Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
While I’ve written many grants to fund education projects, a few textbooks and several research articles, I now write purely for the fun of it. I chose not to self publish and hold out for a New York publisher. Crooked Lane Books was astute (translation: kind) enough to pick up, help me revamp and publish my first novel.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My first work of fiction, River Run: A Delia Chavez Mystery, is published by Crooked Lane Books and won the Pacific Northwest Writers Association award for Mystery/Thrillers. It was first runner up for the international Crime Writers Association’s Debut Dagger contest.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write in the coffee shop of a tribal casino. Amazing character studies drift through those doors. Once several of my colleagues were asked how they do a writing restart every day. The various answers boiled down to kickstarting their inspirational drive. At my turn I had to admit my muse was high octane caffeine.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Oh, Erica Ferencik’s THE RIVER AT NIGHT, Dana Stabenow’s Kate Schugak Alaska series, Lee Child, James Lee Burke, Robert Crais, Tricia Fields’ Josie Gray mystery series–on and on.
What are you working on now?
I’m currently working on a road mystery set in the 1960’s that was inspired by wild times at Serra Catholic High School. In THE LONG TAIL, four misfit teenagers drive coastward to crash the class of ‘60 high school jocks’ senior skip day party and end up running for their lives down Highway 101.
Bearing deep but invisible scars from private school angst and untold secrets, Jim, Zelda, Ropo and Gerry abscond toward a fading sunset, packing church keys and enough beer to buy their way into a legendary surfside blowout. On their way to Oregon beaches, they carelessly cut off a logging truck and kindle an avenger’s compulsion that casts a shadow the length of the Pacific Coast, and turns personal adventures into tests of survival.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Large volume email lists, especially those of accumulated friends can be quite useful. Beyond that, I like rubbing fellow reader’s elbows in the hinterlands and small bookstore atmospheres..
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Find a small (max. 5) group of serious writers working in the same genre. They were of immense help.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
When it comes to stories and plots, there is nothing new under the sun. Characters make the plot come alive.
What are you reading now?
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. My spouse, Carole, is the reader in the family. She keeps my reading eclectic with her hand-me-downs.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I took the long way around with my first book–writing forwards, backwards and sideways. For my current story, I know exactly where it’s going and can focus on forging characters that draw the reader inside their heads.
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?
Charles Frazier’s COLD MOUNTAIN, Donna Tartt’s THE GOLDFINCH, Fingal O’Reilly’s AN IRISH COUNTRY DOCTOR, Harper Lee’s TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, B. F. Skinner’s ABOUT BEHAVIORISM (If you’re going to show character emotions/strengths/foibles, you need to observe and learn about human behavior and the consequences that operate on us).
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