About the Author

Patrick Doud was born in 1968 in Syracuse, New York. He grew up in Bernhards Bay, a hamlet on the northern shore of Oneida Lake, and in East Amherst, a suburb of Buffalo. After several years of academic wandering he ended up at Bard College in the Hudson Valley, where he studied literature. Three books of his poetry were published in the nineties: Girding the Ghost, The Man in Green, and Hickory Bardolino Poems. Although he continues to be involved with poetry, these days most of his attention is devoted to fantasy. He is quick to explain that there is much traffic between the two. He and his family live in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in a house near the woods, the city, and the sea.

Below is a great Q&A between Jen from Author’s Unleashed and Patrick Doud. To read the full interview and check out more fun from Jen’s site dedicated to YA authors, visit her blog at http://authorsunleashed.blogspot.com.

First off, thanks so much for joining us for an up-close and personal interview for TeensReadToo.com! My name is Jen, and I’ll be your server toda…oh, wait, wrong job! Anyway, thanks so much for taking time out of your writing schedule—which I’m sure is busy!—and answering a few questions for your readers and fans.

It’s my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Let’s get some of the typical interview questions out of the way first. When did you first know that you wanted to be a writer?

To the best of my recollection it was sometime in my tweens. I started filling notebooks with an epic fantasy adventure. I hadn’t heard of revising and it was never finished. Thankfully, that manuscript is lost.

Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publishing?

It was long and hard, as I gather it is for most people. I’m very grateful to have finally found the right publisher, North Atlantic Books.

Tell us a little bit about either your latest or upcoming release. If you could only tell your readers one thing about the story that had to convince us to buy the book, what would it be?

The Hunt for the Eye of Ogin is the first book of The Winnitok Tales, and its release date is February 23, 2010. The world of The Hunt for the Eye of Ogin is unlike any you’ve seen before.

What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?

My greatest inspiration is story itself: story is a presence that talks to me. It gives me ideas.

Let’s hear about your family, who I’m sure are thrilled to have a published author among them!

My wife is indeed thrilled. My son not so much—he’s only three. My dog is wondering why his spitting image is on the cover of the book. My cat doesn’t care.

Now for some fun facts. What’s your greatest comfort food?

At this moment, my greatest comfort food is kang ped yang from our local Thai restaurant. It’s roast duck in red curry sauce.

What are the first three things you do when you wake up in the morning?

Usually I find myself answering the respective demands of my son, my dog, and my cat in quick succession.

If I came to your house and looked in your closet/attic/basement, what’s the one thing that would surprise me the most?

Would an enormous and ancient woodstove in the cellar surprise you? It surprised us when we first looked at the house. But I gather at one time they were not an uncommon feature of American cellars.

Everyone asks the question about “if you could be a tree, which tree would you be?” so I want to know: If you could be a color, which color would it be, and why?

Chartreuse, but only if no one else is.

Who is your favorite cartoon character?

I remember a time when I loved Casper. I watched a lot of Bugs Bunny as a child, but didn’t learn to really appreciate him and his associates until much later.

Read the full interview here:

http://authorsunleashed.blogspot.com/2010/02/interview-with-patrick-doud.html