Featured Interview With Carter Bowman
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
Certainly! I grew up in Dallas, Texas, born and raised. That certainly had a massive impact on my views growing up, especially when I moved to Doylestown, PA, outside of Philadelphia. I absolutely call the city my home how, and love everything about it.
That being said – I’m neither a Pat’s or Gino’s cheesesteak person. I’m at Dinic’s Roast Pork every time.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I have been writing in one form or another my whole life. There is still a copy of the story I wrote when I was five about a bird who flew out the window and went to the zoo. Riveting, I know – but really the stories I write now are just more complex takes on that bird’s adventure.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I read everything that I can get my hands on by Neil Gaiman. I discovered Coraline when I was nine and have loved his work ever since. I am also a big fan of biographies, my favorite being Shoe Dogs, the story of Phil Knight who founded Nike. There is an honesty in the ups and downs of these narratives that I connect with.
On a lighter note, I am also an avid reader of manga and keep up with many of my favorite ongoing series. My favorites this year have been Tokyo Ghoul :Re, Haikyuu, and The Promised Neverland!
Tell us a little about your latest book?
Part-Timers began as a very different type of story, one more grounded in the fantasy genre. After my mother passed away in 2017, the story changed dramatically, becoming a far more personal journey. It was only upon completing the first draft of the novel I realized that Joel’s story echoed the struggles I faced in my early twenties, as well as the personal hardships that many of the characters in the story are faced with.
Each character is trapped in the Part-Timers purgatory for a different reason, one that makes them both flawed and relatable. How they interact with one another, and the peace they are searching for share a common core, but also show off the disparity of how they work to overcome them.
The setting of the afterlife also offered a new way to raise the stakes in an action-oriented narrative, one that was incredibly exciting to play with. Of course, a character cannot die, their lives have already been taken from them. This opened up the opportunity to look more into the psyche and what people are really afraid of losing. When the sense of self is lost, that becomes truly a terrifying concept, and makes the risks that Joel and the other characters take that much greater.
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