Author Interview: John Coxhead
Author Interview: John Coxhead
Hey All!
Today is my stop on the Hello Dark blog tour and I am here today with an interview with the author!
Title: Hello Dark
Author: John Coxhead
Publisher: Clink Street Publishing
Published: 26th May 2020
Format: Paperback
Source:: N/A
Add It: Amazon. Goodreads.
Summary: Welcoming and becoming comfortable with the dark is such an important thing for children to learn. Simply by saying ‘Hello Dark’ has proven – in the author’s experience – to be a fun, engaging way of overcoming the worries and fears of the dark. This delightful story for children aged 5 to 8 can help support them at bedtime and during the day.
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The Interview
What is your favourite thing about writing books?
Being such a creative person, I have always daydreamed, creating storylines to have an outlet for these ideas, moments in time, creative techniques is a great way to record these moments.
A way of looking back on that moment, like a photograph of words from a moment in time.
Capturing thoughts that may never reappear, the pleasure and positive mindset created by reading back over thoughts, notes and captured moments.
Who is your favourite character in your book and why?
Well as the book features both of my Children, so of course both Freddie and Harper. However, for different reasons.
Freddie, having experienced the change after using Hello Dark and then passing that teaching onto his Sister is a lovely moment.
Harper looking at her older brother for help, and the two of them conquering the fear together is a heart-warming ending to the book.
The mother my partner Sarah, reconfirming what Daddy (myself) had said to the Children and Nanny and Grandad seeing first hand the use of Hello Dark and the power it had.
What is your favourite drink to consume while writing?
That is a great question, and I hadn’t thought of it until asked, when I think about this I drink different drinks depending on the type of note, story, theme I am writing.
Coffee if a poem, my poems seem to be set at pace, off the wall, clearly matching the drink, maybe even fuelled by the dark, rich caffeine filled wonder!
White wine, when writing about the summer sun or the breezy Mediterranean landscape.
Red wine when looking into the night, or the fears or the out of place red dress in a scene from a crime piece.
Do you have any bad habits while you’re writing?
Yes, trying to focus on the task at hand while making notes in my trusty pad next to the computer about lines, scenes and moment for the next book and next book!
How did you research your book?
As this was a real-life story, I was more about making sure that the characters true personalities were embedded into the book. Making such the message Hello Dark was carried in the right way so that it would become subconsciously embedded. The book needed to be a great read alongside achieving the objective.
Are you a plotter or a pantser?
By my nature I am certainly a pantser, however I try to map out headlines, then allow my creativity to flow within the boundaries I lay out.
So maybe you could call me a hybrid-pantser, a uniformed erratic writer.
If you could live in any fictional world, which would you choose and why?
Well I can tell you for certain it would not be one that contained Witches, I really need to write Hello Witch just for me!
I will put pen to paper one day and create the land that I would live, it would certainly contain the ability for me to fly, to live in a land of freedom, one where I possessed the power to fly, having huge wings would be superb.
If you could befriend any fictional character, who would you choose and why?
I will try to create a great fictional character in the word I will one day create until then I’d have to say, James Bond – Due to contrary-belief this is not solely down to my deep love with a vodka martini (extra dirty) although it helps greatly.
About the Author
John Coxhead’s first entrance into the world of Children’s writing is the heart-warming book Hello Dark.
This self-help tactic created by John Coxhead has been widely successful, a tactic using repetition, subliminal messaging and most importantly humour. Welcoming and becoming comfortable with the dark is such an important tactic, Hello Dark has proven to be a fun, engaging method that overcomes worries and fears of the Dark. Eradicating these issues, via repetition in different scenarios is key to this method. Please remember to repeat Hello Dark in normal day-to-day life allowing this to be subconsciously embedded.
As we get older and see so many things, our mind records images, along with emotion, matching feelings with moments in time, smells, feelings, fears, and sounds. When the mind captures a moment as an image or remembers a sound that it has seen or heard before, the feeling can repeat, as human our fight or flight mechanism is there for a reason, however we can overthink these feelings. Fundamentally changing the emotion that we related to different situations is key in changing the way you feel about a certain matter. Simply saying ‘Hello Dark’ will evoke happy, warm, family feelings of comfort and humour, allowing the mind to feel safe and changes your child’s mind in relation to the Dark with these warm feelings, replacing feelings of panic, fears and anxiety.
What has been a wonderful feeling is seeing so many children enjoying reading Hello Dark, but also the comments from Parents, Grandparent, Auntie ‘s and Uncles, Brothers and Sisters who have shared their experiences with John. Lastly, the highlight of this book is John’s Children, who firstly benefited from the technique created, but now want to tell others about Hello Dark. John will never forget the moment he and his partner overheard Freddie saying to his little sister Harper, ‘don’t worry Harper I know a trick, just say Hello Dark and everything will be fine’, followed by both of them saying Hello Dark, a moment filed with joyous emotion, they both smiled and that’s when he knew he had to write this book.
Follow the Tour
Will you be reading this book?
