Maxx Powr is a husband and father, founder of two companies, website developer, programmer, vocational specialist, child and family therapist, crisis intervention specialist, 3D illustrator/animation student, and dog lover. Maxx holds a master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. Maxx also writes under the pen name T.J. Roberts for his middle-grade/young adult book Fairalon.

SIX MINUTES WITH AUTHOR MAXX POWR

LitPick got the pleasure of interviewing author Maxx Powr, whose most recent book, The Promise, well, promises to "grab the reader's attention from the very beginning," according to our LitPick reviewer....

Do you have a solid outline before writing, or do you usually get ideas as you go along? I know I "should" have an outline, but usually I have a scene in my head and I build from that. In The Promise, it was the bar scene where Chase meets Sheen. That was the seed.

Lately, I've been using a program called Trello, and it is very helpful for outlining. It's like a digital whiteboard with notebook cards you can create, edit, and move around. I used to use an actual whiteboard. Now I only use that for big picture sequencing or to see how something might work in space, drawn very crudely.

Has someone you’ve known ever appeared as a character in a book, consciously or subconsciously? Yes, Max is loosely based on a friend of mine. Only the good stuff, of course.

What do you do when you get writer’s block? If I can't get through it, I'll work on another scene. If that doesn't work, I'll try to lay out the scene in Poser, a 3D drawing/rendering program. If that doesn't work, I work on a completely different book; switching back and forth from fantasy to sci-fi sometimes helps.

If you could live in a book’s world, which would you choose? Fairalon—I like the fairies.

What is your favorite book-to-movie adaptation? The Promise, just as soon as the movie is made.

If you could have lunch with one other author—dead or alive—who would it be? Rod Serling. His stories blew me away as a kid. My books are movies I would like to see. I'm very visually oriented. Once I get a scene in my head I enjoy writing it even if it doesn't turn out as expected.

Sometimes, those darn characters change everything and say the darnedest things.