Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a retired college professor of English (24 years), and I also worked at Caltech in Pasadena as the Supervisor of Management Development at the Industrial Relations Center. I also worked as an editor, TV news writer, and freelance journalist. I now devote my time to my fiction and to an editing business, English Majors Publishers and Editors, LLC. I am married to Ellen, who is also a retired college professor, and we live in San Diego.
Forevermore: A Pat O’Malley Historical Mystery
Disappearance at Mount Sinai: A Pat O’Malley Historical Mystery
Jane the Grabber: A Pat O’Malley Historical Steampunk Mystery
The Digital Scribe: A Writer’s Guide to Electronic Media
Lucifer’s Wedding
Sins of Darkness
Russian Wolves
Iron Maiden an Alternate History
The Necromancers or Love Zombies of San Diego
Freak Story: 1967-1969
The President’s Parasite and Other Stories
The Mayan Magician and Other Stories
Catalina Ghost Stories
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Steam City Pirates
I read Writing Steampunk by Beth Daniels
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I have a clear focus for the plot, but I write each chapter to “surprise myself.” If I am not interested, then I imagine my reader will follow suit. Therefore, I need to include surprises that happen to the characters and cause them to react/think/plan.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Camus’ The Stranger. All of Franz Kafka’s work (he should be read like history). Mark Twain’s work (humans are funny).
What are you working on now?
Another Pat O’Malley Steampunk Adventure: “Manifest Trickery”
The Steam City Pirates are sending young “pioneers” out West (so they believe). Instead, these people are being sent to other universes to repopulate the strange environments they find there.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I hired the Adwords Guy. He gets me to the top of the Amazon book searches.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
If you believe in yourself, then get somebody who is a “really good” writer (and not a relative or friend) to verify that belief. I did this with one Jacob M. Appel, a writer I met online who has recently won the prestigious Dundee (Scotland) International Literary Novel Award. Jacob also teaches writing in New York City, and he has won more story contests than any writer I have ever known. When he said my writing was “superb” and he compared me to guys like T. C. Boyle, Tom Wolfe, George Saunders and Steven Millhauser, I really started taking myself seriously! Unless you get accolades from other writers, then I would not consider fiction writing as a profession. There are too many scam artist publishers and vanity presses out there to “fly by the seat of your pants.” Besides, it gives us indie authors a bad name when too much crap is published to muddy the readers’ waters. Their time is too precious to be wasted on “wannabes.”
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
First, learn the craft from professionals and not from a writers’ critique group or a college MFA program. Second, get a really, really, really good editor. Third, keep up with what’s trending and go for it!
What are you reading now?
Eric Schlosser’s non-fiction book “Command and Control.”
What’s next for you as a writer?
Having written the trilogy, I am now plunging into the next four plots: All of the mysteries to come will have elements of steampunk, including: time travel, mazikeen supernatural abilities, steam-powered inventions, and the usual Edgar Allan Poe-type Gothic evil that lurks in all Pat O’Malley mysteries. Here are the plots for the next four mysteries in the series:
1. O’Malley and his “crew” must face-off with a steam-powered submarine that’s pirating commercial shipping off the coast of New York City.
2. Tammany Hall is backing a new venture called “Go West!” Winners of the lottery are supposed to be paid to become pioneers in the Wild West. Instead, O’Malley discovers these “winners” are being sent on much more dangerous pioneering missions into the future.
3. Mazikeen (half-angel, half-human) Seth Mergenthaler says his father has returned from the dead. O’Malley must find out whether Doctor Arthur Mergenthaler is real or if he is a clone created by the mysterious “steam city pirates” who live beneath New York City.
4. There’s a new steam-powered “sex machine” that is taking over Madame Becky Charming’s business. However, when this machine starts killing its customers, Pat O’Malley must step in to solve the case.
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?
Forevermore: A Pat O’Malley Historical Mystery
Disappearance at Mount Sinai: A Pat O’Malley Historical Mystery
Jane the Grabber: A Pat O’Malley Historical Steampunk Mystery
Author Websites and Profiles
Jim Musgrave Website
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