Please welcome Author Patrick Wendling Markwell!
1. Have you always had a passion for writing?
Always. I started writing when I was six and when I first entered high school my English teacher noticed that I was interested in English, writing and reading beyond what most students are so he had me tested and they moved me to a honors English class. After being in the class for a week I became bored again and they moved me to a laureate honors English class. Seeing how bored I was there they decided to start testing me out of English classes and before my freshman year was over with I had tested out of all four years of English and started taking college English classes. They had my freshman English teacher teaching me so I could maintain the rest of my classes since I was the only student in the school at that level.
Before my sophomore year was done, I had completed four years of college English classes. When I got to college I pissed off a lot of advanced English and literature professors because I continually corrected them showing them how they were wrong in their methods of teaching; though I was right and they did change how they did things, it did not endear me to them. I did however prove to them I was their best student and I became a TA in every class dealing with English, literature and creative writing. I continued on in the same vein and took even more classes dealing with writing and English because I was pursuing an English degree. By this time I had several stories and poems published in high school and college publications. I entered a national contest three years in a row and won the Editor’s Choice Award each year. I never seriously went after a writing career because I felt a stronger calling to help people in a different way. That probably explains why I ended up becoming a Paramedic instead.
2. Does what you read influence what you write and what are some of your favorite authors/books?
No. I have always had my own style of writing and what I want to write about. A lot of people get stuck writing in one genre and never move out of their comfort zone. I prefer to write any genre at any time, depending on my mood at the time. Surprisingly enough, I have never been the biggest fan of non-fiction, but I think that is because most people who write it are so dry and don’t know how to hold the interest of their readers. I can and will read it and have in the past, and I have no problem with it, but I prefer the adventures one can have when reading fiction. Non-fiction, well there is no real adventures because you know exactly what is going to happen; it is mapped out for you already.
I would have to say anything in the Xanth series by Piers Anthony. He is my favourite author. I also love his Incarnations of Immortality series. Then there is Mercedes Lackey and her Valdemar series starting way back with the Black Gryphon. Robert Aspirin also with his Myth Adventures and there is Robert Jordan and his Wheel of Time. But there are so many wonderful authors to choose from. Terry Brooks, Frank E. Peretti, Anne Rice, Christopher Rice, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, etc… It is so difficult to choose any one book or author, but I would have to say that Fantasy is my favourite genre.
3. What are your biggest inspirations?
I have to say my dreams and daydreams. I was tortured by family and other kids my entire life and my only means of escape were books and imagining different realities. That is why I am writing an autobiography, I know I said I don’t really enjoy non-fiction too much, but this book is about how I had to struggle to survive and start living and my triumphs over my suicide attempts and escape from my family, religious cult, abusive rapist and so much more.
4. Do you have a technique in how you choose characters and/or locational settings?
Not really, no. I get an idea and start an outline process, start writing, then throw away the outline and just write until I have nothing left on it and call it done. I don’t plan or anything. I just let it out and be done with it. I have been blessed with a new family that I chose and the family that I received when I got involved with Rondal and then married him so in each book, even my erotica, I let them influence me a little. Hear me out before becoming judgemental though. Rondal has an innate ability to look at anything around him, anywhere, and know where he is at and tell you how to get somewhere. He is a human map and it doesn’t really matter if he has ever been there before or not. I use his knowledge to help me orient. I use family and friends names to keep them alive for me. However, I do not use them for the names of characters in erotica books. That would be too creepy, but I do allow their careers and locales influence what I have my characters doing or where they are living.
5. Do you listen to music while you are creating your masterpieces?
Don’t laugh, but I only listen to music if it is Lords of Acid when writing, but I will usually not even listen then. I put on Scooby-Doo episodes in the background.
6. What do you do to stay motivated and avoid writer’s block?
Nothing really. I still suffer from occasional bouts of depression because of my childhood and early adulthood so I have to struggle with that on a daily basis and overcome it. Sometimes I can’t overcome it, so I just don’t write because I sit and stare at what I am writing and cry instead. My main motivation is this really; Rondal decided a couple of years ago that he doesn’t want me to look for a job outside of writing and our website, Lazy Beagle Entertainment, and instead he wants me to focus fully on writing and LBE, but mostly writing. He has realized my dream and decided that he would sacrifice a little extra to keep me home and only have one paycheck coming in. Any author out there will know that a paycheck as an author is not enough to really live off of, but the sacrifice in the end will hopefully be worth it if I actually get some books that do well enough to make a decent living off of. One can dream can’t they? Well, he is intent on making my dreams a reality. Just one of the reasons I love him so much.
7. How has becoming a published author (independent or traditional) changed your perspective on life and is it everything you expected it to be?
(If you are not published yet – what changes do you foresee?) It is very frustrating at times. You have to watch your books do very well for a couple of weeks then die off completely and maybe resurge for a couple of days when a new book comes out. It is very up and down and your emotions become a tangle of ugly things in your soul and you wonder why you bother to keep writing if no one is paying attention. I have to continually remind myself that the biggest names in this industry had to suffer through all of that in the beginning as well before making it big and they didn’t always put out great stuff. Erotica is something I only did as a challenge and I know I am not good at it, but I know how to write some steamy sex at least. LOL! I prefer writing something that has a real plot.
8. What are your biggest challenges as an author?
The readers. You get all these people that send reviews in after your book has become available to them and most of those people who do are just plain petty. I have had reviews on books from people who are not even reviewers and they actually lie about things in the book to make it sound bad and there is nothing you can do about it. I once even had a person say they gave my book a two star review because the name of my mythical realm within the book for my main characters was silly sounding. Some people know it will ruin your ratings and they don’t care because they are just malicious jerks. Others don’t realize the time and effort you put into doing this and they just don’t like your book so they get ugly in their reviews.
9. Do you have any pets?
We have a beagle. We had two, they were twins but one passed away in March from cancer. We named our company after them, Lazy Beagle Entertainment. In fact, them as beagles is what inspired me to use beagles in my book Bloody Shadows and the inspiration behind one particular aspect that affects the vampires in the book. I am a big animal lover.
10. What hobbies do you have outside of reading and writing?
I love to cook, garden, swim and go camping.
11. Where is the most exciting/memorable place you have been in the world?
Being married to a truck driver I have gone with him on many occasions and have been all over the United States and many parts of Canada. However before being with him I have been to a few other places in the world, but as of yet I have not found a place I can truly feel over excited about. At least not yet, not anything that calls out to me. If I had to choose I would have to say, NYC and Honolulu, HI. I have lived in both places. If we could do it right now, I would say I would love to just up and move to either NYC or HI. Not Honolulu though; I would love to move to one of the small beach villages far from the tourists of HI. The tourists of NYC don’t bother me. I would love to live in NYC again because the place is just beyond fascinating!
12. Tell us about your latest work in progress or most recent published work…
My latest work was my erotica book in the Shifter Royalty series called Wolf vs Bat, number two in the series after Serpent vs Serpent. I am currently working on Tiger vs Horse and Eagle vs Bear numbers three and four in the series. I am also working on a book with my husband Rondal, a fantasy book that is going to be number one in a series about Shifters, Clerics, Arcanists, Druids and Gods. I am working on a stand-alone book called Deadly Waters, which is a thriller. There is of course my autobiography. There is the charity book that Lazy Beagle is putting together for four different charities. Then there is my series Fallen from Grace, which is about the Fallen Angles fighting back against God and his tyranny, hypocrisy, petty jealousy and narcissism. I am also working on a series called Warriors of Mist about a planet of people who some are born with a trait that allows them to manipulate mist and use it to change the world around them and fight as specialized warriors. Most of the main characters in my books are gay, but there is no sex in any of them, except the Shifter Royalty books, but the world has plenty of books with straight characters. I am also putting together a cookbook. This cookbook will have my own personal recipes in it. On the left will be the normal recipe and the right will be the same recipe, but I have altered it to be a healthier recipe. Oh and one last thing I am working on right now is a collaboration with another author, Kimber Kahn. We are writing a book together that is about a young man who is the most famous man in Hollywood and decides he needs to right a wrong. He still wants his current life as an actor and all of that, but he wants it with someone who used to be in his life and he screwed it up big time. It turns into a nightmare fiasco instead. Let me just say this; it is a thriller drama book and we are going to do at least four in the series.
