Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I live in rural Tuscarwarus County, Ohio. I’ve worked briefly in law enforcement and for several years in private security. I studied political science and history at Kent State University. Late in my life I decided to pursue my passion for storytelling and combined that passion with my lifelong interest in history and politics to seriously peruse a writing career.
In my free time my interests include the martial arts., shooting sports, drawing and, of course reading good books.
I’ve published The Fate of nations: F.I.R.E. Team Alpha Book One through Solstice publishing and Blood and Treasure:F.I.R.E team Alpha Book Two which will be released by Solstice publishing on July 15th 2016. I’ve also published several which are available on Amazon.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Blood and Treasure is the second in the FIRE Team Alpha series. It’s a military science fiction and, like all of my work, it’s inspired by history and current events. Some of that history is rather obscure and some of the current events are of the kind not covered in mainstream news.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I sometimes work out dialog by talking to myself and playing the roles of my characters. I’ve done this since I was a child making up stories and characters in my head. I had my family worried for a while. lol
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Robert Heinlein is my all-time favorite. Although our writing styles are vastly different, I try to emulate the way he concentrated on how people and societies had developed in the future on not focus so much on the technology of the future.
The work of Alistair MacLean, Robert Ludlum, Dian Duane, DC Fontana, and David Morrell have also been big influences on my writing
What are you working on now?
My current work in progress is “Seventh”: a modern fantasy novel about a family of demon hunting brothers. It is intended to be the first in a series of novels called”The Blessed Warriors”. If all goes as planned, the manuscript’s rough draft will be finished in September 2016.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
That’s hard to say. I do a lot of promotion on Face book. Based on the number of click to my sales page as counted by the ‘Booklinker’ sight Twitter seems to get me the most attention. Free book Amazon promotions also generate quite a bit of interest.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write! write! write! don’t get bogged down in grammar, spelling formatting or other side issues. Just get the words strung together on the hard drive and sort out the other stuff later.
Also, don’t let people discourage you. There is always someone that will tell you that you’ll never finish that first manuscript, or you’ll never find a publisher, or that most published authors never make substantial amounts of money from their books. Shut all of that out and write. Just do it.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
See my above answer. It’s paraphrased from the advice of several well respected authors.
What are you reading now?
“Modern Bushido: living a Life of Excellence” by Bohdi Sanders
What’s next for you as a writer?
Making gazllions of dollars on my writing! Or, failing that, finishing my current work in progress, taking a week or so off from writing before diving into the research for the third Team Alpha book.
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?
Robert Heinlein’s Expanded Universe. The Thomas Jefferson Reader and a book on how to survive on a desert island.
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