The Author Interviews, Round 1: #2: Peadar B. O’Dea

The Author Interviews 2017 continues withPeadar B. O’Dea, writer ofThose Who Walk By Night.You are living in the world from your latest novel. Where are you? What is it like?I would be imprisoned in a religious run convent for the visually impaired, because those with visual impairments are perceived to have contaminated blood cells that may lead to vampirism later on in life, vampires used to rule the continent of Anglophare and it was rumoured that they were blind during the daylight hours.You are your most recent protagonist. Who are you? What is the first thing you do?My name is Noirtier Auzinzeiter, I am in the world of Anglophare, living in exile at the court of a Kingdom that used to be an Empire that dominated the continent of Anglophare, called Dulmania. I am trying to convince the Kingdom to invade my birthplace of Sulsland and install me as a puppet ruler there, for I want to establish a state for the blind and visually impaired, to exact revenge for the fact that the former are killed at birth and the latter are imprisoned in religious run convents, I myself was a prisoner in one of these convents until I escaped, that was many years ago now.Who is your favourite author? Why?That is a tricky one, I’ve too many but probably Victor Hugo, author of Notre-Dame-De-Paris (1831), Les Miserables (1862) and The Man Who Laughs (1869). I love his unapologetic cynsism, the great character motivations he comes up with, the way he seems to understand human nature, and gives even the most repulsive of his characters shreds of humanity now and again. I guess I should also give a shout out to Bram Stoker, my fellow Irishman, after I read Dracula (1897) at the age of twelve I became fixated with vampires, and knew I wanted to write a vampire novel someday, and now at the age of twenty four I am trying to write my first novel, which involves vampires! Stoker inspired me so much that I took the name “Abraham” as my confirmation name simply so I could abbreviate it as “Bram”Where do you get your ideas?Amixture of real world politics, books by other writers, my own life experience,Why do you write?To try and tell the story that has been jammed inside my head now for over two years!How do you deal with bad reviews, rejection and criticism?I haven’t received any of these yet as I haven’t gotten to the publication stage.What do you find difficult about writing?Trying to make my villains three dimensional and somewhat relatable, also trying to tie all the subplots into the main plot.What do you love the most about writing?Writing out the backstory for the world I am building and develop the protagonist, I built the entire world around him so it is fun to see him grow as the world expands.Do you ever outsource (editing and cover design) your work?Not at that stage yet I’m afraid.What is your opinion on the indie vs traditional publishing argument?I think both have pros and cons it is harder to get noticed as an Indie writer (so I’ve heard) but you do get more control over your own work which I imagine is rather empowering.Talk us through your creative process from start to finish.I read, surf the net for random pieces of information, try to go about my daily life, make mental notes of conversations I’ve heard, read some more, watch TV, write a blog post here and there, and then now and again I might just sit down and write the actual novel.What advice would you give to aspiring writers?We are all walking in the dark, hopefully in the same geographical vicinity, therefore we can reach out and help each other.Give us your top three book marketing/ promotion tips.Facebook page, Twitter, a convincing cover letter – I mean I’m new to this so I don’t really know.Would you agree a good book must withstand more than one read?Yes I would think that is a fair expectation.What do you look for when shopping on Amazon for a Kindle book? Are any of them more important to you than others?I actually use Amazon’s audio store (audible.co.uk) to get books, I ‘read’ through listening to audiobooks due to my visual impairment. I look for books that have interesting synopsis’s, a snappy title wouldn’t go amiss either. Certain authors for instance Kim Newman, Joe Abercrombie, Anne Rice, etc, will almost certainly guarantee a purchase from me, even if they had no publishing summary or picture on their work.Do you have a favourite genre?Historical fictionWhat would it take for you to leave a book review?If the book left me with really strong feelings whether they be positive or negative I would make those feelings known.After downloading book one of a series for free or discounted on Amazon, do you ever go back and pay more for book two? If not, why?If I like the book enough I will buy the series, it really depends on how much enjoyment I get from the first book.Do you ever visit an author's website? If so, what do you look at?I look at their bio to see if their life is as demented as mine! And also I look to see what their current WIP is.If an author offered you a free book, would you sign up to their mailing list?Yes, for sureDo you ever enter giveaways and/ or order signed copies?Not yet, no.Are you more likely to buy a book if there are various formats available?Absolutely, if it exists as an audio format I look very favourably on it.What are the biggest giveaways that a book is self-published?The cover art and also the way the summary at the back of the book is written.Thank you toPeadar B. O’Deafor this interview.We wish you the best of luck with your writing.To support the author, please click on their name to go to their Facebook page.