MY INTERVIEW WITH PJ HULTSTRAND

Kiki: What is your favorite genre to read in, and what is it about that genre that attracts you to it? If you like a specific mix of genres, please state that particular combination.

PJ Hultstrand:  I am an eclectic reader according to my local librarian. Since I research such things as time-travel, parallel universes, physics applications, space travel, Asian history, black holes, Bengal tigers, geology rock formations, and so many other subjects that it would be hard pressed for any marketing person to put my reading tastes into a category.

My tastes in fiction books changes from time to time. There was a time when I only really read speculative fiction, aka science-fiction and fantasy. Then I got into everything romance while I learned more about this genre.

I think it is easier to say what I know I don’t like right now. I don’t care for regency romance, western romances, general westerns, text books unless they are on computer program applications, and anything graphically and sexually violent for violence sake, which explains why I really don’t care for graphic horror.

Kiki: What is your favorite author to read in that genre, and why? Also, please tell me a little about the best book by that author you have read.

PJ Hultstrand:  Some of my favorite all time authors include: Ray Bradbury, Terry Brooks, Sherillyn Kenyon, and Roger Zelazny. These are really the only authors who have kept my interest over the years while I have loved many others for a time period, then grew out of love or I grew bored of their writing.

Kiki: Do you have a Favorite Book of All Time? Of course, please tell us what about that book makes it your favorite.

PJ Hultstrand:  Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury because this was the book that I was introduced to in Jr. High that triggered my writing zeal.

Kiki: What is the best book you read last month, and would you recommend it to a friend?

PJ Hultstrand:  One book I read recently that I would highly recommend, I published under my pub house. “The Lamplighter Collection” by Todd VanHooser is a Contemporary Horror. While I don’t usually care too much for horror, I am quite proud to have produced this well written collection of ghost stories.

I also just met a new love (in books) last month and he too is an Arizona author. James A. Owen of the series, “The Chronicles of Imaginarium Geographica” has everything you could ever want in a series of books, especially if you are eclectic, like me. James also has professional work in the comic book artist arena in which he also brings to this series, published by Simon & Schuster. Personally James is also an intelligent person who is intriguing to talk to and is a terrific person who loves to help causes in the community.  I call that a slam dunk in an author to watch in the future.

Kiki: What are your reading habits like? For example, how many books do you read on average in a week, what format do you prefer to read in, what time of day do you read, and what setting is ideal for you to get lost in that book?

PJ Hultstrand:  Being an author and a publisher, I no longer have much time to read for the pleasure of it. James Owen is the one and only author I’ve read this year, I think, that I did not have to read. I do read articles and research materials, but again those are just small nuggets in order to keep me otherwise sane.

Kiki: If pressed, could you choose a favorite from the books you have written? Why is it your favorite?

PJ Hultstrand:  Honestly, I like “Rescue in Time” better than “Time Conquers All” which is the first book in this series because “Rescue in Time” has the true ending for what was Book One in this Chasing Time series. I had however, begun to love the fifth book in this series, until I had trouble pulling the scenes together. Then I began loathing it. This series is really a serial, in that the endings are not true hard endings and that there is an element that needs resolved somewhere in the series.

Kiki: How do you become inspired to write?

PJ Hultstrand:  This morning I had the compulsion to write in my “Bad Easter Bunny” story because I saw the true beginning of the book in my mind. Now, late tonight, I had the compulsion to get ahead of my blog tours for a change, so I did.

I don’t think it is so much about being inspired, but being compelled to write. Compulsion becomes obsession, and obsession becomes 14 books in the Chasing Time series, which right now, is what I have planned. 

Kiki: What part of the story do you think is your strength to write?

PJ Hultstrand:  Definitely not the beginning! LOL

It took till three-quarters into book 2 when I came upon that vision scene for Chapter 1 of “Time Conquers All”. When I wrote it, I just knew. And then I cut it and pasted it to the beginning, then restructured the whole book 1 and 2 around this scene. This vision becomes the main conflict that needs resolved in the first sets of these books.   

Kiki: Please share with ABA readers something I did not think to ask you about.

PJ Hultstrand:  Why time-travel?

It’s important to me that it’s more than just another time-travel romance, but my background and past love of speculative fiction has compelled me to write a plausible time-travel theory (and in essence, several theories) in this series.

Time-travel and living on the moon and beyond are the only real tangible science-fiction that has not come to pass yet. It’s curious to me that most of the masters in sci-fi have pretty much gotten everything else right. Although I still question the need for cloning such individuals as Rodney Dangerfield, whom I think that one is plenty in this world. But, if cloning is possible, then why not time-travel?

PJ Hultstrand

Chasing Time

www.timeconquersall.com (check out my character blog)

www.azpublishingservices.com/BookStore.php 

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