For my February Interview, I chose another friend and mentor of mine, Christopher Broom. He is one of the many authors in the recently released “A Journey of Words,” published by Scout Media. Christopher is an Award-winning author.

What made you want to be a writer?

That’s a good question. I suppose we should all be answering, what do we bring to the literary table? I suppose when I began, all those years ago, it was for very selfish reasons. I didn’t like my life. I was alone, a mother who didn’t care whether I was alive or dead, barely any food, no clean clothes for weeks at a time. A pretty grim scene all in all. But, I had my books. Hand me downs mostly. Children’s books, middle grade books, even high school, collegiate and adult books. I took them all and lost myself in them. I have always been an advanced reader and that love for the written word turned into a passion for my own writings.

I began at a very young age, around second grade where I wrote a simple little story called “The City.” The story involved myself and my step-father as we drove around the country, he was a truck driver. As the years went by, I dabbled in more serious writing and found a modicum of successes over the years and a ton of rejection. But I never let it stop me and here we are.

But, let’s go back to my earlier question, what do we bring to the literary table? I’m sure the answer is different to everyone. For me however, I like to think I bring a sense of literary culture to table. Many people are content to pound out some sentences, form a semi-coherent narrative and bask in the mediocre praise of their peers. I however, obsess over every word, every sentence. My works are a testament to literary elites. I want every story to be something you go to sleep at night thinking about. I want to build my stories with beautiful language, deep and meaningful themes that are carefully maneuvered throughout the narrative, I want to use every literary trick in the book in order to construct works that will last well beyond my lifetime.

That’s what made me want to be a writer and what I bring to the literary table.

Most Indie Authors have day jobs beyond their writing. Do you, and if you do, how do you balance writing, work, and life in general?

Yes, I work a dull day job in order to support myself and my family. I work as a document editor for an international law firm. Sound exciting? It’s not. I spend my nights hunched over a tiny desk looking for errors in a myriad of different legal documentation. But hey, the pay is good.

But how do I balance work, my family, the Academy, my own writing and editing jobs for clients? Very carefully and sometimes not very well. I’m exhausted a lot. I barely sleep more than four or five hours straight per day. Every free moment I do get is spent working on my phone answering questions from clients, finding lessons for the members of the Academy, proof reading the works of young and budding writers and generally being my cranky self. But hey, someone’s gotta do it.

In the book A Journey of Words your short story is titled Dream Runners. What was your inspiration in writing it?

Funny story about Dream Runners – I was actually playing a video game and the game had a similar mechanic in which characters could get high and hallucinate about their dead loved ones. While I appreciated the narrative trick the game was trying to use, I kept thinking, “I can do this better.” So, that inspiration became the basis for Dream Runners. If you’ve read the story, then you know it involves a man named John Morrison who can enter his memories and does so but it comes at a high price. What’s that price? Well, that’s open to interpretation and many of my fans have alluded that John dies at the end of the story and I won’t confirm or deny that.

Do you have any projects coming up that we should keep an eye out for?

So many. Currently my main focus is my debut fantasy novel, The Godkiller Chronicles. Set in the world of Immur, The Godkiller Chronicles focuses on the state of the world after a vengeful God in the form of a Wolf fell from the heavens and begun an invasion. Several years later, reports of the Wolf’s essence has been fragmented and now inhabits vessels all over the world. That’s all I’ll say right now. You can check out a chapter over on my blog, CRLiterary.wordpress.com.

Do you have any advice for writers that are just starting out?

Listen to the advice of those who come before you. We’ve all struggled, we’ve all dealt with harsh critics and we’ve all wanted to quit at some point. Also, never be so arrogant to think that your first draft is perfect. It’s not, it sucks. Keep writing, keep re-writing and READ. Please for the love of everything literary, read.

Thank you.

You can find more about me, my works and my books on my Facebook authors page and the following platforms.

Facebook.com/ChristopherBroom-Author

CRLiterary.wordpress.com

@Cbroom_Author (Twitter)

The Writing Academy on Facebook.