Sunday Surprise

And it’s one more Wyrd Worlds author! 🙂 And as you will see, he’s not from Europe! Told ya we’re not all Europeans in this anthology! 😉 His is the funniest story of the anthology. I think he’s the reincarnation of Douglas Adams (who was British, but his soul passed to an American – no, wait, that’s not possible, okay, it’s Douglas Adams’s twin!) – ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Ubiquitous Bubba! 🙂

Where do you live and write from?

Due to a lapse in security, I entered the world as an infant in a land known as Texas. Since then, I’ve lived in a number of other worlds. For a time, I lurked in the woods in the Pacific Northwest. I’m not saying I’m solely responsible for the resurgence of Bigfoot sightings, but I’ve been tagged by naturalists more than once. When I heard a team from National Geographic was on their way, I caught a bus heading east and settled in the U.S. Midwest. My hair got bored and left one night.

Over the next several years, I traveled extensively around the United States. In the course of my work, I wandered near and far. I finally caught up to my hair one day in a diner in Los Angeles. After an awkward silence, it apologized for not leaving a note. I asked if it wanted to hang out for a while, but it said that it had to go. It had a gig as a Chihuahua’s toupee.

I try to write wherever I am because it is much easier than writing where I am not. If I’m not there, the story has a tendency to wander off and annoy the neighbors.

When did you start writing?

I started writing short stories in school. From my earliest memories, I created stories. During recess in my elementary school years, I would wander around the playground, inventing characters and playing out their stories. Needless to say, I was beaten up frequently by my classmates. At home, I would wander through the yard, turning trees, dogs, bikes, and fences into characters. By the time I entered high school, I could disguise my imagination in a more socially acceptable manner. I wrote several short stories that enjoyed a very short life. In college, I explored various forms of writing. More than once, my teachers found some of my stories rather alarming. I’m not sure, but I think some may have used the phrase, “That boy just ain’t right.”

Several years later, I decided that I wanted to try my hand at writing a full length novel. I didn’t have any aspirations of publishing my work, but I wanted to see if I could stick with it and finish it. I started one story and trashed it a few months later. There was another story banging on the walls of my subconscious mind. I started again and wrote the opening pages of what would eventually be my first book. I worked on it in a haphazard manner over a period of several years. Eventually, the story reached critical mass and forced me to finish it.

What genre(s) do you write?

I thought that I wrote science fiction adventure stories. I found some fantasy elements creeping into my writing. Some friends read it and said that it was funny. They enjoyed the humor as much or more than the sci-fi/fantasy/adventure elements. I didn’t set out to write comedy, but it wormed its way into my brain in spite of my best intentions. Sometimes, in the midst of trying to get a particular action sequence right, I’ll insert some humorous elements to keep myself amused. Over time I realized that my work is more rooted in humor than in pure science fiction/fantasy.

Where do you find your inspiration? Do you put yourself in your stories?

I suffer from a psychological (and somewhat desperate) need for entertainment. From my early childhood, I’ve daydreamed out of a desire to fulfill this craving. I’ll watch movies, read books, play games, and waste time seeking entertainment. I write the stories I want to read in order to satisfy this compulsion.

I’ve lived my entire life creating characters. I played board games by myself, taking on a different persona for each player character. Household objects have personalities and conversations of their own. Heroes, villains, monsters, and martyrs confront, scheme and outwit each other on a daily basis. Instead of putting myself into one character in the story, I’ve found a part of myself in every single character. It’s not done intentionally, but I can see it in retrospect.

Do you have a specific writing routine?

I have a few different routines. I use the “Shut up and Write!” routine when I’m irritated that I’ve fallen behind my overly ambitious goals and I need to get busy. This is effective for a while, but it lacks the staying power of some of the other routines. I can only bully myself into writing for short periods of time. After that, I realize that I don’t have anyone else forcing me to listen to myself, so I distract myself and sneak away.

The “I’m on a Roll!” routine is great for writing in long stretches. When I’m in this mode, the pages seem to fly by and I struggle to keep up with the words. Unfortunately, this mode burns out after a while and I need some downtime in order to recuperate.

The “Submit to Batch Mode” routine is one of the more unorthodox methods I’ve used. This mode is very useful when I’m not entirely sure where the story should go next. I’ll file it away with all of the various story lines, characters, plot points, and ideas. I will relax and think about something else. In the meantime, my subconscious mind is slaving away working through the mess I’ve given it. I never know how long this process will take. It might be a few hours or even a few weeks. At some point, however, I know that my subconscious mind will sound an alarm when it is finished. The completed portion of the story will be uploaded into my conscious mind where I’ll see it for the first time. In many cases, this version is typed out verbatim the way it was delivered by my sub-consciousness. It doesn’t really leave me a choice. In some cases, this has ended up taking the story in a completely unexpected direction. It’s quite thrilling. I feel like I’m getting to read the story for the first time as I write it.

Outliner or improviser? Fast or slow writer?

I don’t outline, but I do start with several pages of random notes. These will consist of characters, plot points, ideas, and story lines. From these, I’ll start with a single story line and then add more. If an idea suddenly takes me, I may drop an existing story line and run with the new one for a while. In time, I’ll work on integrating them. I usually have a long term idea for where I want a story line to go, but I improvise the journey. In the process, characters sometimes end up changing their arc, expanding their role in ways I hadn’t planned.

I’m a hideously slow writer. Due to my extremely disorganized approach to writing, I take far too long to write. I can sit and agonize over a word or a phrase for hours. I know I should leave it and move on, but it tasks me. It tasks me and I will have it. (Obligatory Khan quote…) Sometimes, I get so frustrated with my own lack of progress, I just set it aside and do something else. That usually ends with entering my “Shut up and Write” mode in an attempt to kick start the process.

Tell us about your latest book

Reality Challenged features a bizarre cast of characters spread across the multiverse. Not all universes are the same. Some are stranger than others. The entire multiverse, however, may be in danger. A young, teenage psionic girl named Psychann may be the key to finding the legendary Prime Universe. Unfortunately, her rare ability to trade objects between universes has made her a target for those who would use her as a tool for their own ends. If they can hack their way into the Prime Universe, they could use it to control (or destroy) the rest of the multiverse. Worst of all, someone may have already done so.

She’ll need some help. Fortunately, she’s not alone. She’ll befriend a mercenary, a four ton alien who recites poetry, a paranoid revolutionary, a phase shifting mute, a xenophobic homicidal (and extremely vain) bat, coffee drinkers, a universe traveling rock band, a man who is no longer a mammal, and other characters who are little stranger. There are dungeon explorers, a newly knighted dragon, a horse with a serious attitude problem, a girl with way too many heads, wizards, telepaths, a talking yak, a rhyming flying warthog, a philosopher genius, monsters, pirates, sentient gas, and a mysterious race known only as, “Them.”

Not all of these universes are the same. Some allow faster than light travel. Others incorporate magic into their natural laws. Some use imagination to create their reality. A few of the others are rather odd. Some universes are easier to leave than others. Some of them just may be a trap.

Psychann has her work cut out for her. It might help if she could get all of her friends to stay in the same universe.

Indie publishing or traditional publishing – and why?

I write for my own enjoyment. I write the stories I want to read. I recognize that my style of writing is not for everyone and may not be well suited to traditional publishers. For this reason, I’ve chosen to publish my work myself. This allows me the ultimate artistic freedom and enables me to tell the stories in my own voice.

Any other projects in the pipeline?

Yes! I’m working on the follow up to Reality Challenged. The second book, Blithering Genius, continues the original story lines and adds a number of new characters. In this book, some characters will meet their doppelganger counterparts. More importantly, however, they will all face a problem with Time. Oh, and there are spiders, too.

That’s not all. There’s also a problem with hair. Specifically, there’s a character with some bad hair. Okay, he has evil hair. That would be bad enough for most people, but this hair is a parasite who is also an evil genius. Unfortunately, it is hosted on the head of a simpleton.

There are also psionic fish (who debate theories of Time), collapsing universes, a mysterious entity known as, the Mistress, and Them.

What is your goal as a writer and what are you doing to achieve it?

I want to introduce the characters running around in my head to other people’s heads. Let them spill Cheetos, lose the remote, and crank up the stereo in other people’s minds for a while. I want to tell these stories in my own way, sharing them with those who might enjoy them. I don’t have sales goals or download targets that would quantify success. Instead, I’m thrilled whenever I hear a reader tell me they enjoyed a story. For myself, I can’t wait to find out what these characters are going to do next.

Ubiquitous Bubba’s blog, Goodreads and Smashwords (includes Smashwords Interviews, in case you didn’t have enough). I also write for my own enjoyment and everything else he said in that answer. Except I don’t have his sense of humor yet. But I’m working on it! 😉

Posted by Barb on 13/10/2013

https://creativebarbwire.wordpress.com/2013/10/13/sunday-surprise-27/