Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve been writing since 1996. I’ve written science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, YA and middle grade. I have seven full length novels and numerous short stories.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest is the science fiction thriller, Squaring the Circle, out March 1st, 2019. It was inspired by television shows like Nova and Through the Wormhole. I love the Science Channel, always have. I also love fiction that takes existing technology or theory and puts a speculative spin on it, like nearly everything from James Rollins and Michael Crichton. Jurassic Park blew me away when it first came out. If I had to point to any one book that inspired me to write Squaring the Circle, Jurassic would be it.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I used to write all my books longhand, and then make my wife type them for me. She didn’t enjoy it much and I didn’t enjoy listening to her complain about it. So now I type them myself. I also drink from a coffee cup named Dorothy, which has little to do with my actual writing process…or does it?
What authors, or books have influenced you?
As I’ve said, Michael Crichton, James Rollins. And Stephen King. And George Orwell, Kurt Vonnegut, Christopher Moore, Richard Kadrey, Neil Gaiman, Hunter S. Thompson, and so many more. I try to soak in the best parts of my favorites as I read, taking note of what techniques they use, what works so well for them, and then set those things aside for later use. Learn from others successes. It’s all there, waiting for me on their pages. Hopefully, some of that genius will find its way onto mine.
What are you working on now?
My time is currently divided between promotion for my new release and writing the sequel. I plan to make it a five book series, although that may change. Maybe it will end up merely a trilogy, or perhaps I’ll get really ambitious and it’ll turn out having seven installments (a Potter-O-drillogy?) Who knows? Only time, and fan reaction, will tell.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
There are lots of places online to promote yourself, especially if you have at least one permafree book. Handbook for the Criminally Insane is mine. A call to action at the end of the free book is a great way to point readers to the books that cost money.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write as much as you can. Experience is the only way I know to get better at anything. If you keep at it, somewhere along the way you’ll stumble upon that ever-elusive and hard to define element that everyone talks about– voice. Voice cannot be taught because it is you. It is the one truly unique thing you bring to the table that no one else can. It is your word choice, your cadence, your flow, the structure that supports both character and plot. Your voice belongs to you alone. It will arrive without being sought, without fanfare or adulation, one day when you least expect it, but only if you keep pushing that pencil. I promise.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
In writing there are guidelines, but no rules. The best writers bend, and even occasionally break, the guidelines. If you seek to go against the expected norms of your genre, that’s okay, as long as you have good reason to. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. The readers will let you know either way.
What are you reading now?
The Outsider by Stephen King.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I will keep reading, keep growing and keep learning. Above all, I will keep writing. It’s what I do.
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?
What an awful, torturous question. If I had to pick only a few, it would be a new release from each of my favorites that I haven’t yet read. That way, at least for a little while, I’d have something new to read.
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