Today, we would like to introduce you to conference workshop leader, Ben Wolf, 
founder of Splickety Publishing Group (SPG). He will be teaching three workshops at our 5th annual Wordsowers Christian Writers Conference, April 28-29, 2017.
Ben says his writing career started in the 7th grade after he saw the movie Congo on TV. It was so bad that he wrote a parody of it set in Australia and featured murderous kangaroos instead of gorillas. You don’t want to miss his workshops. The Wordsowers Christian Writers (WCW) Leadership Team had the opportunity to interview Ben and share a bit with you about this award-winning author on the Splicity—fast—writing track.
Ben founded Splickety Publishing Group (SPG) to meet the needs of busy folks like him: people who appreciate great fiction but lack the time to read. SPG offers three quarterly flash fiction magazines: Splickety (multi-genre), Havok (speculative), and Splickety Love (romance).
What piece of advice helped you or made a difference in your writing? I’ve always been a fan of Mickey Spillane’s quote, “The first chapter sells the book; the last chapter sells the next book.”
A quote I saw recently said every story is built with the use of the same alphabet—26 letters? How do you glean ideas for a new story line, something different? My ideas come from a bunch of random sources. It could be anything from a dream or a daydream to an observation to a mashup of ideas or concepts that wouldn’t ordinarily go together without serious thought and creativity. It has been a ton of fun to play with my ideas and craft something new and weird and exciting.
When beginning a new novel, how do you piece together your protagonist—find a photo, have a file on hand filled with ideas, or do you fill out a form with all the details? I’m actually really bad at this. Usually I’m a plot first guy, so my characters have to get developed later on. I take notes on the basics (hair color, eye color, height, weight, build, personality traits), but in general I try to let the characters reveal who they are to me as I write the story.
Do you have any amusing story that happened to you while marketing your books? Nothing too unusual has happened to me while marketing my work… yet. This is quite peripheral, but I met Jeff Goldblum at the Oregon Christian Writers Conference a couple of years ago. He was filming an episode for Portlandia, and he proceeded to serenade me in the hotel lobby with piano jazz tunes. It was surreal and amazing. I had books to sell at the conference. Does that count?
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Ben has written six action/adventure novels (five of which are good) and has multiple other projects in the works. His first novel, Blood for 
Blood won the 2015 Cascade Award for Best Speculative Fiction Novel and has been characterized as “bold…with nonstop tension” and “hard to put down.” It examines the question of whether or not God can redeem anyone—even a vampire. His debut children’s book, I’d Punch a Lion in His Eye for You, is a 2016 Cascade Award finalist and is beloved by children nationwide.
In addition to his writing career, Ben offers a variety of professional services to aspiring writers including: Editing and Proofreading, Ghostwriting, Strategic Novel Planning, Coaching, and Marketing/Branding Consulting, Public Speaking and Teaching on Writing, Publishing, and Flash Fiction, One-on-One Mentoring and Encouragement.
For more information about his writing and his professional services, please visit his website, www.benwolf.com. You can also friend Ben Wolf on Facebook and follow him on Twitter (@1BenWolf).
Click HERE to get more information about our 2017 conference and to register now.
Ben will also be available for paid critiques at the conference.
