Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a crime fiction and mystery novelist probably best known for my Marty Singer detective series (five books and counting). Marty is a retired Washington DC homicide detective who’s left the force to battle a life-threatening disease, but finds that there’s more to life than just staying alive.
Personally, I have an educational background in English literature which was lousy training for writing genre fiction, since for years I compared my scribbling to that of recognized masters. While my writing hid in the drawer, I was busy riding the tech wave of the early and mid-nineties, which allowed me to keep my head above water, financially speaking. I became serious about my writing about ten years ago and, since self-publishing became a viable option, haven’t looked back.
I’ve always had wandering feet, which has helped with my fictional material. I’ve visited six out of seven continents (including Antarctica…can you guess which one’s left?), gone horse-back riding in Iceland, toted the bear-gun for soil scientists in Alaska, and sailed around the world–literally–as a staff member for the Semester at Sea college program. Travel really *is* fatal to all those bad things Mark Twain said it was.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The Wicked Flee (June 2014) is the fifth mystery in the Marty Singer series and was inspired by the rash of child and juvenile trafficking going on that was discovered in my neck of the woods, the Northern Virginia area just outside of Washington DC.
Human trafficking stories in the media usually portray the (very real) horrors of what’s going on in Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe, but those regions don’t have a monopoly on greed, cruelty, or lust and little attention was being paid to the crimes happening in our own backyards.
I wanted to bring attention to the issue by bringing the problem very close to home for Marty.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Every writing guide has a commandment in it, “Thou shalt write in the same place at the same time every day!”
I think this is excellent advice starting out, but I can’t make myself do this. I suppose if I could, I would put out ten books a year. But I write in coffee shops, on my couch, outside on the lounge, at picnic tables down by the Potomac. I have a word quota I know I need to meet and I reach it, come hell or high water, in whatever way I can.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
In my own genre, the list is a little predictable: Elmore Leonard, Robert B. Parker, Martin Cruz Smith, James Lee Burke, Henning Mankell. In more modern times, Lee Child and Barry Eisler. But I read widely, so I’m just as influenced by Bill Bryson, Michael Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Alexander, Roger Zelazny, Piers Anthony, and Kim Stanley Robinson. Inspiration can come from any quarter.
For about six years now, I’ve written old fashioned book reports on books that I hate and love. The document is now up to seventy pages. I started it because I found that, when I tried to remember why a book caught me just-so as a reader, I couldn’t get the quote just right, or I couldn’t put my finger on how or why a particular writer had such an impact on me. I put a lot of my growth as a writer down to keeping up with those book reports.
What are you working on now?
The Wicked Flee, Marty Singer #5, should be out before July and I’m outlining book six over the next few weeks. I’m also planning to release a standalone novel, The Road to Sturgis, sometime this year.
The audiobook for One Right Thing, the third Singer novel, is nearly finished and should be out before July. I’m working with veteran voice actor Lloyd Sherr (the voice of the History Channel show Modern Marvels for many years), who also did the audiobook for A Reason to Live and Blueblood.
I’m also excited to mention that a novella of mine was accepted by Amazon’s new short story marketplace, StoryFront. Originally self-published under the title “Finding Emma,” it’s been released as “The Kindness of Strangers,” due out this spring. It’s a creepy, psychological drama that will have you looking at your neighbors in a new light…
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Bookbub has been the biggest bang for the buck in very specific terms, but they’re just taking a well-known concept (email lists) and executing it to perfection. There’s nothing new about the method, per se.
In broader strokes, the best method for any author is to devote time to staying current and in touch with colleagues, then having the courage to experiment a little. I wouldn’t have heard about Bookbub if other writers hadn’t been sharing their results, for instance. There are new distribution and promotion opportunities for indie authors coming out every day (Oyster, Scribl, Noisetrade, Patreon to name a few). You can do them all, but you should try some.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
The BIC method: Butt In Chair. You have to write to be a writer. It’s the simplest advice in the world, but the hardest. Words simply do not write themselves, no matter how much we wish they would.
Sub-advice: Pay for editing. Don’t spend more than a year on any book. Write a series if you want to make a living. Be ready to help and be helped by other writers, at all levels. You’re not as good as you think you are and your writing is not nearly as bad as you think it is.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Much of what I wrote above, but for specific advice: Sue Grafton once said that she keeps an “OUT” file open next to her manuscript file. Everything she cuts, she saves and puts in the OUT file, which sometimes grows to the tens of thousands of words. George R. R. Martin said it more succinctly: Never throw anything out.
What are you reading now?
I’m re-reading Ken Follett’s Eye of the Needle for the tenth time. Alain de Botton’s Religion for Atheists. Whatever’s on my Kindle! I read less when I write more, because I feel like I draw from the same “well” and when you write a lot, there’s less mental space for the words’ of others, unfortunately.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m sticking with Marty for a while, but I hope when the series begins to take off (book seven? Eight?) that I can turn to some standalone thriller ideas that I’ve had zooming around in my head for years.
I’d also love to write for some of the bigger video game companies as a consultant (I’m an RPG fanatic), but that’s a long shot.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Christopher Alexander’s “A Pattern Language,” Tolkienn’s LOTR (can I have the deluxe edition with Silmarillion, please?), Bill Bryson’s “A Short History of Nearly Everything.”
Oh, and Howard Chapelle’s “Boatbuilding: A Complete Handbook of Wooden Boat Construction.”
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