My guest today is the talented writer, Justin Bog. I fell in love with the cover of his short story collection, Sandcastle and Other Stories, and just had to read it. I know you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but in this case I'm glad I did, because the stories are well worth reading. This is an author who has gone from being self-published to being offered a publishing contract recently. I would highly recommend this collection to anyone who loves great storytelling.

After reading his book, I was keen to interview Justin. He has generously offered to give away one e-book copy of Sandcastle and Other Stories to one lucky reader of my blog. To enter, all you need to do is leave a comment below or simply 'like' this blog post. A winner will be picked on 15th January 2013.

Here's my recent interview with Justin:


Sandcastle and Other Stories, is your first published book. Did you write the stories intending them to be a collection, or are they stories you wrote at different times and just put them together in a collection?







Some of these early stories harken back to one-page wonderings back in my grad school days, stories I didn't even submit anywhere because they were too raw and unformed. Over the years I would revisit some of them and revise, add, cut, mold, deepen character motivation and emotion, but I never felt like self-publishing. I did not submit them for publication the traditional way either. I told myself I was writing just for me or to amuse the occasional friend who said they would love to read my writing. These friends were few and far between. If you want to clear a crowded beach or cafe just yell out: 'I have a manuscript!'

After someone taught me what a blog was, I created my A Writer's Life blog to share my writing that way, and I put these stories up on my blog throughout 2011, polished them to my too-rigid standard of perfection. Being a perfectionist was the main block holding me back from sending the work out: when could the story possibly be perfect? As 2011 turned into 2012 I found that my confidence in my own work grew, that other readers and writing pals began to enjoy the stories as well. I hit the publish button in early May and the book found a readership and I am humbly grateful for everyone who has read them and let me know the stories stuck in their heads.

Most of your stories are written in the first person. Is that your preferred style? If so, what is it about writing in the first person that you like?

Well, I love writing in the first person if I can channel the voice or mind of that specific character. For the length of a short story, the first person point of view is easier for me to wrangle. I do like trading off between first and third person, beginning a story in each. Sometimes, when a character is very different from myself, with a separate philosophy, upbringing, age, gender even, the first person point of view allows for a vastly different voice to speak. I tried to alternate stories by point of view in the collection. The beginning and ending stories are told by older characters, bookending the collection. That being said, I also love the third person point of view, especially when writing suspense, where the tale becomes almost journalistic, a conveying of action, someone watching all the characters wander about. My first novel, Wake Me Up, is in the first person, but I also tried a few of the chapters in the third person just to see if that had the same urgency.

The theme of twins crops up in more than a couple of the stories in Sandcastle and Other Stories. I know you are a twin. Did you deliberately set out to write about twins, or is this something that makes its way into your stories due to your life experience, do you think?

Being a twin, having a fraternal twin brother, and a younger set of twin siblings, a brother and a sister this time, definitely is of interest to me. It's what I knew growing up. Twins are a part of three of the ten tales, and the use of twins is very different in them. In one, The Virtue of Minding Your Own Business, the narrator is a twin living a life filled with regret. The narrator in Mothers of Twins, is a new mother of twin boys, and she has her hands full, as my own mother and father did. I have an older sister of two years, and four years after my twin brother and I were born, the younger sibling twins were born -- I don't know how my parents handled five kids under the age of six, but they managed it. The most autobiographical twin tale is On the Back Staircase, where there is a family like my own, five kids, three pregnancies, two sets of twins, and parents who were teachers. I changed the gender of the twins, the main character, and these kids are not my brothers and sisters in the story, but I did use the old rambling 1895 red farmhouse with two staircases as a setting. The memories I have of playing hide and seek and "vampire" in that old dark house, when our parents were away, are wonderful.

I enjoyed the stories in Sandcastle and Other Stories, very much. I think they are all thought provoking and entertaining. Many of them also seem to have the power to surprise or shock the reader, especially the story Sandcastle. There is a dark side to most of the stories. Where does your inspiration come from for your writing?

Usually an idea hits me out of the blue: wouldn't that be interesting if . . . Or, a character, the image of someone, appears and I write about him or her, follow that character where he or she leads. My mind tends to drift toward darker themes, life moments, conflict between characters. Making a shock moment natural is the hardest task of any writer. It can't be gimmicky. I've read too many horror and suspense stories where something odd happens, but it isn't "true" to the tale or character; I don't believe it and I'm taken out of the story. The writer has to make me believe it. I hope to reach that state in whatever I write. Inspiration comes from so many different sources, films I love, books I read more than once, and these are usually in the suspense and horror genres. I love the scary books and films of the sixties and seventies best. Psycho, Rosemary's Baby, Carrie, The Shining, Marathon Man, The Auctioneer, Burnt Offerings, The Other, and many many more tales.

I understand that although you initially self-published Sandcastle and Other Stories, you've now been offered a contract with a traditional publisher. How did that come about?

Back in April I had yet to hit the publish button at Amazon, and I was spending every free moment editing and revising, writing the different sections of the book, putting the pages together, sending the book to beta readers, when the publisher contacted me. She had been reading my blog, and wanted to know if I had a book she could take a look at. I told her I was about to publish Sandcastle and Other Stories as an original ebook, and she wanted to read it so I sent her a PDF copy. Two weeks after I published Sandcastle and Other Stories she called and we met in a local coffee shop. A fun fact: She loved the story Mothers of Twins, and she herself is a mother of young twin boys; she and I share the same July 23rd birthdate, and we both love the color green. She told me that in addition to Gemelli Press, the publishing company she started years ago, she was about to launch a new publishing imprint to focus on Pacific Northwest authors and handle Adult and Young Adult fiction. She wanted Sandcastle and Other Stories to be one of the first books she published under the Green Darner Press name. She loved the book's cover, and she could see how well received the book was through Amazon. There would also be very little cost for the publisher to put the book out -- a bonus. It has taken a long half year to get the book to this next stage in publication, but it is nearly ready for its debut. The trade paperback will be published by Green Darner Press next month and I've seen the proof copy and I am stunned by how beautiful and playful the book has turned out to be -- inside and out. I can't wait to see the book in a bookstore.


At the end of the collection of stories, you have included the first chapter of your debut novel, soon to be released. Will that be published traditionally or self-published? And can you tell us a little bit about the novel.

Right now, I hope Green Darner Press continues to publish my books. They get first look under the contract for each title. Next, though, we are in talks to publish my new suspense novella, The Conversationalist, as a Green Darner Press ebook single. I will hear back in the new year about this. Then, after I tweak Wake Me Up, go through it one more time, I'll send it to them to decide. Wake Me Up is a psychological crime novel, a family drama, centered around the fall-out from a brutal beating in Missoula, Montana.

Who were your favourite writers when you were growing up?

Alexandre Dumas, Stephen King, Joan Samson, Ira Levin, Rachel Ingalls, Margaret Atwood, Richard Matheson, Peter Straub, Cris Freddi

When did you start writing?

Before I was a teenager. I wrote on an old typewriter, and loved it.

That's just reminded me! I had one of those old typewriters when I was about 7. They were great!




Apart from the new novel, do you have any other projects that you're working on?

I've finished a very rough draft of my first horror genre novel, something I'm tentatively titling The Shut-Ins, and it's centered around a virus, defensive in nature, that infects a small Pacific Northwest Cascade Mountain logging town. I also find myself at around page 100 in a new suspense story that has the requisite dread.

You've been busy!

Do you prefer e-books or print books?

I love both. I read about ten books at once, both ebooks and print. The ease of the ereader, with print size changeable, the built-in light, is a big plus. There is nothing like turning real pages though, and I get lost in so many great stories.

Do you have any tips for someone who is thinking of self-publishing their first book?

Love your work. Be the first to really love it, and make it into the best book you possibly can before hitting the publishing button. Don't rush the process. Just keep writing. Write, publish, and then write something new and publish that. Rest a bit, and then write some more. Become obsessed. Love your work.

Where is the best place for readers to connect with you online and find out more about your writing?

I am on Twitter @JustinBog, and I have an Author Page at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JustinBog1

I also have A Writer's Life blog, www.justinbog.com, and I try to always have free fiction up there for readers. I now have this year's short holiday story up, Bracelet http://justinbog.com/bracelet-holiday... as well as last year's tale, Seducing Santa, unused novel excerpts, and other recommendations in pop culture . . . I also have dozens and dozens of photos of my pets, two long coat German shepherds, Zippy and Kipling, and two barn cats, Ajax The Gray & Eartha Kitt'n.





Where can people buy your book?

Right now people can only find Sandcastle and Other Stories at Amazon's many different global locations. Here's the main Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Sandcastle-and-...

It will be available through your local bookstores in January 2013 and through the iBookstore and at Barnes and Noble by early February.

Thank you, Justin! I wish you continued success with your writing, and am looking forward to reading more of your work

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Remember, if you'd like the chance to win a copy of Sandcastle and Other Stories, please leave a comment below! Good luck!