Meghan: Hi, James. Welcome to the annual Halloween Extravaganza. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
James Watts: I am a 42-year-old father of one son. Bailey. He just turned 21 this year. I play a little trombone and love video games. RPGs are my fav as well as survival horror. The Legend of Zelda is my all-time top fav. I am a random person with a random sense of humor. I enjoy bowling, shooting pool, fishing, camping, baseball, and working with wood. I love Mexican and Italian foods the most and have a major sweet tooth. I also believe in having strong family bonds and honoring your family in whatever you choose to do. I love most types of music, my top favs being Rock, Heavy Rock, Alternative, Jazz, and classic rock. Movies: horror, sci-fi, fantasy, animated(anime), comedy, and westerns.
Meghan: What are five things most people don’t know about you?
James Watts: I play trombone (badly), I write my stories by the seat of my pants, I talk to my pets in baby talk, I have enjoyed a few soft rock songs, and when I was 12 I kissed a girl… and I liked it.
Meghan: What is the first book you remember reading?
James Watts: It was a Hardy Boys mystery, but I cannot recall which case it was.
Meghan: What are you reading now?
James Watts: The Pleasure Hunt by Jacob Floyd.
Meghan: What’s a book you really enjoyed that others wouldn’t expect you to have liked?
James Watts: Peter Pan
Meghan: What made you decide you want to write?
James Watts: After Reading King‘s The Stand.
Meghan: Do you have a special place you like to write?
James Watts: Alone in my room.
Meghan: Do you have any quirks or processes that you go through when you write?
James Watts: Music. I must have music that matches the mood of the genre I am writing in.
Meghan: Is there anything about writing you find most challenging?
James Watts: Saying goodbye to a cherished character.
Meghan: What’s the most satisfying thing you’ve written so far?
James Watts: Fallen, a short story in the anthology And Hell Followed from Death’s Head Press.
Meghan: What books have most inspired you?
James Watts: The Stand, The Shining, Phantoms, 1984, Swan Song, and Boy’s Life
Meghan: Who are some authors that have inspired your writing style?
James Watts: King, Poe, Koontz, McCammon, Saul, Pendleton.
Meghan: What do you think makes a good story?
James Watts: Strong characterization and a solid plot. The story should be as a real as it can be no matter how far-flung it may be.
Meghan: What does it take for you to love a character?
James Watts: Any number of things. I never outline so my stories just happen as I go along and my characters grow naturally.
Meghan: How do you utilize that when creating your characters?
James Watts: I give them authentic dialogue and backstories. Or as authentic as I can.
Meghan: Are you turned off by a bad cover?
James Watts: I can be. I am a book cover lover. I am generally first drawn to a book by the cover art.
Meghan: To what degree were you involved in creating your book covers?
James Watts: As much as I can be.
Meghan: What have you learned creating your books?
James Watts: Do not rush it. Pace it and let the story tell itself.
Meghan: What has been the hardest scene for you to write so far?
James Watts: The death of Roy Sanders.
Meghan: What makes your books different from others out there in this genre?
James Watts: No zombies or vampires so far. Seriously, though, I do try and use things that are not overdone and mix it up a little.
Meghan: How important is the book title, how hard is it to choose the best one, and how did you choose yours (of course, with no spoilers)?
James Watts: Very, as it is part of the lure. Pretty hard, because you want to choose the best one to attract readers. I will get an image and research that image until I think I have and then start rolling the title over in my head, changing it just a little each time.
Meghan: Tell us a little bit about your books, your target audience, and what you would like readers to take away from your stories.
James Watts: I write horror. The horror fan. Family bonds are important.
Meghan: Can you tell us about some of the deleted scenes/stuff that got left out of your work?
James Watts: Really have not had to cut much out… yet. But the longer my books get, I know some stuff will be cut.
Meghan: What is in your “trunk?”
James Watts: Misguided Faith. It is not complete, yet, but is waiting for me to breathe some life into it.
Meghan: What can we expect from you in the future?
James Watts: A novel based on my short story Fallen and my short story Deranged Innocence.
Meghan: Where can we find you?
James Watts: Goodreads ** Facebook
Meghan: Do you have any closing words for your fans or anything you’d like to say that we didn’t get to cover in this interview?
James Watts: All I can really think to say is that I love all of my fans, present and future. It is for you that I strive to be the best I can be.
James Watts was born in Birmingham, Alabama in March of 1976. Growing up in the small town of West Jefferson, Alabama, Watts spent his days lost in his vivid imagination. At age 10, he discovered the Hardy Boys mystery series and fell in love with reading. By Age 12, the discovery of Stephen King‘s The Stand gave life to his need to write, to tell stories that he hoped the world would love. It would take twenty years of rejections and working low paying jobs, and going through two divorces, before he would see the publication of his horror novel Them through Fear Front Publishing. James Watts currently resides in West Jefferson, Alabama and has one 19 year old son, Bailey Watts.
In the small town of Maple Grove, Alabama, an ancient evil resurfaces to claim its right to life and the human race be damned.
When Ray Sanders returned to Maple Grove to attend his mother’s funeral, he never planned to have to overcome all of his insecurities in order to save the town from an evil as old as time itself. For over a hundred years, the town of Maple Grove has suffered from the deranged minds and unquenchable hunger of parasitic creatures not of our Earth. Once before in a sacrifice of blood, the forces from beyond were locked away presumably forever. Now they have returned, hungering for their chance to evolve. It will be up to Ray Sanders, his cousin Roy, and a woman either them recall to stop this evolution and prevent the reign of these ageless creatures before their evil can spread.
From the darkest places imaginable, both outside and inside the mind, comes 19 tales that will drag you into places you never dreamed of seeing, not even in your worst nightmares.Come along as these tales open up 19 gates into hell and experience the supernatural, the darkness of night, and the unimaginable like never before.
Seventeen authors re-imagine the biblical apocalypse and all the hell that follows in sixteen horrifying tales. What if the prophecies of Revelation hit today? What sort of craziness and evil would ensue? With this list of excellent authors contributing, it’s sure to be a Hell of a read!
Featuring:
Wrath James White – Horse
Sam West – The Whore of Babylon
The Sisters of Slaughter (Michelle Garza & Melissa Lason) – Godless World
Jeff Strand – Outpouring
K. Trap Jones – Ham & Pudge
C. Derick Miller – Hell Paso
Christine Morgan – Censered
Patrick C. Harrison III – The Old Man & the Lamb
John Wayne Comunale – Apocalypse… Meh
Cody Higgins – The Unveiling
Delphine Quinn – Six Degrees of Separation
James Watts – Fallen
Wile E. Young – The Day & the Hour
Chris Miller – Behind Blue Eyes
Mark Deloy – Cult of the Angel Eaters
Richard Raven – Mark of the Beast
By popular demand, the third volume in our bestselling anthology series, twenty-one spine-chilling, terrifyingly creepy tales of terror by a bunch of the best independent horror authors writing today!
Featured:
Richard Farren Barber – Black Light
Mark Thomas – A Boy & His Turtle
Jeremy Thompson – An Opening
Steve Stark – Angel of Mercy
Jeremy Wagner – Dead Half
James Watts – Deranged Innocence
Kevin McHugh – First Do No Harm
Brian McGowan – Gotta Have Heart
Mark Deloy – Island Food
Jason Gehlert – Beaver’s Claw
J.N. Cameron – A Night Ride Through the Desert
Nick Swain – Recess for Billy
Nick Manzolillo – Saltwater Fish Tank
Dhinoj Dings – The Body Parts Gang
Richard Raven – The Butcher’s Return
Megan E. Morales – The Dead Boys
The Big Book of Bootleg Horror 4
Welcome to Volume Four of our best-selling horror anthology, featuring tales of terror and dark, slithering things to chill the marrow and keep even the most resolute of horror fans awake in the small hours of the night when the inherently evil and deliciously malevolent come out to explore our earthly realm
Featuring:
Erin Lee – Patient Virtues
Thomas S. Gunther – The Butcher Knife Kid
Shea Herlihy-Abba – If You Want To
Richard Raven – The Final Iniquity
Josh Darling – Moxie Proxy
J.J. Smith – Inhuman Exposure
Shawn Chang – Painsteakingly
Bill Evans – Poppo
J. Snow – The Theory of Divine Inventions
Tim J. Finn – The Last Wolf Pack Leader
James Watts – Scarlet Frost
David Clark – Unholy Trinity
Danae Wulfe – The Fisherman’s Wife
Kane Gordon – The Heads of Corpses
Shane Porteous – Torn Apart by a Toothpick
Feind Gottes – Inhuman Nature
Patrick Winters – Tempt Me Not
Meghan's House of Books 