Today I bring you a guest post from horror writer Alex Laybourne. Enjoy!
Being a writer isn’t easy, holding down a full time
job in today’s economy is not easy, and being a parent is certainly not an easy
job at times. Doing all three can, at certain moments, be a recipe for madness.
Yet all of us in this position push on.
As a result, I have learned to compartmentalize. I
divide my time. Everything has its place. I write when I am supposed to write.
I work when I need to write, and when my kids are around, we play, sing, dance
and have a riot.
Sure, sometimes things overlap, but only because I
want them to. Normally I have my structured approach and it works.
Being a parent and a horror writer, I am often faced
with difficult questions from my children. Like when they ask me about the
monsters. Should I tell them that old lie, that monsters don’t exist? Do I tell
them that monsters aren’t real? That would be a lie. The world is filled with
monsters. Or do I sit down, tell them about monsters, that the things they
think are monsters is really their imagination? That the monsters are real
because they exist inside them, and that likewise, they can control them. Turn
them into anything.
Maybe it is unconventional, maybe other people reading
this will take me for a fool, but I know that when it comes to the monsters
under the bed and the things that go bump in the night, my kids will know the
truth, and will allow themselves to believe anyway, because they are the
writers of their own dreams.
That being said, it has gotten me into trouble on
occasion. One such incident came in the swimming pool with my son as he
prepared for his weekly lesson.
We walked into the large communal changing room, and
the kids were there with the usual plethora of questions. Can I have an ice
cream after swimming? Can we eat chips tonight? Can we go to the playground? I
want to go home! I don’t like swimming.
In walks my son, who had been a few feet. “So Dad, let
me get this right. Vampires drink your blood, zombies eat your brains, and
werewolves just kind of eat everything.”
You can imagine the impression that made. Everybody
just fell silent in the whole changing room. All eyes were on us. What did I do
as a parent? I did what Horror Dad should do. I clapped my boy proudly on the
shoulder and said, “Yep, got it in one, now let’s get ready for swimming.”
From an early age I was sent to schools which were at least 30 minutes' drive away and so spent most of my free time alone, as the friends I did have lived too far away for me to be able to hang out with them in the weekends or holidays.
I have been a writer as long as I can remember and have always had a vivid imagination. To this very day I find it all too easy to just drift away into my own mind and explore the world I create; where the conditions always seem to be just perfect for the cultivation of ideas, plots, scenes, characters and lines of dialogue.
I am married and have four wonderful children; James, Logan, Ashleigh and Damon. My biggest dream for them is that they grow up, and spend their lives doing what makes them happy, whatever that is.
For people who buy my work, I hope that they enjoy what they read and that I can create something that takes them away from reality for a short time. For me, the greatest compliment I can receive is not based on rankings, but by knowing that people enjoy what I produce, that they buy my work with pleasure and never once feel as though their money would have been better spent elsewhere.
Links:
Amazon:
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Highway to Hell http://www.amazon.com/Highway-to-Hell-ebook/dp/B00AUD0U20/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-1&qid=1375879820
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Trials and Tribulations:
http://www.amazon.com/Trials-Tribulations-Highway-Hell-ebook/dp/B00EKJI8TM/ref=pd_sim_kstore_1
Thanks for hosting me.
ReplyDeleteLove this interview, flow so beautifully. Ian continues to amaze me with his skill as a writer, and especially as a wonderful person.
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