One of the benefits I’ve found from writing online is meeting other writers. When you do freelance work locally, you don’t really meet anyone. One of the places I’ve been with for years is Suite101, and that’s where I first met Dan Knaggs. Dan is an incredibly talented and creative guy, and always inspires me with his entrepreneurial spirit.

I know you’re going to enjoy this interview.

You’ve got so many different talents I’m not sure where to begin! Okay, you’re a writer (which is how I met you), an actor, and director. I have to know about your background. Where you always encouraged to express yourself creatively?

Since I was a young kid I was very creative. I have ADD (undiagnosed till adulthood) and that made things difficult when I was a kid. Like most ADD people, I had a habit of picking up an artform, perfecting it and then getting bored with it once I know the process. It’s like the mystery was gone and it made me disappointed that there wasn’t more to it. I sing, play guitar, draw, oil paint, cartoon, ballroom dance, contemporary dance, write, learn languages and many other things. I rarely went anywhere without paper and a few markers as a kid.

The thing that has always drawn me to art is that there doesn’t need to be any linearity. You can intend to end up at one destination but end up in another and it’s still correct. The exploration of an idea through multi mediums appeals to my ADD brain as sometimes stories come to you and you get told what form it want’s to exist in. I like to be able to help it get to that format, and if it wants to be something I don’t yet know how to produce, I learn.

When did the writing bug hit and what were some of the first things you wrote?

I had always been one for telling stories. When I was 5 I told my kindergarten teachers an elaborate story involving my sister in a car accident that never happened. When I was 15 I wrote the school production called “The Revenge of Alison Ashley” it was a 2 hour comedy. I had a chance to read it again a few months ago – it was absurd.

You penned a stage play called “The Pool” several years ago. What was it like to see it acted out on stage?

It was bizarre. It was weird to have these people come and pay to see something you had created. The reception was awesome, it was performed in a well known venue in Melbourne Australia and to sell out all shows was overwhelming. Suddenly there are all these strangers who now have an opinion on you. My writing is post modern horror – so either people get it, or they don’t.

As for watching it? That was strange. The Pool only took me 30 minutes to write, I sat down at my computer and turned on a song that had no words, put it on repeat and wrote what I saw. It was initially for a Script Writing course at University and I scored 99.5%. I felt strange receiving a mark for something I didn’t remember writing, but I find writing is like that, once it’s out there it doesn’t belong to me anymore.

Tell us about Degausser and “Liquid Clockwork.”

Degausser initially came to me as a stage show. It was after the wind down of the Labyrinth Masquerade I had wrote and produced, and I was looking for my next show. I had never written a book before, but the depth that Degausser wanted was not translated well in script form. Degausser follows the story of a young man who is in the process of being degaussed, erased by a spirit who uses memory to shape and form reality. An orginisation called The Establishment are observing and collecting records from his life in order to try and avoid this happening.

Liquid Clockwork is a short film, initially 6 mins long. It was recorded in 1998 and re-edited for use with Degausser in 2009. The short film uses storytelling in a classic film language. I think the weirdest thing about this short film is that 7 years after it was filmed, a missing persons case from the 80s was featured on TV and it was reported that the character in Liquid Clockword met the same demise as the missing woman – in the exact same area we filmed in. The reenactment was like watching someone reenact my film.

You started a site specifically for self publishers called Published Now. What inspired you to self publish and also start this site for other writers?

I think that it is important for writers who are experimental to be able to get their work out there. Degausser is very odd and not traditional fiction so I know getting a publisher would have been a nightmare. Self publishing allows me to present my work how I feel it should be presented without restrictions. My next book, being more commercially viable will be submitted to agents for representation.

And also you inspired me to start the web site Cherie! I wanted to see if I could also start my own blog and focus it on Self publishing to help spread the word.

Share some of your writing goals. What’s next for you?

Kid Scratch is a coming of age novel, but in classic Gothic style. The story follows Mikey as he encounters some interesting characters. It explores the sadness you feel as a child as things are slowly broken for you, but the slow realisation that you are more in control. There is also a disturbing ghost who I don’t like, but that is part of the interesting writing process, he says something and you shiver. As a writer – that is interesting.

Book you’re currently reading?

I have just finished reading two Kate Bush biographies. I read a lot of non fiction, I think I miss school.

Where can we learn more about you?

You can check me out at Exploration B to see what I am up to and catch my latest Youtube videos!

Additional Writing Resources:

• Make Money From Home – Real Jobs You Can Do by Telecommuting
• Create Multiple Articles from Just One
• How to Write Your Own Ebook in 7 Days
• Freelance Writing Jobs