K.S. Hello and welcome to the blog. I am very excited to have you here. Why don’t we start off with a small introduction? Tell us a little about yourself.
Thanks for having me here. I’m Marc Johnson, author of the fantasy book, Catalyst: The Passage of Hellsfire. While I love to read and write, of course, I also love to play games to sharpen my mind. Board, video, card, sports, poker--it doesn’t matter. I love them all! I also love a good debate, no matter the topic. I have a wide variety of interests as everything seems to interest me in one form or another.
K.S. Any interesting writing quirks or stories you would like to share with my readers?
While I do sit at a computer, I tend to put my feet on the wall and recline my chair while I’m writing. I’ve left a lot of marks on the walls over the years and have fallen over a few times too. I now tend to act out the climatic parts of my writing. Luckily, my book is in first person. Sadly, I lack magical powers.
K.S. When did you realize you wanted to be a writer? What sparked the desire to pen your first novel?
I was about 7 or 8 when I realized wanted to be a writer. I even wrote a couple of bad short stories and one comic book that I wish I could find. I love stories in all its forms—movies, comics, books, television. Writing books is the cheapest out of all of them and there’s no hindrance with a budget or huge collaboration you need. The writer is only hindered by his imagination. I wrote my first book because of a dream. I get all my stories from dreams, but this one stuck with me and won’t leave me alone until it’s complete.
K.S. What genre do you write?
Fantasy, but I won’t limit myself to a genre. It just depends on what I feel like writing at the time and what ideas I’ve come up with. I also feel like every fiction work can be considered fantasy in one way or another.
K.S. What would you say has inspired you most in your writing career? Or, who is your favorite author and why?
I don’t think I’ve had anyone inspire me to write. My favorite writer is Rod Serling. The Twilight Zone blew my mind away and all the things he had to go through to keep that show on was amazing. And a lot of the stories still apply today. His earlier works from Patterns to Playhouse 90 were also excellent.
K.S. What does your family think of your writing?
I don’t know. I never talked about my writing to my family. I just wrote and kept to myself. I’m sure I’ll find out at the next family party since they all know I have a book now.
K.S. What was one of the most surprising things you learned while creating your book/s?
That even though I outlined my book and reworked countless drafts, I was still surprised by how the more emotional parts impacted me during my final edits. I felt moved even though I was tired of the edits and rewrites.
K.S. What inspires you?
I guess my dreams inspire me, and I don’t mean dreams in the ‘I’ve always wanted to write’ sense. I mean literally, my dreams. I tend to have very vivid dreams that I base my stories off of. Sometimes I’m in them. Sometimes I’m not. Sometimes I even see the future. I’m also able to retain most of the dreams I have.
K.S. Can you tell us a little about any of your novels?
Catalyst: The Passage of Hellsfire Blurb
For centuries, the kingdom of Alexandria has protected Northern Shala from the monstrous creatures lurking in the Wastelands. Now, a dark force threatens that fragile peace.
Far from home, Alexandria’s princess is abducted. When a young villager named Hellsfire stumbles upon her and her captors, he rushes in to rescue her, alone and unarmed. His fear and fury unleash an uncontrollable magical force that grants him the power to save the princess—and change the world.
Hellsfire has never craved nor dreamed of power. But such magic as he now possesses has not been seen in Northern Shala for a thousand years, since the devastation of the War of the Wizards and the creation of the Wastelands.
Now Hellsfire must leave all he’s ever known, and make a dangerous journey to learn to master this wild, ferocious power—power he knows he is not ready to wield. More difficult still, he needs to master his emotions. If he can’t, the power will consume him, Alexandria will fall, and darkness will eclipse the land, destroying everyone he loves.
In the dead of cold, the spark shall burn...
K.S. Where can we buy your novel?
You can buy my novel at:
I’m working at getting it into other places, but I have no idea how long getting into Smashwords Premium Catalog will take. My book is DRM-free so you can do what you want with it, but please support me by buying one copy. It’s only $4.99 for 105,000 words.
K.S. Do you have a website, fan site, or Blog that we can visit?
You can read my updated weekly blog at Longshot Publishing. I talk about my views of writing and what I’ve done or am doing with my book, along with the numbers or reasoning behind them.
You can also follow me on twitter at @Hellsfire. However, my tweets are less serious than my site, may not have anything to do with writing, and are all over the place.
K.S. Do you have any closing advice to aspiring writers?
Don’t talk about writing--do it! People that don’t write, will never understand what you go through, and don’t want to hear it. And if you’re talking about writing, you’re not busy writing. A lot of people talk about doing things—few rarely do them.
Also, read and don’t stop reading. You’d be surprise at the things you subconsciously pick up while reading.