Wasted Wood
Author InterviewQ. Brock what inspired you to write Wasted Wood?A. One rainy day, an image popped into my head of a boy looking down a creepy, damp, overgrown, wooded trail and trying to make a decision. I, myself, loved riding in the expansive woods at Lake Eureka Park. Sometimes on rainy, autumn evenings, I'd hesitate before pedaling into the woods. Though I knew there was nothing in them, my mind would run wild with 'what if' and 'just maybe' scenarios. Who knows, maybe something was lurking behind the tree trunks just out of sight.Q. Do you have a favorite camping story?A. We used to camp at my great uncle's and aunt's cabin. The cabin sat next to a lake with a couple of islands. There was a large forest with dozens of trails as well as a huge cow pasture with two more lakes. We'd catch frogs, play capture the flag, tell stories, and swim. My favorite part was waking up on chilly, misty fall mornings to the smell of bacon and eggs being cooked by my Grandpa Eastman.Q. Favorite camping food?A. My dad would always get the two of us cans of Dinty Moore stew and we would cook it over the fire. YUM!Q. You're known for putting things from your life into your stories. Are there any examples of that in Wasted Wood?A. Yes, quite a few. Should I tell all of them to you? Hmmm, well here are at least a handful of them. The others you'll have to discover on your own.1.Washington State is where my friend and fellow author, Chris Miller, lives--hence Miller Mile.2.Hudson was the name that my wife and I chose if our third child would have been a boy.3.Waverly is the name of our daughter that will be born in November 2013.4.Coal was the name of one of our cats.5.I used to run cross country in high school. Go Eureka Hornets!6.David is my dad's name.7.Stewart Field is named for my friend Brian.8.4:45 is exactly when my dad gets up every day.9.Moore is the last name of my two amazing neighbors who lived across the street from my childhood home. They were like a third set of grandparents. I still visit Mrs. Moore whenever I visit home.10. Eureka, E, is my hometown.11. Eureka is also the home of Ronald Reagan's college, hence Tommy Reagan.Q. What is your advice for an aspiring writer?A. Get it (the story) all down. Go from beginning to end, and don't look back. And yes that means, don't worry about spelling, punctuation, or grammar on the first draft. Just get your ideas down and don't get distracted by how it looks or sounds. The biggest key to writing a story is finishing. So many aspiring writers I talk to have never gotten past the first few chapters. They have great ideas, but they don't get the 'complete' story written...ever. The beginning of the writing journey is not the time to perfect your story or even edit. That's later--that's where the fun of revising comes.Q. Did you always want to be a writer?A. No and No! Literature and English weren't my better subjects; I was a math, geography, and history guy. There were a few instances where I penned a story or two. My most notable, probably the stories of Zog I wrote in 5th grade for Mrs. Kelso. Those got quite the laugh from my classmates, enough that I continued to tie the stories the rest of the year together, tying them around Zog. But still, I never planned on being a writer. In fact, my advice to students who think they might want to become a writer and even those who don't (so basically all students) is--PAY ATTENTION to your teachers. It will save you a whole lot of time later. You see, I didn't know God was going to call me to be a writer and open this amazing door for me. I wish so much I had paid attention then. I have many more revisions now because of my lack of effort and paying attention in school. I mean, you're there anyway; you might as well make the time worthwhile and pay off later.Q. Did you read a lot when you were younger?A. Nope, sadly I avoided reading. I'm not proud of it. In fact, I missed out on a lot of amazing stories. Now I am trying to catch up and consume as many books as I can. There are just so many. So the first book series I read for fun outside of an assignment was theHarry Potterseries. My wife (girlfriend at the time) and I raced through the series. Who won, you ask? That's a story for another time. But boy do I wish I would have read so much more when I was younger, instead of wasting my time on Sega Genesis' Sonic the Hedgehog. So yeah, this story (Wasted Wood) is a reflection on some decisions I made when I was younger. No, I never faced a Tree Troll, but I did get too wrapped in video games to obey my parents at times and that lead to consequences.