Pastime With Books: Author Interview – Owen Banner @OwenBanner

What was the hardest part about writing this book? Restricting myself to writing in Shirley’s voice. There is a lot that I know as a narrator that I want to make the reader aware of, and sometimes there are descriptions that I’d like to give, but I stop myself and say, “nah, Shirley wouldn’t say that.”

Did you learn anything from writing this book and what was it? Keep your focus on your characters and let them drive the story. And write from your gut. Don’t worry about what’s proper or politically correct. You can always fix that later. First, just write.

Will you write others in this same genre? Most definitely. If you read Hindsight, you’ll know why.

Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp? Underneath all the bullets flying, the car chases, the fist-fights and the terrorism, the theme of Hindsight is about how much of your past makes you who you are today. It’s about whether or not you can make right the wrongs that you have done, and whether you can move past the wrongs that have been done to you. That’s the essential question that most of my characters struggle with in this novel, just like most of us struggle with in life.

How much of the book is realistic? If you mean possible, I’d say, “all of it”. I put a lot of research into Hindsight to make sure that people could read it and believe that it was actually happening. As far as if it is based on my life, I’ve been in a few car chases and have an affinity for weapons and warfare, but this is Shirley’s story, not my own.

How important do you think villains are in a story? Critical. Though, I like a story in where the lines are little blurry. There aren’t many true villains in the world. People are complicated. We all have good and evil at war within us. Sometimes we do the right thing for the wrong reasons, and sometime we do the wrong thing for the right reasons. I like a story that explores multiple aspects of its characters personalities and choices. I want to empathize with the villain, to understand and see how its possible for any regular person to become that guy. In the same breath, I want to be afraid that the hero might just make enough wrong choices and become the villain after-all. That’s the kind of story I try to write.

What are your goals as a writer? As a writer, I want to tell the truth. As much as possible, I want to create believable characters who have the same questions, fears, hopes, and desires that my readers do. I want to make my reader’s heart race, their breath catch, and deprive them of sleep (I know, I’m sadistic). I want them to see themselves in my novels, facing the same moral and physical dangers and breathlessly trying to figure out how they are going to get out of it.

Do you have to travel much concerning your book(s)? Thanks to the internet, I don’t have to travel much to promote my book. The amount of travel that I have done in my life has informed my writing, though.

Where do you see yourself in five years? At a desk, writing.