Interview With Author Steven Prouse
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I graduated from the University of South Carolina with a BA in Media Arts focussing on TV and Film production with a cognate focus on Religious Studies. In the early 2000’s, I helped to found and run an independent comic book publishing studio (803 Studios). We published 6 anthologies (803 #’s 1-3 and the themed Sequential Suicide issues) and the 4-issue K.I.P.: Knowledge is Power. We also turn-key produced the 4-issue Miserable Dastards for Dial “C” for Comics with the late, great Jeremy Dale illustrating. I have written comics for 12-Gauge Comics (published by Image Comics) and Arcana Comics.
More recently, I’ve been selected by 4 scriptwriting competitions for my feature-length screenplay “Stink Fist” and my television pilot script “Punk Girlz in Space.” I wrote episode 18 of season 4 of the horror podcast “The Grey Rooms.” And I’ve released a novella for Kindle “Little Jakey,” my childrens’ book “Sammy the Squirrel(tle),” and my first short novel “Handlebars” over the last three years. The last two are available in print on Amazon and can be ordered through bookstores.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Handlebars is my most recent release (Nov. 2022). The original inspiration struck during the 2016 Presidential campaign while listening to the Flobots song of the same name. I struggled imagining either Clinton or Trump riding a bicycle as children and couldn’t. This made me think about the nature of heroism and villainy, how both are determined not just by intent, but by perspective, and what sort of innocent history the villain/hero may have had.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
My day job eats up a lot of my mental capacity, so writing has been difficult for the last few years. I’ve found I am most productive (at least right now) sitting on my couch with my laptop on my pull-up coffee table/desk, self-medicated with a movie on in the background.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
That list is fairly extensive. I’ll try to whittle down the list.
Plot and characters – Stephen King and Chuck Palahniuk.
I also enjoy Jeff Sharlet, Andrew Seidel, Noam Chomsky, Nancy Eisenberg, Ibram Kendi, Christopher Hitchens, Douglas Adams, Neil Gaiman, and Alan Moore.
What are you working on now?
I just finished a horror novella “I, Tess” that I plan to release digitally over the next few months. I did this as a post-holiday warm-up before I focus on the second half of my fantasy novel I plan to complete by this summer.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Promotional stuff has always been my Achilles heel. Once I achieve success there, I’ll let you know.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Paraphrasing Neil Gaiman: Relax and write. Understand that your first draft will most likely be terrible. But, it’ll be a draft, and you can edit a draft. You can’t edit what you never write.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Similar to above. As I mentioned earlier, my day job takes up a ton of my mental capacity and it killed my creative productivity. When the just-do-it advice came from Gaiman, it struck a chord and I started. For the last four years, I’ve been producing as much as I did in my early twenties.
What are you reading now?
The Devil Is Here in These Hills: West Virginia’s Coal Miners and Their Battle for Freedom
by James R. Green
What’s next for you as a writer?
I am revising “Notes From a Monkey With a Hand Grenade,” a collection of my comic book short stories and releasing it this spring/summer. I have some editing and writing to do on a few new short stories and will be collecting those in a second volume of NFaMWaHG either late this year or early next. But my fantasy novel “Tusk” is my highest completion goal for this year.
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?
Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman
The Shining – Stephen King
Rant – Chuck Palahniuk
Author Websites and Profiles
Steven Prouse’s Social Media Links