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3Q’s – David Watkins is an Original!

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3Q’s heads across the pond today to visit with David Watkins! David has a ton of fantastic releases out there and I’m excited to introduce you all to him today!

Welcome David!

David Watkins

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

DW: I teach full time, so my writing time is far from consistent or regular as my day job often gets in the way. However, I try to write each evening, to try and keep momentum on a project. If I’m awake early at the weekend then I’ll get up and write, but my job is demanding, so this doesn’t happen often! I set myself a low word goal of 500 words because that’s always achievable whenever I sit down. I see people hitting 3000 and I’m in awe of that, but I’m not going to beat myself up over it. I used to, and all it did was create stress and imposter syndrome – ‘I can’t be a real writer because I’m not doing x amount of words a day’. But then I went to a talk by Jo Nesbo and spoke to him after the event. He said 500 words on top of a full day was amazing. I’m not going to argue with someone of his calibre! I know someone who does nothing for months then splurges 10k in a day – great if it works for you, but it really doesn’t for me.

One thing I’ve found helpful with my latest project (The Original’s Rage) is to write down my word count per day. I nicked the idea from someone online who as a way of motivating himself is putting up his daily word count on his first novel. It really works as you can see the words build up every time you write.

Steve: If you could write a story for another author’s fictional world/series, which would it be and why?

DW: Interesting question. I’m not sure I know any fictional world well enough to even attempt this. That said, I’d love to do some kind of gangster crime thing in the Star Wars universe. I think there’s a whole element of the underbelly of society that’s ripe for exploring. There are, of course, hundreds of Star Wars books so someone may well have already done this.

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

DW: My latest release is The Exeter Incident. It’s getting great reviews, with Tim Lebbon calling it a ‘brutal, bloody, brilliant novel’ and Gingernuts of Horror saying, ‘a glorious over the top thrill ride of unrelenting horror’. Reviews are for readers, but comments like that make your year as a writer! Luckily, all reviews so far (not many admittedly) have been excellent.

Essentially, it’s monster in the city of Exeter in the UK. It starts looking like it’s going to be a police procedural, but it changes rapidly. It’s the definition of action-packed and I hope people like it! Folk can check it out here: mybook.to/exeter

Why should someone read it? To help me pursue my goal of world domination and riches beyond my wildest desire obviously….

Or, because they like their horror fast paced, blood soaked but with good characters who feel real and where no-one is safe or has ‘plot armour’. The kindle edition is pretty cheap too…

Steve: Bonus Question! Do you have a cherished book?

DW: More than one! I am very proud of my own books, so does that count as cherished? Or egotistical? Hmm, maybe I should expand this!

I love my copy of The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones from SST publications – it is a thing of beauty with thick paper, great illustrations and the story is unusual and great too. Christine by King is the first grown up horror novel I ever owned and so that will always have a special place for me. Recently I bought the Sandman special edition hardbacks and they are just great. Gaiman is such a quality writer – the mythos he invented is staggering and so imaginative. I hope the TV series does it justice and brings new fans to what is his masterpiece.

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