Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
This is my 23rd book, my 8th novel. My day job is as a college adjunct instructor gypsying around the several campuses where I work, although because of the pandemic, I’m now doing all my teaching from my basement on my laptop.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
MEDIAN GRAY, which, on the black/white color scale is the exact middle. The biggest inspiration for the book were my own young days working in NYC during the early 1980s. The city was a crazy, scary, exciting place for a young person and, in a way, the novel was something of a response to all the scary, exciting craziness I was witnessing.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not especially. I’m not one of those write-every-day types. In fact, I’m not particularly disciplined at all except when I have a due date. I’m pretty good about making due dates. My corporate experience (I was corporate for 29 years) cultivated a skill for turning in work on short turnaround times. Helped me develop the ability to do a lot of work in my head so when I actually had the time to sit at the keyboard, I could bang stuff out.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Oh, it really depends. Different authors have influenced me on different things. On MEDIAN GRAY, I would say Evan Hunter’s Ed McBain novels and George V. Higgins’ work. On my first novels, a series set in WW II, John LeCarre’s was a style I was trying to emulate.
What are you working on now?
Nothing in particular. There’s a crime story I’ve been working on for quite some time, and now that my semester has started up and it’s all got to be done remotely because of Corona I don’t have a lot of writing time. I do have a film project on a low simmer and am waiting to see what happens with that.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I actually haven’t done much of it and am pretty inept at self-promotion.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
I’m very reluctant to offer advice because I find we all find are own way. I’ve never had a plan, have fallen into some opportunities, chased in mercenary fashion after others. I suppose the only advice I’d feel comfortable giving is one of attitude. Take your writing seriously, but don’t take being a writer too seriously. As my first creative writing teacher told me, don’t do this for the money because you probably won’t make any. Don’t do this to become famous because, again, probably not going to happen. That only leaves doing this because you can’t NOT do it.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
A few years ago I went back for my MFA to better qualify me to teach. One of my instructors there gave a piece of advice I often repeat when a discussion about do’s and don’t’s and supposed “rules” comes up: “You can do anything…as long as you do it beautifully. Of course, you can get yourself into a lot of trouble that way, too.”
What are you reading now?
Nothing. Once my semester starts, I’m too busy reading papers. I’m teaching 5 classes at 3 different institutions.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Oh, I don’t know. There’s that crime book I’d like to finally finish. I have a mystery romance done under a pen name submitted at a couple of places. I’d like to see if this film project takes off. Other than that, for the next three months it’s about reading 50-60 student papers each week.
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?
Hmmm, that’s a toughie. Ernest K. Gann’s memoir FATE IS THE HUNTER is something I’ve read a bunch of times and have always enjoyed, maybe because I’m terrified of flying and envy someone who truly seems to have loved it. Steinbeck’s EAST OF EDEN because I love the organic structure of it. Salinger’s CATCHER IN THE RYE. Evan Hunter did a book called STREETS OF GOLD which so echoed my own family’s immigrant experience that maybe that might be my 4th.
Author Websites and Profiles
Bill Mesce, Jr. Amazon Profile
Bill Mesce, Jr.’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Twitter Account