Thirteen Questions with PPS_Dougseacat
1) Where are you now?
Where am I? I am in my little dimly lit writer’s cave, which is both squalid and comforting at the same time. I despise overhead fluorescent lights but I’m not quite sure if my solution of using a crappy floor lamp pointed at the wall to avoid screen glare is an effective alternative.
2) Was a career in writing a preconceived dream of your youth, or were you unexpectedly discovered like a Hollywood Starlet in a diner serving lukewarm ragout?
I have wanted to make a career out of writing since I was in the 2nd grade, more or less. Since I’m slow, I didn’t figure out how to actually make that work until my early 30’s, which means my life has been forestalled by a decade or longer. I’m not sure if the Grim Reaper will take this into consideration when my expiration date comes up. I have an excellent idea in mind regarding writing a “Starving Writer’s Cookbook” which I think would be fairly amusing, if of limited culinary usefulness.
I’ve been writing as long as I can remember. I think having an obsession with writing regardless of your successes or failures is necessary to actually be one. I was fortunate enough to have friends who enjoyed my work and were willing to put my name in front of the right people when opportunities came around. That was how I lucked into working freelance for Privateer Press back in the early days of the Witchfire Trilogy, when we still had no idea if anyone would even buy the material. After the company started to take off thanks to WARMACHINE, I had written a metric ton of setting material for the RPG line and this put me in a nice position to accept the position of full time staff writer when it was offered by Matt Wilson. That was right when they had decided to launch HORDES and when NQM had started. The first work I got to do as a full time writer was writing Primal while simultaneously cranking out a ridiculous amount of material for the magazine, which was like boot camp for writing.
3) Which of the Coven is Egregore’s favourite?
I honestly don’t think the Egregore sees people in such a way as to feel any preferences. Then again, it did select three rather attractive and scantily clad young women as its companions, so I might be mistaken. Perhaps there is the soul of some lonely and frustrated former Orgoth governor inside the sphere. If so, I’d imagine its preference would shift depending on who was taking the time to lovingly wipe the blood off its surfaces and sharpen his spiky bits. Selene has always struck me as the most nurturing of the three, but certainly Morgaen is a witty conversationalist. Nor can one underestimate the reassuring qualities of Helleana, whom I’ve heard is a great listener when she is not plunging her ritual blade into the bowels of her adversaries.
