Devil’s Nightmare Premonitions Hallowe'en Blog Tour

We are here today with Author, Robert Pruneda. 

Robert has a new exciting and spine tingling book available and he has agreed to answer some questions about his craft and book today.

http://amzn.to/1rHFi6S

The follow-up book to  

http://amzn.to/1qVqe0d

Now I have to be honest I’ve been privileged to read both of these outstanding books and I found them riveting, nail biting and truly scary. I’m sure your readers will too. But since we have you here Robert we’d like to ask you a few questions your readers might like to know.

1.)  What aspects do you think a good story has?

A good pace is important to me in storytelling. While I appreciate backstory to help build up characters or settings, too much of it can turn me off and make me want to put the book down and do something else for a while before coming back. It doesn’t have to be action from the first page all the way to the end, but the pacing should move the story along with enough conflict to keep me interested and turning the pages.

2) How did you pick the names of your characters?

I drew them out of a hat. Seriously, though, when I choose names for characters I think about who the character is and try to pick a name that seems real and fits the personality. For example, there is some significance to Cody’s surname Sumner. I also jot down names (first or last) that I like when I see or hear them for future reference. I have done quite a bit of transcribing for a university professor through my administrative support business and have come across some very strong and interesting names. I now have a “character names list” for future reference.

3)    What or who inspired you to write?  And how long have you been writing?

I’ve always been a fan of the horror genre in film and print, and Stephen King has been my greatest influence to date. However, I would have to say my brother was my first inspiration because of his interest in story telling when I was a kid. He and I would spend hours playing Dungeons & Dragons, where using your imagination is key while playing the game. He was also a decent artist. He would create his own stories through comics and even wrote a short-story about one of his Dungeons & Dragons characters. I always looked up to my brother when I was a kid and began creating my own comics, drawing them and writing the stories during summer breaks late at night while watching cartoons, usually The Flintstones. It wasn’t until getting laid off from a job in 2001 that I began writing my first novel while working odd jobs until I found something that stuck. I self-published Pursuit of a Dream in 2004, and then began a career in the newspaper industry. My goal at the time was to become a journalist, but ended up running the obituaries department, which turned out to be a more interesting job than I ever thought it would. I also gained some professional experience with writing, editing, and page design. The job steadily turned into a sales-oriented position (no joke), so due to some major differences in opinion and conflicts with new management, I decided to end my newspaper career in September of 2011 to start writing the next chapter in my life as a full-time self-employed individual.

I’m an entrepreneur at heart, always have been, and deciding to leave the traditional workforce to pursue my own dreams was both exciting and terrifying. A big part of that dream was writing. I did that part-time while also operating an small business administrative support and resume writing service from home, which I did on a part-time to full-time basis while working on my first horror novel, which I published last year. The sequel to Devil’s Nightmare comes out on Tuesday.

4.) Do you have a day job?

Yes and no. I am now self-employed working from home, but I do work at a funeral home from time to time (perfect for a horror author, right?). Nowadays, I’m devoting more and more of time to the business of writing fiction as the months go by. My goal is to be able to support myself as an author without the need of additional employment in the next five years. That’s the plan, anyway. I need to write more novels!

5.) What kind of books do you like to read?

My favorite genre is horror, but I also enjoy reading fantasy, science fiction, and thrillers. I read books from both traditionally published authors published by the big publishing houses, such as Stephen King, Michael Crichton, and Dean Koontz; independently published authors, such as Michael R. Hicks and Lorna Suzuki; and books published by the small traditional publishing houses and hybrid publishers (such as Booktrope). I just wish I could read faster. You should see my TBR list.

6.) Some writers find they plot their novels then write them; they are known as plotters. Others just write as the ideas come and are known as pantsers. Which are you or are you a bit if both?

I wrote Devil’s Nightmare completely as a pantser on the most part and found it both very challenging and quite enjoyable. I think it worked well because as I wrote the story I didn’t even know what to expect next. This led to what readers have said to be a surprising ending, which is what I was shooting for. I wrote Devil’s Nightmare: Premonitions in much the same way, although I did have a better idea of how the book was going to progress and how it was going to end. Everything else just fell into place. The sequel has an even more shocking conclusion than the first, so I’m really looking forward to getting that one into the hands of readers. I’m currently plotting another book, but I’ll probably end up writing that one as a pantser too. It may not work for other authors, but I find it is what works best for me.

7.) How did you conceive the ideas for the series?

Devil’s Nightmare is very loosely based on an experience I had when I was somewhere between ten to twelve years old. I can’t remember exactly, but I’ll never forget the experience. Without going into too much detail, when I was a kid some friends of mine and I started playing with a Ouija board. I got obsessed with it and started playing with it by myself (something which is taboo). After playing with the board (and even making my own) I started having nightmares and then began to hear voices in my head (okay, that still happens; I’m an author after all). I started having anxiety attacks and then one night I woke up and had a hard time breathing. I felt something pressing against my chest. I tried to get up, but the unseen force kept me down. Then I saw a pair of inhuman eyes and a silhouette appear hovering just inches above me in the darkness. I froze there, unable to move as this demon, or whatever it was, stared into my eyes. I’ll never forget those eyes and the amount of fear I experienced at that moment. I finally screamed louder than I’ve ever screamed in my life. I cried out for my parents, who soon came rushing into my bedroom. When my mother turned on the light, the apparition disappeared. I never saw it again and never played with a Ouija board after that night.

Maybe it was my imagination. Or maybe it was a demon oppressing me for toying with the occult and breaking some rule of the spirit world. Real or not, it was the most horrifying experience I have ever had. When you read Devil’s Nightmare you will find hints of this experience, but the story in itself goes in a completely different direction.

8.) As a writer do you find yourself trying to put yourself into your character’s mind?

Yes, I do. And I’m still talking to my therapist about it.

I wrote the first book in the Devil’s Nightmare series in first person perspective, so it was kind of a prerequisite for writing my protagonist’s story. The second book is in third person perspective, but it still required getting into the minds of my characters, one of which resulted in some emotional reactions, because I had to think like that particular character and experience some pretty horrendous things a couple of times; this actually opened up some old wounds from my childhood. It was well worth it, though, because it made the scene more genuine to me, as upsetting as it was. On the most part, however, getting into the minds of my characters is a lot of fun. The problem is my characters can be very stubborn and always tend to win our arguments.

9.) I understand you are a gamer. What particular games do you like to play? Did any of those games help you visualize the situations in your books so you could then make such epic mental pictures for the reader that they feel they are there?

Oh, yes. Anybody who knows me personally will vouch for my love of video and computer games. It’s my favorite pastime. I’ve been playing video games since the days of Pong and haven’t stopped since. Hell, I even mention the fact that I’m a gamer in my author bio. J As far as what I enjoy playing the most, I would have to say military style first person shooters (Call of Duty, Battlefield), real-time strategy (Command & Conquer, Total War, Age of Empires), role-playing games (Baldur’s Gate, Elder Scrolls, Dragon Age, Fallout), and racing (Gran Turismo, Forza Motorsport). I also enjoy open world games like Grand Theft Auto. My absolute favorite genre is survival horror, with the Silent Hill series (particularly the first two) being at the top of my list.

I use video games as an outlet to relax and escape the stresses generated from work, finances, and sometimes the inevitable family issues that sometimes arise. Video games haven’t really influenced my writing directly per se, but now that I think about it, the survival horror games that I play probably have in fact had some impact. The one time I would say that video games specifically and directly assisted me was when I wrote my first novel Pursuit of a Dream, which was about a kid with a dream of becoming a professional stock car racer. I played quite a bit of NASCAR video games during that time, which did help with writing the racing scenes.  

10.) Please tell the readers about your latest book Devil’s Nightmare Premonitions.

Devil’s Nightmare: Premonitions is the sequel to the Amazon bestselling horror Devil's Nightmare. Fans of the first novel are in for another horrific thriller full of twists, chills, and a shocking conclusion. It takes place two years after the first novel. Aaron Sanders is retired from the Austin Police Department and he moves his family out of the capital city to start a new life as a small town cop in Lost Maples, Texas (which is a fictional town), where the population count is updated more often than the murder rate. That bit of reputation is about to change when Aaron is once again caught in the middle of a mysterious investigation that has an eerie familiarity. This time, however, he is certain what is responsible for the violent deaths . . . Or is he?

Evil knows no boundaries, and it is up to Aaron to figure out how to protect the residents of his community, and his family, from becoming its next victims.

11) Do you have another book planned to follow up Devil’s Nightmare: Premonitions?

I do have another book planned to follow up Premonitions. I could end the story where it is, but I have a feeling, based on feedback from my beta readers, that readers will want me to continue the series. Devil’s Nightmare was originally supposed to be a single story, but I received several requests for a second novel, so I wrote Devil’s Nightmare: Premonitions. While I’m on that subject, I want to thank all of my readers for your support and for pushing me to continue writing in the horror genre. I have several other stories brewing in this twisted mind of mine, so be sure to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and via my website for news on future projects.

Connect with Robert Pruneda:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/SharkbaitWrites

Facebook: http://facebook.com/AuthorRobertPruneda

Official Website: http://SharkbaitWrites.com

Thank you for visiting us today, Robert. As for you, reader, what are you waiting for? Go read Robert’s new book and if you haven’t read the one before that Devil’s Nightmare I highly recommend it. See review here  http://welllread.blogspot.ca/2013/03/review-devils-nightmare-by-rob-pruneda.html 

and for Devil’s Nightmare: Premonitions here http://welllread.blogspot.ca/2014/10/devils-nightmare-premonitions-review.html