Thursday 18 April 2013

Author Interview – Jeffrey Gunhus


Tell us a bit about your family. I am the father of five, four boys and one girl. My oldest son, Jack, inspired me to write this book. He was a reluctant reader and I wrote Jack Templar Monster Hunter in an effort to get him excited about reading. It worked!
What is your favorite quality about yourself? I’m pretty good about putting my head down and getting the work done, regardless of what it is. This has proved useful in both building a national company and putting in the hours needed to write novels.
What is your least favorite quality about yourself? High expectations. I find it hard to believe I can’t accomplish something if someone else has already done it. Harry Potter? I can do that. See, it’s nuts!
What are you most proud of accomplishing so far in your life? Certainly, my family is the most important thing to me. Professionally, I’m a co-owner of a company I grew from a small business based in California to a national, $50 million enterprise. That was pretty fun.
What is your favorite color?  Blue.
What is your favorite food? Pizza. Pepperoni and pineapple.
What’s your favorite place in the entire world? Home.
How has your upbringing influenced your writing? I grew up overseas without a TV so books were my refuge. Tolkien blew my mind when I was 10 years old and I’ve been living with one foot in Middle Earth every since.
Do you recall how your interest in writing originated? I wanted my favorite books to continue so I wrote the next chapter after they ended. I discovered it was even more fun than reading because the images were even stronger and the characters still surprised you by what they did.
When and why did you begin writing? I won a state award in Colordo when I was 12. With that kind of feedback, I was hooked.
How long have you been writing? Since I was a kid. It’s cheap therapy.
When did you first know you could be a writer? When I discovered I liked doing it so much that I didn’t care if I wrote only for myself. It’s just great living in a different world for an hour or two each day. It’s great fun.
What inspires you to write and why? I love the power of story throughout history and honor that tradition. But it’s really just a selfish impulse to have fun with the story and play god with the characters.
What genre are you most comfortable writing? I enjoy several genres which keeps the writing fun. My recent work on MG/YA fantasy has been a lot of fun.
What do you consider the most challenging about writing a novel, or about writing in general? Patience. There are always scenes or set pieces I know will anchor the piece, but that it only works if you build characters people care about. That takes care and time and it’s not easy to do.
Did writing this book teach you anything and what was it? I wrote this for my reluctant reader son so I knew I needed to make it as fast-paced as possible. The reviews has been great but one throughline in them has been a desire of readers to know the characters bettter, leading me to believe that I may have moved too fast. Book 2 dives more deeply into the characters.
Do you intend to make writing a career? That makes it sound like work! I love being an entrepreneur too much to give up my “day job” but I will continue to carve out time to write until I can’t type or hold a pen any longer.


Buy Now @ Amazon
Genre – Middle Grade / YA Fantasy
Rating – PG
More details about the author & the book
Connect with Jeff Gunhus on Facebook & Twitter


No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...