Sharky's Bait

It’s Friday again!  This week’s new friend is Robert Sharkbait Pruneda!  He is writes horror.  It’s not normally my thing, but I am exploring the darker side of the art.   He has been a voice of reason and motivation on Twitter; he promotes and encourages fellow writers.  He knows how hard it can be to get started and stay motivated.  Definitely add these books to your bookshelf on GoodReads.  

• What do you like to be called? I don’t write with a pen name, so I go by either Robert or Rob, but my friends also call me Sharky (short for Sharkbait). If you’d like to find out a little bit about the origin of my nickname, read this post here.

• Is creating your day job or night fling? I wouldn’t quite call writing a full-time thing just yet, but over the past couple of years I’ve been focusing more of my time dedicated to building my writing career. I’d say it’s somewhere between full-time and part-time right now. When I’m not focused on writing and dealing with the business side of publishing, I do small business administrative support from home and moonlight at a local funeral home.

get Sharky’s Devil’s Nightmare  and Premonitions* and Pursuit of a Dream*

• In six or fewer sentences describe your daily routine? After dragging my butt out of bed and going through the regular “rise and shine” routine (which is usually around noon, since I’m a night owl), I typically start my day checking emails, catching up on news, and spending a little bit of time (okay, too much time) on Twitter and Facebook. I’ll then check off a few book marketing items before working on my current writing project until dinner time. If I’m not working at the funeral home or working on a small business administrative support project, I’ll spend the next couple of hours catching up on shows recorded on the DVR before firing up the computer for some more writing, research, or marketing for a couple of more hours. Then it’s time for video games or bing-watching Supernatural or other shows on Netflix until I hit the sack.

That’s a typical day, but then there are times where I’ll put in an all-nighter editing or working on other writing-related projects. Earlier this year, my publisher went belly-up, so I had to republish my two horror novels, thus throwing my normal schedule out the window and delaying a couple of other projects. Needless to say, regular routines are hard to keep sometimes.

Okay, that was a little more than six sentences. Sorry.

• Where do you like to do your creating? Coffee shop, library, your sofa, bed? I do all of my writing from an old leather chair in the bedroom. I have my laptop connected to a 55-inch television, so I work with a wireless keyboard and mouse with my feet propped up on an ottoman.

• What does you workspace look like? My workspace is in my bedroom. I’ve got a desk next to my bed where I used to do all of my writing, but ever since purchasing a laptop with an HDMI port, I now use my television as a monitor. So, I swing the leather office chair around and use a wireless keyboard and mouse. And if I need a quick power nap, I’ll either snooze right there on the chair or scoot the dog aside and hop onto the bed for a few Zs. I love being self-employed.

• Do you prefer your first draft to be hand-written or digital? I do all of my writing digitally. I’ve tried writing longhand before, but I type a lot faster than I can write. Plus, my hands cramp up after writing with a pen and paper for too long.

• Do you have a favorite application? A year ago I would have said Microsoft Word was my favorite application, but over the past few months I’ve started using Scrivener on a more regular basis and absolutely love it! I’m currently hopping back and forth between the two programs, but I think by this time next year I’ll probably be doing all of my writing exclusively with Scrivener. It’s a very powerful piece of software that has greatly improved my organization and productivity as a writer. Best forty bucks I’ve spent in a long time.

• Do you have any writing rituals? Does the house have to be clean? Meditation? Not really. I do like it to be quiet when I’m writing, though, with the exception of some soft instrumental music playing in the background. It’s one reason why I tend to do much of my writing in the evenings due to having less distractions. The dogs aren’t barking, the phone isn’t ringing, and the door-to-door salesmen aren’t trying to convince me to switch my home security system or electricity carrier for the umpteenth time. What part of “I’m happy with my current service” did you not understand? Would you like to buy one of my books? Seriously, I need to do that next time, just to throw them off.

• Tea or coffee? Or other artsy drink? I drink a lot of water, so it’s usually just H20 for me, but I’m slowly turning into a coffee junkie now that I have one of those single-serve Keurig K-Cup coffee makers. Dark Magic dark roast coffee is my favorite.

• Is procrastination a thing? I think I’ll answer this question after I brew myself a cup of coffee.

• What do you find yourself doing when it is? Probably playing video games, my favorite pastime and addiction.

• In Horror writing, is fear building a pain or pleasure? Ha! Definitely pleasure. Mwahahaha!

• What was the last thing you read? Did you enjoy it? I just finished reading Alien: Out of the Shadows by Tim Lebbon. It’s the first book in a trilogy set between the movies Alien and Aliens. I loved it! I’m currently reading Alien: Sea of Sorrows by James A. Moore.

• Do you prefer to read fiction or nonfiction for fun? I prefer fiction, but I also enjoy reading anything related to history, especially military history.

• What is your favorite genre? My favorite genre is horror, but I also enjoy reading fantasy, science fiction, and psychological thrillers.

• Have you ever creeped yourself out so much you have to leave the light on? Not yet, but now you’ve given me a challenge. I did get some chills up my spine when I was writing Devil’s Nightmare, only because there are parts of the story that are loosely based on actual things I experienced when I was a kid.

• What’s your favorite flavor of Skittle? I’m more of an M&Ms kind of guy, but if I had to choose, I’d probably say the grape or strawberry flavor.

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Devil’s Nightmare Book Trailer