Featured Interview With Richard Skorupski
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
After a 21 year career in the Navy, I returned home to my native state of New Jersey. Following my passion for the open waters, I started a second career in the recreational marine parts business. After ten years of dealing with the dense population of New Jersey and its high cost of living, we had had enough. My wife, Cheryl, and I sought to find a peaceful, friendly environment for our second retirement. We now happily reside in Spink County, South Dakota.
We live on a 17-acre hobby farm. We have a lab mix dog. Buddy is the fifth dog we have had in our thirty years of marriage. We also maintain a clowder of barn cats. Some of the cats are friendly, and some are feral. Regardless, my wife has a name for each one.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
When I was in grade school, I was fascinated with submarines. In high school, it was science fiction. Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov were my favorites. That was when I became a faithful reader.
I started my first attempt at a novel when I was in my thirties. Unfortunately, it was a murder mystery. Why unfortunately? I couldn’t figure out “Who Done It,” so I gave up.
In 2009 at the age of fifty-seven, I took up the pen again (okay, the keyboard). It took me two years to write Flyover County. I have been writing ever since.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
When I was young, it was all about science fiction. Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov were my favorites. Later in life, I tended toward action books by James Michener, Clive Cussler, and Dale Brown. I even took a short side trip into fantasy with Hitchhiker’s Guide by Douglas Adams.
Recently I am more into stories in my genre, Rural America and small towns. Debbie Macomber, Carol Cox, Vickki Kestell, and Jillian Hart top my list. They are all terrific storytellers. I can get lost in the worlds they create.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My most recent book is River Of Destiny. It took me five years to get this one right. I had started it, didn’t like the way it was going, so I put it down and wrote The Frank Stanbauer Story. I took it up again and started reworking the plot. I removed the parts I didn’t like. That left me with too little of a storyline. I set it aside again and wrote a collection of short stories. I published them in a book called Whiteout! And Other Stories.
The first three books in the Flyover County Series tell stories of city folks moving to a small Midwestern town. River Of Destiny goes the other way. I tell the tale of a boy raised on a rural farm and his adventures in a big city college. There is a subplot in the book about the girl he left behind. Too much more would be a spoiler.
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