Hello everyone!
I hope you are all having a great week. Those of you who read my recent author spotlight on American horror author C.R.Langille will know that this week he's back. so let's take the opportunity to get to know him a little better.
PB: Welcome to pjbermanbooks.com! First, tell us a bit about your background.
CRL: I grew up watching monster movies on Saturday afternoons with my mom at a very young age. Hell, I was probably too young at the time, but I became a huge fan of Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, and all sorts of things like that. I believe those early interactions with the dark influenced my love of horror. As a teen, I got into reading King, Koontz, Little, Lovecraft and the like, as well as reading all the Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance books. Fast-forward to today and I'm getting ready to retire from the military (20 years in Air Force Intel). I plan on staying at home to raise my two daughters and write full-time.
PB: What made you decide to become an author?
CRL: When I was in 6th grade I checked out the Crystal Shard by R.A. Salvatore from my school's library and devoured it. It was the first time I ever really enjoyed reading at all. From there I started reading tons of those fantasy books, with Salvatore being my favorite. As my tastes expanded, I got into horror as well, but it was really the Crystal Shard that got me hooked and first ignited the spark of wanting to write. I remember telling my mom that I wanted to an author when I grew up and she fully supported the idea.
PB: When did you first start writing?
CRL: I played around with some things throughout high school but started really writing in the 11th or 12th grade. Nothing too crazy and of course it was all kind of crap, but that was over 20 years ago.
PB: What was the first story you can remember writing?
CRL: The first long story I ever wrote was in the 12th grade. It was about a mercenary who gets hired by a king to protect his daughter from an infamous bandit. It was pretty bad, but I think it was about 80 pages or so and I was quite proud of it at the time. Perhaps one day I'll rewrite it into something.
PB: Tell us about your upcoming work.
CRL: Where to start. I'm working on a few different projects at the moment. First and foremost, I'm finishing up the third book in my Dark Tyrant Series, which is my dark urban fantasy series that I like to think is a mix of Lovecraft, Clive Barker, and Jim Butcher. Hopefully, that will be out by Feb of next year. I'm also writing a serialized grimdark/post-apocalyptic fantasy series in a shared world. Basically, all the gods were killed off at the same time and now the world has fallen to ruin, darkness, and demons. It's pretty fun. Hoping to see that out by this time next year. I'm also drafting up the second book in my middle-grade fantasy about a teddy bear that protects kids from nightmares. I've also got a few projects in the works under a couple of different pen names as well as a few short stories and novelettes I'm trying to finish up for various anthologies. Needless to say, I'm quite busy on the writing front.
PB: What inspires you?
CRL: I love hearing from folks who have read my stories or books and loved them. It's a wonderful feeling to know that I provided someone an escape from reality for a short time. I love entertaining people in this way. It's the same reason why I like running tabletop roleplaying games. I get to create a world for others to have fun with.
PB: Of all your achievements, which are you most proud of?
CRL: I'm most proud of my collection of short stories, Tales from the Storm. It represents some of my first professional writing credits. Every story in that collection was previously published in various other anthologies throughout my writing career. As I had my rights returned, I saved these stories and then decided to clump them all together into that collection. You can see my process improve and my techniques tighten as you go through the volume and I open each story with a little bit of background on each piece.
PB: What is your favourite book series to read and why?
CRL: There are certain series that have a special place in my heart. First and foremost would probably be the Dark Elf books by R.A. Salvatore. Those books about Drizzt Do'Urden really shaped my tastes when I was younger. Following that would be Jim Butcher's Dresden Files. I love the world he created and how he made his magic work.
PB: What are your long term ambitions career-wise?
CRL: I'm about to finish up a career in the military. Depending on when this interview posts, I may already be on terminal leave. That means my next ambitions are to pour my energy into writing and make that a full-time career. As a side gig, I'd love run Dungeons and Dragons adventures for folks professionally. I've been playing D&D for almost 30 years, pretty much as the DM for all of that.
PB: If you weren't an author, what career would you be in?
CRL: I think I'd be a Forest Service Ranger. I love the outdoors and if I could find a job that let me spend the majority of my day in the wilderness, that would be great.
PB: What's the next target for you?
CRL: Other than finishing up all those projects I listed earlier, I have a couple of new ones rolling around in my head. For one, I am doing the world-building and background creation for a Fantasy/Western, think elves and magic, but Old West. I also plan on creating a line of Choose Your Own Demise storybooks that play out like the old Choose Your Own Adventure; however, most of the choices will lead to some dark demise with only one path leading to survival. Finally, I'm planning a line of books for a younger audience, a YA coming of age, Scooby-Do(esque) meets Lovecraftian horror series.
PB: And finally, tell us a random fact about yourself.
CRL: Almost half of my body is covered in tattoos that help me express my love of fantasy, horror, and the outdoors.
Well, thank you so much to C.R.Langille to agreeing to talk to us today. Don't forget, you can find out more via the below links:
Happy reading!
Until next time,
Peter