What makes you happiest? That’s a tough question. I’ve got a brilliant wife and a one-year-old boy who takes more joy in playing with a clothespin than most people do in driving a Ferrari. Spending time with them is definitely at the top of the list of things that make me happiest. Helping someone who can’t give anything back is a good feeling too. When it comes to writing, finishing a good scene and feeling like it says what I’m trying to say in a unique way makes me happy, but not as happy as when someone reads it and tells you how good it actually is.
What’s your greatest character strength? I take criticism well. My grandfather said, “I’ve never grown from a compliment, but I have grown from criticism.” Most of the time there’s something to gain when someone criticizes you. It’s a gift. You just have to unwrap it. Throw away the parts that are just hurtful, and keep that little bit of insight that gives you the opportunity to do things a little differently next time. That being said, I welcome dialogue with people that have read my work. I’ve got a blog and would love to hear from you about ideas you’ve got, things you didn’t like, and, of course, things you enjoyed about the novel (because, let’s be honest, we may not grow from compliments, but they do feel pretty good).
Why do you write? Writing combines three things that I love: people, the act of creating through words, and tackling life’s tough questions. Writing and reading give you the opportunity to view the world and your own life with all its problems and possibilities through someone else’s eyes. As a writer you get to experience that most deeply. You truly embody that character whom you are writing at that moment (or they embody you. It’s debatable). Then the challenge is to communicate clearly and creatively so that someone else can experience that same change of perspective.
Have you always enjoyed writing? Yes. I’ve always written. I got into my dad’s Shakespeare and Norton’s Anthology of English Literature when I was still in Middle School. That inculcated a love for the creative power of words in me. I wrote my own poetry, patterning it after what I read. In High-School, I wrote songs for a metal band that my friends and I started. Imagine something of a cross between Metallica, Incubus, and William Wordsworth and you’ve got the feel of my lyrics. It wasn’t until after University, though, that I started writing prose. I’ve always enjoyed it, though.
What motivates you to write? The story inside me. My imagination has always been a runaway train in my head. Once I get thinking about something, it’s hard for me to stop it. Writing, especially writing novels, lets me lay down tracks for that train to see where it takes me.
What writing are you most proud of? That would be my first novel, Hindsight, which is available on Amazon now for $2.99. http://goo.gl/Fg1we Writing a novel is a huge work of endurance and creativity. This is my first, and it will be the first of many.
What are you most proud of in your personal life? My table manners. My etiquette is beyond reproach. I don’t know if you’ve heard of this show called “Downton Abbey”, but it’s based on a true story: dinner at Owen Banner’s house. Okay, I’m joking. I’d probably say that the thing I’m most proud of in my personal life is the time and attention that I give to my family.
“I am hurtling eight stories to the pavement. There’s a bullet in my left shoulder and another chewing through my lung. I am going to die.” – Shirley O’Shea
When Shirley got out of prison three years ago, he committed himself to being there for his sister, Haley, and his aunt, Winnie–the only family he has left. Then he met Isaac, a man with connections to his grandfather and to the IRA. Isaac said he owed Shirley’s family a favor: deliver a package and get some money. But things are never that simple, are they? What should have been an easy drop-off blows Shirley’s world apart. Now he’s on the run, a continent away from those he loves, trying to figure out what he’s gotten himself into, who he can trust and how far he’s willing to go in order to keep his family safe.
But Shirley has a few skeletons of his own banging on the closet doors, and the hinges are starting to come off.
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Genre - Thriller
Rating – R
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Website http://www.owenbanner.com/
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