This month, I would like to introduce a mysterious writer who has produced a number of books ranging in genre--from horror/thriller to fantasy to poetry. Whether working on her own or in collaboration with other writers, Sonny Goten is enthusiastic about her work. Read on!
Hi, Sonny! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Where were you born and raised?
Ah, that’s the first question always being
asked. Unfortunately, I’m writing under a pseudonym for a reason, so I
apologize but I won’t reveal too much about my identity. Besides that, there is
also the question of what is there that I can say that could be of
interest.
I’m in my early twenties and at the moment
I’m studying Social Sciences. Also, I was raised bilingual, but English was not
one of the languages I grew up with, even though my books are all written in
this language. No, my journey towards acquiring English was most perilous. I
was, of course, taught English at school, but I mainly learned from the TV by watching lots and lots of English dubbed
anime (mainly Dragonball Z) with subtitles as a child. So, you see, my first
English words were not “How are you?” or “My name is so-and-so.” No, the first
things I learned were more akin to “You‘re dead, Kakarot!” and “His power
levels are over nine-thousand!” I can almost imagine what my teacher at school
must have thought, haha!
As you can see, my life cannot be called in
any way extraordinary. In fact, its mundane course might probably have been one
of the main reasons why I started writing in the first place.
How did you get involved in
writing? Has it been a life-long passion
or is it a more recently developed talent?
I started to write when I learned of fan
fiction actually. I came across Fanfiction.net about ten years ago, read some
fics, decided that I liked them and started writing my own. Since then, I have
mostly pulled away from writing fan fiction, because I wished to broaden my
horizon and create my own characters. My old fics can still be found on the
internet somewhere, but I’d rather you didn’t look for them, because I wrote
them a long time ago when I was young and my command over the English language
was… well, quite frankly, atrocious does not begin to describe it.
What genre and audience do you
typically write for? Or does that vary
by project?
I must confess, I do not write for an
audience, I write mainly for my own pleasure. Of course, any writer who decides
to publish his or her work , whether for sale or for free, seeks
acknowledgement of some sort, and I am really no different in this respect. But
I don’t adapt my style to suit a certain type of reader’s taste. Nor do I confine
myself to a single genre. So, yes, I suppose my writings do vary by project,
but it depends on my mood as well.
There is one thing that each of the books I
published on Amazon and Smashwords (the two places where I put my works up for
sale) have in common, however. None of them have a clearly defined HEA. The
stories are ambiguous and end either tragically or ‘happy from a certain point
of view’ depending on characters‘ perspective and/or reader’s interpretation.
Could you give us a list of your books
and a short description of each?
A Game of Keys: This novella is a horror/thriller with certain sci-fi overtones and
my very first published project. Similar to the movie ‘Saw’ my main character
Connor has been locked up in a room (which is where almost the entire story
takes place) and needs to find a way out. In my story, the kidnapper threatens
to rape Connor if he can’t find a way out after a certain amount of time.
Connor, however, does not give up easily and tries to figure out his
kidnapper’s identity, but things get strange quickly from there…
Letters to an Imaginary Friend: This novella is a collection of poetry. The epistolary poems
together form a dark story of three friends sliding off into the wrong
direction when love and jealousy comes into the picture. The story begins when
things have already gone wrong and M., one of the friends, denounces God as an
imaginary friend in the first poem, hence the title of the novella.
Cross: This
is actually a collection of three very short horror stories that are also
included in the updated paperback edition (January 7, 2013) of ‘Letters to an
Imaginary Friend’. The main point of Cross is actually to simply convey a
certain type of mood. The first story, also titled ‘Cross’, is about a girl
taking revenge on her sworn enemy, who is very close to her. The second story
‘Brother Joshua’ is about a monk finding love in a most disturbing way. The
third story ’Key’ is about a woman finding another world.
The Fire of Mars: This novel is a collaboration between myself and several other
writers. The story actually started off as a round-robin RPG of a sorts on
Fanfiction.net which I revised and edited into a novel. The novel is set in 29
AD in Jerusalem but takes great liberty with the historical facts and is
peppered with fantasy elements in order to suit the supernatural side that is
at play in the story. The story is about the entwined fates of an orphan girl
named Hexia, a priest’s daughter called Rachel, a terrorist who calls himself
Wrath, and a sex slave who’s named Mau-Iwiw when they struggle for the power of the Fire Staff.
Where can these titles be found for
purchase?
As I said before, I publish my e-books via
Amazon and through Smashwords. Smashwords also distributes to other major
e-book sellers, such as Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, Apple iBookstore, etc.
(Well, just take a look at their website to see for yourself!)
‘The Fire of Mars’ is not available at
Smashwords yet, I’m still busy editing that edition in order for it to pass
through the meat grinder and it will take a while.
Also, all the paperbacks are available at
CreateSpace where I publish them. CreateSpace is a daughter company of Amazon,
so all the paperbacks are of course also available at Amazon.
What’s been the most rewarding
occurrence since you’ve put your work out there for others to read and enjoy?
Hmm… it’s the feedback from readers,
really. It allows me to know whether people liked it or not, and what could
perhaps have improved where. Feedback is so important to a writer, I think,
because it’s the only way we can know if we did it right or not. Without
feedback how can a writer learn? How can (s)he and grow? So, I enjoy the
reviews and the emails I’ve gotten from my readers. Even if it’s just a
one-word-comment, it’s still a form of interaction, which makes every one of
them precious and worth the effort!
Who would you cite as an influence on
your writing style? Any favorite
authors? Do you have a most-loved novel?
There are many great authors and great
novels out there, so it’s hard to pick The One. However, lately I’ve been
really getting into a fellow self-publisher. Her penname is S. U. Pacat and
she’s published two volumes from her ‘Captive Prince’ trilogy through Amazon
not so long ago, her second volume ending with a major cliff hanger, so I’ve
been getting really hyped up over this story again, because I’m so curious
about how it will continue and how it will end!
I stumbled upon ‘Captive Prince’ when it
was still a free online fic, and I really loved it. I especially loved how Pacat
wrote her character called Laurent, the way the political machinations are
woven into this world, and how the characters lie and speak with double
meanings so easily and convincingly. Reading all the carefully crafted motives
behind every character’s action
really did influence me and made me look at my own writings in a
different light.
What projects do you have planned for the near future? Anything you can share to perk our interest?
There are plans on the table for a sequel
to ‘The Fire of Mars‘ which will take place around 50 years later. Our RPG team
has written out a lot of material that can be used, and I’m really enthusiastic
about this story, but I‘m not in the habit of making promises, so nothing is
definite until the book is published.
I have to throw in my own curious
questions; Do you have a favorite quote?
Color? Character from any
book?
Character from any book? Do you really want
me to rant more about Laurent?
Color? Blue, I guess? All my jeans are
blue. And Laurent’s eyes too…
Let’s not do the quotes, before my current
obsession becomes too apparent here. Hahaha!
Thanks so much for your time, Sonny,
and best of luck with your writing endeavours.
Is there a way for any interested parties to keep informed about your
accomplishments as an author? Do you
maintain a website or blog?
You
can find me here:
https://twitter.com/sonnygoten (I use my twitter
to rant, so not everything I post there will be about my books, nor will it all
be in English.)
Is there anything else you would like
to share?
I must confess I
used to be a major slash/yaoi fan, so even though it’s not something that I
focus on, you may see streaks of that back into my work. Also, I’m an anime fan
(the whole part in this interview dedicated to Dragonball Z might have given
that one away…).
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