Interview with Michael J. Allen, author of Discarded

What can you tell us about your new release, Discarded?

Discarded takes place in a world where magic is common and really taken for granted by the masses like designer coffee shops. Everyday people without an iota of magic can buy limited use spells or devices to perform various magic for them. What they don’t consider is that this wondrous resource has to come from somewhere. When only a few magically talented wizards were using it, the magic replenished itself. With the masses using it for cosmetic illusions and finding their keys, they’re exhausting the resource too fast and ultimately killing the fey world just a step away from our own. The fey aren’t taking that laying down anymore.

What or who inspired you to become an author?

I was always a writer/storyteller, though I didn’t really realize it until the first New Year’s Eve after high school. There’s a lot more to how it started, but I wrote my first six chapters that night and made Xerox copies to share with all my geeky friends. We met up the next weekend and they practically mobbed me for the next pages. They all sat there in a sunken living room on a sectional sofa going over pages and actually arguing about who the best characters were, and why so-and-so did this or that. Watching the passion in their faces, hearing it in their voices, I was hooked.

What’s on your top 5 list for the best books you’ve ever read?

Elvenbane by Mercedes Lackey & Andre Norton

Lilith, a Snake in the Grass by Jack Chalker

Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny.

Witchy Eye by Dave (D.J.) Butler

Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher

Say you’re the host of a literary talk show. Who would be your first guest? What would you want to ask?

If I could get him to come back as something of a writing jedi ghost, Terry Pratchett. I’d ask him how he managed to develop such genius books with such great characters that still managed to make salient socio-political commentary.

What’s your favorite thing about writing?

If we’re talking about the act of writing, it’s seeing what happens next. As a discover writer, I’m discovering the story as it slides from my fingers to the keyboard. I am so often amazed by how stories seem to tie together things I never realized were foreshadows. If we’re talking about being an author, that goes back to what hooked me in the first place—seeing people react to and share how a book made them feel.

What is a typical day like for you?

Commute to work reading an audio book, work the day job until lunch, write at lunch, work the rest of the day, love on the dogs and let them out when I get home, go through day to day author business and emails while the dogs do their thing, go out for dinner and writing, get to sleep around 10pm, sleep until 2am, write until 6am, sleep until 8am and start over.

What scene in Discarded was your favorite to write?

As ludicrous as it sounds, Eli dropping a KY gelatinous cube on himself and turning a fight into the world’s worst Jell-o wrestling match.

Do you have a motto, quote or philosophy you live by?

Life’s a journey, enjoy the road….

Michael J. Allen is the author of the new book Discarded. 

Connect with Michael:
Author Page
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