Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I was born just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. I’m 47. I’ve lived all over the globe. I’ve worked so many different paychecks I can’t account for them all. But the one thing that has remained consistent throughout my life is writing. I’ve been putting words to page in some form or another since I was seven. I self-published a novel in four parts called The Legend of Lunar Pines. It’s about werewolves in a small, mountain town in Idaho, surrounding the idea that the werewolf myth came from some kind of reality. I also self-published a book called The Danforth State Mental Hospital. It’s an episodic narrative of different patients in a very unique mental hospital, where all the outcasts that defy explanation end up. Both are available on Amazon.com.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The last book I finished writing is called Sharp Knives & Skewers. It’s a cynical, balls-to-the-wall, chapter by chapter description of everything involved in being a chef. I spent seventeen years in New Zealand as a chef. It was the most brutal, bad-ass, f***ed-up, adrenaline-driven job I have ever had. Very few people can withstand being a chef. I wanted this book to be a humorous, sarcastic, detailed account of every aspect of the front lines of the restaurant industry, and every word of it is true. I’m currently working on cover art, and plan to self-publish as soon as it’s spit shined.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I suppose that depends on your definition of unusual. Every writer has their own zone – that place or time where their other worlds open up. Every writer is different. I guess the only unusual thing about my writing is that when I have something in dire need of coming out onto the page, when the story is all but bursting from me, I do it like a machine. I wrote a 1500 page novel in just over a month. I took no notes, made no drafts. The seed of the story had been floating around in my head for ten years. One day, it wanted out and I wrote the whole thing start to finish in just over a month. Another time I wrote 42 four-page essays in just under a month. When I click on something, and find that sweet spot in the zone, it literally floods out. It’s like someone else takes over and I can’t type fast enough.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Such a list would be a novel unto itself. I am inspired and influenced by the art of the story and the word.
What are you working on now?
A novel about the end of days that is far to big in scope, and too huge to even comprehend writing. I have fifty pages so far.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
So far the best method of promoting my books is word of mouth. Get people to read your book, and let the book speak for itself.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Only this: Never write for an audience. Write because it’s inside you, and because it’s what you would like to read yourself.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Out of the hundreds and thousands of quotes I’ve collected over the years, the best piece of wisdom I have ever come across is this: “Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.”
What are you reading now?
Walden and Civil Disobedience, Henry David Thoreau. I never went to college so I’m working on the reading list as I go.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Ten thousand unwritten ideas floating around in my head
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?
#1 Treasure Island. My favorite book of all time. I still have my first copy – yellowed, falling apart, and held together with tape. #2 The British SAS survival guide. I could live indefinitely on a deserted island with this book alone. #3 An Island to One’s Self, by Tom Neale, about a Kiwi who lived for years on a deserted island, by his own choice, and #4 probably a Playboy Magazine, for you know, entertainment.
Author Websites and Profiles
Mike Battaglia Website
Mike Battaglia Amazon Profile
Mike Battaglia’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
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