Ask the Author: Travis Hallden Holt
Answered Questions (6)
Travis Hallden Holt
This took awhile to answer because its a very layered question. There are always the obvious 2, 3 or 4 answers that will quickly come to mind, and many of those are common among writers. Creativity, expression and such. Then there are the buried answers that writers ignore, or are not fully cognizant of, like its muddled in some recess of the subconscious. Or it could be that the real answers are hard to face and we don't like to admit to them. After a long time of sitting on this question, my true answer crawled out into my full awareness and slapped me stupid. In all honesty, the best thing for me about being a writer is that it opened the doors to higher, more exclusive, elite, enclaves of the upper crust, well-to-do social strata, that I would not otherwise have access to. A type of "Starving Artist" syndrome perhaps, where it's okay to be a pauper because you're deep and you bare so much pain and emotion, and you have a medium to channel through and you so shamelessly express your catharsis that somehow others admire it.
Like it or not, there are social boundaries. You can't touch them, but you know they are there and they keep you in coach class, and standing in lines, and stuck in commuter traffic. But alas, being a writer gives you a pass to enter some of those elite groups. Not all of them mind you, but some. Like, for me, I was given a pass to enter and mingle and dillydally in the "Beautiful People" group. That's right. That's how I met my wife. I'll be Asperger honest here; had I not been a writer, my wife never would have given me a second thought. I never would have even landing that first date. It was my writing that wooed her, and touched her deeply. Stretched her thoughts and feelings, and got her attention. I'm not saying I'm a great writer, or even a good one, but I will say that at just the right moment in time, I strung together the right words for the right person and magic happened. I try not to overthink it. Anyway, that was the door into the major leagues and it was solely because of my writing and I unabashedly grabbed my writers pass and charged through. She is movie-star beautiful, artistic, intelligent, educated, spiritually attuned, and she graced me with her presence and attention. Jackpot. It was like I had climbed through the back of the wardrobe into another dimension. At that point I surpassed Ringo Starr as the luckiest man in the world. Sorry Ringo, it came easy.
Like it or not, there are social boundaries. You can't touch them, but you know they are there and they keep you in coach class, and standing in lines, and stuck in commuter traffic. But alas, being a writer gives you a pass to enter some of those elite groups. Not all of them mind you, but some. Like, for me, I was given a pass to enter and mingle and dillydally in the "Beautiful People" group. That's right. That's how I met my wife. I'll be Asperger honest here; had I not been a writer, my wife never would have given me a second thought. I never would have even landing that first date. It was my writing that wooed her, and touched her deeply. Stretched her thoughts and feelings, and got her attention. I'm not saying I'm a great writer, or even a good one, but I will say that at just the right moment in time, I strung together the right words for the right person and magic happened. I try not to overthink it. Anyway, that was the door into the major leagues and it was solely because of my writing and I unabashedly grabbed my writers pass and charged through. She is movie-star beautiful, artistic, intelligent, educated, spiritually attuned, and she graced me with her presence and attention. Jackpot. It was like I had climbed through the back of the wardrobe into another dimension. At that point I surpassed Ringo Starr as the luckiest man in the world. Sorry Ringo, it came easy.
Travis Hallden Holt
My current writing project has been shelved for a yet to be determined period. My current project in life is learning Spanish, and between that and the day job and all else, my plate is full. I like to keep a balance between imagining stories and actually living them. Adventures await me in Latin America. That part of the globe is calling out to me, and what better preparation is there than learning the native tongue. Of course I'm sure those adventures will inspire more imaginative stories which will be even richer having lived those experiences. Thank you for your question. Cheers!
Travis Hallden Holt
It takes very little for me. Writing is my joy. A few hours working my day job and I'm more than ready to get cracking on a story.
Travis Hallden Holt
Really get to know your subject matter. If you write about crime, ride around with cops, buy them drinks, ask to observe them in action. If your thing is legal thrillers, spend time in a courtroom (hopefully an interesting trial). If you write about lost love and tragedy, then go ahead and get your heart crushed. At least once.
Travis Hallden Holt
That's easy. Writing is my escape and there's always crap to escape from.
Travis Hallden Holt
In 1998 I interviewed an inmate convicted of one of the most brutal and senseless murders in Florida history. Within the sterile, cinder-block walls of a maximum security prison, a baby-faced, 15-year-old boy recounted that gruesome afternoon.
By all appearances, he looked the most unlikely of killers. He sat in my office with prison blues hanging loosely over his petite, lanky frame. He looked like a boy who should be bagging groceries or stumbling through school hallways hunched over by an overstuffed book bag. But that is not what made this case unique. Forty-eight times he had plunged a knife into the chest of a retired teacher, and even more unsettling was his unwavering insistence that those actions had seemed not by his own will.
He calmly recounted that he felt a presence in the room during the murder. He didn’t look directly at it, but he nevertheless felt it standing in the corner as though watching the ordeal. The boy also had an overwhelming sense that the presence took great pleasure in the murder, feeding off the ghastly scene. The boy further stated he didn’t feel in control of his own actions. He described it using the analogy of being in the backseat of his own mind, like an observer, and someone else was behind the controls, someone else was driving. In other words, the boy claimed he was possessed.
Spirit possession has occurred in all cultures throughout history, recorded as long ago as the first century. Even today, there’s no shortage of cases like this, with puzzling behavior that we can’t seem to wrap our minds around, and that generate more questions than answers. Of course, spirit possession isn't a legal defense. The boy’s “supernatural” account never made it to the courtroom, and didn’t have to since the case was not tried. It was what they call a “negotiated plea.” He had pled guilty in exchange for a life sentence without the possibility for parole. He had made no attempt to defend himself, and seemed glad to be forever locked inside a secure facility. What added to the peculiarity of the crime was that the boy had no priors. He wasn’t on drugs. And as far as I could see, he had no motive to commit this murder.
That interview was the initial inspiration behind Unholy Bargain. Based in part on a true event, Unholy Bargain is a work of fiction about spirit possession and explores the invisible, dark influences behind perplexing murders, contract killings negotiated in the spirit realm, and relationships that transcend the physical world.
By all appearances, he looked the most unlikely of killers. He sat in my office with prison blues hanging loosely over his petite, lanky frame. He looked like a boy who should be bagging groceries or stumbling through school hallways hunched over by an overstuffed book bag. But that is not what made this case unique. Forty-eight times he had plunged a knife into the chest of a retired teacher, and even more unsettling was his unwavering insistence that those actions had seemed not by his own will.
He calmly recounted that he felt a presence in the room during the murder. He didn’t look directly at it, but he nevertheless felt it standing in the corner as though watching the ordeal. The boy also had an overwhelming sense that the presence took great pleasure in the murder, feeding off the ghastly scene. The boy further stated he didn’t feel in control of his own actions. He described it using the analogy of being in the backseat of his own mind, like an observer, and someone else was behind the controls, someone else was driving. In other words, the boy claimed he was possessed.
Spirit possession has occurred in all cultures throughout history, recorded as long ago as the first century. Even today, there’s no shortage of cases like this, with puzzling behavior that we can’t seem to wrap our minds around, and that generate more questions than answers. Of course, spirit possession isn't a legal defense. The boy’s “supernatural” account never made it to the courtroom, and didn’t have to since the case was not tried. It was what they call a “negotiated plea.” He had pled guilty in exchange for a life sentence without the possibility for parole. He had made no attempt to defend himself, and seemed glad to be forever locked inside a secure facility. What added to the peculiarity of the crime was that the boy had no priors. He wasn’t on drugs. And as far as I could see, he had no motive to commit this murder.
That interview was the initial inspiration behind Unholy Bargain. Based in part on a true event, Unholy Bargain is a work of fiction about spirit possession and explores the invisible, dark influences behind perplexing murders, contract killings negotiated in the spirit realm, and relationships that transcend the physical world.
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