[AOTM] - Interview with Stephen Cost / The Fall: Fall in Love with Death

[Anna, LoP BOTM & R2R mod]

Greetings Lovers of Paranormal!

One of the funnest things about being a MOD is you have an excuse to pester get to interview some of the authors who wrote the books we have up for a group read and get a peek behind the curtain to find out what strange, twisted, angsty cool stuff was going through their minds when they wrote the stories we love to read.

This month we're privileged to have Stephen Cost, author of The Fall: Fall in Love with Death spend whole day answering overly-invasive questions take the time to answer our questions. Oooh! Death! I just love anthropomorphic representations of Death! And just in time for Halloween/Samhuinn!

Without further ado, thank you Stephen Cost for granting Lovers of Paranormal this interview!

And when you're done, the link to the BOTM discussion thread for The Fall is HERE: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Be epic!
Anna Erishkigal
LoP Fab-5 BOTM-MOD

******************************************************************************

1. What books have most influenced your life?

I’ve loved to read since I was a kid and some of those books from my early years have stuck with me and remain in my library to this day. Those book are, The Famous Five by Enid Blyton, The Shining by Stephen King, Sphere by Michael Crichton.


2. How do you develop your plots and characters?

Plots and characters usually come to me in dreams or when I’m driving alone in the car. I usually record or write down a quick paragraph outlining the story idea or character and see if I can build upon it later. In some cases the characters come before the story and I decide to build a story around them.


3. Tell us about your Lovers of Paranormal book?

THE FALL sets the stage for a reality where Grim Reapers have been banished from the veil between Heaven and Earth because they took a life of their own choosing and not a life that was ready to pass on. Giles Reid is one such Reaper. He hunts on evil humans to avoid the feeling of guilt he gets over killing. That is, until the day he tries to feed on a human as strong, fast and cunning as himself; a human who, it turns out, has been hunting him. Now he is the hunted and he is unsure how a human could be a threat to him or those he surrounds himself with.


4. We all need a hero! Tell us about your protagonist(s)? Was there a real-life inspiration behind him or her?

Giles Reid is a fallen Grim Reaper who has struggled with the emotional torment of killing to survive. He strives to be more human but as you’ll find in the story, he also loves being the monster he is. He struggles as he walks that line between monster and human. As a monster he loves the thrill of the hunt and the kill, but killing does not replace love, a very human emotion he needs. As for inspiration…I guess there is a little bit of Giles in everyone as we are all damaged in our own way.


5. A good villain is hard to write. How did you get in touch with your inner villain? Was there a real-life inspiration for him/her/it?
Good villains are extremely hard to write mostly because, as a writer, I always have to be concerned with ‘how far, is too far’. It is so easy to turn a reader off and it is very hard to turn them back on. Villains need to be interesting. They can be despised, hated, you can even loathe them, but what you can’t do is be disgusted by them. Disgust will turn a reader away from your story and that is the last thing I want to do as an author.


6. What real-life inspirations did you draw from for the world building within your book?

The great thing about urban fantasy is you can so easily draw from your surroundings for inspiration. I’m a big people watcher. It’s not unusual to find me sitting in a park taking notes about the people around me. How they walk, how they talk, how they interact with each other. I’m always amazed how other people perceive the world.


7. What real-life science, pseudo-science, history, religion, or mythologies did you research for the paranormal aspect of your book?
I’m a student of human nature. Even my degrees are in Psychology and Sociology. Growing up, the dark side of fantasy and mythology fascinated me, but what I found even more fascinating was how people crafted mythology. There are patterns to mythology. In many cases, history becomes myth, myth becomes fantasy and fantasy transforms into fiction. It is that original history blended with myth that I researched when writing The Fall.


8. What was the hardest part of writing this book?

The development of a character that is deeply flawed and damaged by life. Any person truly damaged by heart ache will have aspects to their personality that the average person will not like. With Giles I had to balance those negative aspects with the development of a character that I hope people will like. I know on average, if you write a good book, only 75% of the people who read it, will like it, so it was a risk developing a character who I knew was going to rub some people wrong at first.


9. What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why?

I actually have two favorite chapters. The first is chapter 6 where you get a taste of the creature Giles really is. The other chapter is chapter 19. In this chapter to finally come to understand why Giles is so damaged.


10. Did you learn anything from writing this book and what was it?

The main thing I learned was to listen to myself. I’m not trying to say that the input or feedback of others is not important, it is. What I mean is that I have my own voice when writing and it was difficult to learn the difference between constructive feedback and other feedback. You have to learn to be comfortable with your individual style.

11. Is there a message in your novel that you hope readers will grasp?
No. I wrote a story to entertain. I’ll leave life lessons for another book.


12. What are your future project(s)?

I’m currently writing the follow up book to The Fall along with a thriller I hope to release late next year.


13. If you couldn’t be an author, what would your ideal career be?

In a perfect world I’d be a psychologist, but no one ever said the world is perfect.


14. Do you have anything specific that you want to say to the Lovers of Paranormal community members?

I would just like to thank you all for taking the time to at least consider my novel. I’m always available to answer questions along the way, so if you have any, please send me an email on Goodreads or on my website at: www.stephencost.com

Interview granted to Lovers of Paranormal 10/4/2014

[Mary]

I always love to read interviews. So interesting! I might check this out when I have the chance to.

[Stephen]

If you're looking for a review of THE FALL, check out the "Reads All The Books" blog at: http://readsallthebooks.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-fall-review.html

Stephen