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3Q’s – Shawn Burgess collects tears!

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Hello and welcome to another 3Q’s! Today we have a great guest, author Shawn Burgess. Shawn has always been super supportive and having read the first two books in his current series, I can say, he’s also a great writer.

Welcome, Shawn!

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Steve: What does your writing time look like? Do you try and write at the same time each day? Do you have a word count you attempt to hit?

Shawn: First off, thank you for asking me to participate in this. It’s been such a pleasure getting to know you over these past few years.

Having two boys and a full-time job forces me to be creative on carving out writing time. When I wrote my debut, it was while I was traveling for work, using every spare moment on planes and in hotel rooms to work on my manuscript. When Covid-19 hit, everything changed. The travel came to an abrupt stop. I was on constant video calls during the day. My kids were doing remote learning from home. Things were chaotic. I had to come up with a new strategy. I now write from around 10PM – 2AM. It’s quiet then, and I can drift into my fantasy worlds uninterrupted, without sacrificing family or work time. The only thing being sacrificed these days is sleep.

I don’t focus all that much on word count. I’m more concerned with quality output. The better the first draft I complete, the less headaches fixing things later.

Steve: Out of all your releases, do you have a character you could write about forever?

Shawn: I definitely have some favorites. Detective Holt, Brady Palmer, Brooks Raker and the boys, Latravious Wadlow, Samantha Mellinger, Lady Zuuva. I guess I just named a slew of my central characters, but then again, it’s like trying to pick a favorite child.

I find that I enjoy writing my malevolent characters as much as my protagonists. I tend to have a healthy cast of characters, probably because of my affinity for killing them. I think I’d ultimately get bored of writing the same characters forever. I want my characters to grow/evolve in some way, and aside from the ancillary character development through dialogue and such, once that character growth is done, their purpose on the page probably is too.

Steve: Tell me about your newest release (novel/story/poem/novella) and why someone should read it!

Shawn: My newest release, Ghosts of Grief Hollow, is technically unreleased at this point, but the cover work is being completed now, and release dates will soon be set in stone. I’m really proud of and excited about this story. It’s the sequel to my debut The Tear Collector.
Written during the height of the pandemic, I think a lot of what I and others felt at the time bleeds through onto the page, the uncertainty, fear of the unknown, suspense of the moment, the frenetic pace of events, the realization of our own powerlessness and seeming insignificance at times. It’s the darkest thing that I’ve ever written, but also hopeful. Friendship, love, family, duty. I hope those aspects burn just as brightly as the chills and thrills. But more specifically, for any readers that like swift moving dark thrillers, complex tales, twists and turns, stories about blood curses, and small-town horror, this one might be for you.

Steve: I’ve read Ghosts of Grief Hollow and it is fantastic! Can’t wait to see it released. Bonus question! Did you have a favorite wrestler as a kid?

Shawn: I was an Ultimate Warrior kid. Nothing like tying some thin fabric straps around your puny biceps to emulate the unattainable. Too bad they’re more like tourniquets without the muscular frame to support them. So that dream died rather quickly as I lost feeling in my fingers.

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