Interview with Huston Piner

We are having a giveaway going on, What item are you giving away? (Anyone can win the item by going to the rafflecopter on the right hand side of the pg.)

One ebook copy of for My Life as a Myth

First why don't you tell us a little about yourself?

There’s not much to tell really. According to my parents I was left on their doorstep by gypsies. A few years ago I was talking to an elderly Roma when this old woman came out and screamed, “Son! You’ve come back to us!”

Seriously, I started writing in 2009 after thinking about a particular idea for ten years. That book hasn’t been published, although it wasn’t bad. Then last year, the idea for My Life as a Myth came to me and the book virtually wrote itself.

Newest release?

My Life as a Myth, published this year by Prizm Books.

What can we expect from your stories, action, drama, romance, sex, blood and guts?

I write young adult fiction with a focus on gay teenage issues. The stories have a fair bit of humor in them, even if the story is itself ultimately rather dark. Romance and drama find their way in my stories. Sex occurs, but is not graphically depicted; I want the books to be read by teens and new adults, and overtly erotic scenes can limit a book’s availability.

Do you have a favorite character in your stories? Who? and Why?

Hands down, Bobby Warren. He’s a sweet, perceptive, caring guy, the kind every gay teenager dreams of finding. Also, I like Jesse up to a point.

How about your least favorite character? What makes them less appealing to you?

Aunt Frances. She’s the kind of domineering adult who portrays themselves as sweet and caring but who really wants to control someone until they fit their narrow view.

Give us an interesting fun fact or a few about your book:

You could make a game out of noticing all the song references. The chapter titles are, of course, named after popular 1960s songs, but you and your friends could make a contest out spotting them all.

Has there been any other authors who have inspired your work or helped you out with your stories?

Good gosh, yes! I could fill pages with the list, but to name a few: Jay Bell, Dakota Chase, Drew Ferguson, Jeff Erno, John Goode, Matthew Grant, John Green, Keith Hale, Kim Harnes, Brent Hartinger, Amy Lane, JR Lenk, David Levithan, Anthony Paull, Bart Yates, to name but a few.

What can readers who enjoy your book do to help make it successful?

Tell others, write a review, etc. If people like it they’ll share that with people they know; it’s human nature.

Do you have any tips for readers or advice for other writers trying to get published?

It’s a cliché these days, but keep writing and read, read, read. Try your hand at imitating an author’s style or method of narration; it’s an exercise that strengthens the craft. And trust in the Muses! If you find a scene moving in a direction you didn’t expect, let it go and see what happens.

Do you have a favorite author? If yes, what draws you to that person’s work?

That’s another tough question, but I’m undoubtedly a Tolkien nut! The breadth of his vision astounds me every time I pick up one of his books. And I’m absolutely in love with Walt Whitman.

Can you remember one of the first things you wrote? What makes it memorable?

LOL! When I was in third grade I wrote “Thirty Days till Halloween and the Werewolf Strikes.” It couldn’t have been more than two hundred words and it made no sense at all. But I remember letting my best friend read it and at the time he thought it was fantastic. Of course, we were only nine or ten years old at the time!

Where do you gather most of the inspiration for your works?

It’s hard to say. You get ideas from everywhere: you hear a phrase, see two people talking, imagine a scene, even recall a bit of a dream. The thing is, once you’ve got an idea for a scene you need to sketch it out and ask yourself who are the people in it? Why are they there? From those kinds of questions a germ of a story often emerges. And if not, file it away; it may come in handy later. Also, for each book I write I have a “pieces” file. If I write something that I decide to pull, it goes in the pieces file. Sometimes, you delete a section and later decide that with a bit of tweaking it would work at another point in the story.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies, pets or stories you would like to share?

I like all kinds of music, everything from classical to world music to folk to rock and beyond. My worst nightmare would be to go deaf. My hobbies include MMROPG. And we have two cats who rule our live.

Favorite places to travel or visit?

I love Montreal, New York, Boston, and I’d love to swing through England, followed by spending a few months traveling around the Mediterranean.

And now, before you go, how about a snippet from your book that is meant to intrigue and tantalize us: (Include links to where we can find your work)

My Life as a Myth is available from Prizm Books:

http://www.prizmbooks.com/zencart/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=64&zenid=7c9f34e1c02bb459f40f175a7b1f4ec5

And also available at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/My-Life-as-Myth-ebook/dp/B00CXVTPUA

Monday, September 29, 1969.

Today when we came to the fork where Matt usually breaks off on his own, he stopped.

"Why do you guys always go that way?"

"Napalm keeps his stuff in one of the lockers down there."

"Oh, cool." He disappeared around the corner and we walked on.

"You make it sound like I'm the only one with a locker around here."

"Well?" Jesse snickered.

"Well what?"

"Damn, you really don't know, do you?" Jesse chortled.

"What?"

"Well, they built this school to take up to two thousand students and only about fifteen hundred go here these days. That means there are lockers for two thousand students, right? And that means, while they assign you a locker, and they always assign freshmen lockers on this hall, but all you gotta do is find an unassigned locker near your classes, put a lock on it and it's yours."

"You mean I'm the only one who's been trudging all the way here when I could have been using a more convenient one?"

"Word around town, Pilgrim, is that you've been using your assigned locker as some kind of weird protest. Everyone thinks you've been doing it to stick it to the Establishment, man."

"I don't believe this!"

"Hey," Jesse said philosophically, "some men are born to greatness, some have greatness thrust upon them, and some just stumble into it."

"And when they find out I've been doing it because I'm too stupid to know better they'll think I'm the world's greatest loser."

"No one will know unless you tell them, and you won't." Jesse put an arm around my shoulder as we started down the hall. "And don't worry, that secret's safe with me. Listen, I'm gonna start using one of the Dead Student Row lockers. We'll get Matt, Gary, and Bobby to join us too. Then you just wait; it'll become a movement. Before long others will join in. You've got that karma to make it all happen; you just need someone to help channel it, and I'm your man. Trust me, you stick with me and I'll make you more famous than Elvis! You are Napalm Nick, the Outlaw King of Chadham High, and as of today I'm going to make sure everybody knows it!"

Frankly, I would prefer to just move my things to a more convenient locker. But Jesse's convinced he can use it to build up some kind of outlaw reputation for me. It is kind of flattering, and it might be cool to have a reputation like that if I can just manage to stay out of real trouble. Maybe with Jesse and the other guys, I can avoid landing in those situations that keep cropping up in my life these days. And it is nice to have people to hang out with for a change.

Thanks for visiting us here on JBR! We wish you great success!

Thanks, Julie! It has been great to be here with you!

Julie Ramsey

ADM JBR