W.T. Hughes Interview

1: What is the most productive time of the day for you to write?
Lunch time, it’s the only time I am really alone and not busy with something else.

2: Do you start your projects writing with paper and pen or is it all on the computer?

All PC, I haven’t written on paper in years.

3: What do you draw inspiration from?

Different sources.  I have written stories based on dreams or works of other authors that triggered an idea.  Other times I think what would be disturbing to me in real life and build my story around that concept.

4: Do you set goals for yourself when you sit down to write such as word count?

No, I just start writing and continue until I am interrupted.  Generally I have a completed outline and all I need to do is use words to connect the dots.

5: Are you a published or a self published author and how do you come up with your cover art? Self-published at this time although I do have some short stories submitted to magazines for consideration.  For cover art I try to pull an object that appears in the story and use it as a center piece. 

6: What drives you to choose the career of being a writer?

I have always loved to read and write, and I love to create something that entertains others.

7: Do you own an ebook reading device?

No I have the kindle for PC on my laptop and use that.

8: Who are some of your favorite authors and What are you reading now?

H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allen Poe, Dean Koontz, Stephen King, Clark Ashton Smith, Fritz Leiber, Michael Moorecock .  I have been on a kick lately where I have been re-reading Lovecrafts works, the recent one I read was The Picture in the House.

9: What do you think of book trailers and do you have any plans to have any?

I think they are great if you have the talent or money to have one put together.  Our society today is a very visual one and if the use of video can pull more people into reading a book then I’m all for it.  Personally I don’t have the skill or resources to create one at this time.

10: How did you come up with the title of your latest book?

Well I am naming my series Stories from the Ether and each volume will contain a number of short stories. I choose it because ether is the upper reaches of space.  I guess I was trying to symbolize stories whose content is something beyond our comprehension or out of reach in real life.

11: What are you working on now that you can talk about?

I am joining some other writers who are putting together a short story compilation whose profits will be donated to the victims of the devastation in Japan.  I will be submitting a short story about a man with a bad case of road rage.