Interview with mystery author Jack Lowe-Carbell

Mystery author Jack Lowe-Carbell chats with me today about his new thriller, Arlya.

During his virtual book tour, Jack will be giving away a $15 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice) gift card to a luck randomly drawn participant. To be entered for your chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit his other tour stops and enter there, too!

Bio:
Jack Lowe-Carbell is a 26-year-old writer living in Vancouver, BC. Arlya is his first novel, and it is based in his hometown, Ayr, ON. Thanks to his dad, who read him horror stories when he was far too young, Jack has always loved the genre. His next novel is a tale of horror based in Garibaldi Provincial Park.

Welcome, Jack. Please tell us about your current release.
Arlya is a mystery/thriller novel based in my hometown Ayr, Ontario. It is about four friends and a terrible crime committed in the small town during summer vacation. The town is a major character in the story, it feels like a living thing, it hides things, and spreads rumours. It was a lot of fun to write, it was also terribly hard. A lot of it left me in tears as I was writing and I selfishly hope it does the same to you.

What inspired you to write this book?
I have always wanted to write a mystery. To plan the ins and outs of someone solving a crime, clues, details, motives, and I had the idea when I was visiting my hometown two summers ago. It is a small, peaceful place, I loved my childhood there, but as my brain often does, I thought of an idea for something terrible to happen in the town, and how it would be forever altered because of it.

Excerpt from Arlya:
Leah looked around with her flashlight. She hated lying to her mom. The light from the phone allowed hazy shadows to slither through the trees. She thought she could see eyes just on the outskirts of the light.

She could see eyes.

One eye.

A red one.

It blinked beside a tree. Leah whipped the flashlight in its direction. She stood pointing the light; the eye was gone. She thought she saw the colour of pale skin. Her entire body flexed, her muscles twitched, and her eyes began watering.

This was not right.

Crack

Leah ran through the last section of trees to the riverbed. It was getting darker, but the sky was still light enough away from the trees. The river bubbled. She looked at the white stones around her.

She wiped furiously at her eyes and sat down on a rock. She kept turning back and forth from the trees to the river. She looked across and squinted. She could see the orange spray paint signalling the start of their path to the fort. On the other side of the water the white rocks looked like skulls.

Was that her own breathing? she wondered.

Yes.

Was it?

She wanted James here.

No, she wanted to be at home, right now—Snap snap snap—Someone was walking toward her fast.

She tried to find the eye. She pointed the flashlight but couldn’t make out anything but a vague shape dancing back and forth behind a thick tree trunk. She tried to smile.

Why wasn’t he saying anything?

What exciting project are you working on next?
I am working on a horror story based in Garibaldi Provincial Park. It is going to be called Where the Witches Watch and will deal with relationships, loss, and of course, there may be a witch involved at some point.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I would say about seven years ago or so. I wrote music, everyday, on napkins, in journals, on my phone, voice notes, every day for about three years. One day, I decided I wanted to tell a story, not in a poetic way like a song would, a fleshed out full story. So I sat in the library and thought of the scariest thing I could think of, and wrote for about three hours straight. I was sobbing near the end of it, I know, it seems that I’m a pretty emotional guy, and from then on, stories began pouring into me, and out of me.

Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your workday like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
When I wrote Arlya, it was nearly full-time, or at least every day. I am a server/bartender at a restaurant in Vancouver. I have been in hospitality for nearly a decade and find it is a good job to write with, as it is very flexible. Also, it will make for a great story one day when I write a bestseller. I will be able to say that I wrote it while I waited tables, and oh wow, how I miss the hustle and bustle of regular life. No, I kid, it is a great job, but I do hope to write full time one day, my mom always tells me though, you have to eat while you dream.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I have to write in one go. If I am writing a scene, I have to do it one take. So I usually sit for about 2 hours most times, and if I don’t finish the scene, I normally won’t use it. I feel like if I am in the zone then it is the zone meant for that specific page, or paragraph, and the zone I come at it with tomorrow, won’t be the same. I have sat squirming, waiting until I finish a scene to go to the bathroom, I don’t know how effective a strategy that is, but it seems to work for me.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be an actor. Which I quickly learned after one acting class, I actually didn’t want to be that at all. I wanted to make movies and when I was little I thought that meant being an actor. I am working on a screenplay with my dad at the moment, and one day (as I consider myself young still) when I grow up I would like to make movies with my dad.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
I think creating something is special, it took me a long time to realize that, so don’t look past things you make, conversations, pottery, a poem, a line of code, friendships, and so on, these things are special because in this short life I think it’s important to hold these things dear.

Links:
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