Keith Knapp ~ an interview and his novel ~ Coda

I AM PLEASED TO WELCOME AUTHOR

Keith Knapp

 

AUTHOR BIO:

Keith Knapp is the bestselling author of the novels "Coda," "Moonlight" and numerous short stories including "Battalion" and "The Cat on Alpine Road." Between the day he discovered writing and now, he has played the drums in more bands than he can remember, went to film school in Chicago and has taken up residence in Hawai’i, Missouri, California and Illinois. He loves cats, and if there isn’t always one around he starts to go a little crazy.  

BANTER – STUFF ABOUT YOU

Q: Are you a morning person, or a midnight candle burner?

A: Currently I find myself in the former category, that of a morning person. I used to be a late night guy and stay up until 3 or 4 a.m. and wake up at noon, but now I find getting out of bed around 8 a.m. and writing first thing works much better. But that can change over time, it can ebb and flow like so many other things, so I just kind of try and let my body decide what it wants.

Q: Bedtime, relaxing so you can sleep sounds. Is your preference, white noise, TV, soft music, ocean waves, forest or meadow sounds, babbling brook, or something else?
A: Like my sleep schedule, this changes over time, as well. I need to have some sort of background noise when I go to bed—I'm pretty sure it keeps the really bad thoughts away. It gives me something to focus on. I used to use TV and would listen to lots of old TV shows like The Dick Van Dyke Show or The Andy Griffith Show. Lately I've changed my drowsy attention to classical music and have been listening to a lot of Beethoven, Mozart and Wagner.

Q: What kind of music do you listen to? Do you have an all time favorite song?
A: Ah, music. My second love (after books, naturally). I listen to all kinds of music, from jazz to blues to the aforementioned classical to rock to metal. But hard rock and metal are what usually ends up on my playlist, with Metallica being my go-to guys. A track off their latest called “Spit Out the Bone”is currently my favorite song (favorites change over time, too). It's long, fast and epic. All you could ever want in a good metal song.

Q: Did you like school when you were a child?
A: I most certainly did not. I was the skinny, geeky nerd in my school and got made fun of a lot, so going every day was a huge challenge. For some reason, during my senior year, all that went away and I became a “normal” student, meaning people stopped making fun of me. But I would not have had it any other way, wouldn't go back and change anything, because those events, that time, all made me into the person I am today (for better or worse). I think if I knew then what I knew now I would have enjoyed it a lot more...or at least had some good comebacks.

BOOKS – ABOUT THE CRAFT

Q: Where do you get your ideas?

A: They come from all over. Sometimes a movie or even a song will inspire me and put a vision in my head. Other times I'll be driving and my brain will ask me “What would you do if your car flipped right now?” and in that case I wrote The Cat on Alpine Road. My brain is always asking me “what-if?” questions.

Q: Do you write longhand first, or does it go straight into the computer?
A: I used to write longhand and took copious notes on where the story was going, scribbling like a madman. However, I've come to love writing on a computer so much that it's now the only way I can do it. I type much, much faster than my hands can write, and it looks so much neater, too. I have horrible handwriting, so it saves me a lot of time and confusion if I can get things directly into the computer first.

Q: Are you a sit down and play it by ear kind of writer, or do you need a structured guideline, or maybe a little of both?
A: It's a little of both. I prefer to have some structure for the beginning of my story, an idea of where we are, the characters we're about to spend time with and at least a clue of what's going to happen to them. After that I let it run free on its own. Most of the time the characters dictate the story to me, see things I don't see and end up making their own decisions.

Q: When crafting the story do you go from beginning to end, or do you jump around writing the scenes that are pushing themselves forward in your brain?
A: I go from beginning to end. I usually don't know how a story will end when I start it and need to go through it all with the characters to find out the ending myself.

BOOKS - NOW LETS PROMOTE – STRUT YOUR STUFF

Q: What are you working on now? Would you like to share anything about it?
A: Right now I find myself in a bit of a short story phase as I dabble and dribble around with my next novel. Like most writers I have a couple of books in different phases at any given time...I'm just waiting for one to raise its hand to be the next one I finish.

Q: Do you have a new book coming out soon? Tell us about it.
A: Coda was released about a month ago. It tells the classic tale of earthquake survivors who find themselves mysteriously whisked away to a strange place called The Town, where things get really wacky.

Q: How can we find you? Do you have a web page, FaceBook page or any buy links?
A: Yes, I do.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1166321.Keith_Knapp
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PPKB332/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
https://www.amazon.com/Keith-Knapp/e/B002BMEUE2/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1

BLURB:
After a devastating earthquake hits Los Angeles, a group of survivors find themselves whisked away to a place known only as The Town. It is there that they will face their inner-most demons and relics of the past as they try to find a way out and back to reality.

But an evil presence awaits them there. It knows their fears, their sins and their lies and will do anything to keep them right where they are.


I’m happy you could join me on Books and Banter. I hope you had fun with the Q & A’s.
I so did. That was a blast!

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