Welcome to my weekly Author Spotlight. I’ve asked a bunch of my author friends to answer a set of interview questions, and to share their latest work.
Today: John A. McColley writes from his cave in the woods of New England. He’s a full member of the SFWA and NE Horror Writers. Heās published over sixty short stories with many publishers, from Black Hare Press to Mad Scientist Journal, Crossed Genres to Whortleberry Press in magazines, anthologies and on websites. He also serializes sci-fi and fantasy novels on Patreon. His urban fantasy slash supernatural horror novella, “Down The Drain,” came out from Ascendent Publishing in February. āGEODE,ā a far future sci-fi will be out in May, and three additional novels (another sci-fi, a high fantasy, and a horror) will be released later in 2025. https://linktr.ee/jamccolley
Thanks so much, John, for joining me!
JSC: When did you know you wanted to write, and when did you discover that you were good at it?
John A. McColley: Iāve told myself stories since I can remember, imagining further adventures of the superheroes or Transformers or such I watched on TV, my babysitter as a latchkey kid. I tinkered with writing stories down at various points, but I suppose I was in denial for a long while, never really polishing my stories and getting none accepted for publication until I learned my first son was on his way. Then I buckled down and sold 12 stories that first year, and handfuls here and there since, hitting 60 last year.
Good at it? Iāll let you know when I get there.
JSC: What was your first published work? Tell me a little about it.
JAM: My first story was an attempt at an urban fantasy noir, involving a down on his luck detective tapped to find ( a little guyās gold coins, he turns out to be a leprechaun?) may need to skim it to recall what happened there.
JSC: What is your writing Kryptonite?
JAM: distraction, pure and simple. If thereās too much banging around over my head (my āofficeā is in the basement) or anyone talking, even music can kill my concentration.
JSC: How long do you write each day?
JAM: I try to write for an hour or two each day, but often fail. My real goal is to write a scene, around 800 words is my typical length there, every day, allowing me to get through a couple of chapters a week to support my Patreon, and other time added as available for working on other projects, usually short stories or editing
JSC: Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones?
JAM: I have read all the book reviews Iām aware of for my work. There arenāt many, as Iām sure many indie authors will agree, but theyāve all been good so far. I suppose Iām not big enough to attract trolls yet. The good ones buoy me up, encouraging me to continue writing. At the same time, Iām aware of the impact of negative reviews, but Iāve been battling negativity from within and without all my life. They couldnāt say anything that would affect me that I havenāt already said to myself.
JSC: Are you a plotter or a pantser?
JAM: I have tried many times to properly outline my novels and stories. I have had moderate success with shorter works in creating the full arc and action beforehand, but the closest Iāve come for longer works is outlining half of one of my NaNoWriMo projects back in the day. Based on that, I wrote 58K in about 8 days, but generally, Iām pantsing all day every day.
JSC: How did you choose the topic for Down the Drain?
JAM: My next book is set on/in a Dyson Sphere, a megastructure proposed as a thought experiment by Freeman Dyson in the 1960ās. GEODE was actually written a couple of years ago for a contest specifically calling for Dyson Sphere stories, and I ran with it. Needless to say the contest holder didnāt pick it up, but I love the story, the characters, and how the world turned out. Considering I was under the gun time-wise, itās pretty darned good, fast-paced, fun, but also serious and deep at parts. Iām going over developmental edits now.
JSC: Who did your cover, and what was the design process like?
JAM: I made my cover myself. After a number of unsatisfactory discussions with artists online who gave me weird vibes and payment information that didnāt contain their own name or any indication they were not scammers, I bought a subscription to Canva and have made the covers for my last book, āDown The Drainā and the current āGEODE.ā I donāt use the AI features, but constructed what I feel are engaging, representative covers from the advanced clip art offered on the site, adjusting size, color, orientation, etc of each piece.
JSC: As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Iāve always had an interest in the world, how it works, what things are made of, etc. I knew I wanted to be a scientist, but I wasnāt sure what kind. I did very well in Chemistry in high school, but also elected to take the Advanced Placement course in Biology, taking the official exam after the class and scoring high enough to get college credit and not have to take Bio 101 when I got to college. At that point, I imagined I would work in biotech, although that term hadnāt come info vogue yet, or creating advanced prostheses that provided more function and more realistic look than was available before. I even took some computer science courses in part to prepare myself for this work.
JSC: What are you working on now, and whatās coming out next? Tell us about it!
JAM: As mentioned above, Iāve just received the developmental edits for my next release, out next month. Itās a fairly far future sci-fi tale set on a Dyson Sphere (a mega construct built around a star to take advantage of all the energy it emits, h/t Freeman Dyson in the 1960ās) involving the perils and opportunities of social media stardom in a post-scarcity. The main character has to deal with an outside threat to GEODE while also navigating newfound fame and the accouterments thereof. As with my previous book, the editor really seemed to enjoy it, and gave me some great pointers on bumping it up even more. I think people will really enjoy GEODE.
And now for John’s new book: Down the Drain:
Narayan Leon’s whole world is flipped upside down when his Gran falls suddenly and mysteriously ill. He learns secrets about her, magic, the afterworld, and his family, that he had never suspected, all while being chased by mysterious grim reapers called “Plumbers” and bouncing back and forth between the world of the living and the world of the dead.
Amazon | Goodreads
Excerpt
āCarmenā¦ Good of you to come. I donāt know whatās going onā¦ neither do the doctors. She just collapsed at dinner.ā The barrel of a man nodded, brown curls bobbing atop his head.
āOf course, of course, Nara. Weāre always here for both of you.ā
āāWe?āā
āEli, Saundra, Panx, and the others fromā¦ the coffee shop, and the buildingā¦ The hospital folks wouldnāt let us up, not āfamilyā on their little computer screens, but I slipped through.ā Nara could hardly visualize Carmen āslipping throughā anywhere, especially unnoticed, but he nodded. However he did it, the man was here. āYou want to watch the door for a minute?ā Carmen waved him over while he strode to Granās bedside.
Nara took position, moving through a cloud of the manās cologne, a tangy scent Nara associated with the baker. He stood just inside the door, though he wasnāt sure what he was looking for. Carmen leaned over, whispering something to Gran.
āShe canāt hear you. Or, I dunno, maybe she can. I think I read that somewhere, but she canāt answer, thatās sure,ā Nara said. The lights in the hallway flickered, and the shadows in some of the unoccupied roomsā doorways deepened for a moment. He thought he saw a figure by the nurseās station, but when the lights stabilized again, there was no one.