Today’s interview is with Lucas Milliron. He released a new novel this year and will be telling us all about it. Here is his bio:
Those who don’t believe in magic don’t understand the power of written word. A system of runes and characters, etched in all manners of medium, set to invade what you hold most sacred and private, your own mind. Words seep into your subconscious, invading your thoughts and planting alien ideas. Even now, whose voice gives life to these scribbled lines of geometry? You are not in control of your thoughts. I am. My name is Lucas Milliron.
EB: Welcome, Lucas. Thanks for joining us today. Can you tell us about your book Cocksucker and what inspired it?
Lucas: Hehe, well, it’s kind of a funny story. It started with the idea of a boy finding his lost dog. Then I thought, what if the dog wasn’t a dog? What if… now hear me out… what if… the dog… was a Chupacabra? I mean, that’d be pretty cool! Then that begs the question, who would consider a gross, hairless Chupacabra to be a cute puppy? Well, that’s easy. An inbred Florida Cracker, of course! And thus, Clive and that really, really, gross introduction was born!
That was honestly where the story began. From there, I built up the rest of the plot. When I write, I normally work on a bunch of books at once, usually about four or six. I was working on another project, Away From Home (which is correctly in submission with a few publishers), where the protagonist is a homosexual. I like the idea of inclusivity, and I’ve never done anything close to a romance. I felt that going the traditional “boy meets girl” trope has been played out. Seeing that I already had it in my mind of writing from an LGBTQ perspective, why not make the other protagonist in the story, along with the romance, gay?
That was where Freddy and Winston came from. My mother is Mexican, so I pulled from my culture and own family to inspire Freddy’s sister, Jennifer. Her meltdown beating her brother with a flip flop might not be as fictional as you might think. You can check it out here:
EB: What was your favorite part to write?
Lucas: To be totally honest, I love the cheese! Anyone who makes it to the end with Winston and Freddy will know the line I’m talking about. It’s a stupid line, but it warms my heart every time, so I won’t spoil it on the interview.
I do love all the blood and guts. I love the grossness, it’s just a fun story. I was on Sample Chapter Podcast, a storytelling podcast where authors read a sample chapter of their books. Now, normally the host doesn’t include fiction this graphic. But I did explain it was a story with heart, with substance and meaning.
The reason I bring it up is because the only way to describe why I like this book so much is what I told Jason on the podcast. This book is like playing in the mud. It’s a dirty story, and you might feel a little messy when you finish. But don’t we all need to get a little down and dirty once and a while? Just have fun with it.
EB: What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
Lucas: I paint, draw, play guitar, bass, and sing. I’m actually a mild dyslexic, so reading has always been a struggle for me. Ever since I discovered audiobooks as an adult, I’ve been able to catch up on a lot of great classics I missed out on. I can’t begin to tell you how hard it was trying to read The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland as a kid with dyslexia. It was downright painful at times. Now that I’ve got Audible, I can enjoy and experience how beautiful that story and so many more really are.
EB: When did you write your first book, and how old were you?
Lucas: Oof, that’s a tough one. I’ve been writing since I was fourteen, mostly shorts and “walk abouts” (that’s what I call a story with no real plot or growth, just a character walking through some really bad situations). I wrote my first book, Lost Words in a Dream, when I was eighteen. I hated it. I threw out every word and rewrote it a dozen times before it became what it is now, Tim E. Less. I started that project in 2004, then finally published it in 2018. You can check it out here:
Of all my books, I would have to say Tim E. Less best represents what I normally write. Cocksucker is… extreme and understandably not to everyone’s taste. Not that Tim doesn’t have its moments, but it’s a lot more personal. It’s about my own struggles with repressed memories and my rough, abusive childhood. It deals with elements of suicide, depression, and repression. Of forcing yourself to bottleneck all your problems by sweeping them under the rug.
Now, that wasn’t my first book published. That would be The Chattering. That’s a tiny little novelette I self-published, mostly to give myself permission to be a writer. I’d been writing for years with countless rejections from short story mags and publishers. This book was finished in less than a month. That includes me getting it edited, formatting it myself, doing the cover myself, and putting it out on Amazon. It was so freeing. It showed me that the only thing one needs to do to become a writer is to write. You can find that one here:
EB: You’ve been writing a long time. Do you believe in writer’s block?
Lucas: Yes and no. I mean, a blockage is just a buildup, and in this case, a buildup of ideas where you can’t get anything out because it’s all overwhelming. I’ve had that before. Again, I write multiple projects at a time, so it’s easy to be carried away from one story or another.
However, this isn’t the writer’s block as most people think of it. The inability to put words on a page may not be a block. It’s usually something trivial. Often I find when I’m stuck, I either don’t understand my characters as well as I thought I did, or the plot simply isn’t interesting. The fun part is that both can be fixed by simply writing.
For example, when I don’t understand a character’s motivations, I’ll often just write in a separate document or in the “story bible” (a tangential document full of story notes and musing), and just make up a quick scene about the character doing something else that reflects the same emotion. Like, in one short I’m working on now, I couldn’t figure out how to make a married couple likeable. They both had wonderful jobs, one was an astronaut and the other a doctor, but a person isn’t defined by their employment.
So, I went on a “date” with my characters, and just wrote out a bunch of scenes to kinda get me more familiar with them. That led to how they were engaged, a scene which eventually made it into the piece itself and helped get me unstuck.
EB: What’s your next project and where can readers find out more about you?
Lucas: Ooh, so many! Let’s see, I’m currently working on an urban fantasy called Kayden, the third book in my Becoming series, a short collection called Take My Hand that wraps around another full-length novel, yet untitled, and a follow-up Florida story to Cocksucker called Meth Gator. I’m editing six short stories, two novellas, and a novel.
There were plans to do a whole book tour around Florida, but lock downs and pandemics have postponed that until further notice. Look for it in 2021 or 2022. I have a website, but it’s currently undergoing some renovations. I will be promoting its reboot once I’ve figured a few things out.
You can find me on:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Lucas-Milliron/e/B01N4OPB39/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_ebooks_1
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16184051.Lucas_Milliron
Twitter: @BeardedOptician
Instagram: @MillironLucas
EB: Is there anything else you would like readers to know about you?
Lucas: Let’s see, I’m the oldest of three, and the first in either my mother or father’s family to have graduated high school. I grew up a Florida native, and have a passion for the macabre. I hope your readers enjoy this post, it’s been a lot of fun chatting, and please, anyone out there reading books, leave a review! Feedback feeds families. The only way for us to get the word out is for our readers to talk it up. Much love to everyone out there! Thank you so much.
EB: Thanks again for being with us. Have a great night!
That’s all I have for you today. Make sure come back tomorrow for the next interview. It should be a good one. -E.B.
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