About Joe Mikolay:
I was born in the suburbs of NJ and then went to college in NYC, where I spent the next dozen years or so.
I’m a big time pop culture junkie: movies, music, television and comic books are my favorite vices. I also love sports both legitimate (NFL) and otherwise (WWE).
I’ve had a passion for writing for as long as I can remember, and have wanted to share my work with others ever since I put pen to paper. My biggest thrill is having the opportunity to share my work with those willing to take the ride with me.
I recently moved to a (different) NJ suburb with my wife and our critters, and I’m always working on my next novel.
What inspires you to write?
I used to daydream a lot- in fact I still do- and that’s really where most of my ideas come from.
It’s a lot of “Wouldn’t it be cool if…” and “Can you imagine…”
Ultimately, I try to hit the universal sweet spots in my writing, because I know what gives me goosebumps and I want to give them to my readers.
Mind you, I’m not talking about aiming for the lowest common denominator or pure fluff. It’s more like I enjoy getting people worked up, tied in knots, and then building them up to a”Hell, Yeah!” moment. Preferably several throughout the story.
There’s also the notion of giving people the chance to feel the sorts of things that we really don’t have much a chance to feel in our day-to-day lives- those highest highs and lowest lows.
I know that I’m likely never going to write anything that changes the world, so my goal is to entertain it.
Tell us about your writing process.
It starts with pretty solid ideas of who my primary characters are, and turns into hardcore outlining from there.
I start with listing all the meaningful events and character moments in the story, and then build the chapter outline out from there.
Obviously, changes are always made during the process of actually writing the book, but I like have clear guideposts to take me from the beginning to the end. Most of the time, as the details of the events take shape, the characters take shape alongside them.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
Mostly, I slip into the heads of the characters as I write them and base their actions and dialogue on how they would interpret and interact with the world around them.
What advice would you give other writers?
Get to the end.
I usually start with a beginning and an end, and then fill up everything in-between.
Being something of a completist, I like to finish things, and I find that helps drive me to get back on my computer and plug away at the manuscript.
Don’t get hung up on minutiae, get the broad strokes of the story out there and in front of you. You’re going to go back to fill in the blank later on anyway.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I got tired of sending out infinite query letters, and waiting for a very small group of people to see commercial value in my work.
There were stories that I wanted to tell to as many people as would listen, and so I stopped caring about whether or not it would be viewed as “legitimate.”
Self-publishing used to be pretty expensive, but then I discovered Kindle Direct Publishing and CreateSpace. Neither cost me anything as they are print on-demand services. So, seeing my opportunity, I jumped on it.
It actually offers a lot of freedom as well, since I don’t have any agents, editors or publishing houses chipping in their two cents.
So I write my stories, enlist my friends to proofread them and my amazingly talented wife to design the cover art, and then get the books out to the public.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
With so many outlets for creative writing these days, I’d say the future is loaded with all kinds of stories.
The major benefit of these varying sources is that anyone can get their story out there now. We can really only hope that the good stuff gets seen by enough people to bring it to the forefront of the industry.
What genres do you write?: horror, science fiction, action-adventure, fantasy, humor
What formats are your books in?: Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
Joe Mikolay Home Page Link
Link To Joe Mikolay Page On Amazon
Your Social Media Links
Goodreads
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All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.
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