Verna Loves Books: ~Author Spotlight~ Devon Hartford

Saturday, August 16, 2014

~Author Spotlight~ Devon Hartford

Devon Hartford fell in love with heavy metal from the first moment he heard an electric guitar. Years later, while in high school, he bought his first electric guitar with money he earned flipping burgers. He’s been playing ever since. Devon lived in Hollywood for many years and frequented the locations in this book.

1. What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author? What has been the best compliment?

Someone accused me of portraying a character in a racist light. This killed me because I personally like having a multi-cultural cast in every book. In my own life, I've always had friends from a diverse range of ethnicities. So I asked several friends of mine who were of the ethnicity in question if they thought the portrayal was racist, and they all said no. In other words, there's always SOMEONE who will take offense.

The best compliment, which tickles me every time I read it, is that my books make people laugh out loud. Often, my readers attract strange looks because they're laughing while clutching their Kindles. That kind of uninhibited laughter is the greatest reward I can think of as a storyteller.

2. Is anything in your book based on real life experiences or purely all imagination?

My books are a mixture of both. The really awesome stuff all really happened, and the less awesome stuff didn't. Oh, wait. Do I have that reversed? I'll let you decide. ;-)

3. Can you tell us about your upcoming releases? If you have any.

My next book is a big fat SECRET! It's currently named SECRET TITLE. I'll be dribbling out information in the coming weeks on the pre-release event page here:

https://www.facebook.com/events/260247887512324/?context=create&source=49

Stay tuned!

4. What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
Write music, rehearse with my band, and play shows. Hard rock is in my blood. :-D

5. You have multiple personalities, describe some of them
Who told you? I thought it was a secret! LOL. If you mean my art and music, then yes, I have a huge love of art and heavy metal music. But I don't know that the personalities are much different. I'm still the same crazy Devon Hartford.

6. What made you decide to write your first book?
Amanda Hocking's success. Up to that point, I'd only written short stories and a couple novellas. I didn't want to do the whole traditional publishing agent query process. I'm too impatient and change my mind too much to work with such a slow gate-keeper process. So I jumped on the self publishing band wagon with all the other crazies. ;-) LOL

7. Do you have any strange writing habits?
Since I no longer have time to go to the gym, I take frequent exercise breaks throughout the day. I also have a sit-stand desk setup which is made out of cardboard boxes I put on my desktop under my keyboard and mouse when I'm standing. I balance on top of a round wooden wobble board for a variety of positions, otherwise your knees will start to kill you from just standing. You need something that forces your body to move. One day, I'll have a treadmill desk setup. For now, I improvise. :-) When I'm sitting, I have the bottom piece of a Sit-nSpin toy that I use to keep my feet moving back and forth, or a pair of 4" bouncing balls that I roll the balls of my feet on. I also have a wobble bar stool to mix up pure sitting and pure standing. I'm always changing positions. Sitting kills! So I move.

8. If you could cast your characters in a Hollywood adaptation of your book, who would play what characters?

Fearless:

Samantha Smith: Blake Lively

Christos: the model on all the book covers

Romeo Fabiano: A young John Leguizamo

9. Who are the authors that inspire you?
All of them. Seriously. I will frequently grab any book from my shelf at random (or on my Kindle) and read a few pages for inspiration. Every single author has a unique voice and I love how different they all are. I <3 words. :-D

10. Is there anything you would like to say to your readers?
You guys rock! Thank you so much for supporting my books and sharing your thoughts about them with me, and book talk in general! Without you guys, I couldn't do what I do!