Hugh Howey
Author of Beacon 23
Discussion
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Hugh Howey
@hughhowey · Author
Hello! I'm Hugh Howey, author of WOOL, SAND, and just a general fan of four-letter words. I have the best job in the world: I make stuff up for a living. I'm also moving onto a sailboat in two weeks to sail around the world, which is kinda cool. Ask me anything!
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Ade Olonoh
@adeolonoh · Co-Founder, Jell
You seem to write new books / stories at an amazing rate. What does your daily writing process look like?
Michelle Nickolaisen
@_chelleshock · Owner, Bombchelle Industries
@adeolonoh @hughhowey as a tack-on question I'd love to hear about your outlining/pre-writing processes and the editing/rewriting processes too :)
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Hugh Howey
@hughhowey · Author
@adeolonoh I try to write 1,000 words a day. If you can average that, even with revising and editing, that's two novels a year, easily.
Hash_tag_jeff
@jeffumbro · Book Marketing and PR - get in touch
I'm a big fan of your work, and really hope that Wool ends up on the big screen. You've been an advocate of a lot of different publishing processes. A few years later, is there anything you wish you'd done differently? What are some examples of really great publishing stories happening today? When/where are you going to open your bookstore?
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Hugh Howey
@hughhowey · Author
@jeffumbro Something I wish I'd done differently: I wish I'd convinced my ex-girlfriend to quit her job and be in charge of me for a few years. We could've traveled the world together, worked together, and I think it would've brought us even closer together. I regret that.
THE MARTIAN is coming out soon, and that's a fantastic publishing story. Andy Weir is the bomb.
I was going to do a bookstore because I had a few years to wait before the sailing trip could begin. Now the bookstore will have to be after the circumnavigation. I'll probably open it in San Francisco, even if it means losing money every month. That would be a great retirement.
Ryan Hoover
@rrhoover · Founder, Product Hunt
Is there a specific book from your childhood that inspired you to write?
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Hugh Howey
@hughhowey · Author
@rrhoover A combination of Ender's Game and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. After those two, I started my first novel (and abandoned it five chapters in).
CyberZone
@cyberzone334
@hughhowey A follow-up to this, since Ender's Game is on my tops list...were you please with the movie? I had to fight from walking out of the theatre when Bean was introduced in the way he was.
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Hugh Howey
@hughhowey · Author
@cyberzone334 I thought it was okay. I try to leave my love of the original work out of it and tell myself I'm seeing a work of fan fiction. It has to be different. You've got hundreds of creative people involved, from the lighting person, to the CGI person, to the actors.
Hash_tag_jeff
@jeffumbro · Book Marketing and PR - get in touch
@hughhowey Think they'll ever make more Ender movies?
Tracy Chou
@triketora · Software Engineer, Pinterest
What's your sailing itinerary? An around-the-world sailing trip sounds amazing.
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Hugh Howey
@hughhowey · Author
@triketora I'll leave here in about a month and heat to Cape Town. A few weeks in Cape Town, then across to the Caribbean. Up the East Coast, then back down to Bermuda, then to Cuba, Central America, and through the Panama Canal. West Coast or South Pacific next, New Zealand, back to the South Pacific, then Australia, Philippines, Asia, India, Med, back across the Atlantic. I'm thinking 5 years, roughly. Though I could get to the Caribbean and never want to leave.
Hash_tag_jeff
@jeffumbro · Book Marketing and PR - get in touch
@hughhowey Were you a sailor prior to your writing career?
Matt McClard
@yankeyhotel · Partner / CTO @ Foot Cardigan
Do you still read a lot of Sci-Fi now? Any favorites?
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Hugh Howey
@hughhowey · Author
@yankeyhotel Not as much as I'd like to. And when I do, it's usually books sent to me for blurbing. One of my favorite authors right now is Ted Kosmatka. I also love Ken Liu. The best place to discover new SF authors, I think, is any of the anthologies coming from Samuel Peralta or John Joseph Adams.
David Shutter
@dvshooter · Writer
@hughhowey Can you give out any insight into Sand 2? Will it consist of more survival stories in the desert towns or will we see conflict with the civilization beyond the wasteland?
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Hugh Howey
@hughhowey · Author
@dvshooter Sand 2 starts in Hyllel, the city destroyed at the end of SAND. It begins with a girl name Anya, who's the daughter of Brock from SAND 1. Then the story moves to Conner and company as they try to survive the savagery that follows the collapse of the wall. Plus, people are sick from drinking irradiated water. And the gypsies and cannibals mentioned in the first book come into play. It's a big hot mess. :)
David Shutter
@dvshooter · Writer
@hughhowey Sounds great, thank for replying. I have a hundred other Sand questions but I'll just wait for the finished product like everyone else. Safe journey!
Luigi Tejadela
@luigitejadela · Business Developer - BDI
Where do you find your inside motivation to keep writing every day?
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Hugh Howey
@hughhowey · Author
@luigitejadela I have to write about something that matters to me. Some theme, or some observation about the human condition. Without that, I don't feel engaged with the work, and I don't want to tackle it when I wake up. I ask myself: What does this chapter say about life? And that drives me forward.
Daley Review
@daleyreview · Bloggerus Maximus, Daley Review
Your open universe idea for the Wool stories is absolutely the coolest thing I've ever heard of. Letting other authors play and profit from your playground is pretty brave (we got Michael Bunker out of the deal!). Are you at all concerned that someone might tell your story better than you did? (I would be a total chicken)
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Hugh Howey
@hughhowey · Author
@daleyreview I hope they will! Then I can take all the credit for inventing the world that these awesome authors are playing around in. The better they write, the better my original worldbuilding looks.
Leslie Lee Sanders
@leslielsanders · Author
@hughhowey You have a massive following. How can a lesser known author build a following too, in addition to writing great books?
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Hugh Howey
@hughhowey · Author
@leslielsanders It starts with one fan. For me, it was my cousin Lisa. She loved my first manuscript, and she told others about it. I had 30 Facebook friends. And then 50. And then 75. But to get there, I wrote four novels and a handful of short stories my first year out the gate, back in 2009 / 2010. I wrote obsessively. And I read a ton as well. This was on top of working a full-time job and doing most of the domestic chores around the house. So that's what it took for me. Everyone will have their own results.