Interview With Author Bob DeGroot
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a Doctor of Clinical Hypnotherapy, Associate School Psychologist, Past Life Therapist, Energy Therapist, REIKI Master 1st Degree, and Consultant. I’m the former owner of an international training company, a Licensed Professional Counselor, an Assistant Instructor of Psychology at Texas State University, and a Supervisor of the Children’s Forensic Clinic for Harris County (Houston).
I’ve written 47 business books, 25 of which have become Amazon Top 100 Bestsellers. And one that has been on the list for six years, 11 months.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Find and Talk with Spirits using a Pendulum is the title of the latest book.
The book started as a collection of research notes about working with spirits and paranormal events, going back to an experiment I was conducting using extrasensory perception at Texas State University, moving forward to doctoral training, which included remote viewing, dowsing, and many esoteric elective courses, concluding with a series of paranormal investigations I am currently performing. It kept getting thicker and thicker, and a book was born. Really, it’s more than a book. It’s a full-blown instructional training manual.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I like plotting a story rapidly using bullet points, then going back and adding twists. I take care of developing my characters because their characteristics will dictate how they must react to situations or create tremendous internal and external conflicts with other characters.
After that, like many writers, I go into a trance and let the characters do what they do best – act out the story.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Lee Childs’ Jack Reacher series is the most important because he taught me that Reacher never loses the war. He will win. I want my protagonists to have something special that gives them a leg up so my readers will always know they’ll make it right and be alright in the end.
What are you working on now?
I’m now writing a new fiction mystery series using paranormal methods to solve mysteries surrounding locating and recovering missing persons, fugitives, evidence, artifacts, and cargo. While the stories are fictional, the paranormal methods (dowsing, Remote Viewing, etc.) are real and based on my training and experiences and the demonstrated capabilities of professionals working in missing person rescue and recovery, fugitive location and capture, contraband discovery, and others.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Our training company’s website (https://saleshelp.com) has been the primary driver for our business book and web-based training sales. However, now that we’re winding that down, I’m exploring more traditional marketing methods for my new series of books.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Have fun with it. Dream it, then put it to paper.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Ernest Hemingway never tore a paper from his typewriter, crushed it, and threw it away. Instead, he considered everything he wrote important and did not want it to be so disrespected as to trash it. It was a mental motivator to do better but not to put what you wrote down in any way. To this end, when I’m writing on my computer, I always have a page open called “Notes and Removals,” where I can paste what I cut from the original manuscript. So many times, I’ve gone back to that document to retrieve a paragraph or two.
What are you reading now?
Most books I’m adding to my library are related to “How to Write Fiction.” This is all brand new to me. So, I’m attending workshops online and conferences (Mystery Fest Key West, Sleuthfest, etc.) to learn the trade. I’ve been successful as a writer with business books, but this is a whole new world for me, and I love every minute of it.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Developing a twelve-book mystery series with paranormal twists. It’s incredible how much groundwork has to be done in the early books to foreshadow those that follow.
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?
1. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5)
2. Metaphysical Anatomy (Evette Rose)
3. Harper’s Encyclopedia of Mystical and Paranormal Experience (Rosemary Ellen Guiley)
4. 12,000 Dreams Interpreted (Gustavus Hindman Miller – updated by Linda Shields and Lenore Skomal)
With those books, I could access unlimited inspirational prompts to fantasize about and develop story after story. My mind would never go numb.
Author Websites and Profiles
Bob DeGroot’s Social Media Links
Author Interview Series
To discover a new author, check out our Featured Authors page. We have some of the best authors around. They are just waiting for you to discover them. If you enjoyed this writer’s interview feel free to share it using the buttons below. Sharing is caring!
If you are an author and want to be interviewed just fill out out Author Interview page. After submitting we will send it out in our newsletters and social media channels that are filled with readers looking to discover new books to read.
If you are looking for a new book to read check out our Featured Books Page.