Ask the Author: Michael Merriam
Answered Questions (11)
Michael Merriam
There was a woman in college. We were great friends and I was friends with her other friends. One day she simply vanished. No one would tell me where she went, I tried to find her, even drove up to her hometown, but all people would say was that she decided to take a trip and get away from life for awhile. I never saw her again.
Michael Merriam
I freely and proudly fly my thespian flag high and feel no shame about my choices. The same cannot always be said for the various directors who have worked with me over the years.
I think you might have meant neurotic writer. I can only blame the thespianism for contributing to this, though many a famous and obscure author have been neurotic.And possibly neoerotic. Possibly. But I try not to think too much about that after the whole Denver fiasco.
The cats have invoked their 5th Amendment right in this matter.
I think you might have meant neurotic writer. I can only blame the thespianism for contributing to this, though many a famous and obscure author have been neurotic.And possibly neoerotic. Possibly. But I try not to think too much about that after the whole Denver fiasco.
The cats have invoked their 5th Amendment right in this matter.
Michael Merriam
So I have this writing desk with a big monitor and a comfortable chair and all my research books and writing books and my trinket shelf and...
I usually write on my laptop, stretched out on the floor so the cat can sleep on my legs or I write in coffeeshops.
I do like music while I write. The bands/genres tend to match the project, so right now it's mostly alt-country and prog-rock. Neko Case has gotten me through a lot of this draft.
I also like to watch supernatural reality shows while write, things like "Ghost Hunters" and "Destination Truth" and "Fact or Faked?" and reality crime shows like "ID Investigations" and "Forensic Files."
I usually write on my laptop, stretched out on the floor so the cat can sleep on my legs or I write in coffeeshops.
I do like music while I write. The bands/genres tend to match the project, so right now it's mostly alt-country and prog-rock. Neko Case has gotten me through a lot of this draft.
I also like to watch supernatural reality shows while write, things like "Ghost Hunters" and "Destination Truth" and "Fact or Faked?" and reality crime shows like "ID Investigations" and "Forensic Files."
Michael Merriam
There is a little part of me that wants to write a ghost story set in the Antarctic. I want to take the southern gothic ghost story trope and set in one of the most desolate and remote places in earth.
Michael Merriam
I wear the unholy combination called boxer-briefs. Good support and air flow. Because the last thing you want to worry about as you're writing that novel is your underwear.
Michael Merriam
I had written a novella that was a literary coming-of-age pieces, which is weird for me since I am a fantasist. I had been kicking around a southern gothic ghost story set in a small rural town With Secrets and I had also been playing with an urban fantasy pieces about the malevolent spirit of an abandoned school. I went back to Oklahoma to visit the little town I had grown up in, now nearly a ghost town and it all clicked that the three novellas were really one story set over three different times.
Michael Merriam
I wake up.
Since Goodreads in its infinite wisdom thinks that answer is too short -
I wake up. I drink coffee. I shower. I brush my freaking teeth. I feed the cat. And then I write write write because I WANT TO WRITE ALL THE TIME!
Since Goodreads in its infinite wisdom thinks that answer is too short -
I wake up. I drink coffee. I shower. I brush my freaking teeth. I feed the cat. And then I write write write because I WANT TO WRITE ALL THE TIME!
Michael Merriam
I am writing a novel titled "Ghosts of the Places You Live," which is really 3 novellas woven together, set in rural Caddo County in Oklahoma where I get up. Novella A is set during the 1929 and shows the things that happen to set everything in motion, including the magic called into being. Novella B is set in 1976 and follows the actions and decisions that cause things to go off the rails. Novella C is set in 1991 and shows the characters dealing with the consequences of the past and trying to save—or at least salvage—the future.
Michael Merriam
Read a lot. Write a lot. Be prepared to fail. Be prepared for rejection. Grow a thick skin. Celebrate any success, no matter how small. Reach. Grasp. Fail. Fall. Get Up. Try Again.
Michael Merriam
I get to work in pajamas and people pay me money to tell stories.
Michael Merriam
I don't believe in Writer's Block. Sure, I get stuck, sometimes for days and it sucks, but I think what most writers consider Writer's Block is the writer putting so much pressure and stress on themselves that that sort of sieze up and then they let it become a self-fulfilling prophesy, or else they fall victim to trying to be perfect in the drafting stage and since they aren't perfect, they get stuck. YMMV.
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