Sunday, December 15, 2013

J.C. McDowell

 JC McDowell
New Orleans, Louisiana


Good morning, JC.  Welcome to Vision and Verse, the Place for Art and Authors.  Tell us, what have you written?  Is this a special day?
Yes!  Today, December 15th, an anthology of short stories will be published called Library of Dreams. My short story is entitled ‘The Typewriter’ and it is a piece of creative non-fiction. The contributors had connected via Wattpad, and we decided to embark on this venture. All proceeds of this anthology will go to LitWorld, a non-profit literacy organization fostering resilience, hope, and joy through the power of story.
I am currently writing my sixth novel, all of which can be read for free on Wattpad.
The series is dubbed ‘The Love Bug Series’: Watching Fireflies, Dragonfly Awakening, Hornet’s Nest, Butterfly Sanctuary, Butterfly Resistance, and Dragonfly Redemption

What is your favorite genre to write?
Romance. Even though romance is a huge genre, it is very hard to capture true feelings and emotions of what a romance is intended to be. This is what I strive to do every day. There is always the old writer’s saying of ‘Show. Don’t Tell.’ I believe in romance, it’s not tell or show. It’s feel. You must be able to feel what the character is feeling. That is the biggest factor of romance, which I believe so few are able to do these days with the influx of self publishing, but when you find that one story, that one story that makes your heart feel, then you know you’ve found a true romance.


Favorite food.
Beignets. There isn’t much better than fried dough covered with powdered sugar.

Tea or coffee?
Coffee. Café au Lait to be specific.

Pizza or ice cream?
Pizza!

Where would you like to visit?
England … every inch of it.

Favorite musical artist.  
At the moment, Mumford & Sons.

Do you listen to music when you write?  What?
I do if I write in the evening in order to help me focus after a long day at work; however, I prefer writing in the morning when my mind is fresh.
If music is in order, I lean towards Ray LaMontagne, Mumford & Sons, a bit of country, or classical.

What makes you laugh?
Everything.

Oh, you're my kind of person.  How old were you when you started writing?
In high school, I realized that I wasn’t that bad at writing. I tucked it away while serving my time at Louisiana State University where I only wrote endless amounts of History essays. It wasn’t until about a year and a half ago that I picked up a pen a jotted my imagination down on paper. A year and a half later, I’m writing my sixth and preparing to publish my first.

Describe your perfect evening.
The perfect evening would be a relaxing one including a glass of wine with a book in hand and snuggling with my honey.

Where do you get your inspiration?
Oddly enough, I think the years upon years of watching soap operas were a huge inspiration for my writing. I always loved that moment when something huge was revealed and I would scream, “I knew it!”

What do you do when you get a writer's block?
When I get stuck, I go back to the beginning of the story and read it. I find it helps to get my mindset back. It also helps with editing farther down the road.

Who is your favorite author?
Jane Austen. How a woman could write romance without ever truly experiencing love is mind boggling.

Best book you ever read.
Pride and Prejudice. It’s cliché, but I cannot help it.

Who is the one person who has influenced your personal life the most and why?
My grandfather. He was a photographer, and I admired his ability to do something he loved for employment. He worked at the New Orleans States-Item and then for The Times Picayune, leaving his mark on New Orleans history for generations to come.

If you could sit down and have a conversation with ONE person, living or dead, real or fictional, who would it be and why?
I would chose myself in ten years … just to see how many more stories I have up my sleeve.

What advice would you give someone who aspired to be a writer?
In the words of Ernest Hemingway, “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” Then I would hand them a quill in order to pierce their skin.

Do you have some links for us?
Twitter: @JCMcDowell504

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