Why
do I write?
Writing is part of me. It’s in my blood. I’ve been writing ever
since I could hold a crayon. Sometimes I write to sort out my emotions. Other
times I write because I can’t find anything good on TV.
I knew from an early age that I wanted to write for a living. I
took a long, windy road to get there, but I ended up as a director of
communications in a large company where I was afforded the opportunity to
stretch my creative skills while honing my craft.
Now, I’m deep into writing psychological and supernatural
thrillers for older teens and adults.
Where
do my ideas come from?
My ideas come from everyday life. I have a slightly wry sense of humor, so I
sometimes find inappropriate things amusing. I’m definitely not one who will
laugh at a funeral, but you can bet I’ll be writing about the person who does.
In addition, I’m a total wuss—which means I’m basically scared
of everything.
I’m scared of the woods. I’m scared of the ocean. Basements
freak me out and barns are the absolute creepiest thing I can imagine,
especially when they have sharp tools hanging from the rafters.
I find scary ideas everywhere. Oranges are just fruit until you
peel back the skin and see something staring back at you. Pencils are just
writing implements until one of your characters murders another with one.
AND don’t get me started on kids. Sometimes the younger set can
be so cringe-worthy, I even wrote a book about them. Check out ‘Little Killers
A to Z’ when you get a chance. It’s filled with twenty-six short stories about
kids who kill.
Yeah – nothing scary about them at all.
What
motivates me when the going gets tough?
Coffee.
Chocolate.
Sometimes Chinese food, but lately, Kung Pow chicken makes me
blow up like the blueberry girl in the Willy Wonka stories, but with sodium
instead of blueberry juice.
In the end, almost anything can motivate me to write even when I
don’t want to put words down on the page. However, when the going gets really
rough, self-imposed deadlines do the job.
I often give myself a minimum word count of 1000 words a day
then mentally berate myself if I don’t get them written.
There’s something sort of creepy about a voice inside your head
that won’t let you rest until you paint a page with words.
What's
the most discouraging part of writing? How do I overcome it?
You don’t need me to tell you that the writing industry has
changed. When I was a kid growing up in a suburb of Springfield, Massachusetts,
one of my neighbors was a rather well known author.
I remember him telling my dad what his advance was for his first
book. The number hovered around figures that I couldn’t even comprehend.
Now, many decades later, with the advent of self-publishing,
on-line publishing, the disappearance of brick and mortar book stores, and our
brains being pulled in a million different directions because of technology, it
seems like authors no longer see sustainable incomes from their writing.
That makes me sad. It also makes me more motivated than ever to
succeed.
I write for the passion of writing and the positive reviews from
people I don’t know who encourage me to keep producing more. I write for the
possibility that I can make a difference to someone out there because of my
writing.
Publisher: Bell Bridge Books
Publication Date: October 29, 2019
A beer bottle thrown carelessly at the windshield of a passing car sends the vehicle careening off the road, and the lives of high school seniors Denny Ford, his foster sister Jen McKnatt, and her sometimes boyfriend Brody Erwin, spinning out of control.
Over the next several days as the three experience increasingly bizarre, frightening, and seemingly unrelated events, they are forced to examine the ramifications of their actions and how their lives have been irrevocably altered.
What they've done can never be undone.
After all, it only takes one bottle toss to turn their world cockeyed forever.
Praise for Howard Odentz
“A simmering psychological thriller bolstered by a dynamic narrative voice and a few unexpected twists.” —Kirkus Reviews on What We Kill
“This author has a real knack for the weird and the wonderful.” —TheMostSublime.com
Author and playwright Howard Odentz is a lifelong resident of the gray area between Western Massachusetts and North Central Connecticut. His love of the region is evident in his writing as he often incorporates the foothills of the Berkshires and the small towns of the Bay and Nutmeg states into his work.
In addition to The Dead (A Lot) Series, he has written the horror novel Bloody Bloody Apple, the short story collection Little Killers A to Z, and a couple of horror-themed, musical comedies produced for the stage.
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