Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I was raised in a suburb right outside of Chicago called Harwood Heights. My first book, Chicago’s Most Wanted: The Top 10 Book of Murderous Mobsters, Midway Monsters and Windy City Oddities was published by Potomac Press in 2005. I followed that up five years later with Vampires’ Most Wanted: The Top 10 Book of Bloodthirsty Biters, Stake-wielding Slayers and Other Undead Oddities (also Potomac, 2010).
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
To Touch the Sun, published this year by Dagda Publishers, is the first in my vampire series set in Chicago. It’s kind of funny because while I enjoyed reading vampire stories, I never had a burning desire to write one. But I wanted to interest an agent that I’d been in correspondence with whose agency handled a vampire series, so I thought I’d give it a try. It was an unusual way for me to work because normally I go into a novel with a very clear idea of plot and characters but this one all I had was a two word description: Vampire Chef. It went through a great deal of evolution until I finally had something I liked. Unfortunately, by the time I was able to send the agent a proposal (he liked the idea when I told him), he’d left the business. No idea why. So I didn’t get an agent, but I had a novel with characters that I’d fallen in love with to the point that I was able to easily write three more books in the series and a spin-off featuring paranormal investigators that appear in the third novel. More so than any other book I’ve written, this became a labor of love to find a publisher for.
One of the things I wanted to try with the novel was to approach vampirism as a condition and address inconveniences that might go along with it. So often you find in vampire books characters that are glorious immortals, rich, gorgeous, powerful. While my vampires are powerful, they still have certain inconveniences that get in the way of living a “normal” life. (For example, I use the “sun is a dangerous to them” idea. Well, if you can’t go out in the sun, how do you attend to things that have to be attended to out in the sun?) Later in the series a character enters which allows me to really examine what it would be like for someone to deal with these inconveniences when they don’t have money or a castle to flee to. And even the character of Narain Khan in To Touch the Sun is currently faced with a dilemma regarding one of the inconveniences.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Nothing standout unusual I don’t think. The vampire novels were written in a sort of quilt-like fashion. Because of my schedule I often found myself not in a convenient position to sit down and write. But I’ve always been good at day dreaming. So I would come up with scenes and ideas while shopping, driving, standing in line at a check-out, etc. Some of the scenes required scenes to patch them together. So it became sort of fun, a bit of a challenge to figure out how to “sew” a scene I might have come up with earlier into the novel. As I mentioned, most novels I’ve written in the past I had the idea right from the start so the writing of it was very linear. This wasn’t. But it was still fun to see it take shape.
In one way, I’m grateful that it took me a while to find a publisher for this because it gave me a chance to go ahead with the other books in the series and I was able to better understand the “universe” I’d created for the series. It gave me a chance to change a few things in the first one that worked better with what was built from it.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I’m really bad with these questions cause my tastes are all over the place. I’m very much into fantasy and science fiction. I’ll read anything that catches my fancy. As far as vampires, I think Anne Rice is an influence. She’s kind of what got me into the genre. But then I also enjoyed Richard Matheson’s take on the genre in his “I Am Legend.” I read both when I was very young. And I was extremely impressed by the classic Le Fanu story “Camilla.” . You’ll find a lot of humor in my books as well which is probably an influence of Douglas Adams. Yes, I think I blame him for that. And Harry Harrison ignited my love for pure, tongue-in-cheek adventure with his Stainless Steele Rat series.
What are you working on now?
Right now I want to tweak the next novel in the vampire series. All the novels I’ve finished are in various forms of draft and need a nip and a tuck. I’m also in the middle of a nonfiction project about a man who was wrongly accused of being a loan shark in 1960s Chicago. It’s a pretty compelling story, but it’s taking a lot of research. It’s kind of funny, the books I’ve had published were all projects that came to me unexpectedly. This is just fitting that pattern. But I’m enjoying writing this as much I enjoyed writing the others.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’ve yet to find a method that seems to be the best when it comes to promoting books. I think it’s good to have your own website cause it gives you a sort of base of operations. Facebook isn’t bad. From what I’ve experienced though, while social media can be great, especially for those who can’t afford to pay a lot for marketing, physical book stores shouldn’t be discounted. Book stores and appearances at various places. Depending on what you have to offer, people like to go to author programs held at libraries, book stores, community centers, etc. They like to get an autographed copy and meet the author. So in some respects I think one important method is simply boots-on-the-ground marketing.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
The one thing I would tell a new author is to be very clear on what they want from this. Some people aren’t looking for a lot of money or popularity so they’re fine if what they put out there sells a few copies. But if you want to make this a career, or if you want your work to sell really well, it’s going to take a lot of work. A writer friend in town told me once that the marketing end of writing can be a full time job. And he was right. People scoff at the idea of getting an agent now, or a publicist. “Why should I pay people to do what I can do?” Well, the main reason is because what they’re being paid for takes a lot of time and effort to get your name out there and keep it out there. And in some respects, social media is a double edged sword for while a lot of it is free, you have to keep all those pages and sites and channels fed. So to new authors I would say that your job isn’t done when you type “The End” on a page. In a lot of respects, it’s just beginning.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I think one of the best pieces of advice I’ve heard was that you can always edit later. In a way, it’s similar to what people will say about playing an instrument. If you make a mistake, don’t stop and go back. Play through. It’ll be less jarring. With writing, one of my problems was that I would write and write and then I’d start questioning what I’d already written and go back and fiddle with that and then just totally lose any love for the original idea. This happened a lot in high school. I had tons of unfinished novels cause I would start questioning and then figure, okay, I’ll go on to this next idea. Play through. See the novel or book through to the end, put it aside for a week, then pick it up and look through it with fresh eyes (and you’ll need to do that from time to time cause I guarantee you, you’ll be absolutely sick of it by the end of the third draft (Heck, by the end of the first draft you may feel, “Well, I told my story. Don’t need to go over it”). But that proofing is necessary. So give it a rest in between and you’ll be able to go through it with sharper eyes and sharper proofing skills.
What are you reading now?
Actually, I’ve been doing some research for the mob book. I just finished “The Martian” by Andy Weir which was fantastic! I highly recommend it. I’m also in the middle of listening on CD “White Out” by Ken Follett. I’m a huge fan of his historical fiction but have never read any of his thrillers so I thought I’d give one a try. So far I like it. And speaking of vampires, I’m shortly to get to the third book of “The Strain” series by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan. The first two were fabulously creepy.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Well, as I mentioned, there’s the mob book. I really want to get at not only the second book in the vampire series but the next two that are done. I have ideas for three more and then there’s the paranormal investigator spin-off. I have some ideas for other books as well. One an Asian dragon novel, one more urban fantasy. But for the next few months, the reality is marketing. Trying to build up the name.
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?
Oh don’t do this to me! Okay, let’s say four. I’d have to take the complete works of Edgar Allan Poe, the complete Stainless Steele Rat books in one volume and the complete Hitchhiker’s Guide Books in one volume (I know, major cheat on those two). And of course, “To Touch the Sun” cause I hear that book is fabulous!
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