Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I was was born Daniel Earl Javorsky in Berlin and immigrated to the US. I’ve been, among other things, a delivery boy, musician, product rep in the chemical entertainment industry, university music teacher, software salesman, copy editor, proofreader, and novelist. My novels include Down Solo and Trust Me, and a sequel to Down Solo will come out in October of 2017.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The second book in my Charlie Miner series, called Down to No Good, will be out this October. The opening line to the first book, Down Solo, popped into my head and into a Word doc and demanded an explanation.
Okay, wait a minute–my latest book is actually Trust Me, which was inspired by a real-life character who was a sex predator in the LA recovery community.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I have an unfortunate habit of not writing. Then, occasionally, out it comes. It’s like teetotaling and then binge-drinking. I work as a copy editor and proofreader, so my mechanics are pretty good.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Hoo boy, okay:
Elmore Leonard, because i like mean-and-lean.
James Lee Burke (the anti-Elmore) because of his deep exploration of character, and because he can hold my attention even when he’s describing a sunset.
Graham Greene and John Le Carre, for setting the standard.
Brian Moore, for creating a secondary character in Cold Heaven that served as a model for Charlie Miner–dead but ambulatory, with no other weirdness.
So many more: Michael Gruber, Iain Pears, Neal Stephenson, Gabino Iglesias, Jorge Luis Borges . . .
What are you working on now?
I have a third Charlie Miner book plotted, roughly. And I have a fairly fleshed out sketch for a father-son crime novel that is close to my heart.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I have no idea what has been effective. I have somehow managed to garner some nice blurbs from writers with fine reputations. This whole process is very much like back in the day when I played in bands in LA, trying to get the record deal, inviting friends to the clubs we played, etc. It’s like taking vitamins: you don’t know which ones help so you take a bunch and hope.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Sure. Read, write, take a class. Join a read-critique group. Leave it when the experience gets old, but stay in touch with the people you liked. It helps to be in a culture of writers and not exist in a creative vacuum. Read Strunk and White. Own a copy of The Chicago Manual of Style. Know the rules so can break them. Be satisfied with the intimacy you can create with whoever reads your work and hears you as you want to be heard.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Be here now.
What are you reading now?
The Eye of Spirit: An Integral Vision for a World Gone Slightly Mad, by Ken Wilber
What’s next for you as a writer?
Social media and promotion effort to try to get more people reading my Charlie Miner sequel. And write one or both of the two books I have in mind. And (Yikes!) I might take on a ghostwriting project, for a writer who needs help.
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?
Would I be stranded forever? It makes a difference. Anyway, assuming that’s part of the formula:
Radix, by A.A. Attanasio
Godel, Escher, and Bach, by Douglas R. Hofstadter
and, just maybe, the Bible, which I’ve never been able to slog through.
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