Author Interviews: Christopher L. Beck

For those of you who likey the scary stuff, you’re in for a treat today as I welcome good pal Christopher L. Beck to the hot seat. Christopher’s been writing for a few years now, and he has a slew of stories available on Amazon. Check them out.

SS: Tell my readers how you got your start as a writer.

CLB: Writing is something I've always enjoyed. As a teen I wrote a few stories and many, many poems. Somewhere decent, many were not, and mostly all of them were dark pieces as I was dealing with some hard stuff at the time. As I aged, life got in the way more and more and I wrote less and less, though I didn't let it go completely. A number of years ago I even started what was to be my first novel. I was more than 20,000 words in to it when my then wife told me I was spending too much time writing. So, I backed away from the WIP. I tried to work on it here and there when I could but my computer ended up with a worm that kept rebooting the system. Discouraged by these things, I put writing on the back burner once again. And then, after my wife said she no longer wanted to be with me and I had to leave my home and family behind, I once more found myself in a dark place and turned to writing to help deal with it all. At first it was just me filling notebooks with letters that no one will ever see. I filled a few, then started using what I was felling to writing short stories. Soon after is when I started to publish.

SS: What do you feel is currently your best story on the market? Tell us a little about it.

CLB: Hmmm...I am partial to LONESOME NIGHT for personal reasons, but if I had to go by what readers say it would be REX. It's a novelette set in a post apocalyptic world that, of course, is overrun with zombies. Two brothers trying to stay alive end up finding and Rottweiler pup while out scavenging and take it in as their own. A number of years later their dog and best friend becomes infected and the brothers struggle with their love for the animal and what must be done.

SS: You were able to contribute to the Phobophobia anthology in 2011, an anthology where writers relayed stories of phobias, but not necessarily theirs. Do you have one? And if yes, how come, you big fraidy cat?!

CLB: My biggest fear is my (step)daughter seeing any of the horrid things I had to see at her age. I watched both of my parents become sick--mom mentally, dad psychically--watched the go in and out of hospitals, watched them have seizures and heart attacks, watched them both both become childlike again, and I watched them both die. Actually, I was the one to find my mom, she passed before my eyes. All of this, and a number of other things, before the age of sixteen. Shit like that leaves scars the never fully fade. So, again: I fear my (step)daughter experiencing anything along these lines.

SS: What inspires you?

CLB: Life, both the positive and negative sides of it. Success stories. And there are times when inspiration comes from out of nowhere.

SS: What are you working on now?

CLB: I'm fleshing out my first ever spook (ghost) tale. I hope to finish it up after this interview and get it back to the editor.

SS: OK, Let’s get funny. If I gave you a thousand bucks and you can’t use it on important stuff like food or keeping the power on, what would you spend it on?

CLB: Books. Books are my addiction, they are my crack. I'd spend some on my (step)daughter, too. Whatever remained would be spent on beer, maybe a new video game, and, perhaps, tossed at ladies on poles in darkened clubs.

SS: Yankees or Mets? It’s almost time for pitchers and catchers to report, you know.

CLB: I'm going to have to let you down on this one, Sean. I don't watch baseball, or sports for that matter. Maybe here and there I'll catch a game but that's it. That doesn't mean, however, I don't enjoy reading novels about sports. I've read a number of them and have a couple of yours in my TBR pile--that has to count for something.

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