Blog Archives
Remembering the Wonderful People
The Eyes of Summer follows a young woman on a summer trip that turns deadly when her curiosity lands her in the middle of a crime ring. How did the idea for this story start and change as you wrote?
I love to read detective novels. The idea was a second Adventure with the characters from my first book Blow Out Summer. The first draft was too ordinary. I wanted something with shock value as well as mystery. As I began to rewrite it Catalina Island was mentioned. I love the island and I decided to incorporate it into the story.
The story takes place around Catalina Island and it felt very authentic. What is your experience with the island?
I have visited Catalina many many times. My husbands family had a mooring in Cat Harbor. We spent weekends enjoying the beautiful Island.
Are there any pieces of your characters that are based on real people?
Yes, remembering the wonderful people I met there in the past helped create other boaters for the setting, they weren’t criminals.
Do you have other stories planned for Dee?
Book 3 was released in February of this year.
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Ian Conner, a medical student interning at the University of California, Irvine, and his surfer girlfriend Dee live in Huntington Beach. The two are spending their summer on a 70-foot yacht moored at Catalina Island.
Naturally curious, Dee is a journalist for a local newspaper, leading the couple to soon suspect that some illegal activity is going on at another yacht. The situation turns sinister when they discover what they believe to be drugs and money laundering taking place.
In the blink of an eye, the couple’s summer jaunt turns from pleasurable to deadly.
Address The Big Questions
Animals follows a family who’s lives are altered after Ellie goes missing and is raised by animals and trained for a dangerous purpose. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
I started with the idea of telling a story that would allow readers and myself to spend time thinking about how we, as humans, should live in and share the world with its other inhabitants. I was thinking about the ways we attempt to distance ourselves from the rest of nature and the consequences of that. I was concerned with the stories we tell ourselves about our place in the world. I had some fairly fixed ideas about those things. As always happens when you start writing the characters had ideas of their own and the story took me in directions I had not planned and I think the book is all the more engaging and interesting for that. Along with all that I wanted to make the book exciting, a page-turner, something that would find a home in readers mental stores of favourite stories.
Ellie is an interesting character that is well developed. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
I wanted the book to in some sense address the big questions of ‘who are we?’ and ‘how should we live?’. It seemed to me that this could be examined well by writing about a young person growing up and developing their answers to those questions as we read. Obviously, Ellie does all that in very unusual circumstances. I will admit that many of the qualities emphasised by her animal mentors (such as resilience, mental and physical capability etc) are ones I personally value but Ellie questions everything she learns eventually and I don’t believe the book offers simple answers.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Humans as a story-telling animal and how those stories influence the view we have of ourselves and the world. Cruelty, its origins and how it can be combated. The nature of family and loyalty. Also, as readers will discover, Ellie spends a great deal of time with a group of refugees on her journey across Europe. The plight of displaced people and issues connected with migration was very much on my mind as I wrote the book.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
The sequel to Animals is already available. It’s called ‘The Pack’ and continues the story of Ellie, all her allies and her enemies. There will be a third book in the series ‘A cave in a forest’. I am working on it now.
Author Links: Amazon | GoodReads
In that instant her life and the lives of her parents and brother are altered forever…
“Animals” is an exciting adventure story; full of danger, mystery and action, peopled with characters you will care about.
It is also an examination of the elements that make us human and how we deal with the fact that we are also animals.
In a Writer’s Mind
Killing Time follows a 93 year old man who’s given the chance to fix his greatest regret in a parallel universe but must give up his life in his current one. What inspired the setup to this thrilling story?
This is the third in a series of books involving these characters. When I originally thought of the story I wanted to tell, it centered around my relationship with my wife. We met in an unconventional way. The tiniest of variations in circumstances during a few days and we would have missed each other. Later in our relationship, I almost made a decision that would have changed everything. That became 93-year-old Sean Brody’s story, but I didn’t get around to it until the third book.
Your characters, as usual, are well developed. What were some ideas that were important for you to personify in your characters?
Characters must become very real people in a writer’s mind. They must be distinct from each other. While—like real people—they must change and grow with time, they also must remain true to their fundamental nature. My books tend to have a lot of characters, which makes this a little more difficult, but after three books, I know these people very well.
I felt that there were a lot of great twists and turns throughout the novel. Did you plan this before writing the novel, or did the twists develop organically writing?
I am not an outliner. When writing fiction, I can’t see that far ahead. I count on my characters to lead me where we are going. I guess. Truthfully, I don’t know where a lot of the plot twists come from. I’m just thankful they show up when they do.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
Two more books are on the horizon. Late this summer, we will publish my first non-fiction effort, “We Never Knew Just What It Was … The Story of the Chad Mitchell Trio.” This is a book about the 60’s folk music era and the group that had such a profound influence on those of us who grew up in the 60’s. And I’ve completed an early draft of a fourth book in my “Physics, Lust and Greed Series.”
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
A Master of Social Comedy
American Fries: A Queer Farce is a whimsical play about love, equality, and marriage in both a historical and contemporary setting. What was the inspiration for the setup to your plays?
Moliere is an old buddy of mine. We met in high school French class years ago and have kept in touch ever since. When the COVID 19 pandemic hit, we decided to shelter in place together and collaborate on a play. We wanted to include some of his tried-and-true tricks of the trade, e.g., mistaken identities, overheard conversations, mischievous servants, etc., but with a modern twist. To be honest, Moliere deserves all the credit. Most of my ideas got edited out.
Your characters were interesting and I loved following them. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
As a master of social comedy/satire/farce, Moliere’s characters tended to be more “types” than individuals, but they often had big hearts that steered them right in the end. I’m hoping that’s true of American Fries.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
As you note, my main theme is marriage equality. Those who say it’s “established law” in the U.S. so there’s no need to worry are wrong on both counts.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I’m currently working on a comedy of manners about the “fake news” phenomenon. Oscar Wilde is helping me out. (We ZOOM all the time.) Look for The Importance of Being Ernest Enough later this year.
Author Links: Amazon | GoodReads
Feeling Like an Outsider
Monsters & Mist is a thrilling fantasy novel that I thought was very entertaining. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
Thank you! Initially I wanted to write a story about a girl whose nephew went missing who goes on a journey to find him and ends up learning about herself along the way. As the world and story unfolded it became about a group of characters that had been raised to see things one way who had to put aside those beliefs to work together.
Your characters were intriguing and well developed. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
I always see a little bit of myself in at least one of my characters. Monsters & Mist was initially intended to be told solely in Andromeda’s perspective. She starts off the book feeling like an outsider – in her village, in her family even, because she looks different and acts differently, wants different things than everyone else. I often feel like I don’t quite belong, even among friends or with my family and I wanted to show that you shouldn’t feel bad because your differences are what make you who you are. All of my main characters had to go through a transformation throughout the book. Cygni, for example, didn’t think he was ready to follow in his father’s shoes but by having everything ripped away from him he became the leader he was always meant to be.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
I think, especially now, it was important for me to get across that despite where someone comes from, what their background is, or how they were raised deep down people all really feel things the same way. We all have hopes, dreams, insecurities, and fears. There are five kingdoms in Monsters & Mist, and for generations the people from three of those kingdoms had spent so much energy hating the people of the fourth kingdom all because the god they worshipped willed them to, when if they had gotten to know those people the world could have been an equal, peaceful place.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I have a few different projects I’m working on at the moment, all of which are outside my usual comfort zone. My primary project is a horror novel set in an almost forgotten hotel in the Great Smoky Mountains and I aim to have it out in the first half of 2022.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
The Playboy Prince.
The Ruthless Queen.
One will seek to enslave the world. One will lead the rebellion. And one will be the catalyst.
The Warrior General with a tragic past.
The Disgraced Bounty Hunter.
The Girl with the Constellation on Her Face.
One will rise to the challenge. One will return what was once lost. And one will embrace their destiny.
Six lives. One world borne anew.
A Near-Future Cyberpunk
Shunt follows a woman who receives an implant to remove her grief, but when things get unreal she tries to track down her Pain Surrogate and unlocks a conspiracy. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
The first criteria I usually have for starting a novel is that I’ve never read anything like this before. The idea that two people, cut from different social cloths, could become each other’s mental-health support, in the physical sense, was interesting and satirical to me. It also made for very entertaining reading (and writing) as emotional context would “bleed” into different character perspectives. I also wanted to write a near-future cyberpunk with loads of action and intrigue, so I wove those concepts together and let that evolve into what we have here.
Jade is an intriguing and well developed character. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
Thanks, I’ve soul searched a great deal to bring her out right (despite the emotional handicap implied by the brain implant and my own biases). In the case of Jade, I needed a character that felt the loss of something entirely unendurable and, to me, one of the most horrible things I could think of would be to lose someone of close kin that I love deeply. Like many among us through her efforts she simply wishes to return to a normal life.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Perhaps “personal responsibility” or that I see that we are losing the precious adversity that hones us to become better people. In the medical sense, it is much easier for a doctor to prescribe, e.g. benzodiazepines, than to arduously tease out the factors (both environment and neurological) that contribute to that person’s malaise. If your boss is the cause of your despair, find a new boss, same for a partner that puts you down, et cetera. There are people who do indeed require medical intervention, and as a published biomedical scientist I can attest to that. But our society is overmedicated, overstimulated, (for some overprivileged), and overpampered; it is overrun by spoilt brats. Wouldn’t it preferable for us to eat healthy and exercise than to try to fight the consequences of our vices when we are 65 (if we even get there). Our brains work the same way, we each have to tend to our gardens. This story is about getting what we want too easily and the consequences that that entails to ourselves and the world around us.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
As I wish to go through traditional publishers, I would say about when Saturn, Mercury, and Jupiter align during a solar eclipse, in both hemispheres. Perhaps sometime before the next millennia, if I am lucky. I have three other novels that are ready for submission, but I suffer from a full-time career that occludes most of my post-writing efforts such as contacting agents and randomly firing novels to the wrong publishers. All faults to that effect are entirely my own. I won’t stop writing though, that is a guarantee. So my work eventually will become, I hope, just too darn good to ignore.
But that said, I’ve recently finished a large piece about an alien structure hiding in our solar system and the human shenanigan that ensue because of it. I was quite pleased with it after the second rewrite and it is in the hands of a few test readers at the moment. It’s almost ready to start collecting rejection letters.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website | Twitter
Jade’s quest to find her surrogate sends her on a wild adventure across the globe with black operatives hot on her trail. Meanwhile, an enhanced rogue agent within PrimaCore seizes the opportunity to topple the government, seeking to usher in the kind of world that she believes we all deserve.
Discover Something New
Wynsome Peters Author Interview
Unlikely follows two friends who investigate mysterious activities in an abandoned house and uncover something unexpected. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
The inspiration was to write a story about people who live in a smaller community. Where life goes at a slower pace. Where if everyone does not know each other, they know of the person. Where everything happens the same. So, when the two friends discover something unusual it gives one friend the opportunity to branch out and discover something new.
Nate and Zachary are intriguing characters. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
I wanted personalities that were opposite but able to get along; to show how a sense of adventure versus a sense of logic complement each other. As the story progresses the roles of adventure and logic are sometimes swapped.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
You should be able to guess one if you have already read the book. Friendship, the other one is the pressure of pleasing your father.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
My next book is a YA called Watchers Eye and comes out the summer of 2021.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website
Slowly as the earth turns, this city is being swept away into living life in an unharmonious way. New buildings, mostly banks are being built for the homes where the newcomers are coming; although they are on the outskirts.
One new arrival is the new school system, no longer are they going to buck the system and have 6th grade remain elementary.
The kids go with the flow, while the parents can see a hint of the conformity and being puppeteered.
One norm that no one wants to discuss is one vacant solitary building that looks eyeless. It’s the only reminder and remainder of what used to be.
Two main characters Hiccup and Pontmus happen to be traveling past the “used to be” when movement catches one of their eyes.
It’s from that one shadow that the sleuthing begins. One boy is going to uncover whatever is going on; while the other rather have the police handle it.
Why he is so determined to find out can be unearthed by checking out his family. Being the middle child has neither the perks of being the leader or being the spoiled. The dad has a job that places a demand to find things out that once was thought impossible
This gene of discovering has lain dormant in him since where he lives is so tame but things are about to go from normal to un.
The personality that wins out causes more sleuthing which uncovers very little until happenstance collides with reality.
One of the new families to move in, breaching the solitude of the city has a child who is so oddly articulate, it’s cool.
He becomes an unknowing accomplice in whatever is going on.
Sleuth boy gets his chance to really find out what is happening when he takes over a temporary job offered. Right now, all he has is his assumptions and imagination.
He is not trying to get caught; in fact, he doesn’t believe he will. He is so caught up that he doesn’t see the signs that show that the table has been turned and he is no longer the only spy.
Capture is imminent, but not only does he get ensnared, his friend, who had a moment of bravery is also entrapped.
Now what can they do?
These people are adults, bigger, stronger smarter. Hiccup notices that the smart gene may have passed on them. While he tries to play on that notion, his friend fades into despair.
Still leading, Hiccup’s brain is swirling with ideas on escape. Each one does not produce the wanted effect.
Will they ever be found?
This author writes her debut novel under a sobriquet. Some facts are that her real name can be pronounced in every country. She writes with a passion of telling an Unlikely story with funny parts if you have the type of humor to appreciate it. Holding a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies, writing has always held a torch. This book shows the light at the end.
A Real Awakening
The Old Men Who Row Boats and Other Stories is a collection of impassioned short stories that follows various characters through their ordinary yet compelling lives. What were some sources of inspiration for you while writing these stories?
The primary source of inspiration was simply the experience I’ve had living in Spain, getting the opportunity to gain a sense of the history and culture and the people. Place provides such a powerful source of inspiration in general, and I think this only increased when I was immersed so completely in a culture different from the one I had been brought up in. It provided a real awakening of the senses, and I tried to be a keen observer as I worked to craft these stories.
Each of your characters were fascinating in their own way. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
Thank you for your kind words. I am glad you found the characters in these stories interesting. If there is a driving ideal in these characters, I’d like to think that it’s rooted in their simplicity, their humanness, and the realistic nature of their personas. These characters aren’t superhuman or famous or overly powerful. In many ways, they are, well…somewhat ordinary. But they are also very much alive, which is extraordinary in its own right. They feel the weight of their own existence, and their relationships and interactions shape their own unique narratives, their own stories. I wanted to be able to explore the idea that stories don’t necessarily need an elaborate twist or a car chase or a bank robbery to be compelling. I suppose whether or not I’ve been successful in this regard is ultimately up to the reader. But it is my hope that the relationships the characters have with others (and with themselves) are moving, that their common interactions can be utterly revealing, and that the smallest moments can mean a great deal.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
I would probably say the themes of loss and aging are probably most central to these stories. These things obviously have the potential to go together as we get older, and that is consistent with many of the characters in the book. But I think the theme of connection is also ever present in the book. The characters in this book seek connection—with their pasts, their futures, and, I think, with one another. Regardless of what they’ve lost, I’d like to think the stories maintain some degree of inspiration or hope.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
The next book I am working on is a collection of stories entitled I Didn’t Know What To Say, So I Just Said Thanks, and I hope it will be out by the end of the year.
Author Links: Website | Twitter | Facebook
His writing possesses an ability to convey real emotion through compelling, simple language, human interaction, and small moments. The collection, which is set in the Iberian Peninsula, carries the weight of the author’s sincerity throughout.
In an effort to bind us as humans, the characters in these stories experience extraordinary moments within the confines of ordinary lives.
LITERARY TITAN 