SH: Chris White joins us once again for Character Monday. Co-author of Airel with Aaron Patterson, and author of the novella The Marsburg Diary, which is based on the prologue to the aforementioned book, he’s also the author of The Great Jammy Adventure of the Flying Cowboy, the OK to color in picture book. He also has some other irons in the fire, including his own novel, K: phantasmagoria, due out later this year. He’s also working with Aaron on the next book in the Airel saga, Michael. So, since you’re not busy or anything, what’s up for this week, Chris?
CW: Well first I’d like to congratulate StoneHouse on some amazing performances turned in last month by its authors. The notables are, as usual, Vincent Zandri, who is a hot literary item, and Gwyneth Bledsoe, who sold over 900 copies of Death Before Breakfast on Amazon’s Kindle store in June. And Airel, the YA thriller that Aaron Patterson and I co-wrote, more than doubled our sales numbers from May to June, breaking the 600 mark. This is the kind of stuff that makes us so dang proud to be SH authors, ain’t it.
SH: It sure is, and gosh, you’re being magnanimous today—what’s wrong with you?
CW: Nothing; this is how I usually am.
SH: Moving swiftly on: which of your characters do we get to learn about today?
CW: This week I’d like to feature a man named K, from my upcoming novel by the same name that comes out later this year.
SH: So shoot.
CW: K is short for another word that’s awkward and doesn’t really roll off the American tongue so well, so he just goes by the first letter of his name. He’s an adult, though we’re not sure about the specifics on his age because he can’t remember a whole lot earlier than, say, about ten years ago. He’s probably in his late twenties to early thirties, though, and I see him as mulatto, which is half black, half white—lots of people don’t know that who have read portions of this manuscript, because I don’t go into much detail in describing him physically. He’s about average height and build, with buzzcut hair—and he’s single, ladies!
SH: Oh dear God.
CW: Yee-yuh! But he’s actually not much of a catch.
SH: You don’t say.
CW: Yeah, he’s got issues. Unfortunately for K, his life is full of holes; like one gigantic question mark. As a result of this identity crisis he has abandonment issues; daddy issues, I guess you could say, and that’s most likely because he just doesn’t remember his dad at all—like I said, before about ten years ago everything’s a blank. He’s in therapy for it, but he hates his shrink, Charles Wen, who was assigned to him by the government. Incidentally we’re not sure why K is being required by the government to undergo psychotherapy, but he is.
On top of that, K is having nightmares, which are, according to him, “!@#$ing terrifying;” and some of them are actually invading his mind during the day. All of them are basically the same: they’re in black and white, and feature children dressed in old-fashioned clothes, trapped inside confining spaces—and those are the tame ones.
SH: Whoa.
CW: Yep. This one’s not for the faint of heart. It’s actually still in process, so it’s cool to talk about a character when he’s still kinda pliable.
SH: That actually is kinda neat.
CW: Yep. This will be my solo debut novel, and it’s the first in a series. The first one is called “K: phantasmagoria” which is all about seeing visions, so it’s appropriate. There are some big twists of the plot in this one, including one nobody will see coming, I promise you.
SH: Can’t wait. It sounds pretty cool. Anything else?
CW: I just write the kind of story I’d like to read, so this one will be in keeping with my developing style. It should be a cracking good story that’s peppered with some funny moments and plenty of drive to it; it moves pretty quickly. In fact the opening will probably be more than a little controversial. But the novel is designed to pose deep questions. I only hope I’m up to the task of answering them at the end.
SH: Me too. Cuz I wanna read this one. Thanks for stopping in again, Chris.
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