Winterview with Author J.P. Midnight

To celebrate 13 weeks of winter, Hàlön Chronicles will be conducting one interview a week for 13 weeks. Join us on the hashtag #13Winterviews, or check out our right-side blog hop to sneak a peek at all the wonderful authors and artists I’ll be interviewing in the coming weeks.

Hosted by: K. J. Harrowick

Without further ado, Science Fiction Author: J.P. Midnight.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

For how confident my Main Characters can be, I sure am pretty shy for an author. Just kidding. I’m likely to tell you a little too much about myself. Don’t those first three lines already say the world about me? Not enough?

Well, it all started years ago. When I was a young boy, I always had a story to tell. I’d would always be talkin’ – talkin’ for miles. My family members used to always say, ‘you should write a book.’ But I didn’t like books. Surprise! They were always this dry stack of old crusty papers I had to read in order to get a passing grade in school. (Ghetto school systems, yo :P)

So, I grew up on video games and movies, basically. Thankfully it was during a time when CGI wasn’t everything, or fancy graphics. Back then, storytelling was the name of the game and franchises like Final Fantasy was my poison. So I got in my reading, along with a grand adventure to crazy new worlds. It wasn’t until college that I opened up to the idea of books and writing. Alright? Origins out of the way 😛

About five years ago, I had an idea for an amazing story after getting fed up with some recent movies and shows for being so.. crummy. So I said to heck with it, I’ll write my own story, my way, the way that I like ‘em. Only took a few chapters to realise I had a passion for it. Only took a few CP’s to realize that I was like a seagull with a paintbrush. :p My writing back then could have very well been considered a crime against humanity 😛 Naw, I’m j/k. I do that a lot. It was bad though.

Here’s a little silver lining, one-liner, to sign me off with for this question: I stuck with it, got better, honed my craft and skills, and even if nothing comes of my stories, I’m glad I learned all that I did.

What types of books do you write, and why?

I’ve always liked stories with deeper meaning, the one’s where like if you choose to glance at it from afar, it’s a pretty good story, but if you decide to dig in, there’s more, and more the deeper you go. I like all characters to have a deep and rich storyline, even the minor ones. This may not exactly translate to my two or three recent stories as they are a WIP – but, rest assured, I’ve spent plenty of time with each of my MC’s and Villains thinking about many aspects of their lives, writing up interviews and mixing and matching them to see what happens.

So … yeah. Sci-Fi mostly, though I’m working my way toward a Horror story. I suppose it might be due to my early exposure of fantastical new worlds from games like Resident Evil, Silent Hill and Final Fantasy, none of which ever did a good job on the big screen. Play the games DO NOT watch the movies. 😛 But, to be fair, that’s bad advice at this point as most people couldn’t handle the blocky graphics of PS1/2 games these days 😛

What were your early influences, and how does this manifest in your work today?

I was almost gonna just say ‘see questions 1 + 2 above,’ but actually, I’ve got an answer for that. I’ve got an answer for everything! j/k don’t leave, keep reading. I swear it gets funnier 😛 It doesn’t. This entire post is gonna be like eating a stack of flour with a spoon, and no water around for miles.

For serious now, I love to use the names of some of the characters that have stuck with me from some of those franchises or shows. I’ll just slap a no-relation disclaimer on it, as they don’t really have anything in common from the characters I’m remembering from way back when (and if the world objects, what’s in a name? I could just change it.) but I like to use their names, sometimes as place holders, sometimes as keepers, so keep an eye out for familiar names and roles.

Are there aspects of the craft that excite you more than others?

Heck yeah! The sex scenes, all sex, all the time sex, sex everywhere bc sex sells. I said sex a million times. Now that I’ve got %85 of the world’s attention with how many times I said ‘sex,’ I’ll roll into the truth 😛 Not at all true, my work contains less sex than a beer contains alcohol. Super long disclaimer which is far too tiny for anyone to read. Ask your doctor if Broken Fate is right for you.

Character interaction and dialogue are my strong points, I’ve got voices in my head of various characters and they all have a personality. I’m sure plenty of authors feel the same way about their characters, but I love throwing mine together in all sorts of situations and just hearing what they all have to say. This is why variation is healthy and so important, they must all have their own voice. Short answer: Playing God. Two words to answer that question 😛 what could be more satisfying and safe than playing God in writing a story?

What books or websites are your go-to places while editing?

I’ve been fortunate to have some competent CP’s throughout my journey (love y’all no matter what). They share links and advice among other things. Sorry to say I don’t have a folder with bookmarks I can reference but the information is so plentiful that I just google what I’m looking for. I try to grab what I need, and go. Any bit of time and energy I have needs to go into my actual writing as I’m usually not filled to the brim with energy. 🙁

I use open office but mostly google docs as it saves me from having to upload my work and its somewhat more safe in a cloud than on my HDD which I’ve had die on me a few times, losing huge chunks of my work in the early days. It’s also great for collaborating with CP’s and BR’s.

Tell us about your writing space (music/snacks/interruptions/etc).

Snacks? Hmm.. not often or ever really. Not unless coffee counts as a snack – but it’s more of a necessity. I hope there are a few others out there that can understand this, but as I stated above, I need to be very focused, coffee helps but when I’m writing, I try to only do that. I end up starving myself sometimes, but seriously, if I get up or check my email or twitter, I’m out of the zone and the fire is gone 🙁 hope that isn’t exactly what A.D.D is 😛

I usually listen to music that has no lyrics, so, ambient, new retro wave, or like audiomachine, epic movie soundtracks, peeps like Zack Hemsey and Hans Zimmer, etc. But it’s usually only loud enough to block out the sound of my fans/AC.

I also tend to write 12am-6am. When the city is mostly asleep as well as the rest of my family.

Tell us about your current WIP or your latest book release.

Ho boy, the question I’ve been waiting for! Get ready for a book-long response. J/k jeez, keep reading we’re almost through that pile of flour I mentioned.

Current? Hmm, I’m juggling a couple of WIP’s. Aren’t most of us? Well they both have to do with the same universe. Here’s an exclusive fun fact about yours truly; the title Broken Fate came from the idea of Final Fantasy, a single title to encompass multiples stories, worlds, people and places. Will it strictly adhere to that original idea as time goes on? Maybe not, but it’s still a maybe. Lotta stuff in the works, you know how it is.

That being said, I’m working on a manuscript called.. Oh, you guessed it, Broken Fate.

The US Department Of Defense contracts a Private Military Force known as SCOR to investigate a mysterious, supernatural outbreak on the tropical island of Samoa. Four brave women, under the highest level of secrecy, will investigate in order to prevent WW4; but nothing is as it seems.

The real question is: can we ever really wrap our amazing stories inside a handful of lines? I say, no. Because if that were the case books wouldn’t be as long as they usually are 😛 We’re basically boiling it down to an idea.

In Broken Fate, there is love, loss, deception, espionage, suspense, revenge and all other sorts of good times. Go ahead, say it. That sounds like every book you’ve read minus a few of those details.

As one gets older they realize that they’re all the same. We’ve seen and read it all before, right? Wrong! The beauty and the magic comes from how this particular version of the ‘same story’ is told. So, y’know, buy my book or whatever 😛

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If you like apocalyptic science fiction with loads of action, check out more about Mr. Midnight’s work and how to connect:

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My platform of choice (devil emoji) Twitter. Too lazy to have a million profiles on a million dif platforms, like, who doesn’t, at least, have a twitter account?

Twitter

Oh alright, here’s my facebook. I don’t use it often. Not until I got at least 100 fans. I’d say a million but no one likes over confidence.. Usually. Maybe.

Facebook

Add me fellow authors, I’d love to make a few new friends and maybe line up a new CP or two. I’m super friendly, can’t you tell?

Website

Alright! Outro time! Thanks for reading, you’ve all been lovely. If you like my style, follow me on twitter and facebook where I will, in a few months, announce the release of my first book titled: Broken Fate Ops – Operation Mountain Ruse.

I wanna take a final second to say thanks to K.J. Harrowick for hosting these interviews and putting mine up on her site, she’s been an awesome CP and friend AND writes some pretty great stuff.

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Before you leave, don’t forget to check out all the amazing Winterviews Authors. 🙂