An Interview with Myself - Part 1
How would I answer some of the most common questions interviewers ask?
For the fun of it, I decided to interview myself as you would see on some blog somewhere with a massive following. It’s probably more of a “get to know me” type of thing, but instead of slapping the answers up on social media, I decided to write them here on Substack.
I found a list of questions from TeacherVision to answer. However, I’m not really sure if I’ve ever had anyone ask a lot of these questions before. Still, I think it would be kind of fun and we’ll see how these go.
Since there are quite a few questions, I’m going to break it up into a few different parts. I could sit here and answer all of these questions in a single post, but I don’t think anyone would read the entire thing. It would be a pretty long read.
So, we’ll start with 10 questions at a time…
10 Questions for the Author, Michael Brockbank
When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
I was about nine, if I remember right, when I started hammering out stories on my grandpa’s old, early 1900s-style, ribbon typewriter. I don’t remember the story as it was almost 40 years ago, but I do remember the paper style. It wasn’t like normal paper and had a rough, light-green surface.
Ever since then, I have worked on one story or another growing up. I even once submitted a book I wrote to Double Day when I was 12. Obviously, it was turned down, but that’s how committed I was as a child. Unfortunately, the ambitions of a child are rarely the same as an adult, for a number of reasons.
How long does it take you to write a book?
Writing a book can take anywhere from six months to a year and a half, depending on the story and how much chaos interferes. I have a lot going on at any given time and try to squeeze as much as I can every week. Sometimes, I can crank out 3,000 words in a day without being interrupted, then there are weeks when clients bombard me with issues that need to be addressed, or perhaps running my youngest to school and back - which chews up an hour or so.
Right now, I have a new book I’m working on that will take me 16 weeks to complete from ideation to polishing up the first draft. That’s because I am writing it as I work on a master class from Reedsy about writing a novel. That is perhaps the quickest I will have written any manuscript that is over 75,000 words.
What is your real-life work schedule like when writing?
Chaotic. Currently, I have the new books scheduled in my day for an hour to an hour and a half as I work on the writing course. But keep in mind that I also work on four blogs, am building three YouTube channels, a podcast, and client work galore. Then, if I have free time at night or on the weekends, I’ll try to put in about an hour or two, which usually equates to about 1,000 to 3,000 words.
Working from home gives me quite a bit of flexibility. The problem is trying to balance everything as most of what I do centers around a traditional 8-to-5 schedule. That’s because all of my freelancing clients are businesses with similarly set hours.
It can be a pain to juggle everything, but the rewards have been worth the effort every time.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
That’s a tough one, really. I have several that can make a reader’s eyebrow spike. The one that helps me the most, though, is how I visualize my books as if they were in a music video or movie trailer. How would the scenes play out during the musical score? And I do all of this while taking regular walks throughout the day. Walking seems to fuel the creative fire for me…it always has. Some of my best ideas, whether I was working on a book or when I repaired computers, came from spending about 10 minutes walking around the building.
Then, I would take those ideas and implement them in the book.
Every book has its own theme song. For Fury, the second book to Kingmaker, the theme song is Disturbed’s rendition of Shout. For the new book I am writing with Reedsy, it’s a mixture of Meredith Brooks’s Sin City and an epic version of Ghostbusters Afterlife. Though, I see Sin City as more of the final ending to the book. You know, right before a movie would roll the credits.
How do your books get published?
I am a self-published author. There are fewer hurdles to jump over and no industry gatekeepers to worry about. However, the sheer amount of work that goes into writing a good book is astonishing.
From the moment you start writing the first paragraph to the moment you market the finished product, it’s all on your shoulders. If you have the money to hire experts, it can be a lot easier. But when you don’t have a lot of disposable income, you have to find ways to do it yourself.
And I’m talking about pure self-publishing, here. There are those vanity press houses that charge a ton of money but will offer specific services such as editing and cover art design. I don’t do those as some of them can charge $4,000 and up for their services. Not to mention how you can easily get scammed by some of them, as my sister did when she published Quest Holders.
For now, I love being self-published and have a lot of fun with every aspect of the process. Sure, it’s stressful and I’m not as successful as someone who uses traditional publishing or a vanity press. But it’s been one hell of a ride that I am really digging at the moment.
What are your favorite books to read?
I’ve always been a Stephen King fan. My dad got me into his books when I was about 10 or so. Then again, I was reading Jaws at nine. I really didn’t get into the kids’ books for my age group, well, except for the Choose Your Own Adventure books. I loved those, and kind of still do.
Anyway, I am all about horror, gothic horror, fantasy, and science fiction. My all-time favorite book is The Stand, and right now, I am reading Fairy Tale by Stephen King. I read a few of the Star Wars books when I was younger, and loved most of the Dungeons & Dragons-based books growing up. One of my favorites is Knight of the Black Rose by James Lowder.
I’m also a fan of anything that has a twist ending. I’m talking about realistic implementations of misdirection, not that weird M. Night Shyamalan stuff. However, I thought Sixth Sense was a pretty good movie.
Where do you get your information or ideas for your books?
That’s another tough one, really. For the most part, my ideas just come to me. I could be sitting there working on a blog post for a client and the idea just pops in there. Then, I have to jot it down quickly and get back to work. Otherwise, I’ll forget it.
Another element of my books is taking real-life mysteries and then twisting them to fit the narrative. Yes, that means I watch a lot of unsolved mystery shows and the like. With an active imagination, those shows are a treasure trove of ideas that can go virtually anywhere.
I also enjoy writing fan fiction. In fact, I hope to get back to working on those on Wattpad as soon as these next two books are done. I have a folder full of ideas for various game adaptations and television shows.
In this latest book, I thought about what would happen if Ghostbusters were more horror-related and set in the 1870s.
When did you write your first book and how old were you?
So, here’s the crux of my career as an author. I didn’t write and publish a full book until 2021 when I was 45 years old. Sure, I’ve been a writer most of my life, and most of my jobs centered around data entry or typing. But I lacked the self-confidence to do anything more with my talent outside of blog posts about tutorials and such.
A lot of that has to do with my upbringing. A few people drilled it into my head that I was a terrible story writer and should just forget about it and get a real job. For the longest time, I would start to work on a story and then trash it because I felt it wasn’t good enough or that no one would like it.
Impostor syndrome is a real thing, and it can take away your hopes and dreams if you let it. In 2016, I made the decision to separate the freelancer from the author. Although that year was a dark moment in my life, as I depicted in A Freelancer’s Tale, I decided to stop letting my fears dictate my actions.
It wasn’t that I gave up on being an author…I never really started until recently.
How do you create your main characters?
That’s one of those “chicken or the egg” kind of things. What comes first, your character or the plot? For me, it greatly depends on the story. Perhaps one of the most important aspects of a book is the character arc. So, you have to create one that the reader can resonate with who will undergo a massive change throughout the story.
A lot of the time, I’ll base the appearance of main characters on people who I feel would do the part justice if the book turned into a Netflix original series.
See, I think very cinematically when writing the book.
As for the mannerisms, habits, and such, as much as it makes me sound like I am schizophrenic, they develop on their own as the story starts. I am merely the narrator; the characters take me on as much of a ride as the reader. Sure, I plan out my books ahead of time, but I can’t tell you how often the character will do something that changes that outline in profound, and often grandiose, ways.
What might your next book be about?
Currently, I have two major projects going on. I am writing Fury, the second book to Kingmaker in the Witcham series, and the new book that doesn’t have a title yet. I also have two minor projects on Wattpad and Inkitt that I would love to wrap up, but these first two are the priority at the moment.
Fury is a dark fantasy set in a faraway land filled with various species of humanoids, magic, swordplay, and some very dark creatures. It’s not a “save the princess” trope. In fact, in Fury, the “princess” loses her mind and goes on a vicious spree of revenge. Think of Dungeons & Dragons if it were a collaboration with Anne Rice, Patricia Briggs, and Stephen King.
This new book that I don’t have a title for is set in Atlantic City, 1874. It’s actually kind of a funny tale about how I started writing this one in the first place.
A couple of years ago, I entered a writing contest on Vocal Media. I asked my viewers during the Monday night livestream what kind of story I should write for the challenge. My brother-in-law suggested writing a western. Well, I couldn’t just let that challenge go and had to add my own little spin to it. Unfortunately, the story was too closely connected to Kingmaker, which probably confused a few people reading it. There were a few Easter Eggs that only my beta-readers would have understood. Keep in mind that this contest was happening long before Kingmaker was even close to being published. Obscure references don’t make for a very good story.
Needless to say, I didn’t win the contest, but The Crate still had a special place in the back of my mind. I wanted to expand on it a bit, but make it less connected to Witcham.
When the Reedsy writing course came around, I decided I would do something more with the backbone of The Crate and write a dark western.
More to Come in Part 2
So, this was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. I am looking forward to writing up another with 10 more questions. If you have anything you’d like to ask, feel free to leave a comment. I’d love to answer some real questions from readers.