FEATURED AUTHOR: BURT WEISSBOURD

ABOUT THE BOOK

Corey Logan was set up. She knows Nick Season's TERRIBLE SECRET. Coming home from prison, all Corey wants is to be with her son. To get him back, she needs to make a good impression on the psychiatrist evaluating her. But Dr. Abe Stein doesn't believe she was framed-until his well-heeled mother fall for the charming state attorney general candidate, Nick Season. As the dogs of war are unleashed, Corey and her son run for their lives-taking her boat up the Pacific Northwest's remote Inside Passage.

Book Details:

Title: Inside Passage: A Corey Logan Thriller

Author: Burt Weissbourd

Genre: thriller

Series: The Corey Logan Trilogy, book 1

Publish date: October 20, 2020

Publisher: Blue City Press

Print length: 290
 pages

 



LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT WITH BURT WEISSBOURD


A few of your favorite things: time with my wife, my family, my border collie mix Sady, and fly fishing.
Things you need to throw out: the fox who often comes to my backyard and taunts Sady, the shoes in my closet that I’ve only worn once in ten years but can’t bring myself to throw out.


Things you love about writing: being able to think about issues I want to think about, creating characters that surprise me, and characters that go in directions I didn’t expect
Things you hate about writing: I don’t think there’s anything I don’t like about writing, except maybe that I don’t have enough time to write as often as I’d like.

Easiest thing about being a writer: the easiest thing for me is the actual writing. I try to write every day.

Hardest thing about being a writer: not having enough time to write as often as I’d like.


Things you love about where you live: I love living on the water and having commuting access to New York City.
Things that make you want to move: being too far from New York City restaurants, theatre, music, etc.

Words that describe you: introspective, sensitive, insightful.
Words that describe you but you wish they didn’t: very forthcoming, outspoken.

Favorite foods: all kinds of barbeque and wild game.
Things that make you want to throw up: tripe, and though it’s an unpopular opinion . . . avocado.

Something you’re really good at: working hard, explaining complex subjects, and managing others productively.

Something you’re really bad at: saying no to my children and particularly my grandchildren and not feeding Sady extra treats.

Something you like to do: I’ve always wanted to go on safari in Africa.
Something you wish you’d never done: times I wish I hadn’t been so straightforward.

Things you’d walk a mile for: great company.
Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: rude, inappropriate company will always make me want to run screaming from the room, though I generally refrain from doing so.

Things you always put in your books: I always like to include interesting characters, both protagonists and antagonists.

Things you never put in your books: I always avoid one-dimensional, heavy-handed characters, particularly villains. I really try to make my villains understandable, even if they’re not likeable.

Things to say to an author: you like their writing.
Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: you don’t like their writing. Unsolicited writing advice.


OTHER BOOKS BY BURT WEISSBOURD

 

The next two books in the Corey Logan Trilogy are:

Teaser
Minos

Currently a standalone, and my most recent thriller:

Danger in Plain Sight: A Callie James Thriller

Coming soon in February of 2021, a wildlife thriller set in Yellowstone Park:

In Velvet

EXCERPT FROM INSIDE PASSAGE

“Wouldn’t you like to get married in your own backyard?”

“Of course I would. You know that,” she snapped. “But I can’t.”

“Why not? Because Nick Season says you can’t. You have the right to live the life you want to live. Don’t give it up for that son of a bitch. Hell no. You don’t have to do that.” Abe leaned closer. There it was, those laser-like light blue eyes. “It won’t be easy, but together, we can figure out what to do. You and I can do this. We have to.”

“My God, what are you thinking? This isn’t like psycho-therapy.” She held his eyes. “We can’t ‘figure it out’ or ‘work on it.’ It’s not a head game. We have no evidence. Nothing. Nick’s a foolproof liar and a stone-cold killer. And he’s going to be Washington’s state attorney general.”

“And he has to be stopped.” Abe looked into their fire. “It’s not just about what you’d have to give up … think about what he’ll do if he ever finds out that you and Billy are alive. And though you might be okay for a year, or even two, eventually, he’ll start to wonder. And then to worry. It’s who he is. You’ve told me that. And then he’ll never stop checking. He’ll have me followed. Every year, he’ll run your prints, and Billy’s, through some Canadian database. And that’s just the beginning … unless we stop him.”

“And how do you propose to do that?”

Abe’s bushy brows furrowed in a “V” until they almost touched. “I understand the problem now.” They touched. Corey had never seen that. Very cool. He meant business. He turned to her, full face. “To begin, I’ll comb my hair and look this devil in his shiny black eyes.”

What? What was that? Corey was dumbstruck. Eventually, she softly mouthed, “What?” And louder, before he could answer, “Aren’t you afraid of him?”

“He’s very frightening, and I’m painfully aware of what’s at stake. And of course I see how very dangerous he is and yes, that scares me.” He scowled. “But I have other feelings that are even stronger than my fear.”

“What does that mean?”

“What I’m afraid of, what keeps me up at night, is losing you. Nick wants to kill the person I love most in the world. That makes him my archenemy, my nemesis. What I feel for Nick is inexhaustible rage.” He tapped his pipe against the log, emptying it into the sand, then he carefully set it down. When he looked up, his expression had turned fierce. Abe took both of her hands. “Nick Season be damned!”

“You’re being crazy.” She had never seen Abe like this.

“No, I’m telling you how I feel. I want to marry you Corey. I want to live with you and Billy in Seattle. I want to go to parent night at Billy’s school. I want to take you guys to dinner at Tulio and for pizza at Via Tribunali. I want to fish at your favorite spots near Bainbridge —”

“He’ll kill us all.” And Abe was really scaring her.

“I have to keep that from happening.”

“This isn’t a storybook. Nick isn’t like anyone you know. And this isn’t an insight kind of deal. Look what happened the last time you tried to help. They almost got Billy, and I had to kill someone. Look what almost happened last night. This time you and Billy and I, we could all die. Do you understand that?”

“Yes, I do. But I won’t let that happen.”

“Won’t let that happen?”

“No, I won’t.”

“How?”

“I’m working on that. “

“Working on it? How? You’re going to comb your hair? Look this devil in his shiny black eyes? What is that about?”

Abe considered her question. “It’s a way of starting.”

Corey put her head in her hands. She didn’t know what to say.

***

Excerpt from Inside Passage by Burt Weissbourd.  Copyright 2020 by Burt Weissbourd. Reproduced with permission from Burt Weissbourd. All rights reserved.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR  



Burt Weissbourd is a novelist, screenwriter and producer of feature films. He was born in 1949 and graduated cum laude from Yale University, with honors in psychology. During his student years, he volunteered at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris and taught English to college students in Thailand. After he graduated, he wrote, directed, and produced educational films for Gilbert Altschul Productions. He began a finance program at the Northwestern University Graduate School of Business, but left in his final semester to start his own film production company in Los Angeles. He managed that company from 1977 until 1986, producing films including Ghost Story starring Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, John Houseman, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr, and Raggedy Man starring Sissy Spacek and Sam Shepard, which the New York Times called "a movie of sweet, low-keyed charm." In 1987, he founded an investment business, which he still runs. Burt’s novels include the thrillers Danger in Plain Sight, The Corey Logan Trilogy (Inside Passage, Teaser and Minos), and In Velvet, a wildlife thriller set in Yellowstone National Park.


Connect with Burt:
Website  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads

Buy the book:
Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble
 

a Rafflecopter giveaway


FEATURED AUTHOR: D.M. BARR

ABOUT THE BOOK

Grace Pierrepoint Rendell, the only child of an ailing billionaire, has been treated for paranoia since childhood. When she secretly quits her meds, she begins to suspect that once her father passes, her husband will murder her for her inheritance. Realizing that no one will believe the ravings of a supposed psychotic, she devises a creative way to save herself—she will write herself out of danger, authoring a novel with the heroine in exactly the same circumstances, thus subtly exposing her husband's scheme to the world. She hires acclaimed author Lynn Andrews to help edit her literary insurance policy, but when Lynn is murdered, Grace is discovered standing over the bloody remains. The clock is ticking: can she write and publish her manuscript before she is strapped into a straitjacket, accused of homicide, or lowered six feet under?
With a cast of secondary characters whose challenges mirror Grace's own, Saving Grace is, at its core, an allegory for the struggle of the marginalized to be heard and live life on their own terms.

Book Details:

Title: Saving Grace: A Psychological Thriller

Author: D.M. Barr

Genre: domestic suspense

Publisher: Black Rose Writing (October 15, 2020)

Print length: 255 pages
On tour with: Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours


LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT WITH D.M. BARR


A few of your favorite things: lobster, chocolate with sea salt, dogs, travel.
Things you need to throw out: everything I’ve been hoarding but never use.


Things you need in order to write: a computer, quiet, the seed of an idea.
Things that hamper your writing: the start of a pandemic, too many pulls on my time, a lack of sleep.


Things you love about writing: revision, being read, marketing my work.
Things you hate about writing: agents who don’t consider a work because it’s too original, finding an audience and snagging reviews.

Words that describe you: perfectionist, independent, non-conformist.
Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t: perfectionist.

Favorite foods: lobster, chocolate, cream sauce with anything on rice.
Things that make you want to throw up: pumpkin, brussels sprouts, kale.

Favorite music: pop, new wave, classic rock.
Music that make your ears bleed: most rap (but I do like Eminem).

Favorite smell: fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies.

Something that makes you hold your nose: my dog’s morning gift that I must remove from neighbors’ lawns during our morning walk.

Something you’re really good at: research.

Something you’re really bad at: being patient.


Things you always put in your books: diverse characters, humor, and puns.

Things you never put in your books: cruelty against pets or children.

Things to say to an author: where do I get your book and where can I leave a review?

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: The book arrived damaged from Amazon, so I’m giving it a one-star review.

Favorite places you’ve been: too many to mention; I was the daughter of a travel agent and was for many years, a travel writer. Maybe Tahiti, Venice, Paris, London.

Places you never want to go to again: every time I go to South America, something goes wrong so nothing against the countries, it’s just my bad luck.

Favorite things to do: writing, reading, traveling, playing Scrabble with my honey.

Things you’d run through a fire wearing gasoline pants to get out of doing: skydiving, hot-air ballooning.

Things that make you happy: anything that makes me laugh.

Things that drive you crazy: people doing stupid or illogical things, people who are purposely helpless.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: publishing my first novel and opening myself up to criticism.

Something you chickened out from doing: underwater walk on my honeymoon.





OTHER BOOKS BY D.M. BARR

Expired Listings: Revenge Begins at Home
Slashing Mona Lisa

READ AN EXCERPT FROM SAVING GRACE

One felony was all it took to convince Andrea Lin she was better suited to committing crime on paper than in person. As renowned mystery author Lynn Andrews, she understood conflict equaled good drama. Like her readers, she should have expected the hiccups, even relished them. What she hadn’t counted on was the accompanying agita, especially while sitting in her Bergen County kitchen, far from the action at the Bitcoin Teller Machine.

Her one job had been to place a single phone call when the money hit and tell the hacker to lift the encryption on Grace’s computer. Trouble was, her dozen calls remained unanswered until a few minutes ago, throwing their meticulous plan off schedule.

Andrea stroked the blue-gray Nebulung purring on her lap and tried to ignore the churning in her stomach. “Denver, the next time I consider helping a sibling with some crazy scheme, you have my permission to use my leg as a scratching post until I come to my senses. Agreed?”

Denver looked up, his green eyes filled with innocence, and answered with a single meow before leaping onto the table toward her plate of shortbread cookies.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” She sipped her tea, willing the sugar to sweeten the acrid taste in her mouth. The phone interrupted her meditation. No doubt a check-in from her brother, the extorter-in-chief.

“I figured you’d have called by now. Everything on track?” Joe’s strained voice conveyed his own jangled nerves. They’d agreed to be vague when communicating. In these days of Siri and Alexa, anyone could be listening.

“Finally. Took forever to get through to our friend, but she said she’d take care of ‘our project’ as soon as her meetings wrapped up. From here on out though, I’m sticking to fiction. Real-life intrigue is too stressful.”

Andrea missed Joe’s response, instead perplexed by her cats’ sudden change of behavior. Denver had tilted his head and leapt from the table; Vail and Aspen sat frozen, ears perked, staring toward the foyer. Then she heard it too, the sound of papers shuffling in the living room. She leaned forward, muscles taut, hackles raised, ready to pounce. “Joe, hold on a sec. I think someone’s in the house. I’ll call you back later.”

***

“Wait, what? Andrea??” Silence. The connection was dead.

After twenty minutes of weaving in and out of rush-hour traffic to travel one mile, Joe “Hack” Hackford pulled up outside his sister’s Ridgewood home. Adrenaline pumping on overdrive, he jumped from his car and sprinted toward the house. Door wide open—not an encouraging sign. He steeled his nerves and hastened inside. The living room looked like a hurricane’s aftermath, with furniture overturned and papers littering the carpets and floor.

“Andrea? Are you here?” He rushed into the kitchen, which lacked any signs of their celebratory dinner—no spaghetti boiling on the stove, no cake rising in the oven. Only the door to the backyard ajar and a shriek emanating from the next room, piercing the eerie silence. Hair stiffening at the back of his neck, he raced into the dining room where a redheaded woman stood frozen, staring across the room.

“Who the hell are you?” he growled.

The stranger remained wide-eyed and unresponsive. He followed her gaze to the floor, where he witnessed the unthinkable. His beloved sister lay in the corner, surrounded by a pool of blood, a kitchen knife stuck in her chest. Her eyes remained fixed on the ceiling. A trio of feline guards circled her lifeless body.

Hack’s knees turned to jelly, and he grabbed onto a chair for support, forcing back the remains of the snack he’d consumed only minutes earlier. Once the initial shock waned, he reverted his attention back to the intruder. At second glance, she did look somewhat familiar, though the woman he’d met a few weeks back—the missing heiress whose computer they’d just hacked—was brunette. Had she uncovered their con? With a bolt of fury, he reached forward and pulled the wig from her head. A thousand questions zigzagged in his brain, but only one forced its way past his lips:

“Oh my God. Grace. Oh my God. What the hell have you done?”

***

Excerpt from Saving Grace by D.M. Barr.  Copyright 2020 by D.M. Barr. Reproduced with permission from D.M. Barr. All rights reserved.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR





Who is D.M. Barr? By day, a mild-mannered salesperson, wife, mother, rescuer of senior shelter dogs, competitive trivia player and author groupie, happily living just north of New York City. By night, an author of sex, suspense, and satire. Her background includes stints in travel marketing, travel journalism, meeting planning, public relations, and real estate. She was, for a long and happy time, an award-winning magazine writer and editor. Then kids happened. And she needed to actually make money. Now they're off doing whatever it is they do (of which she has no idea since they won't friend her on Facebook), and she can spend her spare time weaving tales of debauchery and whatever else tickles her fancy. The main thing to remember about her work is that she is NOT one of her characters. For example, as a real estate broker, she never played Bondage Bingo in one of her empty listings, offed anyone at her local diet clinic, or run away from home to escape a homicidal husband. But that's not to say she hasn’t wanted to . . .


Connect with the author:

Website  |  Blog  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads


Buy the book:

Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble

a Rafflecopter giveaway

FEATURED AUTHOR: RACHEL TAMAYO

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

What do you do when you know you’re on a serial killer’s hit list?



Six women are dead, and Wren Addison is the next victim on the SMS Killer’s list—or so she’s been told after waking in a pool of blood with no memory of the events that have transpired.



Newly separated and struggling to start her life over after her husband’s infidelity, Wren tries to remember what happened to her, but nothing is adding up as more horrors unfold around her. With her life on a timer and the murderer taunting her, she realizes there is nothing typical about this serial killer.



Wren is pushed to the edge as she dances between knowing she's likely to die and fighting to be the first to survive. As the truth starts to emerge, she rises to the challenge and decides not to go down without a fight.



Someone is going to die, and she’s determined it won’t be her.

Book Details:


Title: Carnal Knowledge


Author: Rachael Tamayo


Genre: psychological thriller


Series: The Deadly Sins Series 


Publisher: Tangled Tree Publishing (July 11, 2020)


Print length: 296 pages


On tour with: Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours

   

LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT WITH RACHEL TAMAYO


A few of your favorite things: family, good food, sunshine, movies in the dark with a blanket.
Things you need to throw out: clothes that don’t fit, toys kids don’t play with, and a towel with holes in it I keep washing. LOL.


Things you need in order to write: access to OneDrive and Microsoft Word. If the mood hits me, I can write anywhere.
Things that hamper your writing: figuring out what my characters will do in a given situation.

Things you love about writing: everything! Creating a world, telling an amazing story. Making someone say, “Wow what a story!”
Things you hate about writing: the fear of people hating what I write. To be a writer is to expose a part of yourself to the world. It’s always risky.

Easiest thing about being a writer: there isn’t much easy about being a writer. LOL. 

Hardest thing about being a writer: explaining that I have no idea where the ideas come from; they just come to me.


Things you love about where you live: mild winters! No snow, warm days. Sunshine, 30 minutes from the ocean. Texas hospitality. The way everyone helped one another during Hurricane Harvey.
Things that make you want to move: I can’t imagine living anywhere else.


Things you never want to run out of: food, money, love, joy, smiles.
Things you wish you’d never bought: slime for my kids. LOL. 


Favorite foods: hamburgers, tacos, fajitas, ice cream, Dr Pepper.
Things that make you want to throw up: Brussels sprouts, cooked cabbage, rare steak.

Favorite music: I am pretty all over the place with music. Songs in my play list hit on every genre of music there is. I absolutely love “Hypnotic” by Notorious BIG though. I love music that makes me want to move.
Music that make your ears bleed: Death Metal.

Favorite beverage: Dr Pepper. 

Something that gives you a pickle face: Big Red.

Favorite smell: black cherry, pipe tobacco, leather.

Something that makes you hold your nose: my dogs when they come in from playing in outside when it's hot. Phew!

Something you’re really good at: cooking.

Something you’re really bad at: folding laundry.

Something you wish you could do: sing.
Something you wish you’d never learned to do: can’t think of anything I would want to unlearn. At some point I think everything is useful in its own time.

Something you like to do: Sleep! 

Something you wish you’d never done: dropped out of college. I don’t as much regret it as kinda wonder what would have happened if I'd finished.

People you consider as heroes: those who stand up for what is right no matter what. Mothers, single fathers. 

People with a big L on their foreheads: People that think of nothing but how a situation impacts them and don’t care about anything else. 



Last best thing you ate: the pizza that gave me a headache. LOL 

Last thing you regret eating: the pizza I had recently—not realizing it had gluten in it—gave me a terrible gluten headache.

Things you’d walk a mile for: my family.
Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: flying cockroaches.

Things to say to an author: I got a book hangover from your book! 

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: You don’t make much doing that, do you?

Favorite places you’ve been: Hamilton Pool in Texas. 

Places you never want to go to again: A funeral for a loved one.

Things that make you happy: seeing my kids happy.

Things that drive you crazy: seeing them sad because someone was mean to them.

Find the first book in this series here.

EXCERPT FROM CARNAL KNOWLEDGE

You really don’t know how you feel about some things until they happen to you. You can guess. You can pretend you’d be strong, that you’d stand on the rooftops and shout your indignation as you shake your fist to the skies, but those are only guesses. Hopes. What we think we know about ourselves. They say no one ever really knows anyone. I think it’d be a safe bet to say that we don’t really know ourselves either. You think you do. The “Oh, I’d never do that! Look at how she’s acting. If I were in her shoes….” but you don’t. No one does.

I said the same things to myself when I walked out on my husband, Ricky, months ago. Those thoughts went through my head as I closed the door behind me for what I told myself was the last time. I wouldn’t let myself cry as I said goodbye to him, only feeling the first tears fall when I heard the click behind me, the locking of the door to what used to be our home together. When he didn’t chase me and beg me to stay.

I wept in that moment, wondering how much pain a person could take.

Over the days that followed, it faded into something more akin to numbness as I found an apartment and got a new checking account. As I arranged to find movers to get my things while he was at work, all while thanking God that we had no children.

Now I find myself in that place once more, though for an altogether different reason. Something has happened to me, something that leaves my body sore and my head feeling as if I have a hangover. These are the moments that tell you who you really are, leaving you exposed to your own darkness.

I found that out about myself. No one ever imagines themselves in this position. You’re not prepared. No amount of self-defense can prepare you for the shock that is the next morning, waking up in a bloody mess, knowing you’ve been sexually assaulted.

I can’t even say it out loud. I won’t. I refuse to do it. It makes it real, and I don’t want it to be real. I want it to be some horrible nightmare that I can wake up from.

But it’s not.

It’s the middle of the night. I’m sitting on the floor of my shower, the water finally not running pink anymore. My face feels puffy from crying as I carefully wash the wounds, the soap burning. I wince and then stand up before the water turns cold. Sitting here won’t accomplish anything.

I look down at the mark on my left breast, swollen and purple. The definite outline of teeth, broken skin, tender to touch. It’s not the only place I’m hurting, but it’s the only one I can easily see. The only one I can’t really hide from. It’s a slap in the face, a calling card from someone I can’t remember. A face that won’t ever haunt my dreams.

So, what do I do now? It’s about 4:00 a.m. Do I call someone? The police? My friend Lily? My husband? Maybe Alex? Surely she would believe me.

I blink away tears, dipping my head back into the hot spray to wash the blood out of my hair.

No, I won’t tell anyone. It’s too embarrassing. Too humiliating. This big foreboding thing happened to me. What they warned us all about. My drink was tampered with, and someone hurt me. I broke the rules, and I got this for it.

I should have listened, I suppose.

I feel sick knowing what someone did to me while I was asleep. Or was I? Maybe I did fight and just can’t remember. I’d fight, surely. I wouldn’t just lie there and take it, right? The thought gives me some minimal sliver of peace, like passing through the eye of the hurricane—you know it’s not real, not the end, but you relish it just the same.

By the time I get out of the shower, I realize I haven’t really slept. My alarm will go off at seven for work so I can catch the bus and be on time for the morning meeting. I could get three hours of sleep before that, maybe.

I shut off the water, suddenly a bit afraid. Knowing someone was here gives me the creeps. Makes me wish I’d gotten that gun Ricky tried so hard to get me to agree to, the one I refused. I wouldn’t give in, fearing some horrible accident. He kept his locked up, and I never bothered to learn to shoot. He begged to teach me, tried to get me to hold his Glock to “get the feel of it.” Nope. Now I regret it.

In the months I’ve lived here, I haven’t been afraid to be on my own until now. Someone got to me. I’m without defense in my own home.

***

Excerpt from Carnal Knowledge by Rachael Tamayo.  Copyright 2020 by Rachael Tamayo. Reproduced with permission from Tangled Tree Publishing. All rights reserved.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

 Rachael Tamayo is an international bestseller and award-winning author.  She lives in Houston, Texas with her husband and their two small children. 

Connect with Rachel:

Website  |  Blog  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads

 

Buy the book:

Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble

 

FEATURED AUTHOR: NEEL MULLICK

ABOUT THE BOOK

Sam returns home from a business trip a day before his son's thirteenth birthday and is looking forward to being with his family, when his world is cruelly shattered in one fell swoop. Initially he thinks he can cope with the loss, but finally seeks the help of Cynthia, an experienced therapist, to regain his equipoise. What he does not know is that Cynthia herself is trying to cope with a debilitating divorce and the sinister shadow of her ex-husband over her daughter . . .

What happens when doctor and patient find themselves in the same sinking boat? Moreover, when they are rowing in opposite directions--one clinging to the past, and the other unable to get rid of it! In the midst of it all is Lily, Cynthia's daughter, who harbors a secret that has the power to explode the lives around her.


Taut with tension and intensity, Dark Blossom is a glimpse of what lies under the surface of apparently 'normal' people.


Book Details:

Title: Dark Blossom

Author: Neel Mullick

Genre: Psychological Thriller


Publisher: Rupa Publications (December 21, 2018)


Print length: 224 pages




IFs ANDs OR WHATs INTERVIEW WITH NEEL MULLICK

Ifs


If you could talk to someone (living), who would it be and what would you ask them?
I’d love to talk to Barack Obama and discuss his thoughts on the balance and tradeoffs between power and diplomacy.

If you could talk to someone (dead), who would it be and what would you ask them?
I’d love to talk to Ayn Rand to learn more about her evolution from philosopher and non-fiction writer to a fiction writer, the challenges she faced and lessons she learned in doing so.

If you could live in any time period which would it be?
Phew! That’s a toughie. The romantic in me would love to live in Europe during the Renaissance, but if time travel were to become a reality, then I’m afraid the realist in me is more than likely to succumb to the temptation of traveling to the future to find out the result of next year’s Super Bowl!

If you could step back into a moment or day in time, where would you go?
I’d go back to the Amazonian rainforest because I have never since known tranquility like I experienced there.

If you could be anything besides a writer, what would it be?
I’d be a Nascar driver. I grew up in India and even though the 1.2 billion of us haven’t discovered it yet, I believe we are genetically predisposed to excel at that sport!

If you had to do community service (or already do volunteer work), what would you choose?
I am fortunate enough to currently be working with four women-led NGOs in as many continents and what I’d like to spend more of my time doing is working with children’s education. In fact, half the royalties of my debut novel, Dark Blossom are being donated to www.iimpact.org, an NGO devoted to the primary education of girls from the most impoverished sections of India.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where in the world would it be?
If I could, I’d be living just outside of Queenstown, New Zealand, running a small B&B in a vineyard, writing and entertaining guests in my free time.


Ands


5 favorite possessions:
-my Ridley cycle
-Serious Steel resistance bands
-iPhone XS
-Bluetooth earphones
and
-my MacBook Air, without which I wouldn’t be able to write.

5 things you need in order to write:
-time
-my laptop
-silence
-research
and
-well, a little more time!

5 things you love about writing:
-allowing my imagination to run amok yet be focused on every little detail
-the joy of discovering how even the smallest change in a sentence can make the biggest difference to its meaning
-the opportunity to have an impact on others
-empathy for my characters to take them through their entire range of expressions
and
-empathy for readers to be able to make a desired impact on them

5 things about you or 5 words to describe you:
-dreamer

-philosopher
-romantic
-empathic
and
-more than a dash of nutty!

5 favorite places you’ve been:
-Antarctica
-Barcelona
-Galapagos
-Machu Picchu
and
-Queenstown

5 favorite books:
-Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand  
-Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
-Primal Fear by William Diehl
-A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Webb Young
and
-Embracing Your Inner Critic by Hal and Sidra Stone

5 favorite things to do:
-writing
-cycling
-traveling
-philanthropy
and
-meeting new & interesting people

Whats

What’s your all-time favorite memory?
The first time I did a solo paragliding flight in California. It was a flawless forty-five minutes, and it’s the closest I’ve felt to Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

What’s your all-time favorite movie?
Oh! Now’s the time I give away how old I am. I remember watching the Keanu Reeves-movie Speed as a teenager and I can’t remember, either ever before or after, being on the edge of my seat for as long.

What’s your all-time favorite author?
Ayn Rand for her ability to create characters that are unique yet their struggles so relatable, stories that are grand yet realistic, and a narration that is dogmatic yet immersive.

What’s your all-time favorite city?
Barcelona, for it has the best of everything – the sea, the hills, culture, modernity, food, wine, and people!

What’s one thing that very few people know about you?
That I have survived ten days (and nights!) at an airport and a free fall five-hundred meters from the sky!

What’s the most beautiful sound you’ve heard?
The sound of a thousand waterfalls in a valley in Tibet.


What’s your favorite time of day?
Early in the morning, the first few hours in fact. For that’s the only time of day I’m able to stick to a discipline!

What’s your favorite meal?
The midnight snack for it usually constitutes dessert!

What’s your favorite thing to do?
Writing! It used to be cycling for almost as long as I can remember but now writing has replaced it. And that’s saying a lot.

What’s your favorite snack?
Ice cream. Yes, I gain two pounds for every 10,000 words I write, if you must ask!

What’s your favorite dessert?
Kanafeh. If you haven’t tried it yet, drop everything you’re doing and sink your teeth into a portion. It’s got sugar, cheese, almonds, pistachios, and rose water. Can’t go wrong with all of that!

What’s your favorite beverage?
Coffee. Can’t seem to get enough of it.

What’s your favorite ice cream?
Dulce de Leche… No, Belgian Dark Chocolate… No, Sea Salt and Caramel… grrr… All of them?

What’s your favorite hobby or past-time?
Cycling.

What’s your favorite thing to do when there’s nothing to do?
Playing poker online. I’m a novice, and I don’t play with money, but I’ve realized that I can discover my mind’s level of unrest based on how I play. And knowledge, in this case, is definitely power.

What’s your favorite quote?
It’s mine: Good storytelling happens at the intersection of personal authenticity and people’s perceptions. While the former can get you to the first draft, it takes brutal honesty and painstaking diligence with one’s understanding of the latter to get to the final manuscript.

What’s your favorite color?
Blue. My first name in my mother tongue means is a shade of the color.


What’s one thing you never leave the house without?
Chapstick.


What do you know now that you wish you knew then?
That I could write. I would have started it before I could walk!

What is your obsession?
To continuously evolve and improve as a writer.

What smells remind you of your childhood?
Petrichor

.

What book are you currently working on?
My next novel is also going to be a psychological thriller, narrated from the perspective of Abigail, a young nanny who has just started working at a prominent bureaucrat’s home. It starts with her charge, six-year old Stewart fighting for his dear life in the pool and Abigail soon discovering it might have been his older sister who had pushed him in and covered her tracks.

What’s your all-time favorite picture of yourself? It’s actually a recent one taken a couple of years back in Cambodia.


What’s your all-time favorite place you’ve visited?
Machu Picchu.



What’s your latest recommendation for:
Food: Ilili close to Madison Square Park in NYC. Never disappoints!
Music: EDM. Try listening to a couple of tracks by Joe Lyons but beware, you might not want to listen to anything else after!
Movie: Miss Sloane with Jessica Chastain. I think both the movie and Jessica’s acting were hugely underrated.
Book: Autism Breakthrough: The Groundbreaking Method That Has Helped Families All Over the World by Raun K. Kaufman. It is filled with so many life lessons told in a simple and endearing manner that it’s a must read.
TV: Game of Thrones
Netflix/Amazon Prime: Ricky Gervais on Netflix. He’s one of the best comics I’ve ever seen.





ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Neel Mullick is the author of Dark Blossom. The Head of Product and Information Security at a Belgian family-office technology company, Mullick is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and INSEAD. He mentors female entrepreneurs through the Cherie Blaire Foundation for Women, is involved in raising a generation of digital and socially-aware leaders with Nigeria’s Steering for Greatness Foundation, supports improvement in the quality of life of domestic workers through Peru’s Emprendedoras del Hogar, and works with IIMPACT in India to help break the cycle of illiteracy plaguing young girls from socially and economically impoverished communities. Dark Blossom is his first novel.


Connect with Neel:
Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram  |  Wattpad

Buy the book:

Amazon


FEATURED AUTHOR: JENNY MORTON POTTS

ABOUT THE BOOK

Keller Baye and Rebecca Brown live on different sides of the Atlantic. Until she falls in love with him, Rebecca knows nothing of Keller. But he’s known about her for a very long time, and now he wants to destroy her.

This is the story of two families. One living under the threat of execution in North Carolina. The other caught up in a dark mystery in the Scottish Highlands. The families’ paths are destined to cross. But why? And can anything save them when that happens?

BOOK DETAILS

Title: Hiding

Author: Jenny Morton Potts
Genre: Psychological thriller

Publisher: Cahoots Publishing (February 1, 2018)
Print length: 325 pages

On tour with: Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours

INTERVIEW WITH JENNY MORTON POTTS

Jenny, what’s the story behind the title of your book?
This is a book all about Hiding. Almost all of the characters are hiding from something. For some of them, their lives depend on it.

Where’s home for you?
Thaxted in Essex, England. It’s a little chocolate box town, and I’ve never lived anywhere I like as much as Thaxted.

Where did you grow up?
In the suburbs of Glasgow. Not terribly exciting, but in a lovely house with woods at the back for climbing trees and making dens. And a garden where I played with my older brother and sister late into the summer evenings.

What’s your favorite memory?
It’s the excitement of Christmas morning.


If you had an extra $100 a week to spend on yourself, what would you buy?
Books and bookshelves.


What’s the dumbest purchase you’ve ever made?
A massage machine which would have been better described as a torture chamber.


What’s the most valuable thing you’ve learned?
To solve problems (in a timely fashion).

Who would you pick to write your biography?
My partner.

What do you love about where you live?

The people, the cute pubs, the countryside around and the absurdly pretty architecture.


Have you been in any natural disasters?
Only childbirth.

What is the stupidest thing you've ever done?
Leaving my partner for six months.

What’s one thing you wish your younger writer self knew?
Editors are almost always right.


What makes you bored?
Nothing these days. I was almost always bored at school and have a horror (I mean, panic attack level) of being in a situation that might be boring for a long period. So I avoid that, of course. 


What is your most embarrassing moment?
Falling over at an interview.


What choices in life would you like to have a redo on?
Many things. I feel I have only been able to make really good decisions since turning 40.


What makes you nervous?
Public speaking
.

What makes you happy?
Nature.

What makes you scared?
Right wing politics.

What makes you excited?
Projects: I love renovating stuff.

Do you have another job outside of writing?
Renovation.

Who are you?
A writer, first and foremost. That’s my identity. It comes before roles like wife, mother etc.

How did you meet your spouse? Was it love at first sight?
At work, for a wine merchant. No, not love at first sight though fairly quickly; but intrigue first.

What are your most cherished mementoes?
Paintings and sculptures of my son. Photos of my family. Silly things we bought in interesting places during happy times.

If you could only save one thing from your house, what would it be?
My son Flint’s pomegranate painting.

What brings you sheer delight?
Hearing a very funny line.

Would you rather be a lonely genius or a sociable idiot?
Lonely genius.

What’s one of your favorite quotes?
Victoria Wood is my most quoted writer. This is from a sketch where Julie Walters is a Brummie talking about what her mother likes best about living in Spain. (I am able to quote this a lot, since my mother lives in Spain.) “Well, she likes the majesty and grandeur of the landscape. But she’s not too keen on the bacon.”

If you could live anywhere in the world, where in the world would it be?
We are thinking of going to Corsica. It has to be Europe, in permanence, but I look forward to traveling more when my son is out of education.

What would you like people to say about you after you die?
She was fun.

Are any of your characters inspired by real people?
Many of the things Rebecca Brown does are tales of my own childhood. Ralph’s pursuits are true to my own Grampsie’s and many of the pleasures they share together are real too.

One of your characters has just found out you’re about to kill him off. He/she decides to beat you to the punch. How would he kill you?
Ideally, I’d be pushed off a Scottish cliff.

With what five real people would you most like to be stuck in a bookstore?
Joanna Lumley, Sara Pascoe, Bradley Walsh, Mary Dorcey, Jo Brand.

What book are you currently reading and in what format?
I am reading Once Upon a Rock by Sergiu Pobereznic on my laptop.

Do you have a routine for writing?
No, I just do it 9 to 5 or 6. No breaks and no days off during a novel.

Where and when do you prefer to do your writing?
Anywhere but I mostly do it in a cabin in the garden.

What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received about your writing?
I’ve been lucky enough to get lots of compliments. One recently which took my breath away was a review from another author which said as she read Hiding she knew that she would never be able to write as well as that. That’s an incredibly generous and poignant remark.

What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to write?
It’s hard to write about harrowing experiences when you have been through that yourself. I hesitate here, to say which.

Where is your favorite library, and what do you love about it?
I fantasize about becoming a member of the British Library in London and bumping into Jeannette Winterson there. But so far, I haven’t been.

You can be any fictional character for one day. Who would you be?
I think I would be Marin Strang and spend the day in bed with Lawrence Fyre from Piano from a 4th Storey Window.

What’s the worst thing someone has said about your writing? How did you deal with it?
I had someone say a book was ‘boring.’ I worried about it in that I thought it would stop people considering the book when browsing online. You just have to accept that your material can’t connect with everyone. You must just try to find a fit with your audience.

What would your dream office look like?
It would just be as it is, but with an en suite swimming pool.

Why did you decide to self-publish? Are you happy with your decision?
I just wanted freedom. Yes, I have the freedom I wanted. The downside is the amount of time I have to spend promoting rather than writing. But I quite enjoy aspects of it, such as this. You get asked such interesting questions. And they make you really think!

What steps to publication did you personally do, and what did you hire someone to do? Is there anyone you’d recommend for a particular service?
I did everything except formatting and cover design.

What are you working on now?
I’m completing a new thriller set in the Mediterranean and Cambridge. It’s called Just.

READ AN EXCERPT

Chapter 2

Death Row
June 2021

There was a walk now. They passed doors, like random choices. They all looked the same, all the colour of pale nicotine. But some of those doors were in the business of living and some were not. As you walked past them, you could feel hope slipping away. Which door? Which one? It was like a game the devil might play as you entered hell. Eventually the passengers reached the end of their journey and were shown into another room which was similar in size to the last but with what looked like a window on one side. The window was dark for the moment, with a black blind pulled down and opposite, there was a gallery with seating. The seating was slightly raked, like a theatre. They were here for a performance.
‘That’s 11.30 gone now,’ someone said from the far end.
‘Show must go on.’ Keller mumbled.
There was a crackle and then an audio test from the speaker in the corner. Keller imagined that President Descher had arranged a televised viewing and that all over the State the people could see and hear this: factory workers, grandmothers, schoolchildren, stopping what they’re doing and watching. From the audio speaker, Keller recognised words from the phonetic alphabet, then the date, today, June 23rd 2021, the location, the prisoner’s name and number HCI 72259-931 and the time scheduled for execution.
Keller knew that the duration for the poison to act was ten minutes maximum and that the ratio to be injected was set against the inmate’s weight and height.
Somewhere behind him, Keller could hear mumbling about the victims’ families and an officer explained that they were seated separately, in another viewing room. He imagined that the families’ room was crowded, since eight victims had lost their lives that day.
At 11.45 am, the time was announced once more on the speaker and the blind was pulled up manually, revealing the execution chamber. Keller had forgotten who was seated directly next to him now, but whoever it was flinched.
The prisoner was already strapped onto the gurney. There was a sheet over his body but you could see where the constraint buckles jutted up into the clean white cotton. His left arm was exposed however and the intravenous tube was already in. He was clean shaven. Keller had never seen him without a beard. He could almost pretend he did not know him.
Three Harfield guards came into the chamber now. They did not look at the window, which to them was a mirror. Who would want to see themselves doing what they were about to do, even if it was their duty. The three guards were each handed a syringe. The content of one of the syringes was deadly and the other two contained a harmless fluid. The guards would never know who among them administered the lethal injection.
The condemned man’s chest began to rise and fall. He blinked rapidly and his Adam’s apple bulged in his throat, as he struggled to find an impossible place between dignity and the screaming of his nerves to stay alive.
Keller murmured, ‘There is nothing to do now but die.’
A man in the chamber who had been out of their view, moved into sight. He was dressed in a plain dark suit. He identified himself as Warden James and held up a chart. His hand was steady enough, his white knuckles though suggested a very tight grip on that chart.
Keller stared down at the inmate who seemed to be staring back, though Keller knew that the glass was one way and that all the condemned could see was a reflection of his own final scene. All the same, their eyes met.
Warden James turned to the prisoner. ‘Is there anything you would like to say or read before we administer this lethal injection?’
‘Yes.’
Keller frowned down at the neighboring lap. It was the redhead next to him, the PhD student, twisting that engagement ring. The girl who more than likely had it all, the girl who could not cope without her cell, was barely coping at all. Keller could feel her trembling against the length of his torso and the anger in his veins burned. The young woman held her hand up to her mouth and whispered into it, ‘God, dear God.’
The Warden lowered his eyes to Prisoner HCI 72259-931 on the gurney and blinked several times. He said to the inmate, ‘Go ahead, what do you want to say.’
‘I would like to ask a question.’
‘What is your question?’
‘I would like to ask a question and have it answered.’
Warden James looked around the room at the other officials.
‘Go ahead and ask your question.’
‘Not until you tell me that I will have an answer.’
Keller smiled and nudged the redhead. ‘You see? Make the most of every goddamned moment.’
The young woman was on the edge of her seat and on the edge of tears.
In the chamber, the suits and uniforms huddled and muttered amongst themselves and the Warden came free of the pack once more.
‘We shall try to answer your question. And cannot commit beyond that. I ask you therefore again, is there anything you would like to say?’
The inmate tried to lift his head but the strap across his brow was held tight. He cleared his throat and said in that thick Carolina accent that Keller thought he’d forgotten but which now reignited in his memory and ripped through his heart.
‘I want to know if my son can see me.’

***

Excerpt from Hiding by Jenny Morton Potts.  Copyright © 2018 by Jenny Morton Potts. Reproduced with permission from Jenny Morton Potts. All rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jenny is a novelist, screenplay writer and playwright. After a series of 'proper jobs,' she realised she was living someone else's life and escaped to Gascony to make gîtes. Knee deep in cement and pregnant, Jenny was happy. Then autism and a distracted spine surgeon wiped out the order. Returned to wonderful England, to write her socks off.

Jenny would like to see the Northern Lights but worries that’s the best bit and should be saved till last. Very happily, and gratefully, settled with family.

She tries not to take herself too seriously.

Connect with Jenny:
Website  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads

Buy the book:
Amazon US  |  Amazon UK

FEATURED AUTHOR: WILLIAM R. LEIBOWITZ

ABOUT THE BOOK

REVERED     REVILED      REMARKABLE

The victim of an unspeakable crime, an infant rises to become a new type of superhero.  Unlike any that have come before him, he is not a fanciful creation of animators, he is real. 

So begins the saga of Robert James Austin, the greatest genius in human history.  But where did his extraordinary intelligence come from?

As agents of corporate greed vie with rabid anti-Western radicals to destroy him, an obsessive government leader launches a bizarre covert mission to exploit his intellect.  Yet Austin’s greatest fear is not of this world.

Aided by two exceptional women, one of whom will become his unlikely lover, Austin struggles against abandonment and betrayal.  But the forces that oppose him are more powerful than even he can understand.

Miracle Man was named by Amazon as one of the Top 100 Novels of 2015, an Amazon Top 10 thriller, an Amazon bestseller and an Amazon NY Times bestseller. 

INTERVIEW WITH WILLIAM R. LEIBOWITZ

William, what's your favorite thing about the writing process?
The opportunity to create characters that take on lives of their own in the minds of readers.

Do you write every day?
No, but when I’m not writing I’m often thinking about the plot and where it should go.

What do you think is hardest aspect of writing a book?
Keeping the reader wanting to turn the pages—to read “just one more chapter.”

Do you have any marketing tips you could pass on to indie authors?
I think virtual book tours are worthwhile.  I found out the hard way that Google Ad Words have a very low conversion rate from clicks to book purchases.

How do you feel about Facebook?
I think it is a good way to spread the word.

Would you make a good character in a book?
Probably too good.  That worries me.

What do you love about where you live?
I live in a small seaside town.  The beach is gorgeous.

I'm jealous. What’s your favorite fast food?
Pizza for sure.


What’s your favorite beverage?
After 8 pm –Bombay Gin.

Where is your favorite place to visit?
Gloucester, Massachusetts.


Do you give your characters any of your bad traits?
Yes – the protagonist in my novel, Miracle Man, has all of my bad traits.  Fortunately for him, he has many good traits that I don’t have.

What would your main character say about you?
I think we would get along famously although he’s far more intelligent than I am.

Who is your favorite fictional character?
James Bond.


If you had a talk show who would your dream guest be?
Ian Fleming.


What’s one thing that very few people know about you?
I’m a terrific ping-pong player.


How do you like your pizza?
Pepperoni, thin crisp crust.


What are your favorite foods?
Grilled lamp chops; any kind of cheese; virtually anything that is fried; and Italian food generally.


What do others say about your driving?
There is unanimous agreement that I’m a terrible driver.


What are you working on now?
The sequel to Miracle Man. The saga of Dr. Robert James Austin continues.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

William Leibowitz has been practicing entertainment/media law in New York City for a number of years. He has represented numerous renowned creative people and many leading intellectual property companies. William has a Bachelor of Science degree from New York University (magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) and a law degree from Columbia University. He lives in the village of Quogue, New York with his wife, Alexandria, and dog, George.

William wrote Miracle Man because of its humanistic and spiritual messages and because he feels that in our current times--when meritless celebrity has eclipsed accomplishment and the only heroes are those based on comic books, the world needs a real hero--and that, of course, is Robert James Austin, the protagonist in Miracle Man.

Connect with William:
Website  | 
 Facebook  |  
Twitter  |   Goodreads 

Buy the book:
Amazon   |   Barnes & Noble



William R. Leibowitz is giving away one autographed copy of Miracle Man, 5 e-copies and 4 pens!
Terms & Conditions:
•    By entering the giveaway, you are confirming you are at least 18 years old.
•    Ten winners will be chosen via Rafflecopter to receive prizes.
•    This giveaway ends midnight May 31.
Good luck everyone!
ENTER TO WIN!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

FEATURED AUTHOR: BRENT HARTINGER

ABOUT THE BOOK

A weekend retreat in the woods and an innocent game of three truths and a lie go horribly wrong in this high-octane psychological thriller filled with romantic suspense by a Lambda Award–winning author.

Deep in the forest, four friends gather for a weekend of fun.

Truth #1: Rob is thrilled about the weekend trip. It’s the perfect time for him to break out of his shell . . . to be the person he really, really wants to be.

Truth #2: Liam, Rob’s boyfriend, is nothing short of perfect. He’s everything Rob could have wanted. They’re perfect together. Perfect.

Truth #3: Mia has been Liam’s best friend for years . . . long before Rob came along. They get each other in a way Rob could never, will never, understand.

Truth #4: Galen, Mia’s boyfriend, is sweet, handsome, and incredibly charming. He’s the definition of a Golden Boy . . . even with the secrets up his sleeve.

One of these truths is a lie . . . and not everyone will live to find out which one it is.

INTERVIEW WITH BRENT HARTINGER

Brent, I can’t believe it’s been over a year since you’ve been here. Catch us up on what you’ve been doing.
Time does fly, doesn't it? It's always strange to be talking about a new book, because whenever I release a book, it's usually a project I was working on three years before. I'm currently working on three new projects. But of course they won't be out for three years, so there's no point in talking about them now! That said, I'm very proud of Three Truths and a Lie, so I'm happy to talk about it.

Where did you get the idea for Three Truths and a Lie?
It was as simple as my visiting a remote cabin in a rain forest on the Olympic Peninsula near Seattle and thinking, "Oh, my God, this would make a fantastic setting for a book!"

Everyone knows what a tropical rain forest is, but these are temperate rain forests, which means they're cold and dark and misty. They're also incredibly lush, with ancient trees, and hanging moss. It's like everything is growing, but nothing has changed in millions of years. Talk about a forest primeval!

But as one of the characters keeps saying, "Nothing is exactly what it seems in this place." This is very much a psychological thriller.

I'm not one of those authors who says that a location is a "character." It's a location, not a character! Give me a break. But I'll grant you that the location here is very specific and very important, and very much a reflection of the characters' feelings.
Then again, that's what I think the location should be in almost every novel.

What's the biggest lie you ever told?
I don't think I've ever told any truly harmful lies, but I guess I've been known to practice the art of "spin." I used to work as an entertainment journalist, and I interviewed many, many famous people—some of the biggest names you can imagine. I confess there were times when I complimented a movie star on a movie or a TV show that I didn't particularly care for. But I'd like to think I was just being polite!

Of course! I know this is an unfair question, but of the books you’ve written, do you have a favorite?

I think it's a totally fair question! I always love my most recent book, which in this case is Three Truths and a Lie.

But among my backlist, my favorite books are Grand & Humble, which is a twisty puzzle box thriller (like Three Truths and a Lie!). It has a twist ending, and no one ever guesses it correctly. Better still, it's currently available for free as an e-book in all platforms.

My other favorite book is Barefoot in the City of Broken Dreams, which is the fifth book in my Russel Middlebrook series (now seven books!). It tells the story of Russel trying to make it as a screenwriter in Los Angeles, but it's mostly my own story too. I knew as I was living it that it would make a good book. And I think it did! It's my most personal, anyway.

What's your favorite thing about the writing process?
Having written. Being done. But also having something complete, something you can point to and say, "I did that."

There are many, many, MANY frustrations that come along with being a writer (and they all mostly boil down to rejection, failure, and criticism—the unholy trinity!).

But that sense of completion is something that we writers get but not every profession does. I've written twelve published novels now (and a bunch of unpublished ones!), and I've had eight screen projects optioned. That makes me feel quite satisfied!

It should! Do you have a writing routine?
I work Monday through Friday, from about ten until five. But it takes me a while to get rolling. If you walked into my office, I'll be doing much more work later in the day, and later in the week.

In terms of each project, I do a "concept" outline, then a more detailed outline. Then if I can convince someone to buy the damn thing, I do a terrible first draft (that no one sees except me!). Then I rewrite it, and show it to my first reader. Then I rewrite again based on his feedback, and show it to some other early readers. Then I rewrite again based on their feedback. Then I show it to my editor. Then I rewrite again based on his or her feedback (often more than once!), and then I show it to my beta-readers, and rewrite at least one more time.

Then I drop dead of exhaustion!

Do you write every day?
If I'm writing, I'm writing. If I'm not writing, I'm soooooooo not writing! I don't keep a notebook, I don't write for an hour in the morning, I don't even THINK about writing!

For me, writing is insanely hard. I enjoy having done it, and occasionally I'm riding the wave, which feels euphoric. But for the most part, it's a cold, hard, never-ending slog. I don't write for pleasure, so when I want to be having fun, I don't write.

Makes sense. What do you wish you’d done differently when you first started in the publishing business?
I wish I'd known that no one can edit their own work. Seriously, no writer I've ever met has any perspective on his or her own work! You NEED outside eyes—as many as possible. It's the only way to produce anything good.

Honestly, since I discovered first-readers and beta-readers, I think my work is so much better. Writing is about communication, and the most important thing to know is whether or not you've succeeded in actually communicating! Otherwise you're writing for an audience of one: yourself.

What do you think is hardest aspect of writing a book?
For me, it goes from hardest to easiest. The outline is the hardest (but it's still essential). The first draft is slightly less hard. The second draft is slightly less hard than that. And so on, all the way through copy-editing.

Then you get to "book promotion," and things get really hard again! Ha!

Agreed! What’s more important—characters or plot?
Well, character is important, but plot is most important. I've always seen myself as a storyteller. The point is tell a story. Things have to happen. It needs to be going somewhere. When you're done, it needs to feel complete, like there was some kind of conscious, intentional resolution (even an ambiguous one). Personally, I need to feel like there was some kind of point to the books I read, and the author wasn't just jerking me around, or being completely self-indulgent. Self-expression is fine, but it's not the same thing as telling a story.

For me, you can have a story with weak characters (though it'll be a bad story). But a story with no real plot is not a story, and it shouldn't be a book. Or at least it's not a book I want to read!

You'd think this would be obvious, but I feel like I read books all the time that have virtually no story or plot.

Good point. What do you know now that you wish you knew then?
That the stories you hear about overnight sensations are exceptions to the rule, and even then, that kind of success doesn't always last. Most writers struggle in obscurity for years, with little or no acclaim or financial reward. Some eventually break out, but the vast majority do not. I think it’s interesting that I have a lot of very bitter writer-friends, but that none of my doctor or lawyer friends are bitter!

What do you like to do when there’s nothing to do?
Read, swim, hike, bike, eat out with friends, walk on the beach. And not write!

Your book, Geography Club, was made into a movie. Do you have any new movies in the works?
I do! I have three movies in the works right now!

I've been working with some producers on one project, a very personal teen drama, since 2009! But it finally seems to be coming together.

My 2007 novel Project Sweet Life was just optioned by some producers, and I wrote the screenplay.

And finally, earlier this year, I had an animated movie script of mine optioned by a Chinese company. I said to my rep, "Really? But it won't be seen in the United States." He said, "It'll be seen by up to a billion people in China, and their movie industry is already three times the size of Hollywood. Their money is real!"

So I took the deal, and sure enough, their money is real.

What’s next?
Right now I'm pitching projects to different editors, which is hard (as I said), but also exciting. I've come up with three different ideas, all thrillers, and I'm dying to get a couple of them under contract so I can start writing them!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Brent Hartinger is a novelist and screenwriter. His first novel, Geography Club, was adapted as a feature film co-starring Scott Bakula, and he's since published eleven other novels, most recently, Three Truths and a Lie. As a screenwriter, Brent has three different movies in the works with various producers. Visit him at brenthartinger.com.







Connect with Brent:
Website  |  
Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads 

Buy the book:
Amazon  | Barnes & Noble 

Watch the trailer:
Book trailer