Search Results for: DIE LAUGHING

Featured Interview With Louis K Lowy

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
A former firefighter, I sometimes feel as if I jumped from the fire into the frying pan when I took up writing as a means to fulfill my passion to create characters and worlds that I longed to inhabit or longed to avoid. I also play bass guitar, though not as frequently—something’s gotta give when you write.

Originally from Pittsburgh, I moved at a very young age with my parents to South Florida and have remained here. I have two grown children. I live with my wife and our terrier, KC.

I am a recipient of a State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship, my work has appeared in, among others, New Plains Review, The MacGuffin Magazine, The Chaffey Review, and the anthology Everything Is Broken. My first novel, Die Laughing, is a humorously dark sci-fi adventure set in the 1950s.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
As a child growing up I loved, loved comic books. I accumulated more than 10,000 (and yes, I still have them!) This evolved into a love of books — anything from J.R.R. Tolkein to Sinclair Lewis and Charles Dickens. I play bass guitar and wrote song lyrics for the many original bands I played in. Story writing came later, after I left the fire department and I cut back on playing, mainly because I enjoyed writing so much.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My range is wide open. I love everyone from Jane Austen to Stephen King. I gravitate toward sci-fi/fantasy/supernatural but anything that is well written and engaging I’m always happy to read. Favortie authors include the two previous mentioned ones along with James Joyce, Ray Bradbury, Charles Dickens, Cormac McCarthy, Ernest Hemingway, Flannery O’Connor, Eudora Welty and on and on.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
My first novel, Die Laughing was released by IFWG Publishing. As I mentioned earlier it is a humorously dark sci-fi adventure that takes place in the 1950s. It is the story of Las Vegas funny man, Sam E. Lakesside, who is abducted by shape-shifting aliens and their leader, a power-hungry mobster, and forced to participate in a plan to rob the earth of it’s oil.

Sam recruits a black-listed comic book writer and the mobster’s ex-girlfriend to fight back. This leads them to New York City and the Steve Allen Show, where Sam is forced to choose what he wants most in the world — to be a star — or the planet’s survival.

IFWG just re-issued the print and e-book version. They added new font and tan, pulp-like paper to the hard copy to give it a 1950s feel. They also corrected a few typos that bothered the heck out of me and, (dare I say it?) allowed me to tighten up a few passages.

My forthcoming book, Pedal, is a women’s fiction novel. It is scheduled for release by Assent Publishing in spring, 2015. Pedal tells the story of Joanne Brick, a single, 49-year-old elementary school music teacher who is fired and struggles to reclaim her life back through bicycle racing.

I wanted to create a realistic, contemporary story with an everyday, middle-age heroine, and where the stakes take on a greater significance beyond itself. I also thought the theme of change and how ordinary people deal with it was an important issue worth writing about, particularly in these times of economic uncertainty.

I hope Pedal will inspire women and men of all ages to overcome life’s turning points.

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Featured Interview With Roger E Pedersen

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS WITH ROGER E. PEDERSEN

As a video/ computer game designer whose life turned upside-down without a job, car, and residence forced into a homeless shelter.
Instead of wasting hours watching TV in the shelter, Roger used his laptop and research to write his first Sci-Fi Dystopian book SuperPower The Ability to Fly, or to Become Invisible ‘The Deal of the Art.’

QUESTION: Roger, could you tell us about your book, The Deal of the Art, which is the first book in the series of SuperPower book series? How does this book come about?

ANSWER: (as violins are playing in the background…LOL) I lost my job, my live-in girlfriend left me, my car caught on fire, I could not pay my expensive rent so I moved into a homeless shelter in NY City. I had a laptop and wanted to do something significant more than watching TV. I had heard that J.K. Rowlings was poor on welfare and wrote Harry Potter. Later, writing my third book I found out in Porto Portugal she was an English teacher, and seeing her documentary as a child, she pretended to be a witch with her redheaded male friend.
I researched and discovered that Comedian, and talk show host, John Hodges wrote in American Life Magazine about the most asked question “If you had one SuperPower would you want to fly or become invisible?”
I researched if anyone had ever written a book about this even when dozens of magazines had, even, the first Shazam film had the handicapped child asked the new foster child that question. In the NY City Democratic Candidates for Mayor Debate, the second to last question was that. So, I decided that in the first book, some people discover that they have the SuperPower to fly or to become invisible. Playing on Donald Trump’s book The Art of the Deal, my book humorously is The Deal of the Art as my SuperPower people steal $3.5 billion of masterpiece artwork from the world’s top art museums in NY City, London, and Paris.
I was one of the top video/computer game designers in the industry so every book has three games in them such as a name the reference to a film, a book or music. For example: In book #3, when the richest 20-year-old in the world is about to marry the world’s top SuperModel and she finds out her agreement with the Professor has turned sour and she and her maid of honor vacate the wedding, his twin brother states, “Your Pretty Woman has become The Runaway Bride. Two Julia Roberts and Richard Gere films.
In the first book, when Paul is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY City and is sitting behind the Beatles drum set, (from Book #1)
“I will be your huckleberry, Ringo.” Paul chuckles, knowing that he is merging the two different adversaries Ringo’s, Johnny Ringo, and Ringo Starr.
Readers get game points here for listing a film and music references.
There are two adversarial groups DODGE the Department of Defense Genetically Engineered Initiative and the Golden Eagle Organization headed by Professor Steele.
Besides, SuperPowered people, all births are done in-vitro, LGBTQ marriage is not only legal but the majority and following death only a cremation is legal.
All my books have the same cover with s different subtitles and are numbered, with the names of my four daughters, friends, and tv/ film characters like Tom Handkerchief.
One day my best friend wined to me that he was not in my book. He is the only NY State Jewish Republican. At that time, Biden was running for President and people questioned could former President Obama legally be his Vice President, to satisfy my best friend Yarjovski, I put in a similar named character in the first book, Bob Yarjo is the first Jewish Republican President the following books his daughter is President Roberta Yarjo and Bob Yarjo is her VP.
In books #1 and #2, I wrote over six songs that the talented female singers sing in concert.
The first book, I have written a screenplay to and the film series may be optioned on StoryRocket.Com.
The five-book series is on Amazon as a paperback and eBook, Google Play as an eBook, and audiobook,
IngramSparks as a paperback and eBook, in catalogs of B&N Walmart and Target.

Question: Then you have the follow-up title in the name of The Next Generation, for readers who have not read it yet, and without giving much information away, could we have a sneak of what we would expect to pick up The Next Generation?

Answer: The second book takes place twenty years after the first book and being a Star Trek fan hence The Next Generation. The twins of Diego Martin and Carmen Marti from Spain in book #1 move to San Fransisco in book #2 and have twins Salvador and Pablo. The Professor has adopted after his brother’s death his twin sons, Apollo and Rocky.
In Book #3, when I mentioned the SuperModel marriage to a billionaire twin, when the Steele twins meet her, they both want to date her.
In round one, they try their best to win her over and when the Professor asks her which twin she wants, she states it is a tie (film Rocky, Apollo ties Rocky) and after further wooing by the twins, she selects Rocky (film Rocky 2, Rocky beats Apollo).
From Book #2 onwards, all SuperPower people can fly or become invisible plus they have another unique SuperPower ability.
Books #2 through #5 are sequential in time and the series has won prestigious awards.

Question: I have always been fascinated by how authors, especially novelists craft long sentences and bring words together in a way that it eventually makes a great novel. This always leaves me thinking about how exactly they got their ideas and inspiration. Now, as far as writing is concerned, how do you get your inspiration and ideas?

Answer: I am blessed because I come up with an idea and months later that is exactly what I need. I also borrow from every source that I put a ‘citation section’ stating free usage law as a secondary protection.
I have written two computer game design books and this five-book series but I do not type even as a programmer I only use my two index fingers. On my cell phone, I have a ‘Speech-to-Text’ app and I chat all day having the app write for me. There are plenty of funny items like when I say ‘which is, and the app writes ‘witches.’
I email my lengthy speech to myself and store everything in Word where I review the grammar and spelling. I listen having Word read each chapter back to me and make fixes where needed.
As a long-time developer, I use Calibre but need to spend hours writing my own HTML code and stylesheet code.
Jokingly, I state I wrote seven 400-page books without typing.
I begin each book with an outline and spend hundreds of hours researching everything. Then, I write the first and last chapter so I know how I begin and where I going. I keep lists of names and for what country, people’s name is from. All the books have lots of humor as I think smiling and laughing makes reading fun.

Question: I am curious to know if you experienced any challenges while writing your book, if there is any, could you share with us what challenge it is, and how you ultimately overcame it? Also, how do you handle criticism as a writer?

Answer: I tell other authors that progress is moving forward so even if you have writer’s block, write a few sentences to advance the story.
A reviewer stated ‘I had the most amazing book but the grammar was edited badly. I complained on Facebook to other editors who stated that even Harry Potter originally had grammar problems but readers bought the book.; Critics are like rears everyone has one, right?

Question: Apart from SuperPower: The Ability to Fly or to Become Invisible book series, do you have any other works you have authored, or currently working on?

answer: I imagine the series can go on forever even 100 years from now after I am gone since there is so much as a book series and a film series.
Hollywood realizes that sci-fi, dystopian books make great movies like the Harry Potter series, Twilight, Hunger Games, and Divergent.
Why stop there when I have the SuperPower Series with flying like Harry Potter broomsticks, Twilight’s vampires, and invisibility like the Hobbit and Harry’s cloak?
And besides, I wrote as the author, the first book’s script is ready to start today and producers can get on free to StoryRocket.com and read about the five-book film series.
Tagline: The Thomas Crown Affair art heist on steroids
Logline: What would you do if you had the SuperPower of flight or invisibility? Professor Steele and FA-King get a team with the newly acquired SuperPowers of flight or invisibility to rob the world’s renowned art museums in NY City, London, Spain, and Paris of $3.5 billion in one well-planned night.

Question: Could you tell us what publishing is like for a published author like yourself? Are there any challenges you have encountered ever since you got published?

ANSWER: The challenge is time and strategy of what is the most important item right now.
In 2010, when I wrote the two-game design books, publishers paid me money to write a book and had ten thousand copies stored in a warehouse. Today, it is almost impossible to get a publisher and why should the author share the money from their hard work? Do not get me wrong, as an author and publisher, I work 16/7 on this series but I am homeless right now so I have lots of time.
The industry is now print on demand, you buy SuperPower on Amazon and Amazon prints your copy of SuperPower. SuperPower is also available as an eBook and audiobook.
No warehouse and I as the author can make changes if needed anytime.
I write or chat, edit, and market my series on 500 Facebook groups, Instagram, LinkedIn, X or Twitter, YouTube, and Reddit, answer messages from other authors and marketers on Facebook, create my book covers for eBook and paperback, write, and edit the paperback and eBooks, matching them making sure the eBook matches the paperback, lots of little items that must be done like podcasts like this excellent one.

QUESTION: Is there anything that you will love to share with the viewers about your books that we did not mention in this interview and you would love the viewers to know?

ANSWER: The Google audiobooks are $14.95; eBooks are $9.99 to $13.99 and the paperbacks are $24.95 to $34.95 US in English.

Question: As a published author, what sort of advice do you have for writers who are still struggling with publishing a book?

Answer: Write anything. Do it to accomplish something, do it to see your name in print.
Today’s world is DIY Do It Yourself, learn to DIY.
Have fun with it, and improve the world by thinking, laughter and emotion.
I tell my daughters, this is a book, not an apple, in six months that red apple will not look or taste great. Tolkien’s Hobbit and LOTR films came 28 years after his death so books will survive forever.

QUESTION: Where can readers get a copy of your book?

ANSWER:

SuperPower: The Ability to Fly or to Become Invisible: – Books on Google Play

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I lost my job, my live-in girlfriend left me, my car caught on fire, I could not pay my expensive rent so I moved into a homeless shelter in NY City. I had a laptop and wanted to do something significant more than watching TV. I had heard that J.K. Rowlings was poor on welfare and wrote Harry Potter. Later, writing my third book I found out in Porto Portugal she was an English teacher, and seeing her documentary as a child, she pretended to be a witch with her redheaded male friend.
I researched and discovered that Comedian, and talk show host, John Hodges wrote in American Life Magazine about the most asked question “If you had one SuperPower would you want to fly or become invisible?”
I researched if anyone had ever written a book about this even when dozens of magazines had, even, the first Shazam film had the handicapped child asked the new foster child that question. In the NY City Democratic Candidates for Mayor Debate, the second to last question was that. So, I decided that in the first book, some people discover that they have the SuperPower to fly or to become invisible. Playing on Donald Trump’s book The Art of the Deal, my book humorously is The Deal of the Art as my SuperPower people steal $3.5 billion of masterpiece artwork from the world’s top art museums in NY City, London, and Paris.
I was one of the top video/computer game designers in the industry so every book has three games in them such as a name the reference to a film, a book or music. For example: In book #3, when the richest 20-year-old in the world is about to marry the world’s top SuperModel and she finds out her agreement with the Professor has turned sour and she and her maid of honor vacate the wedding, his twin brother states, “Your Pretty Woman has become The Runaway Bride. Two Julia Roberts and Richard Gere films.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Norton JusterThe Phantom Tollbooth

Tell us a little about your latest book?
The SuperPower book series by Roger E. Pedersen revolves around individuals who possess extraordinary abilities.
Let me break it down for you:

SuperPower: The Ability to Fly or to Become Invisible: The Deal of the Art (Book #1):
In this thrilling setup, regular people discover that they have the SuperPower to either fly or become invisible.
They team up with Professor Steele and his associate, the FA-King, to pull off the world’s largest one-night $3.5B heist of major art museums in New York City, London, and Paris.
The story unfolds as the next generation realizes they now have received one of the two SuperPowers:
DODGE (The Department of Defense Genetically Engineered) Initiative vs. the Golden Eagle Organization.
The stakes are high as these SuperPower individuals aim to steal from prestigious art museums, and the tension builds as the two organizations clash.

SuperPower: The Ability to Fly or to Become Invisible: The Next Generation (Book #2):
Twenty years after Professor Steele’s heist, the twin sons of Diego and Carmen Martin take over the DODGE Initiative.
Elijah Moses Jr. and the Professor’s two nephews lead their respective organizations.
Both groups recruit SuperPower individuals for missions worldwide—some for riches, others for glory, and a few for humanitarian reasons.
Every SuperPower individual has acquired an additional SuperPower besides flying or becoming invisible.
The battle between SuperPower vs. SuperPower unfolds, with twists, turns, ending in a final air battle that depends on everyone’s abilities.

SuperPower: The Ability to Fly or to Become Invisible: Golden Eagle Has Yielded (Book #3):
-Delving deep into the clandestine and turbulent world beneath the facade of power, this book explores the aftermath of past events into the ongoing conflict between SuperPower factions.
-The Golden Eagle Organization faces its most critical challenges yet, and the stakes have never been higher.
-The Steele twins, Rocky and Apollo fall madly in love with the gorgeous SuperModel Myrena Gorgona who despises rejection and lies.
-Secrets, alliances, and SuperPower abilities collide in a thrilling conclusion to the series.

Roger E. Pedersen has created a compelling story series with unique characters, combining elements of science fiction, action, and intrigue. If you’re a fan of dystopian settings, SuperPower abilities, and high-stakes heists, this series is worth checking out!

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Featured Interview With Gerald Hogg

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I am originally from Bedford in England but I grew up in Middlesbrough. When I was four years old, in the mid-1950s, my parents took me to Jamaica to live which must have planted in me the seed to travel, as I have been travelling ever since. I have lived in ten different countries and worked in five-star hotels and restaurants around the world as a chef. I have also worked on cruise ships, Antarctic supply ships, a gold mine in Papua New Guinea and the Falkland Islands after the war with Argentina.
I have written seven books in total, five of them are travel books aimed at retirees and baby boomers and I have also written a biography, “You will never amount to anything”.
I have now retired to Thailand where I live on the beautiful island of Koh Samui and travel extensively throughout South East Asia researching my travel books.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
The first books I remember reading were the Just William series of books by Richmal Crompton. As I matured I read everything Charles Dickens wrote and all of The Hobbit series of books by J. R. R. Tolkien, I also loved Catch 22 by Joseph Heller. My daughter was born in 1974, and as she grew older I would read Watership Down by Richard Adams to her at bedtime. Looking back now it was probably a little scary for a little girl, but she loved the book as much as I did. Being at sea for much of my life, books were an important source of entertainment in the few leisure hours that you get working on a ship. I would read everything that I could get my hands on, from Agatha Christie to Ernest Hemingway, from Nevil Shute to Leslie Thomas.
I started writing at the age of 65 when I retired in Thailand. With 60 being the new 40 that would be 41 in new years. I wrote my first book The Retire in Thailand Handbook for retirees and baby boomers who may be looking for an alternative retirement plan, to retire to a country where their pension dollars will stretch much further. I found that I loved writing so much that I made the book into a book series, “The Retirees Guide Travel Book Series”. I also wrote a biography “You Will Never Amount to Anything and have just finished my first novel; The Deptford Mask Murders.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My favourite authors of today are James Lee Burke, Elmore Leonard, Dennis Lehane, Kate Atkinson, and Khaled Hosseini. I also like to read any travel-related books especially anything by Michael Palin and Bill Bryson. I don’t think any author actually influenced me, I just loved losing myself in a good book, but many authors have inspired me, Ernest Hemingway, Harper Lee and Charles Dickens.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
The book is called; “The Deptford Mask Murders; the First Capital Murder Trial in 1905 Using Fingerprint Forensics.”
The inspiration for the book came from my brother John. It was his project but he sadly died while the book was still in its planning stage. I decided to research the story myself and when I started to read about this fascinating period of criminal history I could see how the story of the Stratton Brothers trial had impressed my brother so much, so I chose to write and publish the book as a tribute to him.

In 1905 a crime took place in London that would change the way that police forces around the world would identify criminal suspects, the Deptford Mask Murders.
On the 27th of March 1905, Thomas Farrow was found beaten to death in an oil and paint shop he managed in Deptford. Ann Farrow, Thomas’s wife was also badly beaten and succumbed to her injuries and died in hospital one week later. This was the crime that the Scotland Yard Fingerprint Bureau had been waiting for since the bureau was formed in 1901, a high profile crime that would put the spotlight on the science of fingerprinting as a reliable, efficient and infallible system of identifying criminals.
A week after the crime was committed; Brothers Alfred and Albert Stratton were arrested and were later put on trial at the Old Bailey accused of wilful murder. The prosecution had very little evidence to convict the brothers and what they did have was mainly circumstantial, except for a thumbprint which was found on a cash box in the Farrows bedroom above the paint shop. Fingerprinting had never been used to solve a serious crime before in Britain and was often seen as being untrustworthy and untested, with one magistrate Fingerprinting had never been used to solve a serious crime before in Britain and was often seen as being untrustworthy and untested, with one magistrate writing to The Times; “Scotland Yard, once known as the world’s finest police organisation, will be the laughing stock of Europe it if insists on trying to trace criminals by odd ridges on their skins.”
The book is based on those true events and is my interpretation of what I believe could have happened 115 years ago when fingerprints were used for the very first time in Great Britain to convict the Stratton brothers of wilful murder.
All of the main characters in this book who played their part in having the brothers convicted were real people in this extraordinary historical event.

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