New Orleans-based, Beaird Glover, publishes his contemporary paranormal adventure featuring unlikely misfits, Seven and Penny among others...including a boy with a hoof for a hand.
A wildly remarkable twist on the crowded paranormal romance genre, Blue Bottle Tree is an adventure of voodoo and black magic sure to cast a spell on readers once it's released in early 2018
Beaird Glover grew up on a farm in rural Tennessee. He graduated from The Evergreen State College of Olympia, Washington, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in creative writing. He then moved to Southern California and wrote Secret Ciphers of the 1876 Presidential Election (Aegean Park Press). He has traveled extensively and lived in eleven of the United Sates, and Taipei and Buenos Aires. His poems have been published in the New York Quarterly and his chapbook of poetry was selected by the Austin Chronicle as one of the Top 10 Best of 1994. More recently, he acquired a Bachelor of Science degree from Long Island University in Brooklyn and has worked as a physician assistant. Beaird now lives in New Orleans with his wife Kim and their cats.
Funny thing is...a few years ago, Glover won the $100 first prize in a competition for Worst Screenplay Title! So Blue Bottle Tree promises not only to haunt YA readers, but maybe even give them a few laughs....
In an interview with Mercedes Fox...
[mf] Why do you write?
[bg] It’s the most fulfilling pastime I know—unlike trying to sell it, which is the most punishing. When the actual writing and revising is going on, it’s easy to imagine that everyone is going to love it. They’ll just go crazy when they get their hands on this hot stuff! That’s what makes it fun. Like buying a lottery ticket, the time you spend dreaming about what you’ll do with all that money is the reward. It feels good. And when I come up with just the perfect words, it’s magical. It’s something I want to share.
[mf] How long does it usually take you to complete a book?
[bg] It depends on when I start writing in relation to the equinox. And Equinox is actually one of the worst albums that Styx ever made. Which is saying a lot.
[mf] What made you decide to sit down and actually start something?
[bg] There was an intensity of heat building at my forehead—it drove the story out.
[mf] Do you write full-time or part-time?
[bg] It’s like a hobby. I do it in my spare time. But the actual writing—of making new stuff up—is only a very small part of it.
[mf] Any advice for aspiring authors?
[bg] Take a copy of your manuscript to the North-East corner of a cemetery where someone is buried who has your same last name. Dig a hole at midnight and bury the story there. Paper, thumbdrive, it does not matter what form. Build a teepee of twigs over it and scatter a mixture of corn nuts and Red Hot sauce all around. Douse this with high-octane gasoline and ignite the teepee. Reach down in your throat for the deepest growl you can get, and say, “I’ma dunagoodun anIwannabunchamoney.” Chant this rhythmically as long as the twigs still burn. Then stomp the remaining sparks to death. Leave the site and never return there. At dawn, begin sending out your work.
[mf] Where do your ideas come from?
[bg] I grew up about half a mile outside the small town of Obion, Tennessee, population 1200. There were no other houses in sight. Our house was surrounded by fields on three sides and a cemetery on the other. Late at night, I crept out of my bedroom window and went to the cemetery. I performed rituals which allowed me to inhale the souls of the deceased and recently interred. These are the characters in my stories. I also get ideas from images I see in flame, when performing the dunagoodun ritual.
[mf] What is the hardest thing about writing?
[bg] Before I begin a project, I always lie down on the floor with a birthday candle waxed stuck to my forehead, between my eyes like a third eye. What is hard is the waiting, because it takes a long time for the candle to burn all the way out. Secondly, it hurts when the flame finally gets close to my skin.
[mf] Which writers inspire you?
[bg] Kurt Vonnegut is an inspiration, because of his depth and wit, his genius at phrase construction. A literary master of insurmountable talent and breadth, he is the most human and humane of all writers I know. One of his quotes stands out; it informs my worldview completely. He said, “You realize, of course, that everything I say is horseshit.”
[mf] How do you deal with negative reviews?
[bg] I shred the associated credit card and close that account.
[mf] Do you have any formal education in creative writing? If not are you planning to go to school?
[bg] Yes, I majored in creative writing at The Evergreen State College of Olympia, Washington. I heard recently that it is the most liberal school in America, and I’m proud that I graduated from there.
[mf] Who is your favorite fictional character and why?
[bg] Cartman, of South Park, because when things aren’t going his way and even his friends turn against him, when the tedium of existentialist existence erupts into the scream that shatters a nightmare, he’s like, “Fugugeys.” And I totally get that.
[mf] What one person from history would you like to meet and why?
[bg] Ozzy Osbourne—because he rocks and I’ve heard that he’s a very nice guy.
[mf] What is one great lesson you have learned as a writer?
[bg] Do not expect anyone to give you any money for it.
[mf] What is one thing you hate about being a writer?
[bg] No one wants to give me any money for it.
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29248913-unconscious-knowledge
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BQ9XOJW/ref=rdr_kindle_ext_tmb