Tag: Q&A Page 10 of 18

A Few Quick Questions with…Valerie D. Johnson

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On August 16, 2022

In A Few Quick Questions With..., YA/MG/Children's Books

Earlier this morning, I posted about Valerie D. Johnson’s 1 2 3 Count with Me on Granddad’s Farm. Now I have the opportunity to share this Q&A she participated in with me–this is a picture book with a difference, and it’s that difference that makes it special. But I should let her talk about it.

Your author bio starts with “math whisperer,” which is a great title—I could’ve used one of those forty years ago! Would you describe what you mean by that and tell us a little more about your background and how it led to you writing children’s books?
During my tenure as a classroom teacher, I noticed that students often exhibited math anxiety or expressed how much they disliked math. Truth be told, I never thought of myself as a “math person.” Math was not my favorite subject as a student; it was too abstract. But now that I’m a mathematics specialist, I not only know the how, but I also understand the why. Now, I LOVE MATH and it is my mission to ignite a love of math in all children, one book at a time.

My superpowers are making learning math easy to understand, engaging, meaningful, and fun. And, I help to build math confidence and cultivate a positive math mindset in children with classroom-tested teaching strategies (i.e. encourage mistakes, play games, use tools, etc.).

I have served in education as a classroom teacher, math instructional lead, and currently as a math specialist. As a math specialist, I design and deliver professional development steeped in research and best practice in education. I also coach teachers in finding new teaching methods, tools, and techniques to improve math instruction.

Can you talk a little about the genesis of this particular book and the series?
Some children think of themselves as readers and not mathematicians. They think that math is not engaging and fun. I’d like to help all children develop a positive attitude about math and think of themselves as both readers and mathematicians through charming, math-themed stories with beautiful illustrations.

For over two decades, I’ve always wanted to write a book that would impact the lives of young mathematicians. So, after two years of sleepless nights, lots of editing, and learning about the children’s book industry, I will finally get to share my story with the world. I have poured my heart, time, and effort into writing a picture book, 1 2 3 Count with Me on Granddad’s Farm, that was inspired by summers on the farm with my grandfather.

The illustrations are adorable—how did you team up with Cee Biscoe? What was the process of working with her to combine story and pictures?
Illustrating my picture book went through a lot of stages and took many months to complete. I found my illustrator, Cee Biscoe, with the help of a publishing company that I hired to edit, design, and format my book. She’s a traditional illustrator specializing in children’s books, with work published in over 20 countries worldwide.

First, I sent her my manuscript along with other background information so that she could start imagining how everything would look. Over the next several weeks, we collaborated on character development. I sent her pictures of possible character hairstyles, clothes, and features from my vision board. Then, she drew pencil sketches of the characters and animals. Next, she planned what to show on each page of the story (to determine if there would be single or double-page spreads). Then, she created the thumbnail sketches, rough sketches, and full-size sketches. Revisions also occurred during that time. Once the page layouts (text placement and illustrations) were finalized, she painted the final artwork on large sheets of watercolor paper using gouache paint.

You don’t just tell the story, you give some tips for the parent/teacher/whoever who is reading to/with the child to help spur and develop counting in the book and in real life, with some discussion questions to get the child thinking about numbers. I absolutely love that. Was this where the series came from—looking for ways to get parents/etc. to talk about numbers and counting and then using the story as a vehicle for that?
My picture book was created as a way to engage students in meaningful math practice at home and introduce young readers to my grandfather.

I have two passions—teaching math and empowering parents to support learning at home with tips, tools, and hands-on tasks. Parental involvement helps to increase student engagement and academic achievement. Parents can also help make learning less scary by practicing math at home. Learning to count is more than just memorizing and calling out numbers. The book’s back matter helps little ones develop (and reinforce) a strong foundation in counting and quantity by engaging in meaningful learning experiences (i.e. practicing the counting sequence, counting a collection, matching the number words with the objects being counted, exploring the idea of more or less, etc.) with visual supports.

The Discussion Starters, questions in the back of the book, help young readers comprehend and analyze the story for deeper meaning. The visual models (counting dots, fingers, animals, etc.) on the following pages help little ones to dive deeper into counting and reasoning mathematically.

This book isn’t just about numbers—it’s numbers and family, right? It’s common to set picture books on a farm, but you bring in an individual angle—it’s your actual grandfather’s farm and you bring him in as a character. Could you talk a little about that choice?
This story was inspired by summers on my grandfather’s farm and pays tribute to the special bond between children and their grandfathers. The concept of the book is based on my work with young mathematicians in grades K-6 as an Elementary Math Resource Specialist. And, I dedicated this book to my Aunt Katherine Johnson, NASA Mathematician and Hidden Figure, because she loved to count.

This is the first of a series, what other settings are you going to be counting in? Do you have a schedule for what’s to come?
The setting for the next book in the 1 2 3 Count with Me series will take place in my hometown, Philadelphia. But, I haven’t decided whether I’ll finish the manuscript and publish the next counting book or a growth mindset book.

Thanks for your time—and thanks for introducing me to your grandfather—I hope these books take off!

1 2 3 Count with Me on Granddad’s Farm by Valerie Johnson, Cee Biscoe (Illustrator): A Cute Read-Along with Some Great Bonuses

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On August 16, 2022

In YA/MG/Children's Books

I’ve got a Q&A with the author coming up later today, be sure to check back then!

1 2 3 Count with Me on Granddad's Farm1 2 3 Count with Me on Granddad’s Farm

by Valerie Johnson, Cee Biscoe (Illustrator)

DETAILS:
Series: Count with Me 
Publisher: West Oak Lane Kids, LLC
Publication Date: August 30, 2022
Format: PDF
Length: 32 pg.
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What’s 1 2 3 Count with Me on Granddad’s Farm About?

Every summer this family goes to grandpa’s farm—there are several things around this farm—crops, animals, and so on—to count. We spend some time looking at those things, learning a bit about the farm—and as the title suggests, counting them.

Special Features

Since none of the intended audience for these kind of books spends time reading book blogs—especially book blogs that feature as much Crime Fiction as mine does—I tend to focus on how things will be for adult reading to/with the intended audience.

On that front, this book excels. Counting the number of horses or tomatoes is easy enough to do, and the book provides plenty of opportunities for that.

But after the story part of the book are 3 pages of bonus materials designed to help the grown-ups use the book more effectively and to apply the skills practice in the book outside of the book. There are general prompts and specific questions to use.

I love both the idea and the execution of this—more people need to do this kind of thing.

A Word About the Art

Biscoe’s art walks the line between cutely exaggerated and realistic. Let’s see if I can explain that (long time readers will know this is not a strength of mine).

All the animals and people are drawn in a true-to-life manner, they’re not cartoonish, nothing’s overblown. But everyone from people to horses and deer are smiling.

I think it’s catchy and attractive.

So, what did I think about 1 2 3 Count with Me on Granddad’s Farm?

The only negative I can think of is that the text might be a little small—but it’s hard to tell that sort of thing with a PDF. I might have no complaints if I was looking at a hard copy to have a better idea of scale. Basically, this is designed for the adult to read and guide the child/children.

When read by the adult—especially using the helps provided—I think this’d be a fun and educational read. I think the interactive nature of the book plus the art will grab the attention of the child and will bring them back for more.

Parents/grandparents/caregivers who are wanting a little more out of story time will do well to give this a try. If my kids were a couple of decades younger, I know I’d be grabbing a copy.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this from the author in exchange for this post and my honest opinion.

4 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.

A Few Quick Questions with…Nick Kolakowski (2022 edition)

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On August 8, 2022

In A Few Quick Questions With..., Fiction, Love & Bullets Hookups, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, Nick Kolakowski

He’s back for the sixth time, now to talk about the fourth installment of this Love & Bullets series of hookups, Hell of a Mess (I posted about it earlier today). I look forward to these Q&As a lot, I know that when I get the responses I’ll learn a few things, understand the books better, and will grin at least twice. Not only does he write a good book, he writes a good answer. The novel comes out at the end of the month, get your orders in today!

So what brought you back to Bill and Fiona? Did you get a hankering to do something new with them while putting The Megabomb Edition together or did you get the idea for a heist in a hurricane (or something like that) and decide they’d fit better than someone new?
I’d always wanted to do a heist in a hurricane. When I was a teenager, for reasons I can’t quite explain, I was really into the movie “Hard Rain” with Morgan Freeman and Christian Slater, which centers on an armored truck robbery in a flooded town. It’s a pretty mediocre flick, but I really dug the idea of taking two distinct genres—crime and natural disaster—and slamming them together.

So, the basic framework of heist-in-a-hurricane rattled around in my brain for years. I thought about it more after Hurricane Sandy smashed through New York ten years ago, which came with all the chaos you can imagine—no power, flooded buildings, chaos in the streets. I even wrote some crime-themed short stories that took place during Sandy, but the itch to turn it into a full-fledged novel didn’t grip me until 2020.

Originally, it was supposed to involve all-new characters, but I really like Bill and Fiona, and I thought: why not? I know how they think. I know what they’d do. It seemed more organic to make it another Love & Bullets adventure.

This question might have fit better for the first Love and Bullets novella, but it still applies here. Can you talk a little about your decision to have the unnamed-assassin as your first person narrator rather than one of the protagonists, or a third-person omniscient narrator? He’s important to this novel, and the first novella—but not as important to the rest of the series—but he’s not a John Watson or Nick Caraway kind of non-protagonist narrator, either. Maybe you can describe his function in the series as well (I clearly can’t do it concisely). Also, was leaving him nameless a conscious decision, or just something that happened along the way that you stayed with it?
Leaving him nameless is just something that happened along the way. The assassin is human, obviously, but I also think of him as a supernatural or mythical force—almost like a Loki, a spiritual trickster who’s not firmly implanted in this world. Giving him a name seemed to reduce him somehow, at least in my mind.

I can’t explain why he’s written in the first person, and the other characters are shoved into the omniscient third. Not to give too much agency to a fictional character, but it’s what he wants; when I sit down and write from his perspective, it just spools out effortlessly. When I started Hell of a Mess, I very briefly tried writing him from the same third-person perspective as the other characters, and it simply fell flat.

There was also a version of Hell of a Mess where he didn’t appear at all, and it didn’t work, either. He’s the levity that differentiates the series from other crime fiction, in my mind; he’s the crazy element, the secret sauce, the glue that binds the narratives together on a subtextual level. Maybe that’s because he’s always articulating the book’s themes as he wrestles with his own feelings and coincidence; maybe it’s just that I find him funny as hell.

How do you balance the threat of a hurricane with the various human threats running around this book? Are there special challenges involved in using a natural disaster like this in a book, or is it a gift—allowing a random tree branch or torrent of rain to come along and interrupt things when you want?
It’s a gift and a curse. If you’re jammed up in the plot, yeah, you can send a tree branch or a flood through to shake things up—it’s the nature equivalent of Chandler’s old adage about how if you’re stumped on how to advance the plot, just have someone walk in with a gun. Living through Sandy, I learned firsthand how a big storm can really impact even the most mundane physics; at one point, I had to open a door with another big guy, and it took all of our strength to crack it open even a few inches against the wind and the air pressure. You throw those physics into a fictional narrative, and you generate some really interesting potentials for suspense.

At the same time, especially when you’re using a hurricane, you have to make sure the tempo of the storm aligns with your action—for example, as the storm intensifies, your characters really can’t do anything outside, which is why I decided to have the climax of the book take place just as the eye passes overhead, cutting out the wind and rain.

Let’s take a break from your work for a moment—you’re a reader/viewer as well as a writer, what’re some of the books/movies/shows this year that you’ve been enjoying?
I loved Heat 2. I was lucky enough to get an early copy, and I had some trepidations about how well Michael Mann would carry off that shift from cinematic to novelistic, but I needn’t have worried—the book is fantastic. Meg Gardiner, his co-author, layered it with her trademark suspense, and the whole thing really works.

I’m also reading Jordan Harper’s Last King of California, which is coming out in late September in the UK (although U.S. readers can find a copy via Amazon.co.uk pretty easily, I think). It’s a real treat because Harper is one of the best wordsmiths working the crime genre, and every sentence is rich and thick. The book itself is in the proud tradition of noirs like Blood Father and Tapping the Source, and it’s wonderful.

You’ve got Beach Bodies coming out on Halloween, right? I understand that’s a horror novella? Do you want to give a quick pitch for that one?
Beach Bodies is a super-short horror novella that began as a potential project for a smaller horror publisher, but when that didn’t work, I decided to dip my toe into self-publishing. It’s a weird book with one bloody moment near the end that will probably excite hardcore horror fans while freaking other folks out (one early reader texted me, “DUDE, WTF, LOL,” when she reached it).

The short pitch for it: Julia and Alec are two twentysomethings paid to “house sit” a billionaire’s luxury doomsday bunker on an isolated stretch of beach. Three strangers invade the bunker on a sinister mission, and very bad things happen. There’s a big twist that’ll have you questioning the nature of the characters’ very reality.

As usual, I’ve got to ask, what’s coming down the pike? Are you far enough into your next book(s) to talk about it/them?
Right now I’m working on an episode of A Grifter’s Song, which is a long-running series (something like 28 novellas and counting) written by various crime-fiction authors, including S.A. Cosby, Hilary Davidson, and Paul J. Garth. The series follows two hustlers as they attempt to cheat bad folks out of their money. The main challenge for me is taking these two preexisting characters with a rich backstory established by other authors… and trying not to mess it up.

And by “mess it up,” I mean, “make it too much like Bill and Fiona from Love & Bullets,” which I’m definitely at risk of doing. But I’ll make it work.

Thanks for your time—and thanks for Hell of a Mess—it’s always fun spending time with these characters.
Thank you! I love these questions!

Yet A Few More Quick Questions with . . . David Ahern

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On March 16, 2022

In A Few Quick Questions With..., Fiction, Madam Tulip, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

The fifth Madam Tulip—Madam Tulip and the Rainbow’s End—book came out two weeks ago, and I’ve somehow conned the author, David Ahern, to come back for his third Q&A with me. I’ll try to get my post about the book up in a couple of hours, but until then, enjoy Ahern’s As to my Qs. And maybe go check out his website and the books if you haven’t yet.

Madam Tulip’s back for her fifth adventure, you’ve said all along that this was intended as a series—did you see it going this long originally? Have the characters/mysteries developed the way you initially imagined, or have they taken on directions you didn’t expect?
I did envisage five books, but only if I could make each as good or better than the last. I’ll be honest, I hadn’t a clue how the characters would develop. They’ve gone their own way, and I just tag along. They’re wandering into book #6 just now.

On the craft side of writing—looking back over these five books (plus whatever drafts you have in progress), can you see the difference in your own writing? Would you say you’re a better writer now, or (as I’ve heard others say) are you finding new and exciting mistakes to make?
If I wasn’t learning something with every book, I’d quit. Writing by numbers, never trying anything new, would make writing too boring for me. On the other hand, getting out of the comfort zone is risky. With ‘the Rainbow’s End,’ I thought more than once I might not be able to pull off what I was trying to do. The story has both a mystery and a puzzle running in parallel. Neither should weaken the other, and they have to synch neatly at the end. Technically a tall order, but I knew if it worked it would be a great read. And when you do pull off a craft challenge and everything clicks, you know it, and that’s satisfying.

While the MadamTulip books aren’t really “humor” per se, there’s a lot of comic moments throughout them. One of the things I’ve been thinking about lately is how authors strike the balance between comedy and the serious matters being depicted in their stories. How do you approach this idea? Also, is that something that’s there from the first draft onwards? Or is that something you address in one of your re-writes? On a related note: when you read for pleasure, what do you gravitate toward—the comedic or the serious/dark?
On the technical side, mixing humor and serious material does have to be managed carefully, but it’s more instinctive with me than thought through. I never have to redraft for taste reasons, only for pace. Good mysteries are very moral books and crime isn’t funny. Folly is where the comedy lives, and that’s ok.

I’ve always loved comic writing. Thurber, Wodehouse, our own Flann O’Brien, Douglas Adams – I adore them. Most of my reading these days is non-fiction, especially history, and almost all of my TV work when I used to produce documentaries was on subjects that don’t leave much room for cheer. Humor is a great relief from all of that. I’ve pretty well given up reading dark fiction, especially anything with graphic violence. Having said that, I’m reading Alexander Pope’s translation of Homer’s Illiad right now, and the thing is one long catalogue of brilliantly described homicides. I should stop reading it but I can’t. That boy Homer has talent and may have a future.

Not only do you have to come up with new settings and mysteries for Derry to stumble into for each book, you have to come up with a storyline for her father, Jacko. Which idea is harder to plan: his escapades or Derry’s? The first time we did a Q&A, you said your grandfather inspired Jacko—are you still drawing on your memories of him?
Derry’s adventures are by far the most demanding, because they’re both mystery and thriller. Jacko’s scrapes seem to arrive of their own accord, though I do like them to share something of the same drivers as the main story. In ‘the Rainbow’s End,’ everybody is chasing some dream, and Jacko is no exception.

Yes, my old granda is still in my thoughts. He had the wonderful quality of relishing life with an infectious enthusiasm. He always had a plan, usually none too practical. My mother lately reminded me that when he left the Irish Army (he was a sergeant several times), he spent his gratuity payout on a piano he could hardly play and a stuffed alligator that cluttered up the hallway for years. I guess he just liked the idea at the time.

We’ve also talked about Bruce before—Derry’s ex-Navy SEAL friend who she can pal around with, and who provides the physical prowess she occasionally has to have to stay alive. He’s such a great character, have you considered a novel/short story focused on him alone?
To be honest, I haven’t thought of a way to do that. Although the Tulip stories are unlikely in the way all amateur sleuth stories are, I keep them psychologically very realistic. Bruce uses his acting vocation to help cope with the more troubling things from his history in the service. That works for him, and no big deal is made about it. But if he were the main character, keeping him realistic without veering into the darker side would be impossible and not the Bruce we know now. In the life he has in the Tulip stories, he’s just himself. There’s something charmingly unreflective about him that in a main character could veer into a cartoon.

What’s next for David Ahern, author?
Another Madam Tulip. She’s not finished with me yet.

That sounds like a win for me! Thanks for your time—and thanks for Madam Tulip and the Rainbow’s End and I hope you have plenty of success with it.
Thanks, H.C. A pleasure talking to you as always.

A Few Quick Questions with…Nick Kolakowski (2021 edition)

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On November 22, 2021

In A Few Quick Questions With..., Fiction, Love & Bullets Hookups, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, Nick Kolakowski

I’ve given up trying to come up with titles for these, this is the fifth Q&A I’ve done with Nick Kolakowski. I’m going to revert to tracking them with years. The focus this time is on Love & Bullets: Megabomb Edition, that I’ll post about sometime today–you’re going to want to get your hands on it’s a lot of fun. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the Q&A:

You address this in the Introduction to Love and Bullets: Megabomb Edition, but can you give a thumbnail version of the choice to combine the novellas into a novel?
I never intended to combine them—at least at first. But Suhrkamp Verlag, which is a pretty sizable German publisher, approached Down & Out Books and Shotgun Honey about doing a combined, translated edition. That hefty book proved a solid success in Europe when it came out in 2020, which inevitably led to thoughts of doing a combined, English edition over here.

I think most writers, when given the opportunity to tweak their work, will take it. In fact, they might take the opportunity a bit too far. I started out envisioning some minor alterations—akin to what we did with the German edition, mostly to clean up some timelines—and ended up steering hard into a full-on rewrite. And that, I found, was pretty good for the soul.

To create this version, you include, “a change in a major character’s fate that ripples throughout the narrative.” I was pleased once I saw who that character was, and I really enjoyed the new material (and it felt seamless). Was that a choice that leapt immediately to mind when you started thinking about this version, or was there a little bit of struggle to decide what kind of new material to put in this edition?
Yes! Bringing that character back was the first thing I wanted to do. His voice had always poured out so effortlessly, and I came to regret killing him off as quickly as I did. Plus, taking him on a cross-country journey, then setting him up for a bit of third-act revenge, nicely added to the overall page-count—I wanted to give a lot of new material to anyone who’d read the novellas before, and was potentially wondering what they might get out of picking up the combined edition.

Knowing how things ended up allowed me to focus a bit more on details of the book—I wasn’t racing to see what happened next. One of the things I wished I’d paid more attention to the first time was the descriptions of the artwork in the gallery in Slaughterhouse Blues. Your descriptions of them function really well as either a satire of contemporary art or a positive depiction of it (depending on the inclination of the reader, I suspect). Were any of those works inspired by actual works you’ve seen? Or did you just sit down and have fun with the idea?
Like so many of the things I write about, all that art was pulled from real life. In New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood, there used to be a string of warehouses near the West Side Highway that housed small galleries, and those galleries were filled with new art on what felt like a monthly basis (most of those galleries have been replaced by ultra-expensive condos, which is the way of NYC, I guess). When I was younger and broke, it was fun to grab a group of friends and head down there and drink free wine and view whatever was on display and selling for an absurd amount of money. Some of the art was quite good, and some of it was dreck so memorable it stayed in my head for years, just waiting to be translated into fiction.

I love a lot of modern art but it’s stunning what will sell for the cost of a new Tesla. I seriously suspect that money laundering is involved. Or very expensive favors between friends. It’s something I’d love to write about someday but haven’t quite come up with the time to invest in it.

I could come up with three or four questions about every supporting character in this book, but neither of us has that kind of time, so let’s focus on The Dean. He’s a both a comic figure (in mannerisms, vocabulary, etc.) and a violent criminal that should not be underestimated. How hard is that balance to strike (although, for this novel, it’s par for the course, so maybe no harder than any other). Where did The Dean come from?
I felt like too many books featured criminals who’d been born into the lifestyle. You read lots of thrillers with assassins who’d been taught the killing arts since birth, and/or were raised in a family or culture where criminality was as natural as breathing. I’d always wanted to construct a villain who was almost a criminal against their better instincts, someone who saw it as a way to make good money but who found it so stressful he basically woke up on the trembling edge of a coronary every day of his life.

With The Dean, having as a comic foil was also key. But as I wrote the novellas, I began to realize that his stress was also what made him dangerous—he prided himself on his rationality, but once his blood pressure skyrocketed past a certain point, he lost all control. When I was deep in the rewriting, I thought about extending his arc a bit, maybe giving him a bit more explicit backstory; but with villains, sometimes less is truly more.

Let’s play “Online Bookstore Algorithm” (a game I made up for these Q&As). What are 3-5 books whose readers may like Love and Bullets?
Definitely Winslow’s Savages, which is a masterpiece of splattery, slapstick violence that also has real consequences. I feel like people who loved Anthony Bourdain’s snarkiness in Kitchen Confidential and Medium Raw would get into the tone of this one. Anyone who liked Frank Miller’s Sin City series would probably dig the action.

As usual, I’ve got to ask, what’s coming down the pike? Are you far enough into your next book to talk about it?
Right now I’m working on a novel-length sequel to “Love & Bullets,” which is set in Manhattan during a hurricane. I’m about a quarter of the way through writing it, and that’ll primarily be aimed at the European market. After that, I want to write a culinary-themed noir, but I’m still very much in research mode—I’ve been reading a lot of Anthony Bourdain and Bill Bufford, but also Kem Nunn’s Tapping the Source, which is a big inspiration for it. We’ll see how that goes.

Thanks for your time—and thanks for this fresh look at Bill and Fiona! I hope this version of their story finds a lot of new readers.
I do, too!

A Few Quick Questions with…K.R.R. Lockhaven

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On November 4, 2021

In A Few Quick Questions With...

Earlier today, I posted my thoughts about K.R.R. Lockhaven’s novel, The Conjuring of Zoth-Avarex: The Self-Proclaimed Greatest Dragon in the Multiverse, a book I strongly recommend. The author was gracious enough to spend some time responding to some Qs that I posed, I hope you enjoy his As as much as I did.

I typically ask about what led someone to being a writer, but you talked about a little in your recent guest post here. So instead—what led to you being a firefighter? Other than giving you more of an income than novelist will likely provide, how does it affect your writing? Is Jake you putting yourself in the novel?
That’s a tough question, since my memory is patchy at best. But I think the seed of the idea was planted when I read The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut. There’s a line in that book; “I can think of no more stirring symbol of man’s humanity to man than a fire engine.” Reading that awakened something in me, and eventually led to me try to become a firefighter. It was probably a little of that, and a little of wanting a job that was considered “cool,” because I felt/feel very uncool.

Jake, a firefighter character from my book, is actually modeled after one of my coworkers who is this big, fun-loving guy who is nice to everyone and loves to pull pranks. I am much closer in personality to the main character, Harris, who is meeker and much more unsure of himself.

All authors have more ideas running around in their head than they can possibly develop—what was it about this idea that made you commit to it?
The fire department I work for is at a nuclear site in eastern Washington State. It’s a place that suffers from…bureaucracy issues. As a writer, I have long wanted to satirize the entire site in some way, but I could never find an angle I liked. Early on in my writing “career” I wasn’t writing fantasy, but I always felt a pull to start writing it. Then one day it just hit me—what if, instead of being a nuclear site that once made atomic bombs, there was a magical site, hidden away by the government, that tried to conjure a dragon? I was immediately taken with the notion, and the ideas really started flowing. There was no turning back from that point.

There’s a tricky element to the tone—keeping it fun and funny while maintaining the threat represented by Zoth-Avarex intact. Did that come naturally, was that something you had to work on over multiple drafts to make sure it worked?
Tone is a very tricky thing! I have to admit that it wasn’t something I thought of when writing the first draft, but I have learned a lot about it since then. My brother was the first to point out to me some of the initial inconsistencies with the tone. I went back through everything with that in mind, and tweaked it to what it is now. I think the fact that Silvia, the woman the dragon captures, is made to feel as comfortable as a prisoner can feel (like “a guest without leaving privileges”), helps to give it enough immediacy to be compelling (hopefully), but not a life-or-death, this-isn’t-fun-anymore, feel.

It’s hard to pick just one or two things to focus on to ask about that don’t involve spoiling the whole book…but I want to talk about Eddie for a minute. Where did that character come from? How do you keep yourself from letting a character as fun as that from taking over the novel?
I’m glad you liked him! He was loosely based on an old curmudgeon of a firefighter I worked with early in my career. Sometimes I feel like an imposter when I get credit for dreaming up a character like that, when I really had an inspirational embarrassment of riches at my job. He is a larger-than-life kind of guy who I was lucky enough to get to hang out with for a while.

I love a novel with comic footnotes. Can you talk a little about the choice to use that technique—in general, and how you decide when to use a footnote to deliver the joke rather than keeping it in the text?
I love footnotes, too! I recently read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke, and I thought the footnotes really expanded on the world of the book.

I wish I could explain the decisions, but it was mostly done by feel. I thought footnotes could be used to expand the world of the Site, too, and to get a into Zoth-Avarex’s history and psyche. In the end, I deleted a ton of footnotes. Many just weren’t funny, and having too many of them distracted from the story too much. Some of my favorite parts of the book are in the footnotes, though. Like the thing with the rise and fall of an entire civilization that went on for almost two pages. That was fun to write.

What was the biggest surprise about the writing of The Conjuring of Zoth-Avarex itself? Either, “I can’t believe X is so easy!” or “If I had known Y was going to be so hard, I’d have skipped this and watched more TV.”
The biggest surprise I found when writing the book is that I could actually write comedy. I wasn’t sure if I had it in me, to tell the truth. Among my group of friends, I’m probably the least funny of the bunch, but on the page, I have to admit that I have at least some comic ability. I was very hesitant to admit that, though. I mean, I made myself laugh with my goofball shit, but I didn’t know how others would receive it. It has taken a lot of positive feedback and some good reviews to convince me that maybe I don’t completely suck.

Let’s play “Online Bookstore Algorithm” (a game I made up for these Q&As). What are 3-5 books whose readers may like The Conjuring of Zoth-Avarex?
Another tough one! I know every author thinks their book is so unique, but I do have a hard time coming up with comparable titles. I am no Terry Pratchett, or Douglas Adams, but I do think that people who enjoyed The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy or anything by Pratchett might get a kick out of my book. Also anyone who grew up reading Tolkien, or just fantasy in general, and would like to see the genre lovingly skewered. One recent, semi-comparable title is The Part About the Dragon Was (Mostly) True by Sean Gibson.

What’s next for K.R.R. Lockhaven, author?
I was lucky enough to recently sign a three book deal with Shadow Spark Publishing, and they are going to publish my humorous hopepunk nautical fantasy trilogy. Book one, tentatively titled Marauders, Daughters, and Dragons, is slated to come out in the summer of 2022. The series will take place on another world, but will still be within the Zoth-Avarex multiverse (wink wink). My writing has made a slight shift toward the more heartfelt and serious, but there is still a lot of foul-mouthed fun, like a shit-talking bird companion, a reanimated skeleton with confidence issues, and a group of failed pirates who just want to sing and have adventures.

Thanks for your time—and thanks for The Conjuring of Zoth-Avarex, I had a blast with it and I hope you have plenty of success with it.
Thank you very much! I’m so glad you enjoyed my book. This interview was really fun! The questions were tough, and unique, and you really made me think. I loved it.

A Few Quick Questions with…Scott Spires

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On October 29, 2021

In A Few Quick Questions With..., Fiction, General Fiction/Literature

In a little bit here, I’ll be giving my take on Abandon All Hope, but before I do that, I thought I’d post this Q&A that Spires was kind enough to participate in with me.

Before we dive in, you might want to read a blog post he wrote about the book, too: Behind ABANDON ALL HOPE.

Describe your path to publication with this.
I actually wrote it in two chunks: the first half all the way back in 2002-03, and the other half in 2019-20 (yes, I set it aside for about 16 years). When I finished it, I knew that as an unagented author I had no chance of being published by one of the major publishing houses, so I concentrated on small presses. I got various laudatory rejections – of the type “we like your book but we’re not going to publish it” – which was frustrating but kept me going due to the positive feedback. Finally Auctus Publishers, a small press based in the Philadelphia area, accepted it in March of this year.

All authors have more ideas running around in their head than they can possibly develop—what was it about this idea that made you commit to it?
I liked the idea of having characters coming from similar backgrounds but having completely different approaches to life. Basically, it’s realism vs. idealism, one of the eternal themes. Also, I was intrigued by the idea of writing Don Quixote in reverse – that is, with the somewhat cynical Sancho Panza character being the lead, and the idealistic Don Quixote figure being the secondary protagonist.

It’s hard to pick just one or two things to focus on to ask about that don’t involve spoiling the whole book…but I want to talk about Vic for a bit. Where did the character come from? He seems to be the only well-adjusted character in the novel (that may not be the best word…he’s the one who has it all together), was that the intent? (did I miss something in him?). Also, post-High Fidelity, record shop owners seems to be more popular in fiction than they are in reality—what’s your pet theory for that?
I agree that Vic is the most “together” character, in the sense that he’s figured out a path in life that suits him, and doesn’t suffer from the feeling of alienation that afflicts most of the other characters. I can’t say that it was my conscious intent to make him that way. To the extent he has some basis in reality, he’s a grad-school dropout who became an entrepreneur, and I’ve known a number of people like that. As for record-shop owners being more popular in fiction than in reality, I don’t quite agree with you on that. Vinyl has been undergoing a big resurgence in the last decade or so, and there have been quite a few physical outlets selling it, although they have to contend with a lot of pressure from online sellers. Vinyl is much more fashionable now than it was in the 1990s, when both High Fidelity and my book are set.

Evan’s tenure as a Temp seemed too specific to be simply the product of someone’s imagination—did you spend a season of life doing this kind of thing, or did you have friends whose lives you plundered for material? How fictionalized were these? Any you decided that you couldn’t use?
Most of the work-related episodes in the book are based on my own personal experience. For example, I had precisely the kind of phone-survey job that Evan does in Chapter 5, and Eric’s office job draws heavily on my own job experience with a fairly well-known company that shall remain nameless. Of course, I modified this material to fit the story I wanted to tell – my own office job wasn’t nearly as deadly or traumatic as the one in the book!

What was the biggest surprise about the writing of Abandon All Hope itself? Either, “I can’t believe X is so easy!” or “If I had known Y was going to be so hard, I’d have skipped this and watched more TV.”
Well, I did watch more TV (so to speak), because I hit a roadblock when I was first writing it, and put aside the manuscript for a short while, which turned into a 16-year break! My basic problem was the lack of a theme, focus, or clear plotline when I started writing it. I had my characters and episodes, but nothing to hold them together. It was only in 2019 when I sat down with this old material and resolved to finish the book that I figured those things out. So I suppose the biggest surprise was that I actually managed to finish writing the book. If you had told me five or ten years ago that I would finish it and get it published, I would have been greatly surprised!

Let’s play “Online Bookstore Algorithm” (a game I made up for these Q&As). What are 3-5 books whose readers may like Abandon All Hope?
Obviously, as already mentioned, High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. Record collecting as a quest for meaning, and as a way to avoid growing up.
The Elementary Particles by Michel Houllebecq. Another 1990s classic, with contrasting, related protagonists trying to make sense of the world in their very different ways.
The Moviegoer by Walker Percy. A fictional excursion into existentialism, with a strong regional flavor (New Orleans in this case).
Finally, this is cheating a bit, but I must mention “Forlesen” by Gene Wolfe. It’s a long short story or novella, not a complete novel, but it’s highly relevant because it’s a poignant, fantastical take on the inanities of office life, which figure so strongly in Abandon All Hope.

What’s next for Scott Spires, author?
I don’t know exactly, but I’m contemplating a couple of projects. One is a “photonovel,” a story that combines text with photographs. The other is a collection of novellas. I think the novella is a great form, but since it’s caught in a kind of limbo between short stories and novels, it’s difficult to publish as a free-standing work. But I think a book of three or four novellas would work very well.

Thanks for your time—and thanks for Abandon All Hope</b?, and I hope you have plenty of success with it.

TRUE DEAD TOUR: A Q&A with Faith Hunter

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On September 6, 2021

In A Few Quick Questions With..., Faith Hunter, Jane Yellowrock/Soulwood, Urban Fantasy

True Dead Banner
Thanks to an overactive Spam filter, I missed the invitation to submit questions. Thankfully, Audrey at Let’s Talk came through for me and got me this Q&A. I enjoyed it, hope you do, too.

What was your inspiration for Jane’s character/storyline? Was it the Katie’s Ladies idea or something else. You have probably already answered this 1000 times.

It’s always a great question. I started out with Katie’s Ladies. The first time I thought about writing an urban fantasy it was with the description of Katie’s Ladies running through my mind. I had the idea of a vamp bordello and the madam trying to figure out who had killed her girl. But it very quickly morphed into a Cherokee chick solving paranormal crimes and getting sucked into working for the master of the city. I love writing mystery and thrillers, and in fact spent the first 15 years or so my career writing just that under the name Gwen Hunter.

When you started writing Skinwalker, did you envision how many books this would stretch to?

Oh heck no. I planned on three. The end of book three was supposed to be Rick and Jane riding off into the sunset together, a reformed bad boy werecat and a skinwalker. Then while I was writing that book, Charlaine Harris (yes, the Charlaine Harris) posted in her blog that she was reading Skinwalker. I was at Dragon Con when I learned that my book sales took off and Penguin wanted three more books. Soooo. Things changed. I owe it all to a friend who had no idea that Faith Hunter was the Gwen Hunter she met back in my mystery writing days at Mystery Writers of America. The kindness of successful writers helps to make other writers successful. We depend on each other so much!

Did Jane ever have a pet? I know dogs are afraid of her scent, but what about other cats?

No, Jane never had a pet. Well… except Beast. (Wanders away laughing as Beast chuffs with irritation)

How do you decide who will die and does it affect you the same way as it does your readers?

If a character needs to die, I usually know it as I’m writing the outline for that book, but not always. Sometimes it happens as I write the scene and I have been known to have to go back and alter the outline for a whole book when a character dies. And then there are the characters like Adrianna who keep coming back because times change and Leo doesn’t want her dead. Of course, Leo doesn’t want the Sons of Darkness dead either and Jane kinda ignored that all around.

Is Ricky Bo based on an old boyfriend?

Nope. Physically, Rick is based on my first cousin, Frenchy black eyes, Frenchy black hair, lean and rangy, long-lived, and self-contained. Emotionally Rick is based on a template of player, overlaid with cop-think.


My thanks to Let’s Talk! Promotions for the invitation to participate in this tour, this Q&A, and the materials (including the book via NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group) they provided.

Yet A Few More Quick Questions with…Matthew Hanover

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On August 24, 2021

In A Few Quick Questions With..., Fiction, General Fiction/Literature, Matthew Hanover

Another novel from Matthew Hanover means another chance to ask him a few questions–I’ve been looking forward to sharing this with you–it’s a little look behind the curtain, a little insight to his process. I enjoyed this, I hope you do, too.

And remember–it’s publication day for Not Awkward–go get yourself a copy. And if you haven’t yet, grab Not Famous and Not Dressed, too!

I remember seeing you tweet about working on Not Awkward and Book 4 at the same time. How was that process? Was it the kind of thing you’d do again, or was that a special set of circumstances?

It was a very confusing time, to be honest. I’d had the idea for Not Awkward since before Not Dressed was complete, and I wanted to start… but it took me a long time to really get into it because shortly after Not Dressed was published, the pandemic hit. For some reason, that just made it very difficult to get into a creative writing state of mind. So, when I found myself in that place, I’d come up with the idea for my fourth novel, and it came in a torrent, and I felt the best thing to do was to just let myself write whichever novel I was inspired to work on at any given time. Eventually, Novel #4 eclipsed Not Awkward in word count, though eventually, I had to focus on Not Awkward alone.

I used to think it would be impossible to write two books at the same time, but the more I write, the easier it is to switch lanes and just get absorbed in one story or another. In fact, I’ve already written a small amount for Novel #5, and anticipated getting a jump on it as I complete #4.

So in the Not-verse, or Alli-verse, or whatever you’re calling it, you’re scattering characters from the previous novels in the next. Is that something you plan before you start to write—or do you just get to the point where you see an opportunity to bring back someone and go for it? In particular, I’m thinking of [redacted], who readers may look at differently than they did before after her pivotal role here. How long were you sitting on that?

I honestly hadn’t considered writing novels in a shared universe until late in the writing of Not Famous when I was nearly finished and hated the idea of leaving those characters. The problem was that I didn’t want to write a sequel because I felt Nick and Alli’s story had reached a point where I’d taken it as far as I could. But, writing separate novels in a shared universe allowed me to offer little glimpses into characters’ lives outside of their primary story, while also allowing for each novel to stand on its own.

Not Awkward is about the road not taken (or the road you’re shoved off of). Sure, Leila and Scott were in pretty good places when we met them, but that doesn’t mean they don’t want to check out the greenness of the grass on the other side of the fence. Is this Matthew Hanover working through some stuff? Waxing philosophical? Or is it just the byproduct of telling Leila and Scott’s story?

In Not Awkward, the main character, Scott, learns that his ex-girlfriend’s father has passed away, decides to go to the funeral, and ends up staying for a few days and a whole bunch of things happen. Rest assured, I’ve never been in such a situation. However, the idea for this novel came to me after I found out that a college girlfriend’s father had passed away. It did take me a long time to get over that relationship, and I never would have considered going to his funeral (in fact, I found out well after the fact) but it did get me thinking about a lot of “What ifs” and I could tell there was a story in that. There are other biographical elements in the story, but very much fictionalized. But, truthfully, I got over her many, many years ago.

One thing I picked up from reading your novel is just how bad a job Tropper’s Foxman family was at sitting Shiva. How do you approach something so important, so sacred to many, and yet use it for entertainment purposes? I imagine it’s tricky—did you go into it saying “I’ll play with this part of it, but not that part?”

Honestly, it never really occurred to me that a shiva might be problematic. I needed a reason to keep Scott around for multiple days, and a shiva just worked out beautifully. Of course, Leila’s family, the Rosenfelds, are very different from the Foxmans. Leila is an only child, while the Foxmans are four adult children of a dysfunctional family. Judd Foxman also got to tell their story as an insider, as Scott was more an outside observer trying his best to not be a distraction and failing miserably. I felt the best thing to honor the Jewish traditions was to have them explained for those who may not be familiar with them.

Speedcubing, eh? Where did that come from for Charlotte? How are you with a Rubik’s Cube?

This was pure serendipity. I’d always seen the character of Charlotte, Scott’s fiancée, as being uber smart and socially awkward, and I’d been trying to think of some kind of quirk that spoke to that. And I kept coming up stuck. Then, I happened to watch “The Speed Cubers” on Netflix, and was totally blown away at how there are people who can solve the Rubik’s cube in a matter of seconds. And I thought, “That’s it!” and then I researched the hell out of speedcubing, and the more I found out, the more it was clear this was just perfect for the character of Charlotte.

As for myself, I remember having a Rubik’s cube when I was a kid, but solving it was something I never accomplished. Sadly, I lack the patience and discipline to learn the algorithms necessary to solve it!

Not to take the focus off of Not Awkward, but what’s the timeline for #4? Are you still wrapping it up, or have you moved on to what’s next? Care to tease anything?

It’s actually been a few months since I worked on it, but it currently sits at around 23,000 words. So, it has a long way to go. While I’m not ready to discuss plot points, I can say that my next two novels will be focusing on characters in their late 30s and early 40s, not their 20s like my first three novels. I’m ready to focus on stories of people in a slightly later stage of life.

Thanks for taking the time to answer these—and for Not Awkward—I had a blast reading it and hope it finds its audience.

A Few (More) Quick Questions with…Ian Shane

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On August 9, 2021

In A Few Quick Questions With..., Fiction, General Fiction/Literature, Ian Shane

In Ten YearsI’d fully intended for my post about In Ten Years by Ian Shane to go up this morning along with this Q&A. But as is so often the case with a book that I absolutely loved, I just don’t like what I’ve managed to write about it—and even then, I’m only half-done with my outline.

But I want to start talking about this book and hopefully convince some of my readers to read it—or at the very least, to buy it. It comes out on August 17, but don’t wait until then to order it. So, let’s start with the synopsis from Shane’s website, so you’ll have a general idea what we’re talking about in a couple of the questions. Then I’ll dive in with this great Q&A—well, the Qs are passable, the great stuff comes in the As.

Jock Jack and socially awkward Liz weren’t likely to become best friends, but they’ve had each other’s back since college. On a night both of their romantic lives implode, they make a pact; if they aren’t married in ten years, they will marry each other. With a year left before their deadline, Jack and Liz make a mad dash to find “The One” while navigating a minefield of modern dating complications.

Despite their friends’ efforts to convince them that it’s a terrible idea, Jack and Liz devise an unconventional life partnership plan. However, a face from the past and hidden jealousies and feelings neither one will ever admit threatens their friendship.

Your male protagonist, Jack, is a former college hockey player, and now plays with a bunch of other men in their thirties. I don’t think I’d ever read a hockey scene before—as far as I can tell, you capture both the feel of a game and feel of being on the stakes realistically. Is this first-hand knowledge, or the product of research? How do you decide to let this be Jack’s “thing”?

First off, I’m a huge hockey fan. Skill level be damned; if I find a hockey game on TV, there’s a better than average chance that the next three hours of my life have just been planned. Growing up in southern Indiana, there wasn’t a huge youth hockey movement there, so I never played the game. However, a good friend of mine in college, Turner, did. I had pieced together things he talked about over the years and wrote a draft of the pick-up game scene. I sent it to Turner, and he told me my description was about ninety percent accurate. He gave me some notes on what I needed to change.

I live in Denver now, and it’s a huge hockey town. The University of Denver has a rich tradition of winning championships. It just seemed too perfect to have him be a hockey player.

You’ve called this “a contemporary When Harry Met Sally,” was that the goal, or did that just come out once you started writing? How did you land on doing your take on the “if we’re not married by X…” story?

The idea for the story hit me when I found an article online about marriage pacts and platonic marriages, and I thought it was good fodder for a story. I originally planned for In Ten Years to be a novella, just focusing on the present-day storyline. The more I thought about the story, the more of a background of who these people were and how they became friends. As I was writing their backstories, I knew that there would have to be three eras of their lives, just like When Harry Met Sally, so I decided to run with it. I even name-checked the movie in the first part just for the fun of it.

I also wanted to put in some of the more modern means for dating, which didn’t exist when When Harry Met Sally came out. There’s a chapter devoted to Tinder and one that makes fun of speed dating.

Speaking of When Harry Met Sally, what’s your favorite Nora Ephron work (novel, screenplay, essay, etc)?

Not to sound like an uneducated rube, but I’m not that well versed in her work . . . so I’ll stick with When Harry Met Sally.

It’s hard to beath WHMS anyway, no matter how versed you are.

You used dual perspectives here, for the first time, I believe. What were the specific challenges of telling your story that way? How was it writing from the female Point of View? Are you going to be returning to one/both of those in the future?

Yes, this is my first time. Not too long before I wrote In Ten Years, I read Nick Spalding’s hilarious book, Dry Hard, and I loved the multiple narrations. I really wanted to give it a try. It was challenging to arrange the story so Jack and Liz could alternate chapters. Some chapters could have easily been told from either’s point of view, but others had to be from a specific character. I pantsed this book more than plotting it, so it was challenging to make sure I had the proper balance.

Writing from the female point of view was a bit challenging. My first draft was designed to be as light on Liz as possible, and then I would present it to a female beta and get some feedback. The response was . . . polite. She gave me some pointers on things women would never say.

I also ignored the paradigm that two different characters would not think and talk alike. I figured since Liz and Jack had been a massive part of each other’s lives for almost twenty years, their phraseology would blend.

I absolutely loved this dialogue. How do you approach a scene (especially a Liz/Jack scene)? How many rewrites does it take to get something right? Do you sit around talking to yourself so you can hear it? Or do you just know?

Thank you very much. Dialogue is where I start with a book. I treat the early writings almost like a screenplay. I love witty banter. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a huge fan of Aaron Sorkin, and I want to bring that kind of level dialogue to my writing. As I’m writing dialogue, I write responses as I wish I would say in real life, but it wouldn’t be the right thing to say for most people I talk to. The case with Jack and Liz is that they have been around each other for so long, they bypass social convention and just say it like it is.

I’ve also been known to talk out dialogue as it’s forming in my mind. Before the pandemic, I took public transportation to work, and I would be inspired to work out dialogue with many people around. I would put on my headphones, record on my phone, and act like I was on a call.

As far as rewriting, it takes time to figure out the right words. Again, going back to my Sorkin devotion, I want the words to play like music. I’ll read it aloud, and I’ll listen to it with Word’s “Read Aloud” tool to get the rhythm right. It’s amazing how you can punch up a line of dialogue just by making a minor adjustment.

You’ve got a memoir coming out shortly, can you tell us a little about that? Do you have anything else in progress?

Being the guy who wrote two novels centered around music, it should come as no surprise that my memoir will be based on songs that have been important to my life with stories from my life. As the pandemic started, I was having a hard time writing fiction. Hearing nothing but COVID was stifling my mojo. In Ten Years had already been written and I was going to release it last June, but the last part of the story was supposed to take place in the spring of 2020. I shelved In Ten Years until I could figure out what I wanted to do with it. I took a lot of time researching elements that happened in the years in the backstory, so it wasn’t as simple as just shifting the dates.

A very close friend suggested that if I can’t write fiction, I should write non-fiction to keep the muscle memory. It started a blog series titled, Sundry Notes of Music. It started off like Songbook by Nick Hornby, which was approached by a music critic, then it evolved into my version of Al Young’s musical memoir, Drowning in the Sea of Love. Sundry Notes of Music will have stories about lost loves, my first trip to Europe, and how I started writing my first book.

I’m also plotting a sequel to my first novel, Radio Radio, but that’s way into the future.

Thanks for your time and for In Ten Years—I loved it, and hope you have a lot of success with it.

Thank you so much for reading it and the kind words.

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