Top Selling Authors: Get To Know Them Better

Featured Interview With Angelo J. Falanga

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
By Labor Day 1995 I had been living in Brooklyn, New York for three months with my maternal grandmother, helping as she recovered from open heart surgery. Celebrating the holiday, a block party had been organized by too few of the neighbors to bother getting a permit to close off the street. I was cooking chicken using a barbecue grill wheeled up onto the concrete in front of my grandmother’s stoop when a neighbor sat down in a beach chair set up behind me. That neighbor was Frank A. Stokes. What began with a one hour conversation once the chicken was cooked would become fifteen years of work and friendship with the late composer and bandleader. Stokesified! is my memoir of the experience, based on more than 20 hours of interviews I recorded beginning in 2001. I studied Political Science at California State University, Long Beach. I left college for a job on the NBC game show, Time Machine, while studying comedy writing with Get Smart writer Dee Caruso at UCLA. I worked from 1985 to 1992 for the late lighting designer Wally Russell as a personal assistant and in the stage management of the Los Angeles Opera while Mr. Russell served as the company’s Technical Director. (See The Wally Russell Foundation and The Wally Award, bestowed for excellence in lighting design) I lived and worked in Germany from 1992 to 1994, traveling throughout the continent during these years. For Mr. Stokes, I assisted in the home studio where three albums were produced and with the booking then staging of live performances while managing Mr. Stokes’ web presence, also serving as a photographer and videographer. I live and work in Las Vegas, Nevada.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I remember coming home from kindergarten in Brooklyn knowing B and K were the last two letters I couldn’t yet print. From grade school I was reading newspapers, never comic books, and my abilities as a speed reader were such that I was surprised with an award for it at my 8th grade graduation. Writing was always the career I thought I’d have, but I fell in love with putting on live shows. Now as I’ll soon turn 50 with both of the brilliant men I’ve been fortunate to work for now gone I’m back where it all began for me, writing, with a memoir published and two novels in progress.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Actually, my favorite writer is someone few would have heard of. J. Michael Kennedy was a correspondent for the Los Angeles Times based in the Beirut of the 1980’s where foreigners were being kidnapped and held for ransom. His crisp, clear style served the subject matter well. I admired how he kept his wits about him and remained free to report under the most challenging of circumstances. My favorite novelists are Thomas Pynchon and Jack Kerouac. Gravity’s Rainbow is my single favorite book, while people still get on my case about how long my sentences can be, a result of the speed reading way my mind works and too much time spent suspecting Kerouac was the same way. I remember going to a book signing with Steve Allen at the Sportsmen’s Lodge out in the valley one night. Allen told me Kerouac was actually very shy. That makes sense to me. You follow your inspirations, you fall in and out of love, but you don’t make a big deal of yourself. That’s why I’m glad Thomas Pynchon never did an interview. I honestly don’t think his life is the driving force behind his work. Being able to pull him off a shelf without ever knowing a thing about him is a deal I’m fine with. Of course, the opposite is true in the cases of Hunter S. Thompson and Gore Vidal. I’ve heard Vidal get knocked as an intellectual lightweight, but if so, he’s my intellectual lightweight. I like the connections Vidal drew and the observations he made. I like his playful books more than his serious ones and I like his essays more than his fiction. Most of all I like the fact that it would not have been possible for him to care what I think of his work. As for Hunter S. Thompson, I had a job cold calling to see if people wanted to invest their money in an operation raising ostriches in Texas to sell the meat and hides. Given all the places I was free to call in the United States, of course one of my first calls was to the Woody Creek Tavern. Of course, Hunter wrote my favorite suicide note, but I bring that up as a serious point. I think he remained vital and readable to the end of his productive days. The struggle with Bill Clinton over the basket of french fries in Better Than Sex is epic. A few days before his death I felt absolutely compelled to pull Fear And Loathing On The Campaign Trail out of a drawer and take it with me to the laundromat. I’ve heard all the stories about how William S. Burroughs hardly wrote what came out under his name, and again, it’s a subject I could care less about. As long as there’s a whiff of him to it, fine by me. I like Richard Ellmann’s biography of Oscar Wilde as much as I like Oscar’s writing. That book by Ellmann was a major influence on how I would approach writing about the late Frank A. Stokes, even if the two finished products look radically different. The tone of quiet, persistent dignity, that’s what I was after. I know that for long stretches of my youth I was influenced by Maugham, especially The Razor’s Edge. Again, that’s a case of insults traveling in a circular orbit, as I read what Vidal had to say about Maugham, but I guess that feeling when I was young of being so much less than the geniuses around me made my mind want to cheer for second chances. Of course, there’s a whole other aspect to my inspiration, the music, as there were times when I was working in the stage management of the Los Angeles Opera while my sister was drumming for a female hard rock trio on the Sunset Strip. In the same 24 hours I could be around Placido Domingo and the people who knew Kurt Cobain before he made it. The single greatest night of my life was October 11, 1979. I saw The Clash for the first time that night at The Hollywood Palladium, weeks before London Calling came out. It was the first time I ever felt like I belonged somewhere.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
Stokesified! is a word Frank A. Stokes coined to describe how any sound he heard he would make his own. I worked for Mr. Stokes from 1995 until December 2010 when he went into his fatal heart attack sitting next to me. In June of 2001 I began recording interviews with Mr. Stokes and musicians ranging from the world class jazz players Mr. Stokes had performed with at Carnegie Hall and the downtown clubs to the underground musicians Mr. Stokes began his career with at CBGB’s and Max’s Kansas City. I did a painstaking job of accurately transcribing the recordings while doing my writing around the interviews. There are no chapters and the timelines run concurrently so as to emphasize the notion that no one era Of Mr. Stokes’ life was greater than another. The book also details what happened as Mr. Stokes and I were about to begin working in his home studio on 9/11, and in the months to follow. It is perhaps one of the most detailed accounts of life in New York City beyond Manhattan as people put their lives back together.

Buy the book Smashwords.

Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles

Author’s Website

Facebook Page

Twitter Account

Featured Interview With James M. Corkill

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I’m a retired Federal Firefighter from the Puget Sound area of Washington State. I grew up in that area, on Orcas Island. In my senior class of eighteen students, only five of us were guys. Every male student in the high school had to turn out for sports in order to have enough for a team, so making the varsity roster was easy. We all did.
A few of us formed a rock band we called, The Generation Gap. Don’t laugh, it was the late sixties. Needles to say, we never made it big in the music industry.
I live in the Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina now, and enjoy writing full time.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
While I was a firefighter on Whidbey Island, I was fortunate to meet a famous horror writer, Hugh B. Cave, who lived on the island. He inspired my desire to start writing, but stated, “Just don’t quit your day job, because very few writers can make of living from their stories.” I took his advice and waited until I retired before getting serious about writing a novel. Now I’m working on my third.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I’ve always loved science fiction, both movies and stories. I was, and still am, an avid Star Trek fan. When I was young, I read all the Hardy Boys stories, and everything by Jules Vern. While a firefighter, I fell in love with action adventure stories, prompted by the stories from Clive Cussler. I decided if I combined Vern and Cussler, sci-fi and action adventure, I could write an interesting story, hence my first novel, Dead Energy, which is the first episode of the Alex Cave Adventures.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
There are no alien worlds or galactic battles in my stories. Just regular people thrown into unusual circumstances, desperately trying to save humanity. I did, however, give Alex Cave access to advanced technology to help him on his quests.
Alex is geophysics instructor at a university in Montana, but also ex-CIA, so he has plenty of help when he needs it. In Alex’s latest adventure, Cold Energy, a piece of advanced alien technology, left behind millions of years ago, is instantaneously freezing vast amounts of sea water, causing the Polar Ice sheet to expand at an incredible rate. If Alex cannot find a way to stop it, humanity will be plunged into a new ice age, and every living thing on the planet will die.

Buy the book on Amazon.

Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles

Author’s Website

Facebook Page

Featured Interview With Stan Morris

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I’m a child of the fifties and sixties. When I was born, Josef Stalin was still alive, and most of Africa was owned by Western Powers. I lived through the Civil Rights movement and the war in Vietnam. I started writing after seeing a show on tv called “Star Trek.” One of the enduring lessons I learned is, “All things in moderation.” I’m an optimist, but a realist, too. I live on the island of Maui where I see, daily, the futility of trying to stop change. I’ve been married for over 38 years, making me one of the weird people, now. We raised two boys who we encouraged to attend college far from home, so they would know that they were capable of thriving without our interference.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I remember sitting on my Grandmother’s knee at three or four as she read books to me. She always owned books, and later I discovered Zane Grey at her farmhouse. When I was about eight, I discovered this wonderful place where they let you take books home for free! It was called the library. I learned to ride to the library, check out books, take them home, and hide them under my bed, so my anxious mother would not realize that her little boy was biking clear across town. I started writing my own novels when I was fourteen, but luckily they have been lost. In 2008, I began writing a novel about some teenagers who were trapped in the Sierra Nevada Mountains by a mysterious brown fog that covered the Earth below 6,700 ft. (2,042m)

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Over the years, my favorites have changed, often due to the death of the writers. I read Louisa May Alcott, William Campbell Gault, and Jim Kjelgaard when I was a boy. Later it was Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov who thrilled me. After I discovered the “romance” genre, I could not get enough of Jayne Ann Krentz, Marion Chesney, and Nora Roberts. Presently I like David Weber and Eric Flint.

I like most genres as long as the writing is good. I’m not a great fan of fantasies, but I love the Merlin books by Mary Stewart, and the books of Tolkien, Meyers, and Rowling. I heartily recommend Lindsey Davis and her series about a detective in ancient Rome. Pamela Morisi wrote about diversity in romance when there was none. I am inspired by all these writers.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
In 2008, I wrote Surviving the Fog. The theme of the book is that humans tend to form communities in the face of disaster, they don’t turn on each other as portrayed in Lord of the Flies. The main influence of STF was Tunnel in the Sky by Robert Heinlein. Heinlein set his book on another planet. I set my book in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, but the idea was the same; teenagers could cope with disaster. The major complaint I received was that I focused too much on the boys and not enough on the girls, and there is a case to be made for that complaint. I was communicating on Goodreads with a woman who mentioned this, and I started thinking about Kathy, a fourteen year old character from the book. I began to imagine how Kathy would see the events in STF, and to my surprise, she saw many of them quite differently. I began to jot down notes and then to write scenes, and the more I wrote, the more obsessed with the story I became. I decided to write Kathy’s story, and for the first time, I decided not to set a word limit for the novel; I would write until I was satisfied that I had told her story. After ten months and over 200,000 words, I finished. The result is Surviving the Fog-Kathy’s Recollections. I believe it to be a much better book than the original, but of course, it should be, since I’ve grown as a writer.

The book follows the evolution of the teenagers from a group of strangers at camp, to a tribe and then to a community. It shows how the values they learned as kids helped them to survive the elements, outsiders, and each other. It describes the natural growth they go through as the years pass. For example, the amount of cussing in the book gradually increases, the longer they are alone, but when children are born, they take stock of their language, just as they were taught by their parents. Nothing moderates human behavior like having small children around.

The evolution of the characters is probably the most satisfying feature of the book. A boy who is not the biggest, the oldest, the strongest, or the smartest becomes the leader, because he is capable of foresight. A timid girl learns to speak up, and she becomes a force on their Council. Some make critical mistakes, but accept the consequences of those mistakes and move on. Deaths are inevitable, but so are relationships. This is not a book for very young teenagers; 15 and up is the age target.

Buy the book on Amazon.

Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles

Author’s Website

Twitter Account

Featured Interview With John Reinhard Dizon

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
Here’s my bio: John Reinhard Dizon was born and raised in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn, NY. He participated in local and high school sports at Bishop Loughlin MHS, and was a key figure on the Brooklyn rock scene during the Punk Revolution of the 70’s. Relocating to San Antonio TX in the 80’s, he moonlighted as a pro wrestler before pursuing a BA at UTSA and degrees in Korean martial arts during the 90’s. He currently lives in KC MO where he is studying for his MA in English at UMKC. Mr. Dizon has been studying and writing about American and European society and culture for over twenty-five years.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I started writing dialogue for my stick figure cartoons when I first got out of diapers. My Mom caught me reading the newspapers when I was three years old, that’s true. It became a lifelong addiction.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I collected the entire James Bond anthology by Ian Fleming as a boy and the Conan the Barbarian series as a young man. They had a great influence on my technique. I went on to Shakespeare in University, and am currently studying Franz Kafka.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
Here’s the blurb (coming in May 2014 from Assent Publishing)…

Transplant is a shocking tale of murder and mayhem that unfolds as a missing athlete turns up at a NYC brownstone described by police investigators as ‘an indescribable pit of hell’. A missing supermodel found in the streets of NYC leads the police to the residence, where four renowned neurosurgeons are trapped in a basement under siege by NBA superstar Jerome Browne and a victim of horrific experiments known as Combo. Victims of ghastly transplant operations rescued from the building lead police to believe that the doctors are responsible for the demonic experiments. Yet the doctors’ alibi proves airtight as they assign blame to a mysterious Dr. Cyclops who lured them to the brownstone and framed them for the frightening atrocities. Homicide Detectives Tommy Jackson and Orrin Rampersad are being pushed to their limits in solving the case, coming across ever greater abominations as the truth is gradually revealed. They are faced with the choice of indicting four doctors considered pioneers in their field, or a phantasmal surgeon no one can prove actually exists.

Culturally it’s a narrative on three social levels. The ‘Mad Doctors’ live in an upper-class environment, four yuppie Jewish doctors. Tommy and Orrin are trying to raise their families in Lower Manhattan’s middle-class sector. The underground lab is in the high-crime areas of East Harlem. The detectives are symbolically and literally establishing the link between the disparate societies that the Doctors are involved in.

Adam Rauch is the major antagonist, having sacrificed everything in pursuit of knowledge. He cuts a deal with drug lord Django Tamsulosin to have fresh subjects provided for his projects. Yet he sincerely believes that his bionic limbs and transgenetic skin grafts will revolutionize the medical industry. He personifies the ideal of ‘the ends justifying the means’.

Tommy and Orrin are a righteous version of HBO’s True Detective. Tommy is a two-fisted, hard-drinking cop, but would never cheat on his wife. Orrin is the laid-back voice of reason but is absolutely fearless. They would probably prefer a violent arrest but end up with time as their major enemy.

The part I enjoyed most about writing this one was the research that got me back in touch with Manhattan, where I spent half my life. The other part was working with Tommy and Orrin. Quite a pair of characters!

Visit Johns Profile on Amazon.

Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles

Author’s Website

Facebook Page

Twitter Account

Featured Interview With Nadine C. Keels

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I’m Nadine, a native of Seattle, Washington (US) and a lifelong bookworm-turned-author with a particular passion for fiction. I’m becoming as much of a film lover as I am a book lover—it all stems from my love of storytelling.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
My love of writing stemmed from the many books I read as a child, from authors like Beverly Cleary and Judy Blume. Hence, I’ve been writing stories since I was seven or eight years old. Then, during the few days of a horrific experience I had when I was thirteen, a novel saved my life: John Nielson Had a Daughter by Ruth Livingston Hill. That whole experience is a long story, but my purpose for writing books (beyond writing for my own pleasure) was first awakened there. I now write to help people: to bring hope, to change minds, to expand imagination, to provide entertainment, and to save lives, all of which other authors’ books have done for me.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I’m partial to Henry James for his command of language, Janette Oke for her sweet simplicity, L.M. Montgomery for her beautiful descriptions and timeless characters, and J.E. Keels for his haunting style of storytelling. These days, I most enjoy reading classic literature and Christian Fiction, and my favorite books tend to include some measure of romance. Henry James and L.M. Montgomery may be the two writers who influence me the most outside of myself; the writer I will be someday ultimately inspires me the most, pushing me to keep on writing. I don’t wish to be the next James or the next Montgomery, but I do wish to be the best me.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
The Movement of Crowns is a novella series of royalty, romance, war, and hope, set in the fictional kingdoms of Diachona and Munda. The three books center on an indomitable princess, a beautiful prankster, and a young, untried ruler of a powerful Realm: three people whose destinies are entwined. An epic journey awaits each of them, after which they’ll never be the same.

So far, readers seem to really appreciate the lead character, Constance, a young woman readers have described as strong, mature, passionate, educated, and kind.

I began drafting scenes for the first book, The Movement of Crowns (which I thought for years would be the only book) back when I was a high school senior, inspired by the thought that although my generation was young, we weren’t precluded from aiming toward greatness. It took over ten years of growth, both as a person and as a writer, for me to be able to convey the story as I see it, and I wrote and published Crowns in 2012 in Love & Eminence: A Suite of Stories. It wasn’t until the spring of 2013 that I got the idea for a sequel. The “other side” of the Crowns story came to me, pretty much all at once, one afternoon. Out came The Movement of Rings, which demonstrated to me how the other side of a story isn’t the “other” side to the people who are actually there, living life on that side. After that, I thought one more book would round out and top off the Crowns message nicely, so I wrote The Movement of Kings.

Some call the series historical fiction, and while I didn’t set out to become a fantasy author, others call the series epic fantasy. The Crowns series doesn’t have the facts to technically be historical or alternative history, and it doesn’t have the element of magic to fit well into the fantasy genre, so I started calling this fiction series epic— heroic, majestic, with its elements of peace and war, cultural and international issues, family dynamics, personal dreams, and romance.

Buy the book on Amazon.

Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles

Author’s Website – Facebook Page – Twitter Account

Featured Interview With Cody J. Sherer

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born and raised in the Los Angeles suburbs. My first move came when I was twelve years old. We still lived in the LA area. Fast forward fifteen years and I moved to Palm Springs and got married.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I grew up reading books my entire life. The books that were the most interesting to me were Science Fiction and Fantasy. Writing came a ways later. I don’t remember the exact year, but sometime between seven and twelve I wrote short story for a school project. It was enjoyable, but the writing spark didn’t hit until significantly later. Though, my older brother enjoyed writing and that had an effect on me later wanting to write.

I was going to college and began writing for fun. Short stories, fan fiction, online text based roleplaying, etc. This went on for about three to four years before a good friend of mine came up with the idea of writing a non-fiction book together. We spent several months doing so and even self-published through a local printer. It didn’t go so well, but it did help me to see that fiction writing was a feasible direction for me to go. After that, I began writing and didn’t stop.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My favorite authors include J.R.R. Tolkien, Raymond E. Feist, Robert Jordan, Ursula K Le Guin, and several others. As evidenced by the previously mentioned authors, Fantasy is my favorite genre to read, closely followed by Science Fiction.

Authors, friends, and family all inspire me in my writing. Whether it is basing some of a character’s traits off of somebody I know or thinking of a new idea through reading another author’s writing, they all inspire me to put forth my best. I’d also say that TV, movies, and even video games can inspire me to write en epic scene or character.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
My latest book is the second the “Tales of Canai” series. It follows the role of a set of Wizards and their allies in fighting a war against various enemies. Much like the first book in the series, the second book tackles not only the outer struggles that are faced by our heroes, but also the inner struggles.

It is a Fantasy novel with a lot of the standard roleplayers like Wizards, dragons, elves, dwarves, etc. A lot of the influence comes from The Lord of the Rings, The Wheel of Time, Game of Thrones, and similar Fantasy novels.

The main characters include a young Wizard who has only recently come to realize his potential. A former Princess who finds herself being used for her royal ties as well as her position in the Wizard ranks. An elderly wiser Wizard that does his best to assist the younger generation in the dangers of recklessly using magic. A half-elf with a unusual abilities. There are several other characters that are all equally intriguing.

Buy the book on Amazon.

Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles

Author’s Website – Facebook Page

Featured Interview With P.S. Winn

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was raised in Montana, moved away and am now back. I lived in Utah and Idaho. But I miss traveling and want to take a road trip.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I always wrote even as a small child, but didn’t publish until October 2012, now I have nine novels working on ten.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I love to read anything and everything, classic Stephen King, Tolkien and new authors like John Dizon. I have 201 reviews on Amazon ( started after I started publishing) & I am working on more.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
“Pacific Passage” takes readers on a dream cruise which turns to a nightmare of death and mystery as the ship goes through a strange passage.

Buy the book on Amazon.

Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles

Author’s Website – Facebook Page – Twitter Account

Featured Interview With CJ Verburg

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
Although I grew up in northern New Jersey, my most formative years were the ones when I escaped parental controls, hopes, etc. and explored on my own. Favorites include living with 7 friends in a seaside mansion in Marblehead, MA, where I helped my then-boyfriend rebuild a 72-foot yawl, and owning my first house in Yarmouth Port, Cape Cod, where I ran a small theater company and collaborated on theatrical adventures with my friend and neighbor Edward Gorey. San Francisco stole my teenage heart the first time we met, and after Edward died and our theater burned to the ground in a freak chimney fire, I moved permanently(is there such a thing?) to the city of music, love, and flowers. Out of all this gadding about has come a 19th-century epic-in-progress which chronicles the adventures of an orphaned Bostonian, a Cape Cod sea captain, a Baltimore courtesan, a San Francisco journalist, and many other colorful characters rooted in real-life history. Meanwhile, I continue to have a great time writing mysteries!

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
After my mother died I found a scrapbook photo of me at age 1 “reading” to a circle of stuffed animals. If only I’d known sooner, I could have skipped the phase of wanting to be a cowgirl and circus rider! Still, thanks to parents who read to me every night, I started reading at age 3. I did skip the entire children’s picture book section of the library, unless you count Marguerite Henry’s wonderful “Misty of Chincoteague” and “Album of Horses.” Magic and history also were early favorites: Hilda and CS Lewis, and the Landmark series, from Catherine the Great to the Monitor and the Merrimack. By age 12 I’d completed my first novel, and by 16 won my first playwriting award. It’s all been uphill from there.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Agatha Christie was the first mystery writer I read, and her brilliant plotting still awes me. I love the Golden Age authors: Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh, Rex Stout…and now I’m reading crime fiction writers I met at the Left Coast Crime 2014 conference in Monterey, including Ann Cleeves, Louise Penny, Laurie R. King, and Jeri Westerson. Like Penny and King, I draw inspiration from poetry and music as well as books–I first picked up Louise Penny because she’d used one of my favorite Leonard Cohen lines as a book title (‘How the Light Gets In’). Aside from crime and mystery I love meaty books such as Norman Rush’s ‘Mating,’ Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace,’ Daniel Kahneman’s ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow,’ and just about anything by Jane Austen or Barbara Kingsolver.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
My book ‘Croaked: an Edgar Rowdey Cape Cod Mystery’ is very much in mind as I’m now working on the sequel, ‘Zapped.’ I think the main reason I started writing this series was my frustration at having finished all the English village mysteries I knew of. My friend, neighbor, and frequent collaborator, the brilliant artist Edward Gorey, was also a great fan of this genre. His whole house was like a library, with one room for nothing but mysteries. One day Edward and I were lunching in our local greasy spoon, Jack’s Out Back, and I mentioned to him and Jack that this would make a great setting for a murder mystery. Edward said “Oh, absolutely.” Jack said “Only if he’s the one who gets killed.” I took that as a mandate and a challenge, and proceeded to write ‘Croaked.’

Buy the book on Amazon.

Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles

Author’s Website– Facebook Page – Twitter Account

Featured Interview With Larry Hochwald

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. That may not seem particularly special because a lot of people are from Brooklyn, but Brooklyn isn’t like anywhere else. It’s vibrant and diverse and the epitome of what people think of when they imagine the great things about the city. These qualities in your landscape help to develop a writer. Then, I had the good sense to grow up poor, with parents who had an unhappy marriage. That’s like author’s gold, a writer’s Nirvana! Growing up happy might allow one in a hundred thousand to write well, if they even try to write, in between soccer practice and the prom. But growing up poor and in chaos, ensures that your artistic impulses are built on a strong foundation of anger and misery. A writer couldn’t ask for much more than that!
Besides writing fiction, I write about improving healthcare and am a health care advocate; speaking, writing and acting on behalf of those challenged by mental illness and other chronic disease. My writing on those subjects has been published in print and on blogs.
My fiction and OpEd pieces have been published on some popular websites since 2011. Some of my fiction has been featured content. I’ve had thousands of readers and scores of fans online, which prompted me to take the plunge and come out with my first book. Not From Around Here is that book, my first collection of short fiction.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I started reading voraciously as young as I can remember. I started writing somewhere between 12 and 14 years old.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I read everything by Stephen King, Harlan Ellison, Isaac Asimov, Jane Austen, John Irving and Piers Anthony. Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Algernon Blackwood and H.P. Lovecraft have also been influential favorites. I enjoy the work of Alice Munro. I learned about connected collections of short fiction in part from her work.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
Not From Around Here is a collection of 18 connected stories that come together in the final, title story. The stories span many genres: literary, humor, horror, speculative and science fiction, fantasy, paranormal and thriller. In it you’ll walk into a world where very real people find themselves in unreal situations, and witness things such as: young man is sitting in a salon getting his haircut, when he sees someone waving to him in the mirror. He looks around and realizes…the man waving isn’t in the room….. A college student meets a beautiful girl that wants
to fulfill all his fantasies, but first he must join her club, and the initiation…is a horror. A man reaches out to his mother, he tries to connect, but she’s just not the same anymore. Another
man’s life is in a shambles until a little boy with a special gift reminds him of healing power of friendship. From meeting yourself walking down the street to surviving a homicidal groundhog, you’ll go places and meet people that are more familiar than you might expect. You’ll go on 18 journeys filled with excitement, suspense and laughter.

I worked many months on putting this book together. I had written about half the stories during the previous 2 years, but once I decided I wanted to come out with the collection, I spent another 5 months writing several more, than while m,y editors worked on it (about 2 months turn around time) I worked on putting together the order, format and artwork. I hope you like the result!

Buy the book on Amazon.

Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles

Author’s Website

Facebook Page

Twitter Account

Featured Interview With Joseph Picard

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I grew up all over Canada, but from around age sixteen and on, I’ve been in the suburban soup around Vancouver BC. Weather’s alright, and the snow generally keeps out of the way of me and my wheelchair. I know a lot of people from the states hear “Canada” and think “SNOW!!!” but to those types, I just have to say..

“You know Seattle?”

“Yeah…”

“It’s like that.”

“Oh. RAIN!!!!”

… Well, yeah. Oh, it’s not that bad. Shush.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
“Realize my fascination”… well, there’s no modular, identifiable fascination, it’s part of life. Maybe because my mother’s a voracious reader, books were just the norm. I started writing in school, with assigned short stories, and found myself eventually writing them for myself, for fun. It was only when story lines got really long that I figured out that books were brewing…

I start with a concept, then throw in characters. I spend quite a while getting to know them before writing about them too much. I often fall for them, (hopefully this reaches the reader) and when I have to hurt them… wow, it can hurt.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Oh boy.. It’s hard to peg some down. I still have a pleasant aftertaste from Michelle Patricia Browne’s ‘Underlighters’. I finally own my own copy of Max Brooke’s World War Z. (I’ll skip the typical rant about the movie…) Robert J Sawyer does a lot of awesome stuff, his WWW trilogy is my favourite of his.

What inspire my writings? I often say it starts with the idea of “Wouldn’t it be cool IF:”. This generally leads to sci-fi themes. I’d dabbled in the supernatural, but I generally dislike how easy it is to pull a trick out of one’s hat. Sci-fi suffers the same issue often, but I limit myself to a certain level of plausibility- which has led to finding stuff form my books getting invented in reality. Which is creepy and amazing.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
My most recent is Echoes of Erebus. It caps off a 3 book series, (which I made sure that each were readable stand-alone.) I want to say it took a bit over a year to wrap up.

It follows Sarah as she discovers that she’s entirely artificial, and her creator/father is the mind that caused millions of deaths in book 1, Lifehack. She gets to know him, his new motives, the seeds of her origins, and faces a monstrous threat similar to what her ‘father’ once created. Oh, and he lives in her skull. And the world would like him dead. It’s awkward. In some odd ways, it comes down to her ‘families’. The one of her ‘birth’, and the one she finds.

Buy the book on Amazon.

Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles

Author’s Website – Facebook Page

Featured Interview With Tristen Evans

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
My name is Tristen (obviously, ha-ha). I was born in east Texas. Currently I live in Arp, a small town close to Tyler. I was raised on my family’s ranch. My faith and family are big parts of my life (pets are family!).

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I’ve written stories since the fourth grade, but when I actually started WRITING, writing, was in seventh grade. I started a story about a boy named Carter with magical powers (I’m a big fan of Harry Potter and Avatar: The Last Airbender). That particular story is now my first published work called, The Resistance: Carter which was completed and published in 2014 (16 years old).

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My favorites authors include Christopher Paolini (Inheritance Cycle), Suzanne Collins (Hunger Games Trilogy), and Colleen Houck (Tiger’s Curse Series). My favorite genre is definitely fantasy. I love how someone can create worlds and characters that aren’t similar to our own world.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
My latest book (not published yet) is the second installment of The Resistance series. It is all about the newest Snaga in the series and how she copes with being one of the powerful and legendary Snagas.

Buy the book on Amazon.

Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles

Author’s Website