Harrison Demchick Interviu + Concurs

Buna seara tuturor! Zilele trecute am gasit o carte tare interesanta pe Goodreads. Mi-a placut atat de mult descrierea incat am hotarat sa ii trimit un mail autoarei. Stiti cat sunt de obsedata dupa cartile cu pericol, apocalipse si altele de genul asta. Autoarea a fost atat de draguta incat nu doar mi-a raspuns la intrebari ci a vrut si sa ofere doua copii ale cartii ei. Exaaact! Va fi si un concurs, ce va avea doi castigatori si fiecare va primi o copie a cartii "The Listeners" de Harrison Demchick  in varianta electronica.
Pentru a castiga lasati un comentariu la aceasta postare, care sa contina si mailul vostru.
Concursul va dura o saptamana.

Thank you Harrison!!

Rezumat:

Before the plague, and the quarantine, fourteen-year-old Daniel Raymond had only heard of the Listeners. They were a gang, or at least that's what his best friend Katie's police officer father had said. They were criminals, thieves, monsters--deadly men clearly identifiable by the removal of their right ears.
That's what Daniel had heard. But he didn't know.
He didn't know much in those early days. He didn't know how the plague began, but then, no one did. The doctors and emergency medical personnel said it was airborne, and highly contagious. They said those infected became distorted both inside and out, and very, very dangerous.
Then the helicopters came and took the doctors away, and no one said much of anything after that.
Except the police officers. They said they'd provide food and order, in exchange for guns and, ultimately, anything else they felt like taking.
Daniel's mother went out for toilet paper. She never came back. He hasn't heard from Katie since the phones went dead. And with his real family gone and surrogate family unreachable, Daniel, scared and alone, has nothing except the walls of his apartment, the window shattered, the poisonous air seeping in.
That's when the Listeners arrive. Derek, the one-eared man with the big, soulful eyes, promises protection, and hope, and the choice not to sit alone and wait to die in some horrific way. He offers a brotherhood under the watch of their leader, the prophet Adam. He offers a place in the world to come.
A harrowing work of literary horror, The Listeners, Harrison Demchick's electrifying debut, is a dark and terrifying journey into loneliness, desperation, and the devastating experience of one young boy in a world gone mad

Interviu :

1. What inspires you? Do you have a special place where you enjoy writing?
   
   I don’t know that I could say what inspires me. I don’t tend to seek out things to write about, and when I do have an idea I’m rarely entirely sure of where it came from—or if I am, it’s not any one thing in particular. There are weird things going on in my head and I’ve never quite been able to explain it.
   
   As far as a particular place where I enjoy writing—well, typically it’s my room. It can be elsewhere, but what I mostly need to write is relative silence. I like writing someplace isolated and peaceful, where I can devote my full attention to what I’m doing.
   
   
   
2. We know inspiration can come any time, in any place. Could you tell your fans when and where you had the great idea for your book?
   
   Well, The Listeners began as a series of interconnected short stories back in the summer of 2005, when I was heading into my senior semester at Oberlin College. I don’t know exactly where the overall concept came from, but I know I wanted a common scenario through which these different characters’ stories could exist, and that became the quarantined borough.
   
   As for the Listeners themselves, the one-eared cult at the center of the book, that came from an article I’d read about someone cutting off, I think, their thumb. I don’t recall the details of the article, and I don’t know why the thumb was removed—I’m pretty sure there wasn’t anything ceremonial to it—but it started me thinking about the ceremonial removal of a body part. Eventually, I decided it should be the right ear, because there was a lot of potential symbolism in that—and that sounds like a cop-out writer’s answer, I know, but ritual is founded on symbolism. The Listeners emerged from there—and maybe that, too, contributed to the overall concept, because I needed a situation in which the Listeners could not only exist, but thrive.
   
   
3. I heard that sometimes, writers tend to create characters that are more or less based on real-life people. Did you inspire from reality ?
   
   I did a little bit. Most of the characters in The Listeners are not consciously based on anyone, but two are. The protagonist of the novel is Daniel, and his best friend, Katie, is based on my own best friend. The relationship between the two of them is based heavily on our relationship, although Daniel and Katie, at fourteen, are a lot younger than Beth and I were when we met. So it follows that Daniel is based a little bit on me. He’s different in a lot of ways, but the introversion and love of comic books are definitely familiar.
   
   
   
4. Let’s say it’s the end of the world ( since 21 december it’s closer and closer ). You have the possibility to only save 3 books. Which books would you save?
   
   It’s actually 21 December today as I answer this, and I am pleased to report that I’m still here, and hopefully you are as well!
   
   But if the world did come to an end and I could only save three books, well, the first one would be The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. This is cheating, because that’s actually five books, but if the world is over I’ll want quite a bit of Douglas Adams to keep me company.
   
   Next, I’d save the Spider-Man graphic novel Fearful Symmetry: Kraven’s Last Hunt, written by J. M. DeMatteis and illustrated by Mike Zeck and Bob McLeod. It’s my very favorite comic book story—actually, it’s pretty much the best book I’ve ever read in any genre—and I read my first copy so often I wore it out and had to buy a new one. Hopefully, post-apocalypse, my current version would last a little longer.
   
   The third book is tricky. I think I’d pick a very, very large book of short stories I haven’t read yet. That way, there’s still at least some new writing to discover after the world ends.
   
   
5. When did you first realise you like to write? It’s a passion you had since you were a child or it was something developed during your life?
   
   I’ve always been writing. I actually still have the first story I ever wrote. It’s from kindergarten, and it’s about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I was writing what I considered to be books in third grade. It wasn’t until I was thirteen or fourteen that I knew writing was something I would want to do professionally—actually, it wasn’t until then that it occurred to me that writing is something one could do professionally—but I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t writing.
   
   
6. Since a lot of us might have a dream of writing their own book someday, what king of advice would you give them?
   
   There is all kinds of advice I could give, but the most important is surely this: Edit. In my day job, I’m a book editor, and that’s how I’ve made my living for the last seven years. Writing is a lot of fun, but it’s also very hard work, and a lot of that work comes during the editing process—the time when you may well discover that what you wrote falls apart halfway through, or your most important plot point doesn’t make sense, or, for whatever reason, you pretty much need to start all over again.
   
   I tend to say that the difference between a writer and an author is editing. It’s that drive and willingness to improve upon what you’ve created that results in a book worth publishing. Every writer needs an editor, and every writer needs to be willing to make major changes after that first draft.
   
   
7. Is being a writer what you wish you’ll be for the rest of your life? And…if you could turn back time, would you choose a different life for you? Maybe a different job?
   
   I certainly hope I reach a point where I’m able to make a living as a writer. I don’t know if that’s necessarily as a novelist, as I also write screenplays, and I would love to write comics. But I would also never want to give up editing. I love editing, almost as much as I love writing.
   
   So I don’t know what different life I could or would choose, or what other job I could want. I love what I do. Every day, I get to work with books, and usually fiction at that. When I was a five year old living in my imagination, if someone had suggested that I’d be able to do that as an adult, I would have been thrilled, and rightly so.
   
   
8. If you could chose one person( someone famous, someone loved, etc.) to read your book and tell you their honest opinion about it, who would that person be?
   
   You know, I’ve never thought about that. If someone famous liked my book, I’d rather they tell everyone than just me. I honestly don’t know, though. There are a lot of writers I admire and it would be great to know from them that I’m on to something here, but I didn’t write The Listeners to get the approval of anyone in particular. People seem to be enjoying the book, and that’s good enough for me.
   
   
9. Since this is the last question, it’ll be one nice and ..”delicious”. If you could turn your book in something you could eat, what would it be?
   
   I would turn The Listeners into a banana. Because I hate bananas. If The Listeners was a banana, I would never be tempted to eat it. I don’t want to eat my own book!