Ask the Author: Justin Swapp
Answered Questions (8)
Justin Swapp
There once was a woman who lived in a shoe. When she took the job, no one bothered to tell her they never change the sock.
Justin Swapp
A lot of things, I suppose. First of all, storytelling is fun. There's a certain euphoria you get when you successfully connect story elements together in a way that not only pleases you, but tickles your readers, too. Secondly, when you start writing seriously, you just, well, need to get the story out. It's like story inertia... you get excited about an idea, and it takes up so much of your thinking that it takes on a life of its own. You just have to finish it.
Justin Swapp
Probably Hogwarts from the Harry Potter series. I love the world that J.K. Rowling came up with. It's so rich with detail and tradition.
Where would I go? I'd obviously visit Hogwarts, the castle. If I could manage to find it, I'd get lost in the room of requirement. Of course, that's only after I had a nice meal prepared by the magical house elves.
What would I do there? I'd set about creating magical portals from the room of requirement to all the various hot spots in the wizarding world. Then, I'd charge students a fee to get in and out of where they wanted to go, and require that they share their adventures with me so that I could write them down and tell their stories.
Where would I go? I'd obviously visit Hogwarts, the castle. If I could manage to find it, I'd get lost in the room of requirement. Of course, that's only after I had a nice meal prepared by the magical house elves.
What would I do there? I'd set about creating magical portals from the room of requirement to all the various hot spots in the wizarding world. Then, I'd charge students a fee to get in and out of where they wanted to go, and require that they share their adventures with me so that I could write them down and tell their stories.
Justin Swapp
I'm just starting The Six-Gun Tarot, The War of Art, The Night Gardener, Stoneheart, and a few others. Lots to read/listen to :)
Justin Swapp
Mulder and Skully from the X-Files. I love how they were so different, and yet, over the course of the series their interests, and truth-seeking converged. There's also that implied forbidden love thing :) I loved their relationship.
Justin Swapp
The Shadow's Servant (sequel to The Magic Shop) book 2 in the Shadow Magic Series, comes out early 2016 / In the Spring.
Justin Swapp
You write your way out of it. Doesn't matter what you write, but you write something.
Justin Swapp
I was working on another (unreleased) book, and got stuck. Someone in my writer’s group was in the same situation, and she had decided to leave her work in progress behind, and to start on a new book. She encouraged me to do the same, but I was reluctant.
One night, I was watching an episode of Fringe (a good Sci-Fi show), and I was thinking about twisting a sci-fi theme and turning it fantasy. There was a great scene about a pawnshop, and a universal soldier entering and asking the shopkeeper for “the back room.” For whatever reason, that stuck with me. So, I wrote a scene about a young boy that had to miss out on an afternoon of Basketball (my favorite sport) because he had to watch his grandparent’s shop. As he was sulking, a stranger comes in, and asks for “the back room.” They have a strange interaction, and Marcus discovers that there is a shop within the shop, filled with real magical items. Although he did it with good intentions, Marcus sells something that he wasn’t supposed to and thus commences a crazy adventure to set things right in a world he never knew existed.
One night, I was watching an episode of Fringe (a good Sci-Fi show), and I was thinking about twisting a sci-fi theme and turning it fantasy. There was a great scene about a pawnshop, and a universal soldier entering and asking the shopkeeper for “the back room.” For whatever reason, that stuck with me. So, I wrote a scene about a young boy that had to miss out on an afternoon of Basketball (my favorite sport) because he had to watch his grandparent’s shop. As he was sulking, a stranger comes in, and asks for “the back room.” They have a strange interaction, and Marcus discovers that there is a shop within the shop, filled with real magical items. Although he did it with good intentions, Marcus sells something that he wasn’t supposed to and thus commences a crazy adventure to set things right in a world he never knew existed.
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