Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I have always wanted to be a writer. But instead, I have been an engineer in the mining/construction industry, an artist, having worked for two music publications in the early to mid-1990s, and a lifelong fan of the Grateful Dead, with ticket stubs and a massive live show collection to prove it. After all those, I published my first book, The Foxfire Terror, a few years ago at age sixty. Since then, I have written two more books, Remember A Day, and Deviation. I am currently working on a fourth book, a dark, futuristic novel, Terminus Flux. When it comes to writing, more than anything, I enjoy the ride that I take along with the characters in the story. I love a good, dark story, or an ending that is maybe not what you would have wanted to happen. But there it is. Yeah… so there.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Deviation. Inspired by the meaning of the word–a departure from the accepted norm.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
One thing about having a day job–most of my writing is performed from about ten at night to two in the morning. Thank you, coffee.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Off the top of my head (in no particular order)… George Orwell (1984, Animal Farm), Stephen King (The Shining, On Writing), Jack Kerouac (On The Road), Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse-Five, Cat’s Cradle), Aldous Huxley (Brave New World), Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451), John Steinbeck (Cannery Row), J.D. Salinger (Catcher In The Rye), Ernest Hemingway (The Old Man And The Sea).
What are you working on now?
A dark story of an unraveled America. A futuristic, highly technological society that has outlived its usefulness and spiraled into chaos and destruction. The few survivors are left to a hardscrabble existence, struggling to even determine what is left of the whole of society.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
That is indeed the crux of the biscuit (per Frank Zappa). I have found no “best method,” and therefore, my books flounder in a sea of thousands of the same, among an army of unknown writers just like myself.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t do it for the money.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t do it for the money.
What are you reading now?
Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Finish the book I’m writing, and take some time to pursue some short story writing competitions as well.
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?
The Bible
Tom Sawyer
Lord Of The Flies (just to read it in that setting… I mean, how appropriate)
The Boy Scout Handbook
Author Websites and Profiles
J.D. Wilson Website
J.D. Wilson Amazon Profile
J.D. Wilson’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile