I started this crazy blog, The Frantic Flicker, where every week I’d take the title of a current movie and write an original short story with that title in a different genre that had nothing to do with the movie. 

Eric Henderson – 20 August, 2015

The Back Flap

“Are we in public right now, or not?”

Twelve people, old friends and new acquaintances, have abandoned everything they knew to create a self-contained society in a former shopping mall. Welcome to A Better Place.

“I’m not in charge at all. I’m just a facilitator.”

With the right blend of personalities, it could be paradise. But what about with this mix? Everyone’s thrilled to escape the drudgery of their former lives, but too soon they find themselves treating this Utopian experiment like a five-year vacation, full of sex, drugs, violence, and political intrigue.

“Are you sure you want to do this right now? With your friend stuck somewhere in a dog cage?”

As their idealism deteriorates, our heroes face a rising tide of catastrophe. Can they find a way to work together to keep their new world alive?

“No one needs an ambulance? That’s fine. I’ll go get the mop.”

Stranded in Sunshine is the unique debut novel by Eric Henderson, a comic soap opera about a new kind of civilization teetering on the brink between the ridiculous and the sublime.

Twelve people. No authority. Eleven official versions of the truth.

“Okay, so who are we gonna eat first?”

About the book

What is the book about?

Stranded in Sunshine is a comic soap opera about six women and six men who come together to create a perfect society in a shopping mall. Their plan is to stay for five years, but it devolves into a ‘lunatics running the asylum’ situation pretty quickly. Without giving away too much, I’ll let you know that the plot complications include sex (don’t they always?), drugs, violence, hand-holding, and puppies.

Basically, it’s exactly like Dawn of the Dead, but without the zombies and flesh-eating. And it’s funnier.

When did you start writing the book?

I started it in June of last year.

How long did it take you to write it?

The first draft took just shy of 13 weeks, writing every single day. And then the editing took forever and ever (about nine months).

Where did you get the idea from?

I saw an article online with pictures of abandoned shopping malls, and I said, “Oh man, that’s so cool, I wanna live there.” Then I thought about it “No, I don’t really want to live there, why did I say that? But wait, what would be cool about that? What would it really be like?” That was the spark. Of course in Stranded in Sunshine, the mall isn’t abandoned – it’s been purchased outright.

Were there any parts of the book where you struggled?

Depending on how you count, Stranded in Sunshine has 11 or 12 different narrators, and getting all the voices right took some time.

What came easily?

Most of my characters are of average intelligence, but there’s one guy, Austin, who dips pretty far below that line. I cruised through his chapter in the first draft. It was so easy that I got worried – “Is this a problem, that I’m relating so much to this character who’s a nimrod?”

Are your characters entirely fictitious or have you borrowed from real world people you know?

I create my characters intuitively, and, like everyone, I borrow subconsciously from the real world. If a character started to resemble someone I know in real life, I tweaked the details until I didn’t see that anymore.

We all know how important it is for writers to read. Are there any particular authors that have influenced how you write and, if so, how have they influenced you?

I love Mark Twain and Jane Austen. Their influence on me is the same they’ve had on most modern literature: never get so caught up in the words you use that you forget you’re telling a story. I dig Hawthorne, too, but he missed that memo.

Do you have a target reader?

The target reader for this book enjoys clever, quirky humor for adults, and prefers female characters who don’t need rescuing.

About Writing

Do you have a writing process? If so can you please describe it?

Stranded in Sunshine is my first novel, but I put my time in learning to write as a screenwriter. The process is about the same.

I get a spark of an idea that interests me, like “jellyfish attack London” or “something about a guy who works at a supermarket.” I write down everything I know about the idea, a paragraph or half a page, as much as I’ve got. I let that simmer a day or two, then write down as much as I’ve got again. Even if I haven’t been consciously thinking about it, I’ll know a lot more this time. And let it simmer some more. What I’m looking for is a twist, some added element that turns it into something I haven’t seen before, and so cool that I’m suddenly really excited to write it. Then I’m ready to outline.

I write in the morning, and when I’ve got a project going, I try to get up before four AM, and write until about seven, or whenever anyone else wakes up.

During those hours, I try to think only of my story. I keep an extra document open for non-story thoughts, so I don’t have to get up to make a note if I suddenly remember we’re out of hot sauce or something.

Do you outline? If so, do you do so extensively or just chapter headings and a couple of sentences?

I do chapter headings and a couple of sentences. Stranded in Sunshine has lots of tiny threads- the whole thing is set-ups and pay-offs- but very little of that came from the outline.

Do you edit as you go or wait until you’ve finished?

I write slowly, but once I’ve got something down, I keep moving forward, and save the editing for the end.

Did you hire a professional editor?

I live with another writer who’s done some ghostwriting and professional editing, and her help was indispensable. I did not hire her; I married her.

Do you listen to music while you write? If yes, what gets the fingers tapping?

I’m all over the place on this one: cool jazz, doom metal, goa trance, Dionne Warwick, ambient. Whatever’s gonna work for that day.

About Publishing

Did you submit your work to Agents?

No.

What made you decide to go Indie, whether self-publishing or with an indie publisher? Was it a particular event or a gradual process?

I’ve always been involved in creative projects that were DIY (do it yourself): bands and zines and making movies with my friends. In the late 90s, I moved to Hollywood to be a screenwriter. I wrote a bunch of screenplays, but never got very far with any of them. Over a period of years, I came to realize, not only wasn’t I writing what Hollywood wanted, I didn’t want to write what Hollywood wanted, and so I gave up on screenwriting entirely. I started this crazy blog, The Frantic Flicker, where every week I’d take the title of a current movie and write an original short story with that title in a different genre that had nothing to do with the movie. I think that was 2004.

Anyway, when I started working on books, I guess I figured the publishing industry would be like the movie industry, where as a rule, money trumps creativity, and there’s no particular love for anything original or cool. I don’t really know if that’s true – I don’t know anyone in traditional publishing – I just knew if I could do exactly what I wanted, I’d like it a lot more.

Did you get your book cover professionally done or did you do it yourself?

The cover for Stranded in Sunshine was designed by my friend Ken (or K3n) Adams, who’s done a ton of album covers and posters and t-shirts and logos, but not a lot of book covers. I’ve known Ken for 20-some years, and I was really glad to get him to help me with this – he did an amazing job!

Do you have a marketing plan for the book or are you just winging it?

IndieView, you are my marketing plan. Just kidding. I’ve got some things written down. Keepin’ it loose, but I’ve got ’em.

Any advice that you would like to give to other newbies considering becoming Indie authors?

Be persistent, and don’t be afraid to have your own point of view. If you follow the ‘rules’ of indie publishing that everyone else is following, that just seems so heinous to me. How are you ever supposed to stand out by doing what everyone else does? In my humble, not-at-all-rich-yet opinion, once you’ve got the gist of how it works, you’ve just got to sharpen your machete and hack your own way through the jungle.

About You

Where did you grow up?

This is an awful question. Here I am trying to create a mystique, and you’re pushing me right back down to earth! I’m from Newark, Delaware.

Where do you live now?

In Connecticut, with Mrs. Henderson and Kid Henderson.

What would you like readers to know about you?

In the name of art and entertainment… I DEFY YOUR PETTY GENRE CONVENTIONS! And I mean that in the most polite way possible.

What are you working on now?

I’ve got a few projects going, but the next one out, I’m pretty sure, will the epic. It’s called Armloads of Unclassics, and it’s my non-meta semi-autobiographical Hollywood story, but with a lot more exciting parts (sex, violence,weirdness). I worked on it on and off for a couple of years when I first moved back East, and just recently picked it up again. Of course, when I say epic, it’s not really all that long. It’ll be four or five hundred pages. So that should be fun.

End of Interview:

For more from Eric, visit his blog, follow him on Twitter, or like his Facebook page.

Get your copy of Stranded in Sunshine from Amazon US, Amazon UK, or Barnes & Noble.