Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
By profession, I have spent 25 years working in technology projects across a number of industries. Outside of that, I am a pretty avid reader, but not as much as I used to be when I lived on the road for a long time.
I love to play with hot glass and glass blowing. There’s nothing like glass at a couple of thousand degrees to keep your attention.
I have done a lot of writing over the years. I do a lot of it in terms of documentation, but in my misspent youth published a few short stories. I went back to writing for myself to manage stress and boredom for a lot of the years I traveled, and it became a handy tool to work through the environments and scenarios I encountered. There is nothing like people watching in the airport to trigger ideas for stories.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
I had an idea I have been playing with for a number of years about different mythologies, and how could it fit into the modern world. Playing loose with multiverse theory, I played with the idea of pocket dimensions as to where all sorts of beings, up to complete civilizations could hide. With that as a mechanism, I then start looking at our historical myths and how some of that could play out.
I have a somewhat twisted sense of humor, and so I then thought about the idea of agencies that are trying to control divine beings, and assuming that would not work out well. At the same time, I was thinking about the story of a young wizard banished from his home, that was recalled. That came from a title I had played with, ‘Home Summonings’ which became the series.
All of the books in the series have bad puns for the titles, and the first book is called ‘Bound and Hagged.’ This is referencing the powers of the main character having been bound from use, and his being haunted by a very liberal takeoff on the old hag of mythology.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m not sure how unusual it is, but most of the story ideas come while I’m driving around, working in the yard, or doing anything but writing. I can do a quick outline of a few words, and draft it out in my head. Later, I can sit down and sketch it out on paper after doing a few mental rewrites. The notepad in my mobile is full of notes I may or may not ever use, but I grab them when they float through.
I also tend to be working on multiple projects at once.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
My office is stacked with books. I bounce between genres depending on my mood. I am a huge Robert Heinlein fan. I have a couple of his books I am still looking for, but have read almost all of his catalog. Same for Vonnegut, Tolkien, Arthur C. Clarke, Douglas Adams, Frank Herbert, Asimov, Philip K. Dick and keep going. I remember reading the original HG Wells, and Jules Verne stories as a kid. In nonfiction, I spend a fair amount of time following studies of history, anthropology, science, mythologies, religions, and people in general.
For more current authors, Jim Butcher is great, the Preston and Child novels, and Neil Gaiman. And I’ve gotten into a number of indie authors. I’ve had a guilty pleasure out of Rick Gualtieri’s Tome of Bill series.
What are you working on now?
I like to write the story and go on to another work to let it percolate a bit. Its entertaining for me to go back and reread the pieces that made sense to me at one time, and don’t any more. I let Bound and Hagged sit for about 3 months after finishing the second draft and wrote the first draft of the second book, called ‘Mistrials and Tribulations.’ I did another round of edits on B&H and sent it to my test readers while I started on book 3, ‘Unbound and Determined.’
I’m about a third of the way through book 3, and will do the next round of edits on book 2, hopefully starting in June. I’m looking to release it in the July time frame, and book 3 in November. I have done the outlines for the full series, currently looking at 9 books total.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Awesomegang of course!
I’m still working myself on getting my own fanbase going, but I think a lot of it boils down to connecting with readers. I work with a few different groups putting on events, and its all about finding where your target audience lives.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Over the weekend, I was at an event and I found out how many people I’ve known for years have also written, or tried to do so. I think the most important thing is writing for yourself. Let your writing help you develop not only as a writer, but as a person. You might be surprised as to what comes out.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
A couple of things.
1 – Write. It doesn’t matter what it is, but put some words to paper every day. It does not matter if it is the next chapter, or just a tweet, the act of writing makes you write more, and better. Okay, so twitter may be a bad example.
2 – This one is hard for me, is finding the point where you are ready to release the work. You can continue to tweak and update forever, but at some point, you have to decide you have raised the child well enough, and expose it to the world.
3 – Read and write things that drag you out of your comfort zone.
What are you reading now?
I’m wrapping up John Conroe’s ‘Execuatable.’ After that, I’ll dive into either Scott Lynch’s ‘Republic of Thieves’ or I may hit one of the Preston & Child books I have in the stack.
I’m also working through Bauer’s ‘The story of Cryptology’ and Cline’s 1177 BC.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Other than continuing the Home Summonings series, I’m working on a couple of short stories, and outlining a potential parallel series about the Longbow organization from the series.
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?
Tough one. A book on survival, including how to build a raft. A bible that included as much of the Apocrypha as I could find. The complete works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (I love Sherlock). And I’d have to grab the book of Job from Heinlein.
As a bonus, I would have to give Moby Dick another try. If I had nothing better to do, I might make it all the way through. And worst case, paper is handy stuff…
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