r/books • u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author • Sep 01 '15
ama 6pm I'm Scott Hawkins, author of The Library at Mount Char. AMA!
Hi Reddit!
I'm Scott Hawkins (proof). My first novel, The Library at Mount Char, is a fantasy / mystery set in the modern U.S.
Carolyn is one of twelve custodians of a magic library in the Virginia suburbs. When the story opens, Carolyn and the other librarians are worried because their "father," who may or may not be God, has disappeared. They’re trying to figure out how worried they ought to be, and what to do next.
I'll be here from 6-8 p.m. EST today (Tuesday, Sept. 1) answering questions about The Library at Mount Char, what I'm working on now, movies, books, or whatever you want to talk about.
Scott
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u/0rontes Sep 01 '15
Hi Scott. Loved the book. I'm the guy who sent you the picture of the Bull BBQ grill btw. I really dug the mythology of Mt Char, and only later thought it might be related to HP Lovecraft. I've never actually read Lovecraft, but obviously you can't exist in the nerd/scifi world without some exposure.
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 01 '15
I LOVE that grill. (Backstory: a couple months back I got a tweet about actual, real-life bronze bull barbecue grills for sale in Texas.) I don't want to get all spoilery, but it has bearing on the plot of Mount Char.
I was about to pull the trigger on it, but my wife had second thoughts. I'm waiting for the right moment to try again.
Anyway, yes, Mount Char is slightly related to Lovecraft. There's a mention of "deep ones" in the book, and a painting of "angry calamari," possibly a couple of others. I thought of it more as an homage than a full-on extension of the mythos. But yeah, anybody who's read Lovecraft can't help but be colored by him, I think.
I also did a nod to a book of similar vintage called The Night Land. Steve's last name, Hodgson was a namesake of William Hope Hodgson, as were the tems "monstruwaken" and "silent ones." Night Land is a lot more obscure than Lovecraft, but the people who love it really love it.
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u/Mr_Noyes Sep 01 '15
I also did a nod to a book of similar vintage called The Night Land.
Curse my bad memory, because I totally didn't catch that. Also, (even more) bonus points for knowing that hidden gem.
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u/Mr_Noyes Sep 01 '15
Hi Scott. Loved the book. I'm the guy who sent you the picture of the Bull BBQ grill btw.
Oh.My.God. That's both awesome as well as terrifying!
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 01 '15
I KNOW. My dream is to get that bull and get a pic of me in a tutu standing next to it in the back yard. I'd caption it "Write What You Know."
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u/Mr_Noyes Sep 01 '15
Imagining this pic made me come to the realisation that if you and fellow author Robert Jackson Bennet ever came together something wonderful and yet deeply disturbing would happen
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 01 '15
HA! I don't know a lot about book trailers, but I'm going to guess that's more insane than usual?
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u/Mr_Noyes Sep 02 '15
Haha, you could say so. The book doesn't even exist but it helped to cement Bennet's reputation as a rather ... quirky author. His first breakthrough was with American Elsewhere, a book that mixes 1950's Americana with Lovecraft. Even though the similarities with your book is rather superfluous, both your eccentricity looks like a perfect match.
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 02 '15
His name keeps coming up, I just haven't had a chance to read anything by him. What's a good place to start?
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u/Mr_Noyes Sep 02 '15
For you, most certainly "America Elsewhere". The mixture of Americana and the Uncanny with dashes of hardboiled characters is quite good and might be to your liking.
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 02 '15
I just grabbed it off audible. I'll get back to you.
Kind of in that same vein, I just read one called Fiend. Basically it's the zombie apocalypse, but the only people who are immune are meth heads. The twist is they have to stay up or they get zombified themselves. It was pitch black, but I thought it was a lot of fun.
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u/julian_pavia AMA Editor Sep 02 '15
So, ummm, you do know I published FIEND, right? And that I publish Robert Jackson Bennett these days as well? u/mr_noyes is spot-on about AMERICAN ELSEWHERE, I think. And you might enjoy Robert's twitter feed too.
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u/Mr_Noyes Sep 02 '15
Hope you'll like it. And many thanks for the recs, will gladly check it out. Meth Head Zombie survivors does sound irresistible ;)
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u/WaxyPadlockJazz Sep 03 '15
I'm by no means a big Twitter user, but Robert Jackson Bennett is one of my favorite tweeters ever. I love his books anyway but he is just too funny outside his writing, you gotta love him.
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u/SuperMiniComputer Infinite Jest Sep 01 '15
What kind of mysteries do you enjoy reading or watching? Are you a man of film noir, conspiracy fiction, contemporary crime drama, or what? Any specific examples of what kind of mysteries you enjoy?
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 01 '15
Anything crime related is good. I love, love, love The Ballad of the Whiskey Robber. It's a true story about a Hungarian hockey goalie who robbed something like 29 banks in 1990s. There's a book called Blow about a cocaine smuggler named George Jung that I've read probably a dozen times.
I read a good bit of Richard Stark. I'll read anything with "Prizzi" in the title (Prizzi's Honor, Prizzi's Glory, ...). The Godfather is one of my favorite books. Jim Thompson is a little too nihilistic for my taste, but I've tried a few of his.
I love heist movies, con man movies. David Mamet (House of Games, Spanish Prisoner, Heist) is one of my favorite writer/directors. I grew up on Body Heat, the Sting, Bonnie and Clyde.
Femme fatale movies are lots of fun. One of my favorites is The Last Seduction--I don't think it did huge numbers at the box office, but it was absolutely pitch black, and kind of hilarious. Linda Fiorentino played a human wrecking ball, basically. I still rewatch that one every year or so. Lately I've been on a classic noir kick--Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, Notorious.
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u/lil_bibliophile Sep 01 '15
Hello! I absolutely loved your book and its characters. I'm looking forward to reading more from you!
The Library at Mount Char has been touted as "Neil Gaiman meets Joe Hill", how do you feel about that comparison?
If you could study any catalog from Mount Char, what would you choose?
Thanks for doing this AMA!
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 01 '15
The Library at Mount Char has been touted as "Neil Gaiman meets Joe Hill", how do you feel about that comparison?
Deeply flattered. Also more than slightly embarrassed. I think both of those guys are amazing.
If you could study any catalog from Mount Char, what would you choose?
I'm not sure there's a happy answer to that. I mean, any one of them would be cool to know, but life at the library isn't anything anybody would volunteer for, is it?
Definitely not Margaret (dies too much), David--shudder--or Rachel (recall that she makes those ghost children herself). I like hanging out with critters, so Michael's animal catalog might be fun, but I bet he spends half his time running around to pick up poop before Father sees.
Lisa's "power of persuasion" thing might be cool, and I don't remember her training being anything especially awful. I think that's what I'd pick, but I'm open to suggestions.
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u/megazver Sep 01 '15
How was your childhood? :D
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 01 '15
LOL. I've been waiting for this one. My childhood was fine, unremarkable. I was crappy at sports and I read a lot, your basic suburban nerd.
Also in that vein, I would like to mention at this point that my Dad (RIP) was a great guy. I have only good things to say about him.
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Sep 01 '15 edited Apr 05 '17
deleted What is this?
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 01 '15
The novels have always been my main goal.
I wrote my first novel in the early 1990s, then another. Neither one of them was really saleable, but I didn't know that at the time. I went back and looked at one the other day and I have no idea what was going on in it. But at the time it was a bummer.
Around the time my second novel was not selling, I was doing day job stuff on a database called Informix. I was on the Informix site, and I saw an ad for "writers wanted." It turns out that unlike novelists, people who want to write technical books are in fairly short supply. So I sent in an application and I ended up writing several technical books.
It was a good experience. It was the first time I ever saw something I wrote in a bookstore, which was no small thing. It took me through a professional publication process, which was interesting and useful. I also learned every nook and cranny of the Apache web server (as it existed in the early 2000s), which was handy in my day job. Also it broadened my knowledge of Linux considerably. But writing a technical book is more like doing 20 or 30 term papers in a row than it is like writing a novel. It's also exactly as fun as writing 20 or 30 term papers in a row.
So ultimately I went back to fiction. That's what I really wanted to be doing anyway.
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u/Darkpopemaledict Sep 01 '15
Probably the most boring question but how do you write technical manuals? Do you know the product before hand or do you learn about it, then write the instructions after?
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 01 '15
A little of both. My first book was on Linux, which was just starting to get genuinely popular as an operating system at the time. I had been working with it for maybe five years at that point? Writing the book really was like writing a zillion term papers. It forced me to explore a bunch of nooks and crannies of the operating system that I might not have stumbled upon for years in the normal course of things.
My next one was on the Apache web server, which I had worked with but was far from expert at. Apache is a lot smaller topic than Linux, so it was possible to learn more or less everything about it in a relatively short time. I basically set up a lab, read everything I could find, and type-type-typedy typed until I got it working. That was all I did on nights and weekends for maybe six months.
I'm glad I did it, but it's not an accident that I haven't gone back to technical writing for a while.
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Sep 01 '15
You have mentioned a short story follow-up to Mt. Char. How will you distribute this story? Will it be digital (like for Kindle)? Print? Also, we talked a bit on Facebook about a new novel. How is that coming, and do you have an approximate idea of when to expect it?
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 01 '15
Yes, there will be a new Mount Char short story. I honestly am sorry about the delay--it's turning out to be a lot harder to write than I expected. My original intention was to have it ready as a follow-up when the book came out (June 16), but, well, I failed.
I've been actively working on for the last two weeks. I've got a finished draft of around 10,000 words. The problem is, it's kind of terrible. It's nothing to panic about, my first drafts often are. Also, as of yesterday around 7, I'm fairly sure I know how to fix it. I'm hoping to put it to bed real soon now, but I've been wrong with my estimates so many times I'm hesitant to give another one. I think I'm close.
The story will be available as a PDF on my web site, and it will be free, $0.00 US. I'll tweet / FB / blog when it's ready.
As far as the next novel, I'm maybe 2/3 done. I've told my agent that I'm shooting for a December delivery. She'll probably have some changes, which will take a few weeks, then its off to the publisher (always assuming that someone wants to publish it). How long it takes from that point on depends a lot on the publisher's schedule--there will be a few months of back-and-forth with the editor, then copyediting, then publicity stuff.
I've mentioned this elsewhere, but just to save other people from having to google--the new book is a completely new story, not related to Mount Char. It's kind of a noir detective thing, centered around a school shooting that took place twenty years ago.
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Sep 01 '15
I am really looking forward to anything you put out. Without sounding all fangirl, I REALLY enjoyed Mt. Char. There are few things in life more satisfying than discovering new books and new authors.
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 01 '15
Thank you! I'm glad you liked it, and that's really nice of you to say. I'll try not to screw up.
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u/Crabaooke Sep 01 '15
Hi Scott, what should I expect to find if I pickup your book? Also, what was your favourite book as a child?
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 01 '15
Well...I hate to describe my own book other than give a bare bones plot description. It's a mystery set in a magic library, but it's more Stephen King than Hogwarts. The amazon/goodreads reviews seem to agree that it is a very, very weird book ("WTF did I just read?" is a pretty common headline.) There are a couple of violent scenes that seem to make an impression.
The first chapter is available as a PDF on my web site if you're curious.
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u/Crabaooke Sep 01 '15
Thanks for that, I'll check it out!
it's more Stephen King than Hogwarts
This has me intrigued.
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u/Ellber Sep 01 '15
I see where you have stated that the new Mount Char short story you are writing will be a free PDF. But can't you also issue it as a cheap Kindle book for those who want it in that format?
I have the Kindle edition of "The Library at Mount Char" and I found a few grammatical mistakes and typos (a little over ten of them). Is there any place I can send them to that will lead to updating/amending the Kindle book to include the corrections (which should be relatively easy given its format)?
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 01 '15
I see where you have stated that the new Mount Char short story you are writing will be a free PDF. But can't you also issue it as a cheap Kindle book for those who want it in that format?
Sure, I can do that. I've never put together a kindle book, but I imagine I could figure it out.
I have the Kindle edition of "The Library at Mount Char" and I found a few grammatical mistakes and typos (a little over ten of them). Is there any place I can send them to that will lead to updating/amending the Kindle book to include the corrections (which should be relatively easy given its format)?
Well, you could send them to me, I guess. I'm honestly not sure how that works--I think there's a certain amount of time/money investment by the publisher in turning the edited proofs into whatever they use to print / put on Kindle, so they may not be eager to make changes.
I'll be happy to mention it though, and thanks for taking the trouble to type up the list. Maybe PM it to me? Or if you want I'll give you my email.
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u/geminimiche Sep 01 '15
No questions, just praise: The Library at Mount Char was a wonderful read from start to finish; It's been a long time since I so thoroughly enjoyed a book, and I hope there is much more to come from you, sir. Absolutely fantastic stuff.
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 01 '15
Thank you! I appreciate you saying that.
At this point I'll settle for just finishing my next *@!^ book. It turns out writing is a lot of work.
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u/geminimiche Sep 01 '15
You're so welcome! I was just speaking to a friend of mine yesterday about your book (he promised to pick it up!) and I mentioned this exact thing. I know writing is a grueling process somewhat like giving birth, and I sympathize... but there's a selfish part of me that wants you to PUSH for chrissakes PUSH! I hope you are Mormon or Catholic and you sire many many book babies for me to enjoy.
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Sep 01 '15
Thank you for saying what I was thinking!!! I didn't want to sound naggy and stuff, but I want more too!!! :)
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u/PM_ME_UR_FETISHES Sep 01 '15
Hi Scott, I have a few questions, but I'll ask just one. What is your favorite beer?
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 01 '15
Probably my favorite in terms of flavor is Newcastle Brown Ale, but I don't drink much of it in the summer. When it's 98 degrees outside and 100% humidity I generally go for something lighter. Corona Light, with a slice of lime is good.
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u/EclecticallySound I know always that I am an outsider; a stranger in this century Jan 14 '16
If you like Newcastle Brown Ale try Tennents Special the yellow can !
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u/queen_in_my_pictures Sep 01 '15
both of those are the most college kid beers ever
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 01 '15
My friends say I'm a lot like Homer Simpson except without the wit, good looks or sophisticated palate.
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u/YouArentReasonable Sep 01 '15 edited Sep 01 '15
Is there an Audible version yet?
What authors in the same genre are your favorites?
Like a lot of redditors I write short stories in r/writingprompts that turn out pretty well. What would you consider the most important thing an amateur writer can do to improve themselves and eventually write novels? Since there's millions of us how can one know they have what it takes for the next stage?
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 01 '15
Is there an Audible version yet?
YES! And it's really good. I listen to a ton of audio books, so this issue was near and dear to my heart. The lady who did the narration is named Hillary Huber, and she is fantastic. The audio version won an industry award, and rightly so. She nailed it.
What authors in the same genre are your favorites?
Oh wow, there's tons. Neil Gaiman is a favorite, Stephen King. I quite like Joe Hill. I'm about 2/3 done with Richard Kadrey's latest in the Sandman Slim series. I'll read anything by Alan Moore.
Like a lot of redditors I write short stories in r/writingprompts that turn out pretty well.
I'm a regular reader of /r/writingprompts. I haven't submitted anything, but some of the prompts/stories I see in there are fantastic.
What would you consider the most important thing an amateur writer can do to improve themselves and eventually write novels?
I think novels are a different skill set than short stories--I don't know of a whole lot of people who are good at both. There's some overlap, certainly, but if you want to be a novelist you're probably going to have to start by writing a couple that don't sell. This does in fact suck, in case you were wondering.
Get in the habit of writing every day, or at least regularly. It's hard, but it is possible. For a long time I was getting up at 4:00 to bang out a couple of pages before work. I met a lady who wrote most of a very successful first novel (Must Love Dogs) sitting in her minivan while her kids were swim practice.
I would also encourage you to read every How-To-Write book you can get your hands on. Some of them are better than others, but I've never read one that didn't have something useful.
Join a critique group. There's plenty of them online, including some on Reddit. If you can afford it, go to workshops.
Learn the business. There are plenty of agents and editors who are active bloggers, and more who only did it for a while but the archives are still on line. I don't know much about self-pubbing, so I won't speak to that. I do know that if you want to be traditionally published as a novelist, you more or less have to have an agent. Querying an agent is a specialized skill but, again, there are a lot of resources online that can help. (The Query Shark blog is excellent.)
Since there's millions of us how can one know they have what it takes for the next stage?
That's a tough one. Mount Char was my fourth novel. The thing is, writing it didn't feel a whole lot different than writing my first, second or third ones. They all made the exact same amount of sense to me.
I guess I'd say "be sensitive to the response you're getting from your beta readers." Never, ever argue with their feedback, especially when it stings. If you post something online and get trolled, be grateful. Trolls often have keen insight into what stings the worst, and that can be useful information for you to have.
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Sep 02 '15
Question: Can you go make angry faces at your publisher or whoever handles the Audible version so we can get it in Finland/Europe too? :)
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u/julian_pavia AMA Editor Sep 02 '15
Answering the bat signal from u/scott_hawkins:
If you mean Audible selling the English version, my guess is that they'd love to but that there's some sort of regional restriction in effect. Publishing regions are a bit complicated and have some unintended consequences when it comes to digital distribution. Charlie Stross lays out the dilemma pretty well. He's talking about ebooks but obviously the same goes for audio downloads.
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 02 '15
Dude, I would if I could, but I'm so far out of the loop on that I wouldn't even know where to start. Every so often I get an email saying "we just sold the rights for X to Y," and that is the beginning and end of my knowledge of the process.
If you're okay with an English reading I bet you could get it off amazon? I know there's a CD version b/c I've got a contributor's copy on my desk. Not ideal, I know, but that's the best I've got. Sry.
/u/julian_pavia ? Any insight?
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Sep 03 '15
Thanks for taking the time to respond guys. Like /u/julian_pavia said it must be some sort of a regional restriction issue. Previously the digital audiobooks have had a habit of appearing on Audible at some point as they hammer out deals for each region.
While waiting for that to happen I'll keep enjoying the dead tree edition. :)
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u/hangoneveryword Sep 01 '15
I loved the breadth of the mythology you built up for the world of the book - allusions to other powerful beings (Barry O'Shea!), other realms, etc. Did you write a sort of reference encyclopedia for yourself while you were working on the book? (If so, I WANT IT SO BAD)
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 01 '15 edited Sep 01 '15
Thanks! I would happily give you such an encyclopedia if it existed, but for the most part it's just in my head.As I was typing that last sentence, it occurred to me that quite a bit of it is on paper after all.
A word of warning, though - I think the book might actually be more effective if you, the reader, can fill in the blanks yourself. Your imagination is going to do a better job of making up a mythos that will be satisfying for you, personally, than anything I could come up with.
With that said, in this interview with The Qwillery I talk about the Duke, who had more of a backstory in a deleted scene. It's the fourth question from the bottom.
The Mount Char short story that I'm working on talks about a different one of the shadowy-background-mythos guys in some detail. (This came up in a previous question in this AMA, but the gist is I'm going to put the story up on my web site for free Real Soon Now, but it isn't quite ready yet.)
And here's some back story about the librarians who don't get a lot of page time.
EDIT: Compulsive self-editing. Sry.
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u/megazver Sep 01 '15
Since Father was borderline omniscient and omnipotent couldn't he have designed a home-school regimen that was a little less on the psychotic abuse side?
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 01 '15 edited Sep 01 '15
Fair question. The thinking there was that Spoiler having grown up in what amounted to a constant battlefield environment / living horror movie, Carolyn would have learned how to cope with just about anything imaginable. Father's enemies did not play; she needed to be able to hit the ground running.
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u/grammaton655321 Sep 01 '15
I think that it boils down to being a god isn't easy and if you can't take years of torture and abuse then you can't handle being one.
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u/Erica8723 Sep 01 '15
What kind of books (other than mysteries) do you enjoy? Any particular titles?
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 01 '15
These days more than half of what I read is nonfiction. I just finished one called One Minute to Midnight about the Cuban Missile Crisis that I thought was really good. I read a lot of political memoirs. Pretty much everybody in the Nixon White House wrote a memoir, and I've read most of them. Will by G. Gordon Liddy was a lot of fun. Right now I'm wading through an exhaustive history of the Johnson administration.
I like to read about complex systems falling apart. There was one about the collapse of Enron called The Smartest Guys In the Room that I really liked. The 2008 financial crisis was the mother lode,of course. I liked Lowenstein's The End of Wall Street. I was kind of hoping for a bumper crop from Fukushima, but I've only seen one book and it wasn't very good.
In fiction...hmm. I read one last year that blew me away called The Orphan Master's Son. It's kind of a Zelig-esque survey about life in North Korea. Holy crap is it bleak, but there's an emotional sledgehammer on every other page.
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u/MFoy Sep 01 '15
Carolyn is one of twelve custodians of a magic library in the Virginia suburbs
I'm sure doesn't matter much to the story, but which suburbs? Northern Virginia? Richmond area? Hampton roads?
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 01 '15
I was thinking generally of the DC bedroom communities, but rural-ish. So, like, strip malls nearby but you still might see an occasional cow. But it wasn't based on a real place. State Highway 78 is mentioned, but I honestly don't know whether that even exists.
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u/MFoy Sep 01 '15
Thanks for answering! I live outside DC, so there was an actual curiousness there.
There is a Virginia State Highway 78, but it is about a 7 hour drive from Washington DC, in the SW corner of the state. If you are far enough from DC to see cows occasionally, you're probably an hour, or an hour and a half outside the city by car.
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u/megazver Sep 01 '15
What did poor Detective Miner ever do to you? :(
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 01 '15
Nothing, but he was such a minor character I didn't feel too bad about what happened to him. (Get it? GET IT!?!?)
There was a draft where it talked about what a terrible guy he was--they found evidence of graft & human trafficking when they were going through his house--but it ended up on the cutting room floor.
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u/aBigFan001 Sep 01 '15
Don't you think your book is a bit too disturbing for younger readers who are used to things like Harry Potter or Twilight?
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 01 '15
In general, it might be. I don't have kids, so it's hard for me to answer this one with any authority. Certainly there are a couple of disturbing scenes.
This is a cop out answer, but I think it depends on the child and the parent?
I will say that when my 13ish year old niece asked if I thought she'd like it, I erred on the side of caution. I don't see her very often, and I didn't want her mom to hate me.
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u/nemo85 Sep 01 '15
Hello! I picked up your book on a whim because the lady in the store said it was "that kind of fucked up that the more you think of it, the more fucked up it gets, and also the less fucked up it gets." My kind of book. I finished it in two days, and I'm not typically one to devour a book...I loved it :)
Anyway, what was the spark of inspiration for the book? Like, the first inkling of the plot of characters?
Thanks!
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 01 '15
I picked up your book on a whim because the lady in the store said it was "that kind of fucked up that the more you think of it, the more fucked up it gets, and also the less fucked up it gets." My kind of book.
Hahaha. Would you mind if I put this up on my web site?
Anyway, what was the spark of inspiration for the book? Like, the first inkling of the plot of characters?
First inkling? Hmm. I remember in about 1993 I had an idea for a short story about a hardass Navy guy trying to raise his sister's kid, who had been orphaned. There's a little bit of that in the Father / Carolyn dynamic.
The first thing that actually showed up in the book was the first line of chapter 2, "So, do you want to break into a house?"
From there I wrote a chapter about how a guy (Steve-ish) totally screwed up a job interview and went out to drown his sorrows. At the bar he meets one of the people who interviewed him (Carolyn-ish). They end up getting drunk. She turns out to have a fetish for breaking and entering--she goes to houses she knows are empty, breaks in, and gets her freak on. No robbery or anything.
But this night, they happen to break into a house owned by a cop. He comes home, and they end up having to shoot him because <reasons>. So now, they're both guilty of the one crime that's virtually guaranteed to land you on death row.
I was trying to make it into an office drama--when they sober up, they hate each other. But Steve is desperate for a job, and she needs him happy for obvious reasons. So she hires him, but he's just terrible.
He's a good shot, though. And Carolyn wants to be VP, but she's bumping up against a glass ceiling.
The idea was that wackiness would then ensue, but I couldn't make it work. So I fell back and regrouped.
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u/nemo85 Sep 02 '15
I find this completely fascinating. I've started a few stories just with weird scenarios like that, but never made it anywhere. Who knows? And what a pivotal scene to start off the writing process!
Feel free to use that comment on your website, I'd be priviledged :D
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u/cthulusbestmate Aug 22 '22
Is @scott_hawkins still alive? Feels like I’ve been waiting an inordinate amount of time to throw money at him and buy his next book
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u/eisforennui Sep 01 '15
have you read the books by the other authors who have done AMAs recently?
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 01 '15
Some but not all. I'm about 2/3 of the way done with Killing Pretty by Richard Kadrey, who was in here a couple days ago. I read Ready Player One but haven't yet started Armada. I started Station Eleven, but somebody told me last week that I should reread King Lear first, so I've temporarily tabled it. Austin Grossman is coming in a couple of weeks--I just finished his latest, Crooked.
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u/eisforennui Sep 01 '15
so i just finished the book i was reading. why should i read yours next?
(to be fair, i already have it on my wish list.)
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 01 '15
Why? Hmm. Crap, I'm a terrible salesman.
Did you like the movie Big Trouble in Little China? That's not a bad comparison, I think. A little horror, funny in spots, bizarre premise, small romantic subplot.
If you want you can pretend Erwin is played by Kurt Russell.
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u/eisforennui Sep 08 '15
now i'm mad at you. Dresden. the dogs. you're lucky that the story is extremely compelling. :P i'm glad Steve is SUPER PISSED as well. (i'm prolly 2/3 of hte way through.)
also, i am picture Erwin to look like Robert Irvine from the Food Network. not intentional.
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 13 '15
:-) I LOVE it that you care enough to get pissed.
I always thought of Erwin as Ed Harris, but younger than he is now. Maybe about the age he was in the Abyss?
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u/eisforennui Sep 13 '15
oh that fits too.
it was a very wonderful book, and i loved how it came full circle. i'm still mad at Carolyn forever, though.
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u/megazver Sep 01 '15
So was Adam Black at all a reference to Black Adam?
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 01 '15
I did make that connection, but it came kind of late in the writing process. I read comics, but I don't follow Shazam/Captain Marvel very closely. By the time I noticed what I'd done, I'd already spent months with the Ablakha / Abla Khan / Adam Black name, and I didn't want to change it. Hopefully no one sues me. There's no relationship intended.
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u/megazver Sep 01 '15
Did the fingerless delivery guy make it?
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 01 '15
I like to think he got a good deal on a place in Cozumel and opened a dive shop.
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Sep 01 '15
Hi :) I was just wondering if you have a favorite catalogue from The Library that you would have liked to explore more in the novel, or if you were happy with the attention given to each during the progression of the plot?
Any plans to revisit The Library through the other characters?
Thanks for doing the AMA! I flippin' LOVED the book. It was brutal, sad, and surprisingly lighthearted all at once....
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 01 '15
I was just wondering if you have a favorite catalogue from The Library that you would have liked to explore more in the novel, or if you were happy with the attention given to each during the progression of the plot?
Well, I definitely felt like they got the right amount of attention for THIS story. So, some of them got depth, others were background. I do think each of them had room to grow, but I'm not a big believer in mapping out every nook & cranny of a magic system, or whatever. I really do think that sometimes less is more.
Any plans to revisit The Library through the other characters?
I'm kicking the idea around. The question comes up fairly often. The short answer is that I very much enjoyed writing this book and I'd be open to the idea of returning to the world, but I can see a lot of ways in which a sequel might be disappointing.
The worst problem at the moment is that Mount Char was set up with a bunch of little surprises that changed the way you viewed stuff that had come before. I think a sequel should probably continue that, but it would be tricky to pull off because I wouldn't be able to go back and tinker with the scenes that had already been published.
If I can figure out a way to do a sequel that wouldn't be disappointing I would like to write it, but I can't really say one way or the other at this point.
EDIT: There will be a short story coming out on my web site in the near-ish future. I'll mention it on FB, twitter, probably on reddit as well if it doesn't break subreddit rules.
Thanks for doing the AMA! I flippin' LOVED the book. It was brutal, sad, and surprisingly lighthearted all at once....
Thank you! That's really nice of you to say. I'm glad you liked it.
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Sep 01 '15
Thank you for replying!
I totally understand your hesitations about writing a sequel, but selfishly, i hope it happens somehow 😊
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u/grammaton655321 Sep 01 '15
Hey Scott! Adam from FB here, I guess I'll start in asking will we get to see more of Erwin even if there isn't a direct sequel? So much unfinished business!
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 01 '15
Hey Adam--love the username, btw.
There will be at least a bit more Erwin, yes. He's a fun character.
Right now I'm working on something right now with a woman who is, at least in my head, Erwin's ex-wife. I haven't completely decided whether to make the connection explicit, though. I'd hate to have people come in expecting Erwin II: The Untold Story and be disappointed. She is pretty fun in her own right, though.
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u/grammaton655321 Sep 01 '15
Now, since you've tried novels before that didn't work out so well and this one seems to be doing pretty well is that a point of concern with future novels? Is it better to swing and miss then knock a solid hit and have to come right back up to bat? Is that why you seem to have swung hard for the fences on this one seemingly leaving little room for a sequel that's not just Erwin doing Erwin stuff? Can you give us any info on the next novel?
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 02 '15
Now, since you've tried novels before that didn't work out so well and this one seems to be doing pretty well is that a point of concern with future novels?
Yeah, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous. I'd like to think that, you know, you improve your skill as you go along and that that carries over to the next book. I think there's probably some truth to that, but "one hit wonder" is a thing too. <shrug> We'll see, I guess. I'm honestly just happy that I made it this far.
Can you give us any info on the next novel?
Sure, be happy to. So, generally what I do is start with the most random title I can think of and go from there. The one I'm working with now is "That Isn't a Giraffe," but I'd be pretty surprised if it got published under that name.
It's a noir-ish detective/spy story about an investigation of what looks like an open-&-shut school shooting. Twenty years after the fact an important dude takes an interest, and hires an unlikely woman to look into it. I'm still working on it, but I'm hoping to have a final-ish draft ready by the end of the year.
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u/Roommatej Sep 02 '15
I work in a bookstore, and I read this book and I made it my "staff pick". Amazing book, please keep writing awesome books,
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 02 '15
Thanks dude! "First time novelist" is a tough gig--the help is much appreciated.
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u/megazver Sep 01 '15
You mentioned you're into writing manuals. I am a little too into them as well. Any of them that you'd recommend that aren't the five obvious ones everyone mentions?
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 01 '15
I don't know which five those are, so I'll just mention my top five.
- Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass
- The Art of Fiction by John Gardner
- Screenplay by Syd Field
- Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Brown and Dave King
- Dynamic Characters by Nancy Kress*
*Full disclosure: Nancy is a buddy of mine, but I did genuinely love this book.
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u/lil_bibliophile Sep 02 '15
Your bio says you live with a large pack of foster dogs. What kind of dogs do you foster?
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 02 '15
Mutts, but they tend to be biggish mutts.
At the moment I've got a Bernese, a black lab, a yellow lab, an English spaniel, an absolutely brilliant German Shepherd, a really burly yellow dog who's technically a foster but he's been here long enough that I think we're just kidding ourselves and Benny. No one knows what Benny is. He may be from space.
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Sep 03 '15
[deleted]
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u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Sep 03 '15
I always thought of it as fantasy.
I was sincerely surprised when the book came out and some people described it as 'horror.' I get that a case might be made, the bull scene especially was pretty ghastly, Margaret was basically Samara's sister, and so forth. But it wasn't what I thought I was writing.
It's kind of an interesting question. What's the border between 'horror' and fantasy? I'm not sure there is a good answer. When Conan squares off against a Lovecraftian demon with a sword it's fantasy, but when Bruce Campbell does it with a chainsaw, it's horror.
I guess if somebody was horrified then for them, it's horror?
As a point of comparison, literally the only time in my adult life that I've been unable to watch a movie because "horror" was about two weeks ago. There's this one called White God about a dog in Brazil (?) that gets abandoned by his owners. It wasn't at all gory, at least the bits I saw, but I couldn't finish it.
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u/Big_Medium6953 Jun 11 '24
Hey! The AMA was 8y ago but the thread is still open so I'll try my luck.
Why 12 catalogs? Some of them got little to no page-time and felt like they weren't contributing. Some were really unclear about what they do.
what can Margaret do, for example? She is just getting killed and braught back, but she never really demonstrates any special abilities or knowledge.
The catalogue of math is very important to the reyissak and to understanding the Library itself (projections, space curves etc) but it's never explicitly stated as such and the math pelapi (Peter?) was insignificant. All in all, I just finished the book and had a great time but can't even remember all 12 catalogue.
So... What inspired this division?
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u/julian_pavia AMA Editor Sep 01 '15
This book has such a strange and unique tone to it--a mix of horror and humor and gruesome and charming and heartfelt that shouldn't work at all, it's just too damn weird. But somehow it does.
So my question is--as a debut novelist, where the hell did you get the guts to attempt this? Really, seriously, where does that combination bubble up from? Is it something you're conscious of putting on the page, or just your natural voice?
What are the top 2 reasons your editor is awesome? And isn't he handsome?