Ask the Author: Cyrus Alderwood
Answered Questions (7)
Cyrus Alderwood
Inspiration is everywhere if we just look for it. We're surrounded by turmoil and adventure. The best way to come up with a story is to ask one simple question. "What if?"
Cyrus Alderwood
Oh wow, I'd go to Middle Earth and find Gandalf and just hope to survive and make it back to my world with a few nifty photos.
Cyrus Alderwood
I have never had writer's block as most people would define it. To me, writer's block comes in the form of laziness. Some days you just don't feel like working on that next chapter even though you've played it out in your mind a dozen times and you're ready to work. Working through the laziness and procrastination is sometimes the hardest part of writing a book.
Cyrus Alderwood
In a word...freedom. Freedom to let your mind and imagination go anywhere it wants without reservation.
Cyrus Alderwood
Don't forget that you are first and foremost a WRITER. So...write. Don't lose hope and ignore your talent or passion if you don't land an agent or get a lucrative book deal. I self-publish and have been turned down by every agent that I approached. If I counted my success by book sales and publicity then I would be a complete failure. Success is when someone reads one of my books and then emails me about how much they laughed, or about how much they enjoyed the story. Put away all the distractions of the actual business and write...write for you.
Cyrus Alderwood
Actually, I'm working back and forth between two projects at the moment. One has a working title of Southern Rain, which is a bit of a redemption/coming of age story with two best friends, one of which has to deal with betrayal. Listen to the song Pancho and Lefty by Willie Nelson and you'll get a hint of what the story is about. It is certainly something new and outside of any genre I have written in to date.
The second project is another comedy called Tales From the Sunset Pub. It actually highlights some interesting characters I used to run into on a regular basis at the bar of the same name in Cincinnati. Of course (for that that might be worried) it is a work of fiction. I'm not writing a tell all book to get anyone in trouble...except for maybe Doug and Helen. Ha! Just kidding.
The second project is another comedy called Tales From the Sunset Pub. It actually highlights some interesting characters I used to run into on a regular basis at the bar of the same name in Cincinnati. Of course (for that that might be worried) it is a work of fiction. I'm not writing a tell all book to get anyone in trouble...except for maybe Doug and Helen. Ha! Just kidding.
Cyrus Alderwood
My most recent book (coming out this week) is titled "A Man Called Doosh." It is about a guy in his mid-twenties and his pregnant wife that are surviving in this economy, like most recent college grads. Eddie Duchesne has a job he's not thrilled with and isn't doing what he hoped for since coming out of college. The bills are mounting and suddenly their healthcare plan gets cancelled and to get another they have to pay double the premium, which they can't afford. So Eddie, aka The Doosh, decides to take a weekend job chasing a childhood dream of being a wrestler. It's a slapstick comedy that I ripped right from the headlines of today's news. Young people aren't getting the jobs they wanted in this economy, they are struggling, student loans are due, and many still haven't had the ability to afford to leave home. This book is a comedy that just tries to deal with those issues as the main character tries to hang onto the concept of "dreams" instead of becoming bitter in this less than friendly economy.
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more