Ask the Author: Ian Loome
Answered Questions (11)
Ian Loome
Hi Shan! Yes, I've already written several more stories. My publisher is planning on releasing another in about a month, I believe, and likely every 2-4 months after that. I've been working on them for a few year, so I have a few saved up. Cheers!
Ian
Ian
Ian Loome
Did I send this? It's not a very good book. It's okay, I guess. Either way, let me know, or if there's something else I can send over.
Ian Loome
I am also human. Thank you, too.
Ian Loome
Send me PM with your email Timothy and I'll send you one. Just noticed this, sorry about that. It's just a short-story though, not much to it.
Ian Loome
Hi Lorraine!
Sorry, just saw this! Number fourteen is out this week. Got rid of the pennames, got some depression and ADHD medication. Hope you've been well.
Sorry, just saw this! Number fourteen is out this week. Got rid of the pennames, got some depression and ADHD medication. Hope you've been well.
Ian Loome
First, I micro plan, breaking down the scene I'm trying to write into a mini-arc in eight stages.
If I'm still struggling, I walk away and do something intellectually passive, to allow my creative side to take over. When I stop trying to force ideas, they come on their own.
If I'm still struggling, I walk away and do something intellectually passive, to allow my creative side to take over. When I stop trying to force ideas, they come on their own.
Ian Loome
Beats working for someone else, and as long as someone enjoys it, you've done a mitzvah.
Ian Loome
Rewrite other people's material. Copy it, first. The act of typing out their turn of phrase at a leisurely, slower speed will teach cadence and timing. Then rewrite it; try to make it more active and less wasteful. Rewrite everything: books, comics, scripts, magazine and website articles. Absorb convincing, smooth dialogue.
Ian Loome
I have a ghostwriting client who's a major best-selling author, but has so much demand and brand popularity he needs to farm some work out. So I write first drafts for him, the skeleton of the story he then fashions into his turn-of-phrase and color.
That's taking up most of my time, but I'm also working on an novel I plan to mail out to traditional publishers, which I haven't really tried in the past. So that's sort of nerve-wracking. It's a good story although not quite where I want it yet; an agent with major editorial creds is taking a look at it, although I'm not good enough for her league, so I expect it'll just be good advice, which will also help shape it.
I also have a movie script, a heist caper comedy, that I've just begun working on, a historical thriller that I've written through a few times but needs polish, and a long-term historical thriller that's sort of a dream project, an untold story from a major moment in history that is absolutely chock full of passion, murder, betrayal, adventure.... it's quite the story.
The fourteenth Quinn story, "Snitches Get Stitches," is about to come out, as well as the fourth Joe Brennan story, "Master of the Reich."
That's taking up most of my time, but I'm also working on an novel I plan to mail out to traditional publishers, which I haven't really tried in the past. So that's sort of nerve-wracking. It's a good story although not quite where I want it yet; an agent with major editorial creds is taking a look at it, although I'm not good enough for her league, so I expect it'll just be good advice, which will also help shape it.
I also have a movie script, a heist caper comedy, that I've just begun working on, a historical thriller that I've written through a few times but needs polish, and a long-term historical thriller that's sort of a dream project, an untold story from a major moment in history that is absolutely chock full of passion, murder, betrayal, adventure.... it's quite the story.
The fourteenth Quinn story, "Snitches Get Stitches," is about to come out, as well as the fourth Joe Brennan story, "Master of the Reich."
Ian Loome
I ghostwrite for others and have several novels I'm working on other than those in my series, so I tend to be working on more than one book at one time.
In terms of Quinn, "Snitches Get Stitches" started as dive into Pennsylvania politics but it kept morphing based on character sketches into the murder of a transgender aide to a state senator. In terms of plotting the murder, I tend to plan backwards from the resolution; it allows for a greater complexity that is easier to hide, as all mysteries and twists are generally based in a deceptive premise.
The next Joe Brennan novel, "Master of the Reich," is partly based in true events: a long-standing effort by the same people who funded the Third Reich and other 20th Century Fascist governments to use the divisions hard data can identify to foment dissent. That hasn't really ended, although the means to an end in the book are largely fictional.
In terms of Quinn, "Snitches Get Stitches" started as dive into Pennsylvania politics but it kept morphing based on character sketches into the murder of a transgender aide to a state senator. In terms of plotting the murder, I tend to plan backwards from the resolution; it allows for a greater complexity that is easier to hide, as all mysteries and twists are generally based in a deceptive premise.
The next Joe Brennan novel, "Master of the Reich," is partly based in true events: a long-standing effort by the same people who funded the Third Reich and other 20th Century Fascist governments to use the divisions hard data can identify to foment dissent. That hasn't really ended, although the means to an end in the book are largely fictional.
Ian Loome
I'm on the autism and ADHD spectrums and could read at an adult level as a three-year-old, so I suppose you could say I started early. Unfortunately, as neat as that sounds, the conditions come with some downsides with respect to emotional signaling and development.
My parents introduced me to James Bond at three, Agatha Christie. I was a prodigious, five or six-books-per-week reader until my late teens, when my ADHD kicked into high gear and video games sort of took over. Even as a working journalist for two decades, I had little ability to hold concentration on a printed page. I went from a book every day or so to one per month, to three or four per year.
A few years ago I started a prescription drug that allows me more sustained focus and have rediscovered my love of reading. I do find, however, that after years of studying the craft of storytelling, I am hypercritical about what I choose to read and watch.
I recently finished Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth, as well as Dennis Lehane's Mystic River and enjoyed them both for different reasons. Lehane can be bleak and I've plotted so many detective novels I spotted the killer fairly early. Lovely writing, very patient.
My parents introduced me to James Bond at three, Agatha Christie. I was a prodigious, five or six-books-per-week reader until my late teens, when my ADHD kicked into high gear and video games sort of took over. Even as a working journalist for two decades, I had little ability to hold concentration on a printed page. I went from a book every day or so to one per month, to three or four per year.
A few years ago I started a prescription drug that allows me more sustained focus and have rediscovered my love of reading. I do find, however, that after years of studying the craft of storytelling, I am hypercritical about what I choose to read and watch.
I recently finished Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth, as well as Dennis Lehane's Mystic River and enjoyed them both for different reasons. Lehane can be bleak and I've plotted so many detective novels I spotted the killer fairly early. Lovely writing, very patient.
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