Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am an author that lives in Michigan. I have written ten books with my tenth, The Thing From Uranus coming out anytime now and my eleventh, Suspicious Minds And Murders coming out next spring. I mainly write horror and science fiction, but have also dabbled in crime and suspence.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Suspicious Minds and Murders. I was dressed as Elvis at a Halloween Party Fundraiser for pediatric cancer a couple of weeks after my brother had passed away in 2010. He was a big Elvis fan and celebrated his birthday every years with his friends. Anyway, during the fundraiser that I was throwing I kept hearing a voice tell me about a story idea about an Elvis impersonator helping a detective friend solve a murder in my hometown. From there I wrote Suspsicious Minds and murders. I came home and wrote the opening chapters after the event at 3 o’clock in the morning. I then shelved the idea for a few years to write some other novels and shorts stories I had been working on. I picked up Suspicious Minds and Murders last year and finished.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I watch tv, usually horror and science fiction movies and old episodes of the Twilight Zone (I am a big Rod Serling fan) when I write. I also write out all of my stuff on a legal pad and then type it in my laptop.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Rod Serling and his show, the Twilight Zone, Stephen King, Edgar Allen Poe, Richard Matheson, Robert Bloch, Algernon Blackwood, and to a lesser degree H.P. Lovecraft.
What are you working on now?
I am currently working on a novel titled The Werewolves of Dracl and some short stories for my Rod Serling tribute titled In Rod We Trust. The Werewolves of Dracl is about an SS unit garrisoning a town in Transylvania with bad results. It’s kind of one evil meeting an even greater evil.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I use Facebook, and other social media, I also do conventions, shows and other areas. I am planning on using You Tube soon as well.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
First off believe in yourself and in ignore critics and people who say you cannot do it. I was rejected by my high school journalism class and ended up doing a co-op program where I wrote for a local weekly newspaper where I wrote features, covered most girls sports and other events. It was a great training ground. Also when writing, first and foremost be entertaining. Tell a good story, but be entertaining. Grab the reader early, tell a good story and give them a memorable ending. If you have done all that you will get them coming back for more.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Be entertaining. Above all else be entertaining.
What are you reading now?
I am currently reading a collection of short stories by Rod Serling.
What’s next for you as a writer?
After the Werewolves of Dracl and In Rod We Trust, is either a Werewolf novel titled A Scream In the Night, or a couple of zombie apocalypse novels, Vestiges and Remnants, then a sequel to my science Fiction collection of short stories The Thing From Uranus, titled Another Thing From Uranus. I have a backlog of story ideas cataloged so, it’s anyone’s guess after the those.
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?
Any short story collections of Rod Serling, Poe, Blackwood, and Matheson.
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