Author Interview and Exclusive Poem: Dane Cobain.

Today on ThetattooedBookGeek I’m privledged to be interviewing Dane Cobain, who along with doing the interview also came up with an idea where I would give him 5 random words of my choosing and he would incorporate them into a poem.

Hi Dane, Welcome to my blog and thank you for agreeing to this interview.

Hi! Thanks for having me!

1-Would you please tell us about yourself and your background?

Sure! My name’s Dane Cobain and I’m an independent author from the United Kingdom. I’ve been writing seriously since I was fifteen, and my books are typically slightly alternative reads geared primarily towards adults.

2-What have you written?

So far, I’ve released three books – a supernatural thriller called No Rest for the Wicked, a collection of poetry called Eyes Like Lighthouses When the Boats Come Home, and a literary fiction novel called Former.ly.

3-What genres are your books?

See above!

4-What are you currently working on?

Loads of stuff! I have a non-fiction book – Social Paranoia: How Consumers and Brands Can Stay Safe in a Connected World – which is currently with my awesome editor, Pam Harris. At the same time, I’m working on a book of poetry called Oceanus, as well as an anthology that I’ve recently started work on. My primary writing project at the moment is called ‘Driven’ – at least, so far it is – and it’s the first book in a series of detective novels that I’ve planned out.

5-How much research do you do when researching subject matter for your books?

It depends upon the book! I usually try to write about subjects that I know about or that I have an interest in, as that makes it much easier for me to get absorbed into the book that I’m writing. Former.ly, for example, is about a social networking site, and I work as a social media marketer during the daytime. I didn’t really have to do any research for it, because I’d basically done all of that before I ever started work on it.

6-What are your ambitions for your writing career and plans for the future?

As far as the plan goes, it’s just to keep on doing what I love. The dream, of course, would be to live full-time off my earnings as a writer; I’m a long way away from that at the moment, but a man can dream! I could theoretically start-up as a freelance writer, but to be honest, I’d earn the same amount of money that I earn doing marketing, and I get plenty of practice writing as it is. I don’t often take on freelance writing jobs, because I like to dedicate all of my writing time to my own work.

7-When did you decide to become a writer and why do you write?

I started taking the option seriously when I was fifteen or so. A couple of years later, I was planning on going to university to study web development, but I changed my mind and decided to pursue my craft and study creative writing instead. I write because I’m compelled to – it’s just what I do.

8-what do you find to be the hardest thing about writing?

Remaining focussed – writing a book is a huge commitment, and it takes a lot of drive and motivation to follow the process through from start to finish. Plus, sometimes you have other ideas that you want to explore, and you have to force yourself to keep working on your current project before you can start the next one.

9-What do you find to be the easiest thing about writing?

The writing itself, I suppose. Getting words down is therapeutic, and I never get writer’s block – I always have so many different writing projects on the go that even if I get stuck on one of them, I can just switch around and start working on something else.

10-Which writers inspire you?

Mostly old-school writers like Graham Greene and Ernest Hemingway, who made an honest living as professional writers and got to do what they loved back in what I consider to be the golden era of literature.

11-From checking out your website I can see that you dabble in writing, poetry and music, what does being creative mean to you?

I think that everyone’s creative, to a certain extent. I’m certainly proud of my creativity, and glad that I’ve found something that I love doing. It’s a bit like a drug, though – it’s addictive, and you’re always unsatisfied. It’s just the way that I’m wired.

12-Where do your ideas come from?

Historically, a lot of them came to me in dreams. These days, I have a much more calculated approach; I usually still have my ideas in bed, just before falling asleep, and then I let them stick around for a while and develop them over time. Eventually, if they’re good enough, I’ll get to work on them.

13-How can readers discover more about you and your works?

You can check me out with the links below:

• www.danecobain.com
• www.facebook.com/danecobainmusic
• www.twitter.com/danecobain

Buy links:

• No Rest for the Wicked: www.danecobain.com/norest – Amazon UK – Amazon US.
• Eyes Like Lighthouses When the Boats Come Home: www.danecobain.com/eyeslikelighthouses – Amazon UK – Amazon US.
• Former.ly: www.danecobain.com/formerly – Amazon UK – Amazon US.

OK, so we’ve learned about your works and plans for the future, now I’d like to take some time and ask you about your reading habits.

1-Do you read much and if so who are you favourite authors?

I read all of the time – I run a book review blog (SocialBookshelves.com) myself, and probably average around three books per week. My all-time favourite authors include Terry Pratchett, Phillip Pullman, Graham Greene, Ernest Hemingway, Charles Bukowski and Allen Ginsberg, and not necessarily in that order.

2-What are you currently reading?

I’m currently reading Under the Dome by Stephen King. It’s 900 pages long and I’m about a quarter of the way through, but I’ve only been reading it for a day or two. It’s pretty good so far, although I’m not sure yet if I’d recommend it over any of his other work.

3-What are your three favourite books?

I suppose it would be the three books – Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass – in Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. I just love ‘em.

4-If you could have been the original artist (writer, poet or musician) for any work, what and who would it have been and why?

That’s a difficult question to answer! Hmm. I suppose I’d go for Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy again, for two reasons. I love it, and it’d guarantee me enough money and enough readers to pretty much do what I wanted to with the rest of my career.

Well, that concludes the interview, thankyou for taking part Dane and I wish you all the best for both yourself and your future works. Just before you go, do you have any final words for readers of this interview?

Please buy one of my books and help me to live the dream! 😀

---

Now that the interview has finished, it’s time for the exclusive poem that Dane was kind enough to do for my blog, as I mentioned at the start of the post I chose 5 random words for him and he has incorporated them into a poem, the five words I chose were: Remedy / Failure / Wind / Change and Scourge.

And so, I give to you Dane’s poem:

An Open Letter to Intelligent Life

Dearest alien life-forms,
I would like to apologise.

Intelligent life is over-rated,
and sometimes I think
there’s been a mistake;
my race can’t look after itself.

End the experiment,
it’s been a failure;
there are people in power
who want to watch the world burn,
or to scourge the Earth
until it’s burnt and hurt,
blurred first and then
coming back into focus.

Water is my life,
and food and shelter
are meant to protect us;
please bear with us
while we change our service provider,
we’re getting ready
to switch
to digital.

Dearest alien life-forms,
please don’t eat me;
I don’t eat meat
and I believe in wind
and solar power.

The situation is desperate
and deadly without remedy,
we’re all out of gas
and our taxicabs are grinding
to a sudden stop.

This is an SOS distress call,
we have burned our bridges
and need assistance;
we should not be allowed out
without adult supervision.

Dearest alien life-forms,
on second thought
you’d better stay away;
our hatred is contagious
and we don’t like foreigners
round these parts.

We fear
what we don’t
understand.

---

OK readers, any thoughts?? For me when I read the poem I found the last verse and ending to be very poignant and meaningful especially with how society and the world is today.

Advertisement