1. What is your favorite Autumn Time activity?[Ren Garcia] It used to be college football—I’m a big Ohio State fan. Of course, they’re not playing this season due to the Kouf. I looked it up—Ohio State played football during the Spanish Fle pandemic of 1918—They played on like a boss.
2. What is one of your writing quirks?[Ren Garcia] I can’t write unless my workspace is perfectly clean. I can’t write at a messy desk, I don’t know why. I’ll spend half an hour picking up before I get started.
3. Which of your books was your favorite to write? And why?[Ren Garcia] I think it is Book 12: Kat. Kat was sort of the dumping ground for a lot of unused scenes and concepts that got cut from other books. I really enjoyed modifying them and getting them in at last. Some of those scenes I had saved for years. They found a perfect home in Kat.
4. Who is the person or group of people who most support you in your writing? What have they done for you?[Ren Garcia] Well, there isn’t really anybody, I hate to say. I’m pretty much a lone wolf. There hasn’t been anybody who gave me a pat on the back or provided encouragement during all the long nights of writing. Heck, even my wife hasn’t read them all. Well, check that—the Columbus House of Scribes, a local writing group, helped out a little. They told me the original cover for Book 1 sucked hard, and they were right. So, I redid it.
5. What is your trick for getting past writer’s block? And what advice would you give to others who are struggling?[Ren Garcia] I’ve never really had issues with Writer’s Block. The best advice I can give is have two or three works in progress at any given time. If you get stuck on one, transfer to another, let the issue simmer for awhile, then come back to it later. Most issues with flow and creativity can be sorted with the passage of time.
6. Autumn time has its own set of foods/flavors. What is your favorite Autumn comfort food?[Ren Garcia] I love Buckeye Nuts. They’re little chocolate & peanut butter candies that come out in the fall to celebrate Ohio State Football (Yes, that again). They are made to look like a buckeye not, with a dot of peanut butter in the center. Also, I love making tortillas the way my grandmother made them. I tend to make them more in the fall, I do not know why.
