What is the title of your latest release?
UPTON ARMS: A RETIREMENT HOME FOR SUPERNATURALS
What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
You’ve been promised immortality only to learn sore joints, achy back and diminished powers can mean only one thing – you’re aging and facing late-onset death.
How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
The location of Upton Arms is a secret, since mortals would freak out knowing mythical creatures (some of them dangerous) are closer than the local dollar store. Sharp-eyed readers will notice that the weather mirrors a certain desert metropolis, where I lived while writing the book. Any resemblance between the hellish heat in the novel and what I faced as a resident is intentional.
Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
Yes, as long as he kept his fangs to himself. Not that he would be tempted by my iron-poor blood.
What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Unlikely bloodsucking hero.
What’s something you learned while writing this book?
How much fun it is to write about insecurities as they apply to beings at the top of the food chain. Even a centuries-old vampire can question his choices. Other than the Black Plague, it’s tough to write off so many deaths to, “They were going to die anyway.”
Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I approach the first draft like a farmer approaches the spring planting” plow through it. I’ll pause every now and then for some light rewriting, but even as I encounter a major continuity error, I keep going and think, “That’s a second-draft problem.”
What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
You mistake me for a foodie. As my wife often tells me when I argue the kids menu should be available to everyone, my palate stopped developing at the age of 12. My perfect meal is a Super Bowl potluck: pizza, wings, fried chicken, and nothing that is or resembles a vegetable.
Describe your writing space/office!
Picture a home that is 10 feet wide and 40 feet long. Now watch your head in the hallway between the kitchen and the home office, the latter outfitted in Postmodern Small Furnishings for Tiny Spaces style. You’ll note a desk large enough for a laptop, keyboard and a 21-inch monitor that wobbles with each tap of a key. Yes, that is a Star Wars video pinball machine just to the right of the desk, causing you to wonder if this is a home office or a man cave. Both, my friend. Both.
Who is an author you admire?
As there is no room for books based on my décor preferences (which lean heavily toward Lego models), I keep my most valuable possession in the pantry next to the paper plates. A first edition of “The Gunslinger,” signed by Stephen King, reminds me of the afternoon I waited two hours in line for the autograph, then was flummoxed when he asked, “How would you like it inscribed?” The only reason I recall what I mumbled is that he wrote my words on the title page. I was a fan of King since “Carried,” and haven’t missed a book since.
Is there a book that changed your life?
While my reading journey started where every kid’s began – “Where the Wild Things Are” – my formative reading years were defined by “The Exorcist.” I was 14 when I picked it up, and it was the first time my mom told me I needed to stop reading and go outside and be a kid. If my mom knew the book’s content, she would have washed my mouth out with soap just for reading words.
Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published).
My wife was driving us home from a brief trip to Seattle. Before I go on, you need to know this about her: She’s the most empathetic person you’d ever know unless you criticize her driving. We’d just passed Tacoma when I pointed out the SUV occupying the space in which she was about to merge. That was the last time we spoke for the next hundred miles, during which time I’d received an email from City Owl Press congratulating me because it wanted to publish “Upton Arms.” I was over the moon text, my heart beating out of my chest. I decided such news was worth breaking the silence, so I read the email out loud. My wife, without taking her eyes off the road or her hands out of the 10 and 2 position, said, “That’s nice.” No further words were exchanged until we arrived home when she told me not to forget the craft beer in the back seat.
What’s your favorite genre to read?
I enjoy reading the types of stories I enjoy writing. One of my favorite writers is Christopher Moore, who wrote PRACTICAL DEMONKEEPING, the book that sent me down this road. I love stories that put fantastic creatures in mundane surroundings, which in turn resulted in UPTON ARMS.
What’s your favorite movie?
If you were to correlate a favorite movie to the number of times watched, then “A Christmas Story” is at the top. It’s still a tradition. Then again, that line of thinking also puts “Home Alone 3,” the worst of the series, at the top because my (now adult) son watched it every day from the ages of 7 to, well, maybe he’s still watching it. I’m also partial to “The Shining,” based on my third-favorite Stephen King book. What are my top two faves, you may be asking? Sorry, that would make this “21 questions.” I am not one to mess with math.
What is your favorite season?
If you’d asked me this five years ago when I lived outside Phoenix, I’d say winter, the only time of year you don’t have to go outside slathered in fire retardant. Now that I’m in Oregon, the nod goes to spring. Not because of the whole “rebirth of nature” stuff, but because you don’t have to put on three layers to walk the dogs. And the trees look much nicer.
How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
Quietly and out of the way, hoping Death isn’t paying attention.
What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
If you haven’t read the urban crime dramas of SA Crosby, you need to do so now. Also, as a fan of movies that make you think, “Of the billion parallel universes, this is the only one where such a film could exist,” I alert you to “Sharks of the Corn.” Sharks. In a cornfield. It doesn’t get any better than that.
What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
I direct you to Question No. 8. That brings us down to 19 questions, thus allowing me to answer, “What are your two favorite Stephen King books?” They are, in order, “Salem’s Lot” and “The Stand.”
What do you do when you have free time?
I’m retired, so it’s easier to ask what I don’t do in my free time. Garden. Knit. Play golf. OK, it would be easier to say what I do in my free time – anything that involves a couch, a screen, and one device to rule them all.
What can readers expect from you next?
I’m going to heat up a cherry Pop-Tart. But the question probably has more to do with my next book, which is a sequel to UPTON ARMS. It’s been clinically tested for 40 percent more hilarity. I’m not saying it passed that test. Your results may vary.
What if eternal life wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be? Achy joints, cranky moods, and failing powers prove immortality is just late-onset death.
Such is the life of a six-hundred-something whose best years are in the rearview mirror—and Vlad can't even see himself in a mirror. Now living in Upton Arms, a retirement community for once-powerful supernatural beings, Vlad and his eccentric neighbors are learning a painful truth: life, even for immortals, is terminal.
Rising at dusk is a struggle, and turning into a bat? Forget it! Vlad’s stiff wings are more likely to cause a crash landing than a graceful flight. And when it comes to his hypnotic powers, he can’t even convince someone to grab him the remote control in the community room than control their will.
Just when Vlad thinks it can’t get worse, Upton Arms faces something more dangerous than his existential crisis—foreclosure. Vlad sees it as the final nail in his coffin, even as the other tenants rally behind Luis, a werewolf and unofficial pack leader. Together, they’ll fight for survival, and Vlad will discover a shocking truth: it’s not too late to start living again.
Full of dark humor, supernatural drama, and unforgettable characters, Upton Arms is a must-read for fans of quirky paranormal fiction.
Fantasy | Humor [City Owl Press, On Sale: October 7, 2025, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781648984747 / eISBN: 9781648984730]
Scott Craven is a retired journalist who spent more than forty years telling the stories of others. He spends much of his time now telling his own stories, using the kind of creative writing frowned upon when he worked for newspapers. After enduring 37 years of scorching summers in the desert, Scott and his wife Melissa moved to a small town in Oregon, living in tiny homes with their three dogs. When Scott isn’t writing, he’s either reading, building Legos or enjoying the region’s craft beer.
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