Paperback Action Figure Anton Strout on what he’s thankful for +Giveaway!
Fantasy author Anton Strout was born in the Berkshire Hills mere miles from writing heavyweights Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville and currently lives in the haunted corn maze that is New Jersey (where nothing paranormal ever really happens, he assures you).
He is the author of the Simon Canderous urban fantasy series and Alchemystic, book one of the upcoming Spellmason Chronicles for Ace
Books, a division of Penguin Group (USA). Anton is also the author of many short tales published in anthologies by DAW Books.
The Once & Future Podcast is his latest project, where he endeavors as Curator of Content to bring authors and readers together through a weekly news show format.
He has been a featured author guest of honor, speaker and workshop leader at San Diego Comic-Con, Gencon, New York Comic-Con, the Brooklyn Book Festival and many other conventions.
In his scant spare time, his is a writer, a sometimes actor, sometimes musician, occasional RPGer, and the worlds most casual and controller smashing video gamer. He currently works in the exciting world of publishing and yes, it is as glamorous as it sounds.
|Website | | Once&Future Podcast|
…And now he’s here to take the Paperback Dolls Thankful Questionnaire!
As the creator of Simon Canderous and the world he lives in, would you tell our readers what Thanksgiving would be like for your hero?
Thanksgiving is a hard time for the Department of Extraordinary Affairs. So many tourists come to town for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, many of them heading out the night before to watch the giant floats get heliumed up. You put a lot of tourists on the street at night in Manhattan and that’s when the creepy-crawlies really come out. Simon usually ends up thankful to get to bed alive Thanksgiving morning.
Thanksgiving is one of those holidays where families seem to make their own traditions. Do you have any traditions that you feel are unique to you?
No. We’re very normal. We go with the usual family traditions- carving up something dead, mashing up something dead, eating something red and sticky, baking a pie filled with something dead, offering up our souls to Belial, the demon lord of deception. Very Norman Rockwell.
For many Americans, Thanksgiving is favorite holiday because of the food!
Do you have a favorite dish that you look forward to enjoying every Thanksgiving?
For me, it’s all about the mashed potatoes. I MUST make a mashed potato dam and fill it with gravy. Some people prefer the volcano cradle method of ladling their gravy, but I MUCH prefer the dam method. It holds more. Also, my family prepares an abnormal amount of desserts, like two for every one person. I go for the pumpkin and chocolate pies, myself.
Do you have a favorite Thanksgiving memory?
When I first moved to New York, I HAD to go to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in person. HAD. TO. One, it was FREEZING. We had to wear my Doctor Who 4th Doctor scarf to keep us warm, and getting close to the parade was a joke. We were half a block down a side street back. The floats were so far away I couldn’t tell Dolly Parton from Kelsey Grammer. My fave pic of the day was of me and my friends celebrating a homemade meal together, the table littered with empty bottles of wine. Only when we got the pictures developed did we have a clue how much we had “celebrated.”
What are you most Thankful for professionally and/or personally?
I am most Thankful for all the sexy, intelligent urban fantasy readers who all got a little sexier and intelligenterer from running out and getting all four books in my Simon Canderous urban fantasy series. It’s like they have magical properties or something!
And we here at Paperbackdolls.com are extremely thankful to have a friend like Anton, he adds that sexy manly point of view to an otherwise extremely female bunch!
Thank You!
To show his thanks to the Paperback Dolls followers, Anton is offering a set of
The Simon Canderous Series!
Simon is the bomb! Anton is cute, too, even if he made fun of me for being from Wisconsin.
LOL!!!
My family also makes a lot of desserts! This year I’m to make pumpkin and pecan pies.
Infinitely more desserts are made for Christmas though :D
I’m jealous! You went to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade in person … in a Dr. Who scarf!!! That sounds like so much fun (other than the cold!)! Awesome interview and even better giveaway :) Thanks for both!
When my grandma was still alive my whole family, and I have a very big family on my mom’s side, used to all get together and the parents would take us kids around the neighborhood to visit all the neighbors by having a scavenger hunt! We’d stop at all the houses to get the items on the list. It was lots of fun and I really miss that :)
I really like the sound of this UF series especially when it features an interesting character such as Simon. I want to see a man leading in this genre which I haven’t come across yet.
My favorite Thanksgiving memory is just being with my family and feeling very cozy. Of course there’s the delicious smell of food and eating until I can’t anymore. I’m thankful for my family.
I want Doctor Who (4th Doctor) scarf too!
Always looking for a new series to read!
I’m always thankful for family. Good health & prosperity I work hard at.
We actually don’t celebrate Thanksgiving here in Australia, so I don’t actually have a Thanksgiving memory to tell.
Ah, the old offering-of-souls-to-Belial thing. How dreadfully tradition. ;)
I don’t really have Thanksgiving memories. Most of them have been wiped away by the food coma that happens late in the day.
I’ve always wanted to see the Macy’s parade, but somehow it never worked out. Anyway, why is it that the weather is always miserable in NYC that day?
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it’s all about food. My favorite memory is of eating myself into a food stupor, wrapping up all the leftovers, then eating myself into another stupor on the following day also.
“Offering up our souls to Belial, the demon lord of deception”, what a tradition!
My favourite Thanksgiving memory was of last year, when almost all my relatives come back to celebrate the occasion. It was a fun-filled family reunion. I don’t always get to meet them.
would like this
=)
I rarely remember much about thanksgiving,
but I think I did enjoy eating turkey
Wow I have not read this series so knowing about it now, leaves me excited! Thank you for passing on a New to Me Series.
I think my favorite Thanksgiving memory was when my mom was released from the hospital after a round of heavy chemo. We had never missed a Turkey Day together and she came home late the night before. I made dinner (I was 15 at the time and we lived alone) and we watched the Macy’s Parade over monkey bread.
I’m always looking for more urban fantasy to enjoy and this sounds like a great one to try, plus it’s the whole series in one giveaway! :-D
This interview makes me want mashed potatoes and pie. Oh, and also to read these books!
b(dot)cardone(at)hotmail(dot)com
Hmmm…must now try the dam method.
My favorite Thanksgiving memory is the last time my whole family got together and enjoyed the holiday. Now we live in different states, my mother has passed away and it’s never going to be like that again.
What a great giveaway! This is such a fun series!
And I’m with Anton on the mashed potatoes–definite among Thanksgiving’s highlight in my book.
I don’t know whether I have a favorite Thanksgiving memory. Once we went to my cousin’s house for dessert, and he accidentally put salt instead of sugar in the whipped cream. I’m not sure that’s a great memory (blech!) but it was pretty funny!
Thanks for the great contest!
I didn’t do Thanksgiving this year. I had pizza for dinner and went to see “The Muppets” in the theater. I don’t miss the turkey but I do miss the mashed potatoes and dessert (pumpkin/pecan/apple/berry pies and cheesecake).
I am new to Anton’s books. Look forward to more.
I AM SIMON, why would i not want the complete volume of my life. Actually I have read mine so much that they are falling apart and some of the pages are stuck together from taco nite!