J. David Core's Blog, page 13

Author Interview: J. G. Clay, Author of Tales of Blood and Sulphur

Born in the leafy peaceful surroundings of Leamington Spa, J.G Clay is the Midlands Master of The Macabre. Now in his early forties and residing in the leafier English county of Northamptonshire, Clay’s boyhood dream of bringing his unique combination of cosmic horror, dark fiction and science fiction to the masses is being realised. With the first volume of The Tales of Blood And Sulphur under his belt, he is poised to unleash Gods, Monsters and weird events upon the world. Under Clay’s guidance, the Dark will become a little darker and Horror will go One Step Beyond.
When he is not destroying worlds, J.G likes to spend time with his family and friends, exploring the world of bass guitar, adding to his eclectic collection of music and watching as much geek TV and film as his eyes and brain will allow. He is an avid reader and a long suffering but ultimately optimistic fan of Birmingham City FC.
He hates cucumber, extremists of all stripes and colours, and reality TV shows.
Tales of Blood and Sulphur   

   Eleven Tales steeped in Blood and reeking of Sulphur.

   J.G Clay takes you on a journey through the voids of Reality and into dark places where demons, mutants and inter-dimensional creatures taunt, taint and corrupt Humanity. Survival is not guaranteed, sanity is not assured and death lurks in every corner. These are the Tales of Blood and Sulphur: Apocalypse Minor; eleven twisted tales of terror and mayhem……
   There are cracks in the skin of Reality. Some are microscopic, others are as wide as a four-lane motorway. As the fault lines increase and widen, the door to our world shines like a beacon in the darkness, a warm and inviting sight to others beyond our understanding. When They cross over into our realm, The Tales begin......
   A gambler taking one last desperate throw of the dice. A struggling writer making an unholy alliance. An eternal being fighting to stay alive in the financial capital of India. A man burdened with a terrible town secret. The Law Enforcers who must never cry. The End of Days live and direct from the rural heartland of England.

   The blood is warm, the sulphur is burning, the tales will be told, the Apocalypse Minor is imminent!

Who are your influences? The usual horror suspects; King, Barker, Herbert, Ramsey Campell, Graham Masterton. I’ve recently discovered Ray Garton and Kealan-Patrick Burke so we can add them onto the list. Outside of the printed word, John Carpenter’s films have had a massive effect on over the years, as has the British sci-fi comic 2000A.D.
When did you begin writing?Professionally, I’d say about two years. I’ve written for my own amusement since I was about 13 years old. Needless to say, the early stuff wasn’t that good.
How do you come up with your stories, characters, character names, POV, etc?Everything I write stems from one solitary question – ‘what if....’ The plot and characters could be inspired by other works I’ve read, songs I’ve heard and people I’ve met. It’s a difficult process to describe. It’s a process that kind of happens of its own accord.  Do you work from an outline?A very rough one. I’ll make a rough arrow diagram just outlining the direction I want the story to takes. I also outline the characters. I’ve found that detailed plotting and planning makes my job more difficult.
Tell me about your favorite scene in your novel.My favourite has to be the moment The Smiling Men reveal themselves in the story The World Stops When the Smiling Men Cry. They are cybernetically enhanced police men in a dystopian version of England. The Smiling Men are meant to look reassuring with their permanent smiles but they actually look quite sinister. As I wrote the scene, I could see it play out in my head like a movie.
Can you tell us a little about your writing philosophy?My philosophy is to tell a story without fear or favour. I’m not here to cosset the reader or to tiptoe around sensibilities. I have tales to tell and tell them I will to the best of my ability and with honesty.
Have you ever tried writing in any other genres?Not yet. Horror is, and always will be my passion. Maybe one day in the future, I’ll give science fiction or crime a go. But until then, I’m all about the terror.
J.G. Clay can be found at his website: www.jgclayhorror.com, on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jgclay1973, and on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JGClay1
Tales of Blood and Sulphur is available from: Kindle US : http://amzn.to/1TX8Jhu, Paperback US: http://amzn.to/1CZpm7F, Kindle UK: http://amzn.to/1RYqLlM, Paperback UK: http://amzn.to/1KoFNKP, Nook (Barnes & Noble): http://bit.ly/1CUUYMd, and Apple iBooks

Author Interview: Erin Rhew, Author of The Fulfillment Series

Thank you for hosting me to today, Dave and the Lupa Schwartz Mysteries Blog! And a big hello to all of the readers who've joined us! <waves>

I'm here as part of the Rhew 2 Rhew tour! My husband, Deek Rhew, wrote an amazing thriller called 122 Rules, published by Pandamoon on April 5! In addition, my publisher chose the month of April to feature my trilogy, so Deek and I decided to make a thing of it. And the Rhew 2 Rhew Tour was born! ;) Stay tuned because there's an opportunity for you to enter a Rafflecopter drawing for a chance at a $50 Amazon gift card!



Dave: Who are your influences?

Erin: My family has always been a big source of inspiration for me. I'm from the South, and I have a super huge, quite successful family. Many are entrepreneurs and business owners, so I've learned from them the value of working hard and pursuing your dreams. My grandparents own a car dealership. It was my grandfather's dream to do that, and he worked hard to make it a reality. He's in his eighties, and he still goes to work every day and loves it. My family's influence and support gives me the courage to reach for the stars.

My grandfather and his brothers and sister. They are/were all amazing people, and they are/continue to be a great inspiration to their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren!

My biggest writing and life influence is my amazing husband, Deek Rhew. He inspires me daily with his shining spirit, easy smile, and clever mind. I tell you, this man is the real deal, real life MacGyver. He can take a bunch of random components and make most anything work with them. I'm in awe of the way his mind works. And his writing is just stellar...top-notch. His wit and prose fuse together to create a truly unique blend of literary and commercial. I've never read an author voice like his (and I work for a publishing company and read manuscripts all the time). His natural talent challenges me to be a better writer, and his bright soul inspires me to be a better person.

See that amazing smile he has?

Dave: When did you begin writing?

Erin: I started writing when I was four years old. While sitting in my grandparent's office one day, I typed up my very first poem about the cars on their lot. My family made such a huge deal about it that I just kept writing. I continued in middle and high school, winning several poetry and prose contests. But after college, I pursued my love of acting and ran a theater company. Though I acted and directed, I still kept my fingers in the writing pie by creating plays for the company to perform. But one day, I decided to return to my first love and began a novel. That novel is STILL in production, and I've gone on to write several others in the meantime. I hope to start querying that first book, which appears to be my magnum opus, soon.

Dress rehearsal for a play in college

Dave: How do you come up with your stories, characters, character names, POV, etc? and Do you work from an outline?

Erin: I don't usually work from an outline. However, when I wrote The Fulfillment Series, I did create a loose outline. See, I don't like "filler" second novels--those books where nothing of significance really happens between books one and three. So, I wanted to be sure I had enough material to avoid the dreaded "filler" second novel. It pleases me to no end when people leave reviews for The Outlanders and mention its strength as a second novel.

I don't really come up with the stories or the characters; they find me. The ideas for all of my novels have just appeared in my mind, and I go with the flow. I imagine I have this little box inside my head, and thousands of people live inside the box. They're all clawing and fighting for their chance to lift the lid, escape, and have their story shared with the world.

Writing The Fulfillment Series taught me to not try and lead my characters. It's like that whole "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink" thing. If I try to direct them, they'll push back. It's their story. I'm just the messenger.



Dave: Tell me about your favorite scene in your novel.

Erin: My favorite scene is in The Outlanders, and it's commonly referred to as "THE scene." I can't tell you too many details because it will give away spoilers, but I can say it's the most emotionally difficult scene I've written to date. There's one in my magnum opus that's close, but this scene really rips out the heart strings. After I wrote it, I was in a funk for a while. The character's intense emotions really left a mark on me as the transcriber.

When you read The Outlanders and come to "THE scene," I highly recommend listening to "My Immortal" by Evanescence as you read it.


Dave: Can you tell us a little about your writing philosophy?
Erin: I typically create by writing out the whole story first. I don't think about grammar or sentence structure or anything. I simply pour the story onto the pages, which is usually easy if I'm listening to my characters (harder if I try to interfere and tell them what they're supposed to be doing). And then comes the hard part: editing. I edit, edit, edit, and edit some more. This part usually takes double the amount of time the creation part does. And if you intend to get it published, you really need to spend the time in the editing phase. Next, have beta readers and critique partners review it. Edit some more. And THEN you can consider querying. ;)

Who knows, you may even marry your critique partner. I did! 
Dave: Have you ever tried writing in any other genres?

Erin: Oh yes. The Fulfillment Series is a young adult fantasy, and while I have another young adult fantasy in the works, I also have an adult historical fiction, a middle grade coming-of-age, and a women's fiction story waiting in the wings.



Dave: Do you have any interesting writing-related anecdotes to share?

Erin: Well, I guess the fact that writing led me to my husband is an interesting anecdote. WUT? Yep! Deek and I met on Twitter because we both asked to join a critique partner group. He asked for a real "grammar nerd" to take a look at his piece, and as the resident grammar nerd, I got assigned his story. We started a conversation in the margins of his manuscript and haven't stopped talking since. Even if I never make it big in the writing world, I'll alway consider my writing endeavors to be of the utmost success because they led me to the man of my dreams--my soulmate, Deek!


Thank you SO much for having me on your blog, Dave! Readers, are you ready to learn a bit about me, Deek, and our books, as well as enter for a chance to win a $50 Amazon gift card?

For those that don't know, Erin is a young adult fantasy author who is married to adult thriller author, Deek Rhew. Together, they are "the Rhews," and their street team is the Rhewination!
Deek and Erin-- Join the Rhewination! ;) 
The Prophecy (Fulfillment Series Book 1)
Title: The ProphecyAuthor: Erin RhewPublisher: BookFish BooksCover Design: Anita at Race-PointAvailable Now! Amazon Buy Link 
Synopsis: 
Growing up on a small farm in the kingdom of Vanguard, seventeen-year-old Layla Givens lives a deceptively tranquil existence. But her carefully constructed life quickly falls apart when she's abducted by a religious zealot who proclaims her The Fulfillment of an ancient peace prophecy and whisks her away to marry her greatest enemy.

Wilhelm, Prince of the Ethereals, is reluctant to meet his new bride. He's grown up believing Vanguards are evil, an enemy to fight and fear...not love. Can he set aside his prejudices and work alongside Layla to bring lasting peace after centuries of war? 

Nash, a loner who has never fit in, carries a huge secret, one big enough to destroy both kingdoms. When he accidently meets Layla, he's no longer content to live in the shadows, but he must resist his growing attraction--for her safety and for the longevity of the two kingdoms. 

When Nash's secret is revealed, a firestorm sweeps through both realms, with Layla at the center. Now she must choose between duty and desire while the fate of two nations hangs in the balance.

The Outlanders (Fulfillment Series Book 2) 
Title: The OutlandersAuthor: Erin RhewPublisher: BookFish BooksCover Design: Anita at Race-PointAvailable Now! Amazon Buy Link 
The Fulfillment (Fulfillment Series Book 3)

Title: The FulfillmentAuthor: Erin RhewPublisher: BookFish BooksCover Design: Anita at Race-PointAvailable Now! Amazon Buy Link 
About Erin Rhew Erin Rhew

Erin Rhew is an editor, a running coach, and the author of The Fulfillment Series. Since she picked up Morris the Moose Goes to School at age four, she has been infatuated with the written
word. She went on to work as a grammar and writing tutor in college and is still teased by her family and friends for being a member of the "Grammar Police."

A Southern girl by blood and birth, Erin now lives in a rainy pocket of the Pacific Northwest with the amazingly talented (and totally handsome) writer Deek Rhew and their “overly fluffy,” patient-as-a-saint writing assistant, a tabby cat named Trinity. She and Deek enjoy reading aloud to one another, running, lifting, boxing, eating chocolate, and writing side-by- side.



Connect with Erin Online!

For the latest and greatest, visit her web page:www.ErinRhewBooks.com

About Deek Rhew
Deek RhewDeek lives in a rainy pocket in the Pacific Northwest with the stunning YA author bride, Erin Rhew, and their writing assistant, a fat tabby named Trinity. They enjoy lingering in the mornings, and often late into the night, caught up Erin’s fantastic fantasy worlds of noble princes and knights and entwined in Deek’s dark underworld of the FBI and drug lords.

He and Erin love to share books by reading aloud to one another. In addition, they enjoy spending time with friends, running, boxing, lifting weights, and exploring the little town--with antique shops and bakeries--they call home.


Connect with Deek Online!

For the latest and greatest, visit his web page:www.DeekRhewBooks.com
Find Deek's Novels Online!

Birth of an American Gigolo

122 Rules (122 Rules Series, Book 1) 
Random Fun With Deek and Erin Always laughing together
Celebrating their anniversary in style! ;) 
Enjoying every moment!
Their cat and literary assistant, Trinity--leader of Rhewination!
Sharing every secret and every facet of life with each other! 
Rafflecopter GiveawayWant a chance to win a $50 Amazon gift card?
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Author Interview: Deek Rhew, Author of 122 Rules

I am so happy to be on The Lupa Schwartz Mysteries Blog! Hello, Dave and all you wonderful readers of his blog. What a great day to do an interview! Also, stick around after the interview to learn about our books and enter to win a $50 Amazon gift card!

Dave: Who are your influences?

Deek: Erin Rhew! Hands down my fav author of all time. We joke that I loved her writing so much I had to marry the author. :-)

Other than my bride, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Nelson DeMille. You will see each of these gents' influences in my writing.

Mr. King could write the danged phone book, and it would be an awesome tale. He's one of the most brilliant storytellers of all time. IMHO.

Mr. Koontz is an amazing story teller, but what he does is create incredible characters that you think about long after you've closed the cover. Christopher Snow is easily my favorite character of any book ever. Dean also has an elegant, beautiful writing style and description capability that I could only dream of matching.

Mr. DeMille weaves these intricate action plots with humorous but serious characters. If you've ever read the John Corey novels, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. John is tough and complicated and funny.

I'd love to go on an adventure with John, Christopher, and Samson. I think we'd have a marvelous time.

Dave: When did you begin writing?

Deek: I wrote a lot in high school, but at that time my focus was on music. After living the musician's life for a while I realized something very important: A musician's life blows chunks. Hard. Awful pay, long hours, drunk fans. After I switched majors, got my degree, and a job that, ya know, let's me eat on a regular basis, I returned to writing.

I've started several stories, but each time the story fizzled out. Those were more of learning who I am as a writer...actually I think I'll always be learning. But when I fell in love with the characters in 122 Rules, Birth of an American Gigolo, and "Norman and Demon," I fell in love with storytelling and the writing process.

Dave: How do you come up with your stories, characters, character names, POV, etc? and Do you work from an outline?

Deek: I'm combining these two questions, because the answer is basically the same.

I don't come up with the stories, characters, so forth per say. It's more like they find me. In Stephen King's book On Writing, he talks about how stories are found things. He describes it like this:
You're walking in the desert and you find the tip of something sticking out of the ground. You uncover it a little and see that there is more buried deeper in the soil. You dig and dig uncovering more, discovering the object's details. You brush away sand revealing intricacies and fine lines. Eventually you have revealed all there is to reveal.

The thing you first find is an idea. A question. Erin and I talk all the time and sometimes out of those conversations come questions or situations. What-if's. What if this? What would happen if that? So we explore that. Sometimes, there's not much there, and we cast it aside. But other times, we find there's something significant buried in the sand.

I don't work from an outline. I just start with the idea and see where it leads. Usually I'm as surprised by what happens in the story as my readers!

Dave: Tell me about your favorite scene in your novel.

Deek: Okay, I have a couple but there is one that ALWAYS makes me laugh. Monica has been in Witness Protection for over a year and gets away after someone tries to kill her. She calls her best friend, Angel, and together they flee across the country. They've been driving all day and stop in Colorado, parking way up on a hill overlooking the Colorado flatlands. Monica is depressed about the state of her life and been grousing about it.  She is standing on the edge of a cliff, looking down at the rocks below, contemplating, when Angel comes to her rescue:


Monica reflected for a moment, her gaze not focused on anything. When she came back, her eyes found Angel’s in the deepening twilight. “I can’t believe how badly I’ve messed up my life. Everyone tells me how smart I am, but I had to call you because I couldn’t figure out what to do on my own. I can’t even take care of myself: how am I supposed to help the kids of the world who need it? I’d probably make things worse.”Angel came up and stood next to her on the edge of the bluff. She took Monica’s hand and said in a quiet voice, “Why don’t we just Thelma and Louise it then?”“Huh?” Monica stared at her friend.“You’re a complete and utter loser. A failure. A pimple on the donkey’s ass of society. What’s the point in going on?” Angel took a step closer to the ledge. “Right now. Couple of steps and we’re flying, at least for a few seconds, then it’s all over. No more Peter, Jon, Crew Cut, your mom, the mob, the dream, any of it. A quick, neat end and all your little problems are solved. Come on, let’s do it!” She pulled Monica’s hand. “Right here. Right now. I’m not screwing around. Ready? On the count of three. One…”Monica gaped at her, looked over the edge of the cliff, and then back at Angel.“Two…” Angel took a step back, tensing to run.“Ang, I don’t know.”“What?” Angel snapped, turning to her. “What don’t you know? It sounds like you’ve got it all worked out! It’s been kinda tough, so let’s just fold up and let those bastards win. Oh, poor me. I’ve been so abused. My dad died, and my mom’s a whore. Sure, I’ve had a friend that always, always has my back and a surrogate family. Sure I got straight A’s in high school, a full ride to NYU, and had plans to be a big-shot lawyer.”Angel threw her arms up in the air. “But shit got a little rough for a while ’cause I was helping take down some low-life scumbags. Life hasn’t been ideal lately, and there’s simply no way to get back to the dream. I can’t do that with another identity, which is what my friend is going to insist on when we get to the effing FBI headquarters. Oh, poor me.”Angel turned back to the cliff and took another step back, tensing her body for the final leap. “Come on! You’re right. There’s no turning this boat around. Let’s do it! Let’s end this thing! Ready?”Monica’s mouth still hung open. Her jaw bobbed up and down, but no words came out, making her feel like a guppy. As hard as she tried to stop them, the edges of her lips curled up, and she giggled. She tried to stop, but the giggles were relentless and attacked her. She laughed harder than she had in years as she mimicked her friend. “Right here. Right now. I’m not screwing around.”“I’m not. Come on, let’s go.”Angel’s serious demeanor only made Monica laugh harder. “Let’s Thelma and Louise it.” She fell on her butt in a cloud of dust, not caring about the dirt. Tears streamed down her cheeks.Angel’s face cracked, and a smile played across her lips. A groan turned to snickers, growing until the full belly roll took her. Their combined laughter echoed, amplified by the canyon walls until it sounded like an auditorium full of spectators at a Jack Benny premiere. They lay on the flat rock, the dust clinging to their sweat and tears.As they regained control, Monica looked at her. “I love you, you know that.”“Of course you do. I’m awesome.”
Monica started laughing again, and they lay on the ground holding hands as the sun finished its decent to the west, and darkness claimed the desert.
Dave: Can you tell us a little about your writing philosophy?

Deek: Humility. It's as simple as that. I don't try and direct the story. I know my place. I'm a transcriber, and my characters are the dictators, telling me their tale. I simply write what I see.

More humility: Your editor is your friend and right 99.99% of the time. My bride is a brilliant grammar ninja and storyteller. When she says something needs to be fixed, I usually do what she says. I say "usually" because there is that 0.01% of the time I stick to my guns. My content editor, Anya, also gets the same treatment. She's really awesome at the macro level of a story. I've had to do some very painful cuts and rewrites at her direction.

But the story is #1. Always first it's about story. Ego has no part in telling a story.

Dave: Have you ever tried writing in any other genres?

Deek: That's an interesting question because while I was writing 122, a couple of other stories emerged. I just recently published a humorous women's lit story called Birth of an American Gigolo. The gist of that is that a woman catches her husband cheating, but because of financial reasons can't leave him. Instead she starts a business that she runs out of her home, while getting a really fantastic revenge against her husband and the woman he's cheating with.

I actually wrote Birth right in the same pages of the 122 manuscript. I just happened upon this character, Lindsey, who decided that it was her time for her story.

Man, characters can be bossy!

Dave: Do you have any interesting writing-related anecdotes to share?

Deek: I stole one of my character's name. Wut? Yep! There is a character, Max, you'll meet in 122's follow-up book, 122 Rules - Redemption, who originally was named Deek, but I liked his name so much I took it for myself.

My birth name is VERY common, so trying to make my name stick out among the millions of others was almost impossible. One of my all-time favorite Stephen King books is Needful Things. In that story, there's this character, Deek, that doesn't get but a page or two of face time. I always loved the name and stole it for my character as a nod to the great author. Well, flash-forward a bit, and I decide to give myself a pen name. I took Deek as my first name. Rhew is actually my wife's maiden name. Together we are Deek and Erin Rhew of Rhewination!

Thank you SO much for having me on your blog, Dave! Readers, are you ready to learn a bit about our books and enter to win a $50 Amazon gift card? Woop! Let's go!



Rhew 2 Rhew Book Blog Tour
Rhew 2 Rhew Blog Tour - 122 Rules Book Blitz Extravaganza!

How's that for a catchy title? What a crazy adventure this has been FIVE years in the making, and it has finally arrive: 122 Rules has been born unto the world. The stories I could tell just so I could tell you this story...well, let's just say it's been an interesting, educational, and life-altering adventure.

Who could resist those stunning blues?This has been a grand journey, filled with hardships, fun, learning, and growth. But of all the things that have happened on the writing road, meeting the love of my life is the most unlikely and easily the luckiest, most blessed things to have ever happened to me.
Ahhhh! It's cold out here! Do ya feel lucky punk? Well, do ya?
Erin Rhew and I started out as critique partners, became friends, and now she's my bride. She's my best friend and partner in all things. Even if I don't sell a single copy of my writings, I'll always be a smashing success because I met Erin.

Book Blitz
On this half of the Rhewination tour, I am visiting blogs all over the globe, from Australia to the farthest corners in Canada. Next week, on the second half of the tour, Erin will be gracing the pages of 50+ bloggers!

In addition, we are giving away a $50 Amazon gift card! Prepare yourselves to win!

122 Rules
Today, we are announcing my adult thriller novel, 122 Rules. 



Synopsis

In his black and white world, Sam Bradford--former Marine turned government assassin--finally sees a speck of grey. He has always followed orders without question, but his latest assignment threatens to disrupt the precision of his universe and may either severe or redeem his last remaining sliver of humanity.

Using his mastery of the 122 Rules of Psychology, Sam hunts down everyone The Agency sends him to find and eliminates them. Just as he has his rifle scope focused on his latest victim, Monica Sable, a SoCal girl entangled with the mob, his long-dormant conscience reappears for a final performance...one last ditch effort to save the sinking ship of Sam’s soul. He’s killed innocents before, but tarries on pulling the trigger this time.

When Monica escapes his crosshairs and fumbles her way across the country in a pathetic attempt to elude capture, Sam gives chase. But he’s not the only one after her. Ruthless henchmen, hired by the mob, froth like bloodhounds and nip at Monica’s heels. Now Sam is faced with a choice: turn his back on the rules and jeopardize his way of life by helping her or join the pack and rip her to shreds.

What are readers saying?

122 Rules is a fast-paced thrill-ride, filled with rich characters living in an expertly woven world of mystery and suspense. Deek Rhew’s debut novel will take readers by storm, and keep them coming back for sequels.
​~Michelle K. Pickett, Bestselling and award-winning author of PODs and Unspeakable.

The perfect, fast-paced novel for fans of kick-butt heroines, creepy killers, and getting caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. An absolute must-read!
~Meradeth Houston, author of Travelers, An Absence of Light, and the Sary Society Series
Visit the 122 Rules Web Page
Visit Amazon and Goodreads!



While you're on Deek's site check out Birth of an American Gigolo. SynopsisAn old party girl shoehorned into domestic divaship, infuriated by her husband's cheating and his holier-than-thou, tree-hugging, no-tits and no-hips girlfriend, inflicts her wrath by training a local boy in the fine art of seduction. She and her new boy toy turned love god start a gigolo business as a distraction for the neglected and mistreated housewives of Alabaster Cove.

Take a selfie with your ebook or paper copy of Birth and post it on social media with the tag #BirthSelfie. We'll post you on the Rhewination web site!







Deek Rhew
Deek RhewDeek lives in a rainy pocket in the Pacific Northwest with the stunning YA author bride, Erin Rhew, and their writing assistant, a fat tabby named Trinity. They enjoy lingering in the mornings, and often late into the night, caught up Erin’s fantastic fantasy worlds of noble princes and knights and entwined in Deek’s dark underworld of the FBI and drug lords.

He and Erin love to share books by reading aloud to one another. In addition, they enjoy spending time with friends, running, boxing, lifting weights, and exploring the little town--with antique shops and bakeries--they call home.


Connect with Deek!


For the latest and greatest, visit his web page:www.DeekRhewBooks.com


Next week be on the lookout for Erin's:The Fulfillment Series Blitz Extravaganza!
Erin Rhew's book that started it all, The Prophecy!
Erin Rhew's The Fulfillment Erin Rhew's The Outlanders

Erin Rhew


Erin RhewErin Rhew is an editor, a running coach, and the author of The Fulfillment Series. Since she picked up Morris the Moose Goes to School at age four, she has been infatuated with the written
word. She went on to work as a grammar and writing tutor in college and is still teased by her family and friends for being a member of the "Grammar Police."

A Southern girl by blood and birth, Erin now lives in a rainy pocket of the Pacific Northwest with the amazingly talented (and totally handsome) writer Deek Rhew and their “overly fluffy,” patient-as-a-saint writing assistant, a tabby cat named Trinity. She and Deek enjoy reading aloud to one another, running, lifting, boxing, eating chocolate, and writing side-by-side.




For the latest and greatest, visit her web page:www.ErinRhewBooks.com

Are you ready to win?!!! Enter the Rhewination, Rhews on Tour Giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

ArtworkAuthors, do you think the artwork for The Prophecy, The Outlanders, The Fulfillment, Birth of an American Gigolo, and 122 Rules is as stunning as we do? Visit Race-Point.com to find out how you can get the amazing Anita to work on your book as well!

Author Interview: Dane Cobain, Author of No Rest for the Wicked

Dane Cobain is a writer, poet and musician from a place you've probably never heard of, somewhere in England. When he's not writing books, he's reading and reviewing them on his book blog - SocialBookshelves.com - or working at his day job in social media marketing. Find him at Facebook.com/DaneCobainMusic or follow @DaneCobain on Twitter.

No Rest for the WickedWhen the Angels attack, there’s NO REST FOR THE WICKED.Father Montgomery, an elderly priest with a secret past, begins to investigate after his parishioners come under attack, and with the help of Jones, a young businessman with an estranged child, Montgomery begins to track down the origin of the Angels.The Angels are naked and androgynous. They speak in a dreadful harmony with no clear leader. These aren’t biblical cherubs tasked with the protection of the righteous – these are deadly creatures of light that have the power to completely eradicate.When Jones himself is attacked, Father Montgomery knows he has to act fast. He speaks to the Angels and organises a final showdown where he’s asked to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Who are your influences?I have a bunch of different influences, depending upon the type of writing that I’m doing. Some of the key writers to have influenced me over the years include Graham Greene, Ernest Hemingway, Charles Bukowski, Terry Pratchett and Philip Pullman.
When did you begin writing? I’ve been writing seriously since I was about sixteen, but I used to dabble with it here and there way before then. I wrote a novel before I was eighteen, and then went to university to study creative writing. I guess that was when I started to take it seriously.
How do you come up with your stories, characters, character names, POV, etc?It’s hard to tell, really. I usually start with a simple idea and then develop and refine it over time. No Rest for the Wicked, my supernatural thriller, grew out of a nightmare that I had.
Do you work from an outline?Yeah – I develop the initial idea as much as I can and then create a full plot outline with as much detail as I can manage. With that in hand, I start work on the full story.
Tell me about your favorite scene in your novel.There were quite a few scenes that stand out, each one for different reasons. My overall favourite scenes were probably the ones that dealt with the flashbacks into Montgomery’s past – you got to know him a lot more, and he was an interesting character with complex motivations. At least, I hope he was.
Can you tell us a little about your writing philosophy?I just like to read a lot and to write a lot, and to get as much done as possible. Even if you never get round to using a first draft, it’s better than having no first draft at all. Being a writer is hard work, but it’s also infinitely rewarding. You need to appreciate that before you get sucked into it, or you’ll never be successful.
Have you ever tried writing in any other genres?I write in all sorts of different genres – my first book was a supernatural thriller, and my second book was a book of poetry. Up next, I have another novel, followed by a non-fiction book, followed by a screenplay and accompanying novella. Then I’m going to work on a detective series. It’s all go!

Guest Post: Minor Characters by Jerold Last

Jerold Last is a Professor of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of California's Medical School at Davis, near Sacramento in Northern California.  Jerry, a two-time winner of The Indie Book of the Day Award, writes “tweener” mystery books (tough mystery stories that follow the cozy conventions of no graphic sex and no cussing) that are fast moving and entertain the reader.  Several of the books introduce the readers to South America, a region where he has lived and worked that is a long way from home for most English speakers.  He and his wife Elaine lived previously in Salta, Argentina and Montevideo, Uruguay.  Jerry selects the most interesting South American locations he found for Roger and Suzanne to visit while solving miscellaneous murders.  Montevideo, Salta, Machu Picchu, the Galapagos Islands, and Iguazu Falls are also characters in these books, and the novels portray these places as vivid and real.  Jerry and Elaine breed prize-winning German shorthaired pointer dogs; Elaine also provides technical advice for Jerry’s dog-related novels like The Deadly Dog Show and Hunter Down, as well as editing for all of the books.

Synopsis of Unbearably Deadly

For a change, the butler didn’t do it; a bear did.  Or did it?  In “Unbearably Deadly”, Roger and Suzanne visit Alaska to find out the circumstances surrounding their friends’ deaths.  The FBI investigation concludes the cause of death was a tragic accident.  With nothing more than a gut feeling that something is amiss, our sleuths head to Alaska to search for the truth.  The vast expanse of Denali National Park creates a 6-million acre locked room murder case for our sleuths to solve.  There are no suspects, no clues, and little help available.  Conspiracies abound and the truth is much more complicated than it appears.

Where Do Those Characters in the Books Come From?
As we try to create the imaginary worlds of our books, to be believable we have to rely on reality for inspiration.  I use the places I’ve lived in and visited in South America as settings in my South American Mystery novels.  These novels have to be populated with people, both the central characters like my detectives Roger Bowman and Suzanne Foster, and all of the rest of the people they will meet as they investigate the murder or murders.  We quickly encounter a problem of how to make these other characters into distinct individuals rather than just 20 stereotypes named Pedro or Jose.  To solve this problem I often use real people I’ve met in South America as models for fictional characters in these books.  The process begins by visualizing someone I actually met for a physical description, and/or by taking part of their personas to start building the fictional characters.  To demonstrate the process, let’s follow the path from reality to book pages of several suspects in the murders being investigated in three of my novels.        First up is Bernardo Colletti, the head of the Uruguayan Nazi Party from The Ambivalent Corpse, and a suspect in the murder.  He has strong roots in reality.  I first visited Montevideo in 1982 as a Fulbright Professor teaching courses in toxicology and protein biochemistry during the waning days of an ultraconservative military dictatorship.  One of my hosts was married to a physician who worked in the Emergency Room (think of George Clooney’s role in ER) of the major hospital in Montevideo who turned out to be the head of the Uruguayan Nazi Party.  Despite his politics, he was a charming and well-educated (Uruguay and Chicago, USA) physician with whom I was expected to interact professionally and socially while I was there.  To create Bernardo’s character in the book, I merely aged his role model from 1982 to 2011 and grafted the real Nazi’s looks and personality onto the fictional one.  Despite the obvious reasons one should not like a virulent fascist, I tried to portray Bernardo as I recalled the real person: extremely charming and intelligent in social settings where he chose not to emphasize the more odious of his political views.  But, I have to admit, I enjoyed killing him off in The Body In The Bed.      Next up is another character (actually a couple) from The Ambivalent Corpse, Gerardo and Andrea, who act as hosts for Suzanne at the University de la Republica and become good friends of our heroes as the story evolves.  The couple is modeled after my best friends and scientific colleagues in Montevideo. They are, in fact, named after their two children.  Now there’s a switch, naming the parents after their children.  You can get a real sense of power when you write fiction!  The scene at the Feria (open air market) in the park described in the book is based on the actual Saturday morning Feria in the park across the street from the apartment we rented when we lived in Montevideo.  Andrea’s research with algal toxins she describes at dinner in the book is pretty close to what the real “Andrea and Gerardo” do in Montevideo, and formed a large part of the basis for our collaborative research and teaching. In The Surreal Killer, Suzanne and Roger are taken for a flight over Northern Chile’s vast Atacama Desert in a small two-engine plane by two of their suspects, Pedro and Romero.  Along the way, Pedro gives both of them lessons in how to fly the plane.  Pedro’s character is a composite based upon a couple of real scientists I’ve known very well.  One of them is a North American, originally from New Jersey, who actually taught me how to fly a single-engine Cessna many years ago while we were both research scientists at The National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.  The other, more extroverted, half of Pedro's character is based upon a Chilean scientist who hosted me during several visits to Santiago as we tried to build a collaborative program at The University of Chile similar to those we had already developed in Montevideo and Salta, Argentina.Finally, the Kaufman sisters, Gretchen and Barbara, make their debut as murder suspects in The Origin of Murder, as fellow passengers on a cruise of the Galapagos Islands with Roger and Suzanne.  They return once again in time to play a substantial role in Unbearably Deadly.  We met the sisters’ counterparts in real life as, you may have guessed, passengers on the cruise ship we took for our real vacation in the Galapagos Islands.  One of the sisters taught school in the San Francisco Bay area, the other lived with her and worked for a publisher in the city.  We spent several dinners together on board the ship discussing life for single women in San Francisco, our common love of dogs, and whatever other topics came to mind.  We also met for dinner in the Bay Area a few times after we returned to California, but that was a long drive and the friendship petered out.  I grafted their physical descriptions and personalities onto the fictional sisters in the novel as the list of characters emerged.  They were promoted to recurring character status in Unbearably Deadly.  I like how they can interact with Roger and Suzanne to keep the plot moving along without having to steal the limelight from our main characters.  I suspect we’ll see them again as the series continues.
In this brief blog entry I've tried to describe how a small part of the creative process works for fiction authors.  Our life experiences are the source and our books and their characters are the product.  If you'd like to meet Bernardo, Andrea, and Gerardo, they can be found hanging out in The Ambivalent Corpse, available from Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Ambivalent-Corpse-Crime-Meant-ebook/dp/B0060ZFRQG.  You can meet Pedro, Romero, and their Beechcraft Baron airplane in The Surreal Killer, available from Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/The-Surreal-Killer-ebook/dp/B007H21EFO.  Finally, the Kaufman sisters appear in The Origin of Murder http://www.amazon.com/Origin-Murder-Suzanne-American-Mystery-ebook/dp/B00K4KDL3O  and Unbearably Deadly at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RAOVJWW.

TWICE TOLD Kindle Countdown Deal!

Twice Told , the omnibus box set collection featuring all four followup novels to Extreme Unction is now available to buy at a greatly reduced price as part of a Kindle Countdown deal. So if you have a kindle or the Kindle App on any of your devices, you can purchase the entire collection (because the first in the series is free) for just $2.99 TODAY ONLY. The collection will remain on sale for a week, but the price will go up a dollar each day til the end of the month. Get it while it's hot!

8 Tales of Noir Now on Booktrack

Booktrack is an eBook platform which allows authors to create a soundtrack for their books. The new files include music, ambient sounds, and sound effects synced to the text of their book. Booktracks learns and adapts to your reading speed as you flip through the digital pages, and times the effects so that as you read about a gunshot or a sudden gust of wind, you actually get to hear the sound in your headphones or earbuds. 

8 Tales of Noir is available for purchase and you can try a few sample chapters for free.


You can then help the author by providing a review for added social proof for prospective buyers.

The book consists of six stories which appeared on seasons one and two of The Thrills and Mystery Podcast , as well as two additional novellas, Confessions of the Cuckold and Wingman.  

Champion Standing by Mark Gardner

Champion Standing is Mark Gardner’s tour-de-force tale of a battle royale set in China’s Han Dynasty. Liao is a warrior of the Rong Clan from the kingdom of Kush who sets off for the island of Hainan to fight in the prestigious invitation-only Dao Tournament. Part cage match, part Hunger Games, the Dao had become an allegory for the epic struggle for status and honor. Liao will face off against several challengers before he finally has the opportunity to face off against the Champion Standing for his opportunity to attain the title and earn the rewards that title brings to his kinsmen.
The games are no small thing. Contenders have been known to cheat and even die rather than risk going home a loser. Complicating things, the powers-behind-the-games bet on their favorites putting everything –including their empires – on the line. Historically, the time period was also the height of the early Roman era, and Gardner has even included sinister visiting dignitaries from the seat of European civilization in his story.
The novella is exciting, informative and grandiose in all the best ways. And currently, Gardner is in the midst of a kickstarter project to fund the creation of an audiobook of the tale. Rewards include a hardcover copy of the epic tale. Hurry though. Today is the last day.


You’ll find his kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1012144245/champion-standing-audiobook

Author Interview: Nik Venture, Author of The ISIS Lone Wolf Trigger

Nik Venture has been a professional writer and editor for a variety of national magazines for more than a quarter century. Helming seven different magazines he has both won, and judged, numerous writing awards, and his words have reached millions of readers. His travels have taken him around the world on various assignments. When he's not writing fiction under his pen name, he can be found either running, or playing keyboard in various clubs with his rockin' blues band.

Description of The ISIS Lone Wolf Trigger   Many fanatics believe the End Times are coming . . . a few can’t wait.
For them, the prophecies for Armageddon are clear, if only they could trigger the war that starts it all by blaming Iran for a horrendous act of terrorism. American retaliation would start the dominoes falling. The final battles would begin.
   Enter Jack Kant and his girlfriend Angela Bow. They don’t have a lot, but they do have each other. Jack’s a muckraker journalist with an unhealthy compulsion for poking in places where he shouldn’t. Angela is a resourceful documentary researcher and not above kicking a wiseguy where it hurts.
   When Kant visits a sketchy source to return a package of illegally-obtained materials and back out of a story he’s considering, he confronts a long-haired deliveryman who slaughters the whistle-blower, his wife, and nearly Kant, to obtain said materials. Kant escapes with the package, but before he can get home, Angela’s six-year-old niece, Kiley, is abducted.
   Should he go to the police, even though he’s soon framed as a suspect in the murders? Would they even follow up on one of the odd items in the package -- a brochure about the dangers of natural gas storage facilities with the phrase “55 Hiroshima bombs” circled?
   He is drawn into the scariest story of his life, and his obsession with learning secrets demands that he follow up, but what about Kiley? His choices are grim and the world is pressing down on them, more so than he knows, if he doesn’t act there may be no world.
   On the run, he and Angela must use all of their ingenuity to outwit unknown adversaries while trying to determine who their friends are, and who would make them patsies in an international conspiracy.

What is your novel, The ISIS Lone Wolf Trigger about? What was its genesis?Well, according to surveys, 31 percent of Americans believe the “end times” are approaching. With Evangelicals, the numbers rise to 77 percent, and, among Protestants, 54 percent agreed that "the world is currently living in the 'end times' as described by prophecies in the Bible." At least half, or more, Muslims believe they will live to see the return of the Mahdi, a messianic figure they believe will begin the final events of the Muslim calendar.
Like terrorism in general, what if there were just some tiny fraction of those people who are unwilling to wait?
How dangerous is ISIS?The fact that ISIS exists at all is a black eye for civilization. And it is civilization that will eventually grind down ISIS so that it relinquishes itself to the bottom shelf of ideas and movements, like Nazism, the Spanish Inquisition, the Khmer Rouge . . . whatever. The damage and horror they are promulgating on an entire, already broken, region, will fade away. After too much pain, unfortunately. However, the fact that so many of these indoctrinates are teenagers tells the wider problem. A baby born today, in those few short years to becoming a teenager, can be twisted into a monster. There’s always babies being born, so the only inoculation are those things civilization does best: education, rule of law . . . continuity. Anarchists with dreams are still anarchists. But their dreams keep popping up no matter how much military hardware you throw at them. So, better to go with civilization. Only problem is that so much failed states become uncivilized. And countries that have things like Sharia law create the seeds of extremism that will always come back to bite them. Western bred recruits are a different matter.
Maybe as many as 3,400 westerners have joined ISIS and at least 250 Americans have tried to join, not sure how many have succeeded. It needs to be countered at the root level, at the local level. Changing hearts and minds, or at least controlling the message, is never easy. Or quick. But not impossible. On a smaller scale there is the example of the IRA, or better still, how many of you even know about the Red Brigades? (In the 70s and 80s they perpetrated14,000 acts of violence in the first ten years of the group's existence. Now, not so much.)
However, the ability to counter the lone wolf disenchanted losers out there, that is going to be a problem (as it perhaps always was) for the foreseeable future. If all it takes is the right propaganda, then the questions become who controls the propaganda and how do you counteract it? If you’ve got essentially a walking, talking smart bomb, then all sorts of people might be able to manipulate those levers. And therein hangs a tale, don’t you think?
Here is some click bait to my Amazon book page, if you scroll down a little bit, you’ll see: The 9 Most Important Things You Probably Didn't Know About Suicide Terrorists
What’s the attraction of Armageddon?I suppose if you put a million philosophers in a room with typewriters and give them a million years . . .  Anyway, people above my pay grade have been trying to get a handle on that for millennia, but the bottom line is how can you make people feel that this life is somehow better than the End of the Freaking Entire World?
Tell us about your bad guys.Well, this was the most important thing really. Interesting antagonists make or break a thriller. I’ve got two. Three technically, but I can’t say any more without revealing the plot. However, I think I’ve got villains who believe in what they are doing, and you learn why quite clearly, and so they are not stock bad guys, which is just boring to me. I’ve created one villain, not the ISIS guy, that I think not too many authors have tried before. You may be surprised. Maybe I’m wrong, there are a lot of books out there. The thing is, he needs to be believable and you see why as he goes through his motions.
What made you write about the military’s airborne laser program?The Airborne Laser was an awesome, but flawed, attempt at producing a lethal leapfrog in ballistic missile defense. It featured a chemical laser mounted in the hollowed-out body of a brand new 747-400F freighter. Its mission, if it was ever to be successfully deployed, was to be dispatched to a hot zone where rogue missiles might be launched and intercept them with its laser from as far away as 350 miles, depending on whether it was a more vulnerable liquid-fueled booster, or a more hard-to-destroy solid-fueled one.
The heart of the system is the megawatt Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser (COIL) which uses a combination of hydrogen peroxide, potassium, sodium, and lithium hydroxide. It is a highly toxic, Draino-like concoction. In the back of the 747, the chilled laser fuel, through a complex mixing mechanism, comes in contact with chlorine and helium to produce a form of oxygen. This brew gets injected with iodine gas, the resulting excitation produces photons that are amplified to create the infrared laser beam. This invisible beam zig-zags and exits through an optics package better than the Hubble Telescope’s, and featuring a 50-inch-diameter mirror –  known as the “wall of fire” – to produce a basketball-sized beam out of the nose turret and onto its target.
When operational, it would fly a figure eight in a theater of operations within range of the launch site, at 40,000 feet, and could be refueled mid-air from a standard refueling tanker. The COIL laser could be fired a dozen or so times before it would have to undergo a major service overhaul.
At least this was the plan. Ballistic missile defense, the idea of “hitting a bullet with a bullet,” began at the dawn of the missile age and received a steady stream of research dollars ever since. And using lasers for ballistic missile defense has been dreamed about since the beginning. However, making lasers powerful enough to the task has always been considered the more futuristic option of all the ways one might shoot down a missile. But dreams have a way of becoming reality, just as surely as the future must eventually become the present, and in 1996, a few of the top aerospace companies believed that enough of the technologies had come together to take a shot at finally, actually, building a working Buck Rogers death ray weapon. There are numerous technical leaps that need to be hurtled to make it happen: acquisition, tracking, optics, battle management software – and most importantly, a powerful enough laser.
Nevertheless, in 2001, the program was moved out of research status and put under the umbrella of the Missile Defense Agency, and seven working planes were ordered. Eventually, those orders were canceled and it went back to being a one plane research platform which did shoot down a couple of test missiles, but not at the range that could make the whole enterprise actually feasible. And so, after spending $5 billion on the program over 16 years, it was cancelled.
I resurrected it here, but for all I know, maybe it is being reborn right now, if someone put together the right tweaks to make it hit the firing distance that they need, for it to be viable. Or they come up with some modified version and a new mission. For example, a so called “diode pumped” laser able to ramp up the wattage and configured on a smaller platform than a 747.
How does so called “junk DNA” play into all of this?First of all, junk DNA is a misnomer, ultraconserved strings is what they are more appropriately called. You see, the whole human genome consists of 2.9 billion letters, that ACTG stuff that they taught you in high school. Now, that’s about 750 megabytes of data taken as a whole, but only about three percent of that is involved in making up the 22,000 genes that make us who we are, the remaining 97 percent is this so-called junk DNA. It seemed like an awful lot of information to be doing nothing at all, particularly when we suspect the half-life of this material is about twelve million years for a house fly and, for the precursors to mammals, we trace it back about eight-hundred million years. That’s a long time between genetic house cleanings. So, it turns out that if the RNA portion is non-coding – that is, protein making – and it still has some critical command and control functions, then it stays put. For a very long time. Japanese researchers have already shown that they can manipulate these strings and insert a message right into the DNA that would last, well, if not forever, a very long time.
What if someone already did?
As to how it all plays into the plot, well, I could tell you but then I’d have to kill you before you unleashed that particular spoiler.
Did you find it difficult to write about technical topics?Well, there really isn’t that much, just enough so that it all makes sense. Once upon a time, before I got my journalism degree, I got one in electronics technology. I didn’t like the math, so I took a left turn and I’ve been making money writing and editing ever since. I’ve been the editor numerous national magazines dealing with a variety of business and technical topics. In this line of work, you need to become an industry expert real quick or you’ll soon be treading water. So, long story short, any area of interest I plan to go into doesn’t intimidate me. Well, maybe a little. That’s where being a quick study and, more importantly, perseverance comes in. But the key is showing a technology’s interesting elements in an entertaining fashion. I feel like I’ve been training my whole life for this. If readers learn a thing or two along the way, that’s not a bad thing.
What other books do you have out there?
I also have a comic novel, Office of the Apes. This is for the advanced class of crazy gonzo readers. I guess you might say it’s not politically correct. You have been issued fair warning! More at nikventure.com

Author Interview: Brady Koch, Author of Guns, Gods & Robots

Brady Koch lives in Westchester County, NY with his wife and children. Feel free to read over Brady's shoulder if you see him working on a new novel or short story at the coffee shop, library, or commuter train into NYC. Despite his penchant for crime, horror, and the unusual in his writing, he's actually a nice guy and welcomes your feedback. Brady Koch's first collection of short works, Guns, Gods & Robots, is now available.  

Here is a synopsis of Guns, Gods & Robots


Guns: A girl’s birthday wish comes true when she gets to spend an afternoon on manhunt with her lawman father. 
Gods: An old man discovers his crops aren't the only dead things on his farm. 
Robots: A heartless machine built for compassion malfunctions, leading its engineer on a hunt to fix the corruption before it spreads. 
In Guns, Gods & Robots, Brady Koch, mixes and remixes three themes across this collection of stories and novellas that spans the range of science fiction and horror. The stories, collected here for the first time, range from the uplifting to the horrifying. Sure to spark your imagination, the seven stories in Guns, Gods & Robots will also keep you up at night.

Who are your influences?I suppose I’m a populist, but I grew up on Stephen King, then Kurt Vonnegut. I was always pleasantly surprised when an assigned book in school ended up being a great read. Animal Farm and The Illustrated Man stand out for me in those regards. I hold a special place in my heart for Edward Packard, the creator of Choose Your Own Adventure. He also worked on a series of 8 books called Escape that had the same premise, but only one ending to try to get through. I used to pour over those books on the bus, at home, in school when the teacher wasn’t looking and more. I would love to write a choose your own adventure for adults at one point if I can figure out the e-reader linking needed to pull that off.
When did you begin writing?I’ve written off and on through my life. Never much beyond what was required for school. Four years ago, I was faced with a long train commute when I worked in Illinois, so I attempted to start writing again to fill the time. Now it’s my preferred way to spend what quiet time I can find.

How do you come up with your stories, characters, character names, POV, etc?For stories, I tend to simply let my mind wander. Once I figure out the loose scenario I try to find the most condense way to tell the story. My readers know how I prefer to keep things direct, pulpy and lean. Often times my final cuts are much shorter than the first drafts.Most character names are just ones that I’ve latched on to through the years. In Guns, Gods & Robots you’ll come across names from Final Fantasy, podcast hosts, college professors and more. I’m always a fan of naming characters “Walter” after the host at a burger joint I frequented as a kid.
Do you work from an outline?I always start with some bullet points and essentially start filling in each section from there. If there a part of the story I really have a strong vision for, I’ll start writing that instead of the actual beginning of the book. In answering this question, I revisited the original outline for “Numbers 16:32” to compare it to the final draft. It’s mainly still there save for a large phone call section that ended up just being a stalling tactic to get to the resolution of the story.The hardest stories I write are the ones I don’t plan out from the beginning.
Tell me about your favorite scene in your novel.There’s a scene in the story Sangrimal where a young girl gets separated from her dad, the Sheriff, while they’re on a man hunt. She ends up quietly exploring a place called the stump yards and then managing what she finds there. It’s my favorite because it’s the scene I wrote out first and no matter how much the whole story was edited and reframed and gutted, that sequence remained the same. I think it’s the heart of the story and in some ways the whole collection.
Can you tell us a little about your writing philosophy?Get to the point, avoid flowery language and finish the story before you get bored writing it and your readers want to move on to the next book.
Have you ever tried writing in any other genres?The book itself lightly covers other genres from drama, horror and I hope comedy. I’ve always wanted to write some nonfiction, but don’t feel like I have the free time to research any topic enough to do it justice. My favorite authors currently are all in nonfiction (Mary Roach, Tony Horwitz, etc).
Do you have any interesting writing-related anecdotes to share?I was in a long meeting at work a couple of years ago and decided to check my phone under the table for new emails. I ended up seeing a note from an unknown email address and lo-and-behold I got my first fan letter. It was incredibly detailed and offered a variety of insights into a story the reader found especially engaging. I started laughing out loud and brought the meeting to a stop. We ended up passing the nice letter around and I ended up having a room of new readers. 

Brady’s website is BradyKoch.com  and on Twitter he is @BradyTheWriter