Blog Archives
Our Assumptions Are Often Very Wrong
Soul Man follows a murder victim who is forced to see through his killers eyes and tries to stop him from committing another murder. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
The storyline came to me in a dream. The unique viewpoint really intrigued me.
David and the killer are intriguing and well developed characters. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
First, thanks! Second, as noted above, the storyline came to me in a dream. As I started writing, the characters started taking shape. At several points, I did extensive rewrites as the characters developed on paper (or, more accurately, the computer screen).
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
I wanted to explore the unique viewpoint of the main character. First, to be imprisoned in a body that you had no control over. Sadly, many people experience this through disabilities. Here, though, the character knew he had to gain control — at least partially — in order to save other people’s lives.
I also wanted to pay tribute to the tremendous jobs Navy Seals (and all our military) do.
Third, I wanted to point out that our assumptions are often very wrong.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
Good question. I have several books in development — including sequels to Duty and Defiance and Soul Man, plus a romantic comedy based on my own experiences. It will probably be after the first of the year before any of them are ready for publication, let alone published.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
David realizes he must be in this position for a reason. First he must solve the mystery of why he was killed, then figure out a way to prevent his killer from killing again.
His host is a man on a mission, trained to push aside any emotions. Learning more about him, David discovers shocking secrets about his past, and the reason why he took David’s life. But can he stop him from committing another murder, and find peace for his own soul?
If A Fallen Angel Arrived Today
The Last Angel To Fall follows Federal Agent Stone who is tasked with hunting a Fallen Angel, in his pursuit he reveals a conspiracy between the State Department and Lucifer. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
The tagline came to me very early in the process: “Everything we’ve been taught about Good & Evil is a lie.” How does the world really operate? What is the real truth behind the war between God and Satan? There are two sides to every story, but for the most part, we’ve only heard one and it’s pretty much universally accepted without equal time from the antagonist. Wouldn’t it be interesting to speculate about that?
This novel began as a screenplay but the story demanded the expanded palette that only a novel could provide. I wondered what would happen if a fallen angel arrived today. How would it be handled? Is there some secret government agency already in existence tasked to respond and cover up improbable events like that? I thought about allies and enemies and how alliances are often of convenience and not always due to similar perspectives and goals. What could possibly compel any nation to sign a treaty with Lucifer? I then thought about the Apocalypse. What would be the signal event that triggered it? I thought about the story of the fallen angels. That’s when I decided that there was a suppressed book of prophecy that foretold the story of the last angel to fall as being the event that triggered the Apocalypse.
Your characters are well developed and intriguing. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
Some of it is personal experience. I’ve worked with a lot of interesting, diverse people from all kinds of backgrounds. The characters have a clash not only of personalities, but of politics and beliefs. They believe they are right, as most of us do, and fight to hold onto their beliefs, even when they are unsupported by facts or reason. I wanted to represent different points of view and open the mind of the reader to be able to “walk in another person’s shoes.” The character of Asheba Rain especially asks very searching questions that are meant to provoke objective analysis. Her point of view is completely outside normal human experience. To her, none of our universal beliefs are valid. The protagonist, Jubal Stone, eventually comes to the unsettling conclusion that lies and conspiracy are behind everything he’s ever believed in. Thad Coleman, a Black man who has experienced racism must struggle with a prejudice of his own due to his faith.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
The need to question everything we are conditioned to accept as absolute truths because in one way or another, not everything we’ve been taught about good and evil is true.
Challenging conventional beliefs that are unsupported by facts, logic or common sense is vitally important to our growth as a species.
Ethnic cleansing is unacceptable and unjustifiable, even when God is the perpetrator.
The Bible tells only one side of the story of Good vs. Evil. There is another side I wanted to explore.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
The sequel to The Last Angel To Fall is in the final stage of editing and should be available in late October 2021.
Author Interview: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
After 12 Federal Agents are murdered, Federal Agent Jubal Stone is pulled from a desk assignment and plunged into a nightmare pursuit of a Fallen Angel who was imprisoned inside a meteorite that struck south-central Michigan.
The State Department has a secret treaty with Hell!
As he hunts the last rebel angel, Jubal learns about a shocking conspiracy between the State Department and Lucifer.
In war, the winner writes the history.
The Bible tells us God’s version of the Eternal War, but neither God nor the Devil are what they seem. Jubal’s long-held beliefs are shattered when he learns the other side of the story of the war between good and evil from a beautiful, mysterious woman who was born in Hell.
What is the surprising truth about the origin of Hell?
Jubal is torn between duty and faith when he learns that this Fallen Angel has information that can help Lucifer win his war against God.
A rogue CIA agent is also in pursuit, and he has very different plans for the Fallen Angel. To make matters worse, Jubal learns that his teammates are keeping secrets from him – secrets that could get them all killed.
My Evolution As An Artist
Where Paint Goes is a captivating autobiography detailing your life as an artist. Why was this an important book for you to write?
After surviving over fifty years of living life as a creative or an artist and being told by numerous folks along the way, “you should write a book.” I thought it might be a good time to chronical my adventures, not so much to tell a story of my personal life, but to portray in parallel my personal life and my evolution as an artist or a creative.
Being intrigued by two statements I was familiar with, from studying art history:
- “Art imitates life,” Aristotle, around 300BC
- “Life imitates art,” Oscar Wilde, 1889
I found that I subscribed to both of these concepts, which gave me the foundation for writing the book and is why I subtitled the book “The art that affected my life and the life that affected my art.”
I appreciated the candid nature with which you told your story. What was the hardest thing for you to write about?
Being a novice author, I did not realize that to chronical my life in the written word, it would be necessary for me to intimately revisit the periods of my life I wished to depict in the story. Recalling certain parts of the story in this way proved to be highly difficult. Writing about the passing of my wife Kathy in 1989, I cried while I was writing about it and I cry today when reading the passages.
What do you hope is one thing readers take away from your book?
A bit of insight into what it is to live life as an artist, a creative.
Author Link: Website
Being Authentic
Small Fingernails chronicles your life as a college student and explores how toxic relationships impact our well-being. What were some key ideas you wanted to convey in this memoir?
Firstly, I wanted to express the extreme savviness needed to manage a mental health disorder and embark on a romantic relationship for the first time. Such an endeavor requires guidance, support, and troubleshooting from close friends and family. These folks need to be present and available for the person with a disorder and aware of their friend’s new relationship’s precarity on their mental status. Not to mention the ability, stamina, and health to complete college without incident and not let potential issues from their relationship complicate this critical time in their life with unnecessary hangups and avoidable with collateral support. I hope the various characters in Small Fingernails, especially the character Mcdaggot, and his ongoing failure to be truly supportive to Jacques, make all this visible to the reader.
I appreciated how candid and authentic the book is. What was one of the hardest things for you to write about?
One of the most challenging aspects of being authentic was that I still have connections with the ‘friends’ I talked about so freely in the book. Many of them today are very isolative, unhealthy, unkind, and quite frankly destructive people.
Mcdaggot is the perfect example of this uncouth behavior among my supposed friends. He even threatened me on several occasions with a lawsuit while I was writing the book and published it. I think I still get emails about it… very similar to the emails about small claims court that would bring my character to his knees later in my book University on Watch when my dispute with Kim went viral in the group.
To this day, some refuse to read or acknowledge this work as a vital part of my healing (from their callousness) and a literary work calling upon them for recognition as educated folks I attended college with at Binghamton.
What advice would you give to first-year college students that are struggling with their emotions?
Should work or education prove to be ‘too much’ or triggering, look inward, and ask yourself: are you taking the best possible care of yourself as possible? If you cannot identify the reason or roadblock that triggers or activates your symptoms and makes it difficult to work or study, consult with a therapist. Troubleshoot with a psychiatrist.
Just don’t give up or throw in the towel because of a label. A mental health disorder is only as disabling as the power you give it to rule over your life. Sure, there will be days when you can’t make it to work because of your symptoms, but that is OK. Just like the flu, some signs make it too uncomfortable to go in and do our job correctly. Heck, going to work or school in such cases might even be a bad idea, should you be contagious from the flu or tired from depression to get your work done correctly. But these are blips and moments and should not influence your potential for lifetime achievement.
What is the next book that you are working on, and when will it be available?
Wales Middle School: the rise of J. Peters It is already available.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
The sages say love can blind us; however, sometimes, that love transforms our lives into radically altered states–states in which we must learn how to cope for the relationship to survive and thrive. These altered states are often difficult to manage without help from friends and family. If left to our own devices, without these critical supports, the very creative energy that once nurtured our passion has the potential to destroy the very foundation of our love and caring that was once manifest.
Small Fingernails chronicles my life as a student at college in Freedomtown and in love. It evaluates the impact of toxic relationships on our well-being and our capacity to pursue friendship. Through transgressions, fear, loss, grief, and misfortune, even my profound love could endure. Ultimately, my ethics and belief in what is right collapsed on its head.
Love needs to be free and rid of all elements that can destroy its beauty. This book signals the need to reevaluate our closest and most personal spaces, friends, and family members. The complications that interfere with our pursuit of happiness will one day be more easily overcome by people who follow their hearts and seek only the best for those they care about the most.
Put It On Your Shelf
My Fight For Survival is an impassioned memoir that takes readers through your personal struggles to inspire them and show them that anything is possible. Why was this an important book for you to write?
I find it is Important to let other people know there are other people who understand what you may be going through and to reach out. I find it is important for people to know you can make it through your struggles.
I appreciated how candid you were when telling your story. What was the hardest thing for you to write about?
The hardest thing for me to go back to are the sexual assaults I went through.
What were some ideas that were important for you to explore in this book?
Some important ideas were the way I handled some situations in my life and how to get out of them.
What do you hope is one thing readers take away from your book?
There is a very important rule I live by that was once told to me by a very wise person. The things that are controlling your feelings because they are bad and you can’t do anything about it, are things that absolutely everyone experiences. If it’s one thing I remember which helps me a lot is to “put it on your shelf”. It’s an imaginary shelf that you set your problems on and leave them there until you can pull it off that shelf and something can be done. No point in worrying and carrying around sad and horrible things when you can’t currently do anything about it. You, and you alone will know when it’s time to pull that off your shelf and handle it then.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website
I yearned to be a therapist of some sort to help those who experience the struggles in life I have. I want to reach people on a personal level. I want to help people understand, they can get through anything.
Up To My Neck in Werewolves and Vampires
Indie Saint follows a young woman who suddenly possess powerful abilities and embarks on a dangerous quest to stop a madwoman from destroying the multiverse. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
My biggest inspiration was to draw a comparison between the protagonist, Jane, and the antagonist, Eileen. They are both women who suddenly have the power to change the world. They both have family struggles and a desire to help other people. They both come from humble roots and are afraid of the rapid changes in their lives – both mundane and supernatural. However Jane works to stand against the darkness even though she is afraid and Eileen chooses to hide behind it. I wanted to show what happens when fear rules our actions and prevents us from being who we are meant to be. I liked the idea of contrasting that when we are faced with incredible challenges we can choose to stand tall or let it twist us.
For the setting I wanted to pull some flavor that doesn’t usually get page time. My inspirations from Catholic tradition, Sumerian Mythology, Urban Legends, and Jewish Mysticism (later books) is the kind of thing I crave as a reader who has been up to my neck in werewolves and vampires for the last two and a half decades.
Jane is an intriguing and well developed character. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
Jane is a combination of two of my friends from high school with a dose of Urban Fantasy lady protagonist thrown in the mix. I liked the idea of starting the book with a character that hit a few tropes so I could gently subvert as the story went on. A strong, snarky woman – but she’s primarily a healer, not a badass combatant. She’s inexperienced and sometimes clueless, but she questions everything she learns and realizes quickly that some of the pieces don’t fit (more on that in later books.) She’s swept up in a whirlwind romance, but instead of throwing caution to the wind she thinks about her choices and implements boundaries. I tried to tie her struggles and decisions back to core ideas that everyone has to face in real life because, ultimately, that’s why superheros are interesting: not because they have powers but because we can see ourselves in them.
This seemed like a fun book to write. What scene did you have the most fun writing?
I loved writing the Bunnyman scene – it was probably the most difficult because the point of view was so skewed, but trying to walk the line between horror and ridiculousness is one of my favorite elements to play with. The Jersey Devil fight was also very enjoyable – I based the initial encounter on an interview with a woman who survived a grisly bear mauling and incorporating her first hand descriptions of the event gave the scene a lot of flavor. Dialogue was also highly enjoyable, the characters developed their own voices very quickly and intra-character dynamics were really enjoyable to write. It often felt more like I was recording a conversation than making it up myself.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
Neon Redemption (Words of Power book #2) and Suicide Kings (Words of Power book #3) are available now through Amazon! Righteous Eight (Words of Power book #4) will be released August 17th. While this series is coming out I have started a new series about a man named Wade Rhodes in rural Virginia who works for the supernatural branch of animal control and is sent out on cryptid calls. I am planning on doing a mash up of a redneck Supernatural and a gay retelling of The Little Mermaid. His urban fantasy romance adventure is still in the works, but I hope to be ready to look for a publisher by Christmas.
Author Links: GoodReads | TikTok | Facebook | Website
Since she read a biography of Catholic saints and began spontaneously healing the sick and calling down lightning, Jane’s day-to-day has become a trippy journey of self-discovery. Lucky thing a pair of magical special agents appear and offer to train her because it turns out that, not only has Jane’s life taken a hard turn for the weird, but the fabric of reality is beginning to unravel.
Urban legends like Mothman, the Jersey Devil, and Bunnyman are manifesting in a sleepy Pennsylvania town, and they are haaangry.
The good news: Jane’s new boyfriend is part of an ancient corporation of literary superheroes ready to save the world. The bad news: life expectancy for people with powers kind of sucks.
If Jane wants to live long enough to see the year 2000, she’ll have to work with her new mentor, a teenaged, angsty King Arthur; her current crush, cuddly god-man Enkidu, and a gun-nun from a neighboring comba-convent to seize her role as a try-hard hero and stop a middle-aged madwoman from ripping a hole in the multiverse.
Indie Saint is an urban fantasy adventure with a dose of Sumerian, Arthurian, and modern mythologies, and a dash of romance. Fans of Quentin Tarantino, Tamsyn Muir, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer will enjoy the cheeky writing, toasty romance, and technicolor brawls.
Note: This series features M/F and M/M slow burn, steamy romance that starts sweet and gets spicy in later books.
The Importance of Fellowship
DELSAR follows a girl who’s on a quest to save her village and searches for the notorious Champion to help her, but she must first save the Champion before he can save her village. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
My inspiration really came from what I see around me. So many people are trying to fix other people’s problems without first addressing their own. Elidria recognized that and knew if she helped him, he could better help her. Where the story came from will be better answered in the next question.
I appreciated how grounded and authentic your character felt. Was this intentional or indicative of your writing style?
My opinion on storytelling is a story is only as good as the characters that drive it. If the characters don’t feel real then readers will have a harder time relating to or even feeling a part of their world. Because of that, I crafted the characters first and built the world around them instead of building them around a world. I could have dropped them in a sitcom, a drama, or even a comedy. I chose a simple premise for the first book to really help establish these characters. Now that they are, the world can start to really grow and become more complicated.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Solidarity, fellowship, and forgiveness. So many stories try to capture the forgiveness aspect of life, but I wanted mine to be slightly different. There’s still forgiveness, but just as important, there’s forgiveness of yourself. That’s something we all need to be willing to do, lest we bury ourselves in our own worlds of darkness and regret. Moving to the solidarity and fellowship aspects, those really come from the major pandemic we’ve all been going through. I never realized just how much people need each other until COVID hit. The importance of fellowship I really wanted to capture in these characters. Sometimes even a hero needs a hero.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
The next book will be the sequel to this one. Though the first one could easily be a standalone novel, there are plenty of things going on in the background to suggest something more and even a few unanswered questions. The characters are trusted into the mysterious world of magic and things they knew to be true get challenged as they see things first-hand. This causes them to really question who the good guys actually are. I’m working really hard on this one and want it to be a huge improvement over my first one. I’m taking extra time with editing and really making sure I show as much as possible instead of telling. Because of these things, I predict it to be available by the summer of 2021. Also, the second book is going to be a bit longer, so prepare for that.
Author Links: Amazon | GoodReads
With trolls, mercenaries, and political conspiracies all trying to smother the light, a spirited girl escapes her doomed village to find this missing Champion. She believes he’s the only one who can save her village from its fate, but not as the thug he’s become. Though saving her village from its impending destruction weighs heavy on her heart, she first makes it her mission to save this Champion from himself. Unfortunately for Elidria, there are powerful forces who don’t want to see the return of the Champion and make her plans seem impossible. A long sword and her innocence are her weapons-of-choice as she battles both the physical and the emotional.
We Never Truly Know
Inside Isla follows a writer living an idyllic life when her husband suggests they go to counselling which reveals cracks in their marriage and secrets are spilled. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
We never truly know what goes on behind closed doors and inside other people’s relationships. I’ve been surprised by people I’ve known. Appearances can be deceptive.
Isla is an interesting character. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
Through writing Gem’s character and creating Gem’s journey, Isla accepts her own past. Isla has a materially comfortable life unlike Gem. Isla is never truly compensated for what’s missing, though. Isla goes on a journey of self-forgiveness when she discovers her husband’s secret. The only way Isla can reconcile herself with her own decisions and secrets, is by embracing those of her husband.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
The main theme of this book is redemption. Both Isla and Gem seek the ability to come to terms with their mistakes and the decisions they made. The book also explores the lengths we go to, to avoid conflict and pain. I think adversity isn’t always bad, it does make many people stronger, better people.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I have just finished my third novel called, The Cleaner. It’s about an affair between two very different people. It’s still in the editing stage so it’ll be a little while before it’s ready. I have some ideas for another book, though.
Author Links: Amazon | GoodReads
LITERARY TITAN 