Which of your characters (in this book) is closest to your heart and why?
“I am not a thirteen-year old girl but (after some starts and stops) I became very comfortable writing through the eyes of 13-year old Abby Leigh. She is bossy and has a big heart and wants to do the right thing.”
Natasha, the brains behind Sweet and Sassy Reviewz blog, is hosting an event and I have the privilege of leading it off. For a chance to win a signed paperback of Night of the Purple Moon, just go to http://facebook.com/authorscottcramer and leave a wall post. The winner will be chosen randomly and then contacted through Facebook.
Now for my interview with Natasha:
When did you start writing?
And when did you become an author?
I started writing poetry in college. Then I wrote short fiction pieces. Then I made a modest income as a magazine feature writer. Following that, I discovered screenwriting. I wrote several screenplays and optioned one of them. The option has since expired. Writing scripts, I learned a lot about story structure and dialog. I wrote two young adult novels that have not been published. Night of the Purple Moon is my first published novel.
When was your first book released?
The Kindle version of Night of the Purple Moon was released in March 2012. The paperback was released one month later.
Do you have more books that you have written?
Yes. Two young adult novels, mentioned above, are sitting in my drawer. For now they will remained confined to the darkness. Maybe one day I will revisit them. Right now I have more than enough to do. I am working on Book 2 of the ‘The Toucan Trilogy’. The title is ‘Colony East’
When you were younger did you like to write?
Yes, when I was really young, like six or seven. Then something happened. I can’t put my finger on it. Maybe it was the ‘D’ in 8th grade English class. Maybe it was partly because I had boring English teachers (Mr. H, you could snuff out the inspiration in Andy Warhol). Well, one of my teachers was pretty cool (Ms. L). Everyone in class laid on the floor in a circle. I don’t remember what we did after that, but it was an excellent teaching strategy. In any event, I believe I am still learning how to write and I will probably always feel this way.
Is there a certain thing you do before writing your books?
I wake up. Seriously. My favorite time to write is 4:30 a.m. The cat wakes me up. I stumble out and have coffee. Then I stumble to my PC and sit down and begin.
How long did it take you to write a book?
It took me a year and a half to write Night of the Purple Moon. I wrote many drafts. I am not the world’s slowest writer, but I am not that fastest, either.
How many books have you read?
I have read a lot of books. I lost count. What’s unusual is that I sometimes read the same book over and over again. I guess I love to look at the way some writers put down sentences. I have read ‘What is the What’ by Dave Eggers at least ten times. I also am re-reading (for umpteenth time) The Wild Shore by Kim Stanley Robinson. I don’t read it from beginning to end, but rather hop all over the place.
Do you write everyday?
In a year, I probably write 355 days.
Do you have another author or person or even place who gives you inspiration?
A plague may wipe out life as we know it. “Night of the Purple Moon” is a novel following Abby Leigh as the moon turns purple and wipes out anyone who has hit puberty. As youths struggle to get by and find out the cause from the disaster, Abby finds that keeping her family going may be just enough on her plate. “Night of the Purple Moon” is a fine read for youths, highly recommended.
http://www.midwestbookreview.com/cbw/oct_12.htm#Fiction
One last word on the rating I chose for this book: my choice was based on the description, “quite good,” rather than the numerical score. Of all our ratings, I simply felt this was the best description of how I felt about my reading experience. If you are at all interested in the premise of this book, please don’t let the number attached to this review stop you from giving this book a try. For readers interested in astronomy, island life, and fictional worlds where children have to fend for themselves, this might be just the read you are looking for.
“Intense and compelling, Night of the Purple Moon shocked and blew me away. Despite that it’s a bit more MG (Middle-Grade or Middle School) than I anticipated, the story is gripping—one of the most I’ve read all year.”
TY Raindrop Soup from Goodreads!
After I get a haircut, one of two things always happens. People stare at me. Or people ignore me.
If they ignore me, I feel cheated. Some people have told me the perfect haircut is one that nobody notices. I like it when they take notice.
My wife never notices. I could get my head shaved and she wouldn’t notice. I like to think that she looks beyond the superficiality of my hair and deals in matters of the heart, but, in truth, she just doesn’t notice.
If they do stare, I like to think it is because I had a great haircut. But I allow the possibility that it was a terrible one.
Ninety eight percent of the time, people don’t stare, which means I feel cheated 98 percent of the time. Of the two percent of the times people gawk, I don’t know the good/bad haircut ratio. But I fantasize the ‘good’ wins by a healthy margin.
But this is a story about people staring at me—lots and lots of people gawking, everyone who passed me–after I got a haircut from an Indian barber.
The barber shop was in Malaysia, in the area of the Cameron Highlands, a stunningly beautiful area of mountains and tea plantations. My family and I had gone there on a winter-break vacation. At the time we lived in Singapore. We drove there.
In Singapore, a local friend told me that Indian barbers, at the conclusion of a haircut, gave you a neck adjustment similar to a chiropractor. This always intrigued me. I figured that these barbers became highly practiced over the years, cracking tens of thousands of necks. If they broke a neck or paralyzed someone, then it would likely end their career as a barber. So, I reasoned, those barbers still cutting hair were the best of the best neck crackers.
In the Cameron Highlights I passed an Indian barber shop. To wait for me, my wife and two daughters went to a park which had a slide and other stuff for kids. I got my haircut and then as an added bonus I opted for a shave. The barber gave me a shave with an old time long straight edge razor. The strange part of this story is that I can’t remember if he cracked my neck.
What I do remember is that when I was walking down the street, back to the park, people gawked. In Asia, it is not common for people to stare. Men, women, kids, the old and young alike, they all looked at me with wide eyes. Count one-one thousand, two one-thousand and they were still locked on. It started to make me nervous and I no longer cared if I got a good or bad haircut.
When I reached the park, my wife said, “What happened to you!” Unfortunately, she was not noticing my haircut for the first time. When I looked at myself in the car’s rearview mirror, I saw my face was bleeding from a hundred and one razor nicks. It looked like a chicken with sharp claws had danced on my face.
From UK blogger Jim @ YaYeahYeah
Most regualar readers will know how much I enjoyed self-published debut author Scott Cramer’s Night of the Purple Moon, showing children rebuilding their community after the death of everyone who’s past puberty. When I decided to do a post on self-publishing, I knew that I wanted his opinion. He was kind enough to share a list of tips for self-published authors which was so good I wanted to give it its own post.
Over to you, Scott! (That’s me)
It’s important to note that I am answering this six months after Night of the Purple Moon went live on Amazon. My answers might have been different a month ago and they might be different next month. Which is to say the business of being an indie author is fluid, ever changing, with a lot of experimentation and surprises.
Just thinking about this actually happening freaks me out. Can you imagine? I can’t imagine my ten-year-old having to take care of his siblings and fight for their survival. Crazy. I liked this book. It is an interesting and different concept, which is good, and it definitely gets your attention. I felt so bad for these children and wished I could help them. Mr. Cramer’s character development is really good, and I felt like these kids lived in my neighborhood, like I have always known them. I can’t imagine having to bury my friends like they did. They took it surprisingly well and did a pretty good job of keeping life as normal as possible. I liked how each of the kids kind of ended up with a specialty, just like adults do. The book is well written and flows well. The story is captivating and draws you in. It’s a fast, easy read.
Thank you Monica!
