Interview With Author Peter J. White
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve wanted to be an author since I was about six-years old. Though I took sporadic aim at that target, I never really went after it until I was in my forties. I earned an MFA in Screenwriting and began writing screenplays. The structured nature of that medium opened up the doors of creativity, and I began writing screenplays. Nine or ten of them, somewhere in there. Multiple drafts, etc.
After just enough success at contests and nibbles from various producers to keep me going for several years, I finally buckled up and went after the indie author thing.
I’ve written five novels in the Ghost Hunter series (I’m calling those Paranormal Vigilante Justice Thrillers–how’s that for a mouthful?), and one in the Supernatural Horror niche. That is the one I’m offering up here.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Ghosts of a Coven Past was inspired by an email sent to me by a buddy when he and his wife bought a house in Allentown, Pa.
His letter is one of the epigraphs.
Check it out.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Getting up at 4:30 to write on working days.
I write to soundtracks that fit the mood of the piece, but that’s not unusual.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Stephen King. Dean Koontz. Ernest Hemingway. David Foster Wallace. John Sandford. Lee Child. Micheal Connelly. John Connolly. Edgar Allan Poe. Stephen Graham Jones. H.P. Lovecraft. Anne Rule. True Crime.
That’s just a quick sample of a stream of consciousness response; I’m sure I’m forgetting a few favorites.
What are you working on now?
A piece that takes place on a container ship adrift in the Pacific. Thai crew, Dutch officers, American passengers, and a shitload of ghosts from all over the place.
I’m novelizing a screenplay I wrote five drafts off–similar and different to varying degrees. I originally entitled it “Container,” but that will change. (It was clever in terms of producer language–they are always calling for “contained” scripts. “Contained” = “As Cheaply Produced As Is Humanly Possible”.)
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Can’t say a whole lot about much. Amazon, I suppose. I run a lot of ads, but that gets expensive.
Sites like this are really helpful.
They direct readers like you to me.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Butt in chair.
Every day. Same time.
No matter what.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
From a doctor after I’d broken my foot kickboxing and was pestering him about what I could do. After a list of inadvisable activities (grappling, heavy squats, etc.), he looked at me, sighed, and said; “Peter, there’s nothing you can do to speed up your healing.” (beat) “But you can certainly slow it down.”
Love that man.
What are you reading now?
Newest John Sandford novel, “Righteous Prey,”
“The Violence Project”,
“Reliquary,” by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.
“The Whispering Dead,” by Darcy Coat.
What’s next for you as a writer?
A series of horror novels of varying types: all supernatural.
Books four and five of Ghost Hunter will publish within about six weeks’ time. Book Six will be a while.
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?
Can’t pass up the opportunity here: I watched “Green Room” with my daughter last night, and the very last line of the movie was Amber’s response to Pat’s “Desert Island Band” question:
“Ask someone who gives a shit.”
But that would be wrong of me:
Mmm, Infinite Jest, for sure. Probably 2666 as well. I’d take a fat King book, but I can’t think of any that end satisfactorily. The Shining, maybe…
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