Interview With Author Peter Schinkel
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Hi readers 🙂
I’m a landscape gardener and artist with a passion for science fiction story writing since I was a teenager. After freeing up some time in 2022, I began my first anthology of sci-fi stories.
As of January 2024, I have 13 short stories available as mini ebooks on Amazon and my first anthology was published in late 2023.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Twisted Planet Book One: An anthology of science fiction short stories.
Inspired by the love of writing and having fun doing so. I wanted to incorporate warmth, love and humour into sci-fi stories to both enhearten and entertain.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I like to break the rules a little, while still providing an enjoyable reading experience. For example, there’s not always a villain in my stories. Sometimes it’s the situation that creates the conflict and the twists that create surprise turns for the reader.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Becky Chambers’ excellent world building imagination and skills are very inspiring, as are Isaac Asimov and Douglas Adams – they both use humour and an informal style to write a good story.
For advice on writing, I find Stephen King’s ‘On Writing’ and Ray Bradbury’s ‘Zen in the Art of Writing’ invaluable.
What are you working on now?
Twisted Planet Book Two (my second anthology).
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I sell on Amazon because of how easy it is to create and promote individual short story ebooks and the anthology ebook and paperback.
I also use Facebook to promote my stories and the anthology. Their promotional tools seem to work very well too.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write because you love writing, dive into your stories like you’re in that world, show more than tell, edit many times, read books on writing, read read read and write often.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Apart from the advice above, the best advice I heard was to sell my short stories on Amazon for 99c each (or a similar low price in all territories) to gain a following before the anthology was published.
This worked very well. Hundreds of global readers picked up my stories long before my full-length anthology came out.
What are you reading now?
Time and Time Again by Ben Elton, and
Isaac Asimov’s Complete Short Stories Volume One.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Writing stories for Twisted Planet Book Two while promoting Book One.
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?
Isaac Asimov’s Complete Short Stories Volume Two!
A huge atlas with pages devoted to all the countries and cultures of the world.
A book on how to fish and live off the land.
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