Author Interview: Dan Elconin

This month's author interview is with Dan Elconin, author of the newly released Never After. Never After is a dark retelling of Peter Pan, and Dan started writing it when he was 14! Now at 19 he's a published author, and he's kindly agreed to do an interview with me for December. If you'd like to learn more about Dan after this interview, be sure to check out his website. And now, here we are, with my questions in bold:

Where did you get the idea to write Never After?

I honestly don’t remember -- I got the idea like eight or nine years ago. I have trouble remembering what I had for breakfast this morning.

What are some of the challenges of being a young author? And some of the great things?

The biggest challenge is trying to juggle writing, marketing, and school (I dropped the social life ball a long time ago). The greatest thing is the relief of having that first book under my belt, because everyone says the first one is the hardest.

The first of several to come, I hope! How is being a published author different from what you expected it to be?

“High hopes, low expectations” has always been my formula for happiness as a writer. I was hoping my book would have outsold the Bible by now, but I was expecting a long, uphill road, and it is.

Okay, so I have to ask this because I’m a California girl. I know you moved to San Diego when you were 8. Do you consider California your home state? Or Wisconsin?

I consider California my home state -- but I am and always will be a hardcore Green Bay Packers fan.

Yeah, go CA! :) Tell us about your writing process/environment.

My writing process is 5% planning, 5% writing, 10% rewriting, and 80% screaming obscenities and breaking things in frustration. My ideal writing environment is any tranquil room; my actual writing environment is a dorm room that’s about as tranquil as a cage of monkeys on meth.

Yeah, I know from experience dorm rooms are anything but tranquil. Do you have any new projects you’re working on that you can tell us about?

I am working on another novel. The working title is AFAX and it’s inspired in part by Orson Scott Card’s ENDER’S GAME, which is one of my favorite books.

Thanks for stopping by Dan! If you'd like to featured for one of my monthly author interviews, please send me an email and let me know.