will be release SOON and is a bundle of short rescue stories about his fellow first-responders. Future books are being compiled and formatted as we speak and they'll be in the paranormal genre! Get comfy and let's get started!
RH: Tell us a bit about yourself.
Grayson: I am a multi-genre writer
that has grown up in the inland NW my entire life. Much of my life has
been through a pen, and ending in the paper. I absolutely love the paranormal
and the ‘Unknown’ parts of life. I often reflect of things that can happen but
haven’t quite yet. I’m often spontaneous, and can hope from genre to genre with
as quick as the muse lets me. I’m a very open person and enjoy meeting new
people and making new friends. I do have a background in EMS/Firefighting, as
well as some background in law enforcement.
RH: What made you want to become a writer?
Grayson: What sparked my interest
to become a writer was 6th grade. I was going through a very tough time,
dealing with a divorce that made no sense to me. I had turned to reading as a
way to escape everything. That’s when I found my love for Michael Crichton, and
his novels. It wasn’t too long after that, is when I started writing. During
the same time period as a class we were doing a unit on the solar system. The
teacher had asked all of us to do a story about the solar system, and the fact
we had to write a short story and visit all of the planets. She said that
there’d only been one other student that had accomplished that. By time I’d
finished mine, I had gotten to read it in front of the class and got an A on
the project. After that, my love for writing bloomed and all through Junior
High and High School I stayed pretty grounded by either drawing comic strips
with a few friends of mine, or I wrote short stories in between by studies in
class.
RH: Please share a bit about your new release OceanView
without giving away any spoilers.
Grayson: The book that is getting
ready to come out is called OceanView. This is my first published novel and
am quite excited about it. This novel has been about eight years in the works
and is a continuous story. The story itself revolves around the Police/Fire/EMS
workers in the city of OceanView, California. Having previous experience in
Fire/EMS I thought it would be neat to take on a project like this. Little did
I know that this little project would eventually become my first book. The story
of OceanView deals more with the the personal relationships of the cop ,
firefighters, and EMT’s the city more-so than the actual job. Now, that’s not
to say that there isn’t action of the job involved with the story of OceanView but I thought the more human side is always more interesting to
look at. How these different types of personalities react with one another,
because everyone in this line of work has a very defined character. How the
different kinds of stressors affect a person or what they see on the job. To
me, that’s where the real story lies.
RH: What types of hero or heroine do you like best?
Grayson: The kind of hero or
heroine I like is the one with scars. The kind of person that may have had some
kind of experience with whatever is going on in the story and it takes a
constant facing of fears to get where they are at the conclusion. I think
having a flawless hero at the beginning and ending with a flawless hero at the
end is very flat and cookie cutter. If you want to draw your audience in, and
you really want them to get involved with the book they are going to have to be
able to relate with the character. Really feel the emotion of this character to
keep them interested in the book. But you could also start off with a hero that
chooses to accept their own reality but could become different by the end. I
like something that shows a reflection of change for the character or the hero
by the end of the story.
RH: Tell us about a typical day in your life as a writer.
Grayson: A typical day for me
involves a lot of brain storming. The Muse and I have conversations through out
the entire day, and sometimes the characters will talk planer than others.
Usually, when I started getting an idea then I let it play out for a little bit
in my head. I am not real quick to jump and start writing immediately, because
if you write the scene as quick as it comes to you, then sometimes you draw a
blank after words..So the best advice I can give to anyone is let the idea brew
for a bit. That’s what I do and when I have an idea then I write it down in the
notebook that I typically carry on me. It would be similar to pulling a cake
out of the oven too early before it was actually ready. I like to start the
morning off with a warm cup of coffee or tea to get the ideas going.
RH: Do your books have a common theme or are they all different?
Grayson: As a writer, I try to
keep my ideas open to anything. I think as a writer, that if you try to limit
yourself to what you want to write instead of opening up to what you CAN write
you only set your own boundaries, and as a writer I don’t think that it’s good
for anyone. Usually, I try to write realistic/fiction. Again, going back to the
beginning when I mentioned that I try to write about possibilities that could
potentially happen but haven’t yet. Though, on the next book that will be
coming out I write about the paranormal. It’s a subject I’ve always wanted to
write about and didn’t want to sound cheesey at doing. After I finished it and
looked back, the entire story is very pleasant. I cannot wait to get it off to
my editor so we can start getting the process going on that one.
RH: How long does it take you to write and then edit a story?
Grayson: With OceanView, it has
taken me almost six months to get it edited, the writing itself took me about
eight years length to complete it. The newest story, took me about six months
to write, and I haven’t started the edits on that one yet.
RH: Do you have to be alone to write?
Grayson: Yes, I have to be alone
to write or it seems I cannot get my thought process on track to get the idea
going. I used to be able to write to music, but even now with that I find that
I can’t write with music and that it has to be quiet in the room. To help with the
process, as my laptop is booting up and getting prepped I will brew a warm cup
of tea and settle in that way. Usually, with that cup of tea the ideas begin to
flow quite nice. Usually, I can get out five to six pages in a night. Though, I
don’t like to push the muse because she has a way of being nasty, but typically
on a good night I like to get at least three pages written, more if the idea is
flowing well. I don’t like to cut myself off in the middle of a scene or idea.
RH: How do you go about naming characters?
Grayson: What’s interesting about
me is that usually I get the concept of the character first, and then I get
the name later. I can always see them in my head before they let me know there
name. Some are more standoffish than others, but other times characters are
very open about who they are and what their names are. I wrote a blog about
character development and how I really look at my characters more as people
than just fantasy people. By the end of my books, I have grown quite attached
to all of them. The less desirables usually get there’s by the end. But all of
my characters mean something to me and it’s always disappointing to say good
bye at the end of the book.
RH: Is it easier to write about the characters if you find pictures
of them before you write or do you write then find character pictures?
Grayson: Sometimes I have to
research and find pictures for them. Other times, it’s simpler to just go by
off what they look like in your head.
RH: How do you pick locations for your stories?
Grayson: The locations in my
stories really have to fit the scene well. Usually locations are places I’ve
either been, had dreams about, or have seen on travels through the Northwest.
RH: You're also working on future books that fall into paranormal. Tell us about those.
Grayson: I don't want to give too much away but one story involves ghost because I love that side of the paranormal and another is quite different as it will be from a wolf's point of view. I'd love for your readers to visit my blog, my websites and connect with me on Twitter and FB. Thank you all for stopping in! Be sure to comment to be included in the drawing at the end.
Twitter: @GraysonMichaels
CONTEST: Grayson will be picking TWO winners, from those who comment, to receive an e-copy of OceanView when it is released so please leave your email addy and type of e-format.
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