My guest author today
is Anthony Hains, who wrote a great horror novel, Birth
Offering.
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Brian: Hi Anthony, welcome to my blog. Tell us about Birth Offering. What’s the basic
premise? And what compelled you to write this story?
Anthony: Birth
Offering is about a fourteen year old boy named Ryan Perry who has just
recently lost his father. He and his mom move to his grandmother’s coastal home
in South Carolina for a change of pace. Ryan isn’t thrilled with the idea, but
what can he do? Not long after the Perry’s arrival, Ryan is haunted by a
malevolent entity masquerading as his double. The hauntings become increasingly
dangerous with Ryan suffering injuries. It becomes clear that this specter of
ancient evil is intent on destroying Ryan. As if this wasn’t enough, Ryan
encounters an additional threat: two menacing boys and their caretaker somehow
connected to this other twin. Ryan soon realizes that in order to save himself
and his family, he must confront this unimaginable evil head on.
My inspiration for Birth
Offering came when we were vacationing on Edisto Island, South Carolina. We
(my wife, daughter, and I) spent a week there in August of 1995. At the time,
Edisto was not a crowd favorite like Kiawah Island, Hilton Head, and Isle of
Palms. Whole sections were undeveloped with beach houses and one relatively
small resort area. For all that I know, it may still be that way, which makes
it the best kept secret of the South Carolina coast. I hope so. One day we came
across the most beautiful road… unpaved and densely lined with live oak trees
that were shrouded with Spanish moss. Beyond the live oaks, there were
palmettos and other tropical kinds of bushes and trees. The impact of the
vegetation was practically cathedral-like. The oak branches met across the
road, and the sunlight barely peeked through the hanging moss. It was
breathtaking. My wife proclaimed it beautiful, and the only thing I could think
about was, “wouldn’t this be a cool setting for a passage in a horror novel?” I
visualized someone on the road being stalked, and then chased by something in
the vegetation which was gradually working its way towards the road. That
imagery stuck with me for years, and ended up in Birth Offering – almost exactly like I had remembered it years
earlier.
Brian: The islands off the coast of South Carolina sound
intriguing. I’ll have to travel there and explore them. Is anything in your novel
based on real life experiences or purely all imagination?
Anthony: Fortunately, the work is entirely based on
imagination. Of course, there are minor personal experiences that make it into
the book – like seeing the road in South Carolina which gave me the initial
idea.
Brian: I’m always amazed what you can come up with when you
tap into your imagination. What kind of research did you do?
Anthony: I tried to draw on my knowledge as a psychologist
to inform the emotions and behavior of my characters. So, I didn’t have to
research that aspect. For instance, my main character is a 14-year-old boy. I
am a pediatric psychologist, and have spent my career researching various
issues related to adolescence. However, when I came to sections of the novel
that involved some aspect of the plot that couldn’t be addressed by psychology
(and there were many), I was constantly searching the internet and trying some
personal mini-experiments to see if a certain sequence of events was possible.
Brian: Do you have a specific writing style?
Anthony: Since I am a psychologist and a university
professor, this means my writing style is that of an academic researcher.
Specifically, for the past thirty plus years, I have been writing empirical
research articles in APA format (American Psychological Association). In order
to write fiction, I had to be on my guard not to slip into scholarly manuscript
writing and instead wear my fiction writing hat. I am not sure what I would
call that style – since I am still trying to master it.
Brian: What books have influenced your life most?
Anthony: The most significant influences in the realm of
horror are probably the earliest ones. In my senior year of high school, two
novels came out nearly simultaneously: The
Other by Thomas Tryon and The
Exorcist by William Peter Blatty. While I had always been a horror movie
and monster movie fanatic as a kid, these two books more than any others
initiated me into the joys of reading horror. I still regard them as classics.
Since then I’ve enjoyed Stephen King for the most part, especially his earlier
works and, strangely enough, his very recent works.
In terms of non-horror, I can rattle off a number of titles
that moved me at the time I read them and still do today: To Kill a Mockingbird, The
Great Gatsby, and In Cold Blood.
Interestingly enough, I read these in high school as well. More recently, I
have enjoyed the three ‘Colorado’ novels written by Kent Haruf. His latest, Benediction, is an emotionally powerful
novel. Finally, Skippy Dies by Paul
Murray is probably one of the best books about adolescents. It is
simultaneously hilarious and troubling – and informed my fictional writings of
teenage characters.
Brian: Describe your path to becoming a published author.
Like many others, this was something I always wanted to do,
but I never saw it as a career. However, the initial “nudge” occurred way back
in my senior year in college when I took a short fiction writing course. For
decades after that class, I always tossed around plots in my head, and even
attempted to write once or twice. But, I could never sit still long enough.
Finally, about five years ago, I took the plunge and began writing fiction for
real.
Things really took off when we became empty nesters. I was
able to schedule regular times for writing and always had a plan to write a
certain number of words a day. I wasn’t focused on publishing the book, believe
it or not. I wanted to see if I could actually complete the task. Once I finished
a first draft of Birth Offering, I
thought “why not?” So I started investigating the idea of trying to publish the
book.
Needless to say, I was naive. The process was long and time
consuming – with tons of rejections for agents and publishers. Finally,
Damnation Books said ‘yes’.
Brian: Is writing your career or a hobby?
Anthony: I have a career as a
psychologist and professor. So, I cannot say I have a career as a writer too.
When I think of the word ‘hobby’, though, I think pastime. I wouldn’t say that either. I take it
seriously, and plan to continue.
Brian: How do you market your work? What avenues have you
found to work best for your genre?
Anthony: Like millions of others trying to promote their
work, I have turned to social media. I’ve created a web page where I attempt to
blog fairly regularly. I review other horror novels and novellas in my blog, in an effort to “give
back to the field”. I’ve joined GoodReads
and try to take part in some horror-themed discussion groups. My only problem
is that I do not have enough time to regularly contribute to those discussions.
There are some very knowledgeable readers in those groups, and I have learned a
lot from them. In addition, you will find me on Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter, etc.
Brian: Can you tell us something you enjoy doing when not
writing?
Anthony: When I’m not writing, I enjoy
relaxing with my family and reading (often horror stories, but not always).
Brian: Do you have any advice for other writers?
Anthony: I wish I had some profound
advice for other writers, but I really don’t. The cliché responses are the best
I can come up with. Stick to it, don’t give up, carve out time for you to write
on a regular basis – every day if possible, set a goal… Those are the things
that have kept me on task.
Brian: Is there anything that you would like to say to your
readers and fans?
Anthony: Thank you for taking the chance to read an unknown
writer’s work.
Brian: Birth Offering
was a great debut novel. Do you have a new book coming out soon? Tell us about
it.
Anthony: I just completed the editing process of Dead Works with my editor at Damnation
Books. Dead Works tells the tale of a
teenager in therapy because he is seeing ghosts. I realize this sounds like the
movie The Sixth Sense, but the plot
is considerably different. My professional life contributed a chunk of the
source material. The psychologist character is a graduate student in counseling
psychology who was working on his PhD. The young therapist is doing his
practicum placement at the university counseling center and he is assigned a
teenage client who is seeing ‘things’. I
regularly teach a Practicum course where the students are being supervised
while they provide therapy. Much of the context for the novel takes place
within the counseling relationship between the teen and the student therapist;
the story is told from the graduate student’s point of view. The book was a lot
of fun to write.
Brian: Sounds like a
great story. I’m looking forward to when Dead
Works releases. Anthony, thanks so much for stopping by and sharing about
your books. For readers who have yet to discover Anthony Hains’ horror fiction,
check out Birth Offering which is now
available on Amazon,
BarnesandNoble.com
and wherever books are sold.
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Anthony Hains is a
university professor in counseling psychology, with a specialization in
pediatric psychology – his research involves working with youth who have a
chronic illness. He is married with a daughter in college. Birth Offering his is first novel.
e-mail: hainsanthony@gmail.com
Twitter: @AnthonyHains
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Anthony-Hains/e/B00F5FYX0I/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
