Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a former sportswriter/columnist for The Newark Star-Ledger with 19 years experience. Currently the only sportswriting I do is boxing articles for HBO’s boxing website. The rest of my time I spend writing my Frank Boff Mystery Series, of which four books have already been published, “The Hurting Game,” “The Punishing Game,” “The Killer Sex Game,” and “The Payback Game.”
After spending most of my life in New York City or Hoboken (Frank Sinatra’s hometown), I currently live in upstate New York in a countrified village just nine miles from Woodstock. I live in a house surrounded by woods. The window at my writing desk has a view of the woods, and my visitors include, squirrels (and one black squirrel), chipmunks, rabbits, various types of birds, and occasionally a deer or less frequently (thank goodness) a bear.
I like to exercise daily, cook, watch NBA and NFL games on TV, and, as I have done throughout my life, see movies from my vast DVD collection.
For more about me and Frank Boff, visit our website: www.nathangottlieb.com.
Here is a link to my author page on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Nathan-Gottlieb/e/B003ZO29PM/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
“The Payback Game.” Here is a description from my Amazon.com page of the book:
A decorated New York City detective in the prime of his life suddenly dies of a heart attack. Or so it seems.
But a star columnist for the Daily News isn’t buying it. No way, no how. Using information supplied by a street snitch, the investigative reporter believes that the cop was killed by a hitman who used a shot of potassium chloride to simulate a heart attack.
When the reporter starts nosing around, he himself is killed by an assassin who disappears without a trace. Months later, when the dead reporter’s murder goes stone cold, a retired legendary columnist hires rogue private investigator, Frank Boff, to hunt down the killer.
Boff and his sidekick, boxer Danny Cullen, team up once again, and this time they find themselves up against a ruthless biker gang, bent cops, and a criminal mastermind who’ll stop at nothing to launch a multi-million dollar criminal operation in Brooklyn. Lied to, shot at, and constantly under threat, Boff and Cullen cut through layers of deceit and misdirection to zero in on the mastermind with one intention only: to seek and destroy.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
For reasons unknown to me, I have to have my wireless keyboard turned at a 45 degree angle.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammet, Michael Connelly, Lee Child, Robert Crais, Robert Ludlum (author of the Bourne books and many other), and of course the masters of fiction, like Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Jack Kerouac, authors I idolized in my early years as a writer.
What are you working on now?
I am finishing up a first draft for a fifth book in my Frank Boff Series, tentatively titled “The Death Dealing Game.”
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and many fine sites that connect eager readers with authors and their books, like this one, AwesomeGang.com
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write every day, even if you don’t feel like it. Some of my best work has come on days I didn’t want to write and felt I had nothing to say. Writers write. It’s as simple as that.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write about what you know.
What are you reading now?
Lee Child’s Jack Reacher book, “Never Go Back.”
What’s next for you as a writer?
More books in my series, and eventually a stand alone book featuring the alpha female co-star of the fourth book, Emily Lynch, a former Iraq/Afghan veteran, now a NYC detective on indefinite suspension for binge drinking.
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?
“The Big Sleep,” “The Long Goodbye,” “The Sun Also Rises,” and Thomas Pynchon’s opus, “Gravity’s Rainbow.”
Author Websites and Profiles
Nathan Gottlieb Website
Nathan Gottlieb Amazon Profile