Author Raymond Frazee - Imagination Deluxe

Today's I have had the pleasure to interview Raymond Frazee, an author with an imagination I could not even imagine. Welcome, Raymond!

Interviewed in Time and Space

Why did you start writing?

Because I grew tired of reading sucky stories and seeing sucky entertainment.  No, really.  I felt I could create a story as well as any other person, and that’s what made me want to write.  Yeah, big ego here!

How long have you been writing?

I began writing when I was a teenager.  I was probably sixteen when I first tried my hand at storytelling.  But I was horrible:  I couldn’t type, my handwriting was terrible, and I couldn’t spell to save my life.  It wasn’t until I was in my twenties that I tried writing for real.  Off and on I’ve gone, but this last year, I’ve been at it almost every day.

Your website is called Wide Awake but Dreaming. Why did you select that name?

Writers are dreamers; it is the trade we deal in.  Writers are always working, which is something I said in a blog post this Saturday morning.  If you’re not writing, you’re editing.  If you’re not editing, you’re thinking about your next story.  There is always something going on in your head, and you find yourself in something of a waking dream when you get into that grove that says, “Yes, this idea is a good one:  I think I’ll write this story.”

What do you dream about when you are wide awake?

My dreams always are about me being someone else.  I don’t like who I am, so I’m off being different people, doing different things, living different lives.  Usually I’m a creative sort, too:  never anything like a CEO of a company—unless that happens to be something for a story.

Or I’m dreaming up stories.  Or, better yet, envisioning movies for my favorite stories.  You should have seen my dreams for how I thought I could do After Worlds Collide.

What do you dream about when you are asleep?

They are generally strange, and dark.  Of late, however, I haven’t remembered them.  It sort of pisses me off, because I used to enjoy remembering my dreams.

What is your favorite writing project and why is it your favorite?

At the moment I don’t have one.  I just finished up my current novel, and I can’t say it was a “favorite”—if anything, it was very, very hard to write.  Mostly because there was a lot of things happening in my life at the same time, and the stress of both things together—not good.

But my favorite will come.  I know it will.  Some day, my princess will come . . .

I understand you are working on two novels. Care to share with us some details concerning each one of them?

One of the novels I just finished is Diners at the Memory’s End.  The other you are probably referring to is Her Demonic Majesty.  Both are excellent, probably award-winning stories if there ever were any!  Now to publish them . . .

Diners takes place in a future I created for my very large novel, Transporting, a novel I started over twenty years ago.  One of the main characters not only comes from the past, but from a parallel dimension.  His current home is a planet that is known for having some of the best colleges in what passes for the galactic empire, and the time is the late 32^nd Century.  He lives with a woman who is not only of nobility, but someone with powerful psychic abilities.

With all that, there are still human issues.  Problems with school; problems with his relationship; problem with who he actually is.  The story deals with, at heart, coming to grips with being different, accepting that, and not being afraid to show it to others.  It’s fun, it’s interesting, it’s sexy, it’s depressing.  It’s life.

Her Demonic Majesty was written during the 2011 NaNoWriMo.  It was an idea dreamed up very quickly, and fleshed out a few weeks before I began writing.  It also deals with parallel dimensions, but this time the main character finds herself—well, lets say, it’s a huge case of mistaken identity.  There’s magic, there’s a modern steampunk feel, there’s paranormal stuff everywhere; yet, at the same time, it’s a very human story.  It’s the ultimate, “If I found myself in a huge amount of trouble, and I only had forty-eight hours to fix things so that I don’t die, what would I do?”  One of these days I’ll get the novel published, and you can see for yourself.

What types of short stories do you prefer to write, and why?

I’m not very good with short stories.  The shortest story I’ve written is ten thousand words, and it was an erotica piece.

I prefer science fiction, but I’ll go horror and paranormal as well, and I’ve also written some erotic fantasy as well.  Straight up fantasy is not my bag:  I’d never be able to write a Song of Ice and Fire type series, only because my mind doesn’t work that way.  But I could write something along the lines of the Foundation series.  It’s how I am.

Where do you hope your writing career leads you?

Where I can do this full-time.  That’s my real dream.

How are you finding our current blog tour?

I find it a lot of work.  But then, writing has always been a lot of work.  So buck up and enjoy the madness!

To learn more about this intriguing author visit his website at 

http://wideawakebutdreaming.wordpress.com/