On the Mating Habits of the Giant Squid
by Peter S. Steele
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Thomas
has a boring job, a boring life, and he just got dumped by his
girlfriend.
When the opportunity to be the caretaker for a
robotic research ship bound for the South Pacific offers, Thomas
jumps at the chance to change everything.
Guided by the ship's
always-helpful computer, Archie, Thomas bumbles and stumbles his way
from island to island trying to be helpful to the people he
meets.
But when they arrive at the mating grounds of the giant
squid, Thomas struggles to help Archie collect data and even to
escape with his skin intact.
On
the Mating Habits of the Giant Squid is
a humorous tale of adventure and growing up when you're already a
grownup.
GUEST POST
What book do you think everyone should read?
One of my favorites is an old classic, The Oxbow Incident. It’s kind of a western, but is really a study in
crowd psychology and how mostly good people can let really bad things happen.
Do the characters all come to you at the same time or do some of them come to you as you write?
Most of my characters come to me as I write. I generally have the main character or two planned out in
advance, but everyone else is added as I go.
Do you see writing as a career?
I would love for it to be a career. For now, it’s a hobby that I do on the side while working full time. It
certainly seems possible to make a living as a writer, so hopefully this is my start in that direction.
Do you read yourself and if so what is your favorite genre?
I read quite a lot. I like history, fantasy, some science fiction, and almost anything else I can get my hands
on.
Do you prefer to write in silence or with noise? Why?
Definitely in silence. I try to do 15 minute writing sprints. If I can work without distraction, I can usually
get about 500 words down in those 15 minutes, but noise tends to throw me off. Sometimes I listen to
music while writing, but usually not anything atmospheric for the scene I’m working on.
Do you write one book at a time or do you have several going at a time?
I generally write one book at a time. However, I also generally outline additional books while writing the
one.
Pen or type writer or computer?
I wrote a lot of On the Mating Habits of the Giant Squid with pen and paper. I finished the last third or so
on a computer and now I mostly write on a laptop.
What is your writing process? For instance do you do an outline first? Do you do the chapters first?
My process has evolved as I wrote this book. I started out just writing, with only a vague idea of what
would happen in the book. I switched over to an outline about halfway through. This has carried over as I
work on other books. The outline helps me write when I would otherwise be stewing about where the story
should go next. I’ve also started outlining the broad character arcs I’d like to see for the main characters.
How long on average does it take you to write a book?
On the Mating Habits of the Giant Squid took me about 18 months, but that included a big gap where I set
it aside for about 6 months. I think, working at another job, a year is pretty standard for me. If I were a
full-time author, I imagine I could finish two to three books per year.
Peter S. Steele is an author, archaeologist, and father. He lives in Pleasant Grove, Utah with his wife, Mary and two sons. Find him on Twitter at @pg2berlin or follow his writing on Utah’s history at www.historicutah.net.
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