Joshua Hood is an Army vet, former SWAT sniper, and “current full-time author with a beautiful wife and two wonder-kids.”
Q. Where do you write? Do you have a special room, shed, barn, or special space for your writing? Or tell us about your ‘dream’ workspace.
JH. I have a small office next to a gas station on the historic Collierville Square.
Q. Do you have any special rituals or quirks when you sit down to write? (a neat workspace, sharpened #2 pencils, legal pad, cup of tea, a glass of brandy, favorite pajamas, etc.)
JH. Can’t think of any.
Q. How do you ‘get inside’ Robert Ludlum’s head and write for him?
JH. Besides his books, I spent time reading articles and watching interviews.
Q. Could you tell us something about yourself that we might not already know?
JH. I almost quit writing last year, but the hardware store I wanted to work at wasn’t hiring. And no, I’m not kidding.
Q. What tools do you begin with? Legal pad, spiral notebook, pencils, fountain pen, or do you go right to your keyboard?
JH. I use a white board and a legal pad for each book.
Q. Do you have pets? Tell us about them and their names.
JH. I have a Chocolate Lab named Meg.
Q. Do you enjoy writing in other forms (playwriting, poetry, short stories, etc.)?
If yes, tell us about it.
JH. I writing articles for gun magazines like Personal Defense World, Tactical Life Soldier of Fortune and Ballistic.
Q. What’s your best advice to other writers for overcoming procrastination?
JH. Creativity isn’t a vending machine; you can’t just drop in some quarters and hope to come away with a good idea. It takes time. Time to let your ideas incubate and grow. To an outsider this might look like procrastination, but in reality, it’s a process.
Q. Where/when do you first discover your characters?
JH. They just kind of show up during the process.
Q. What first inspired you to write?
JH. The summer before junior high I was watching an old James Bond movie called Goldfinger. I remember not wanting it to end and when it did, I started my first short story to try and recapture that magic.
Q. What comes first to you? The Characters or the Situation?
JH. The situation.
Q. Do you ‘get lost’ in your writing?
A. Yes. I think all writers get lost in the flow.
Join us next week for the conclusion of this interesting interview with Josh.
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Watch for more interviews with authors. December: Marc Cameron, writing for TOM CLANCY
March-Apr: Joshua Hood, author of ROBERT LUDLUM’S THE TREADSTONE RENDITION , April: Buzz Bernard writing for Tom Clancy
A few BOOKS BY TRISHA SUGAREK
