Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a freelance writer that spent two decades teaching theater. I write a lot of online content for business clients for money and unwind with my novels. I love dogs and laid back beach music. My favorite afternoon is sunny, with a cold beer, my 200# mastiff Ruby and some Jack Johnson. I’ve written four novels so far and a handful of non-fiction business books, mostly for clients.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is called Jack and it was inspired by a cockroach I literally saw on the monitor of a McDonald’s drive through while waiting in line. It was crawling over the camera lens outside and looked huge on the screen. I’d also been working on a sci-fi version of Jack and the Beanstalk, but it wasn’t working, so the two ideas kind of meshed and after that, it almost wrote itself.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I work from home, so I love to sit in bed and watch TV series on Netflix while I pound out fiction. I also like to write in the bath and plan to market a line of bath desks for writers, or maybe not. Ha
What authors, or books have influenced you?
The first book I was really impacted by was John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. I read it early the first time, seven, yeah, I know, my dad thought I was too young so I didn’t get to finish it until years later.
I love to read things that make me think, or laugh. I love Tim Dorsey and some of Ted Dekker’s earlier stuff. I read a lot of detective novels as a kid and I like a good Jeffrey Deaver now and then. When it comes to Sci-Fi, I like the old stuff, Invisible Man, Time Machine, and I’m also a Douglas Adams fan.
As far as being a writer is concerned, I really admire what Charles Dickens books did to reveal the plight of people in his generation and I’d like to find some ways of doing similar things, commenting on society.
What are you working on now?
I am working on the edit for the second part of Jacked, as well as a couple of old self-pubbed novels that really need some revamping. I always have client work and lately that’s been politics, but I won’t bore you with that.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Well, I am about to find out. This is the first time I’ve gotten serious about selling my fiction. Most of my professional writing has been commissioned and paid for. So far, Facebook Groups are being pretty good to me, when I can keep from crossing the invisible line and making too many posts in a row.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write the story you want to read. You’ll get a lot of advice and critique and it’s just that, advice. The best another writer can give you is another writer’s opinion. I do recommend finding beta readers, or a good crit group, even if you are self-editing. If you can afford it, hire an editor.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Be yourself, everyone else is already taken. The writers that become known set themselves apart somehow. Whether it’s in their style or their life. Don’t worry too much what anyone else thinks, if you study the great writers you find out they lived life on their own terms.
What are you reading now?
Hero by Rhonda Byrne and a book on grammar. I have a couple of novels on my list soon, one is Tim Dorsey’s latest.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m putting Jacked out in three parts, novella length, and I have a pretty good idea of what comes next for my hero there. I have a three part set of books based on some plays I wrote that are all connected to a small, fictional Oklahoma town, beyond that, I’m not sure.
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?
I’m not the type to re-read books for some reason. There are very few that I get into a second time. I would probably choose some boring guide books, and a few classics. The Grapes of Wrath is one and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but I might also take one or two of my own, I am, after all, my own favorite writer. Yeah, I know that sounds arrogant, but it’s true.
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