Interview with Patrick Doud

http://winnitoktales.com

First off, thanks so much for joining us for an up-close and personal interview for TeensReadToo.com! My name is Jen, and I’ll be your server toda…oh, wait, wrong job! Anyway, thanks so much for taking time out of your writing schedule—which I’m sure is busy!—and answering a few questions for your readers and fans.

It’s my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Let’s get some of the typical interview questions out of the way first. When did you first know that you wanted to be a writer?

To the best of my recollection it was sometime in my tweens. I started filling notebooks with an epic fantasy adventure. I hadn’t heard of revising and it was never finished. Thankfully, that manuscript is lost.

Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publishing?

It was long and hard, as I gather it is for most people. I’m very grateful to have finally found the right publisher, North Atlantic Books.

Tell us a little bit about either your latest or upcoming release. If you could only tell your readers one thing about the story that had to convince us to buy the book, what would it be?

The Hunt for the Eye of Ogin is the first book of The Winnitok Tales, and its release date is February 23, 2010. The world of The Hunt for the Eye of Ogin is unlike any you’ve seen before.

What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?

My greatest inspiration is story itself: story is a presence that talks to me. It gives me ideas.

Let’s hear about your family, who I’m sure are thrilled to have a published author among them!

My wife is indeed thrilled. My son not so much—he’s only three. My dog is wondering why his spitting image is on the cover of the book. My cat doesn’t care.

Now for some fun facts. What’s your greatest comfort food?

At this moment, my greatest comfort food is kang ped yang from our local Thai restaurant. It’s roast duck in red curry sauce.

What are the first three things you do when you wake up in the morning?

Usually I find myself answering the respective demands of my son, my dog, and my cat in quick succession.

If I came to your house and looked in your closet/attic/basement, what’s the one thing that would surprise me the most?

Would an enormous and ancient woodstove in the cellar surprise you? It surprised us when we first looked at the house. But I gather at one time they were not an uncommon feature of American cellars.

Everyone asks the question about “if you could be a tree, which tree would you be?” so I want to know: If you could be a color, which color would it be, and why?

Chartreuse, but only if no one else is.

Who is your favorite cartoon character?

I remember a time when I loved Casper. I watched a lot of Bugs Bunny as a child, but didn’t learn to really appreciate him and his associates until much later.

Which cartoon character is most like you?

There was a time long ago when I would have said Eeyore. Now I just don’t know.

If you could beam yourself to anywhere in the world (“Beam me up, Scotty!”), during any time in history, where and when would it be—and why?

Oh dear. I suppose I would have to use the opportunity to try to avert one of the countless human-engineered catastrophes our world has suffered. It would be selfish to indulge in going back to see the dinosaurs or something like that.

So what’s your favorite type of music to listen to? Favorite musical artists? Do you listen to music while you’re writing?

I care too much for too many different kinds of music to pick a favorite type. I do listen to music while writing, always. Writing The Hunt for the Eye of Ogin I played various recordings of all of Bruckner’s symphonies over and over. So far while I’m at work on the current book it’s been the symphonies of Edmund Rubbra.

Do you have any favorite T.V. shows? Movies you watch over and over again? What was the last movie you saw at the theater?

The DVD player has almost completely replaced television for me, and the movie theater as well. A couple or three random favorite films: Local Hero, Withnail and I, Come and See.

You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your teen readers. What would it be?

You’re going to get older and you won’t see the world in the same way anymore. Though you’re going to gain enormously from experience, try to remember the way things look now: they’ll never look the same again.

One last question. What stories can we look forward to from you in the future?

The second book of The Winnitok Tales is called The Mornith War, and it’s set for release in Spring 2011.

Again, thanks so much for joining us at TeensReadToo.com!

Thank you so much! All the Best!