ACQUISITION ANNOUNCEMENT & INTERVIEW: Clare At 16, by Don Roff
Amidst all the chaos, here's something more to make our adrenaline run and our skin crawl—and maybe, just maybe, make us root for the bloodthirsty survivor in all of us.
Writer, filmmaker, and veteran Don Roff is no stranger to the Horror/ Thriller genres; his previous literary works include Snowblind, Ghost Quest: A Handbook for Paranormal Investigators, and the chilling collection of child-friendly tales, Scary Stories. Now, he's breaking into the Paliaverse with a new endeavor: CLARE AT 16, a coming-of-age tale of a girl-next-door, who's anything but.
Clare At 16 is the first in a proposed series following Clare Bleecker, a vegan school girl with a penchant for slashing creepy men with eyes for girls like her. She's an astute judge of character—her childhood trauma and resulting Dissociative Identity Disorder made sure of that. The lurking evil in the Eastern Washington town of Pickman Flats is about to learn the hard way that Clare can most definitely hold her own.
Roff's cutthroat storytelling has already garnered attention; with a Clare At 16 film project and web comic underway, we are also excited to bring Clare to life on page. She'll make for a killer Spring/ Summer 2021 release. Until then, we'll keep you updated, and as Roff reminds us—Slay responsibly.
THROUGH THE WRINGER WITH THE BLOG MAVEN: DON ROFF
Your novel, CLARE AT 16, has been picked up by The Parliament House Press. Congratulations! What was your literary journey like while writing it?
Writing CLARE AT 16, which I began on August 5, 2013, and finished six weeks later (60K words), is probably the single best novel-writing experience that I’ve had so far. Her voice was so clear to me. It’s like she was in the room dictating what I wrote. Essentially, I was typing down her thoughts.
Is there a scene in CLARE AT 16 that made you cry while writing it? How about the scene that made you laugh the hardest? I feel like there might’ve been lots of devious laughter in your/ Clare’s plotting.
No, I’ve never laughed or cried while writing anything. I might smile or you know, laugh on the inside. But I’m generally pretty calm while I’m writing. No devious laughter but many wry smiles.
Would you consider your protagonist, Clare, a good person? Be honest.
Clare Bleecker has lived through a serious of incidents that would challenge anyone. She was brutally attacked by a serial killer and she grew up in a house with an abusive, alcoholic parent. She’s struggled to understand herself and these homicidal impulses that completely take her over. She doesn’t always do good things, but Clare isn’t a bad person. Bad things tend to happen to her, though.
How does a big ego help writers? How can it hinder writers, if at all?
You have to have enough ego to sit down and hammer out pages day after day even if you’re doing it on spec and don’t have a publisher or plan. However, during the editing process, you have to question ever