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Tuesday, March 24, 2015

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Vincent Macraven

1. When/why did you decide to become a writer?

I started to write in my  twenties  with a love for the written word and a good story. I became a writer with a love for  a story that could add richness as mine was with books. As well as a love for the creative process that is boundless, a story could go anywhere, anywhere, no rules, no boundaries.

2. What authors inspired you when you were younger? What books do you enjoy reading today?

When I was really young I didn't read. It was only later on did I start. An inspiration was " To Kill A Mockingbird." by Harper Lee which I read in a day. Thanks to my father. Then I fell in love with reading. Today I read mostly Literary fiction, horror and the classics.

3. What was the inspiration behind your novel Unsettling?

What inspired me to write "Unsettling" was my love for horror and the need to write about the darkness. To push it, to see how dark I could actually write.

4. Can you briefly tell the readers a little about your other works?

My other works range from short story collections that are filled with horror, literary fiction, thrillers and even romance. Some are reflections about life, touching on religious issues as well as mental illness. I have one book of poetry. And a novel, Testament of the dead, about a haunting, driving one to well deserved madness.

5. Everyone treats horror differently, and likes it for different reasons. Why does horror resonate so much with you?

I think I like horror because it has always been a part of mans soul. From Cain and Abel and mans first murder. The darkness has always been. A source of mystery and fear not knowing what is next and what one will find. When reading horror the mind expands with anticipation dripping with imagination with what is coming next? The fear as primal an emotion as love. And the darkness in one's mind waiting to be exposed in the light in a good story, great stuff!

6. Were any of your characters personalities or emotions taken from real life?

No characters but the emotions and fear, we all have ghosts and demons.

7. What other genres would you like to try your hand at?

I think I am writing in all the genres that appeal to me, I don't know if I would be any good at science fiction.

8. What would you do if you wound up as one of your characters in the three novellas that make up Unsettling?

If I were a character in my books I think I would keep my eyes closed, move forward and aim for the heart.

9. Your bio says you're also a musician. Does music influence your writing at all?

I think my music only influences me in the sense that I like everything in music from Led Zeppelin to Beethoven to Hole and Dave Brubeck. As in books anything from horror to literary fiction. From Stephen King and Joyce Carol Oats to Ayn Rand and Victor Hugo.

10. Would you like to see any of the stories in Unsettling as a film? If yes which one, and who do you want to see play your characters?

I would love to see any one of them in a film with anyone.

11. Where do you see yourself and your career in the next ten years?

To be honest I have no clue, hopefully happy with a little success and maybe a film or two.

12. What would you be doing if you weren't writing?

If I weren't writing I would probably be playing music or painting, which I still do sometimes.

13. Can you tell KSR what you're working on next?

Right now I am writing a novel about a teenager whose drug use has taken a dark turn with bad trips on acid, paranoia and demons abound.

14. What authors, dead or alive, would you like to collaborate with?

I would have loved to have collaborated with Dostoyevsky for his rich understanding of the depths of the human emotion and condition and Edgar Allan Poe for his rich understanding of the darkness and his mastery of the words.

15. Thank you for participating in the interview. Can you please leave the readers with three things that may surprise them about you?

I had to go to summer school for English or not graduate, I'm a poor speller and I'm a paranoid schizophrenic.




Find Mr. Macraven online via:

Amazon
Kirkus

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