Links:
Author website- http://primeevilpublishing.squarespace.com
My facebook page- https://www.facebook.com/stacybuckwriting
Twitter- https://twitter.com/StacyBuckWritin
Amazon author page - http://www.amazon.com/Stacy-Buck/e/B00FB1J6IU/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
1.You're a husband and wife writing team, what's that like? Are there certain strengths and/or weaknesses you have that lend themselves to the process?
You’ve got to play off of each other’s strengths. Our process is pretty much the same every time. I’ll go through and write the outline and rough draft and then my wife, Jenn will go through and fix my bad writing. She’ll take out stuff that doesn’t make sense and add in parts that are missing. She’s a lot better at the grammar and punctuation than I am, so she fixes all of that too. Then I’ll go over it again and do a final polish. We also work with a few great beta readers. Having two minds to go over the work enables us to edit our own work. We catch almost all the typos and grammar mistakes. This is a great way to do it if you can’t afford an editor.
2. Do you have any written work individually? Published or not?
No. It just wouldn’t be the same. Maybe it’ll happen one day, but we’ve both got a lot to learn before that can happen.
3. Tell me a little about Squanto Undead. Where did the idea come from?
I really wanted to do something with Native Americans. There aren’t enough Native American heroes in fiction. I wanted to combine zombies with something that hadn’t been done before. The book is basically the Last of the Mohicans meets zombies. The premise is based on what would have happened if in an alternate history, the Europeans that came to America got a disease from the Native Americans. We all know how it really turned out. Smallpox basically wiped out the Native American population, making it much easier for the European settlers to come in and take over the country. Well what if the roles were reversed? I imagine American history would look much different. Then I added in the idea that they turned into zombies after the Europeans got sick and died.
It’s not a great book. I’m not going to lie. You can definitely tell it’s a writer’s first book. I don’t know if it’s that the premise is so far out there, or that the zombie genre is so saturated, but the book doesn’t sell. It’s probably a good thing that it doesn’t sell though. I love the book, but it’s not my finest work.
4. What did you learn writing it? Did it teach you anything about writing and marketing you didn't know before?
Yes, not to write a book like that again. I learned so much from writing that first book. The list is probably longer than anyone would care to read. I think that’s probably the same for any writer. Your first book teaches you so much. That’s the mistake a lot of writers make though. They think that if they write a book that’s going to be the end all be all. That’s not reality. Finishing your first book is just the beginning of your journey, not the end.
5. Do you think you'll venture into more horror in the future?
Maybe, I’m kind of a chicken when it comes to scary stuff. My writing all reads like epic fantasy, because that’s what I read most of the time. I’m a big fan of the lighter horror stuff. I like the monster movies and horror comedies. I could see us doing an Evil Dead/Army of Darkness type of horror novel, but I’ll stick away from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre type books. There’s a lot of authors out there that can do the really dark scary stuff, but that’s not my style.
6. What is the Users series about? What makes it stand out in your mind?
Users is about a fallen superhero. Carter, the main character, is an ex heroin junkie. He’s a kind of antihero. The underlying theme is something that most recovering addicts deal with. As an ex heroin junkie myself, I’ve dealt with it personally. After you sober up, you feel like you’re making up for lost time, so you go overboard on trying to make up for all the bad things you did. You over compensate by trying to be better and do better things. I was honest with you about Squanto Undead not being my best work, and I’m going to be totally honest about this book kicking ass. Users is by far our best work. It’s got a lot of heart for a book about a recovering heroin junkie. Recovering addicts will appreciate the way the subject is handled with dignity and care. For those who have not directly had an addiction problem, it gives them an inside look into what it’s really like to suffer from this disease.
All the serious and ugly nature of drugs and addiction are funneled through a quirky action adventure superhero story. It doesn’t make light of the subject, but it does have fun with it. Writing this book was like therapy for me.
7. Clockwork Wings is another series you've been working on, tell us a bit about it.
Clockwork Wings is our second novel. It’s a Steampunk meets Greek Mythology series. The series is meant for a YA audience. It’s a bit lighter than the other two series of books we’ve done. It’s pure action and adventure. I wanted to write something that my kids could read.
8. You have a high output for your fiction, tell us a bit about how that works. How is your writing style different than others?
I just plan like crazy. You got to make sure you have a detailed outline before you start. I only have about 45 minutes a day to write, so I’ve got to use it wisely. If I write a book that is 60K words, I’ll have an outline that is 20K words. It may take me a few weeks to write the outline, but it saves me months of time on the rough draft and polish.
I don’t know if my style is different from anyone else. I just do the work. That’s the most important thing with any job. You need a good work ethic to be good at something and writing is no different.
9. So far you've tackled three different genres, do you think you'll always write in so broad a spectrum? Do you have a favorite among your books so far?
I’ve written what appears to be in three different genres, but my stories are all action and adventure. Whether it’s a horror novel, or steampunk, or superhero, they all have a common theme of action and adventure. I want my readers to expect an action packed journey full of fun moments and adventure in exotic places when they open our books. I write books for readers looking for something different. The premises we come up with are strange and exciting. A good premise can really make the story.
My favorite genre that we’ve written in so far is superhero. I’m going to do a bunch of those. I’m already on book 3 of Users. Book 2 comes out next month and book 3 will be out a few months after that. But we’re not going to stop there. I want to do even more Users novels and I want to do other superhero novels not set in the Users universe. I’m a super geek. I think I’m more suited to handle the genre than most authors writing in it today. I think Users is one of the best superhero novels in the market today. That may sound arrogant, but whatever. I’m not here to do a half ass job. I want our books to be great.
10. Are there any other projects in the works? Ideas you're toying with?
We’re always playing around with new ideas, but our story premises so far have been really unique. I don’t think I could go from doing an alternate history native American zombie horror novel to writing a little character piece about a coming of age boy in the south. We’ve got to keep upping the ante.
I’ve got an idea for a lord of the rings style western that I really want to do if I can find the write plot line. I want to do a big monster novel too eventually, something like Godzilla maybe. But whatever we do, you can bet it will be unique or strange. Most likely strange.