23 November, 2018

#Interview with Patrick Canning, #Author of The Colonel and the Bee

About the Author:

Patrick spends as much time as possible turning coffee into collections of words that look like books, shorts, and screenplays. Most of his stories attempt to look for the meaning of life in an
adventurous way, and often employ humor, important since the search usually doesn’t turn up much.




Contact the Author:
Website * Instagram * Goodreads

Interview:

Are there some stories tucked away in some drawer that was written before and never saw the light of the day?
Definitely. I’d say the majority of ideas and even stories never see the light of day. While it’s never fun to hit one of these dead ends, the good news is you can steal from yourself. Bits of dialogue or characters or anything really from old projects can always be transplanted into something current (if it fits of course), which lessens the sting a little when a project dies.

Tell us about your writing process.
Assemble ideas for a long time, mold into an outline, first draft, revise, beta readers, revise a lot, work with an editor, revise a lot more.

What is your favorite scene in the book? Why?
I’d say the ending is my favorite. Without spoiling too much, I’ll say things go from a grand scale involving sword fights above volcanoes before focusing down into an intimate dinner party. It’s been a little divisive with readers so far, but I like that underneath all the action and comedy, it’s the simple relationships, expressed by the characters in an unadorned way, that matter most.

What is the best piece of advice you have received, as a writer, till date?
I can’t remember where I heard/read this but something about ‘exploding a moment’. Basically identifying particular events in your story where you can really dig into the senses. You can’t do it all the time or the book would never end, but in just the right spots, it’s fun to really flex the descriptive muscle and give every angle of what’s happening.

How do you spend your free time? Do you have a favorite place to go and unwind?
I’m a big fan of playing volleyball though I’m not that great at it. I habitually re-watch The Office (US), but it holds up even after the forty thousandth viewing.

Can you share with us something off your bucket list?
Learn to play blues harmonica. Also, own a beehive.

Tell us three fun facts about yourself.
I’m left handed, I think mashed potatoes are the greatest food of all time, I’d like to go to Norway someday.

What do you have in store next for your readers?
A suburban murder mystery involving a dead goat and a cyberpunk novel that deals with propaganda.

About the Book:
Beatrix, a spirited but abused acrobat in a traveling circus, seeks more than her prison like employment offers. More than anything, she wants to know her place in the world of the halcyon 19th century, a time when the last dark corners of the map were being sketched out and travel still possessed a kind of magic.
One night in Switzerland, the mysterious Colonel James Bacchus attends Beatrix’s show.This larger-than-life English gentleman, reputed to have a voracious appetite for female conquests, is most notable for traveling the world in a four-story hot air balloon called The Oxford Starladder.
Beatrix flees that night to join the Colonel and the two of them make a narrow escape— Beatrix from her abusive ringleader, the Colonel from a freshly made cuckold. Beatrix, feeling the Colonel may have the answers to her problems, pledges to help him catch the criminal he seeks in exchange for passage on his magnificent balloon. 
The criminal seeks a precious figurine, The Blue Star Sphinx, but he’s not alone. The Sphinx’s immense value has also drawn the attention of the world’s most deadly treasure hunters. A murder in Antwerp begins a path of mystery that leads all the way to the most isolated island on earth.


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