Featured Interview With P.I. Barrington
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I am now an ex-Californian living in the Southern US! Raised in California, I always planned to die there (or in Maine). Well, I did just that. In 2015, I fell over dead from my desk with a cardiac arrest! I was dead for 25 minutes and woke up in a rehab facility. My sister insisted we move closer to the rest of the family in case it happened again. So far, I’ve been fine but that same sister passed away a year later from cancer. I’m still shell-shocked from her passing. So, if I’ve learned anything, it’s being careful what you wish for ’cause you just might get it.
I now have 2 dogs, my sister’s MaltiPoo, Whiskey Pete and his sister, my dog, CupCake. Yes, I know they sound like an old gold miner and a prostitute. We named Whiskey Pete after the casino, Whiskey Pete’s on the California/Nevada line. We love them both.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
It was more a fascination with reading and books themselves, especially when my little public grade school took us to its library. You could read books for free! (That was also when I began my lifelong obsession of keeping library books because I believed that no one else would love and care for them as I would–you could read them for free, but you could not keep them for free. My name was on that library list until I was about 43 and I insisted they expunge my name. True story.) Writing wasn’t something I ever really thought about until one day in 3rd grade when the principle of my school announced that we all had to write a story about how to care for and preserve the flag written in First Person point of view. “What a dumb thing to do!” I thought, but I wrote it. Guess what? Yes, you are correct. I won First place out of the entire school district! That was right around the time I mastered cursive. From then on, I spent all of my time fighting not to write but it chased me around like my shadow. I ended up a news reporter, a news director in radio before I gave in to writing at the perfect time for me. I’d never wanted to write because writing fiction wasn’t a “real job” and I wasn’t the dramatic artsy type. But but when I gave in to that artsy side, it was all over for me—I kept wondering why I didn’t focus on it before.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I’ve read everything from John Milton to MAD Magazine. Stephen King is still the one who influenced me the most. I love his writing, it’s dramatic and deep but still very accessible to people. I loved Mary Stewart, Tolkien, Colleen McCullough, James Michener, So many I can’t list them!
My favorite genre has to be near-future (I call it that because I never set my books further than 100 years from now) crime thrillers & sort of dystopian genres.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
The latest, which will be released at the end of this month, May 30 to be exact, is The Brede Chronicles, Book Two. It picks up a year after where Book One ended on its cliffhanger. Book Two is more of a mystery, however, with all sort of goings on in that Brede family dynamic. I was writing this book while my sister was going through chemotherapy. It was difficult but I think it got me through that and through her death. It may sound cruel and uncaring, but I couldn’t have handled it without writing. I took about six or eight months to write it and my publisher was understanding. Normally, I can kick out a story in about 4 months and kick up the action too. Book Two has everyone scattered across the galaxy, and I even added more characters! I don’t know if readers will love or hate them, but they’re there. I hope everyone will enjoy this new book! (FYI, The Brede Chronicles, Book One is $0.99 at Smashwords): https://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=The+Brede+Chronicles+Book+One
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