Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a traveler. I lived all over Eurasia, observing and trying to understand people’s kindness and evil. I wrote two books and countless poems to explore the different facets of humanity.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is called “Hell Lingering Within”, and was inspired by the struggle every face, between our youth’s idealistic and endless ambitions, and the limitations and constraints of real life responsibilities. And as any good struggle, I made the fiction visceral, spilling some guts out…
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I always set a color and musical style for each chapter, to set a specific mood. For example in Hell Lingering Within, the chapter dealing with the aftermath is about blank, white, void, and sound art. Most of my table of contents start by laying down color and music style, which I then flesh into words and subtitles. That’s probably an unusual writing habits…
What authors, or books have influenced you?
My inspiration comes from all kind of writings. A fundamental author for me has been James Ellroy, for the raw feeling. Another source of inspiration were american black and white graphic novels from Frank Miller, Daniel Clowes or Dave McKean.
In parallel, chinese philosophy and poetry also greatly impacted the way I perceive structure and writing. Li Qingzhao, Lao Zi, Mana’s epics, so many different ways of delivering an idea. Apart from classic literature, I’m also a huge fan of commercial literature, and especially leaflets. I have a big collection of leaflets I gathered from around the world. There’s so many different approaches from so many different culture. That’s a real reflection of human diversity right there. I even published some of these leaflets on my website, there are true gems…
What are you working on now?
I’m doing promotion right now, but my next book will probably be an anthology of my best poems. Throughout decades of world travel, I built up a collection of poems on notebook. Coupled with pictures of my stuffed dog… yes, I have a stuffed dog named Kwoa that followed me all around for decades now… this could be a great anthology to introduce poetry and the world to children. It’ll also be a gift for my daughter which is now old enough to understand poetry.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
There’s no best method, but probably a mix of method. In any case, the book must be worth promoting, or else promotion is only a waste of time.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep practicing and working on your skills. We all fail, and fail again, and fail some more, up until the point that our production become decent enough. So failure is an important and necessary part of the process to move forward.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“Was ist ist, was ist nicht ist moglish”. It’s from a German industrial bands lyrics called Einsturzende Neubauten, and it means: What is is, what is not is possible.
What are you reading now?
I’m currently reading the original 1001 nights again. Simple tales, countless storytelling methods.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Keep on the poetry, and probably a new book centered around the concept of “accountability”.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Lao Zi – Dao De Jing
Dave McKean – Cages
James Ellroy – The Black Dahlia
Author Websites and Profiles
Max Kwoa Website
Max Kwoa Amazon Profile
Max Kwoa Author Profile on Smashwords