Featured Author: Michael O'Gara

I'm happy to have my blogger buddy, Michael O'Gara, back today to talk about his novel, Ambassador Death. Michael was here in September to talk about The Happenstance Marshall, and he's hosted me on his blog to promote Murder & Mayhem. Well, not to promote murder and mayhem, but to promote my book, Murder & Mayhem in Goose Pimple Junction. (Yes, that's what they call a shameless plug.) I'm happy to have him here to today to talk about his latest book.

Interview with Michael

Welcome back, Michael! When was Ambassador Death published?

It was published by Heartland Indie Publishing LLC on February 20, 2013.

Would you tell me about the book, including its genre and what
 it’s about?
The book is a thriller. It’s about a former spy, Cassandra Crossing. Cassandra is beginning to feel like the bishop on the President’s chess board. She is moved around to keep the country’s enemies in check. Cassandra is no longer an unknown intelligence operative. Now she's a celebrity and hero after a very public assignment protecting the southern border.

This time Cassandra is being assigned to foreign soil and to a very dangerous job. She will be a very public target for those who would sabotage her vital mission to help keep a continent at peace.  It is a job she is uniquely qualified for by heritage, experience and training.  To complete her mission, the first order of business will be survival. She will also unexpectedly have to deal with something new; a serious romantic interest.  It is an assignment that will require the balance of a tight rope walker, the wisdom of Solomon, the courage of a hero, and unusual diplomacy. It is a unique challenge for an unusual woman.

This is the second book in the Cassandra Crossing Assignments series and the follow-up to Crossing Cassandra.

How long have you been writing and how did you start?
I started writing in early 2011, so it’s been about two years.  I started writing just because it came so naturally to me, and I enjoy it so much. I joke that I daydream in Technicolor and the stories in the books I write are just feature-length daydream stories. I guess at heart I’m just a creative story teller. There is no trick to starting a writing career. I just started writing and twelve books later I’m still at it.

Wow. Twelve books in two years. That's amazing. What do you like best about writing?

I like the process of creating a good story full of interesting people, an intriguing plot or mystery, different places, and in the case of a series, character growth over time.

What’s your least favorite thing?

My least favorite thing is the patience required during the editing period. The book has to sit for a while and go through a number of edits before it is ready to publish.

How did you come up with the title of the book?

Oh that’s a surprise one needs to read the book to discover. 

What a hook! How did you create the plot for this book?

Like all of my books, it happened organically. What I mean by that is I start writing with a general idea and no outline. It’s creativity run amuck within an organized mind. In other words, I can’t explain the process, I just know it works. I do keep a spreadsheet of characters and such as the plots and character relationships can get quite complex.

Did you have any say in your cover art?

Good or bad, I have to take responsibility for the covers. I have designed the covers of all my books, though I have some help with the photography for the backgrounds of some of the books. My wife and a dear friend have donated photos for use on my covers. I use Photoshop and another photo program to create the designs.

I think they're great. When you start a new book, do you know what the entire cast will be?

No way. Too many interesting things can happen in the process that require the addition of characters. 

Do you have any secrets on how to name your characters?

Usually I just pull a name out of “thin air” that seems to fit the nature of the character. Sometimes if I’m stuck for a name I’ll pull one at random out of a phone book.

Are any of your characters inspired by real people?

No.  I don’t know people like those I write about. They are strictly creatures of my imagination.

Are you like any of your characters?

I’m not like the heroes and heroines of my books. That’s the fun of writing. I can create these characters from scratch.

What are you working on now?

I’m presently working on three books at the same time. One is a romance, one is an action thriller, and the other is a fantasy. The romance novel is the only one close to being finished.

I can't wait to read it! Come back when it's out, and tell us about it.

About the author:

I’m a full time author. I “love” to write, and for me it is like breathing; necessary for my  well-being. It is a pleasant and constructive addiction being a story teller. I consider myself foremost just that; a story-teller.

My goal is to write books that entertain with stories that readers are “so into” that they don’t want to put the book or e-reader down. I write mostly mystery, thriller and historical fiction novels, but who knows what I’ll write about next. I don’t. I guess that’s just how it works for me. My imagination will just grab an idea and away I go.

My wife Ronda and I live in Missouri. We are both graduates of Fontbonne University in St. Louis where I earned Master of Fine Arts, Master of Arts, and Master of Business Administration degrees. Now if someone thinks I'm an "idjit" at least I can say I'm an "edumacated idjit." 

You can take excerpts of my books for a “test drive” on Amazon by using the “look inside” feature or downloading an excerpt on Smashwords. I have nine novels published to date with three more scheduled for release in the near future.

My novels are available either in print or for all the major eBook reader formats at most of the major online vendors. 


Connect with Michael:
Website / Blog / Blogspot / Book blogs / Facebook / Linkedin / Twitter   

Amazon / Smashwords / Barnes and Noble

Book excerpt from The Happenstance Marshall, by Michael Ogara

Book blurb:

The small lake front City of Safe Haven Harbor is broke, but no one can figure out why. A new city manager is hired to uncover the cause, and Millie Boyd is thrown together with him. Together they search for the source of the city's financial troubles. Millie is nominated for election as city marshal, and it’s a position she needs if she is to unravel the dangerous mystery completely.

Chapter 1 – Millie

Millie screamed it, “What do you mean I don’t understand! She wasn’t just my sister-in-law; we were best friends. How dare you!”

Shamus knew he had gone too far and was flirting with danger so he hung his head, “Now, now, you know I didn’t really mean it.”

Millie was furious! She and Shamus’s wife Cathy had been so close that the pain of her death was like a knife through Millie’s heart. There was physical pain. She knew how Shamus must feel losing such a wonderful wife but that did not give him the right to bully her and she wasn’t going to have any of it.

Millie let it all go, “You are doing it again, just like when our ma died. Hiding in the bottle and getting mean is no way to grieve and it’s dangerous.”

She snatched the bottle from the table before Shamus realized what was happening and she ran out the back door into the night throwing the liquor container against the nearest tree. It didn’t break. Now all her fury was focused on that bottle. The back porch light cast on it and it glittered like a snake in the grass; it lay there mocking her.

She marched over and picked it up. It was still partially full and she swung it with all her might against the tree. The force of the impact reverberated up her arm and it hurt. It still did not break. Now she was beyond furious. She emptied the bottle on the grass and went into the garage, laid it on the concrete, grabbed a hammer and broke the bottle. She invested all her fury in the process breaking it into small pieces as the glass flew everywhere. When it was in a million little shards, she smiled with satisfaction. The satisfaction didn’t last long.

Millie heard the car throwing gravel as it tore out of the driveway. She ran to the front of the house to see the taillights of her car disappear. She knew where Shamus was heading and he was in no shape to be driving. How dare he steal her car! She started walking toward Joe’s Pool Hall.

Shamus was sitting at the bar nursing a beer chaser for the whiskey he had just downed when a determined Millie stormed in. Shamus did not notice her coming. He felt the tap on his shoulder and swiveled on the chair. Sitting there he was just the right height. She cold cocked him. The power started from Millie’s legs through her pivoting hips and the vicious right uppercut took him squarely and he dropped off the stool like an anchor dropped in the deepest part of the lake. She saw him go down as though it was in slow motion.

Millie turned to the men at the pool tables, “It seems my brother has had more to drink than he could handle. Would a couple of you stout fellows help me get him in my car?” She bent over and took her car keys from his pocket.

Everyone in town knew Millie and two volunteers carried Shamus and unceremoniously stuffed him in the back seat. Millie drove back to her place, left Shamus in her car and went inside. She flopped across her bed and cried herself to sleep.

She woke to the sun shining in her window. Coffee, she needed coffee. She made some and sat at the kitchen table savoring it. She heard the car door slam shut.

Shamus staggered through the door lamenting, “Man, I must have really tied one on last night.” He abruptly turned and ran back outside. Millie could hear him throwing up and she hoped it was on the lawn. She was not in a cleaning mood today.

She went to the bathroom and locked herself in and showered. It was a long hot shower. Her tears mixed with the shower water. She stayed under the shower head until the water started telling her the hot water tank was just about drained. She got out, dried her hair, brushed her teeth and dressed.

Outside she found her brother was asleep curled up on the porch floor. She left him there. She took the wad of one dollar bills from her pocket. She had exactly thirteen dollars left to live on until her unemployment check came. Screw it, she thought. Her car had a full tank of gas so she could get by. She drove to the Hi-Way Diner and treated herself to breakfast.

To read more of The Happenstance Marshall go to: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/109347

Michael Ogara has published eight novels, six of which are in the Millie Mystery Thriller series. The published eBook titles in the Millie series (in chronological order) are: The Happenstance Marshal, The Deliberate Sheriff, The Persistent Sheriff, The Windfall Sheriff, The Mogul Sheriff and The Mentor Sheriff. The seventh book "The Caring Sheriff" will be released soon.

Michael is a full time writer of mystery thrillers, thrillers, and historical action adventure novels. He lives in Missouri with his wife Ronda. 

Find Michael at:
Website
LinkedIn
Blog
Smashwords

Meet Millie Boyd

Today I'm happy to be talking with Millie Boyd, the main character in The Happenstance Marshall by Michael O’Gara. Before we get started, here's a little bit about Millie:
When life gave Millie lemons she set out to save a town and got a badge and a gun in the process. Her friends and community believed in her when others didn’t and gave her the chance others wouldn’t. Through a series of adventures and misadventures Millie became a true folk hero because she has grit and smarts. It doesn’t hurt that she has the “nose of a blood hound” and a natural aptitude for seeing what others don’t.

Welcome, Millie! Tell us, how did you first meet your writer?
I really didn’t have any say about meeting him. Poof and there I was on a page one day. He didn’t ask if I wanted to be quirky and down to earth. He just wrote me that way.

Want to dish about him/her?
I can’t tell you what I really think of him or he’ll write me into some really humiliating situation. He’s done it before when I didn’t even provoke him. Go figure.

Did you ever think that your life would end up being in a book?
You’re kidding right? A townie gal like me makes it big time? No way!

Way. In fact, you're a figment of Michael's imagination. What is your least favorite characteristic your writer has given you?
That I’m petite. Why couldn’t I have been some tall Amazon type? It would have made my life so much easier. I had to work really hard before anyone would take me seriously, and I became a peace officer more by luck than because anyone would hire me as a cop. There is a lot of prejudice against smaller people. Can you believe my writer once had me described as five foot nothing? I’m over five two.

Do have any secret aspirations that your author doesn’t know about?
Yeah, I’d like to beat the crap out of him for making my life so difficult. I won’t do it though, because I’m not like that. He thinks solving mysteries and taking down the bad guys is a lark. It’s not. It’s hard work and it’s dangerous. At least he gave me a lot of interesting friends and family.

At least there's that. If you had a free day with no responsibilities, and your only mission was to enjoy yourself, what would you do?
Go fishin’ of course.

Of course. What impression do you make on people when they first meet you?
Some people make the mistake of not taking me seriously at first. They don’t do that a second time.

Yikes. Okay, other side of the coin--what's the worst thing that's happened in your life? What did you learn from it?
It is really hard to lose a loved one. I learned though, that life is for the living, so mourn, then get on with life. Life is not always fair and you might as well accept that, as well as sometimes you get what you don’t really deserve.

It sounds like Michael has also given you some common sense. Tell us about your best friend.
I have two BFFs. Doris owns the diner, and she’s a successful business woman, and she’s good looking too. Most of the men in town are scared to death of a woman who’s smart, successful, and good looking. They can handle one of those characteristics but not when they’re combined. She doesn’t have much of a social life. Anna is a retired schoolteacher and is now the Mayor. She taught me in school. Despite our age differences me, Doris, and Anna are good buddies.

What are you most afraid of?
It’s a close thing between being shot and having my heart broken again. Now that I think about it, I think I’d rather be shot than fall in love again and have another husband die.

What’s the best trait your author has given you? What’s the worst?
I like that he has given me a good heart but he’s made me a little rough around the edges. I wonder if the rough edges will wear off over time?

What do you like best about Mitch? Least?
Mitch is a hunk. His problem is that he is too self absorbed.

Oh no. Not another one of those. Watch out for him, Millie. How do you feel about your life right now? What, if anything, would you like to change?
Life is good. I have a purpose that comes with a badge and a gun. I sure could use a husband though. I’m not picky. He just needs to be a hunk, smart, witty, hard working, romantic, and adore me. I don’t want a lot really.

Sounds reasonable to me. I'll put in a good word with Michael. See if he can't work something out for you. What aspect of your author’s writing style do you like best?
The people who read about me say they really like me and my friends and my interesting story. Of course there is a lot going on. I like it when things are happening.
As one person who read about me put it, “I found this book to be truly enchanting. It is a rare blend of mystery, romance, and humor, which is rare in books these days. It is well written, with strong character development and good chemistry between the players. When I finished it, I was eager to find the next book in the series. I haven't enjoyed a book this much in years.”

You're a very intriguing character, Millie. I'm looking forward to reading all of the books in the Millie Mystery series. Thanks for being here. And good luck on that hunt for a good man!

About Millie's author:
Michael lives in Missouri with his wife Ronda. He is a full time writer of mystery, thriller, and historical fiction (action adventure) novels. Michael is a graduate of Fontbonne University and earned both Master of Fine Arts and Master of Business Administration Degrees there. He is also a graduate of St. Lawrence College where he studied Business Accounting. His past experience includes work as a newspaper reporter, news analyst, editor, accountant, financial analyst, artist, City Administrator and Town Manager. He has lived in regions as diverse as the Canadian sub-arctic and Florida.
 

Find Millie on Amazon
Find Michael Ogara
 

Talking With Michael Ogara

About The Happenstance Marshall:
When life gives Millie Boyd lemons, she sets out to save a town and she gets a badge and a gun in the process. It all starts because the small quaint lakefront City of Safe Haven Harbor is not prospering in spite of its natural advantages as a tourist destination. People and businesses should be knocking down the doors to develop in Safe Haven, but they aren’t. The city can’t afford to pay its bills and implemented lay-offs. The residents are at a loss as to why their community is languishing and cash poor when other communities close by are booming. People are finally ready for change, and the newly elected reform council has hired a young man named Mitch O’Keefe to unravel the city’s financial problems.

Mitch is thrown together through some very odd circumstances with Millie who is facing her own set of challenges. She is initially a reluctant partner to the attractive Mitch as they work to solve the mystery of why the city has no money. In doing so they set the stage for Millie to discover her talent for unraveling mysteries which exposes them both to danger. Millie is nominated for election as city marshal, and she accepts, for she knows there is more to the city's problem than a lack of cash. To fully solve the mystery she needs to be city marshal. She does not realize the danger being marshal will expose her to or the adventures and misadventures she will become involved in along the way.

I’m very pleased to welcome Michael Ogara to A Blue Million Books. Michael, first tell us how long have you been writing.
In one form or another I’ve been writing for all of my professional life; forty plus years. Most of my writing was related to writing: reports; analysis; policy papers; professional journal articles; editorials; newspaper articles; and newspaper features.

How did you go from that to writing novels?
I started fiction writing in 2011. Since then I’ve written twelve novels, eight of which are published as eBooks and all of them have been rated between four and half to five stars out of five.

Excellent. You like writing and it shows. What do you like best about writing?
What I like best is the act of storytelling and the creativity involved.

What’s your least favorite thing about writing?
If the question hadn’t stipulated “about writing” I would have said marketing is my least favorite thing about being a writer. I guess because of the way the question was asked, I’ll go with editing. To some degree I enjoy editing, because I consider it a very necessary and important function. A book that is poorly edited takes away from the flow of the story. For that reason I will usually leave a finished book sit for a while after my and my editor’s first review. Then I’ll do another edit after several weeks have passed.

I think that's important too. And I’m with you on both counts—marketing and editing are necessary evils. I do think marketing is part of an author’s writing life, so I’ll take that answer too!

I love the title The Happenstance Marshal. How did you come up it?
The title is indicative of how the main character Millie becomes city marshal: by a chance circumstance. “The Chance Circumstance Marshal” doesn’t do it as a title thus the title “The Happenstance Marshal.”  

Makes sense to me. Do you outline or write by the seat of your pants?
I don’t use a formal outline because that would stifle my creativity. It’s a personal preference, and I believe there are successful authors in both camps. I find outlines to be too confining. I’m mostly an “organic” creative writer, so I start my books with a general concept and let my imagination carry me, but often I’ll go back and change something to ensure cohesiveness.

Did you have any say in your cover art? Tell us about the artist.  
I go beyond having a say in my cover art. My wife and I both have degrees in visual art so we design the book covers. I’ve done about half of them on my own.

I am impressed. What about imaginary friends? Do you have them? When do they talk to you? 
That is an interesting question, and I would have to admit the “good guys and gals” in my books are sort of imaginary friends.

Do they tell you what to write or do you poke them with a Q-tip? I do think, figuratively speaking, that the way an author develops a character increasingly “tells” the author what to write for them as they participate in the story.

I like how you did that. You didn't confirm or deny. Very shrewd, Michael. How do you handle criticism of your work?
If it’s constructive, I’ll analyze it and determine if I think the criticism has merit, and if it has, I’ll take appropriate action. I’ve changed some minor parts of two books during the edit process because of constructive criticism.

Do you have a routine for writing? Do you work better at night, in the afternoon, or in the morning?
I do have something of a routine, but for me the creative process does not seem to be limited to a time of day. I have developed discipline, and I usually write at least six hours a day and often a lot more. Generally I start between seven and eight each morning and work until three or four in the afternoon then I’ll often do some more writing in the evening. There are days when I’m on a roll I’ll work twelve to fourteen hours. Some weeks I’ll work five days and some weeks six days. Occasionally I’ll only work four full days in a week.

What’s one of your favorite quotes?
“I’m getting tired of having to shoot dumbass criminals.” --Sheriff Millie.

I love it! Tell us what you're working on now.
I’m working on a new novel (number thirteen, and no I’m not superstitious) while getting the four new novels I’ve finished ready for release.

Why do you write?
Writing for me is like breathing; something I have to do. I have come to realize it is what I was created to do, and I enjoy it immensely.

And it shows. Michael, thank you for sharing your passion of writing with us. Good luck with the ones to come. I hope you'll stop in again when you launch another book. And folks, Michael's also a blogger. Check it out!

A  word from Michael about Michael:
I'm a full time writer of mystery, thriller and historical action adventure novels. I used to do other things including: newspaper reporter, editor, visual artist, analyst, and city manager. I didn't enjoy any of those as much as being a fiction writer.

I live in Missouri with my wife Ronda who designed some of my book covers. We both graduated from Fontbonne University in St. Louis. I earned both Master of Fine Arts and Master of Business Administration degrees there. My favorite thing to do is write books.
 
I have published eight novels, six of which are in the Millie Mystery Thriller series. The published eBook titles in the Millie series (in chronological order) are: The Happenstance Marshal, The Deliberate Sheriff, The Persistent Sheriff, The Windfall Sheriff, The Mogul Sheriff, and The Mentor Sheriff. The seventh book, The Caring Sheriff, will be released soon. 

I have also written a thriller titled Crossing Cassandra and a second book in the series is now finished and awaiting release. I have also written a historical action adventure Sword, Cross and Crown. 

I presently have four novels finished and awaiting publication. 
 
Where you can find Michael:
Website
Blog
Goodreads author page
Amazon