Author Interview: Shane Wilson

A Year Since The Rain by Shane Wilson 

Release Date: 15th March 2016
Publisher:  Snow Leopard Publishing

Genres: Contemporary Fiction

I am delighted to welcome Shane Wilson to the blog for the first time. Welcome Shane and thank you for agreeing to be interviewed today.

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

Do you write under your real name or is this a pen name you use? 

This is all me—100% uncut. No pen names.

Where are you from?

I’m currently living in the Sandhills of North Carolina, but I was born in Alabama and raised in Georgia. So I’ve been bouncing around the southeast my whole life.

List 3 interesting facts about yourself. 

1.       I put myself through college as a mobile disc jockey and karaoke jockey. My DJ name was—wait for it—DJ Biscuit.

2.       I grew up with a video camera in my hand. I would recruit the neighbourhood kids—anybody really—to be in my movies. Sometimes the concepts were original. Sometimes we would just make new Star Wars movies.

3.       I withdrew from a Ph.D. program because I decided I like myself too much to do that to myself. I’ve known many people change and lose themselves in those programs. Others come through unscathed. I didn’t want to risk it.

What was the first thing you ever had published?

The first thing I ever had published was a creative non-fiction piece called “Just Past the Yellow Sign.” It was about my father’s heart surgery.

Do you have a writing routine?

Not a very strict and regimented one, no. I kind of just write when I find a minute. I hate writing in the morning because I hate any activity that starts before 10 AM. I’m a teacher, so I can get a little more strict (and I do) during the summer months. During those months, it’s a “Wake up by 10:00, start writing by 11:00, write until you can’t anymore, then read” situation. I get a lot of work done over the summer.

Do you have any writing rituals? 

During the school year, before I write, I play a little Xbox. It serves as a palette cleanser from the day and the stuff I deal with at school. After I get all of that out of my system, I like to write with instrumental rock music (or thematically-appropriate-to-whatever-I’m-writing music) on in the background. I will also usually have a glass of bourbon over ice to help ease the words out.

Where did the idea for your most recent book come from?

I honestly don’t know. I know the title came from a break-up. The last day I had seen this girl that was pretty significant to me at the time was a really rainy day. In fact, most of the days I had spent with her had been rainy—driving us inside toward one another. It was one of those doomed situations, though, and one day—the day I was leaving town—was the last, and it was raining. A year later, nearly on the anniversary, I wrote the title on a sheet of paper in my journal. I thought that “A Year Since the Rain” would be a poem, but it continued to grow and grow until it became a book.

Who was the first person you shared your book with? 

Even though Bukowski would find fault with this, I shared it first with my supportive and loving girlfriend. As supportive and loving as she is, she didn’t hesitate to give me some very valuable feedback.

Do you have a current work in progress?

I do. It’s another magical realism book about music and rock bands. I’m not ready to say anything else.

Do you have any advice for budding authors?

Just write. Don’t worry about the stuff that happens when the story is finished. If you focus on all of that (submission, rejection, etc.), you’ll never set about doing the actual business of writing.

About the Author

 Born in Alabama and raised in Georgia, Shane is a child of the southeastern United States where he feels simultaneously at-home and out-of-place. He graduated from Valdosta State University in south Georgia with a Masters in English. He taught college English in Georgia for four years before moving to North Carolina in 2013. 

No matter the temperature outside, there is always an iced coffee in his hand when he walks into class in the mornings. He tends to chase the day with a whiskey and a re-run of The Office.

A Year Since the Rain is Shane’s debut novel. He has also published poetry in Tethered by Letters and the Stonepile Writers' Anthology, Volume III. He is currently at work on a new novel as well as a collection of short stories based on the mythos of and set in the same town as A Year Since the Rain.

Author links  

Website: www.shanewilsonauthor.com
Blog: www.virtualnapkins.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/shanewilsonauthor
Twitter: www.twitter.com/a_shanewilson
Instagram: www.instagram.com/a_shanewilson

Book Blurb

Alan —a heart-broken and stubborn computer programmer—took much in his life for granted, including the vast supply of water in his town. But when the rains stop falling and the rivers dry up, he begins to realize how temporary it all can be. His life begins to unravel as, across town, a sinkhole threatens to swallow every bit of the place he has come to call home.

Taken on a journey of self-discovery by the magical women in his life, Alan is drawn into an unexpected affair and comes face-to-face with a Mystic who walks through his dreams. For Alan, dreams become a new reality, and reality erodes into something of a dream. As his town transforms into an arid wasteland that crumbles beneath his feet, Alan is compelled by the inevitable to strike out into the unknown or perish.

Buy Links 

From the publisher: http://www.snowleopardpublishing.com/#!product-page/iil1o/e227aab1-190e-f895-8686-89f2b167fbd1

Ebook From Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Year-Since-Rain-Shane-Wilson-ebook/dp/B01D1WD9Z6

Paperback from amazon: www.amazon.com/Year-Since-Rain-Shane-Wilson/dp/1944361081/