Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a retired newspaper and magazine writer/editor. I have five books in the hopper — three novels, a book of short stories, and a short, ghost-written memoir.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Blood on Their Hands, a legal thriller, went up on Amazon in the Kindle edition three or so weeks ago, and is set for official release May 4 in the paperback edition. The publisher is TouchPoint Press. The seed for the story was planted in 2008 when an office supply computer salesman voluntarily came to my home to fix a computer problem gratis. He was a mixed-race fellow from the Caribbean, and had an Obama bumper sticker on his car. Cops stopped him for some equipment flaw, and roughed him up. From that tale, I was reminded of two of my favorite movies: Gran Torino, in which Clint Eastwood is this racist Vietnam War veteran; and My Cousin Vinnie, starring Joe Pesci as a very funny attorney who reminded me of a lawyer I knew, a racist. So, besides a lot of suspense, the book is replete with humor, even a little slapstick comedy.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Completely disorganized. I’m inspired to write if I know where I’m headed next in the plot, but am amazingly good at procrastinating if I’m stumped. Although, if I’m engaged in a political war on Facebook, I eagerly jump right in. And I email like there’s no tomorrow, which there usually isn’t because I often do it in the wee hours and tomorrow is already there. Always a late person (yes, tardy too), I usually begin working on my book at 10 p.m. or so, then do some emails, then have to read the day’s newspaper before going to bed. But I rise late because I need a lot of sleep. This habit has worsened since my retirement. Am I still working, people ask? My answer: I’m working harder than when I was working. This author business ain’t no piece o’ cake.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Geez, hard to say. I was really taken by Pete Dexter’s Paris Trout for literary suspense, and Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes, which some people found depressing but I thought was hilarious despite the extreme hardship portrayed. Jane Smiley’s way of getting inside of characters in A Thousand Acres strongly impacted me. And I was deeply moved by John Grisham’s realistic portrayal of a racist in the legal thriller The Chamber.
What are you working on now?
A woman who read my roman a clef Murder in Palm Beach told me a friend of hers had communicated with the real person represented as the main character. She had led an amazing life of crime, and effected prison reform in Florida after the death row prisoner she married was beaten to death by guards. A Texas filmmaker began working with her on a film documentary 13 years ago, but abandoned it. He is awaiting completion of my book of creative nonfiction on the woman with the hope of resuming the project.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I use various methods to garner reviews, and have built a decent-sized email list, mainly through participation in book giveaway contests called BookSweeps, by Ryan Zee. Although I should stay away from politics in my blog posts, I sometime yield to temptation, also blogging on the mechanics of writing and alternative health care. Lately, I’ve concentrated on book subjects — my books and others’.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Craftsmanship is important. Too many start-up authors pay little heed to the niceties of writing, thinking such details are of little importance. But readers judge harshly, and are turned off by what they perceive, rightly or wrongly, as amateurism in writing with typos, and spelling and grammatical mistakes. Get the basics right first, and move on to such salient elements as showing versus telling, point of view (which still baffles me), and command of dialogue.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again — until the realization dawns that further effort is fruitless. Actually, nobody advised me to end my dream of becoming a Major League pitcher; I finally decided I lacked one necessary element. Talent.
What are you reading now?
I’m deep into Margaret Atwood’s classic, apocalyptic story, The Handmaid’s Tale. It’s scary, making me realize that the current political milieu in the United States could devolve into a destruction of our democracy and take-over by an autocrat.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I haven’t looked beyond the book about Wanda, the reformed criminal whom the Texas filmmaker is interested in portraying. Murder in Palm Beach: The Homicide That Never Died, could become a documentary subject of two local filmmakers, and that project also would be time-consuming. The six children of the victim of the 1976 murder all did a sudden reversal recently and decided, after decades of insisting the man who spent 15 years in prison was guilty, that he in fact was completely innocent. They petitioned the Florida governor to grant him a full pardon. If that happens, they’ll have to reopen the case, which would draw much attention to the book, and also entail a renewed promotional campaign.
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?
No. 1: How to Survive Alone on a Desert Island (has that been written?).
There are so many that I wouldn’t know where to begin. Maybe some of the classics, such as War and Peace; Thomas Wolfe’s Look Homeward, Angel; Sinclair Lewis’ Babbitt; Joseph Heller’s Catch 22; Somerset Maugham’s Of Human Bondage — books I’ve always wanted to read.
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