Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a younger old man with a lot of stuff behind me. I grew up poor in some of the roughest neighborhoods in Indianapolis. How rough? My older brother was stabbed once, my younger brother was shot once, I was shot at twice, and that’s just the brothers! Every weekend we amused ourselves gathering up the pistols and submachine guns passersby would toss over our fence while they were running from the police. You might say that found-gun safety was an important part of my childhood education.
I figured out early on that I didn’t want to stay in that situation. So I took school seriously, even as a kid. I studied hard, took the toughest classes, barely passed some of them, then decided to take the not-toughest classes instead. Graduated high school with high marks, graduated Indiana University with a degree in Journalism, then went into the Army to pay back all those college bills. Somehow, I stumbled into tanks while in the army. I was an officer, that is, a tank platoon leader, then a ground radar platoon leader, then the XO (second in command) of a company of fourteen tanks. This was in Europe in the 1980s. It was the constant no bull threat of World War III including unending sparring with Soviet spies and commandos infiltrating the East-West border and digging for sensitive information. Those guys, such scamps! After leaving the military, I eked out a living as a freelance artist. Since freelance artists rarely do much more than eke their livings, I returned to school for a bachelors, then a masters in Art Education with a side of Fine Arts. Now I make my living as a public school art teacher. That’s my life by day. By night, almost literally, I’m an intrepid author of fantasy and science fiction thrillers, more or less. I don’t care much for genres, to tell the truth. I read whatever I want and I write whatever I want. So far, I’ve written and self-published six novels, one short story collection, and five novellas. They span the gambit from high fantasy to futuristic political thriller.
And let me say a thing or two about self-publishing. Most self-published authors should be snatched in the night and taken out in back and … slapped around with a wet noodle. They don’t edit, they don’t revise, they don’t think what they may be adding to the literary body. It’s sad. I try to buck the trend. That’s why I provide excerpts of my work on my web site, so that prospective readers can see that, yes, the man can write.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest published book is Redemption Song, the sequel to my debut novel Last Days and Times. It’s been six novels since Last Days, a lot of literary water under the bridge. But I had to do the sequel because fans just wouldn’t shut up about wanting the next Last Days installment. No, seriously, they just would not leave me alone on that point, but that’s not why I wrote it. The Last Days and Times series is a grand project of mine. I hope I live to see the end of it. It follows not only the lives of Sally Reiser, her son Eulie, and her stalwart boyfriend Gary LaMonte, it also explores a pet subject of mine: the schizophrenic nature of the world’s major religions. The very nature of reality is also a strong thread in these books, which is why this series ties directly into a separate, second series called Nightwatch. I don’t believe that’s been done before in literature, at least I’ve never seen it. Two separate series that are immutably entwined. You can read the Last Days and Times books alone and never know that there are blanks in your reading adventures. On the other hand, when you get to the latter episodes of Nightwatch, you will definitely get the impression that there are other books you should read. You can do fine just reading Nightwatch, but you’ll love it even more if you also read Last Days and Times, its sequels, and Fiona Street and its sequels. Fun times. It’s an experiment of mine.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Besides writing all the time, I do something that makes folks rear back in horror. I write almost exclusively on an Apple iPad using the onscreen keyboard. Yep, that keyboard. And I’m here to testify that if you aren’t an inflexible touch typist that keyboard is just fine to work on. I type my books into Pages for iPad, slipping them over to my iCloud account, then do my final edits on my big iMac desktop unit. See, writing on the iPad is wonderful. I can write literally anywhere that isn’t in a vacuum, a forest fire, or an artillery barrage, and I fail there only due to lack of concentration. I write while waiting for the bus. I write while standing on the bus. I write while standing in line at Wal-Mart. Take that, laptop snobs. Consequently, I push out a lot of words in a short period of time.
But I don’t publish as rapidly as I write. Editing is hard on an iPad. The screen is too small. So I edit on the iMac later, giving me that second look that all manuscripts need so that the author doesn’t embarrass himself. Then, after all the editing is done, I put the story away on my hard drive and on Dropbox and start my next story. I might not come back to that finished story for several months, at which time I get yet another fresh look at my words. It’s important to me that the story be as clean of grammatical mistakes as a book put out by a major publisher. It’s also important to me that each book be even more compelling than what you might find from those selfsame publishers. They can’t go out on a limb presenting something that really grabs at the reader. They have payroll and mortgages to see to. I don’t have that problem. I can concentrate on the art and the impact rather than the commercial viability of the work. I am not a suit.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
What writers or books have influenced me? Russian literature. If you haven’t read Anna Karenina or Crime and Punishment, then your life is gray and tired. But there’s also Drury’s Advise and Consent, King’s The Stand, Wouk’s The Winds of War, and anything by William Gibson.
What are you working on now?
I’m excited to be putting the finishing touches on Galactic Geographic, what I call the world’s first military sci-fi romantic comedy satirical travelogue. It’s funny and it also makes almost everyone who reads it uneasy in an enjoyable way. It’s a bona fide sacred cow pig sticker, or maybe wood chipper, it depends on how far down the rabbit hole you want to fall. Galactic Geographic is indeed a travelogue. It guides the reader through the nuances of male-female relationships, interspecies relationships, the fragile structures of the mind, of pop culture, and of the universe itself. And bites hard while it does it. While making the reader laugh. Sometimes guiltily. If all goes well, Galactic Geographic should show up on Amazon, Kindle, and Smashwords in October of 2015.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I couldn’t answer a question about marketing. I’m lousy at marketing. I write books. I write damned good books. I publish them. Then I fret while few people seem to discover them. I don’t know how to promote. I do know that the common wisdom is ridiculous. That wisdom says that authors must get out there, project themselves. Blog, Facebook, tweet, Google whatever, pin, guest blog, blog tour, etc. on forever. To which I ask the question: then when do I get time to actually write stories? So I am at the mercy of you guys, the readers. If you check out my stuff, if you tell your friends about it, if you write me glowing reviews on Amazon and Smashwords, then my books will get read. If you don’t, they won’t. And I’ll keep on putting out books.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Yes, I have advice for every new writer. Learn the language in which you wish to publish. And learn story dynamics. It’s sad to see so many optimistic writers producing terrible stories riddled with misspelled words, poor grammar, and trudging along under a tremendous weight of poor plot, setting, characterization, and theme choices. In a way, I’m gladdened by this reality; it means less competition for folks like me who take their craft seriously. But, really, I’m near to distraught. The overload of bad self-published books drags me down as much as it does every half-baked author contributing to that trend. It gives readers the impression that there is nothing good in the self-published world when, in fact, there is great stuff there. Some of it better than most of what I see from the big publishing houses. You just have to find it. To new authors I say, emphatically, be among those who create compelling art, not among those who give the art a bad name. Be responsible to the literature.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I as a writer am the most important cog in the literary machine. The money flows to me, not away from me. It is not my job to support the literary industrial complex. It is its job to support me. So I don’t go to cons, I don’t go to conferences, I don’t pay editors, or book cover artists, or book designers, printers or publishers. I read books to learn what I need to learn. I borrow them from the public library. I listen to free podcasts on subjects that interest me as a writer. I edit my own stuff. I edit the stuff of friends in exchange for them editing mine. I create my own covers, but then, I’m an artist. Do favors for a great artist to get your covers made. Never, ever pay anyone to publish your work. Go to Createspace, Kindle, or Smashwords and do it yourself for practically free. Writers write and earn money from writing. Writers do not write and pay out money from their writing. That’s nuts.
What are you reading now?
Right now, between work projects, I’m reading Heinlein’s Glory Road (kind of smelly, that one), and Wouk’s The Caine Mutiny (now that’s a great book!)
What’s next for you as a writer?
My next project is Bad Lands, the next phase in the Nightwatch series. Let’s see, the first installment in Nightwatch was an urban fantasy about religious terrorism (Last Days and Times). The second installment was a sci-fi spy novel about political arrogance (Fiona Street). The current installment is the sequel to Last Days and Times and also follows a theme of religious terrorism (Redemption Song). Next comes a fantasy western filled to the brim with cowboys, scientists, monsters, and super-intelligent horses. It’s fun to write and will likely be fun to read. But Bad Lands won’t be out for maybe a year.
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?
If I were sentenced to a desert island and could take only three books with me, I’d take my iPad positively stuffed with books and a shipload of battery backups. What is this, grade school? No one goes out to be stranded on a desert island. You get stranded on desert islands with the books you have, not the books you want. And I’d be worried more about food and shelter, for pity’s sake. Besides, I can write my own books there. On banana leaves. That’s what I do every day. But without the banana leaves.
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