Ask the Author: Michael Ransom
Answered Questions (7)
Michael Ransom
For Summer 2017 my reading list includes:
-FALSE FLAG by John Altman (almost finished, but this is like reading Homeland the TV series...just really suspenseful with characters who are absolutely engaging, frightening and endearing)
-GIVE IT BACK by Danielle Esplin (long overdue but so far every bit as engaging as The Girl on the Train- highly recommended!!)
-THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN by Paula Hawkins- yes I'm late to the event but am now listening to this on audiobook...this is mainly a study exercise where I'm trying to understand how deep to go into the mind of the character- she's done a masterful job here so I know I can learn a lot
- THE KEEP by F Paul Wilson- I knew of F Paul Wilson since my debut was published by Tor-Forge and knew that he's considered a horror master- I was blown away when I realized he won the Silver Falchion for Best Horror in 2015, the year before THE RIPPER GENE won it in 2016...so I wanted to read a classic of his
-ROSEMARY'S BABY by Ira Levin- I realized I'd never read it, only seen the movie with Mia Farrow- wow I just finished it- it's a very easy read, short but jam packed with suspense and wow what an ending- easy to see the screenplay writer coming through, just as David Morrel mentions in the forward to the 50th anniversary edition!
Others...
THE OCEAN at THE END of the LANE by Neil Gaiman
CELL by Robin Cook
THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH by Ken Follett
FRAGILE by Lisa Unger
CAUGHT by Harlan Coben
TROUBLE IS MY BUSINESS by Raymond Chandler
DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? by Philip K. Dick
A DARKNESS MORE THAN NIGHT by Michael Connelly
COVER OF SNOW by Jenny Milchman
-FALSE FLAG by John Altman (almost finished, but this is like reading Homeland the TV series...just really suspenseful with characters who are absolutely engaging, frightening and endearing)
-GIVE IT BACK by Danielle Esplin (long overdue but so far every bit as engaging as The Girl on the Train- highly recommended!!)
-THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN by Paula Hawkins- yes I'm late to the event but am now listening to this on audiobook...this is mainly a study exercise where I'm trying to understand how deep to go into the mind of the character- she's done a masterful job here so I know I can learn a lot
- THE KEEP by F Paul Wilson- I knew of F Paul Wilson since my debut was published by Tor-Forge and knew that he's considered a horror master- I was blown away when I realized he won the Silver Falchion for Best Horror in 2015, the year before THE RIPPER GENE won it in 2016...so I wanted to read a classic of his
-ROSEMARY'S BABY by Ira Levin- I realized I'd never read it, only seen the movie with Mia Farrow- wow I just finished it- it's a very easy read, short but jam packed with suspense and wow what an ending- easy to see the screenplay writer coming through, just as David Morrel mentions in the forward to the 50th anniversary edition!
Others...
THE OCEAN at THE END of the LANE by Neil Gaiman
CELL by Robin Cook
THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH by Ken Follett
FRAGILE by Lisa Unger
CAUGHT by Harlan Coben
TROUBLE IS MY BUSINESS by Raymond Chandler
DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? by Philip K. Dick
A DARKNESS MORE THAN NIGHT by Michael Connelly
COVER OF SNOW by Jenny Milchman
Michael Ransom
I'm actually working on 3 novels as potential follow-ups to my debut novel The Ripper Gene. The first is based on a referendum vote that my father and other ministers endorsed back in the 1980's to keep our Mississippi county "dry" (no alcohol sellers allowed). And what could have gone horribly, horribly wrong in that scenario. The idea for my second novel is based on finding out that one of the guys from MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE used to live near my current home in NJ, and I'll leave it at that. They are a GREAT BAND by the way, my #2 favorite of all time just behind THE CURE. Lastly, the idea for my 3rd novel came from some of the amazing advances in molecular cloning as enabled by the CRISPR/CAS9 genome editing system. So...that's where the vast majority of my ideas come from: my memories, my life, and my career!
Michael Ransom
I'm currently working on several different projects, uncertain of which will 'win the race' to become my next published novel (right now # 3 below is in the lead). I'm greatly enjoying writing these stories, which include: 1) a pharmaceutical executive forced into an unimaginable scenario that changes his and other's lives forever, 2) a young boy from Manhattan who must move with his family to Mississippi and discovers a haunted legend in the forests surrounding his rural farm-home, 3) a graduate student who discovers an incredible secret about the human genome... that the government does NOT want anyone to know about, and 4) a grisly murder in northern NJ that suggests the culprit is a creature of legend...or possibly, a laboratory experiment gone very, very awry.
Michael Ransom
Thanks Ms Laughlin! I am coming back to Corinth (not sure if you're still there) next week as part of a book tour from Nashville to New Orleans and it would be great to see you and other former teachers. I stayed with math for a while (began college as a Chemistry/Math double major) but as you can see ended up switching to a Chemistry/English major/minor! I am hard at work on the follow-up to The Ripper Gene, and plan to have it to my publisher by end of 2015, hoping it can come out 2016. All the best!
Michael Ransom
As the famed death row inmate once intimated, and which was swiped and slightly modified by the CEO of Nike in the 70's: Just Do It.
I'm focusing mainly on young aspiring writers in this Q&A. If you're older, like me (forties), then you probably already know that in theory, you can "just do it" anytime you want, but you may simultaneously be tied down with familial responsibilities, or any of a myriad of other commitments, that weigh you down as if you're standing in the middle of Times Square with a cruise ship's massive anchor chained to your ankle, angry lines of traffic and pedestrians honking at you to keep moving, trying to maneuver around you, as you look wildly around and beg to be released from the situation in which you find yourself... and you know that it's an impossibility, no one is coming with the key to save you, you have to figure this out on your own.
I'm not speaking to you. I'm speaking to the younger ones now, who haven't yet created those webs of networks and commitments and responsibilities to other people loved and for whom they care. The time is now. Go do it. Be a writer. Be a writer when the only thing you have to worry about is where your body will sleep and eat. Write like crazy during those days, and try to hit it big. Be motivated, write even when you don't feel like it, or when it would be just as easy to wake and bake with your good friend Mary Jane, or whatever you do, just write and then go beyond "writing" and don't just store up those manuscripts and let them fester- find a mentor, take classes, collaborate with friends, and learn HOW to Write and more importantly how to Revise. Why? Because you want other people to read what you write, and you therefore desperately need to learn Craft. And then, even though you're just a young one, barely a few days or weeks or months or years removed from being nudged out of the nest for the very first time and tumbling down to the ground while you flap those tiny little wings to no avail only to land in the soft pine straw below...
Submit that manuscript in its best possible form, find an agent, work with him/her to find a publisher...and try to become a writer early in life, and let it be your job until the day you die.
I'm focusing mainly on young aspiring writers in this Q&A. If you're older, like me (forties), then you probably already know that in theory, you can "just do it" anytime you want, but you may simultaneously be tied down with familial responsibilities, or any of a myriad of other commitments, that weigh you down as if you're standing in the middle of Times Square with a cruise ship's massive anchor chained to your ankle, angry lines of traffic and pedestrians honking at you to keep moving, trying to maneuver around you, as you look wildly around and beg to be released from the situation in which you find yourself... and you know that it's an impossibility, no one is coming with the key to save you, you have to figure this out on your own.
I'm not speaking to you. I'm speaking to the younger ones now, who haven't yet created those webs of networks and commitments and responsibilities to other people loved and for whom they care. The time is now. Go do it. Be a writer. Be a writer when the only thing you have to worry about is where your body will sleep and eat. Write like crazy during those days, and try to hit it big. Be motivated, write even when you don't feel like it, or when it would be just as easy to wake and bake with your good friend Mary Jane, or whatever you do, just write and then go beyond "writing" and don't just store up those manuscripts and let them fester- find a mentor, take classes, collaborate with friends, and learn HOW to Write and more importantly how to Revise. Why? Because you want other people to read what you write, and you therefore desperately need to learn Craft. And then, even though you're just a young one, barely a few days or weeks or months or years removed from being nudged out of the nest for the very first time and tumbling down to the ground while you flap those tiny little wings to no avail only to land in the soft pine straw below...
Submit that manuscript in its best possible form, find an agent, work with him/her to find a publisher...and try to become a writer early in life, and let it be your job until the day you die.
Michael Ransom
For me, there are two equally amazing benefits of being a writer that transcend time and space, and a third that is more immediate.
First, I thoroughly enjoy that sense of finally feeling a bonafide, mysterious kinship with all other writers, living and dead. In essence, I've finally joined a very specific subset of humanity whom I've respected for decades, ever since my teachers began cracking open the little walnut of my mind and exposing it to new ideas, new characters, and even new worlds...all created by those mysterious people otherwise known as "writers".
I'm equally buoyed by the idea that I will now transcend my own death in a tiny sense. That someone, somewhere, will one day crack open the spine of one of my books and read it after I'm long gone from the face of the earth, and find a new way to think, or experience a sort of kinship with one of my own characters, or simply be thrilled by a mystery. That is a powerful, exciting feeling and it's definitely another reason I love being a writer.
There is one more immediate benefit of being a (published) writer. I cannot begin to describe how many people whom I have never met nor will I ever meet, who have written reviews or in some cases even written to me, about how much they loved my book. That, too, is a powerful aphrodisiac for an author- to sense that you have now, finally, literally transformed into a very different kind of person than you were before. Previously, you could only impact people who came into contact with you or were within the range of your voice. And now? Now you can impact people thousands of miles away across the face of the globe... and if you're really tuned into it, you'll realize how important that is...you'll envision the tenuous, silvery web of your own creation surrounding the globe... and realize that for now and forever, each time you plink the string of your writing in one way or another, all those people will hear it.
First, I thoroughly enjoy that sense of finally feeling a bonafide, mysterious kinship with all other writers, living and dead. In essence, I've finally joined a very specific subset of humanity whom I've respected for decades, ever since my teachers began cracking open the little walnut of my mind and exposing it to new ideas, new characters, and even new worlds...all created by those mysterious people otherwise known as "writers".
I'm equally buoyed by the idea that I will now transcend my own death in a tiny sense. That someone, somewhere, will one day crack open the spine of one of my books and read it after I'm long gone from the face of the earth, and find a new way to think, or experience a sort of kinship with one of my own characters, or simply be thrilled by a mystery. That is a powerful, exciting feeling and it's definitely another reason I love being a writer.
There is one more immediate benefit of being a (published) writer. I cannot begin to describe how many people whom I have never met nor will I ever meet, who have written reviews or in some cases even written to me, about how much they loved my book. That, too, is a powerful aphrodisiac for an author- to sense that you have now, finally, literally transformed into a very different kind of person than you were before. Previously, you could only impact people who came into contact with you or were within the range of your voice. And now? Now you can impact people thousands of miles away across the face of the globe... and if you're really tuned into it, you'll realize how important that is...you'll envision the tenuous, silvery web of your own creation surrounding the globe... and realize that for now and forever, each time you plink the string of your writing in one way or another, all those people will hear it.
Michael Ransom
Most authors say "I just power through it" which doesn't seem too helpful to me. Even in those cases there has to be some sort of formula (or dare I say 'algorithm') they use to get started. There must be something that drives that very first molecule of ATP forward, contracting myosin and actin along a tiny fiber embedded in a key muscle in their hand or finger, finally forcing them to lift pen to paper or hands to keyboard...and ultimately overcome that writer's block down-time!
For me, if I'm stuck more than a couple hours, I resort to three very different options, in no particular order of preference. First, I try alternate forms. Poetry usually. There's no pressure, no one will ever likely read it, but it just forces me to get words on paper. Then I go back, and start staring at that novel-in-progress again.
Secondly, I'll do what probably most do- resort to social media. Social media is so much easier to do- it doesn't require plot construction, character development, consideration of character arcs, subplot development, etc. It's almost always Q&A, like this. So, I resort to social media.
Thirdly, I put the current project away and work on an alternative one. I currently have 5 novels that at any moment could sprint to the finish line and become the one I try to sell next. I honestly don't know which one will win. I want the next Madden book to finish first because I think we have some momentum from The Ripper Gene. But I'll have to go with the flow there. So, thirdly, I resort to other works-in-progress.
I hope that helps, or at least is a bit more info than "powering through it" or "tush in chair". Happy writing/reading out there!
For me, if I'm stuck more than a couple hours, I resort to three very different options, in no particular order of preference. First, I try alternate forms. Poetry usually. There's no pressure, no one will ever likely read it, but it just forces me to get words on paper. Then I go back, and start staring at that novel-in-progress again.
Secondly, I'll do what probably most do- resort to social media. Social media is so much easier to do- it doesn't require plot construction, character development, consideration of character arcs, subplot development, etc. It's almost always Q&A, like this. So, I resort to social media.
Thirdly, I put the current project away and work on an alternative one. I currently have 5 novels that at any moment could sprint to the finish line and become the one I try to sell next. I honestly don't know which one will win. I want the next Madden book to finish first because I think we have some momentum from The Ripper Gene. But I'll have to go with the flow there. So, thirdly, I resort to other works-in-progress.
I hope that helps, or at least is a bit more info than "powering through it" or "tush in chair". Happy writing/reading out there!
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