Eclectic Mayhem interview

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

A little introduction:

Hello Feed My Reads Community. Thank you for the opportunity to introduce myself to you. My name is David, but most of you will know me as EclecticMayhem. I've been writing all my life, but have only recently decided to start sharing it with the world. I'm incredibly nervous about it and I'm taking it unbelievably slow, but so far so good. I was born and raised in New England, USA. When I'm not at the keyboard you will either find me chasing my dog around the house or trying to remember how to play the guitar.

When did your love of books begin?

My love of books began very early. I was a very quiet kid, but my imagination was anything but quiet. My first literary love was Dr. Seuss. Then in grade school I found out about Shel Silverstein and "A Light in the Attic" became my Bible. Later on I found comics, but I didn't go where you'd think, instead of superheros I escaped into a little world of a boy and his tiger. My love of Calvin and Hobbes still exists to this day.

When did you start to have the wish to become an author?

I never thought it was an option to be honest. I wrote because I had to. It was a way to deal with life, with my emotions. Some people exercise, I wrote. It was something I always kept to myself. Until one day someone very close to me died. This piece just came out of me. I never show anyone anything, but I saw the rest of my family hurting, so I posted it. And then I nervously deleted it and posted it again about 100 times. When it finally stayed up, within minutes my phone blew up. A week later I was speaking my words in front of a couple hundred people. I watched as the audience hung on every word. I never knew something I created could have an effect like that on people. That it could help people. So I decided to give showing the world my words a shot, and here we are i guess.

How have you found the process for becoming an author?

The writing is always the best part. Sharing it with the world is terrifying. The publishing process is messy and a pain in the ass. I wish I learned more about word processing in school to be honest, but I'm a quick study so I'm not worried. Everything is messy the first time you do it.

What would you say to those wanting to become an author?

The same thing I would say to anyone wanting to be creative in any form of art...just go for it. Don't worry about what the world might say, just go for it. Do it for yourself or don't do it at all and don't settle for anything less than exactly what you envision it to be. There is no wrong way to be creative. There are no rules. Just go for it.

Tell us about your book/books:

I grew up raised by my grandparents. My parents were too busy to be around. But my grandparents got sick when I was around 11, so I didn't have anyone to show me how to really do anything. I wanted to write a book to my younger self and kinda say "hey kid, youre not alone, these are some things you should know." That's kinda the premise, but I wrote it in a pretty unique way.

Red poem is titled "Don't Stop"

Brown Poem is titled "Winter in New England"

Pink border poem is titled "The Nurse"

What do you love about the writing/reading community?

I gotta say, I've only been a part of this Twitter writing community for less than a week and the support and response to anything and everything I post has been unbelievable. I had heard bad things about Twitter and I was really not looking forward to this being where I share my writing with the world, but its been nothing but love and professionalism. 

If you could say anything to your readers what would it be?

Well I'm not famous by any means and I doubt I have readers, but so far the few people who have read anything I've written have been absolutely beautiful human beings. I am humbled that they would take the time to read my random scribbles.

Where can people connect with you?

Anyone and everyone can find me on Twitter @EclecticMayhem0 or on medium.com/EclecticMayhem