A Little Q+A with Mitt Ray
21 June, 2012
Sounds great. Now I’m sure all of us want to know, what is living with ogres and its sequel about?
Hey Guys!
So today I am introducing you to Mitt Ray, author of Jack the Homework Eater. I will be asking him some questions for you all to read over and enjoy!
Hope it helps you get a better insight into him and his novel!
Hello Mitt, welcome to A Daydreamer’s Thoughts. To start us off, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself, anything you would like your readers to know.
Hi! I am Mitt Ray. I love writing children’s and young adult books. I am the author of the books “Jack The Homework Eater” and “Living With Ogres”. I have written a few more books which I will be releasing in the next two months. Most of them are fantasy books which revolve around nature, animals and paranormal beings.
I write about books, food, networking, poems and life on my blog www.mittray.com. I also give writers, book writing and marketing tips on this blog. I know quite a bit about marketing as I have authored a book on Marketing and I am the founder of two other blogs which focus on Marketing. I like sharing my thoughts and helping other writers with marketing and writing.
Writing definitely seems like a passion for you, but how long have you wanted to be a writer?
I have wanted to be a writer for a very long time. That’s one of the reasons why my career revolves around writing. When I am not writing children’s books, I am helping my clients by marketing themselves through writing and when I am not doing that I write about social media, marketing and other stuff on my blogs. It just makes me happy when I write something, but nothing is better than the feeling I get while writing a book. When I am writing a good story there’s no other feeling that can beat it. I love sharing my books with people because I enjoy hearing their thoughts about my book.
That’s a lot of time spent writing then! It makes me curious, when you’re not typing away at the keyboard coming up with new ideas, what do you do?
When I am not writing I play or watch football. I also love to cook. Whenever I get the time to do something fun, I read books or watch television.
So now we know more about you, what about your novel? What is it all about?
My book’s called “Jack The Homework Eater”. It’s about a boy called Alex whose parents get a new dog, Jack, a British Bulldog. Alex doesn’t like Jack at first as he’s scared of dogs. He does everything he can to avoid Jack. But later Alex starts befriending Jack as he realizes that Jack is not any other ordinary dog, but a homework eater. It’s a children’s book, but adults have enjoyed reading it too as it relates to everyone.
You can find out more about the book on Amazon where you can buy it for just $0.99.
An interesting and inspiring sounding story, which makes me ask; what inspired you to write a story set out in this way?
When I was a kid I wanted a homework eater. I thought it would be the perfect excuse for not doing my home work. I felt that everybody else would have wanted it because I had friends who wished they could use the same excuse. I know that even kids these days wish for that too. I felt that even grownups today might have yearned for a homework eater when they were younger as finishing your homework can be a burden sometimes. I felt that there was something there that could be developed into a story.
It is definitely not a pastime for everyone! So, how did you come up with the idea of Jack? Is there a unique story behind it?
One day I wondered if there really are dogs out there that eat homework. I wondered what it would be like to have a dog that eats homework and what my life would be like. And then I thought about making it into a story. I looked around if there was a story on this idea, but I didn’t find any. That’s when I decided to write it.
Nice! It seems like a universal concept, the ever-used excuse of the dog eating the homework! I wonder though, were there any challenging scenes that you felt that you just couldn’t get right?
There’s a bit of mystery in the book and I wasn’t sure if I would get it right because this was the first time I ever wrote mystery. But I was glad it worked out well, as for some readers it was their favourite part in the book.
Something to keep an eye out for then! Glad it worked out well. Which character in your story did you enjoy writing the most?
I enjoyed writing about Alex a lot. Alex is the boy in the story whose parents bring home the British Bulldog, Jack. His relationship with Jack and his relationship with his mother are something to watch in this story. Of course, you will definitely fall in love with Jack as he’s the homework eater, but you will also like Alex a lot as he’s a really good character and he brings everyone in the story together.
Sounds great! What about least?
I enjoyed writing about all the characters. All of them play a vital role in the story.
As it should be then! On a different topic, where do you go, or what do you do, to get the most inspiration when writing?
I make an effort to get a lot of inspiration. I am constantly on the lookout for ideas. I make a note of all of them – sometimes I also make a note of my dreams when I can remember them. I read books and blogs and stories of real-life instances which could help me develop ideas. Sometimes I do a lot of running or something different which can boost my creativity and give me a lot of ideas.
All great ways to find inspiration! This leads me to ask, are you working on any other books at the moment?
At the moment I am working on the sequel to my book “Living With Ogres”. I really wanted to talk about this as I have just made the book free on Smashwords. You can download if for free by visiting this page on Smashwords. Next month I will also be releasing two more children’s books; one about a boy who is waiting for his dragon egg to hatch and another one about a girl and her pet turtle.
Sounds great. Now I’m sure all of us want to know, what is living with ogres and its sequel about?Living With Ogres is about a boy called “Matt” who is forced to work as a slave for a family of ogres “The Steelchilds”. He doesn’t like his life there and he wants to escape. But the problem with escaping is that you need to go travel through a dangerous forest full of scary creatures. It’s a fantasy story about his escape and the adventure he goes through.
The sequel to it has a vampire and werewolf theme to it, which children and young adults will enjoy reading. It will be a story written for children and young adults specially and will be very different from the usual paranormal romance novels you come across.
This book is an adventure-fantasy story. I will let you know more about it once I finish writing it and plan to publish it.
And finally, do you have any advice for any aspiring writers out there?
I would say just work hard. We are in an age where it’s all in your hands. Before you needed to go to a publisher and pitch your ideas to them and hope that they like it and if they didn’t like it that was it. But now you can self publish your books on Kindle, Smashwords and several other sites – you can also create print on demand books.
You also need to keep in mind that it doesn’t end with writing. You need to make the extra effort to promote your books and get them to your readers. If you work hard you will succeed – you can learn marketing tips from people like Mark Coker of Smashwords, Joanna Penn, etc. You could also study successful indie authors like Darcie Chan and Amanda Hocking. See what they are doing right and depending upon that filter out and plan what will work for you and use it in promoting your books.
and a quick fire round;
Ebooks or hard copies?
Hard copies – I like to hold a book in my hand. I spend enough time in front of the computer already.
Day or night?
Night – I am nocturnal.
Reading or writing?
Writing – I would love to read a lot, but all my time is spent writing.
Paper or computer?
Computer – I do use paper from time to time.
Tea or coffee?
Neither. I like to drink milk – hot chocolate mmmm…
Favourite book of the moment?
White Fang Always.
Most memorable book?*
White Fang again. I’ll never get bored of this book.
Thank you for stopping by today Mitt. It’s been a pleasure getting to know you a little better!
Mitt Ray is a children’s and young adult author based in Lancaster, UK. He enjoys writing fiction books which belong to the fantasy genre. You can find out more about him on his website. Two of his children’s books you can take a look at are “Jack The Homework Eater” and “Living With Ogres.”
One Comment
Mitt Ray
Thank you for interviewing me and Publishing it Faye! – Mitt