What The Writers Have To Say! (Wattpad Interviews)

Interview with Wordsushi

Username: Wordsushi

Member Since: September 08, 2011

Works on Wattpad: One

1.       What inspired you to write your first book?

My mother was dying of cancer, I had just broken up with my girlfriend and I was working as a professional music composer for a video game company that went out of business. My life was feeling like it was totally going into a downward spiral. One night, I had an inspiration, a spark of a story. I wrote the first chapter in a couple of hours and sent it to a buddy of mine who had directed a movie. He said it was good and to keep writing, so I did... day and night. Nineteen furious days later, “The Doomsday Club” was finished. That was quite a few years ago and the experience only inspired me to write more and more.

2.       How did you come up with the title?

I wish there was a clever story attached to this, but “The Doomsday Club” just came out of nowhere and stuck. It was my first idea for a title and my last. When it’s right, you just know it in your heart and soul.

3.       What are your current projects?

Putting the final touches on my 11th book, “Transistor Rodeo”, a white-knuckle adventure about a robot rodeo that runs amok in the city of Los Angeles. “Transistor Rodeo” will be out this fall for the Kindle and Nook through my publishing company, Glenneyre Press. Also working on a release plan for an epic urban fantasy novel I wrote that I had edited by a guy who has worked with amazing authors such as Stephen King and Isaac Asimov. Plus, developing sequels to some of my previous novels that already have a fan base. Those should be out in 2012. I’ve also finally started a Facebook fan page and when I get to 1,000 followers, I’m going to give away a brand new Kindle or Nook to one lucky follower. (Facebook.com/MYNBooks)

4.       Who designed the cover of one of your books?

“The Doomsday Club” cover was designed by Dean Rohrer, a very talented artist who has done work for such magazines as The New Yorker, Spin, Details. More recently, I have been designing all of my own covers. I very much enjoy the process and I think I have a pretty good eye for what works and what doesn’t.

5.       What was the hardest part of writing your book?

Filtering the signal from the noise and knowing what parts were essential to keep the plot moving and what were just unnecessary and could be removed. Staying motivated to finish a book is hard. Everybody can come up with a great opening or first chapter, but discovering what happens next in order to keep the pages turning requires a lot of hard work and effort. But the good news is that it gets much easier the more you do it.

6.       Do you see writing as a career?

Yes I do. I’m very lucky in that I have supported myself as a writer for the last decade and, for the most part, as a self-employed artist for my entire adult life. It hasn’t been easy, but it has been worth the entire struggle. I’m not some rich and famous dude and I really don’t fantasize about writing turning me into a rich and famous dude. I write because it’s who I am and I’ve always been able to find a way to make a buck doing it.

7.       Do you have any advice for other writers?

There are a million writers always copying the most successful and famous writers and there always will be. If your work is too derivative, it will never stand out from the pack. To succeed as a writer, you need to be an individual. To have interesting viewpoints, you need to go out and live life. You can’t just regurgitate something that was originally seen through someone else’s eyes and expect it to fully strike that chord you want it to.

8.       Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers before we go?"

Here’s my main mantra: “The obstacles in my life do not prevent me from living my life. The obstacles in my life are my life.” Keep that in mind.... oh and please come join my Facebook Fan page (Facebook.com/MYNBooks)

Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff is a bestselling and award-winning author living in Los Angeles who has been known to occasionally moonlight as a TV host, voice-over artist and rock journalist. A professional composer of music for television for many years, opportunity knocked and transformed him into a screen/TV writer and author featured on “Access Hollywood.” Then a podcast recorded in his car became a week nightly drive-time radio show on Sirius Satellite Radio. This led to a handsome feature in Playboy Magazine that compared Mark to Howard Stern and Jon Stewart. His bestselling book, “The Killing of Osama Bin Laden: How the Mission to Hunt Down a Terrorist Mastermind was Accomplished,” was written in 4 days.