An author of genre fiction of all lengths and styles, Marc Watson began writing at the age of 15 and continues to be a part-time writing student at Athabasca University. Now, with the release of his new novel Between Conversations out via Creative Edge Media, I talk with him about his early days as a writer, his writing process and the recent novel's release.
Me: Hello and thank you for taking the time to do this. First off, how did you get into the genre?
Marc Watson: Hello! And thank you so much for the chance to talk! As for the genre, I stumbled into it rather happily. I enjoy being a writer of many different genres and eventually I just ended up with some stories that were made for thrills and chills. There’s a mix in this collection, but what I call the centerpiece of the whole thing is a thriller/horror novelette titled A Church in the Three Valleys. I had an inspiration for the bones of the story and ran with it, leaving nothing to the imagination.
Me: Were you always into genre films growing up? What films specifically got you into watching horror movies?
MW: For sure. Genre films always got the biggest reaction out of me and still do to this day. Escapism is incredibly important to me regardless of the medium.
I came to horror through the path of things more child-accessible. Things like Beetlejuice, Gremlins, that kind of thing. Eventually it ramped up to the “classics”, though why I started with Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, I will never know.
Me: When did you discover a passion for writing?
MW: I had always been a writing creative as a kid, but the real passion kicked in when I was 15. I had been mentally crafting this diverse world during my long walks home from high school, listening to heavy music and letting that form story ideas, influenced by a lot of the pop culture and anime I was consuming at the time.
Eventually I started writing, and I wrote obsessively with pen and paper during any free moment I had, to the point where it risked making me fail the grade. I’d just sit in class and write my books, regardless of what subject I was in. In the end I had a trilogy of horribly written science-fantasy stories, the basis for the world of my Catching Hell duology, and Between Conversations.
After that, it was fits and starts for years until February of 2016 where I decided to actually focus on putting myself out there as a writer. I had a manuscript to start with, and a rough idea what to do. And now, here we are.
Me: What is your writing process when starting a new piece? How do you stay in a creative mindset while writing?
MW: For new work, I try to ride the wave of giddy creativity I feel when I start. Sometimes it propels me all the way through, and other times it stops and then I need to come back to it. I only write at work at my desk during lunch, and I try to use my time as efficiently as possible. If the writer’s high doesn’t carry me through, I move on and come back to it at another time. Or not at all!
Staying in a creative mindset is entirely random. I make no effort to do so, and I don’t think people should. If the story wants to be told, it will be. Don’t force yourself. Don’t set writing goals. Don’t get down on yourself because you only wrote 800 words of your 1000 words a day goal. When you want to write, and if the story really inspires you, you will write.
Me: Your first-published book was Death Dresses Poorly. How did that come about?
MW: I’ll call it educated luck. Your readers will likely hate me for it once I tell the whole story, but DDP (as I refer to it) came from a weird place. I had spent about five years in the world of Catching Hell, writing it, editing it, re-editing it, reading it, just consumed by it. When I was done I was mentally exhausted with it and needed something to clean my brain out.
DDP took me just six weeks to write and edit. I edited it once and was happy with it. My fingers flew because I was so inspired by it and was having so much fun writing it. It was far more natural for me, and then I was done and the strife of Catching Hell seemed so much easier to deal with.
Me: Being your first work, what was the process like to get it published?
MW: This is where the hate from people really comes in. It was easy. At least, easy enough. I had already been shopping Catching Hell around and had been through the usual gauntlet of rejections and non-responses we all hear about. But in the end it was picked up and set to be published.
I had wanted to self-publish DDP to see what that world was like. On a whim one day I decided to put it out there and float it to publishers. I was streamlined in my approach, looking for a certain kind of publisher who fit the tone of the story. One who would “get it”. I submitted to one publisher who loved it but had a full slate. So I submitted to the next one, and they took it and had a contract in my hands in less than a week after submission. That’s how I got on with Fluky Fiction, a relationship that remains strong to this day. They edited Between Conversations for me, and will be re-releasing my Catching Hell duology next year after its previous publisher went under.
By the strange world of publishing release windows, even though Catching Hell was picked up first, DDP was released first because that publisher had a shorter publication window, and it was a smaller and more complete novel to begin with. The rest is history.
Me: Your newest novel, Between Conversations, delved more into heroism and history. Was that an intentional part of the storytelling within this universe?
MW: Absolutely. I had this monster epic in Catching Hell, and as I said previously, I had this whole world laid out in my mind since I was a teenager. Although Catching Hell was a complete story, the world it takes place in has so many nooks and crannies to dig into.
Characters who are shades of grey have always been my goal. Realistic protagonists and antagonists a reader can relate to. I don’t have very many characters I’ve written that you look at them and just say “that dude is evil.” And if you did, I promise you there’s a backstory to why and I’ll get to it eventually if I haven’t already.
Me: With the story broken up into an anthology format, did that writing style present any challenges while writing?
MW: Not at all. I had a bit of a head start because I had already written one of the stories (Low Level Buzz) as a submission to an anthology. Clearly they didn’t take it, but it lit the spark to put these together. I started going through my work to see what ideas I had and what parts and times from this world I wanted to explore.
Then I just went to it, again smashing the majority of it out in about a month. I’d just write one, and then bounce to the next in no particular order. I did however always plan on having the stories be thematically chronological.
Me: Did the intricate plotline immediately strike itself as a multi-storyline arc?
MW: Not directly, but I think the nature of this world as I see it in my mind really needed a collection like this to help flesh it out. Once I had the idea for the structure (it being chronological, and taking place “between conversations”) it all came naturally.
Me: What is the expected release schedule for the book?
MW: It’s out now! Released on Amazon in ebook and paperback on September 25th.
Me: Lastly, what else are you working on that you'd like to share with our readers? Thank you again for your time!
MW: Well, as previously mentioned, a newer, fresher, more complete Catching Hell will be out next year, so Fluky Fiction and I will put our heads together on that right away.
I’m still trying to finish off my supernatural thriller 12:13, a story about a woman who finds that she has been mysteriously doubled, as have a number of other people in the world, and all at the exact same moment (12:13 am, her local time). It’s a story I started writing to find if I could write something my wife would enjoy.
After that, at some point I’m guessing I need to get back into the Ryuujin world once more. There’s so much there for me to bring to the world that it’s intimidating at times. I’ll just do what I can while I can, I guess.
Thank you very much for having me! I hope you and your readers check out my work and enjoy the voice I bring to the table.
To follow more of his work, check out his official site:
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