Jenny Hilborne Interview

1: What is the most productive time of the day for you to write?

Morning. Unfortunately, I’m on the road at 5.30am and don’t return for a full 12 hours, so I guess the only time I’m productive is at the weekends J

2: Do you start your projects writing with paper and pen or is it all on the computer?

99% on the computer. I jot down ideas when I’m away from my laptop because I have a terrible memory.

3: What do you draw inspiration from?

I don’t really draw from anyone. I love writing so much I’m always motivated to write. My goal of becoming a full-time writer drives me.

4: Do you set goals for yourself when you sit down to write such as word count?

No goals. I just write what comes and don’t freak out if I have a slow day, or even a couple of slow days. I don’t always have much time during the week to write. On the days when I do have the time, I catch up. Once I get going, it usually flows in a steady stream.

5: Are you a published or a self published author and how do you come up with your cover art?

I’m published by Echelon Press. They are responsible for my fabulous cover art. I can’t take any credit for it.

6: What drives you to choose the career of being a writer?

Writing chose me. It just feels natural.

7: Do you own an ebook reading device?

I own a K2 and I sometimes read on my Mac. I’m about 99% into eBooks right now.

8: Who are some of your favorite authors and What are you reading now?

I mostly enjoy reading mysteries and thrillers by a variety of authors. Favorites include Sandra Brown and Sidney Sheldon. Lately, I’ve been reading books by emerging indie authors and recently read some fantastic new novels, including The Innocent, by Vincent Zandri and The Scavengers Daughter, by Mike McIntyre. I’m also reading books by newer authors to review.

9: What do you think of book trailers and do you have any plans to have any?

I have a book trailer for Madness and Murder on YouTube. I have nothing against them, although I’m far more likely to buy a book from a recommendation or a gripping write-up than from watching a trailer.

10: How did you come up with the title of your latest book?

 The title was easy. My story is about Madness and Murder. Initially, I chose Madness, Murder and Mayhem but it seemed too much of a mouthful, so I dropped the mayhem, although there is plenty of mayhem between the pages.

11: What are you working on now that you can talk about?

My 2^nd suspense, No Alibi, is due out on April 15^th with Echelon Press and I just finished my 3^rd novel, a mystery called Hide and Seek. Currently, I’m working on Fatal Fury, my 4^th novel. This one is set in England, my homeland. I’m in the early stages of this book and excited to see it develop.

 http://JFHilborne.com
http://jfhilborne.wordpress.com
 

Shanda Sharlow Interview

Bio - Shanda Sharlow began writing short stories from the time she could hold a pencil. Through the years, she's scribbled down thousands of pages of random stories and unfinished novels that were eventually abandoned or forgotten about. In 2005, she set down to finish a full fantasy novel in the form of the Psyonic, which she managed in a few months. For awhile, she shelved the book without any way to get it realistically published. After Amazon Kindle came out, she found the opportunity to release the Psyonic to the public, and is now working on another full novel. Currently, she lives in Vancouver WA with her father and brother, and edits novels for other people when she's not writing.


Synopsis - 

Hale lived his entire life in hiding, traveling through slums and nondescript villages, never staying anywhere long enough for the people there to recognize his face. Never staying long enough for anyone to ferret out his secret.

When he comes across a woman who recognizes him, he becomes the confidante of a Princess. Yet the halls of the palace hold far more danger than that of the streets, for within its shadows lurk dark mysteries and murderous intent. Desperate to remain hidden from those who hunt him, Hale must unravel the hidden machinations of the gathered royal families before it's too late, or it will be more than his life that he loses.

1: What is the most productive time of the day for you to write? I find the later in the day, the easier it is for me to write. Earlier in the day I always have all sorts of things that I need to do first, and the long list tends to disrupt any creativity I might have for writing. Later on in the day I'll be more relaxed and ready to write.

2: Do you start your projects writing with paper and pen or is it all on the computer? I write my novel-length stories on paper because it doesn't feel right on the computer.

3: What do you draw inspiration from? Things that I watch or read, things that I listen to, random conversation, dreams, random snatches of overheard conversation, a particular cloud shape in the sky, or random musings. Anything at all, really. I've been inspired for one thing or another by just about everything.

4: Do you set yourself goals when you sit down to write such as word count? In the case of writing on paper, I set a goal of writing ten pages per chapter, and tend to want to write an entire chapter every time I sit down, but when writing on the computer, I tend to just write whatever I write.

5: Being a self published author how do you come up with your cover art? I find stock art that I like and that has something relevant to the content of the story, and put the cover art together myself in graphic editing programs.

6: What drives you to chose the career of being a writer? The creativity and freedom involved in writing. There's nothing else I'd rather do than write.

7: Do you own an ebook reading devise? No, I don't, though I do have the PC edition of the Kindle.

8: Who are some of your favorite authors and What are you reading now? C.S. Lewis, Robert Jordan, and Terry Brooks come to mind as favorite authors, with Robert Jordan certainly in the lead as my enduring favorite. What I'm reading currently, however, are the original Sherlock Holmes stories. I find them quite entertaining.

9: What do you think of book trailers and do you have any plans to have any?  I like them, though I find them very difficult to make interesting. I don't have any trailers as it stands, but I've considered making them before. Maybe some day.

10: What are you working on now that you can talk about? Well, currently I'm about three-quarters of the way through a novel called Jenni, which is about a woman who suddenly finds the world around her changing over and over in drastic ways, without any conceivable reason why...and she seems to be the only person who notices the changes. I'm also working on a sci-fi/paranormal romance book that I haven't decided whether it will be a novella or a full novel yet, and a modern day Fantasy story with a bit of a different take on Elves.

http://www.wix.com/yusagi2003/thepsyonicbook

J.E. Taylor interview

1: What is the most productive time of the day for you to write?

JET:  Evenings and weekends.  Anytime I can find around my day job and my kids activities, which usually entails sitting in my comfy chair in the family room between 7pm and 11pm - which is smack dab in the middle of the household action.  Even though the television is on, I’m usually lost on my little netbook propped on my lap-desk.  

2: Do you start your projects writing with paper and pen or is it all on the computer?

JET:  All computer all the time.  My handwriting is atrocious, so if I jot something on paper, by the   time I look at it, I have no clue what it says. 

3: What do you draw inspiration from?

JET:  Nightmares, fantasies, dreams and a little life experience thrown in for credibility.  

4: Do you set goals for yourself when you sit down to write such as word count?

JET: Sometimes, especially if I’m taking part in a writing sprint or a monthly count like Nano month, but other than that – I just let it flow as it flows.  Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t and I don’t beat myself up when I find myself running in circles.  Goals are good, especially when they are attainable. Unrealistic goals on the other hand can cripple your motivation.

5: Are you a published or a self published author and how do you come up with your cover art?

JET:  Both. 

I’ve got an erotic thriller series (Survival Games, Mind Games and End Game) published through eXcessica – a small erotic/romance publisher that deals primarily in e-books, but also offers paperback options through Createspace.   I also have the first two books in my FBI thriller series (Dark Reckoning and Vengeance) published through eXcessica’s sister company FIDO Publishing.  They only offer e-books out of the gate, so I worked out a deal and ventured on my own to produce trade paperbacks through Createspace for these two titles. 

On the e-book self publishing front - I made the decision late last summer to publish my short stories via Smashwords and have been growing my backlist in both erotic shorts and mainstream shorts ever since. 

As far as covers are concerned, I have a fantastic cover artist (Willsin Rowe ) down in Australia that I’ve worked with for three of the five novels currently published – he is truly phenomenal.  I picked the photo(s) that we used from 123 Royalty Free Photos and he did his magic.

I played around enough with photos to branch out and do my own for Vengeance and was fortunate enough to find the perfect picture matching my mental image of Steve Williams at Romance Novel Covers, which is now gracing the cover for my next FBI thriller Hunting Season due out this May.  

I also produced the covers for all my short stories using these same resources listed above.

6: What drives you to choose the career of being a writer?

JET:  It’s really stress relief for me. I got so far from a creative outlet in the day job that I was going nuts.  I had been writing technical documentation for years and then was promoted to managing those writing the documents and lost that edge, that creative outlet.  So when my daughter asked …If I can do anything what would it be… with no hesitation, I said write a book and get it published.  That was in February of 2007 and between that time and the end of 2008 – I wrote eight books.  They just poured out and I loved every minute of creating lives on paper and playing God with them.  What’s more liberating, is when I get pissed off at work, I get to come home and work out the frustrations on paper.  Looking at the kind of books I write – you might venture to guess I went through some very frustrating months in the day job.  J 

7: Do you own an ebook reading device?

JET:  No, not a separate device.  I have the PC version of the Kindle on my netbook and I’d love a Kindle or Nook in the future, but right now, I’m still good with paperbacks or reading on my netbook between writing.

8: Who are some of your favorite authors and What are you reading now?

JET:  Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Tom Clancy, Sandra Brown, Heather Graham, Lisa Gardner, David Morrell, Kay Hooper, Jonathan Maberry, Cat Connor, Lisa McMahon… 

I’m reading Stealing the Marbles by E.J. Knapp and Liquid Soul by Matthew Carter right now. 

9: What do you think of book trailers and do you have any plans to have any?

JET:  I think book trailers are an essential way to get the message out there.  I have trailers for all my books and I’ve made all of them but one myself.  I contracted Willsin Rowe to do Survival Games and he came up with a fantastic and very different trailer.  My trailers are posted on my website,  my Facebook page, Goodreads, and a few other places around the web. 

10: How did you come up with the title of your latest book?

JET: The last in the Games series – End Game, which comes out today – was an easy title to come up with - it was just the natural progression and the end of the series – so End Game just seemed right. 

The most challenging title I had to come up with was Dark Reckoning – the first in my FBI thriller series featuring Special Agent Steve Williams.  For years – I’m talking over twenty years – this book was titled Mirror Lake.  I started it while I was in college and didn’t pick it back up until the summer of 2007.  Well, I wrote the second and third books, Vengeance and Hunting Season which have much more impact and are much more telling of the stories within the covers.  But Mirror Lake didn’t seem to fit the story line – yes it was the setting, but I needed something with more punch, just like the story, so while sitting in my son’s Jukido class,  I had a conversation with some of the fathers and bounced some titles back and forth with them and out of that conversation came Dark Reckoning. 

11: What are you working on now that you can talk about?

JET:  I’m just finishing up the final edits to Hunting Season which will be hitting the virtual shelves in May of 2011.  Out of all the books I have written, Hunting Season was the most fun to write.  I took the characters from my Games series (because they just wouldn’t shut up) and threw them in the world of Steve Williams.  Imagine Criminal Minds suddenly melded with Supernatural and you’ve got Hunting Season. 

Here’s my Bio:

J.E. Taylor is a writer, an editor, a manuscript formatter, a mother, a wife and a business analyst, not necessarily in that order.

She first sat down to seriously write in February of 2007 after her daughter asked:

“Mom, if you could do anything, what would you do?”

From that moment on, she hasn’t looked back and now her writing resume includes five+ novels either published or targeted for release along with several short stories on the virtual shelves including a few within upcoming eXcessica anthologies.

Ms. Taylor also moonlights as an Assistant Editor of Allegory, an online venue for Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror, and lends a hand in formatting manuscripts for eXcessica as well as offering her services judging writing contests for various RWA chapters.

She lives in Connecticut with her husband and two children and during the summer months enjoys her weekends on the shore in southern Maine.

http://www.amazon.com/J.-E.-Taylor/e/B003FER8M6/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1297425614&sr=1-2-ent

Brian Drake SHOW NO MERCY release party

Could you kill your father?

Michael Dodge owes Harry Ames, his surrogate father. But his CIA mentor is accused of murdering a comrade and joining forces with an enemy planning to unleash a lethal biological weapon on the United States. Dodge may have to kill Harry, but can he do it?

SHOW NO MERCY by Brian Drake. A heart-stopping international thrill-ride with a twist at every turn.

1: This is your third indie book. What are your thoughts on being an “indie” after three books?

When I first started I did not like the “indie author” title. I thought that was a PC feel-good term used to make such people feel like they were actually accomplishing something. My original intent with an ebook was to build and audience that I could take to a traditional publisher to show them I had the chops. Well, one year later, I am embracing the “indie” title. I’m also not even considering a run at New York any longer. Why? Never mind the turmoil in the industry, which, by all reports, is serious; I’m having more fun promoting and selling my work on my own than I ever dreamed I would. I’m going to keep doing it. Those checks that come in the mail are very nice, indeed.

2: Where did the idea for “Show No Mercy” come from?

I wanted to do a story about a conflict in a family, and thought that taking that subject matter into the established spy thriller genre would be a nice twist. It’s not the usual family conflict, though. In the story we have a son and daughter who are faced with the possibility that their father, who taught them their values and helped shaped their beliefs, has betrayed those beliefs. They have to determine if he has truly done so, or if he is being manipulated.

3: What made you want to tackle a family conflict?

I’m not sure. I think it’s one of those bits of inspiration that just jumped out at me and gave me the angle I needed to do a spy story that wasn’t the same old mash-up of action and car chases. I wanted something more at stake than whether or not a maniac was going to blow up the world. A child, no matter what age, faced with the idea that a parent has gone off the deep end is going to go through a wild array of emotions, and how the main characters go through those emotions is what made the story interesting to me.

4: How did Michael Dodge, your protagonist, develop?

I developed Dodge by making him the opposite of James Bond. Bond is, of course, the most well-known secret agent character in the world and it is no surprise that any other character of that type is compared to him. That’s fine, he’s a popular guy, and such a bold character you can’t help but be compared to him. But instead of a character that is flashy, I wanted somebody more subtle, so I worked on him from that perspective. If Bond wears a tux, Dodge is T-shirt and jeans, that sort of thing. Bond is the agent everybody sees; Dodge is the guy in the shadows that you don’t see until it’s too late.

5: Your villain isn’t the usual “rule the world” maniac or terrorist. Where did you come up with him and his gang?

Again, I wanted something different than the norm, so I created Cyrus Lassen and his gang of chaos-loving roughnecks. They aren’t out for anything other than the profits that turn up in any disaster, from insurance claims to the massive clean-up of a bomb blast or whatever. They sabotage an oil pipeline, for example, to send the cost of oil up, which then increases their coffers from the price speculation they take part in.

6: You feature many tidbits about the CIA that haven’t been covered in fiction before. Did you interview anybody who works at the Agency, or did you learn the trivia through other methods?

I don’t know anybody at the CIA but I do have a friend who is a former British agent, and I pick his brain a lot. He was active back in the ‘70s so whatever he can tell me he freely shares, and most of the information concerns the day-to-day lives of people in that line of work. He told me about the CIA’s child care center, for example, where Agency employees can drop their kids, do their work for the day, and pick up the kids on the way out. I thought that was a neat bit of info. The rest of the research came from books.

7: Will we see Michael Dodge again?

Oh, yes, we will! I have three other Dodge stories planned; two that are completely outlined and one that’s just a sketch at this point. I won’t do them back-to-back, since I have other books in the pipeline to do first, but he will be back.

8: Who are some of your favorite thriller authors who may have inspired “Show No Mercy”?

Ian Fleming and Robert Ludlum, to name two. I grew up reading them. I remember my seventh grade English teacher giving me a hard time because all I read were these adult books, but at least I was reading. He had to holler at everybody else in class to read the assigned material. He was a Ludlum fan, too, and we would talk about the books. He gave me some Alistair McLean books once, but those were a little out of my league at the time. I still read Fleming and Ludlum and if you asked me to name one or two contemporary writers covering the same subject, I’m afraid I wouldn’t have an answer.

10: How did you come up with the title?

I think I stole it from somewhere. You can’t copyright a title. Muahahahaha….

11: What are you working on now that you can talk about?

Currently I am in the middle of The Rogue Gentleman, which features a globe-trotting adventurer named Steve Dane who always finds trouble. His lady friend, the ex-Russian spy Nina Talikova, is there to help him get out of said trouble. Interpol thinks he’s a bad guy but he’s definitely on the side of the angels. He likes making the good guys assume he’s a bad guy because it helps his street cred with real bad guys. Anyway it’s my first attempt to mix adventure with light humor, and I think it’s going well so far.

Thanks to everyone for stopping by, everyone who leaves a comment and contact info will be put in a drawling to win a copy of Brian Drake SHOW NO MERCY gifted to your Kindle. I will chose one winner February 12, 2011 at noon eastern.

Chris Northern Interview

1: What is the most productive time of the day for you to write?

Gosh. I wish I knew the answer to this question. It would make life so much easier. Seriously, though, I have no real idea. I generally write in two phases; the idea development phase, where key concepts are outlined, the background detailed to some degree, and I get a feel for the point of the book; at this point I'm struggling to breath life into the project and writing is bitty and sporadic through the day.  The next phase is when the key character comes alive in my mind, becomes a real separate person, and then I start writing in earnest, preying that I've got the beginning right;. that means a full 8-14 hour writing day from seven in the morning until I can't stay awake/think any more. If things are going badly that might mean only a couple of hundred words a day, but if things are going well that's 5,000 or more words of usable copy and the story progresses. If I can maintain that frame of mind, when the story rolls, then that can go on until the book is finished. That happened with The Last King's Amulet from start to finish; long days and each day a good productive day.

2: Do you start your projects writing with paper and pen or is it all on the computer?

I use a laptop. I used to sit at a desk and get really nasty back pain until a friend pointed out that I was an idiot. Now I sit comfortably, feet up; it's easier to maintain concentration, shockingly enough. I rarely use paper, just for notes that are never going to go into the book itself. Never for ideas; I figure that if an idea is memorable - if it's good, in other words - I'll remember it; and if I forget it it's clearly not memorable, not good.

I just dug out a notebook and took a look; there are a half dozen pages for The Last King's Amulet, a sketch map and place names and a few other bits and bobs that I wanted to have ready access to without having to look at another file or search through the notes at the bottom of the working file. Those notes tend to get out of hand - things that might happen, things people might do and why and how they may effect the story to come. Mostly I try and keep everything in my head and not think too far ahead. That's easier to do if you are just writing for a few weeks; if things aren't going so well, then the mind-map of the book can collapse and I have to build it again... that struggling time I mentioned earlier.

3: What do you draw inspiration from?

Hmmmm. Tricky one. Deep thought required. No, not Dougless Adams, or other writers at all, really. Only in the sense that fine writing inspires me to work harder at my craft.

I think it is people, mostly, thinking about it. History and politics and sociology are subjects that interest me deeply. What people did, why we do what we do, how we try endlessly to structure viable and worthwhile societies and sadly fail with such monotonous regularity. Or worse, throw it away when we succeed. It has been said that the one lesson of history is that we never learn, and that is certainly true when applied to politics and economics. If you dig into the causes of the fall of the Roman Empire, for example, it becomes clear that really seriously bad economic decisions and laws enacted and enforced are the real cause of the decline and fall. That fascinates and horrifies me, because the same mistakes have been made in recent history and are being made now and the results are so known, so understood that it beggers belief that we are capable of allowing the same mistakes to be made again.

I bring a fair amount of historical detail into my work. For example, Sumto threatens to sell a slave with a bad reference and someone wrote that they thought that that was a funny idea; and it is, in a quite horrible way, but at one time it really happened. Also, while I think of it, in Prison of Power there is a scene where conspirators meet and plot; one of them brings a set of identical rings to seal the conspirators in the plot. Hilarious, at least to me. It means nothing, but the guy has had these rings specially made like they do mean something. And this really happened. The truth is stranger than fiction. You really can't make this stuff up. I would never have imagined that in a million years, so reading history helps for inspiration in the details.

4: Do you set goals for yourself when you sit down to write such as word count?

No, never. If things are going badly there is no point, I'm just grateful to get a decent paragraph at the end of the day. If things are going well, there is no need. Anything like that would, for me, intrude on the process of writing. There's no spare space in my humble brain for anything else when I'm focused on the task, lost in the story. If I think about anything else, anything at all, the structure starts to crumble and it's just counter productive.

5: Are you a published or a self published author and how do you come up with your cover art?

Self published right now, though in the past I sold a few pieces that were published under my own name. Some of those I'm still please with and some I'm not so pleased with, but they were all apprentice pieces, really, and have nothing to do with the hear-and-now. I am very happy to be a self published writer. The very definition of freedom is not having to ask permission before you do something. I'm pretty big on freedom.

The artwork actually comes in three stages: the first attempts were hurried and frankly bad; they are sadly still on some retail sites. The second attempts were my own humble efforts and hardly better. The artwork that now graces the covers of my books, and I am so very pleased with them, are photographs taken by Roy Smallpage of the Dumnonni live roleplayers; the Dumnonni Chronicles is a live role-play group.  I used to go along myself years ago, though I haven't for some time. It really was a blast and the people who participate are great fun. The Dumnonni Chronicals can be found here (http://www.dumnonni.com/ethos.php) and if you are in the UK the events are well worth attending. Some of the photo's I am grateful to be allowed to use are simply stunning.

6: What drives you to choose the career of being a writer?

Masochism. What else?

I'm stubborn, actually; to a fault. Really to a fault; I mean when I have decided to do something I will get it done regardless of cost or distance or pain or anything. It's a character flaw. People have said that I am so laid back I might as well be horizontal, and there is a reason for that; I'm wary of making commitments because I will get it done once the decision is made. The cost of the decision to write, made when I was sixteen, has been quite substantial, actually. Now it's simply habit, like brushing my teeth. Or a reflex action, like blinking might be a more apt analogy.

7: Do you own an ebook reading device?

Not yet. I always put some distance between the desire for something and the action to fulfil the desire. Another dumb but long standing habit.

8: Who are some of your favorite authors and What are you reading now?

Well, there are many, so choosing a handful to mention is going to be hard. Orson Scott Card, primarily for Speaker For The Dead. In my opinion OSC is a writers writer; he really knows his craft, knows what a story is and how to build it. A craftsman. I admire his skill greatly.

Robin Hobb for the King's Assassin series, the first trilogy anyway. And for the Liveship Traders; Captain Kennit was a wonderfully conflicted character, brilliantly realised.

Ian M. Banks, Robert Heinlein, James Herbert, Mike Moorcock, Gordon R Dickson for Soldier Ask Not, Robert B. Parker for the Spenser novels, Barry B, Longyear for Elephant Song. There's a wealth of great work out there. I incline to SF and Fantasy but there are other genre novels I like and many quality writers out there.

Recently I came across a couple of Indie authors I'd like to mention; Ron Sanders for Freak, and Lindsay Buroker for Ice Cracker II - on the strength of that piece alone I have predicted that Lindsay Buroker will become a best selling author in time. When I'm proven right I absolutely want credit for having said it first, even if I didn't.

I'd almost forgotten this was a two part question: I'm not reading anything now; I'm in writing mode. No time.

9: What do you think of book trailers and do you have any plans to have any?

Personally, I wouldn't spend any money on one. Great medium for promoting a movie, but I'm not convinced of their value for books. I could well be very wrong on this, but that's my feeling.

10: How did you come up with the title of your latest book?

Heh, yeah, titles. It just happened the other day, actually. It always happens the same way; I'll be way better than half way through with still no idea what it'll be called and then there will be a sentence with the title in it. In this case, The Invisible Hand. It will just be there in a sentence and make perfect sense of the whole book. I have no idea why this happens. Around 3/4 of the way through I do start to be a bit concerned if there's no title yet. But so far so good, and I'm much reassured that the book is going to be OK when the title happens. I take it as a sign that I'm on the right track.

11: What are you working on now that you can talk about?

Book three of the Price Of Freedom sequence, the title I just mentioned. It's a follow on from The Last King's Amulet and The Key To The Grave. Sumto is a pretty unusual fantasy hero, he's not really very good at anything, except that he has a way with languages and is good with horses. Not much in the way of skills for all that he has to deal with. Sometimes he doesn't do a great job of things. Sometimes it's not his fault, but he is always responsible. He understands that, that he alone is responsible for his own actions. That understanding is going to become a great burden to him over the next few books. Just as well that he has a sense of humour, really. In The Invisible Hand he has bitten off way more than he can chew, trying to make amends for... well, maybe I'd better not talk too much about it here. I think it's going to be OK; I think those who liked the first two will like this book.

Well, looks like I'm out of questions for now. Should your readers have any more for me, please let me know and I will do my best to answer as honestly as I can. Thank you for your time.

 http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/shasqa

Mike McIntyre Interview

A Southern California self-storage unit filled with medieval instruments of torture…

A modern-day Torquemada hell-bent on updating the Spanish Inquisition…

An investigative reporter racing to connect the lurid dots…

Deadline has a whole new meaning.

Tyler West, suspended Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter from the San Diego Sun, is desperate for a scoop that will save his career. Defying a spiteful publisher and a vindictive homicide detective, he investigates the baffling deaths of several of San Diego's powerful, rich and famous. Police call the murders unrelated, but Ty uncovers a common link: torture devices last used during the Dark Ages, including the Iron Maiden, the Pear of Anguish, and the most sinister of all—the Scavenger's Daughter. Ty is plunged into a mysterious world of medieval torture scholars, antiquities collectors, museum curators, and sadomasochists. Aided by photojournalist Melina "Mel" Koric, a former Bosnian War refugee, Ty must break the brilliantly conceived series of slayings that has cast a dark shadow over a city better known for its sun, sand and surf. The elusive killer goes by the name Friar Tom, in tribute to his hero, Tomás de Torquemada, the first Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition. As Ty scrambles to unmask the monstrous zealot, he must juggle his investigation with his personal life: He pursues his lost love, Jordan Sinclair, an assistant district attorney, and continues to mentor inner-city kids at his youth golf clinics. With the city caught in an escalating nightmare of medieval mayhem, Ty is drawn into a lethal game of cat and mouse that could cost him everything.

1: What is the most productive time of the day for you to write?

I'm a morning guy. I get up between 4 and 5, fire up the Bialetti stovetop espresso maker, read the papers, ride my exercise bike, then head for my backyard office. I write until noon, then read or work on my golf game.

2: Do you start your projects writing with paper and pen or is it all on the computer?

I'm afraid to face the computer without handwritten notes. For "The Scavenger's Daughter," I had a mountain of notepads, Post-its, napkins and beer coasters I had jotted ideas on as the novel was percolating in my head. I wrote my first book in longhand before typing it on a computer. Even when I was working as a daily journalist on deadline, I first had to sketch out an outline. A blank computer screen is a scary thing to gaze at.

3: What do you draw inspiration from?

My new serial killer thriller was inspired by a museum exhibit of medieval instruments of torture, many from the Spanish Inquisition. I travel a lot, and I kept bumping into the same exhibit in places like San Gimignano, Italy, and Carcassonne, France. The exhibit—"Inquisition: Torture and Intolerance"—came to my town and became the most popular show in the 100-year history of the San Diego Museum of Man. One day while staring at such cruel contraptions as the Iron Maiden, the Judas Cradle and the Pear of Anguish, I imagined a latter-day Torquemada trying to update the Inquisition.

4: Do you set goals for yourself when you sit down to write such as word count?

When I get rolling on something, I write seven days a week, holidays included, until lunch.

5: Are you a published or a self-published author and how do you come up with your cover art?

My first book, "The Kindness of Strangers: Penniless Across America," an account of my coast-to-coast journey with no money, was published by Berkley. They sent me on a book tour. I got to do Oprah, Bill O'Reilly, CNN, ABC, CBS, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times and about 70 other TV, print and radio interviews. I didn't have to lift a finger. This time around, with a self-published eBook, I'm struggling to school myself on the ins and outs of indie promotion. I'm not complaining. It's the new reality. The old publishing model is dying, and I'm grateful that something is taking its place. This eReader revolution is exciting.

The publisher handled every aspect of the cover for my first book. For my new eBook, a friend designed the cover, with my input, on Photoshop. I should have put more thought into it. After it was up on Amazon for a month, I realized it was a mistake, so I recently hired a professional to re-do it. I love the new cover.

6: What drives you to choose the career of being a writer?

I've been wondering that for 25 years. I can't be certain, but I don't think I'd find anything else as interesting—that I was any good at, anyway.

7: Do you own an ebook reading device?

Yes, a Kindle. I recently took it on vacation to Japan. My carry-on baggage, usually filled with books, was a lot lighter.

8: Who are some of your favorite authors and What are you reading now?

My favorite author is the late short story writer and poet Raymond Carver. Like many, I enjoy reading Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner and Steinbeck. More recent authors include Ken Kesey, John Irving and Thomas McGuane. As for genre writers, I was absolutely floored by Dennis Lehane's "Shutter Island." I like Michael Connelly's stand-alone works. The crime writer I most identify with is James Patterson, particularly his Alex Cross novels. Right now I'm reading "Double Cross," as well as "Hitch-22," a memoir by the British pundit Christopher Hitchens.

9: What do you think of book trailers and do you have any plans to have any?

No plans for one. The idea of book trailers reminds me of the famous quote: "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture."

10: How did you come up with the title of your latest book?

The Scavenger's Daughter, the image depicted on the book cover, was a medieval torture device.

11: What are you working on now that you can talk about?

The next Tyler West mystery.

Margaret Lake Interview

1: What is the most productive time of the day for you to write?

I usually write in the evening. That's when I take my grandson to his activities (Tae Kwon Do and Pokemon League). I carry my netbook with me and get in some good writing time.

2: Do you start your projects writing with paper and pen or is it all on the computer?

All on the computer. My handwriting is so bad that even I can't read it. In fact, I started writing when my son-in-law bought me a computer.

3: What do you draw inspiration from?

I write historical fiction/romance so I draw my inspiration from historical events. History is rich with conflict and I can play my characters off those conflicts.

4: Do you set goals for yourself when you sit down to write such as word count?

I only set goals when I'm getting close to the end. Partly I do that because I want to finish. But the real reason is that when I get to that point, the action is really heating up and I can't wait to see how the story is going to end.

5: Are you a published or a self published author and how do you come up with your cover art?

I'm a self-published author. Since I write historicals, I find a public domain painting that fits the story. Classical art is perfect for a medieval setting.

6: What drives you to choose the career of being a writer?

I feel like I've got stories to tell and now I have the time to put them down on paper. It's like eating peanuts. I just have to keep going.

7: Do you own an ebook reading device?

Yes, I own a first generation Kindle. Her birthday is August 29, 2008. I bought a K3 Wi-Fi for my grandson for Christmas. I owned my Kindle for quite some time before I even though about publishing an ebook.

8: Who are some of your favorite authors and What are you reading now?

My favorite author is Susan Howatch who has, unfortunately, retired. She writes mostly historical fiction. I also read a lot of mysteries; Agatha Christie, Rex Stout, Simon Brett, Larry Karp. In fact, I'm reading Murder By The Book by Rex Stout. I just finished reading Season of the Harvest by Michael R. Hicks as a beta reader.

9: What do you think of book trailers and do you have any plans to have any?

I love book trailers and I have two of them. Here are the links.

Ariana's Pride book trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA_rpNyKYv0

Catherine and the Captain book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbnXJT-hzjQ

10: How did you come up with the title of your latest book?

Sweet Savage Charity is my latest book. The story is about a Puritan woman and a Wampanoag Brave and is set approximately six months after the landing of the Mayflower. The title just came to me, but my subconscious thought must have been that Charity is sweet and the land she has come to live in is savage. I suppose I put that all together in a flash of thought.

11: What are you working on now that you can talk about?

I've done a couple of short stories and a flash fiction that I'll be putting together into an anthology with my three novelettes. I expect to release that the end of March. In the meantime, I'm writing another story to put into the anthology but I don't know yet whether it's going to be a short story or a novelette. The WIP is about a woman detective in May 1942 which I may turn into a series. I'll see how it goes.

website: www.jobreepublishing.com