Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Ohio born and raised, I’ve been a journalist my entire life. It started when I was quite young. See, I have always been a reader. I read the two newspapers and the news magazines my folks had delivered to our home. One day I saw a cover story about Singapore and didn’t know where it was. I looked for it on the globe in my room and saw it was on the other side of the world. My world was a small city in Ohio. At that moment I realized I could read about things happening on the other side of the world. It made me want to learn more.
My sister gave me a copy of The Hound of the Baskervilles. I devoured it and everything else Arthur Conan Doyle wrote. From then on I was hooked on mysteries. It made me want to read more.
My family traveled a lot when I was young. I liked traveling. When I was fifteen I saw New York City for the first time. I then realized the world was open to me, and it was up to me to see as much of it as I could. It made me want to travel more.
I enlisted in the Navy as a journalist and learned how to tell stories. I became a writer. And I traveled to over 30 cities in more than 20 countries, including Singapore. Five years were spent living in Japan, where my son was born. Five more years were spent in Canada. Since then I’ve worked in the news business and I’ve written countless short stories and novels. Three are still on my hardrive, two have been published as ebooks, The Gangster’s Son and The Thief’s Mistake.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The Thief’s Mistake was inspired by the notion that in my Shig Sato Mystery series I wanted to write a simple story about crooks doing stupid things, never knowing they were being watched. The person doing the watching, in this case, is an autistic 10-year-old who imitates what the crooks have said and done. When this is discovered by Sato, he realizes the police are going after the wrong man, and that the boy needs to be protected. The advice falls on deaf ears, so Sato takes matters into his own hands.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write so many notes they are hardly useful. But I’ve found the process of writing the ideas stores them in some memory cell in my brain and can be summoned fairly easily when the time comes to write the scene.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I read everything from biography and history to contemporary literature and true cime. Countless authors from a variety of genres – Agatha Christie, Ian Fleming, Arthur Canon Doyle, Raymond Chandler, James Barry, J.M. Cain, John Irving, Anne Tyler, Patrick O’Brian, Marilynne Robinson.
What are you working on now?
Book Three in the Shig Sato mysteries Traitors & Lies – In Japan, 1991, Shig Sato is asked to look into reports of a missing American naval officer but is stonewalled or lied to at every turn – it isn’t long before he’s found himself in the middle of Cold War intrigue being played out on the streets of Tokyo
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’ve had success with Indie Author News, Books Machine, and Books Go Social
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write. Believe in yourself and what you have to say. Ninety-five percent of what you write will be good only for learning how to write. It’s a key first step. Realize it and put in the time.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write every day. Working in the newspaper business for years and years I still thought fiction was different and it should be treated differently. It shouldn’t. The only thing different is the subject. Just get down to work.
What are you reading now?
A couple of baseball books for a novel I’m planning; some work by new authors I’ve been pleased to discover recently – The Zebra Affaire, Random Lucidity, Jukebox, The Istanbul Puzzle – and Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’ve been plotting out the Shig Sato series – probably 13-15 books in all, sort of like an episode in a television series – and finishing two other non-mystery writing projects.
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?
Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping – it’s just about the perfect novel. Also, an Aubrey-Maturin book by Patrick O’Brian, A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving, and just about anything by Anne Tyler.
Author Websites and Profiles
Joseph Brewer Website
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