Genre Chick Interview: Lon Prater

Lon Prater is a fine figure of a man. He is gentleman and a scholar, and I will never pass up an excuse to have him over for tea, real or virtual.

I also like sharing Table of Contents with him, as I did a few times last year. And he makes a mean cake-like delicacy…but no way I’m sharing that recipe.

I will share his answers to my Month of Writers interview questions, though…

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Mac or PC?
LP: PC

Coffee or Tea?
LP: Hot Coffee in winter, and Ice Cold Oversweetened Tea in Summer

Travel the World or Travel Outer Space?
LP: Travel the World

Fantasy or Science Fiction?
LP: Horror and Alternate History!!!

Music or Silence (while you write)?
LP: Depends on the project, but there’s usually a movie score that is just perfect for every scene.

What weird food do you like?
LP: Crisp pickles, anything with spinach in it,

What is one of your most irrational fears?
LP: That everyone remembers that one time I showed up to school naked, but they’ve all agreed to let me think it was just a dream.

Will you be watching the Royal Wedding? Why or why not?
LP: No. ::sniff:: Was somehow left off the guest list.

How many novels/short stories/screenplays/poems/etc have you published?
LP: 1 self-published novel (just out this month!), no screenplays, and somewhere north of 100 stories, poems and articles.

How much do you write every day?
LP: I write in bursts of a few days or weeks throughout the year, and use the rest of the time to read, revise, recharge, and work on my tan.

How much do you WISH you could write every day?
LP: I’d love to be in a position where daily writing was my job… so long as I got to write about interesting things.

What are you working on now?
LP: Plotting a sequel for a novel written a while back, Revising a short Mark Twain alternate history novel for June release to ebook, and woolgathering for a 2 other novel ideas.

If you could write like one author, who would it be?
LP: It’s a tie between Howard Waldrop and Abdul Al-Hazred

If you could be one superhero, or have one superpower, who/what would it be?
LP: I always thought Teleportation would be great, but I get my best ideas while driving, so maybe I’d go with my second favorite superpower: The ability to make dirty dishes disappear, simply by not looking at them!

What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever done?
LP: I wrote a chapter for the USS Enterprise’s Reactor Plant Manual, once upon a time. And once I posed as an 18th century whaler for an oil painting.

What’s the coolest thing you’re about to do?
LP: Save lives by donating plasma.

Name three things on your List of Things to Do Before You Die.
LP: Walk all the way out on that big clear glass walkway over the Grand Canyon without peeing myself, Figure out how to work the TiVo, Spoil my grandchildren.

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Lon Prater is a retired Navy officer by day, writer of odd little tales by night. In addition to 40 stories published in places as diverse as Writers of the Future XXI and the Stoker-winning anthology Borderlands 5, he recently released a short mashup novel to ebook satirizing Atlas Shrugged and has another coming out in June 2011 which pits a dissident Mark Twain against a dystopic 1902 American government. Visit www.lonprater.com to find out more.