Featured Interview With Steve Bivans
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born in Florida, back when the gators were still in charge and the Earth was cooling (1966). My parents were Salvation Army Officers, so we moved around a lot when I was a kid, which gave me the invaluable skill of making friends quickly, anywhere. We lived all over the South East: Georgia, North Carolina, and then spent a couple years in Missouri and Kansas, before coming back to eastern North Carolina, where I lived for some 20 years. I moved to the Twin Cities in Minnesota about 10 years ago to go to graduate school with the intention of obtaining my Ph.D. in Medieval History. I got my Master’s degree here. My subject area is early medieval Europe, in particular the Vikings. (not the lame football team that plays here). We have two Viking Pirate Kitties: Punkin’ and her mean sister, Squish. Squish has a dog she bosses around when she’s not telling ME what to do. The dog, a chow/lab mix, is named Bubble. She mostly just wants to sleep.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I started reading very young. I’m not sure when. I do remember reading all of the Hardy Boys series, all of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘Sherlock’ stories, and the entire series of Dumas’ ‘Musketeers’ books, as well as The Man in the Iron Mask.
My first real attempt at writing that I remember, was while in summer school following 9th grade. I failed English that year–yeah, I know, a writer that failed English–mainly because I hated my teacher and didn’t do the work. I also falsified my report card the middle two quarters, so my parents had no idea I was failing until the end of the year. Not a pretty sight, mind you. Oh yeah, my writing, lol.
In summer school we had to write an auto-biography. Mine was quite colorful. I found it recently in a box, and read through it. My style really hasn’t changed all that much! Very weird, but true. I was pretty funny back then. Sometimes I still am, when I’m not rambling like I am in this fucking interview. lol
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My favorite authors are Tolkien and Stephen King, when it comes to fiction. But strangely, fantasy and suspense/horror are NOT my favorite genres. That would be non-fiction. I’ve read probably a thousand non-fiction books in my life. I really don’t know, but it has to be close to that.
My style has been influenced by both Tolkien and King, but also by Mark Twain, who I think was a god of wit. Love him.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My latest book, just released in December 2016, is The End of Fear Itself.
It’s a non-fiction book that came out of a small part of a chapter in my first book, Be a Hobbit, Save the Earth, where I was working through all the challenges facing our world. Near the end of writing that book, I stumbled upon Fear as one of the root causes of those issues.
I put that aside until this spring when I was having some discussions with friends online about Fear, and was reminded of the topic. After researching it, and thinking about it for a couple of weeks or more, I came to the conclusion that FEAR was the ONLY true problem on Earth. All other problems, or challenges, are simply symptoms of Fear. If we could tackle our Fears, we could solve those issues much easier.
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