William’s Bio:
William VanderHorst is a Georgia native who has spent most of his life in the mountains of Rabun County. An avid hiker and lover of the outdoors, he spends much of his free time filming the many waterfalls of the Appalachian Mountains as well as gardening. Making a living in manufacturing, he juggles his time to allow for his creative side to flourish. A lover of and writer in fantasy, science fiction, and horror, he dreams of one day joining the ranks of J. R. R. Tolkien, J. K. Rowling, and Stephen King.
Having taken to writing since his early years in high school, William has a number of projects under his belt including a dark fantasy, five book series titled The Symphony of Shadows as well as a new horror series titled Feral America. Along with his list of self-published works, he has also been named an honorable mention in the Writers of the Future short story contest on three consecutive entries.
William currently lives in the beautiful north Georgia mountains with his wife and their two sons.
----------interview with Sue Bradford Edwards----------
WOW: What was your inspiration for “Monsters Are Not Real?”
William: My inspiration for most of my stories and novels come from a lifelong love of anything fantasy or science fiction. Everything from tabletop gaming in Dungeons and Dragons, books by the greatest fantasy minds in the business, and movies that brought those books to life. Anything I can roll around in my head for a while could one day work its way onto paper.
WOW: Revision is such a big part of the writing process. How did your story change from first draft to the version you submitted to the WOW! flash competition?
William: Honestly, the finished product was the first draft for this story in question. I sat down with an image in my head and tried to describe what I was feeling as I placed myself in the scene. When I was finished, I reread the scene several times. In the end, I was satisfied and I felt like it captured the feelings I would have were it me in the place of the character.
WOW: I'm not ashamed to say it. Considering that was draft one, I'm a little jealous! We never learn the name of the narrator. Why did you decide to withhold that piece of information? What do you want readers to discern about him from the story?
William: My hope was that by leaving the narrator anonymous, the reader would be able to put whoever they wanted in the place of the soldier. Some of my favorite works have been those that allow me to imagine myself as either the hero or the villain when I am reading.
WOW: I love a good villain. You’ve created both novel length work and flash. What advice do you have for writers who are working to write in multiple forms?
William: For the longest time, I was only interested in writing novels and full length stories. I started to realize that by focusing on only writing longer works, I found myself regularly hitting blocks or stumbling even with chapters I had diligently planned beforehand. Once a friend suggested trying my hand at writing short stories for numerous competitions, I realized that taking small breaks helped to clear my head and keep creative juices flowing.
WOW: Excellent advice! You’ve chosen to self-publish your novels. What do you wish someone had told you about self-publishing that you would like to share with our readers?
William: For me, my initial dream was to be picked up by an excellent agent and shown to every large publisher in the business but as time went by, I began to set more realistic goals for myself. I realized it was more important to me to get my stories out to an audience than it was to chase the allure of fame. With self publishing that dream became a reality. Out of everything, I would say the biggest hurdle with self publishing is that you are also in charge of marketing and distributing your work. This can be challenging but worth the effort in the end.
WOW: I know that our readers will be heading over to Amazon to check out your work, so I'll make it easy for them to just click here. Thank you for taking time to discuss your process and your enthusiasm for science fiction and fantasy with us!
No comments:
Post a Comment
We love to hear from readers! Please leave a comment. :)