Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am from Michigan. What more is there to say? I guess I could mention that I’m from the mitten part.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest and only book so far is called The Chocolate Prophecy. It was inspired by a lifetime of slowly accumulated storytelling ideas that finally just sort of congealed into a single, relatively cohesive blob one day. Anyone who reads it will see that I borrowed a lot from a wide range of sources, but the overall structure of the story is best compared with The Hobbit.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m sure there’s nothing unusual about being lazy most of the time, so no.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I did mention that I looked to The Hobbit as my pattern. That said, mine is a world that tries to marry the deep lore style of Tolkien with the dry wit of Patrick F. McManus. I also found reading Jurassic Park useful to my writing.
What are you working on now?
A court drama set in the same world as my epic fantasy. If you read it, you’ll understand.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I have no good methods yet. Hopefully, I can list this site among some future list of promotions that actually help!
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write better stories than most people are doing these days. Always pick tried and true over new and dumb. I say this not because I know it will bring you success, but just because I’d like for there to be more decent stories out there again, now that the mainstream has moved so far away from it.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Brandon Sanderson: “Write the stories you want to read but no one else is writing.”
What are you reading now?
I just finished Elantris, ironically enough. So I’m in between books.
What’s next for you as a writer?
To make enough money to quit my day job, I hope.
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 hope to find 3 or 4 books full of reliable strategies for getting off a desert island, I guess.
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