Chris Sorensen is an award-winning screenwriter, playwright and audiobook narrator with an affinity for the strange and bizarre. He’s been scribbling stories ever since he was a kindergartener, never going anywhere without pen and paper. He originally trained as an actor at the Rutgers Professional Actor Training Program under William Esper and moved soon after to New York City to pursue his career. He became a company member of The Present Company, producers and founders of NYFringe, and performed in numerous productions including Brian Parks’ black comedy Americana Absurdum (Edinburgh Fringe First award-winner).

After a run-in with a commuter bus sidelined his acting career, Chris turned to writing, becoming part of the Thin Air Theatre Company, resident company at the Butte Theater in Colorado. TATC has since produced thirteen of his full-length plays (the majority to record-breaking attendance) including Dr. Jekyll’s Medicine Show, Angel of the Christmas Mine, Haunting at the Old Homestead and Sherlock Holmes and the Cripple Creek Ripper.

He has numerous screenplays in various stages of development, including Suckerville (Winner Writers Boot Camp Horror Fellowship), Bee Tornado (Finalist StoryPros Contest) and Triumvirate. Intrinsic Value Films (Experimenter, Blue Caprice) has tapped him to write a found footage horror script as well as a television adaptation of the same.

As an audiobook narrator, he has recorded over 200 titles for Audible, Recorded Books, Hachette, HarperCollins, Penguin and others. He has received three AudioFile Earphones Awards, and his recording of Sent by Margaret Peterson Haddix was selected as one of the Best Audiobooks of 2010 by AudioFile.

Chris lives on historic Lake Mohawk in western New Jersey where he enjoys perfecting his curry recipe, searching out vintage objects for his wife’s gift shop, teaching his mutts oddball tricks and generally avoiding the spooky hallway that runs past his office.

 

SIX MINUTES WITH CHRIS SORENSEN:

Chris Sorensen, author of The Mad Scientists of New Jersey, has a background in acting, but his attention turned to writing after a horrific accident, and he hasn’t been slowed down since.

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***How did you get started writing?

I guess the official beginning of my writing career began the day that I was thrown from a bus. During the year it took me to learn how to walk again, I took up pen and paper and started churning out stories. First plays (15 for the Butte Theater), then screenplays (including my leech people creature feature, Suckerville) and now… my first book!

***Who influenced you?

I wore out my copy of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, pored over anything by Dr. Seuss, and went nuts for the Narnia series.

***Do you have a favorite book/subject/character/setting?

I have to say that I’m a real Bigfoot fanatic. I have a plaster cast of a Sasquatch footprint on my wall. The best present I ever received was a Bigfoot suit my mom made me. Got me in a lot of trouble, that suit! I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to read about that in one of my next books.

***What advice do you have for someone who wants to be an author?

Read, write, read, write, dream, write, read, write.

***Where is your favorite place to write?

I usually write in my office at an old oak library desk that my great uncle made in high school back in the early 1900’s. I also love to sit at coffee shops, scribbling ideas on napkins.

***What else would you like to tell us?

When I was a kid, I tried to build a time machine. Did it work? I’ll never tell...

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Chris, thanks for joining us for an interview. We are so glad you turned to writing as you recovered from that terrifying bus accident, and we look forward to reading more of your books.