What is the story behind the story? What inspired you to write The Black Sofa? This story was developed by Christian Blaha in Austria after thinking about it for a number of years. The story came to Christian after watching numerous horror American horror and ghost story films while in Austria. When Christian came to America he sought out a screenwriter to help develop and write the story as a screenplay – this is how he met Steven Sommers. Now, after creating the blueprint of the story, Christian and Steven have translated this suspenseful story into a novel. If you had to pick theme songs for the main characters of The Black Sofa, what would they be? For Sara, it would be Stand Back by Stevie Nicks, for Herzog, it would be Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath, for Simon, it would be Born to be Wild by Steppenwolf and for Sebastian, it would be Sharp-Dressed Man by ZZ Top. If you had to write a blurb for the last book you read, what would it say? The last book I read was Ready Player Two by Ernie Cline. It would say: The sequel to Ready Player One gives the reader a very similar quest ala the first book but this time delves into the fact that our hero – Wade Watts – is now a billionaire. It lacks the charm and very fun 80’s flashbacks and homages. This book leans too much into the nostalgia zone and gives us a huge helping of John Hughes as our characters mostly go in and out of his “Universe” that was present in all of his 80’s films. A fun misfire, but a misfire, nonetheless. What’s your favorite genre to read? Is it the same as your favorite genre to write? My favorite genre is non-fictional political books such as Rage and Peril by Bob Woodward and Landslide by Michael Wolff. I do not write in this genre as I mostly dabble in fiction. Do you have any quirky writing habits? Where did you write The Black Sofa? No quirky writing habits except we usually wrote the book at our Beerjet USA showroom in Downtown Los Angeles and mainly late into the night (to the chagrin of our significant others). We also drank a lot of beer during the many writing sessions we had late in the wee hours of the morning! What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? The best advice is to never give up on a piece of writing. Even if it sucks, there is always areas you can rewrite, reconfigure or reorganize. Also, always be ready for criticism of your work from other people. Seeing a book or screenplay through someone else’s eyes with a fresh perspective allows your reader to see the flaws in the story or script and make necessary changes.
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