Page Turning Books: Author Interview

Author Interview - Owen Banner

Do you have an organized process or tips for writing well? Do you have a writing schedule? Wake up early and excited about your story, then get to writing before you do anything else. Develop character cards to remind you what your character’s issues are and what they are prone to do and say. Immerse yourself in each scene: feel it, smell it, taste it, hear it, see it. Don’t manipulate your characters (they are people too).

What do you hope people will take away from your writing? How will your words make them feel? I hope they take away some sleepless nights, a healthier heart rate, and a few characters that will stay with them for a long time. When you open up Hindsight, expect tension, excitement, heartbreak, laughter, warmth, despair, sorrow, confusion, horror and hope.

What movies do you love to watch? I am more into TV shows at the moment. I think that TV is going through its own renaissance. I watch Game of

Thrones, Breaking Bad, Hannibal, and have just started Ripper Street and Sherlock.

How do you feel about social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter? Are they a good thing? For authors, they are essential. You simply do not exist if you do not exist online. As far as whether they are good for our society, that’s debatable. We’ve seen tyrannical regimes toppled by Twitter, but people also talk about the way that these social networking sites are rewiring our orientation towards relationships. It’s something we will probably only be able to truly gauge in… hindsight.

If you could do any job in the world what would you do? Write.

What makes you angry? When my pizza only comes with one pepperoncini pepper.

Are you a city slicker or a country lover? I”m a bit of both. I’ve lived in cities of 17 million people and I’ve lived in towns of 1,400. Big cities are brimming

with new experiences and people from all kinds of lives. It’s great for inspiration. But the country puts you at the pace that you need to be at to write. No distraction, just time and space and fresh air.

What would you love to produce in your life? I want my characters and stories to stay with people. I want them reliving them long after they have read them, savoring the people they have come into contact with in my books and imagining how they would handle the situations those characters found themselves in.