INTERVIEW with POCHASSIC

Flesh Without Soul

Pochassic is the author of Flesh Without Soul. The author has been writing professionally for the last four years in the horror/sci fi genre. 
 

Flesh Without Soul is the story of two sisters trying to stop the zombie apocalypse their brother unleashed. 

Pochassic writes for therapy. "I have PTSD (not from military service). In my old profession, I dealt with death and mind numbing violence daily. (I had to wash brain matter off my shoes more than once after work) So these experiences flavor my work, my characters, and my stories."
 
Pochassic took an odd life experience and was inspired to "make my villain in Flesh Without Soul from an accident in my fish tank. I had two types of aquarium fish breed that are not supposed to be able to copulate. I posted pic of the fish on YouTube and got feedback saying basically 'those fish can't breed. it didn't happen.' A light bulb went off in my writing brain. Since I accomplished the impossible in real life, my villain can certainly achieve the impossible. So I decided that he crossed the common cold with a South American zombie ant fungus. All thanks to two little fish that did the impossible."
 
Challenges in writing include: "I see scenes, then write them. Sometimes the scenes take off so fast it becomes really hard to capture them. I then have to revisit the scene over and over again."
 
A range of authors influence Pochassic's work. "Dan Brown for pacing, Stephen King for horror, JK Rowling for story telling technique. and I could go on and on. Every author offers amazing insights into writing. I try to learn from everyone I read."
 
Finally, advice for aspiring writers includes: "Just keep writing. No matter what. Doesn't matter if your work sells zero copies, don't give up. Doesn't matter if people tell you to stop being a dreamer, just keep writing. The real secret of success is that the first step is failure. Michael Jordan didn't dunk the first time he touched a basketball, Tom Brady didn't throw a perfect spiral his first time on the gridiron, and you as an author will probably not write a best seller your first time out. And that's ok. It's actually normal. Write because you love it. Write because it is important to you. Just write, write, write. Eventually, your audience will find you."