Interview With Author Michael Balter
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
My name is Michael Balter. I’ve been a storyteller my entire life, but I only recently embraced writing as a second career. I was born in Berlin, where I lived in a bombed out building until the Wall went up, when my family fled to Canada. In a piece of smart timing, we moved to Detroit right in the midst of the 1967 riots. During the Vietnam War, I was an air traffic controller at the busiest air base in the world, at Udorn in Thailand.
After the war, I got an undergraduate degree in aeronautical engineering and an MBA. In the early days of Silicon Valley, I parlayed my talent for storytelling into a job at Intel Corporation. I spent 17 years in sales and marketing there, until I was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug and left to join a voice recognition startup. It came very close to going public, but didn’t quite make it. After that I led a whole series of other startups – some of which were successful and others that failed spectacularly.
I retired in 2019 and started working full time on my writing. I’ve completed and published one book, Chasing Money, a thriller about two business partners in a struggling startup who take money from the wrong person. When their partner is killed they have days to find $10 million and a mysterious missing painting or share his fate.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Chasing Money was inspired by my early years as an entrepreneur, when my business partner and I were constantly seeking venture capital to keep our startup alive. One night, after a long session with potential investors in New York, we were returning to our hotel via a sketchy neighborhood and I joked that, if we were mugged, I’d probably pitch the robbers on investing. That spurred a fun conversation and gave me the nucleus of the idea for the book.
Later, I was involved with a couple startups that were connected to the art world, and got some fascinating insights that informed both the characters and the plot of the book. And, one of my business partners was actually kidnapped by a Russian mobster. I had to write about that!
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I can’t write in the peace and quiet of my home. I need stimulation, so you’ll typically find me writing in one of my favorite coffee shops. In Portland, where I lived until recently, that was the JoLa Cafe on Corbett. And now you’ll find me at the Harwood Gold cafe in the beautiful resort town of Charlevoix, Michigan.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I love Elmore Leonard’s books, and the way he drives the story through dialogue. His character’s voices are so authentic. That’s definitely something I’ve tried to emulate. When I lived in Detroit, I used to drive by his house. I was and am very impressed by his work.
I think Catch-22 was the first dark comedy that I ever read. I was really attracted to that. Kurt Vonnegut also made a big impression on me as a young man with his snarky dialogue and dark humor. I read all his books.
And then Prizzi’s Honor and The Godfather were also books I loved and that deeply influenced me. The characters and their motivations were so well-developed in The Godfather. And the dialogue – “My father made him an offer he can’t refuse.” A simple short line that is iconic. There’s a lot you can learn from Mario Puzo.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on the next book in my Marty and Bo thriller series, the sequel to Chasing Money. My two protagonists have finally got the investor money they’ve been so desperately seeking, but the consequences of some of the decisions they’ve made are starting to catch up with them in unexpected ways. It’s set in Italy, where Bo and Marty have gone to negotiate a deal with the Vatican, which is something I actually did with one of the startups I founded.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
My secret weapon is my wife, Suzanne. She spent her whole career in marketing, and she handles all the marketing of the book for me. One of the most important things she did for me was to reach out to other thriller writers and convince them to read my book. I didn’t have a network of other authors that I was connected to so this was hard work. Lots of people said no, but every author who took the time to read the book praised it highly, and that’s how I got some of the awesome blurbs on the cover..
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t stop writing. Lots of people talk about writing but don’t write. It’s easy to get discouraged, but keep going. I got discouraged a lot when I first started writing – and I spent over a year writing and rewriting my first few chapters.
Finally I got disciplined and set a goal to get a draft of my whole book done in a year. I started writing every day, and stopped worrying about making the first version perfect. It took me a little over a year, but I got the book done. And then I spent another year rewriting and refining and polishing until I had something I was really proud of.
For me writing is more about rewriting. Get something written down, even if it’s rough, and then go back and polish it.
If you want more details, check out my blog “A Thriller Writer’s Journal” at https://mbalter.com/thriller-writers-journal/intro/. It’s all in there, from getting early feedback, to working with an editor to finding a publisher
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I was hung up on getting my book published by a traditional publisher – but that’s almost impossible for a novice author who doesn’t have some kind of other literary credentials. I wasted a year trying to find an agent who could get me a book deal and kept getting rejected. Then I met two people, friends of friends, who were successful published authors – and they both told me that independent publishing was a much better route. It’s much faster, much easier, and you take home a bigger share of your book revenues.
I was concerned about doing it all myself, so I wound up working with Mission Point Press, a hybrid publisher who has their own imprint, and has held my hand through every step of the process. That’s been a great approach for me, and I encourage people to try it.
What are you reading now?
I’m in the middle of three different books. I’m reading Horse by Geraldine Brooks, who I recently saw at an event in Michigan. I love how her characters speak. She’s got a great mastery of voice.
And then I’m reading “Chip” which is about the semiconductor industry where I spent my early career.
And I just started Real Tigers, which is the third book in the Slough House series by Mick Herron. I’ve got the whole set and I’m enjoying working my way through them over time.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Writing has become my passion. I love what I am doing so much that I write every day, even Saturdays and Sundays. I get a feeling of satisfaction when I craft a good sentence. And I’ve learned from the mistakes that I made writing my first book, so I have less rewriting to do.
Right now I’m about a third of the way through the sequel to Chasing Money, with a goal of publishing it in 2024. As soon as I’m done, I’ll start on book three in the series. I’ve plotted out a character arc that will take 5-6 books to complete.
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?
Number one on my list would be The Magus by John Fowles. That’s my all time favorite novel and something I could read over and over again.
And then I’d take a couple Dennis Lehane books. He wrote two of my favorite detective novels “A Drink Before the War” which was his debut novel, and “Gone Baby Gone” which made him famous and is just a beautiful book.
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