Ask the Author: Alex Austin
Answered Questions (13)
Alex Austin
I once dated a woman whose brother was eventually discovered to be a serial killer. Somewhat of a stickler for marriage, he murdered unmarried couples who slept together. Why didn't he murder me and his sister?
Alex Austin
Two cannibal sentences met. THE SECOND ENJOYED THE FIRST.
Alex Austin
All right, I most certainly will.
Alex Austin
I'm elated by your question. The novel, which is now called End Man, is complete but still being by critiqued by beta readers, so I'll probably make a few more changes. A couple of literary agents have requested pages, and if one picks it up, then begins the campaign to sell it traditionally. If it gets sold, the publisher would choose when to release, which could be a year or two down the road. If an agent doesn't pick it up by mid-summer, 2018, I'll simply self-publish, which means it could be out in a couple of months. One of my problems is how to categorize End Man. It's science fiction, but it's also social satire, a comedic novel. If you'd like to read the novel as it currently stands (still somewhat in progress), let me know at alaust70@aol.com and I'll send it to you as a doc or PDF. Thanks again for the interest.
Alex Austin
Hi Jaus,
Nice to hear from you. My email is alaust70@aol.com
Best,
Alex
Nice to hear from you. My email is alaust70@aol.com
Best,
Alex
Alex Austin
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Night of Fire by Colin Thubron
A Man Called Ove by Fredrick Backman
Night of Fire by Colin Thubron
A Man Called Ove by Fredrick Backman
Alex Austin
Writing that scene disrupted my sleep on numerous occasions. When it was finally done, other scenes stepped in keep me awake. I'm a bad sleeper and I will get up at all hours to jot down an idea.
Alex Austin
There's usually an inciting incident. Something happens outside the normal patterns of daily life. It's not a large-scale event like the terrorist attacks in Paris or discovering water on Mars, but something small and personal. It stirs up emotion and gets me in a speculative mood: What if? That what if gets me thinking and writing.
Alex Austin
Read everything. Then you'll realize that you've been beaten to your story by decades if not centuries.
Alex Austin
A post-modern Victorian novel.
Alex Austin
Nothing is more dispiriting that to end a conversation with someone, especially an argument or disagreement, and minutes later to think of the perfect rejoinder to the other's contention. In real life you likely won't ever get the opportunity to use that brilliant come back again, but being a writer allows you to revisit the conversation fictionally and employ that perfect response.
Alex Austin
I'm not a first-draft perfectionist. My first drafts are messy, filled with errors and holes. There are positives and negatives in this. The primary negative is that I spend an enormous amount of time revising; the primary positive is that I'm not hesitant about writing. Writer's block is the fear of failing. I assume I will initially fail.
Alex Austin
The idea for Nakamura Reality was drawn from experiences near and far in time and space.
The closest friend of my son Chris is his identical twin Alex, but during Chris’s first years of elementary school in Los Angeles, a Japanese boy named Hideki ran a close second. Hideki’s sudden return to Japan confounded Chris, whose first response was to demand that we make him Japanese. Fifteen years later, Chris journeyed to Japan to live and work, separated for the first time from his inseparable twin.
In Tokyo he immersed himself in Japanese life, including joining a judo club, competing in numerous tournaments and earning a black belt. He also met and married—in a traditional Japanese ceremony—a Japanese woman named Masumi. When they returned to the U.S. with their son, they lived in our home for several years. Their stay was my introduction to many aspects of Japanese culture which included a polite reticence on Masumi’s part that conveyed much more than she actually said. Out of my son’s fascination with Japan and my efforts to decode Masumi’s intentions, a story was forming, though still unclear, like a morning swimmer coming out of the fog.
When my sons were somewhat younger than the twins Hitoshi and Takumi of Nakamura Reality, I took them to a beach in the aftermath of a Pacific storm. Though the waves were huge, I gave into their pleas and let them go into the surf and immediately regretted my decision. In their search for catchable waves, they reached a point where the currents seemed to take control, pulling them out to sea. I shouted, ran into the surf, and started a hopeless swim but was immediately knocked down by a breaker. Getting to my feet to try again I glimpsed them atop a wave. The sea was carrying them back to shore. Meeting them in the surf, there were no pleas to paddle out again for they too had been scared. They hadn’t felt guilty, though I did.
The memory of that day’s terror and the lingering guilt I felt would weave its way through a cultural experience to inspire and shape Nakamura Reality.”
The closest friend of my son Chris is his identical twin Alex, but during Chris’s first years of elementary school in Los Angeles, a Japanese boy named Hideki ran a close second. Hideki’s sudden return to Japan confounded Chris, whose first response was to demand that we make him Japanese. Fifteen years later, Chris journeyed to Japan to live and work, separated for the first time from his inseparable twin.
In Tokyo he immersed himself in Japanese life, including joining a judo club, competing in numerous tournaments and earning a black belt. He also met and married—in a traditional Japanese ceremony—a Japanese woman named Masumi. When they returned to the U.S. with their son, they lived in our home for several years. Their stay was my introduction to many aspects of Japanese culture which included a polite reticence on Masumi’s part that conveyed much more than she actually said. Out of my son’s fascination with Japan and my efforts to decode Masumi’s intentions, a story was forming, though still unclear, like a morning swimmer coming out of the fog.
When my sons were somewhat younger than the twins Hitoshi and Takumi of Nakamura Reality, I took them to a beach in the aftermath of a Pacific storm. Though the waves were huge, I gave into their pleas and let them go into the surf and immediately regretted my decision. In their search for catchable waves, they reached a point where the currents seemed to take control, pulling them out to sea. I shouted, ran into the surf, and started a hopeless swim but was immediately knocked down by a breaker. Getting to my feet to try again I glimpsed them atop a wave. The sea was carrying them back to shore. Meeting them in the surf, there were no pleas to paddle out again for they too had been scared. They hadn’t felt guilty, though I did.
The memory of that day’s terror and the lingering guilt I felt would weave its way through a cultural experience to inspire and shape Nakamura Reality.”
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