RABT Book Tours and PR Blog: Tour Kick Off - Live Long and Prospero by Scott Pixello

Friday, June 21, 2013

Tour Kick Off - Live Long and Prospero by Scott Pixello

YA Humor

Date Published: 5/17/2013

This darkly comic YA novel, set on a lighthouse in 1983, introduces us to the deeplydysfunctional Captain Church and his crew of social misfits, whose well-ordered universe is turned upside down by the arrival of a marine biologist, who has come to study the local puffin colony. This in turn leads to an encounter with a nasty gang of drug dealers, a surprising undersea discovery and a hamster called Steve.

AMAZON

SMASHWORDS

#1 – Do You See Writing as a Career?

I would certainly like to. Most people who make the time to write (and it takes a lot) usually secretly harbor the fantasy of making a living at it and I’m no exception. I have a day job at present, although no-one there knows that I write. I’d make a great spy.

#2 – What was the Hardest Part of Your Writing Process?

Probably for me it’s finding/making the time to get the words as well-chosen as I can when I’ve got several ideas swirling around my head. Sometimes ideas come almost fully formed and it’s like having a family of 10 needy children all wanting attention simultaneously- some tough love is needed at times.

Personally speaking, I’m a very shy person and remain careful about giving out information about myself, which runs counter to all the advice you read about how to be an Internet millionaire. A lot of authors are only too happy to give you chapter and verse about their perfect family, hobbies and pets and that’s fine if they want to do that. Under duress, I am on Facebook, where you can see my strange taste in music & films. Under a different name, I’ve had seven books about film published but if I tell you my real name, then I’d have to kill you and like a new Chris de Burgh single, no-one really wants to see (or hear) that.

#3 – Did you have any One Person Who Helped You Out with Your Writing Outside of Your Family?

Short answer, no. Maybe it would have helped but I tend to think if you want something badly enough, you’ll figure out for yourself.

#4 – What is next for your writing?

Just published my first Middle Grade fiction- Rainbow about the birth of a psychic cow on a Scottish farm during a soccer World Cup (what genre box do you tick for that?). There are about a further 10 scripts I’m working on, including Gagfest UK a comedy drama about a group of friends who meet up once a year to play pranks on people in the previous 12 months; Smart School about a terrible high school that is transformed into an academy for exceptionally-gifted kids; and A Boy Called Julia about a 12-year-old lad who joins a theatre group by accident only to discover he is working alongside one Mr Bill Shakespeare. So, lots to do…

#5 – Do you have an addiction to reading as well as writing? If so, what are you currently reading?

Years ago (in the days when they actually played music), MTV ran a literacy campaign with the slogan, “Feed Your Head”. For me, reading is like that- nothing goes in, nothing comes out.

At the moment I’m enjoying After Dark by Haruki Murakami, which is good but not quite as exciting as its cover (there’s a proverb there somewhere)

DESCRIBE Your Book in 1 Tweet:

Think The Tempest meets Star Trek.

This or That?

The following answers seem designed to be annoying but I reckon most people like more than one thing at a time, or interesting mixtures. I write books that are serious but also funny at times. Seriously funny? You decide.

#1 - iPd or Mp3?

Neither, I’m afraid. I have music playing almost constantly on my PC while writing but I’m a fully-fledged techno-dufus & don’t possess either of these lovely devices.

#2 – Chocolate or Vanilla?

Chocolate is one of my five a day- comes from a bean, doesn’t it? I still have nightmares about Vanilla Ice, so no thank you.

#3 – Mashed Potatoes or French Fries?

Again, it’s all good- two more of the five, (plus pizza counts these days, I’m reliably informed). If you have seven one day, can you have three the next?

#4 – Comedy or Drama?

Comedy drama is what I try and write. Sometimes it’s one, sometimes the other, sometimes neither and occasionally both.

#5 – Danielle Steel or Nicholas Sparks?

Both sound like pornstar names to me. Maybe if you swap things round… Danielle Sparks & Nicholas Steele? Oh dear, that’s worse.

#6 – Fantasy or Reality?

A bit of both please.

#7 – Call or Text?

Similar answer to no. 1. I don’t blog or Tweet or even have what I call a mobile phone!!! I write books.

#8 – Public School or Home School?

In Britain, public school means Eton or Harrow, terrible uniforms and producing obnoxious individuals who think they have a right to run the country (and usually do). Home school is for kids who live near terrible schools and have even worse parents. Not exactly a win-win situation. I live in Germany and here home schooling is actually illegal (!!!).

#9 – Coffee or Hot Chocolate

Hot chocolate for comfort; coffee to stay alive; 1970s disco band Hot Chocolate for nostalgia.

#10 – eBook or Paperback?

Both, although I think pretty soon, we’ll be dropping the e before book.