Deal Sharing Aunt: In The Eyes Of Madness by Michael Pang Trailer, Interview & Giveaway

Title: In The Eyes Of Madness by Michael Pang

Genre: YA Paranormal/Urban Fantasy

Synopsis:

A near tragic incident at the hands of his psychotic mother left Declan Peters alone and with so many questions.

Years later, Declan is determined to find a way to be closer to his mother and takes a job at the institution where she's being held. That fateful decision will be the impetus for a chain of events so terrifying that Declan will question his own grasp on reality.

What he finds will be more horrifying than anything he's ever experienced and more dangerous than anything he's yet known. In a place, rife with demonic possession and sadistic beings, will Declan finally be able to find the answers he's longed for before its too late or will he succumb to the evil forces that inhabit the institution and all who live there?

Author Bio:

Project manager by profession but modern Renaissance man by nature, Michael Pang has dabbled in many different areas in his career. From working with steam turbines to eventually switching into the world of IT, his plethora of experience highlights his personality – he’s a person always searching for more knowledge.

Michael was born in Hong Kong in 1983. His family immigrated to San Francisco when he was three and eventually landed in Florida. After graduating from high school, Michael gained his degree in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech. Despite his currently demanding work schedule, Michael is very involved in activities at his local Project Management Institute Chapter where he fulfills his passion for teaching as the Vice President of Education. But, his desire to serve and help others doesn’t end there, he’s an avid Christian and very active in his local church. He loves kids, with two daughters of his own with his lovely wife, and volunteers at children’s church in his ministry.

He speaks fluent Cantonese and Mandarin and in his free time enjoys reading, writing, eating, cooking, playing music, dancing, singing, and watching musicals. One of his mottos is “Everyday that he hasn’t learned something new is a day wasted.”

Interview:

• When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

I guess I was always interested in becoming a writer. However, many things kept me from pursuing that. First and foremost, time. When I was younger, I was busying with school work and extra curriculars, then I started working and focused all my time between voluntary work and my career. I eventually got married, and now have two young children.

Another thing that had kept me from pursuing my writing was fear. I've always had an active imagination and knew that stories would easily coming to me. However, I wasn't sure if my stories were going to be good. What if people simply didn't like my stories? What if people critizied my writing style or grammar? I knew that if I didn't overcome this fear, then I would probably be haunted with the whole "What if..." thought for the rest of my life.

• How long does it take you to write a book?

So far, I've only written one book, and it took me four years. As discussed before, time has been and is still a major obstacle that I have to overcome. With a career that sometimes made me work 50-60+ hours a week and young children at home, I didn't have a lot of time to write. Most of my writing was accomplished in the airport, on the plane, and before I passed out at night in a hotel room. I tried to squeeze in any time I could. Good thing my job at the time made me travel so much.

• What is your work schedule like when you're writing?

My work schedule is much better now. I had a career change last year, and I no longer travel and pretty much maintain a healthy 40-45 hour work week. Although, I supposedly have more time now, I find that in addition to writing, I have diverted much of my time to promoting my first book!

• What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

While I like to have a rough outline of the story before I start writing, I like for the story to flow through me as I'm doing the writing. And at times, I find myself completely diverting from the outline that I had initially created. The story seems to take on a life of it's own. I fall in love with my characters, sometimes I hate them. These sentiments about my characters as I'm writing tends to change the entire plot.

• How do books get published?

Well, there are two ways. You can either spend hundred of hours soliciting literary agents and traditional publishers who might reject you simply because the genre you are writing in is no longer the latest trend or the most revenue generating genre. Or you can go the self-publishing route. I had spent about a year soliciting literary agents, I had three that were very interested in my book, however, said that it would be too difficult to find a publisher due to the fact that the market was too flooded with the genre the book was written in. Then two of them came back as asked, if I could add in a historic element into the novel to make it a Historic Fiction, since that was what was selling.

It was then that I knew, that I had wanted to go the self-publishing route. It was the most disheartening thing when someone asks you to completely change your creation so that it would become more profitable. I guess, that happens quite a lot. As I said before, the stories come to me and comes alive. I can not and would not simply change it into a different genre because that was the current trend. I wanted the freedom to publish my book exactly the way I wanted.

• Where do you get your information or ideas for your books?

It might sound strange, but…dreams. Everyone has dreams, but most people forget what they dream about when they wake up the next morning. However, sometimes you get dreams that are just so intriguing that they get stuck in your mind. I have those sometimes, and when I wake, I would always try to force myself back to sleep to continue the dream. Sometimes, it works, sometimes it doesn’t. When it doesn’t, I always say to myself, “I wonder what would happen next.” My mind would start to daydream throughout the day of possible subsequent scenarios and possible endings. That’s actually how my first novel, IN THE EYES OF MADNESS, came about.

• When did you write your first book and how old were you?

The idea for the novel came to me in a dream one night. I was surprised to be able to get into a deep enough sleep to dream. We (my wife and I) were new parents and our newborn was only a couple months old. What that meant was that we barely slept! So, it was kind of a miracle for me to even have such a vivid and amazing dream (or nightmare, I couldn’t really decide). When I woke from it, I tried going back to sleep, but it was no use. I couldn’t get the dream to continue. In the morning, I told my wife all about the dream and we decided that it made a good book idea. I was desperate to find out what happens in the end, but since I couldn’t get the dream to continue, I decided that I’d just have to write the rest of it myself.

• What do you like to do when you're not writing?

Wow, my days are pretty jammed pack. I like to watch Sci-Fi TV shows, sing songs from Broadway Musicals with my Wife and daugthers, teach elementary grade students at Church, teach project management at our local Project Management Institute chapter, cook, and dance. I like to pretty dabble in a little bit of everything.

• What does your family think of your writing?

My family has been very supportive. My brother and my wife helped me do a lot of beta reading for my books. It was just my first book, I like it the way it is right now, but I'm sure that when i re-read it in a couple years, I might say, "What was I thinking?"

• What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?

Just because you're a good story teller, doesn't necessarily mean that you are a good writer. As the story was coming to my head, I kept writing it down until the juices stopped flowing. Then I would go back to read what I've written, and although the story content was there, the writing itself was horrendous. Lots and lots of editing and re-editing had to happen with each page.

• How many books have you written? Which is your favorite?

Just one so far, so I guess, it'll have to be In the Eyes of Madness.

• Do you hear from your readers much? What kinds of things do they say?

Well, mostly from reviews on either goodreads or amazon. For the most part, the readers enjoy the story and all the paranormal aspects of it. However, there are quite a few reader who didn't like the fact that the story had a strong Christian undertone. I'm not sure what I could really do about that. I'm Christian, and the only way I know of dealing with supernatural beings is through the eyes of a Christian. That doesn't really upset me, because when Harry Potter came out, some readers said it was too occult. I guess, whenever you write about such matters, someone is going to feel offended.

What was very upsetting to me was when I read a review where the reader complained that they only read a couple pages and couldn't continue because they simply couldn't get past the writing. I'm constantly working on improving my writing. The book has gone through multiple rounds of professional editing and proofreading. I'm just not sure what else I could do. But this was just my first book afterall, I will just have to keep working harder for the subsequent books.

• Do you like to create books for adults?

I like to write at the young adult age group. That's the age where you venture out and really discover who you are. That's the age when most poeple leave home for the first time and really "grow up."

• What do you think makes a good story?

Great characters that the reader can fall in love with and situations that readers can relate to.

• As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?

I've always been somewhat of a sci-fi nerd so, I had wanted to colonize another planet...guess we're still not there yet.

• What would you like my readers to know?

I’m working toward getting book 2 of the Peter Declan Chronicles series. In book two, we’ll learn more about what training will be like for the two leads, more secrets about the Declan, Tristan, and Zoe’s parents, and finally what is the true end game.

I’d like to also thank everyone who has supported my first novel, IN THE EYES OF MADNESS. This was a project I really poured my heart and soul into, and I’m just so happy to finally get it published. And for those who haven’t read it yet, I hope that it finds it’s way into your hands to bring you a few hours of entertainment.

Links:

Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WWVN9JO

Amazon Print: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0692437339/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/In-The-Eyes-Of-Madness/772675372847165

Twitter: https://twitter.com/michaelkcpang

Website: http://www.InTheEyesOfMadness.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25466126-in-the-eyes-of-madness