Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I live in El Paso, Texas, having arrived there in 1988. As Texans would say, “I wasn’t born here but I got here fast as I could.” I love the desert Southwest and the diversity that is El Paso, and have made it my final stop on a lifetime of journeys, having lived in Maine, Iowa, Maryland, and Japan.
I hold degrees in biochemistry/molecular biology and music, as well as a commercial pilot’s license. As a pilot, I have logged 6,000 hours of flight time and once ran my own flight school, teaching many others to fly airplanes. I’m also a firearms instructor, trained and certified in multiple shooting disciplines and compete on the state, regional, and national level in marksmanship competitions, once taking a national title. I draw on my flight and firearms experience for my crime/suspense series, The Unit.
I started writing seriously in 2019, publishing my first book, Gabriel’s Call, in that year. I’ve since continued writing with my crime/suspense series called The Unit with a prequel called Before the Unit: The Recruiting of Kevin Banks that tells the backstory of one of the characters. The Unit now is 20 books long, and I’m currently finishing up book #21.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book, the one I’m currently completing, is Book 21 of The Unit series and titled Gridlocked. It’s about a hacker who manages to topple a huge swath of the U.S. electrical grid, causing not just inconvenience but also loss of life. As I do research into topics that I feel will make good books for the series, I often come across topics I haven’t truly considered. Upon further research, it often turns out that these topics are more pressing in our modern society than most imagine. When these topics can be placed in a scenario where a crime has serious consequences, I’ll write another sequel to my series.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’ve been smiling lately over the back-and-forth regarding those who outline their books before writing them and those who simply dive in. I find I do a little of both, starting to write without an outline, but then developing the outline and filling it in as I go along. Like many, I have a specific location set aside where I write on a daily basis and where I’ve surrounded myself with the tools of the trade: laptop and desktop computers, binders of reference materials, and usually a cat or two. Right now, one is keeping my feet warm.
Perhaps my most unusual habit, though, is to think about what’s going on in the book I’m writing as I go to sleep. Often, I wake up with new ideas for the book. I have no idea why this works for me. Maybe when my brain isn’t occupied with the other nuances of life, it can concentrate on brining my story to life.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Isaac Asimov had a big influence on me when I was younger. I even wrote him once, and he wrote back! It was learning that he was a biochemist that made me also pursue biochemistry. Oddity, though, is that I don’t write science fiction though I still enjoy reading it. Currently, I’ll read just about anything! I love Frank Zafiro’s police novels for their realism and his insider’s view of police work and how it influences those who perform it.
What are you working on now?
My current work in progress is Book 21 of The Unit series, Gridlocked, about a hacker who manages to topple a huge portion of the U.S. electrical grid. It’s nearly complete and should be published within the next 30 days. I have another sequel in mind after this one is finished. That one will be called Lone Wolf, and will feature an anti-government extremist who engages in acts of terrorism.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Oh, the dreaded promoting! I’m like every author, I think, in hating the process. The truth, however, is that promoting is an absolute necessity, so I continue to experiment with various promotional methods. Using promotional sites such as Awesome Gang has so far been the best method I’ve found for boosting sales and gaining both visibility and those much-needed ratings and reviews. I constantly tell other authors I network with that with Amazon currently offering about 50 MILLION books, you MUST promote your work if you are to succeed!
Do you have any advice for new authors?
I have TONS of advice for new authors!
First, don’t doubt your ability. Don’t let your inner voices tell you that you can’t be successful as a writer, and don’t let people around you do the same. You have a story. You have one of the following: pencil/pen and paper, a typewriter, or a computer with a word processing program. Sit down and start writing. You can even dictate your story and transcribe it later. But DO IT!
Second, don’t get hung up on how many words or pages your book “should” be. Your book should tell your story. If it turns out to be a short story, submit it to literary magazines. Either that, or sit down and write some more short stories and put them together in a book. If it turns out to be novella-length, bear in mind that there are a lot of people who absolutely love novellas. If it’s book-length, then fine!
Third, don’t listen to those pundits who say you should “write to the market”. What the heck does that mean? You want to write the same kind of book everyone else is writing? How will it stand out if you do that? Just concentrate on writing your story. If it’s interesting and you promote it so people will be attracted to it, you have a great formula for success.
Fourth, don’t listen to those pundits who say you have to sit down and write every day. I’ll admit that I do, but every so often things conspire to make your creativity lag. Don’t worry about that. Take a vacation from writing. You’ll come back with fresh ideas once you’ve given your brain and your characters a rest. I never engage in angst over a dry spell, but just let it happen and wait it out until the rains of creativity return.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
LOL! It’s not a bit of advice on writing! It was this: “Never try to change a man. Men never change.” I assume that can also apply to women, so I’ll not be sexist in that regard. I think it’s true, though, that you have little chance of changing another person, so it’s best to accept that you have differences with others and instead concentrate on the things you agree upon.
What are you reading now?
Here I’ll reveal that I’m also an editor, as I’m currently doing a little refresher reading on English grammar. Not the most invigorating reading, but necessary to the trade. As an editor who charges by the hour, I’ll recommend this to other authors as well. The less work I have to do on someone’s manuscript, the less it costs them to get it edited. Please, don’t rely on Grammarly! It’s not perfect!
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m already planning the series that will be the sequel to my current series. It will be another crime/suspense series, but instead of featuring a woman as my law enforcement team’s sniper who is romantically involved with one of the men in the team (they’re basically husband and wife but can’t get married for reasons best explained by having you read the first book of The Unit series), it will feature their two children. In my present series, I get to describe how law enforcement duties affect those in relationships. In the next, it will describe how those same duties affect those with other family ties. Naturally, the son and daughter will engage in typical sibling rivalries, but just let someone else make a remark about one of them and you can bet the other will come running to his or her defense.
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?
I would bring four large books bound entirely with blank pages. If I have to scrawl in them with bits of charcoal, at least I get to keep writing.
By the way, the editor in me says that I think you mean a “deserted” island. 😉
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