The 10D10 Interview Challenge
#20 – Gareth Stevens, author, inspiring creator, dude from England.
Gareth and I met on Facebook. We both frequent a group therapy page about trauma related to being kicked out of birthday parties for eating too much cake. He and I realized we wrote in the same genres (he goes by GJ Stevens), and he did this interview thing on his site, and I agreed to do an interview for him. It was fun,
So fun, in fact, I decided I wanted to do something similar, and here we are, tables turned, and I’m interviewing HIM for MY SITE. So to you, Gareth, I say this; thanks. You inspired me to help promote my fellows, and have a good time too.
So I rolled dice for Gareth, and got the following numbers: 6, 4, 4, 8, 8, 3, 6, 5, 5, 2.
After he explained the metric system to me, we got down to it, and had this fantastic interview.
- What’s your favorite cold beverage and why?
Anything with alcohol in it. I’m not a big drinker, maybe once or twice a week. I can’t work (writing, marketing etc) once I’ve had a drink so I can enjoy the time out of that side of things without feeling the guilt.
MY MAN. I knew we were cut from the same alcohol soaked cloth.
- When you read your positive reviews on Amazon or Goodreads, do you touch yourself?
I would but I’m pretty much always in company. I need my full-time job until I make my first million from writing. I’m not sure it would go down too well in the office!
First million comes fast. At the rate I’m going I’ll have made my first million about two years after I’m dead and buried. Which is pretty quick, all things considered.
- Do you prefer movie theaters, or watching flicks at home?
I would like to say movie theaters because that’s the full experience and how it was designed to be viewed, but people annoy me by talking and opening packets of sweets so I’ll have to say home is the best all round.
lol. Packets of sweets. You’re SO not American, I love it. And I get ya. I love seeing cool movies in the theater, but I’m at the age when I’m just grumpy all the time, and I can’t afford to go to jail over someone eating their popcorn with their mouth open.
- What’s your Achilles heel? Lack of rest? Cheesecake? IBS?
I’m an obsessive. I think of an idea and I have to follow it up and it has to be done at break-neck speed. It’s kind of stressful, but it’s all self-induced. That said, I get such a high when I see the results. Plus anything sweet and full of fat, love all that stuff. Shame I have no willpower!
I get the seeing things through part. I start down the road on an idea and I HAVE to see it along for a god ways to check for viability, and to just clean the decks. Makes focusing on projects a challenge, as the work quantity goes to where the current obsession is.
- Overpopulation of the world is a big problem. We’re running out of food, water, oil, and other things like clean underwear. What can we do to sustain human life for longer?
I tell my kids they’ll be eating insects as part of every meal within twenty years. Unfortunately they are old enough to understand I’m right and not be grossed out any more. My day job is in conservation of water so this is kind of my field. Serious answer, we have to change our ‘throwaway’ way on life that perpetuates the developed world. Better answer, go commando.
In American, ‘going commando’ means to not wear underwear, which makes this answer real interesting.
- What do you want to be when you grow up?
I never want to grow up. I’m an immature forty year old idiot sometimes and it’s something I really like about myself.
Self awareness is such a cool trait in a writer. I dig it, and I love this answer.
- Overrated, underrated, whatever. What do you do to burn calories and maintain your rock hard abs?
I run three times a week. I have the body of a the ghostbusters stay puft man who has had some of the air let out. My Wife exercises just a little bit more than me but has the body of an athlete. Not sure how that works, but lucky me!
Fucking metabolisms, man. I have a friend who does nothing active, and eats Swedish Fish like seven meals a week, and is in tip-top shape. I eat Paleo, avoid sweets, and bust ass around the house all week long as well as take care of two kids and I have the body of a tardigrade, aside from being very destructible.
- What’s a guilty pleasure you have when it comes to books? Are you into the nasty, Dick Tingle erotica? Do you cozy up with a Lovecraftian flesh-shredder on a wintry day? What’s something you read your fans might not know about?
Animal porn. Anything in a field. Not really. Seriously, I was joking. I enjoy sci-fi and action and of course the tearing of flesh by the undead. I write what I like to read. Note, there is no animal porn in my books.
Yet… Gareth. Yet. And I suspect now, at some point soon it’ll factor into a story you’ll write. Why? It’s funny, and makes for a good black comedy moment when the undead are tearing the flesh from your characters.
- If you could automate a single task around your house with a robot, what would it be?
Cleaning my robots.
I… wait. What? You already have robots?
- What question do you wish interviews like this asked you?
Why do you write? May answer would be probably the same as most authors. I started writing for fun, but when I got great feedback, that became the opium. The nature of being human means I crave more, so I concentrate on writing and getting people to see my work.
Ahhh yes. Why is such a good question. How, what inspires you, blah blah, but the why is crucial. Great insight, my friend.
Gareth, thanks again for inspiring me to do these interviews, and thanks for returning the favor and joining my silly project.
GJ Stevens started writing fiction at the age of thirty. He describes his style of writing as popular fiction which usually has some sort of Sci-Fi, paranormal element. Even as a degree level engineer with a large family, a full time career in a serious profession with plenty of adult responsibilities, he’s always had an artistic and creative side. After years of self-suppression, the flood gates opened. His fast-paced zombie apocalypse novel, In The End, is the culmination of many years of finding time from nowhere to learn the craft. The follow up is due out later this year.
As a lover of the outdoors, every year he spends weekends out in the desolate countryside of the UK hiking and camping with his long-time friends which he uses as inspiration for both his creative fiction works, the subject of many a blog post and his new novella, Survivor. Survivor is a 144-page guide to creating a Bug Out Bag for an emergency situation forcing you from your home and features survival guides, short fiction and chapters from In The End.
In The End Link: mybook.to/InTheEnd
Survivor Link (Free): http://bit.ly/Survivor_Detail