Today we have T.L. Bodine the writer of What I Found On The Deep Web with us.

Happy to be here! 

Warm regards T.L. Bodine. Welcome to an official interview from @TheCRYPTIC_ . It's our honor to interact with an inspiring writer like you. We hope that you'll have a great time.

Thanks for having me :) 

First of all, tell us how you stumbled upon Wattpad and when.

I first heard about Wattpad somewhere around 2011 or 2012. At the time, I was at a crossroads, trying to decide between continuing to hunt for an agent or forge ahead with self-publishing, and several of the people in my Twittersphere at the time were talking about Wattpad. I joined, but never got really involved with it until this past October, when I decided kind of on a whim to enter the TNT Horror Contest. I won the grand prize at that, which I was totally not expecting, and with that came an induction to the Wattpad Stars and an introduction to the Wattpad community in general, which has turned out to be super amazing in ways I didn't even expect. 

Wow! So what do you think about THE CRYPTIC's theme? What are your views regarding dark fiction?

Dark fiction is my jam, and it's really exciting to see that other people are as into it as I am! I'm a big fan of horror fiction, but dark stories in general - I prefer pretty much every genre with a gritty dark twist. I've been that way since I can remember, with a weird preference for the macabre, and I honestly can't explain it. 

What do you like to read? Do you have a favourite genre or any specific likes?

I'm all over the place. I usually prefer things that are a little bit genre-defying and weird. Right now I'm reading a bunch of Richard Matheson and very much enjoying that. 

What compels you to pick up a pen and scribble down your thoughts? Do you have any inspiration or motivation?

In broad terms, I write because my brain won't let me do anything else. The ideas show up, and I'll just fixate on it until I can make something happen. Generally, I get inspired by things that happen in my life - something a person says, or some situation I get into, that leaves me thinking "But what if....?" in a dark or twisted direction. 

Being a writer, what's the easiest part of writing and which aspect do you consider the most challenging?

The hardest thing by far is getting the rough draft down on paper, especially if it's a longer story. When I first get an idea, it's this huge burst of energy and information and enthusiasm, and I try to ride that "high" as long as I can because once that initial rush ends, it's all just a long, tough slog until I finish. Once it's done, though, I usually get another "high" that carries me through editing (and I enjoy the editing stage quite a bit). 

What kind of environment do you prefer to write in?

At the moment, I have a home office that consists of a card table set up with my computer, walls covered in supremely geeky posters, a big picture window staring out over my backyard (and all the landscaping projects I need to finish). It works pretty well :) I also really enjoy packing up a laptop and going out to write - coffee shops are nice, but McDonalds is even better (free refills!) 

What's your first piece of writing, if you can remember? What thoughts does it bring to you when you look back at it?

Oh lord. So when I was maybe 8 or 9, I had a Highlights For Children subscription and there was a story in there about a girl who goes horseback riding and encounters a rattlesnake. I decided the story wasn't nearly dramatic enough, so I re-wrote it, adding in about 100x more melodrama. It was awful. I think I still have it in a folder somewhere. 

Tell us about your growth as an author.

I guess I've been doing this for about 20 years now, which, when you put it that way, makes me feel really old. But I started writing when I was 8 or 9, and finished my first "novel" by the time I was 11. It, also, was not very good. But I'd caught the writing bug, and I endeavored to take it seriously, so I wrote a lot and read a bunch of books on craft and joined critique sites and sent stories to publishers. I published my first short story in a magazine in 2007, and made my first paid sale a few years later. After trying without much success to land an agent, I ended up self-publishing two novels, which you can pick up on Amazon and anywhere else you buy books online :) 

That said, it's really only been within the last year that I feel I've REALLY come into my own or found my "happy place" in terms of what I'm producing. Despite being a life-long horror fan, I had never actually considered writing it until about two years ago, when I entered an interactive fiction contest called Ectocomp. I made a choose-your-own-adventure style slasher fic, and it was the easiest, most rewarding thing to write - and people liked it, quite a bit more than they liked anything else I'd written ;) So I thought, "Hey, wow, this is easy AND fun, maybe I should do it more" and have been focusing more on horror stories lately. 

Do you have a favorite author or book?

Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere will forever hold a very special place in my heart. I'm also an enormous fan of Kurt Vonnegut and believe Slaughterhouse Five may be one of the most perfect books ever written. 

Besides writing, do you have any hidden talents?

I play a pretty mean healer class in pretty much any interactive video game ;) Although that's more of a survival mechanism from having a gamer husband than a real talent. 

You're sitting in front of a brand new aspiring writer, what do you say?

Writing advice: Read a lot. Write a lot. But don't forget to get out there and live, too. Your personal experiences are what will flavor your writing and enable you to bring something really unique to the page. 

What do you enjoy doing in your free time? Don't be afraid to tell us something funny, we won't tell.

I play a lot of video games. I'm also kind of a geek about urban homesteading, so I do a lot of cooking, home canning/preserving, that sort of thing. I'm going to try again to keep a garden going this year, and hope it fares slightly better than last time (when the only things I managed to grow very well were weeds and tomato worms). 

Now, the most awaited question of every young reader, do you have any childish habits? Do you like cartoons or chocolates?

*nervously looks around room at all of the Five Nights at Freddy's and Pokemon posters and the shelf full of figurines and stuffed animals* 

Uhh....nope, nope, definitely not...I am totally serious....100% of the time....yep. 

Do you prefer sweet or salty?

Both! mixed together! om nom nom. 

It was nice talking to you. Thanks for your precious time. We really appreciate it and hope you'll prosper leaps and bounds. 

Hey, thanks again for having me! 

COVER:

BLURB:

Unemployed and desperate for money, I turned to the Deep Web looking for work. Instead, I found this.