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Author Interview of Shane Scollins & his book The Bone Room

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Title: The Bone Room
Series: None
Genre: Young Adult, Fiction
Publisher: Limitless Publishing LLC
Publication Date: September 18, 2013
Author: Shane Scollins

SYNOPSIS


Roman Stone is a cop who has spent the last few years of his life trying to rebuild the career he nearly destroyed.

He gets called to Alexandria Bay, NY to help the small town police force find a popular missing teenager. While investigating the case, random human bones start washing up on the shores of the St. Lawrence River and two major cases collide.

Looking for help on the case, Roman asks local historian Becca Quinn to show him around one of the local castles in the area. Becca works for the Thousand Island Preservation Society and spends her days working to restore some of the old abandoned mansions in the area for a new tourism initiative.

But what they find is more than anyone expects…

Something strange is lurking under the surface of the murky waters of the river.

 

Blog Tour Questionnaire

 

  1. Do you see writing as a career? – I do see writing as a career. I’ve always been a creative person, and for some reason I’ve never quite fit into the regular 9-to-5 life. I’ve had a lot of different jobs over the years, but I’ve never been able to put together a sustained career. I got a degree in computer and worked as a network engineer but for various reasons that didn’t work out either. I always end up coming back to writing. It’s always been there for me whether writing books or articles, writing has always been what I go back to when nothing else seems to work. I take it serious and it is my focus right now.  I love getting into my stories and developing my characters.  Sure, I could make more money doing something else, but at this stage in my life, money is not the most important thing. I’ve never had a lot of money growing up so I’m kind of used to it anyway. I learned the hard way that if you don’t have your health and mental wellness you don’t have anything. We are a very reward-driven society but sometimes we forget what the real rewards in life are. I’m grateful to be in the position to do what I love doing. The rewards come from my fans enjoying my stories. When I get a good review or a special message from a fan saying how much they enjoyed reading my work, that’s a payment that no amount of money can buy. That’s what a career should be about, it should be about doing what you love. I know it’s hard because people need to put a roof over their heads and sometimes that means holding a job or career you don’t necessarily like doing. My wish is for everyone to be able to do something they love doing. The world would be a much happier and healthier place. But if you asked people if they would give up a substantial amount of income in their careers to do what they loved doing, very few would give up the money even if they could. I saw a woman on television who burned out in her high octane corporate career. She threw it all away and started baking cupcakes. Her friends and family thought she was nuts but she was so happy to be doing what she loved she no longer needed to take her anxiety medication or high blood pressure medication. It made me wonder how many people would benefit from chasing their dreams even if they never caught them.

 

  1. Who or what is your inspiration? – My inspiration comes from so many different places. I never really know where it’s going to originate. The people in my life inspire me daily. Friends in the flesh and on social media inspire me to create great characters and to be a better person. My fans inspire me to be a better writer. But I’m constantly inspired by the world around us. I watch the news and I’m inspired by the stories I see. Sometimes the roots of my story are taken straight from the headlines, sometimes they come from a story someone tells me from their life. Sometime the pure rawness of nature and the mysteries of the world around us all day long inspire me. The main thing that inspires me, if life. Life is a wonder. In simple terms, the human experience is so amazing and diverse that it can’t be ignored. The things we create and discover as we amble along through our lives can be infinitely inspiring if we choose to look at them in the right way. We’re all in need of inspiration and we find it where we can. The world is both awesome and awful at the same time, and that stark difference is what inspires me. There are people every day that overcome seemingly impossible odds and that’s inspiring.

 

  1. Do you have any pets? – I’ve always had pets since I was a kid. Growing up I had a dog, a malamute/shepherd mix.  We had him for 14 years. We also had ferrets over the years, many of them. My wife and I like to rescue animals when we can. We currently have 4 cats. We have Aikido, a gray and black tiger cat, we have Rascal and gray/black and white tiger. We have Phantom, an all black Bombay with orange eyes, and we have Smorca a black and white cat that someone dropped off at my mother’s house in the middle of winter a few years ago.  We had a dog, Yukon, a 110-pound malamute we got in 2003 but he was older at the time, and we had to put him to sleep in 2010. It took us a while to get over the loss of him, but about a year ago, we started to get puppy fever. Then this summer was tough for our family. My mother spent time in the hospital and then my wife’s mother passed away after a long battle with Multiple Sclerosis, so we were both feeling down. We just felt like it was time to bring a little joy into our lives. So, in the first week of July we came across a local dog on Petfinder.com. We found him at the Cortland County SPCA as a surrender. His first owner apparently couldn’t afford to feed him, he was undernourished and needed a home. We went for a visit after seeing his picture and story on the internet. Almost right away, we knew he was the dog for us. The craziest part is that his name was (and still is) Buddy. Which as some of you may know was the name of the dog in my romantic/thriller LEGACY RISING. It was one of those odd life coincidences that was almost too perfect to believe. We took him home the weekend of July 4th, he’s one year old as of September and he’s almost 60 pounds. He’s a shepherd/husky mix and he’s very energetic and very smart. He’s pretty good with the cats, he wants to play with them but they do not want to play with him. They just think he’s a big, panting, unrefined nuisance who has invaded their space. But a couple of them are starting to warm up to him a bit more. I can see them all getting along in the not to distant future. As Bill Murray’s character said in Ghostbusters: “Dogs and cats, living together, mass hysteria!”

 

 

  1. Any tips for new writers? – My tips for new writers are simple. Just keep working hard and be yourself. There is a ton of advice out there for writers and to be quite honest a lot of it is garbage. People like to over complicate things for some reason, not just in writing but in everything. I’m not sure why, maybe it’s to sound more important or maybe it’s because they don’t see the simplicity in life. But everything in life really breaks down to a few core concepts. If you want something, you have to work for it. Everyone is always looking for the quick fix in everything. We’ve become such an instant results and instant satisfaction society that we often forget that hard work and dedication are the only way to get where we want to be. We see a few examples of instant success and we all want that, of course we do. But success is almost never a straight line, it’s a series of jagged peaks and valleys and roadblocks and loops and sometimes you fall completely off the track. But you have to pick yourself back up. There are no quick fixes for anything. If you want something, you must persist. And beyond hard work you have to be yourself. Be authentic in your life and in your writing. Reach inside yourself and find that originality that makes you the person you are. Your life, your experiences, and that very combination and singular mix of DNA is like no one else on this planet. You have it in your soul to be great so find your voice and work toward the place you want to go.

 

 

  1. Are there scenes or people in your book that you took from your real life? – –Yes. The story is set in Alexandria Bay, New York, which is in the Thousand Islands Region of the St. Lawrence River.  My wife, Heather, and I, visited there a couple years ago. And the moment I was in the town I knew it would be a great setting for a book. I just didn’t know what I was going to do at the time. So on the ride home I did some pondering, and came up with a tiny bit of a concept and wrote it down. It’s a truly unique setting. The river is dotted with tiny islands, many of which have huge houses sitting in the middle of the river. Some of these houses are so large they barely fit on the tiny islands.  It is very odd to see these houses, basically, floating because in some cases the yards are just large enough to walk around the house.  And the town of Alexandria Bay is a really charming little town. It’s very tourist friendly with lots of shops and sights. I used a lot of the town in the book, but I fictionalized everything. The castles and mansions in the book are all fictional, but based on actual castles we saw while we were there. Even the shops and eateries were based on actual places we visited, and a couple of the secondary characters were based physically on some people I saw in the town. But of course I fictionalized everything including street names. That’s generally something I do even in places I’ve lived. This was really the first time I used a specific exclusive setting in a book, in a place where I haven’t lived. So it was fun to kind of play in a new location.

 

  1. If your book was made into a movie, who would you like to see play your characters? – That’s always a tough question but any writer would be lying if they said they hadn’t given it some thought at some point. I don’t usually spend a ton of time doing it, but on occasion I will have fun as my wife and I try and cast my books and have debates on who would be the best choice. In reality if that choice were up to me I’d probably want to use maybe lesser known names and not the big stars. I’d never cast a George Clooney or Scarlet Johansson into those roles because it just seems so obvious. I’d want actors that were a bit lesser known than the big names. But at the same time I’d like people that are somewhat recognizable so it’s a fine line to balance. In this instance, I’d say Becca could be played by Molly Quinn. When I created the character, I used her as the backdrop for the physical concept. I really like her work as Alexis on the show Castle. She’s got that subtle toughness and touch of vulnerability that Becca has, and I think the fact they share a last name is a bit of fun coincidence. Roman is a bit tougher because I think a lot of actors could play him well. I thought of a bunch of different actors but for some reason I kept coming back to my very first instinct, and that was Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I’ve been a fan of his work since 3rd Rock From the Sun, and he always impresses me.  He seems to be good at balancing comedy and drama and I think he’d do the role well. The secondary roles are actually harder in some ways because you want them to be memorable but not overpowering. I’d say Tracey could be played by Rachael Nichols. I like her work, and she’s got the physical attributes. The hardest roles would be Richard and Rodrig. I don’t even know where to start there. But I came up with a great idea. Maybe I’ll let the fans decide on that one. That’s what I’d do, I’ve have the first ever fan casting. I’d let fans who read the book, suggest and audition the role. I’d have the actors do auditions, post it on Youtube and then have people vote on who they want in the roles. In fact I’d love to do that with the entire book, it would be interesting and fun for everyone involved. And it could revolutionize casting books into movies.

 

 

  1. Are you working on anything new? How is it going? – I’m always working on something new. I have a lineup of about 10 projects at any given moment. I just finished and submitted a manuscript to my publisher, which is a pure high-octane romantic/thriller. I’m currently working on the follow up to SAVIOR FREQUENCY which will be my main focus for the next little while. I’ve also started the third book in my Humble Walker series, which may or may not be the final installment of that series. Beyond that, I also have a follow up to THE GAME, which is in the early preliminary stage. I also have two manuscripts that are standalone stories that are basically completed, they just need my edits but I’ll plow through the pile. The only downside is that I can never leave well enough alone. It seems that every few days a new idea will come to me, and I write it down into the concept bank and wait. I have series books I should have completed but sometimes I get inspired to write a story for no particular reason. The last book I just finished and submitted to my publisher was something that came out of nowhere. It was inspired by a story on the news and I just started writing, within a few weeks it was done. That happens sometimes. THE BONE ROOM was conceptualized a long time ago, but one day I just started writing it for no real reason and it flowed so well I couldn’t stop. I just write, as much as possible. I try to write ever single day even if it’s a little bit. I don’t set a word goal for myself either daily or weekly, etcetera, I just try and write and create whenever I can.

 

 

Pick your favorite:

Apple or Droid = Android

Chocolate or Vanilla = chocolate

Comedy or Drama = comedy most of the time, but there’s a place for drama

Call or Text = depends on the situation, call if I have more than a short message to convey.

Public School or HomeSchool = public

Coffee or Tea = tea

Ebook or paperback = both… I like eBook conveniences, but the durability of paperbacks.

Online or in person shopping? = in person but sometimes you can’t beat a deal online.

Holiday? = Christmas

Goodreads:

www.goodreads.com/book/show/18463899-the-bone-room

Amazon Kindle:

www.amazon.com/The-Bone-Room-ebook/dp/B00FAH52X8

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Shane Headshot
I love a man in a hockey jersey. 🙂

Shane Scollins is a freelance writer and Amazon best selling author. Originally from New Jersey, he now resides in Upstate New York with his wife, Heather. He has a degree in computer science and has worked as an automotive service manager, a website developer and a computer network engineer. In his spare time he enjoys playing ice hockey, riding his mountain bike, and strumming on his guitar. Primarily a SciFi and paranormal novelist, Shane enjoys taking readers on surprising and unexpected journeys that twist reality. He is currently working on his next book

Facebook:

www.facebook.com/pages/Shane-Scollins-Author/208046712568634

Twitter:

www.twitter.com/shanescollins

Goodreads:

www.goodreads.com/author/show/4893553.Shane_Scollins

Website:

www.shanescollins.com

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