"An Only Elgon"
This week, we sit down with Pandamoon Publishing’s Director of Marketing & Sales, Elgon Williams.
Christine: Elgon, you seem like a pretty cool guy, tell us what were you like in high school.
Elgon: I was an outsider and a bit of a nerd. I transferred to my high school and arrived shortly after Thanksgiving of my freshman year. I started out with no friends in an environment where nearly everyone knew each other and had known everyone since grade school. I was quiet and nerdy at first. But over time I came out of my shell and participated in many activities, belonged to teams and clubs. I wasn’t what you’d call a jock by any stretch. And I didn’t quite fit in with the cliques, but generally I got along with everyone. My senior year I was co editor of the high school newspaper, on the yearbook staff, a member of the National Honor Society, in the acapella choir, and things like that. Oh, and I also played bass guitar and sang in a Rock band.
Christine: We love outsiders here! Tell us, what inspires you?
Elgon: I enjoy it when someone overcomes adversity. An underdog proving skeptics wrong. That sort of thing has inspired me to write some things. And it also inspires me to help other writers and artists with my experience and knowledge of marketing and sales.
Christine: You have a colorful personality, Elgon. If you were a crayon, what color would you be and why?
Elgon: I’m blue, I think. I relate to that color a lot. If I must choose a shirt to wear and I have a red one, a green one and a blue one, I’d pick the blue. But we’re only talking about solid colors. My kids used to get me Hawaiian shirts for Christmas and birthdays, because I’d wear them, and it readily solved the ‘what do I get for Dad’ question.
Elgon becomes an honorary Licking Heights Hornet.
Christine: That’s great! Now tell us the funniest thing that’s happened to you recently?
Elgon: Recently I met someone I’ve known for five years, but only online. I just moved to California to be with my son and daughter-in-law and help them out with my first grandson, so it afforded me a chance to meet some of the people I’ve known for a while who live here. We connected. She lives about an hour away, so she wasn’t all that familiar with this area and, because I’m new here, neither was I. We got lost, within a mile of where I live, but we were lost.
Christine: Ha! Now, envision a penguin walking through the door right now, wearing a sombrero. What does he say, and why is he here?
Elgon: “Donde estan las chicas?” I mean, really! What else could he say?
Christine: What a great way to start a fairy-tale, wouldn’t you agree? Speaking of fairy tales, what’s your favorite one?
Elgon: “Jack and the Beanstalk” was one of my favorites as a kid. I loved the idea of a world existing above us on the other side of the sky.
Christine: How would your best friend describe you?
Elgon: I don’t know. How would she? I’ll bet she’s wonderful, like you.
Elgon & Christine at Island Bookstore Mackinac Island, Michigan
Christine: Oh gosh, you’re making me blush over here! How would you describe your writing style?
Elgon: My writing style is different. If you think of any novel, any writer and read one of my books, you’ll end up saying, well that was different. My approach is to drive the story with the dialog instead of the narrative. I use narrative sparingly, only to set the scene and the mood. I use it with the dialog to tag character action, explaining what the characters are doing in a scene while they talk. The result is what I feel is a realistic conversation in a story that feel real even if many of my characters have unreal lives or abilities.
Christine: You’ve been with Pandamoon Publishing for quite some time. What do you love about working for them?
Elgon: I enjoy the interaction between authors, editors and other staff. It’s a creative, collaborative community. And when we happen to meet in person it feels like we’re old friends, like we’ve known one another since high school, or something. I think that’s a rare environment.
Authors Alisse Lee Goldenberg, Elgon Williams, and Christine Gabriel at C2E2 in Chicago.
Christine: I would have to agree, 100%! Finally, tell us about your books, what you’re working on next, and where we can find you on social media!
Elgon: Fried Windows (In a Light White Sauce) and Becoming Thuperman are the two newest offerings. I suppose they are as good a place as any to enter the universe I’ve built over the years where anything is possible, and nothing is exactly what it seems.
Brent Woods is my alter ego in many ways. Anything I wouldn’t do, he’s done already. Fried Windows borrows a good bit from my real life, especially the parts about Brent’s family. And it revisits the possibilities of reconnecting with imaginary friends from childhood who turn out to be anything but imaginary.
Becoming Thuperman is about being a kid and having a whole world of possibilities around you, playing baseball, hanging out in summertime with your best friend, and pursuing dreams. It has similar themes to Fried Windows for good reason, they exist in the same universe, mine. In the sequel for Becoming Thuperman, titled Homer Underby (due out later this year), Will meets Brent, for example. And in the sequel to Fried Windows, titled Castles of Ninja Bread, (due out in 2020) Brent enlists an adult Will’s help.
Also coming out later this year is the first book of Wolfcats. It’s a series set in another world where a colony of intelligent, humanoid wolves struggle for survival in a hostile environment and magic trumps everything. And yes, it also ties into Fried Windows and Becoming Thuperman, believe it or not.
Recently, I finished a novel titled Losing It. It’s about Brent Woods in college and his struggles to find himself amid the pressures of academia. Currently I’m working on a prequel to Losing It. I still haven’t settled on its title, but it’s about Brent Woods during his senior year of high school.
You can find me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/authorelgonwilliams/
www.twitter.com/ElgonWilliams on Twitter and www.instagram.com/elgonewolf on Instagram.
Elgon at the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland
You can find me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/authorelgonwilliams/
www.twitter.com/ElgonWilliams on Twitter and www.instagram.com/elgonewolf on Instagram.