Author Interview J Scott Savage and Farword Giveaway Winner

First up - it was extremely hard to pick a winner because all of your pleas were so impassioned. So I picked 3 finalists and then had Daniel pick a number to pick the winner: Em! Congrats - I hope you and the 13 year old boy you know enjoy it! Send me your address and I'll pass it on to J.

And now, here's my interview with Farword author J Scott Savage:


Let’s meet on your favorite airline and fly to your dream destination while munching on stale pretzels.

Oh, cool. Dream Airways, where there is always plenty of legroom, the air is fresh, and the food is good. Except for the stale pretzels.

How do you choose character names? Do you actually know anyone named Marcus, Chet or Kaja? And if so, do they have anything in common with your characters?

Nope. All made up. Part of it is playing with sound. The girl in my head sounds like a Kyja. The bully sounds like a Chet. I find that if I name a character after a real person, it makes it harder to let them become who they want to be. I still do it with minor characters for fun. But not major ones.

Shadow Mountain is a Mormon imprint. What would you say to parents who are wary of letting their kids read Farworld because of this?

Shadow Mountain is a national imprint of a Mormon printer. (Deseret Book.) But the whole reason for Shadow Mountain is for writing books that have no Mormon content. In fact they make a pretty big deal of keeping religious content out of any of their books. What they want are gripping stories that are family friendly. Not meaning they aren’t scary per se, because most good fantasy is at least a little scary at some point. But that the language is clean, there isn’t excessive gore, etc. If any SM authors were to have Mormon content in their books, it would ruin all the work they’ve done to make it a national imprint.

If the government forced you to train for the Olympics, which sport would you choose and why?
I love running. Especially long distance. Between writing and work, I can’t run near as much as I want (and my waistline shows it.) But if I become a fulltime writer, I will start running every day again. It gives me so much energy.

What is your favorite paragraph in a book? One that you wish you had written yourself?
I don’t have it with me right now to quote exactly, but I love the first paragraph of The Talisman. I also love the paragraph the Mark Twain closes Tom Sawyer with.

What is your favorite sentence from a review that you’ve gotten so far?
Before my book even went to press, I let the thirteen-year-old daughter of a fellow writer read the ms. She wrote on the front page, “This is the best book I will ever read.”

What is your favorite word in the English language?
Miasma. I just like the sound of it and what it is.

Least favorite?
But

Favorite in a foreign language?
Angelitos. Little angels.

Favorite in a made-up language?
Not sure, but it would have to be something Wharf said in Star Trek.

What is your favorite letter of the alphabet?
I’m going to have to go with S.

After so many interviews, is there a question you haven’t been asked?
Not that I’d want to answer in public!

Thanks J!

J also wanted me to tell you the following (in his own words):
I will be having a release party at the Spanish Fork, UT library on Saturday, September 13th from 12-3. We’ll be having free food, free posters, drawings, and all that good stuff. And 20% of the proceeds will go to the library (is there a better cause?)

Also drop by the new website www.readfarworld.com and take a look around. There are still a lot of goodies we are adding, but the forum is up and I’d love to have you drop by.