Name: Craig Anderson
Book(s) Title: Getting Lucky, Lucky Shot, Lucky Break, The Colony, TROJAN (Coming soon!) Series Title: The Lucky Beggar Trilogy Genre(s): Humour, Sci-fi, Techno-Thriller Tell us a little about yourself? Perhaps something not many people know? My accent is a disaster. I grew up in England, spent 2 years in Australia and have now lived in Canada for the last 8 years. I use slang and phrases from all 3 countries, so everywhere I go people ask me where I am from. My wife keeps telling me off for teaching our children the ‘wrong’ words for things (For example I told my daughter it`s called a swimming costume) Million dollar question, are you working on another book? Always! My challenge is picking which book to write next. I’m going to work on the sequel for The Colony next as a lot of people have asked me about it. I like to alternate projects, I don’t write sequels immediately after the previous book, I like to step away from a world so I can come back to it fresh. Have you written any other books that are not published? My very first book has never been published and has languished at 90% complete for 8 years and counting! I didn’t realize it at the time but it was my training wheels, I needed to figure out how to structure a 90k word novel and I am very much a hands on learner. I keep promising myself that one day I will loop back around and finish it as there are parts of it that I absolutely love, but I’ve been saying that for a loooong time now and there is no shortage of other books for me to write… What do you think about the ebook revolution? Well it’s the reason people have read my books, so I am all for it! I did however finally get around to making a paperback of my first novel and there is something to be said about holding a physical copy of your book. It somehow made the whole thing feel more real. I’ve only sold a handful of paperbacks, but I definitely recommend taking the time to create a paperback version if you can. What is your advice to Indie Authors? On writing? Marketing? Don’t aim for perfect. Firstly, there is no such thing and you are setting yourself up for failure. Secondly, it is really easy to fall into the trap of editing the soul right out of your book. If you find yourself on yet another editing pass, moving commas around or tweaking a single word here or there, then you need to take a step back and hit publish. Publishing is scary, putting your book out there is scary, getting reviews is scary, but the scariest thing of all is no-one ever reading your book because it is still lurking in editing limbo on your hard drive. In this new world of e-books anything can be fixed after the fact. In one of my books I accidentally changed the name of a characters brother half way through and no-one noticed for 2 years! As soon as someone pointed it out I had it fixed and a new version uploaded the same day. Do you still write? If so, what does your typical day look like? I have two small kids under 4, so my day is pretty action packed. They get up at 6am, and I am not a morning person, so I had to learn to survive on 6 hours sleep. When my wife goes to bed at 10pm that is my time to write, I get a solid couple of hours in before I go to bed at midnight. The house is eerily silent and I am alone with my thoughts, which is perfect. I have always been a night owl so this suits me perfectly. What is your writing style? I love to write humour, so no matter what genre I write in there is always an element of sarcasm or banter between my characters. I also love to incorporate elements that make readers stop and think. I wrote a series where karma was instant (The Lucky Beggar Trilogy) and the main character has to adjust his behaviour as his every action is immediately judged. I’ve got a lot of great feedback from readers saying it made them think about their own actions. Music or silence? Music for writing and silence for editing. I don`t know why, but my brain can tune out the music when I am writing a sentence for the first time, and it actually helps me to stay focused. I listen to the same album on repeat so it is more of a background noise than something I have to pay attention to. My last book was written to Ed Sheeran’s latest album. However I tried listening to music when editing and it did not go well at all. I kept mixing the words from the song with the words I was reading and it led to me missing things, so now I edit in silence. What have you put most of your effort into regarding writing? Editing. Urgh, I hate editing. It has to be done and it makes my stories better, but its sooooo dull. I love the messy process of creating worlds and characters, I hate cleaning them up afterwards! Does your book have a lesson? Moral? I always try to incorporate morals or lessons in my books as normally there is a core question that led me to write the book in the first place. For example, the Lucky Beggar trilogy all stemmed from an internal struggle I was having. I very firmly believe in karma, that if you put good out into the world then you will be rewarded. However I am not religious and don’t believe there is some entity always watching us and keeping score. I had no way to reconcile these two beliefs, how can good deeds be rewarded if no-one is keeping track? That made me re-think karma, which led to a new question. What would the world be like if karma was instant? How would that influence people’s behaviour? This created a lot of fun scenarios and I wanted to keep it light hearted, so I wrote a humour series (The Lucky Beggar Trilogy) based around all these questions. Do your characters seem to hijack the story or do you feel like you have the reigns of the story? My characters are 100% in charge. They go where they want to go and do what they want to do. Sometimes I give them a nudge, but they don’t always listen. I have previously tried to force the story upon them, but it always felt wooden and out of character, so now I just leave them to it and write what they decide. If you could spend time a character from your book whom would it be? And what would you do during that day? (PG-13 please :) ONE OF MY FAVORITE QUESTIONS TO ASK. I have an Otterhound called Lucky in my book that is my favourite character. He is lovable, intelligent, loyal and a bit daft. I can picture him so clearly in my mind and I would love nothing more than to spend an afternoon with him as he joyfully bumbles around London getting us both into trouble. Who is your favorite author? Terry Pratchett. Man that guy could write a great story. He had such a good eye for satire, he could find all these everyday things that you took for granted and point out the inherent silliness of them. His characters are so memorable and believable. Do consider yourself to be a successful writer? If so, why? If not, what would make you successful? Yes, because I finished a book, published it and people have read it and enjoyed it. That’s all I ever really hoped for as a writer. One day I would like to make a living doing this, but to me that is more of a question of scale, if I keep writing books that people enjoy eventually I will earn enough to not have to work anymore. That could be two books from now or twenty, but I will be writing those books either way because I love to write :) Who is the most famous person you have ever met? I once had a picnic with Russell Crowe and his family while watching David Hasselhoff sing. The best part is I didn’t recognize RC as he had a thick beard. It was in a park in Sydney and we just sat down next to them and got chatting. I’m playing with his kids and chatting with his parents and then he suddenly leaves midway through the concert. I ask if he’s ok and RC’s Dad says, “Oh he has an interview in the morning.” And I say, “Oh, for a new job?” he looks at me baffled and says it is with a magazine about his new movie and that’s when I twig it was Russell Crowe! You can find Craig on all the following platforms: Amazon Author Page Link: https://www.amazon.com/Craig-Anderson/e/B00D9FXE7O Twitter Handle: @todayschapter Facebook Page Link: https://www.facebook.com/CraigAndersonAuthor/ Check out his books on Amazon below!!!
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