Question of the Week – December 21, 2008
From Author Ian Holt:
Why did you become a writer and what do you hope readers take away from this book?
Teachers told me from the time I was a little boy that I had a great imagination and writing skills and that I should become a writer. I started out as an actor and was in the late, great Stella Adler’s last acting class through NYU’s Tisch School Of The Arts before she retired. In that class as part of Adler’s method we learned how to break down a play and create our own character backstories. I became fascinated with story structure, character development and expanding plays beyond what was on the page. This lead to me writing my first screenplay which was optioned. After that I was hooked on writing. With acting you are always a small cog in a much bigger wheel, but writing allows you to control your own work’s destiny. When writing you are the boss. The UN-DEAD is my first attempt at writing a novel. Also, I hated the regimented world of 9-5 work and writing is my way of living life and earning a living on my own terms. Writing is freedom.
I hope people take away from this book the TRUE Dracula story as Bram envisioned it — an amazing and visionary tale of Gothic horror and romance that holds a mirror up to our society’s shortfalls and repression — and leave behind the films other than a few which have turned Dracula and Bram into a farce.
Tags: Ian Holt, Question of the Week