An interview of author Richard Farnsworth.

Today I have Richard Farnsworth here to answer some burning questions about his writing and his monsters. My review of his Succumbing to Gravity has gone live on the LL Book Reviews website and it can be viewed BY CLICKING HERE
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I amRick Farnsworth, a husband and father, a scientist, working as an expatriate inTblisi, Georgia, a twenty-seven year Army/Army reserve office, Apachehelicopter pilot and Iraq War veteran.









Oh, I wrote these two cool books: Succumbing to Gravity (CLICK FOR AMAZON PAGE)  [image error] and Gift of the Bouda (CLICK FOR AMAZON PAGE) [image error]
My Amazon authors page is available by (CLICK HERE), my goodreads author page is at (CLICK HERE)and my blog can be found at (http://genuineapocrypha.blogspot.com)
How long have you been writing?
I have been writing technically formost of my adult life, but I started to work on writing as a creative outlet in2005.
Is there any one thing that inspires you or do you have any rituals when youwrite?
I think you can be inspired by anynumber of things around you. I am inspired to capture scenes or images inwriting that I find unique, actions that have a nuanced subtext. My ritual forwriting, hmm. Well, I build a playlist for each book I am going to write as Ioutline (and I'm not a heavy outliner - but I do spend time on the plot before Istart to write). I pick songs that capture some aspect of the vibe I am goingfor with the story. When I sit down to write, I hit the playlist and reread thelast chapter (conducting a first-round edit), and then start in where thatchapter left off.

When you wrote Gift of the Bouda, you left it open for a sequel, but withSuccumbing to Gravity there is very little wiggle room, do you have preference?Do you prefer to write a series of books, or do you like to just get the storywith in one book?

I think some stories are meant tobe complete and others just leave an opening, so no, I don't really have apreference. With STG I felt that the ending needed to be the way it was and that didn't leave room for a sequel (even though I liked the characters and couldhave gladly written part two). With GOB I was telling the story of how John,the MC, was dealing with his new life, and though the story arc was complete,it didn't require me to finish with him. So, I have the outline for GOB II…

What are your future plans for writing, do you have any works in progress?

Of course. I am about ½ way througha Military Science Fiction novel (46K words). I know, that's a big stretch forme. It focuses on small unit engagements with Army Dudes (with all of theweapons and mission support applications I would have loved to have had inIraq) and bad guy aliens. I use my biology background to build a credible andvery different alien. I think it will end up with a strong military scifithrust but a definite pulpy/horror vibe (think the movie Aliens 2). I would alsolike to write part 2 of GOB, and I have a 'weird western' short story/novellathat is crawling around the edges of my consciousness.

What is your favorite book or book series?

I don't have 'A' favorite and I'man eclectic, non-genre specific reader. I read military historical fiction(Kent and Cornwall), Horror (Kuntz and Lansdale), I really love Noirishness(Robert Parker, Elmore Leonard), and everything else (Octavia Butler, Charlie Huston,Palahniuk, and the list goes on).

Now I'm going to ask you some horror related questions, just so the reader canget to dig into your brain a little. 
Who do you think is scarier; a fictitious monster, such as a werewolf, orone that could be real, like a psychopath?

I think real monsters are muchscarier than those in stories. But I prefer to objectify my monsters and givethem legitimate reasons to be bad, as opposed to the 'bad guys' that hide amongus.

Would you prefer to be the monster or the hero in a story?

In real life I would prefer therole of hero, but in the story I would prefer to be the antihero. Not thevillain, but the guy/monster that gets the job done according to his/it's owncode of justice.

In the way of traditional monsters, do you prefer the old tradition?

I bias toward a retooled version ofthe traditional monster. I think that if you chose to write about a trope youhave to respect the conventions of that trope. If you want something completelynew you should make completely new monsters, and not bother with oldconventional monsters, right?  So byretooled, I mean really dealing with issues that a monster would have in a biologically/psychologically/sociallyappropriate way. For instance my were-hyena really changes, he doesn't justslip on a hyena coat. It is much more like the transformation scene in'American werewolf in London' than the werewolves in 'Trueblood'. And thenthere are other issues, he deals with, like when he swallows a femur, whathappens to it when he changes back to a man? Same thing with the fallen angelin STG, how bad would it suck to be kicked out of heaven? Heroin addiction doesn't seem that implausible.

Here is the mother loaded question. The zombie apocalypse has fallen uponus. Society and government has collapsed. All of technology and conveniences ofmodern day have crumbled. Groups of survivors are gathering the remnants ofwhat is left and trying to rebuild a new world. You have to start over fromscratch. You have nothing. You have to build your own house, grow your ownfood, and make your own fuel, medicine, and clothing. The question is this:What is the one thing(thing, not person)you would miss the most in the worldthat you live now?

This one is fairly easy after living in a FormerSoviet Union country for a year (and then the year in Iraq in the war as well).More than anything else I would miss 'choices'. In our American consumeristsociety we have been led to believe that in all of the different goods andservices we can obtain, there is a real difference between one choice andanother (coke versus pepsi seriously in the big schema it doesn't matter). Butwhen you have limited choices you really miss that. Of all the choices I wouldmiss, I think I would miss which American Pale Ale…decisions, decisions…
Thank you for answering my questions today Richard. I truly enjoy your books. If you haven't had a chance to read Richard's books, I highly recommend them. You will not be disappointed.