Blurb:
Typos
are lethal to 98% of the population. Be thankful Typo Squad is on patrol …
Richard
Shonnary was a Typo Squad legend. He had a gift for seeking out and destroying
errorist cells, and was almost singlehandedly responsible for bringing about
the end of errorism. But one night, a single errant bullet fired by his brother
prematurely ended his career.
Convinced
to come out of self-imposed retirement after five years, Richard unknowingly
gives rise to his greatest enemy — Anton Nym. Will he and his new partner be
able to stop this latest threat before deadly typos are unleashed upon an
unwitting world?
Links:
Bio:
Stephen
Lomer has been writing books, novellas, short stories, and scripts for nearly a
decade, and one or two of them are actually pretty good. A grammar nerd, Star
Trek fan, and other things that chicks dig, Stephen is the creator, owner, and
a regular contributor to the website Television Woodshed. He’s a hardcore fan
of the Houston Texans, despite living in the Hub of the Universe his whole
life, and believes Mark Twain was correct about pretty much everything.
Stephen
lives on Boston’s North Shore with his wife, Teresa. Typo Squad is his first
novel, a follow-up to the short story collection Stargazer Lilies or Nothing at
All.
Interview
Welcome to my blog Stephen. Please tell my readers more about your new book and yourself.
Q: Tell us about your latest work—title, genre, etc. — and why you wrote
it?
A: My new novel is titled Typo
Squad. It’s set in an alternate reality in which typos are lethal to 98% of
the population. Those who are not affected by typos join Typo Squad to keep the
public safe from the forces of errorism. It’s an action/adventure novel with a
healthy dose of humor. And lots of terrible puns.
Q: What draws you to your genre(s)? Why is this type of story compelling
to you?
A: This book is very near and dear to my heart; I spent my formative
years as a copy editor, and I felt like people in the editorial field could use
some heroes. So I created some.
Q: What is your writing process like? Do you map the whole thing out or do
you just let it unfold?
A: I have a basic notion of the beginning and end of the novel, but I
like to be surprised by the twists and turns that take me from one to the
other. Sometimes the beginning and the end have to be completely reworked
because of the direction the story takes. Those are my favorites!
Q: What kind of research was involved?
A: Not a whole lot. I knew the subject matter pretty well, so it was
just a matter of breathing life into the characters and putting them through
their paces.
Q: How much of YOU makes it into your characters?
A: I think I’m always the main character, to some degree. Or a stylized
version of me, anyway. Certainly the desire to keep people safe from typos
comes straight from me.
Q: How do you balance the need to have time to write with the needs of
family, society, etc.?
A: Eh, I’m not a huge fan of society in general, so that helps me find
more writing time.
Q: Have there been any authors in particular, that inspired your writing?
A: I truly love JK Rowling, not only for her vivid imagination and her
easy, straightforward writing style, but for her obvious love of language and
clever use of it.
Q: What other projects are you currently working on or about to start?
A: I have a couple of short stories I wrote for anthologies that should
be seeing the light of day sometime this year. In the meanwhile, I’m already a
few chapters into Typo Squad II.
Q: What would be the top five, (or 3 or 1 or however many) things you
would tell aspiring authors?
A: The number one thing I would tell an aspiring author is not to wait!
We only have so much time on this planet, and so many stories to tell, that the
sooner you get started, the better. And tied into that, I would remind writers
that it’s never too late to start. I published my first novel in my 40s. So can
you!
Again, thanks Stephen for taking the time to share your knowledge with us. We appreciate you and your work.
Good luck with your current and future publications
Guest Post
How I Came to Write Typo Squad
The first question I always hear when I tell people about my novel, Typo Squad, is “Wow, that’s so original!
Where did you come up with that idea?”
And I’m happy to answer that question, but first, let me tell you what Typo Squad is about. Otherwise I’m just
over here sounding like Charlie Brown’s father. Here’s the blurb:
Typos are lethal to 98% of the
population. Be thankful Typo Squad is on patrol …
Richard Shonnary was a Typo Squad
legend. He had a gift for seeking out and destroying errorist cells, and was
almost singlehandedly responsible for bringing about the end of errorism. But
one night, a single errant bullet fired by his brother prematurely ended his
career.
Convinced to come out of
self-imposed retirement after five years, Richard unknowingly gives rise to his
greatest enemy — Anton Nym. Will he and his new partner be able to stop this
latest threat before deadly typos are unleashed upon an unwitting world?
So, yeah, I’d say that’s pretty original. But where did it come from?
For that, we’ll have to set the Wayback Machine to 1992. (Yes, kids, there used
to be years that started with the number 1.)
That was the year that the much-maligned (and deservedly so) hair metal
band Faster Pussycat released their swansong album, Whipped!
On that album was a very clever song titled "Big Dictionary."
The chorus went thusly:
She just loves me for my big dic
… tionary
She loves my vocabulary
Complete from A to Z
She just loves me for my big dic
… tionary
Mary Mary’s quite contrary
Thesaurus girl you’ve ever seen
I know. Poetry, right? The pause that they put in between
"dic" and "tionary" always made me think that it would make
a great character name – Dick Shonnary. And how people might call him Richard.
That bubbled in my subconscious for a very long time, until about five
years ago, when I decided to build a story around Richard Shonnary. But it actually
wasn't even going to be a novel. Typo
Squad was going to be a movie.
I made attempt after attempt to get the screenplay written, but I could
never get it off the launch pad. I'd get five or six pages in and the whole
thing would just fall apart. It was maddening.
And then a couple of years ago, I found myself sitting at Wolfgang
Puck's restaurant in the MGM Grand in Las Vegas with my great friend Chris
Whigham and our wives, and he asked me what I was working on, writing-wise. I
told him of my frustration with writing the script, and he said four words to
me that changed everything: "Write the book first."
So I did. I sat down and I wrote Typo
Squad, from beginning to end. It took me a really long time, and you know
what? It was shit. That first attempt at Typo
Squad was absolute swill. I reluctantly torched the entire thing and
started over from scratch.
The second iteration of the book was better than the first, but it
still wasn't where it needed to be. So yes, I put attempt number two aside and
started it again. This time, though, I was able to take big chunks of what
worked from the second version and use them in the third. And the third time
was the charm. That's the version that the world can now peruse to its heart’s
content.
So I don't find it at all strange to be thanking Chris Whigham for his
sage advice that day. (I actually modeled my favorite character in Typo Squad after him in gratitude.) I do
find it strange to be thanking Faster Pussycat, but I suppose I must. So
thanks, guys. Rock on.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for your valued comments