Page Created: 09/16/10. Last Updated: 11/01/10. Last Google Group Page Update: 11/14/09.
ANTON STROUT
Novels:
Dead To Me
Deader Still
The author's website is: http://www.antonstrout.com/
MEETING SUMMARY:
Meeting Date: Saturday, June 14, 2008.
Meeting Site: Borders Books & Music, Ramsey, New Jersey.
Official Attendance: 20.
Meeting Program: Talk by Fantasy Writer.
Notes:
Meeting Memories:
Newsletter Account:
The following account is reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2008 Philip J De Parto:
The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County met at Borders Books & Music in Ramsey, New Jersey on Saturday, June 14, 2008. Fantasy writer Anton Strout was the featured speaker.
Barry Weinberger led the Ice Nine Currently Cool discussion at 7:00 PM. The discussion touched on a wide variety of topics including books (TRIAGE), movies (IRON MAN), television (FEAR ITSELF), and museum exhibits of super hero costumes (Metropolitan Museum of Art).
Anton Strout's day job is as a book salesman for the Penguin Group, which includes Ace, DAW, and Roc Books. His largest account is the Barnes & Noble College Bookstore Division, but he sells to Borders and other companies as well.
He is a devoted gamer, spending large amounts of time on X-Box, as well as a variety of computer and fantasy role playing games. He attends gaming conventions regularly and between his publishing contacts and gaming contacts, he was able to approach an editor of original anthologies and request an opportunity to submit a story. A few weeks later, Mr Strout received a call from the editor informing him that one of the anthology's stories had come in short and could he pound out a short story to fill the gap. He could and did.
Now that he was a published author, our guest was able to get his employer to listen to a pitch for a book. Mr Strout is a big fan of the GHOSTBUSTERS movie and misses the series BUFFY, THE VAMPIRE SLAYER a lot. He wanted to do an urban fantasy with a tint of paranormal romance about NYPD ghostbusters. Editor Jessica Wade at Ace encouraged him to write the book.
The author felt that he knew enough about plotting and fantasy tropes to hold his own, but wanted to polish his characterization and the romantic aspect of the book. He learned much from a writers' workshop run by chick lit author Jennifer Bell. It was there that he decided to change the point of view from third person to first person.
Mr Strout answered a number of questions about the physical process of how he writes. He writes from an outline, using an excel spreadsheet to keep track of the number of pages he has written for each chapter. It is a light outline, though, (Hero meets girl. They have dinner. She tells guy about the bad guys) because if it gets too detailed, he will feel that he has told the story and won't actually write it. He likes being distracted while writing and always has a TV, movie, or radio running while he writes. It usually comes in handy. He may have a scene set outside a building, for example. It is a generic building in the outline, but he will see a building on TV and use or modify it for the book. Another advantage is that "I steal a lot from SCOOBY DOO."
He was asked about his take on fantasy writes Jim Butcher, Laurel Hamilton, and Charlaine Harris. He has not yet read Harris. He likes Butcher's work, but had made a deliberate point of not reading it until after he had finished DEAD TO ME because he did not want to be influenced by The Dresden Files. This led to a tangent in which Mr Strout reveled that he had written "There are things that go bump in the night. We are the things that bump back," and had to rip it out when he went to the HELLBOY movie and heard it said on the big screen.
The author agreed that Hamilton's Anita Blake series was better in its early books than its later ones, but that the liberal addition of sex scenes (and other marketing decisions) turned her from a science fiction author who sold well to a bestselling writer. He has been criticized for his book not being sexy enough. "I'm sure at some point I'll be glad to sell out," he said. "Porn, ahoy!"
Between his love of computer games and working late into the night, Mr Strout said that his time spent in front of the computer has given his body a "science fiction writer's physique." He feels that skiing is the perfect sport because you sit on a chair to the top of the hill and then slide down.
The author talked about the internet and blogging being a great way to drum up interest in one's work, his official enemy, author Patrick Rothfuss, and lots more.