Death Train “Ticket to Ride”
Where did the idea come from for the book?
I grew up in a small town - Rigby, Idaho USA about 4000 residents. The local funeral home has a model railroad actually running in the basement, although not as elaborate or nearly as evil as the one in my story.
What genre does your book fall under?
That’s hard for me to say. My best guess would be Occult/horror although “Dark Creepy Adventure” might also fit.
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Gabriel Garko as Jesse Paco
Rachel Hurd-Wood as Chloe O’Brian
Johnny Depp as Egbert Callahan
Jesse McCartney as Kurt Smith
Robert Pattinson as Charlie Crane
Sophia Loren as Melania Descombey
Sarah Michelle Gellar as Janna stone Haskel
Myself as the Hodmedod in the basement of the Walker Haunted house … they’d have to make me a lot better looking.
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
When you’re young, life is just one big, thrilling and sometimes scary adventure, but magic is real and dreams really do come true - if you use enough dirty tricks.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
Death train started as a three part short story about 3,500 words each part or roughly 10,000 words. I write about 1000 words per hour so about 10 hours. Once I start writing I usually don’t stop unless I have to, but sometimes I’ll write half a short story on a Thursday and finish it two hours before I post it on a Saturday night … that’s very common with me. I’m very busy with lots of interests and obligations. My saving grace ( if I have one) is I can write anywhere at any time … a lot of my stories I’ve written during a 15 minute break at the factory where I used to work with the noise and commotion of a hundred people in a break room. I set my lap top down and just pound them out. I can tune out any distraction and put myself into the story I’m writing, if that makes any sense. Now that I’m retired,(Ha ha what a joke!) I usually listen to old rock on the radio as I write.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
I really can’t do that, it would be like comparing a thoroughbred race horse to a swamp toad, they both have four legs but that’s about all they have in common. I feel sorry for all those toad stories. Just kidding, there are millions of excellent novels out there! I’m the world’s best reader and only a beginning writer.
Who or What inspired you to write this book?
My life in high school … how we were so very into cars and girls … gas was 37 cents a gallon and we’d cruise most of the time every Friday and Saturday night. Most of the scenes in Death Train come from my memories although I might have exaggerated a few things. Ha ha like most of it. The scene at the drive in where Charlie cruised the new bride on his car hood actually happened, only it was 10 miles an hour not twenty and it wasn’t Charlie but a friend of mine.
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
This book is actually a pre-novel to “Scarecrows: The Burning” set during the 1930’s and 40’s in Cloverdale when Melania Descombey, Cloverdale’s resident witch, first brings the Mommett (Scarecrows) to life as farm workers. Her recipe is stolen and Hodmedods (Bad Scarecrows) are created. Chloe’s mother Margie O’Brian falls in love with a Mommett (Scarecrow) called Brian before she meets Sean.
“Scarecrows” has a large Western beginning and gives a lot of history and lore about Magician’s Canyon, the place where the Cottonmouth River disappears in Comanche County. I’m working on this one (also was a 5 part short story) as we speak.
Death Train “Ticket to Ride” was published for Amazon Kindle, appropriately enough on Halloween 2012, and sells for $4.19 US. (The price was set by the forces of darkness, not Randall.) To download a FREE sample of Death Train, go to Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk More FREE short stories by Randall can be found on his blog: "There's Magic in Everything" which also features sketches from the world's most talented dog, Sickem. Find Randall on Facebook, or tweet to Randall on twitter at @itsonlymeandyou. |