Book Tag: Finn Chow

Inspire. Create. Write. TM

So this month has really been about the interviews hey hahaha. One of my passions is to Share the awesomeness I encounter along my Journey and this one is no exception.
I'm beyond overjoyed to introduce you to today's guest. He's got mad skill, is wickedly witty and an all around great guy. I'm in love with his artworks and cannot wait for the release of his book.

Finn Chow is a fantasy author who is currently working on publishing his first book, Sparks. Literature has always been a passion of his, and being a born and raised in San Diego it is not uncommon to find him on a beach reading a good book. Finn is also an artist and a singer who enjoys exploring various creative forms of expression. Motivated and ambitious, Finn is always trying to find a way to share his work with the world.

Questions:

1. Do you have a specific place to read?

• While I can honestly read pretty much anywhere as long as the book is worth reading, I prefer to read outside in the afternoon. It’s always nice for me to relax on a grass under a big tree and forget about the world around me while focusing on one in my hands. 

2. What book/s can you re-read without getting tired?

• I won’t lie when I say that I hate the concept of re-reading things. As good a book is, it’s never the same thing after I read it once. There are no surprises or twists to make you stay up until 3 am reading.

3. Who is your favorite author?

• I could never pick one favorite author. There are so many great literary minds with amazing talent out there. It also really depends on what I feel like reading. But to name a few authors that I can always count on: JK Rowling, Rick Riordan, Eion Colfer, Suzanne Collins, Derek Landy, Cassandra Clare, Neil Shusterman, and Michael Grant.

4. What is your favorite fiction book?

• I can’t choose a favorite book, but my favorite fiction book series would be the Percy Jackson novels. If I had to re-read anything it would be them. I have always loved Greek Mythology and love the way Riordan puts a modern twist on ancient tales.

5. What is your most memorable childhood book?

• My favorite childhood book would have to be Frog and Toad. Not only were the stories simple, but they also displayed a charming and lovely friendship that you can’t help but to want in your own life.

6. What quote from any book will you never forget? Why is it significant?

• While I'm not one to remember all that many quotes, my favorite would have to be JK Rowling's use of "I open at the close". It reminds me that even when one thing ends many more begin.

7. What books did you hate reading in school?

• I can only say one thing about Shakespeare. And that word is “overrated”. While I am not implying that Shakespeare had no talent, his work is nothing special in my opinion. Not to mention that the difficulty to decipher Old English takes away from the value of the work and the effect on the reader.

8. Do you read before bed?

• My mom read to me before bed almost ever night when I was younger. She still carries on this tradition with my younger siblings as well. As a result, I find it natural and calming to grab a good book before a long night of struggling not to get up and write down my new story ideas.

9. How many books are there on your book shelf?

• Let’s just say that if I ever need to move my bookcase it would take a lot longer than anyone really has time for.

10. What genre of books do you prefer?

• I can honestly say that if I had to choose between destroying the world’s supply of fiction and non fiction I would choose to save fiction in a heartbeat. I think that books should a tool to escape the reality of life and enter a world that someone has created out of the inner workings of their minds. As for what types of fiction I like, that varies from mystery to fantasy to horror depending on my mood.

11. Can you read while there is noise around, like music or TV?

• Being the second oldest of four boys I kind of had to learn how to tune out shouting, bickering, the sound of things breaking, crying, and all hell breaking loose. To be honest, if the world was ending around me while I would notice if I was reading something good.

12. Have you written any books? If so, tell us about it.

• I am currently working on a fantasy trilogy that I started in 2014. The novels center around three genetically altered teens with extraordinary abilities as they struggle to survive in the world of darkness around them. Having already written the books one and two, Sparks and Inferno respectively, I plan to publish the first this summer while finishing my conclusion, Ashes.

Artwork Cred: Finn Chow

13. You walk into a book store, what do you walk out with?

• I don’t go to bookstores. While they are one of my favorite places to shop and browse around in, I was highly discouraged from going into them as a child. That fact that my parents would buy a book, only for me to finish it in two days made them wary to keep taking me. So nowadays I tend to frequent library and spam suggestion boxes until I get what I want.

14. Worst book you ever read?

• I’ve had to read several obnoxiously boring and unnecessarily long books for school. But the worst one among them was Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. Not only was it utterly strange, with the author attempting to teach the readers lessons by having a man interact with a philosophical gorilla, but I could have easily summarized these lessons on half an index card. There was no need to make me suffer through a weak plot and bad characters as well. 

15. Do you have any collections of books?

• I’m one of those people that everyone gives books to. So as a result, I have quite a few great series on my bookshelf. And unless people are thoughtful enough to buy me the next book when I’m done I normally end up getting the rest myself.

16. Do you have a library card?

• Of course, I have a library card! While it would be a wonderful thing to constantly buy all of my books new, I personally think it’s a beautiful thing to share books in the same way that we share stories. 

17. What is the last book you read?

• Unbreakable by Kami Garcia

18. How many books do you read per year?

• Let’s do the math shall we? I can read an average three hundred to four hundred page book in three to five days. But factoring in the fact that I have adult responsibilities and other boring things like school. I’m going to say between twenty to thirty books.

19. Who is your favorite character from a book? Why him/her?

• While almost anyone obnoxiously sarcastic will do, I’m going to have to go with Skullduggery Pleasant. There’s something about being an undead skeleton and getting away with horrendously rude and dark humor because of it that appeals to me.

20. Why is reading important to you?

• Reading is a way for me to take a break from things in the same way that other people glue themselves to TV screens. There’s nothing wrong with either and it’s nice to turn your brain off for a while. Personally, I also use books to learn other author’s writing techniques and styles.

Quick Fire:

Book mark or anything that can hold your place

Paper Back or Ebook

Novel or Biography

Fiction or Non-Fiction

Read the book or watch the movie first

Romance or Science-Fiction & Fantasy

An AMAZING Original Artwork by Finn Chow

Love this, reminds me of the 

Nine Tails Fox {Naruto}

21. Bonus Question: If there was just one nugget of wisdom you could share, what would that be?

• If you know that you are never going to love what you do 100%, it is a waste of your endless potential to spend on it. Your life is worth so much more than that, and you deserve so much better. Make what you truly love a reality. 

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Novel: Behind the scenes

Question: Why am I writing this?
Answer: It's my first blog post and my first time writing a novel.

I started my novel somewhere on the 20th January 2016 and finished my first draft on the 4th February 2016, with the irrational thought that it would be polished enough. See I've had this scene playing in my head for years and some nights just before I would fall asleep, I would play out this scene. The characters would change depending on whatever I was in to at the time, i.e. teen wolf, black dagger brotherhood series, twilight, the originals to name a few. Eventually, I decided to put it down into words, the hilarious thing is that it took me Twenty chapters, that's right Twenty chapters to get to the scene I'd dreamed about. I remember I worked through the night and most of the morning when I got close to chapter Twenty, writing like a mad man because I needed to get the chapter out. That was definitely an amazing milestone, to see your scene all there... in words. Conceptualized and visualized, taking form in this fictional world you created. There's no other feeling like it, but then again I was high of no sleep. Writing the book was an amazing journey, from having the basic outline in your mind to actually going into the chapters, splitting up the plot to lead up to one another. I don't think I ever got writer's block per say, as I wrote each chapter the next one would form but there were days when the idea for the next chapter would come but the words wouldn't come with it, not so easily as the others did anyway. So I would have to walk around, lie on a bed, go outside, have more showers than is necessary (LOL). Just do anything mundane so that my mind would wander enough to figure out the next chapter or scene.

I am probably one of the kings of procrastination, heck if I wasn't I would have started this novel last year November. I was at home, I had the time. But instead, all I did was download movies and tv series, then watch them. Every series and movie I could find that I like, I got it.

I would like to say I found the will power to eventually write but it was more like I basically ran out of the stuff I like to watch and then my cat died, leaving an empty hole no movie or series could fix.

So back to the book, I finally finished it!!! Which is awesome but I dunno, I enjoyed
the climb more than getting to the peak.... I'm definitely not at
the top yet that would be once the book gets's published but writing the draft was an awesome experience. I learned a lot about myself in the process.

What's the problem then?
EVERYTHING that comes after your first draft manuscript. I submitted my story to a few beta readers, mostly the ones that offered to do it for free but one beta was generous enough to help with the first 5000 words. Whistle* what an eye opener. Firstly in my haste to finish the novel, I left out a lot of description and detail. focusing on progressing the story and dialogue.
Here's what I need to sort out:
How much of the actual street names or places do I need to include?
Some of my characters descriptions I kind of broke up through the story, is this ok?
Dialogue reduction maybe?
Location descriptions and building the world.
Do I really have to include street names? or actual distances between objects?

Anywho, she edited some of it and gave me the sample, the errors I made were grievous I should have self-edited more before giving it out to the betas. Also since I live in South Africa and the book is based in Seattle, there were some words that we use that Americans don't.
Luckily I met a girl online named Rachel and she helped me greatly understand the American way. specifically school themes like summer vacation, subjects, schedules.

There's just so much information out there about self-publishing, agents, editing, beta reading, building a following. it's insane to try and keep up. I've read many blogs and watched many author interviews, they barely talk about the insanity after you finish the novel. I promise myself that if I ever give an interview or am talking to fans I will tell them exactly what happens after you finish a novel. because it's scary business the time frame of it all. it's been 5 days since I finished the novel and I'm nowhere near sending out a query letter.

Here are some links that I'm going to be using post first draft:
https://querytracker.net/top-10-agents.php
http://veronicarothbooks.blogspot.co.za/2010/08/strive-always-for-normalness-my-advice.html
http://blog.nathanbransford.com/
https://prowritingaid.com/en/Account/Register2?returnUrl=%2Fen%2FAnalysis%2FEditor%3Fnobreak%3Dtrue%26userTextId%3D5205%26userTextKey%3Dfff08770-38a8-4dc1-a214-4418f43ec72d#
====>>>An amazing free editing site.
https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/category/agents/
http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/young-adult-literary-agents

Now I have to go back, figure out how to creatively make the narrative more provocative, add on to character and location description then fix the dialogue tags. I'm not sure whether I should give my self a date to query with an agent.
Because I also I have the daunting task of creating a query letter. I mean how's a new writer with no writing credentials make his/her bio sound good? I can't lie, I can't go instantly get a writing credit under my name. I haven't seen any writing conferences here in south Africa to go to. Besides, all the best sellers here are mostly nonfiction or about race and a lot of historical incidents. Sigh.
I am going to believe in myself and my stories, that we will somehow change this unfairness in my country, by giving more fiction and science fictions writers a bigger market to step into.

I'll end this first blog entry now with the hope that I can get this all done in a timely manner.