Q: Explain what you do.
A: I have a day job to pay the bills but write and publish fiction books and contribute articles to Phantasmagoria magazine in my spare time. I also co wrote the Dragons of Azrael for Northern Ireland Arts festival, a stage play for children involving life size dragon puppets.
Q: How long have you been doing it?
A: I have been writing stories since primary school but life got in the way so it’s been about eleven years since I self published my first book The Time Warriors First Footstep. After a fruitless and frustrating search for a publisher so listened to that old proverb, ‘if you want something done, do it yourself.’
Q: Name some of your inspirations.
A: Everything inspires me. There is the obvious like Stephen King but a little known writer called Malcolm Hulke really showed me how to write. He would novelise his Doctor Who stories and make the smallest character come alive by giving them a complete back-story. This is something I’ve tried to emulate in my stories. A great example is Ernie in the First Footstep story Experiment Four which made someone cry.
Q: Favourite snack when working?
A: Toasted soda farls with slices of Coleraine cheddar and brown sauce. Yum!
Q: What are you currently working on?
A: I’m about to publish Zombie Blues 3. I’m also working on three more Time Warriors books. I also have two new projects in the pipeline, a comedy and a children’s book. Aside from that a couple of articles but time is the enemy because of that thing called a day job. Not enough time in the day LOL.
Q: Which do you prefer, Christmas or Halloween?
A: Both. Michael Myers, Darby O’Gill and the Little People, The Thing and The Fog are traditions for me even when Santa calls! Keep your elf; give me a banshee and a leprechaun any day!
Q: Who would you most like to collaborate with?
A: No one. I’m a solitary creature when writing as I revealed on a recent podcast for Imagination NI with script writer Laurence Doherty. However I’d love the guys and gals who create movie posters like they used to create before Photoshop to do some for each story. The Indiana Jones and Star Wars posters come to mind as well as the B movie monster movies Them and The Thing From Another World.
Q: Favourite movie?
A: Impossible question LOL. I love too many and it keeps getting added to every year. It ranges from Star Wars to A Time to Kill to Scout’s Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse.
Q: Favourite TV show?
A: Too many but Doctor Who has been closest to my heart since I ran upstairs as a kid when I heard the theme music. Walking Dead I fell in love with from the first episode because it made me feel sorry for the zombies. I wasn’t even aware it was a comic series.
Q: Coffee or tea?
A: Neither. Milk, Coke Zero and water.
Q: Favourite Book/Comic?
A: Spiderman comics got me into all this. Book is easy: Salem’s Lot. The only book that frightened me as much as the mini series. The upcoming movie better live up to it. I created the Veldrox for the Time Warriors Venom because of it.
Q: Favourite fictional character?
A: Toss up between Doctor Who and Han Solo.
Q: Who would play you in a movie?
A: Jason Momoa… a few drinks in you, squint and you’ll see the likeness clear as day (until you sober up LOL). Maybe Rory Kinnear.
Q: Favourite writer?
A: Toss up between Stephen King and me LOL.
Q: What advice would you give to new writers?
A: Never pay anyone to publish your work. It’s a scam. Network, ask advice from everyone, lift your head up and see what’s going on in the world and surround yourself with positive, talented people.
Q: Where can people find your work?
Stephen Carey Stories 