Tim Waggoner, a Professor of English who has been teaching for 15 years at Sinclair Community College.
What makes him interesting…
He is a published author with over 30 books to his credit and has been nominated for a Shirley Jackson award for his short fiction story “The Men Upstairs” in 2012.When he was in the sixth grade, he wanted to be a comic book artist.
“I started writing stories so I could have something to draw,” Waggoner said. “And everybody was always like ‘yeah, we don’t care about your art, but your stories are good.’”
It wasn’t until he was 18 that he decided to seriously pursue a career as an author.
“It was so natural to me, it never even occurred to me to do any-thing with it,” Waggoner said.
He remembered reading a horror magazine that interviewed Stephen King that asked him about becoming a writer.
“It was the first time that it occurred to me that all the names I saw on books, you know, it was something somebody chose to do,” Waggoner said.
He has always published under his own name. He writes mainly in the genres of horror, science-fiction and fantasy, but has written several articles for various maga-zines, including Writer’s Digest.
“I have three different things coming out. It’s just the way it works,” Waggoner said. “When you write them isn’t necessarily any correlation to when they show up.”
One of these books is out now, entitled “Grimm: The Killing Time”, which is a tie-in to the popular TV show, “Grimm” on NBC. He also has an E-book novella he had written a while back coming out and an E-book reprint of a previously published piece.
Waggoner also stated that he had an idea to return to his popular “Necropolis” series and series protagonist, zombie detective Matt Richter in a new story, but that it is still in the early planning stages.
He did recommend that new writers try both traditional publishing and the self-publishing format.
“To see not only what works for you or what you like, but also because the more, more things you try, the greater your chance of success,” he said. “And also focus on your work first, to make it the best that you can.
”Waggoner also recommended starting with a smaller publishing house as there are fewer people in the chain to say no to a story or novel.
“You know, generally for people, there are probably more opportunities to get your work out there,” he said.
Waggoner also had stated what he would like to see in his writing future.
“It would be cool to see a graphic novel adaption,” he said. “I’ve written some young adult stuff, but it might be cool to do more, especially in horror because young adult genre isn’t as constrained as it used to be.”
Christopher Lester
Reporter