Featured Author: Shaun Avery – Beautiful Lies, Painful Truths Vol. I

Shaun Avery

Featured Author: Shaun Avery is a crime and horror fiction writer who has been published in many magazines and anthologies, normally with tales of a horrific or satiric nature (or both!) He has won prizes for his writing in both the mediums of prose and comic scripting, and has been published a few times in a local newspaper with non-fiction articles.
He was one of six from over a hundred entries to be shortlisted in a screenwriting competition a few years ago and is only mildly bitter about the fact the contest was canceled and no winner ever announced. Getting over this disappointment was hard, but he perseveres at the keyboard and has since co-created a self-published horror comic, more details of which can be found here: http://www.comicsy.co.uk and he also recently sold his first comic script, details of which are here: http://shanewsmith.com/allthekingsmen/contributors/shaunavery/
When not writing, he can most usually be found reading horror novels and comics, while also recommending that people watch the alternative movie classic The Room. Despite his other (and wiser) half constantly telling him not to. He does not advocate watching it when there are kids present, of course. Unless those kids are pretty weird.
He is rather fond of his story, “Selfie Warfare.” Unlike its antagonist, however, he has never thrown a tantrum about being deleted on social media. Except for that one time.

Featured Author: Shaun Avery Interview

How long have you been writing?
What/who inspired you to be a writer?
What genre do you prefer to write in?
Describe your writing process. What comes first–character or plot? Do you “pants” it or outline?
What is your daily routine as a writer?
What are some of your biggest challenges you feel like you have to overcome in your writing career?
Do you have a set number of words each day or a goal?
Do you prefer short stories or full-length novels in your writing?
Can you give some us some insight into your story?
What advice can you give other writers?

LHP: How long have you been writing?

Shaun Avery: Ever since I was a kid – probably about four years old. I like to think I’m a little bit better than I was back then, of course.
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LHP: What genre do you prefer to write in?

Shaun Avery: I guess I’m most comfortable with extreme satirical horror. But I have a soft spot for a love story, too. Just my love stories tend to feature cannibalism and tentacle monsters.
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LHP: What/who inspired you to be a writer?

Shaun Avery:Comics. Mainly 2000ad, but a couple of others, too.

LHP: Describe your writing process. What comes first–character or plot? Do you “pants” it or outline?

Shaun Avery: I always thought I was more a plot guy, but as I’ve got older I’ve found I’m quite fond of character. That said, most of my ideas come a situation first – either that, or I’ve read something in the news that I want to satirize. I don’t do much of an outline – more a rough guide of some things I want to have happen along the way, and I’ll figure out how and why and take care of the connective tissue between events as I’m writing and editing.
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LHP: What is your daily/weekly routine as a writer?

Shaun Avery: No set routine as such – just write when the creativity is bubbling and think about writing when it’s not.

LHP: What are some of your biggest challenges you feel like you have to overcome in your writing career?

Shaun Avery: Just finishing stuff – I get so many ideas that sometimes it’s a struggle to finish something when a bunch of new ideas are waving at you, wanting to be written.
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LHP: Do you have a set number of words per day you target? or do you set other goals to meet?

Shaun Avery: I find that every story’s different – some fly out of you at a speed that’s almost alarming, some take a little more time. So long as I write my way to the end of a scene one day and have a vague idea what’s going to come the next, I’m happy.
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LHP: Do you prefer short stories or full length novels in your writing?

Shaun Avery: I’ve written a couple of novels at full-length – but I didn’t enjoy the process and they’re really not much good. I’ve figured out since then that although I love writing short prose pieces, when it comes to longer length I’m much more suited to visual mediums such as scripting.
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LHP: Can you give some us some insight into your story?

Shaun Avery: Yes! I read a bunch of articles about people dragging animals from their natural habitat just to take attention-seeking ‘selfies’ – a completely lame and selfish act that often left these animals hurt or dying. The actual animals, not the selfie-taking ones, sadly. It then struck me that it probably wouldn’t be long before these ‘like’-happy losers took to hunting down more human prey – and “Selfie Warfare” grew from there.
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