Saturday, July 7, 2012

Interview with Aaron Ritchey


YA Paranormal author Aaron Michael Ritchey has penned a dozen manuscripts in his 20 years as a writer. When he isn’t slapping around his muse, Aaron cycles to look fabulous, works in medical technologies, and keeps his family in silks and furs. His first novel, The Never Prayer, dropped March of 2012 from Crescent Moon Press.

For more about me and The Never Prayer, you can visit us both at www.aaronmritchey.com. And of course, I’m on Facebook, as is the book at http://www.facebook.com/TheNeverPrayer. And I tweet - @aaronmritchey. If you are at all curious about the novel, our friends at Amazon.com would love for
you to visit them!





Hello Aaron and thank you for this interview!

Can you tell us 3 things about you that we can’t find on the internet?

AMR: Well, garsh, the problem with having a Facebook page and a blog is that I’m already pretty out there. But I do have my secrets. Dirty little secrets that will shock you.

1) At Starbucks, I usually order a tall, decaf, drip coffee with a little steamed soy. I was a vegan for a while, so that explains the soy. As for the caffeine, well, give me enough caffeine and I start overthrowing dictators and starting religions.

2) I prefer dogs to cats. Unless the cat is supremely cool. But still, I’d take a really smart, really social dog over the coolest of cats. Like the dog Mad Max had in The Road Warrior.

3) When I get really excited and star struck, I give famous people a copy of my book. It’s kind of embarrassing and not something a new author should do, but I kinda' can’t help myself. Maggie Stiefvater has a copy of my book, and I’m sure she is still scratching her head. My thinking is
this—my book is the most precious thing I have to give someone. It’s like the little drummer boy. Anyway, I have to show more self control.

Have you always wanted to be an author?

Yeah, I’m one of those kinds of writers, wanted to write since birth. Sad thing is, for most of my life, I’ve been too afraid to pursue this dream. Now it’s too late to turn back!

Do you base any of your characters after yourself?

Generally, no. But I come out in my characters without me even realizing it. For example, in The Never Prayer, Santiago is the bad kid who is always singing. I sing a lot, and I have this tragic sense of humor at times, and so people say I’m like Santiago, but I never really meant for that to happen. Part of the writing game. In my current work in progress, there’s this older guy who likes coffee and cigars and has this tragic sense of humor. I think I’m seeing a pattern.



 

 Can you tell us a little about The Never Prayer?

The Never Prayer is the angel book I was destined to write because no one else was going to write a gritty angel book where the angel starts out as an atheist. It has romance, action, and yet strong themes about how hard it is to be human and how challenging the world can be. So, it crosses multiple genres but I hope readers come away from it with a sense of hope. ‘Cause there’s always hope. And I really like how my main character, Lena, finds healing. Like all good heroes, she starts out wounded, but through the story, changes, and though her road is rough, she walks it.

Do you have any favorite authors?

I’m a huge Stephen King fan. That guy knows how to tell a story and his writing is so clear and vibrant. If I ever met him, I’m sure I’d foist a copy of The Never Prayer on him. I have admiration for Christopher Paolini and for what he accomplished. Through his own hard work and fearlessness, he succeeded at such a young age. For a long time, I resented him, but I got over that. And I love Maggie Stiefvater, also a writer for life. By the time she graduated high school, she had written like thirty books. And I’m a big
fan of Catherine Ryan Hyde, who wrote Pay It Forward. While I like her adult stuff more, her YA book Becoming Chloe had a great opening and some great parts.

What are you working on now?

Too many stories to count. I have about five novels clamoring for attention, but I’ll just give you the next two. I’m finishing up another YA Paranormal about a shy, withdrawn girl who has to overcome
her own limitations to help her dying grandmother travel to France to see the grandmother’s love from World War II. The paranormal aspect is that the lover may or may not be a prince from another world. Working title is Elizabeth’s Midnight.

And then, of course, get ready, here it comes, listen closely…I have the rough draft finished for a YA Steampunk Biopunk Sci-Fi Western Family Drama Epic! The working title is Dandelions, Guns, and Little Lost Souls. Rough draft is a 140,000 words. Look at all them zeroes. But it’s epic, epic I tell you! I’ll still have to cut it down to 100k. Let the bloodletting begin!

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Just a big thank you for the interview and for your wonderful review of The Never Prayer. It’s so nice to have actual people reading my book and enjoying it. It definitely beats my usual audience, which is just a whole lotta me. And thanks for letting me expose my true feeling about dogs, cats, and decaf coffee.

Thank you again!

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