Bundy on Bundy

THE INTERVIEW

Tell me something interesting about your life, Erik.
When I was sixteen, a UFO landed in a pasture I was in with three other guys. It rejected us as collectable specimens and took off like a shooting star.
And this really happened?
It did, actually, though I don’t really know if they were collecting specimens.
What else?
I lived for five years in Saudi Arabia and helped build a self-sustaining city for 35,000 people in the barren desert. I was the director of the Belgian office that handled the contracting and some logistics for the 60th anniversary of D-Day. I lived in a castle in The Netherlands. I starred in a movie in Bordeaux. I—
Okay. So, did you always want to be a writer? Did you write your first story at the age of five?
No, as a kid I saw a movie about the Basques coming to the mountains in California, so I yearned to become a shepherd. Even bought a reed flute and learned to play “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” and “Row, Row, You’re Boat.” But after I grew up and spent four years in the Navy as a medical corpsman, I decided to become a pharmacist.
And did you?
Did you know you have to pass college chemistry to become a pharmacist?
So what did you get a degree in?
Psychology. My counselor told me I showed an aptitude for it.
But you became a writer instead?
I like living in my head.
And your degree is in psychology. So do you have a split personality?
You tell me. After all, you’re a made-up interviewer. I’m essentially talking to myself.
Let’s move on. Why do you use a pen name for some of your work?
It helps my readers. Most of my poems and fantasy stories were published under my birth certificate name, Erik Bundy. I also used my real name for my two paranormal mysteries set in western North Carolina: Magic and Murder Among the Dwarves and The Dwarf Assassin. To distinguish my French medieval mysteries from my fantasy writing, I used the pen name, E. A. Rivière. So far, I’ve published two of these: The Plowman’s Plight and The Wrathful Cup of Scorn.
Why this specific pen name?
My French grandfather’s name was Albert-Ange Rivière. So the E stands for Erik, and the A. Rivière for my grandfather.
Shouldn’t that be E. A-A. Rivière?
Probably.
What success have you had as a writer?
Just publishing a book is a success. I’ve also sold a number of poems and stories. I was a grand prize winner in the Sydney Lanier Poetry Contest, and my story “Turnabout,” was a winner in the Writers of the Future Contest. Also, my novel, The Plowman’s Plight, recently won a Global Book Award in historical medieval fiction.
And lastly, where do you see yourself in five years?
Visiting Greece. I’ve got a great idea for a novel set there.

Tell me something interesting about your life, Erik.
When I was sixteen, a UFO landed in a pasture I was in with three other guys. It rejected us as collectable specimens and took off like a shooting star.
And this really happened?
It did, actually, though I don’t really know if they were collecting specimens.
What else?
I lived for five years in Saudi Arabia and helped build a self-sustaining city for 35,000 people in the barren desert. I was the director of the Belgian office that handled the contracting and some logistics for the 60th anniversary of D-Day. I lived in a castle in The Netherlands. I starred in a movie in Bordeaux. I—
Okay. So, did you always want to be a writer? Did you write your first story at the age of five?
No, as a kid I saw a movie about the Basques coming to the mountains in California, so I yearned to become a shepherd. Even bought a reed flute and learned to play “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” and “Row, Row, You’re Boat.” But after I grew up and spent four years in the Navy as a medical corpsman, I decided to become a pharmacist.
And did you?
Did you know you have to pass college chemistry to become a pharmacist?
So what did you get a degree in?
Psychology. My counselor told me I showed an aptitude for it.
But you became a writer instead?
I like living in my head.
And your degree is in psychology. So do you have a split personality?
You tell me. After all, you’re a made-up interviewer. I’m essentially talking to myself.
Let’s move on. Why do you use a pen name for some of your work?
It helps my readers. Most of my poems and fantasy stories were published under my birth certificate name, Erik Bundy. I also used my real name for my two paranormal mysteries set in western North Carolina: Magic and Murder Among the Dwarves and The Dwarf Assassin. To distinguish my French medieval mysteries from my fantasy writing, I used the pen name, E. A. Rivière. So far, I’ve published two of these: The Plowman’s Plight and The Wrathful Cup of Scorn.
Why this specific pen name?
My French grandfather’s name was Albert-Ange Rivière. So the E stands for Erik, and the A. Rivière for my grandfather.
Shouldn’t that be E. A-A. Rivière?
Probably.
What success have you had as a writer?
Just publishing a book is a success. I’ve also sold a number of poems and stories. I was a grand prize winner in the Sydney Lanier Poetry Contest, and my story “Turnabout,” was a winner in the Writers of the Future Contest. Also, my novel, The Plowman’s Plight, recently won a Global Book Award in historical medieval fiction.
And lastly, where do you see yourself in five years?
Visiting Greece. I’ve got a great idea for a novel set there.