Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I landed on Earth in Stockton, California sometime in the 20th century. Writing and acting were my two passions and I was fortunate to combine both when I was hired as a weekend gunslinger at a western amusement park called Pollardville Ghost Town. I played various characters in the skits we performed on the main street of the town and eventually wrote a few. On the same property was a melodrama/ vaudeville theater called the Palace Showboat. As soon as I hit that stage, I got to do everything I ever wanted to do in show business. It was kind of one stop shopping. I could act, sing, dance, perform stand-up, MC and of course write and direct the shows.
When I finally moved up to Oregon at the turn of the millennium, my writing career took off with my first book, a movie memoir called IN THE DARK: A LIFE AND TIMES IN A MOVIE THEATER. I followed that up with a novel, a road rage saga called RED ASPHALT. Then I took a lighter path with my next two, PLEASE HOLD THUMBS, a true travel tale about my South African journey and a collection of the works I wrote for the Palace Showboat entitled NOW THAT’S FUNNY.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
SONG OF THE CANYON KID is a western comedy romance about a singing cowboy who returns home to face a hanging judge who’s taken over the town and the girl he left behind, now about to marry a known desperado.
This one is a total cartoon. The main character is a singing cowboy. What is the last book you hummed? The characters are intentionally over-the-top and the entire tone is a sweet parody, an homage to the B-movies westerns of yesteryear. And in full disclosure, it’s also a novelization. I based this novel on my comic melodramatic play entitled SONG OF THE LONE PRAIRIE or POEM ON THE RANGE, one of the shows I wrote for the Palace Showboat Theater at Pollardville.
I realize the stigma of a novelization, but I felt creatively stagnated and needed an writing exercise to get myself in gear. Digging through my old writings, I came across his script for LONE PRAIRIE. a melodrama I consider to be the culmination of everything I learned at Pollardville. Adapting it into novel form came fairly easy, fleshing ot the characters and transposing the stage direction into prose. Soon, it took on a life of its own and I was hooked.
Overall I had a blast with this, the most fun I’ve had with a project since I wrote the original back in the ’80’s. SONG OF THE CANYON KID has given me back the joy of writing. By returning to my roots, I found that in order to move forward, sometimes you can go home home again
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not really, though I can write just about anywhere which is why I am never without a pen. I wrote a lot of THE CANYON KID in my car. No, not while I was driving.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
From the first time I read it when I was a teenager, J.D. Salinger’s CATCHER IN THE RYE resonates with me to this very day. I aspired to write like Richard Brautigan and Tom Robbins in my early years and their collective influence is in my sub-conscious. Anthony Bourdain’s writing, particularly A COOK’S TOUR and KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL, inspired my non-fiction work.
What are you working on now?
I just completed a script for an interactive murder mystery for the Mel O’Drama Theater in Nashville, set to debut in April. Next up is a long gestating novel that I hope to complete by the end of the next millennium.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
When I started as an independent author that was nothing at my disposal except e-mail lists and press releases. Now there is such a wealth of promotional help out there that it is difficult for me to mention just one. Okay, how about starting here? Would that be considered sucking up?
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Read. Write. Repeat.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
It’s so simple that it’s almost trite, but I think it speaks volumes. “You can’t win if you don’t play.”
What are you reading now?
My tastes are so diverse. I started the year with Mary Roach’s hilarious biology lesson GULP and followed that up immediately with FLIP, Kevin Cook’s biography of Flip Wilson. Then I went right into Dennis Lehane’s crime saga LIVE BY NIGHT. Next up is MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN. Like I said, diverse.
What’s next for you as a writer?
More promotion, more writing. SONG OF THE CANYON KID made me fall back in love with writing again. But I really tested myself with that murder mystery script because I had such a short deadline and I made it with minutes to spare. At this point in my life, I’m ready for another challenge. Bring it on.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Four volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica.
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