Mike Angley

MA: Please help me welcome today’s guest-blogger, Joseph B. Haggerty Sr.  Joe retired from the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, D.C. after 35 years as a police officer, detective and later an instructor at the Maurice T. Turner Jr., Institute of Police Science (Police Academy).  He is married and has six grown children, five boys and a girl, and ten grandchildren.  He is currently the President of the Writers’ League of Washington and his writing credits include many short stories, articles and poems, which have been published in various newspapers and newsletters in the Metropolitan Washington area.  One of his poems was recorded on a commercial CD as a tribute to the National Law Enforcement Memorial.  Joe has also written several articles for government publications, which have been distributed nationally.  He has been an advocate for victims of prostitution and pornography both as a professional law enforcement officer and as a private citizen.  He is the author of two novels, Shame: The Story of a Pimp, which is available at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com, or Borders.com and, of course, through the publisher Trafford.com.  With his other novel, Pimpel, he is seeking a publisher.

It sounds like law enforcement has been in your blood for a very long time, but was that what you always did professionally before turning to writing, or did you have yet another professional life, as well?

JH: Way back when, before I became a police officer, I worked for Western Electric, which was known as the manufacturing arm of AT&T.  I was much more into movies then, so I made up movies in my head and cast my various co-workers in the parts.   I had one story about pirate hijackers in New Orleans where a Pinkerton man went undercover to expose who was really behind the thefts.  Another was a war picture involving several of our soldiers being captured by the Viet Cong.  One of the soldiers was a sailor, who the others thought was a coward and who eventually saved the whole group.  I also had a western and a race riot.  All of these topics were current at the time except the pirates, who seem to be current now.

In the early seventies, as a vice detective, I started working prostitution cases and quickly realized that arresting prostitutes was nothing more than a numbers game the police department played.  The real criminals on the prostitution streets were the pimps.  Pimps are biggest child exploiters in the world and, at that time, got the least amount of attention from law enforcement.

I had the biggest case of my career in the mid 80’s with the help of an Assistant U.S. Attorney who defied his office policy and presented my case to a Federal Grand Jury just under the radar of his superiors.  Eventually he got consent and we presented eleven young women before the Grand Jury, all of whom had been turned out by the same pimp over a five year period.  Only two of them were 18 or older.   The rest ranged in age 14-17 years old.

I was sickened by the way Hollywood and television portrayed pimps and wanted to write what the prostitution streets were really like.  Three times I started writing without ever getting past the second chapter.  Then one night I started writing and it all came to me.  I knew exactly where I wanted to go and how I wanted to get there.  Shame: The Story of a Pimp is the story I wanted told.  The book is fiction, but a lot of my experiences and the people I encountered are intertwined in the story.

MA: Why a novel?  With all your experiences with real pimps and prostitutes, why not tell real stories about the gritty world of the sex industry?

JH: With Shame, I wanted to tell the whole story.  I wanted to show his life from the beginning.  His mother was a prostitute.  As for his father, he really didn’t know.  His mother would always say it was her pimp, but she couldn’t say for sure.  As I say in the book, she would never admit Shame was a trick’s baby.  I wanted to show how he learned the pimping game and how he developed his distain for society.  How he became a pimp and how he learned from other pimps the best practices in maintaining your stable.  A story like this cannot be written as a short story.  It is far too complex, not just in understanding how a pimp works, but also in understanding how his victims fall under his spell.  I also wanted to show the whole street, not just the women involved with Shame, but the other women on the street, where they came from and how they interact in the whole picture of prostitution.

I’ve written several short stories, poems and a novella about victims of prostitution.  I’ve also written another novel, Pimpel, which is about two private investigators who specialize in finding runaways.  If a sexual predator victimized them, the child’s family was offered an additional service that guaranteed the child would not be bothered by the predator again.

MA: You’ve got to have guts to take on a subject most people would find revolting, and then turn it into a novel…something many people look to for entertainment.  Why prostitutes and their pimps?

JH:  I’ve heard, on more than one occasion, write about what you know. I interviewed well over 5,000 prostitutes that came through the District of Columbia over my 27 years on the street.  Although there were common denominators among many, each one of these young women had a different story. I had one woman who had done concerts as a cellist, who became involved with a pimp and was subsequently murdered, another who had been a criminal investigator with the IRS, worked for a pimp from Pittsburgh, another who had three children at the age of 13, another who had lost her virginity at the age of 13 by a trick.

I also interviewed many pimps, not just arising from arrests, but candid talks on the street.  It always amazed me the things they would tell me, even knowing I was a cop.  I had pimps report their women missing to me and, of course, some made pretty good informants.

My next book is going to be about a male prostitute (not a female impersonator).  I probably don’t need to tell you, but other males, not females, use male prostitutes.  There were many similarities between male and female prostitutes, but there is much more politics involved in arresting them.  This particular character has worked the street, escort services and clubs and actually performed in porno movies.  He has worked in establishments owned by organized crime figures and observed child porn being made.  He later became a professional informant and worked for several different police departments across the country helping to solve murders, robberies and in identifying child predators. The book will be fiction even though the character that inspired me to write this story is real and is no longer among the living.

MA: Tell me more about Shame’s character.

JH:  Shame is the protagonist and he is developed from many different pimps I encountered on the job.  In the beginning of the story the main character is his mother, Latisa.  She is my vehicle for showing the street before Shame becomes a pimp.  The other main character is the street or the ‘ho stro’ as it’s commonly referred.

I’m not sure that you would consider anyone a hero in Shame.   I consider the heroes in my story the women that fought back, the women who sought justice, the women that survived the sexual slavery that is prostitution.

Their strengths were how they survived.  Their weaknesses were their emotions, lack of maturity, their need to be special, to be loved.  Over 90% of these women started in the ‘life’ (prostitution) as juveniles.  The average age of the juvenile prostitute is 14.

MA: This may be tough to nail down, but if your main character is really a “bad guy,” then who are the antagonists in the story?

JH:  To Shame, his antagonist was the police.  Of course, he always had a need to correct/punish his women when they broke the pimp law.  The D.C. vice detective and the Detroit policewoman were really Shame’s folly, but in the end justice came from a much more deserving source.

MA: You mentioned that Shame and the other characters in the novel are based upon many different people with whom you interacted over a long law enforcement career, sort of composites of pimps and prostitutes.  How close to real life do the characters come to actual people and situations?

JH:  Latisa, Shame’s mother, worked for a gambling pimp who provided sex shows to lure in more customers.  We had a local pimp in D.C. who did the same thing.  The fate of Latisa and her pimp actually happened in New York to a prostitute and her man, not necessarily for the same reasons.  In the book there is a group of pimps from California, headed by Demon.  We had a similar group in Washington.  This group used a human sized cage to lockup their women for punishment and terrorized them with a dog.  I arrested some pimps who used a human size cage for the same purpose, but used a monkey to terrorize the women.  I thought a dog was more believable.   There are many other circumstances that actually occurred, but I changed the location and embellished the story a little.

MA: Beyond Shame, what’s next?

JH:  As I mentioned before, I will be writing that book about the male prostitute, but I have another novel I plan to write about a former prostitute, who like many of the women on the street, was sexually molested as a child.  She was a masochist and equated, in a strange way, pain with love or attention.  She frequently broke from her curse, but would fall back into it when she felt abandoned or craved attention.  Through some street ministries and the Catholic Church she was able to break away for good and went to college to become a nurse.  While in college she is raped and all of her demons return.

I’m also planning to expand some short stories into novels and I want to publish a book of poetry about the street and police.  I entered Pimpel, a short story called A Father’s Honor, an article about hurricane Katrina and two poems in the contests for the PSWA conference.

My plan is when I finally retire, which I hope will be next year, I want to write full time.  I probably will not just do novels; I love writing short stories and poetry too.

I’m really looking forward to going to the PSWA conference and meeting so many of the talented and successful writers I’ve learned about through the PSWA website.  I’m also hoping I can interest a publisher in my new novel.  I will be bringing copies of Shame: The Story of a Pimp to the conference to sell.

Lastly, I want to thank Mike Angley for interviewing me and allowing me to talk about what I love to do, write.

MA: It’s my pleasure to have you on my blog, Joe. I recommend folks take a gander at Joseph Haggerty’s blog where you can learn more about his fascinating career and writing projects: http://haggertyswritings.blogspot.com.

MA: I am joined today by highly acclaimed author L. C. Hayden, L.C.’s latest Harry Bronson release, Why Casey Had to Die, is an Agatha Award Finalist for Best Novel and a Pennsylvania Top 40 Pick. Casey followed What Others Know, a Left Coast Crime nominee for the prestigious best mystery award.

Besides being an accomplished author, Hayden is a popular speaker often in demand.  She has done presentations and workshops all over the United States and was recently hired by major cruise lines to speak about writing while cruising all over the world.  From October 2006 to October 2007, Hayden hosted Mystery Writers of America’s only talk show, Murder Must Air.

Hayden, a Texas resident, enjoys traveling, scuba diving, Kayaking, reading, and arts and crafts.

Welcome, L.C.  I’m honored to have a fellow Mystery Writers of America member guest-blog with me today.  You are definitely a prolific and successful writer.  I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s all you’ve done, but I’m curious about any pre-writing career you may have had.

LCH: Prior to becoming a full time author, I used to be a teacher. I taught high school English and journalism for 28 years. While teaching, I had three novels published.  Then mostly the promotional end of writing started to interfere with my teaching career. I started turning down too many wonderful opportunities. I knew that it was time to retire. In 2001, I did and became a full time writer.

MA: What pulled you to writing fiction?

LCH: In my early writing career, I wrote for magazines and newspapers. One day an editor called me with an assignment. I heard myself saying, “No, thank you. I’m switching gears. I’m going to write a novel instead.” That came out of the blue and it shocked me. I had no idea I wanted to leave nonfiction and join the world of novelists. Since I opened my big mouth, I knew I had to make my statement come true. I wrote my first Harry Bronson book, Who’s Susan? and the rest is history.

MA: Talk about your series and about Harry Bronson.  I understand he became an almost accidental protagonist.

LCH:  Harry Bronson, my series detective, made his appearance in Who’s Susan? but he wasn’t the featured character. Susan was. He did his job and that was the end of him, as far as I was concerned. When my second book When Colette Died came out, I received tons of emails all basically the same. “Where’s Harry Bronson?” they asked. That’s when I realized that Harry Bronson needed to make a comeback. He did in my third book, Where Secrets Lie. He was also featured in my fourth mystery, What Others Know, but by then, mostly due to reader input, I knew he had to be the main character and not a side character as he was in my first four mysteries. My fifth mystery Why Casey Had to Die was Bronson’s first book where everything centers around him. I suppose I made the right decision as Casey went on to become an Agatha Finalist for Best Novel and a Pennsylvania Top 40 Pick. The next one in the series When Death Intervenes was released in April.

MA: Considering how Harry “fell into” his central role as your hero, how did you go about shaping his character, especially since you didn’t originally intend for him to be the star?

JCH: For Who’s Susan? I needed an elderly detective who could help Susan find her lost son. Since at that time, I wasn’t thinking series, I focused on what kind of character Susan needed. Fortunately for me, I fell in love with Bronson and love writing about him.  Bronson is clever, smart, and unorthodox. He does things his way which sometimes frustrates others. He loves his family and loves coffee. Carol, his wife, often gets the best of him. The love for his family is both his strength and his weakness. He also tends to be stubborn which can be a weakness but at times pulls him out of a tight spot.

MA: He sounds a little like my protagonist, Patrick O’Donnell…definitely a real family man.  Are your stories hard-boiled, or are the antagonists more like cozy mystery types?

LCH: My bad guys are bad guys—through and through. As of yet, I haven’t had a bad guy cross from one book to the other although I did leave Why Casey Had to Die open-ended.

MA: And do you reflect any of your real life experiences in your stories at all?

LCH: In Who’s Susan? there’s a scene where Susan goes to the daycare center to pick up her kid and he’s not there. That happened to me. I remember seeing the cowboys and cowgirls (it was Western Day) the kids had painted and I kept wondering which one was Don’s (my son.) I knew if I could find which one he did, he’d be returned to me. That scene is in the novel.

MA: I take it you are not going to give up a good thing anytime soon, and that you will keep writing Harry Bronson stories?

LCH: I will continue writing the Harry Bronson series as long as my publisher is willing to publish them. However, I’ve started a standalone set in my home town of El Paso, TX. I’m also starting another series about a reporter in South Lake Tahoe.  Mainly because of my grandson, I started writing children’s books. I’d like to do a couple more of those. I’m also working on updating my nonfiction book about miracles and angels, When Angels Touch You.

MA: Any final thoughts you’d like to pass on to my readers?

LCH:  As an author, I get asked a lot of questions, but the one I get asked the most is “What exactly does L. C. stand for?”  The answer goes back to way before I started writing my novels. Before writing mysteries, I freelanced for several magazines. I looked at the various ones and decided I’d like to write for the treasure magazines. I researched, wrote the article, and since this happened before the invention of computers, I typed the piece. I used my real name as my byline: by Elsie Hayden.  My husband, Rich, took the pictures, printed them (told you it was before computers), and I sent the package in. It came back. “Thanks, but we’ve just bought a similar piece.”

I was devastated but did not give up. I researched another buried treasure and eagerly sent it out. It, too, came back. “Thanks, but we’ve just assigned this to someone else.”

Hmm…I wasn’t liking this trend, but I must be from Missouri. I wouldn’t give up. I sent a third, a fourth, a fifth . . . They all came back.

By this time, I felt like a high school dropout. I picked up a copy of the magazine and slammed it down. Talking to myself, I said aloud, “This is exactly what they’re looking for. Why are they not publishing me?”

Rich picked up the magazine and pointed to the title page. “Look at the articles. They’re written by John, by Steve, by Mike. There’s no Marys, no Susies, no Elsies.”

Being a smart cookie, the light dawned on me. I took out the first rejected manuscript and retyped the first page. The only change I made was the byline. I changed it from by Elsie Hayden to by L. C. Hayden.  The article was immediately accepted. So were a second, and a third. . . I got used to using the initials and when it came time to write my mysteries and other novels, it felt natural to continue to use L. C. instead of Elsie.  And thus, L. C. Hayden, the author, was born (or was I created?).

MA: (smiling) My how times have changed!  I’m so happy you prevailed in the end, and continued to pursue a writing career.  Many others would have quit in frustration.  Thanks for coming over to my blog today.  You can read more about L.C. (aka Elsie) Hayden at her websites: http://lchayden.com and www.booksbyhayden.com

MA:  My guest today is likely familiar with the term, “Zoomie,” but I won’t use it.  I promise to be nice.  Ben Malisow was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  He graduated from the Air Force Academy, where he took a Bachelor of Science degree in History. After that, he served four years as an Operations Management officer, stationed in Korea, South America, and Las Vegas.  After leaving the military, he worked as an actor, then as a journalist. A few years later, he went to work as a security consultant in the Washington, D.C. area. His clients have included the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, and the FBI. He completed an MBA at that time. He also used to teach English at the College of Southern Nevada, and computer classes at a reform school in the Clark County School District.  Ben is now employed as program manager for an environmental engineering firm, does some freelance writing and consulting, and keeps dabbling in acting when he’s allowed.  He says he has an “extremely tolerant girlfriend,” and a “confused dog.”

Ben, welcome.  It seems like you’ve done a little bit of just about everything.  Describe the highs and lows.

BM: I had a misspent youth, where I went to the Air Force Academy and took a history degree. Then I served for four years, in Korea, Las Vegas, and South America. Then I hit the gutter: I worked as an actor and a journalist, took an MBA, and finally reached rock bottom with a stint in the Beltway as a federal security contractor, providing services to a variety of alphabet-soup-named clients. I later took the most harrowing gig of my life when I became a teacher for 6-12-graders in a reform school, and an English professor at a community college. I’m now in the environmental remediation field, doing program management tasks, and going to school again.

MA: Thanks for your service, by the way.  I live across the highway from the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO…a truly beautiful campus.  I’ve also served in Korea (twice, must have gotten someone angry with me)!  What brought you to write books?

BM: It kind of chose me. I’ve yet to sell any fiction, and publishers approach me about doing nonfiction gigs. My first publisher was one of my former editors from when I was in newspapers, and it just kind of went from there.

MA: Tell us about what you’ve written.

BM: I’m what’s called a “hack” by writers, and a “whore” by normal people. I’ll write anything for money. My first book is 1,001 Things To Do If You Dare, and it’s a simple amusement, the kind of thing you can pick up anywhere, flip open, and (hopefully) be entertained. My second, Criminal Investigations: Terrorism, was a brief, cursory overview of terrorism, for a high school audience. I’ve contributed to a number of other works, including everything from a book about weddings to one about a female politician from Alaska.

MA: I wonder who that Alaskan politician could be…?  Anyway, so has your real life influenced your writing, especially given the diversity of jobs you’ve had?

BM: Sure. Most of the things in the first book were activities I was familiar with from personal experience…about two-thirds of them, in fact. Mostly, this was because of my varied professions– I’d done most of those things for work, at one time or another. Looking back, many of them were painfully stupid endeavors only a young man would engage in (or an older man desperately trying to be young). The conceit of objectivity is one I find ridiculous: the writer also brings a personal vision to the party, and that enters the work, whether you want to pretend it does or not. If done well, it adds to the story; poorly, it can ruin it. But to claim that you can write without having insight or opinion is ludicrous and nonsensical.

MA: I’d have to agree with that!  So what’s next?

BM: Well, I’ve still got a novel and a few dozen stories in the can, and several I haven’t finished yet. I’ve pitched a few book ideas at several publishers, both fiction and nonfiction. Basically, I’ll keep doing as I’ve always done: throwing stuff out there, seeing if anyone will buy it, and taking whatever opportunities come along, as long as they don’t personally offend me.

Iam not averse to writing more on any topic I’ve already written about, in either books or articles or essays or columns. If someone wants me to do it, I’ll write about it, mostly. There have only been a couple things I’ve turned down, on principle or cowardice.

MA: You’re a very non-traditional type of writer; there’s no doubt.  I’m curious about your vision for the future of the writing industry?

BM: Professional writing, as it is now, will go away soon, and writers are not yet coming to terms with that. The concept of a “writer,” which has existed for only a couple hundred years, is going to evaporate as technology overtakes the written word, and everyone becomes a “recorder” or viewer– none of us professional, all of us capable. When a kid with a cell phone can break an important story by posting a video for worldwide consumption, the notion of some adult specifically paid to go and look at stuff, and write about it, is absolutely inane.

In the meantime, those of us who like to read and write, and can scrape together a few coins for doing either, should enjoy it as best we can.

MA: Thanks very much for coming to my blog today!  Visit Ben Malisow at his website for more information about him and his books: http://www.benmalisow.com/

Mike: I’m delighted to have two guests today, co-authors Deborah Shlian and Linda Reid. Their novel, Dead Air, the first in a series starring radio talk show host Sammy Greene, was released in December 2009.

Deborah Shlian, MD, MBA practiced medicine in California where she also taught at UCLA. She has published nonfiction articles and books as well as medical mystery/thrillers. Her first two novels, Double Illusion and Wednesday’s ChildRabbit in the Moon is an international thriller and has won the Gold Medal for Genre Fiction from the Florida Book Award, the Mystery Book of the Year Silver Medal from ForeWord Magazine, an Indie Excellence Award, a National Best Books Award Finalist from USA Book News and First Prize in the Royal Palm Literary Award from the Florida Writers Association.

Yolanda “Linda” Reid Chassiakos, MD, is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, and a Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA. After graduating from and completing her residency in Pediatrics at the Georgetown University School of Medicine, Dr. Reid Chassiakos served as a Lieutenant Commander in the US Navy, and as the Assistant Head of the Ambulatory Branch of Pediatrics at the Naval Hospital, Bethesda and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. She then moved to the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion and served as a medical editor and feature reporter for the evening Eyewitness news at the CBS affiliate in Washington, DC. Dr. Chassiakos joined Lifetime Medical Television as a medical editor, writer, and host of educational programming for healthcare professionals and the public in Los Angeles, and developed and hosted programs and features for media such as the NBC Network Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘n Roll, Lorimar-Telepictures, and You TV.

During her thirteen-year tenure as an Associate Physician Diplomate at UCLA’s Arthur Ashe Health Center, Dr. Chassiakos also served as a staff writer for the television series, Family Medical Center. She is currently the Director of the Klotz Student Health Center at California State University, Northridge. Dr. Chassiakos’ features and essays have been published in the Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, Woman’s Day, Salon.com, the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Daily News, and Tribune International. She has recently co-edited a text on Collaboration Across the Disciplines in Health Care. Dr. Chassiakos has also written a fantasy novel, Where Angels Fear to Tread, for imaginative young adult and adult readers. Dr. Chassiakos and her husband are the proud parents of three teenagers and live in Los Angeles.

I’m continually amazed at the high-caliber people who appear as guests on my blog.  You both have exceptional backgrounds, so much so, that I can’t believe you have time to write fiction!  Tell us more about your backgrounds and prior writing experiences before the collaboration on Dead Air.

Deborah: My previous earlier novels are co-written with my husband Joel, who is also a physician. We met and were married after a six-week courtship, while we were in medical school at the University of Maryland. Because we wanted to maintain the closeness of our relationship, Joel dropped out of ophthalmology so that we could practice family medicine together.

We did our residencies in Los Angeles, where we eventually joined a large group practice and worked in side-by-side offices. But you can’t live in L.A. for very long without getting bitten by the entertainment bug. Everyone you meet here does something else–your dentist is an agent, your lawyer is a producer, and, of course, every waiter is a would-be actor. Even though Joel and I wrote Double Illusion–originally published by Putnam under the title Nursery–as a novel, we always envisioned our story as a screenplay. The second novel we wrote was Wednesday’s Child, published by Simon and Schuster. Both these books, which are now out in reprints, were optioned for film, although, as is par for the course, the options lapsed. But the stories are written in a very fast-paced, rather cinematic style. Our third novel, just published, is titled Rabbit in the Moon.

In the 10 years between writing Wednesday’s Child and Rabbit in the Moon, Joel and I graduated from UCLA’s Executive MBA program, started a healthcare consulting and recruiting company, and wrote several books and articles on healthcare and medical management issues.

Linda:  I began my own neighborhood newspaper at age 10 and continued to write in high school and at the University of Maryland, where I also worked at the campus radio and TV stations. In medical school, I became “The Doc Around the Rock” on radio until I started my clinical training. Then, after my residency, I wrote for the Washington Tribune, the Baltimore Sun, and the Washington Post. I later worked as a medical feature reporter for the CBS-affiliate in D.C., and as a medical editor and host for Lifetime Medical Television. I feel truly blessed to be part of the brotherhood of physician-writers.

Mike: Fascinating!  So why novels?  Your resumes are packed with superb credentials that would enable you to write non-fiction, especially medical articles for journals and the media, which you’ve had some experience with already.

Linda: Debbie and I met at the Student Health Service at UCLA and we discovered that we shared common interests in both creative writing and health education.  I had taken a sabbatical from practice to serve as a staff writer for the TV series Family Medical Center, and, after the series ended, I returned to UCLA and Debbie and I developed several project ideas together. Among the projects we discussed was a medical thriller, which has evolved into Dead Air.

Deborah: I had just finished writing Rabbit in the Moon and while waiting for it to be published, began to get a little itchy to write another novel.  I was Director of Primary Care for the Student Health Service, and Linda, one of our specialists, approached me about writing something together. We decided on a plot that involved a less-than-ethical experiment on a Vermont university campus. The protagonist is a 20-something college student named Sammy Greene, a journalism student with her own campus radio talk show. Sammy uses her show as a forum to solve the mystery of why students are suddenly dying and ultimately expose the experiment. Linda and I have just completed the second book in what will be a series featuring Sammy. Its title is Devil Wind and it takes place five years later when Sammy has moved to Los Angeles.

Talk is cheap, but when this radio host takes action, she may pay the ultimate price. An outspoken, brash, native New Yorker, Sammy Greene isn’t afraid to ruffle a few feathers at Ellsford University, her traditional New England Ivy League college. Host of “The Hot Line”, a talk-radio show on campus station WELL, Sammy tackles the toughest, most controversial issues facing Ellsford’s students. When Sammy discovers the body of Dr. Barton Conrad, one of Ellsford’s most esteemed professors, her journalistic drive kicks in and she sets out to discover what happened to the beloved professor. But when several Ellsford students mysteriously disappear, Sammy realizes she’s uncovered the seamy, terrifying underbelly of this prestigious institute of higher education. With the entire campus in peril, and demons from her past close behind, Sammy Greene must race to find answers. Along the way, she’ll discover some unlikely allies-and even more unlikely enemies. If Sammy isn’t careful, someone is going to make sure that she signs off-for good.

Mike: That sounds like a seat-of-the pants thriller.  Given your medical backgrounds, did any of your real-life experiences make their way into the story at all?

Linda:  Very much so.  Deborah and I have both spent years in academic settings across the United States as students and then as physicians, staff, and faculty.  Our perspectives allowed us to bring a realism to our fictional Ivy League campus, and to describe the challenges of surviving in an environment where “Publish or Perish” has, in tragic cases, become literally true. Additionally, many of us had friends whose children were leaving for college. Saying good-bye to your son or daughter is difficult, but you hope that his or her college experience will be safe. What if it isn’t, and what if the people responsible are the very ones to whom you entrusted your child? Add a look at cutting edge medicine and modern university politics and you have the seeds of our collaboration.

Deborah: We felt that in the context of a novel we could expose some of the corners that academic researchers are willing to cut in order to gain fame and fortune.  I think there has been some slippage in morality and how people see “crossing over the line” in society in general. Unfortunately, since doctors are human like everyone else, they, too, may fall prey to the temptations of fame and fortune. The other issue is funding of research. As in our story, Dead Air, more and more research is funded by private interests. Consequently, at least the possibility of allowing bottom-line pressures to creep into the picture exists. Our character in the book, Dr. Palmer, is a well-known, respected scientist who has always had access to university and/or government research monies. When the university decides to co-venture with a Japanese biotech company, he is suddenly faced with some significant moral and ethical dilemmas.

Linda: Economic constraints on physicians lead them to make difficult choices, but, on the whole, most physicians practice a high standard of both medicine and ethics. The potential for larger scale abuse of ethics in medicine and society is there today, however, because of economic pressures and is facilitated by the improvements in science, technology, and communications in our global economy and world that allow a greater use and misuse of power.

Mike: Tell me more about your protagonist.

Deborah/Linda: Sammy Greene shares some traits with both her creators, but is her own young woman, who now tells us what she is going to do and say.  We started to develop her as a voice for the moral, political, and ethical concerns we wanted to address in the book, and she grew to be a fully fleshed out dynamo bursting with passions, energy, and joie de vivre.  Sammy has elements of each of our personalities, but is much more courageous and outspoken than either of us felt we were at her age.  In book two, and now book three, it’s Sammy who is writing her own life script and we, Deborah and Linda, are taking notes so we can share Sammy’s adventures with all her readers and friends.

Mike: That’s a nice perspective on your character…seems to be writing her own story for you as the authors!  Describe Sammy more.

Deborah/Linda: Sammy is a bright, dedicated young woman who grew up in Brooklyn under the strict tutelage of her loving grandmother, Rose, from whom she learned the Yiddish that she sprinkles into her exclamations.  She is five feet tall and slim, with curly red hair and green eyes. She has a crackling personality—never afraid to dive into adventures, experiences, new directions.  That strength can sometimes lead her into danger—her determination, feistiness, and curiosity can annoy or even alarm those running from her quest to pursue “Truth and Justice.”

Sammy’s father left her mother when she was a child—her mother’s subsequent suicide has scarred her deeply.  Sammy hides her vulnerabilities and fears behind a tough exterior; as love knocks on her door, will she have the courage to let emotional intimacy enter her psychological firewalls?  Readers will find out in Dead Air.

Mike: I imagine with your plot, about an Ivy League campus and all the intrigue you described, that you must have one or two particularly evil antagonists that Sammy must deal with?

Deborah/Linda: Everyone at Ellsford University is a suspect in the disappearances and murders of students and faculty.   Corrupt University administrators, ambitious professors, unethical researchers, jealous students, and politically manipulative outsiders could all be playing a role in the conspiracy that Sammy uncovers step by step.  Even the Chief of Campus Police isn’t beyond suspicion.  Sammy’d better find out who’s behind the campus murders before she herself becomes the next victim and her radio show is silenced—Dead Air.

Mike: You mentioned books two and three.  What are they about, and does Sammy come back for more adventures?

Deborah/Linda: We have finished the sequel to Dead Air and are currently plotting our third book in the Sammy Greene thriller series, an international thriller.  Meanwhile, Deborah and Joel Shlian are working on a sequel to Rabbit in the Moon, and Linda is working on a sequel to Where Angels Fear to Tread and writing for newspapers, magazines, and blogs.

We expect Sammy has lots of exciting adventures in store ahead.  Police Chief Gus Pappajohn will join Sammy again in Devil Wind, and she is likely to re-kindle (no pun intended) her romance with Dr. Reed Wyndham.  With each book, we’ll learn more about Sammy and thrill to watch her grow.  In Devil Wind, for example, we witness her rocky reunion with her estranged father and his third wife.  Readers love Sammy and want to share her life, including her joys, challenges—and thrills.

Mike: Dead Air has already had some great success and wonderful book reviews.  I’d like to finish your guest-blog with a list of those and anything else you want my readers to know.. Before I turn it over, I want to encourage everyone to visit Deborah Shlian and Linda Reid at their website: http://www.sammygreene.com/Sammy_Greene_website/THE_BOOK.html

Deborah/Linda: Thank you for the opportunity to introduce you to Sammy Greene—we hope your readers will love her as much as we do.  Dead Air has had wonderful reviews, and was selected as the Best Adventure/Thriller in the 2009 USA Booknews Best Books Awards.  Some comments from Sammy’s fans below:

“A brash college talk-show host uncovers a terrifying conspiracy as she seeks the killer of an esteemed professor.”

San Diego Union Tribune

“A fascinating reveal about the dangers that arise when big business influences medical research.”

Mystery Scene

“Both authors have medical backgrounds, and the story reflects this. The characters are interesting, and their intrepid heroine, Sammy, looks as if she’s ready for a sequel.”

The Oklahoman

“A fascinating read, full of action. Dead Air is a breath of fresh air—well written, riveting plots and subplots, and enough action to keep the reader interested until the end.”

I Love a Mystery

“Dead Air is the perfect prescription for readers looking for a good medical mystery with a little Yiddish and Greek mixed in for good measure.”

Review the Book

“A series-worthy heroine. Fans of light mysteries with a hard edge will enjoy this one.”

Booklist

“Dead Air is a chilling tale guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat.”

Midwest Book Review

“Shlian and Reid have created a plausible, plucky amateur detective in this fast-paced medical murder mystery.”

Monsters & Critics

“Excellently written, Dead Air ratchets up the suspense from scene-to-scene with twists and turns beyond the usual medical or campus mystery.”

Fresh Fiction

“(Shlian and Reid) have done for academia what Patricia Cornwell did for forensic science. A great book.. Dead Air is sure to be in high demand this season.”

Blogcritics

“A lively novel of secrets, lies, and betrayal, Dead Air captures the very essence of college life and mixes it with a plausible conspiracy.  This one is sure to make the dean’s list among avid thriller fans.”

Vicki Landes

“Excellent and will keep you turning pages all night long.”

Mainly Mysteries

MA: Jennifer Chase is an author, freelance writer, and criminologist. She has authored two thriller novels, Compulsion and Dead Game.  She holds a bachelor degree in police forensics and a master’s degree in criminology. She also has certifications in serial crime and criminal profiling.  She lives in California where she is at work on her next book.

Given your academic background – forensics and criminology, criminal profiling, is it safe to assume you’ve worked professionally in some aspect of law enforcement?

JC: My working background has been primarily in the corporate world of accounting and business management.  I’ve had experience in screenwriting and article writing in the past, but I’ve really wanted to write novels for some time now.  My interest in forensics and criminal psychology drove me to go back to school to earn a bachelor degree in police forensics and a master’s degree in criminology.  I felt that going back to school helped me to begin a writing career in crime fiction.

MA: I’m surprised to hear you have worked in the corporate world and not in some dimly-lit police department, in a stale interrogation room trying to sweat out confessions.  It sounds like your academic interests intersect more with your writing, as opposed to your other career interests.

JC: I’ve loved writing and books for as long as I can remember.  Reading novels has always been a big part of my life.  I’m a fan of thriller, mystery, and suspense stories.  It wasn’t until a personal experience of living next door to a violent sociopathic individual that I decided to write my first novel.  It seemed to be a perfect time for me to write my first novel.  With the academic background along with some much needed confidence helped to propel me through my book projects.

MA: Tell us about your stories.

JC: I have two thriller novels out, Compulsion and Dead Game.  In Compulsion, Emily Stone doesn’t have a badge. But that hasn’t stopped her from tracking down some of the West’s most dangerous child-killers. Armed with a digital SLR camera, laptop computer and her trusty Beretta, Stone uses her innate gift for detective work to identify the perps — and then anonymously e-mail the evidence to the cops.

Now, the hunt for two brazen serial killers on the loose right in her own coastal California town threatens to expose Stone’s identity — unraveling her carefully constructed cover and jeopardizing her life’s work. But when she gets too close to the action, this razor-sharp hunter becomes the hunted. Cooperating with the handsome local police detective could be the only hope for stopping the rampage directed at unsuspecting young women — and saving herself. Can they piece together the clues in time?

Compulsion mixes CSI-style investigation with a ripped-from-the-headlines plot and a dose of romance for a keeps-you-guessing, fast-paced and savvy thriller, right up until the shocking finale.

Dead Game is another Emily Stone Novel.  In her independent efforts to catch child killers, Emily Stone discovers the evidence that the cops can’t—or won’t—uncover. Now, this covert investigator is back on the hunt for the world’s most sick and twisted murderers. But even with help from ex-police detective Rick Lopez, this time she’s facing her most dangerous opponent yet.

The headlines in the San Jose Mercury News blare updates on a serial killer who seems able to slaughter with impunity. Men, women—it doesn’t matter; the victims serve only to satisfy a perverted need to kill.  The killer watches the moment of death on multiple computer screens, over and over again. The only connection is that they’re all devotees of the latest video-game craze—a sophisticated brain-puzzler called EagleEye.

When the killer goes after Lopez’s law-enforcement mentor, Lopez and Stone decide to give the cops a little extra, unsolicited help. What follows takes them deep inside a shocking high-tech world, a kind of social-networking community for serial killers. But when they start getting too close to the truth, all hell’s going to break loose.

Now, Stone and Lopez become the killer’s next target as Stone must make a difficult decision to leave the ones she loves in an all-or-nothing effort for survival. Can they stay alive long enough to blow the whistle on this unlikely perpetrator?

MA: EagleEye? That sent a chill down my spine.  When I was a Special Agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, we had a special program called Eagle Eye.  Too coincidental!  How did you create Emily’s character?

JC: I wanted to create a character that would hunt down serial killers and child abductors in a way where she would be completely anonymous.  After I saw the startling statistics on missing children in the US every year, I decided to make her more proactive in tracking down child abductors.  This is what drives her character.  My heroine Emily Stone evolved from this concept and I wanted to up the stakes by having her as a petite, clever, and capable woman hunting the most hideous criminals in our society – alone.

I know that many police departments are overworked, understaffed, and underfunded, so I thought that creating this fictional character would help to assist the police behind the scenes and would create some suspense with a thrill quality to it.  She is a type of phantom detective helping the police without their knowledge and then she emails the information directly to the detective in charge.  However, she does get into some scary situations along the way, while catching these killers before they are able to strike again.

MA: Emily sounds like a tough woman.  What else should we know about her?

JC: Emily Stone is a strong and noble character.  She gets things done and uses her natural ability and instincts to catch killers and pedophiles.  She knows the psychology of criminals and uses it to her advantage.  Her weaknesses are her vulnerabilities of being alone in her quest as well as her drive to push her abilities to the limits tracking killers.  She wavers between justice and vigilantism.

MA: Sounds like you have a full cast of antagonists for Ms. Stone to go toe-to-toe with.  Are there any in particular that seem to give her a greater challenge than others?

JC: Dead Game has a high-tech serial killer stalking victims through the video games they play on computers and cell phones.  He’s a bit of a unique serial killer because he craves the images of his victim’s deaths on video over and over again.  He doesn’t get his hands dirty, but can relive their deaths any time he wants.  He hasn’t had to meet up with Emily Stone yet and that’s when everything changes in this story.

MA: I’m almost afraid to ask if you had any personal experiences that helped shape your writing, especially since your professional life has been in the corporate world.

JC: I can’t say that I’ve had any experiences with serial killers, but I did have a neighbor who was definitely a violent sociopath that threatened my life for several years.  It was bad enough for me to have to move.  This experience made my writer’s imagination kick into full gear and that’s how Emily Stone was created.

MA: That had to be creepy, and I’m glad you were able to get away from him.  Do you have any more Emily Stone Novels planned, or perhaps a whole new line of mysteries?

JC: I’m currently in the process of writing a suspense thriller with a working title, Silent Partner, from a screenplay I wrote about a K-9 cop that becomes involved with an agoraphobic woman accused of murdering her sister.  He finds himself caught in a web of lies and deception that leaves him wondering if he can protect her from her fears, both real and imagined, before it’s too late.

I’m having a great time writing the Emily Stone series and I will continue with this character for other books.  Also, a character from Dead Game by the name of Jordan Smith seems to be receiving quite a bit of attention.  I’m toying with the idea of writing a book with him as the main character.

Finally, I’m outlining and researching the third Emily Stone Novel that I will begin writing before summer.  She will be tracking down a serial killer on the beautiful garden island of Kauai. The story will answer the question of how Emily will stop a diabolical serial killer on the quiet island paradise.

MA: Sounds like that will require some field research in Hawaii…to get the setting just right for the plot, of course!  Thanks for visiting with us today.  Please visit Jennifer Chase’s website to learn more about her and the Emily Stone Novel series: http://jenniferchase.vpweb.com/default.html

A Writer’s Self-Esteem

by

Mary Deal

When ego gets in the way.

My very first short story sent out received rejection after rejection. I always had faith in my writing and kept producing new pieces. Eventually, I sent out all of my stories, but they received rejections as well. I was crushed.

I began to feel that as a writer, I must not be writing anything that anyone wanted to read or know about. Maybe my writing wasn’t entertaining enough. I convinced myself that I wasn’t knowledgeable enough to have anything worth writing about to say to the world. Deflated, I set my stories aside.

After months of not writing, but still feeling the urge to do so, I received one of my SASEs in the mail. I thought sure I had already received as many as anyone cared to return.

To my surprise, the hand-written message on my cover letter, being returned, read:

“I’m sure this will fit into the issue we’re planning for next June. How does $20 for 1^st Rights sound to you?”

The Senior Editor of that magazine sent a personally written note! I was stunned that my story fit in one of their planned issues. You bet I agreed. The next June was over seven months away, but that little note told me so much and plumped up my writer’s ego once again.

The story that had garnered the most rejections happened to fit into their future. So it wasn’t really a matter of whether or not my story was good enough. It simply had to fit somewhere.

I began to write again and the flood of pent up stories poured out.

I mailed them all. Christmas was quickly arriving, but I sent out a Christmas story anyway, knowing it would be too late to make it into any magazine in the next three weeks. My writing was good and I just wanted people to know it. At that point, I would have sent anything out.

To my surprise, in the second week of January of the New Year, I got a note back saying a magazine accepted it, saying:

“Thank you so much for submitting this piece far enough in advance. We’re working on this year’s Christmas issue now and would like to have it. Christmas is almost a full year away. Would you be willing to sign an agreement giving us FNASR anyway?”

Timing is everything. Not timing as in getting the stories submitted fast, but getting them sent at a time when a magazine can use them.

When I think about how my self-esteem felt squashed by rejection, how egoistic! It had nothing to do with my ego. Acceptance is about writing the kinds of stories that various magazines can use. It is about getting our stories into the right hands. Of course, the stories must be the best that we could produce, but the rejection itself is never meant to tear down faith in our abilities.

Please visit Mary Deal’s website for more wonderful articles like this one: Write Any Genre.

MA: Dianne Ascroft is a Canadian writer, living in Britain. She has been freelance writing since 2002. Her non-fiction writing focuses on history, arts/music and human interest stories. She particularly enjoys interviewing music personalities and has had the pleasure of chatting with a variety of people including former Bay City Rollers lead singer, Les McKeown and the classical singing trio, The Priests. Her articles have been printed in Canadian and Irish newspapers and magazines including the Toronto Star, Mississauga News, Derry Journal, Banbridge Leader, Senior Times and Ireland’s Own magazine. She has had several short stories published in Irish magazines. Hitler and Mars Bars is her first novel, and it is an Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award quarter finalist!

Dianne started life in a quiet residential neighborhood in the buzzing city of Toronto and has progressively moved to smaller places through the years. She now lives on a small farm in Northern Ireland with her husband and an assortment of pets. If she ever decides to write her autobiography the working title will be Downsizing.

It sounds like you’ve had a variety of writing experiences that no doubt led you to your first novel, but that all seems to have begun within the last eight years. What else have you done that may have contributed to your writing career?

DA: Like many writers, writing has never been my primary occupation. I’ve always held a day job and written in my spare time. I’ve held a variety of jobs over the years. In Canada, after I graduated from university, I focused on the information management field. I worked as a library clerk in a corporate library and as an archives clerk in the public sector. When I moved to Northern Ireland, in 1990, I landed every booklover’s dream job – an assistant in a bookshop. Needless to say, that was heaven for an avid reader like me and I stayed there for several years. Since 1998 I’ve held various clerical positions on short term contracts. I like this flexible approach to employment as breaks between assignments give me a chance to spend some extra time writing. It also allows me time to enjoy country life with our animals on our small farm.

MA: With all your experience writing non-fiction, what inspired you to write a novel?

DA: I had toyed with the idea for ages before I began Hitler and Mars Bars. I had ideas for plots but I couldn’t decide which one to start – until I found a tale that I had to tell. And it was a much bigger tale than I could tell in a short story so it pushed me into writing a novel. I heard about a Red Cross humanitarian aid effort, Operation Shamrock, which brought German children to Ireland to recuperate after the Second World War. The story of this endeavor opened up a new aspect of Irish and German history for me – one that has been overlooked in the history books. It aroused my curiosity so I waded into researching the project. Fascinated by what I learned about this little known episode in history, I wanted to bring the events and the era alive for readers. The novel was born from that. I found it exciting and a challenge to create a story that was entertaining and also recounted real historical events.

MA: You certainly have an interesting title for the novel, as well as a fascinating historical backdrop for it.  Tell us about the story.

DA: Hitler and Mars Bars is the story of a German boy growing up in war-torn Germany and post war rural Ireland. Set against the backdrop of Operation Shamrock, a little known Irish Red Cross initiative which helped German children after World War II, my novel explores a previously hidden slice of Irish and German history. Erich, growing up in Germany’s embattled Ruhr area during World War II, knows only war and deprivation. His mother disappears after a heavy bombing raid leaving him distraught. After the war the Red Cross transports Erich and his younger brother, Hans, to Ireland, along with hundreds of other children, to recuperate from the devastating conditions in their homeland.

During the next few years Erich moves around Ireland through a string of foster families. He experiences the best and worst of Irish life, enduring indifference and brutality and sometimes finding love and acceptance. Plucky and resilient, Erich confronts every challenge he meets and never loses hope. Hitler and Mars Bars is the tale of a boy who is flung into a foreign land to grow and forge a new life.

MA: Obviously since you live in Ireland you understand the culture there, so I imagine that helped you shape Erich as a character.  What else did you do to bring him to life?

DA: It was a challenge for me to develop Erich’s character and understand how he sees the world. Erich’s viewpoint is very different from my own. It isn’t his nationality that is ‘foreign’ to me as much as his gender. Some emotions and responses to our life experiences are universal but there are differences between male and female perceptions of the world. I used the recollections of a German man who was part of the initiative to help me understand how Erich might feel about what was happening to him and to decide how he would behave.

This man’s recollections, as well as information I gleaned from my research about other children’s experiences as part of Operation Shamrock, helped me create my character. I tried to create a character that is believable – one who acts and thinks like a real child.

The book is set in 1940s and 50s Ireland where the people had deep Christian beliefs. These beliefs, and the actions they prompted (living their lives in keeping with their beliefs), are clear in the novel’s main characters.

MA: Describe Erich some more.

DA: Irrepressible and impulsive are good words to describe Erich. These characteristics can be either positive or negative aspects of his personality depending on the situation he finds himself in. He frequently gets into mischief but he doesn’t mean any harm. Erich is a fighter in the courageous rather than the brawling sense of the word. Before he’s even school age he has already survived a war and circumstances most adults never face, yet he remains hopeful and resilient. His spirit borders on brashness which annoys some people he meets. But it serves him well as he’s not easily cowed and doesn’t give up even when life just seems to get worse.

He is fiercely loyal to the people he loves. Because he feels so intensely he is also easily hurt by any perceived betrayals. This can cause him to misinterpret situations and overreact. He finds it hard to forgive and can hate as intensely as he loves. Readers have told me they like Erich because he isn’t romanticized; he behaves like a real child.  He will awaken the reader’s parental instincts to love and discipline him in equal measures.

MA: Given the nature of the story’s setting…post-war…I suspect there are one or two antagonists in the novel.

DA: There are several adversaries in this story. People and events both conspire against Erich. The most significant event that affects him is the Second World War. Erich’s early years are difficult and deprived because of the devastation caused by bombing raids. He spends nights huddled in the cellar of the Children’s Home where he lives to shelter from the threat of bombing. He is constantly hungry due to the food shortages. His mother disappears after a bombing raid and he must leave Germany without learning what has happened to her. The war affects every aspect of his life. Several people are also his adversaries.

Erich encounters uncaring, even brutal foster parents at two of his foster placements. The first one is Aunt Rachel, a widow with one daughter. She fosters Erich and his brother, Hans, to earn some extra money to meet her bills and she really isn’t interested in the boys’ welfare. She is cross and cruel, making the boys’ lives a misery. Erich hates every minute he spends at her house and seethes with anger at her treatment of them.

The other one is quick tempered, harsh Uncle Bob. Although Uncle Bob plans to adopt Erich, his main reason for wanting the boy is to have unpaid farm labour. His priority is to get as much free labour as possible and he is abusive and unconcerned about the boy’s welfare. Erich has a place to sleep and the basic necessities for existence but he does not have a real family with Uncle Bob and his wife, Aunt Annie. How Erich overcomes his situation is the climax of the story.

MA: Living in working Europe no doubt helped you frame the story, but did any real life experiences manage to squeak into the plot?

DA: A lot of my writing is inspired by my own memories and experiences. But I sometimes hear an interesting story about someone else’s life and it sparks an idea that forms the basis for a story. As I’ve mentioned earlier, in the case of Hitler and Mars Bars, my research about Operation Shamrock and tales I heard from people who had participated in it sparked the ideas for my novel. I used material I discovered during my research about the project to create a story that was as true to the real events as I could make it.

MA: Are you working on any new project, perhaps a follow-on to Hitler and Mars Bars?

DA: Hitler and Mars Bars was released in March 2008. During the following months I didn’t have much time for new writing as I was busy promoting the novel. After the initial whirlwind of promotion I had a chance to put pen to paper again. I contributed fiction and non-fiction pieces to the Fermanagh Authors’ Association’s yearly anthologies in 2008 and 2009 and I’ve also been writing non-fiction articles about a variety of subjects for several magazines. Most recently articles I wrote based on my interview with the classical singing trio, The Priests were printed in four Irish and Canadian magazines. I enjoy non-fiction writing, especially profiling people in the arts and plan to continue interviewing interesting people I meet.

I’m also doing some short story writing and have begun research for the sequel to Hitler and Mars Bars. Many people have asked me what happens to Erich after Hitler and Mars Bars ends so I will have to answer that question in the next book. The sequel will follow Erich and his adventures. Several of the major characters from the first book will also re-appear. Their lives will have moved on from where we left them in Hitler and Mars Bars but they will be the same people readers loved or loathed. People often ask me where I got the idea for the book’s title. A couple amusing incidents in the story sparked the idea for it. So I linked the words that represented each incident together to form the title. But I won’t tell you anymore – you’ll have to read the book to figure out exactly where the title came from.

MA: Well, we’ll have to let that remain a mystery that people will have to explore on their own by buying the book.  For more information about Dianne and Hitler and Mars Bars, please visit her website and her blog: www.dianne-ascroft.com and www.dianneascroft.wordpress.com

MA: My guest today is the author of The SIN of Addison Hall, Jeffrey Onorato.  In 1968, at the age of 5, Jeffrey Onorato used construction paper and Elmer’s glue to create what he believes was the world’s first graphic novel, Feelings in Baseball. During his high school years he tried to woo girls he liked by penning them haiku poems; however, they were awful and his attempts were largely unsuccessful. In 1982 while attending Lehigh University, Mr. Onorato wrote an award winning essay, The Rapes of Grath and followed it up in 1984 with another award winning essay, Baseball is an Ass. The seed for his debut novel, The SIN of Addison Hall, was planted in the fall of 1999. While in his twenties, Jeffrey visited the gym religiously, and one Sunday morning, as he pulled into his gym’s packed parking lot, he noticed that the lot of the church next to his gym had more empty beer cans than cars. It occurred to him that toning his body was more important to him then nurturing his soul, and obviously he was not alone. Seven years later, writing primarily in overpriced coffee houses and Irish pubs, Jeffrey finished a novel that warns of the dangers of carnality. Mr. Onorato lives in Westchester County, NY with his wife and two young children.

Welcome, Jeffrey.  You obviously have enjoyed writing from an early age, but it wasn’t a career until later.  What did you do leading up to writing your first novel?

JO: I spent most of my adult life in sales, traveling lots.  Waiting for planes and sitting on planes gave me ample time to write.  According to my tally I spent time writing it in 23 US cities, four European cities, and three Caribbean resorts.

MA: I can see how your essay writing experiences evolved into novel writing.  Where there any other influences that led you to it?

JO:  I chose to write novels because I enjoy reading novels and I am a big fan of dystopian literature.  I like stories that are darkly humorous and provocative and stories that make my reader’s reflect upon their own value systems. After reading my first novel, The SIN of Addison Hall, one reader told me she cancelled a botox appointment and threw her Crest Whitestrips in the garbage.

MA: Tell us about the story.

JO: Residing in a country where beautiful people are considered superior, Addison Hall is an anomaly. A mildly repugnant man, he is forced by the twisted hierarchy of his dictator to live in less than adequate living situations. The days become increasingly arduous as he toils in an unpleasant job, stricken with the disappointment of his current situation. Besides the dark comedy of his disastrous attempts at romance and his friend’s antics, Addison’s life is fairly dull. Then he meets Otka, a beautiful woman who owns the local coffee shop. After witnessing a chance encounter where Addison risks his life to save the life of a dog, Otka takes an obvious interest in him. Addison is perplexed by her reciprocated intrigue. Past experiences with such a valued creature of the opposite sex has left him tainted and doubting her motives.

The SIN of Addison Hall entrances the reader with delicious conflicts of human wanting and wavering uncertainty with an ending that will leave you begging for more.

MA: You told me earlier that your protagonist is a bit autobiographical, but did any real life experiences factor into the story line at all?

JO: Not my real life experiences, but The Holocaust was the underpinning for the story.  My wife and I visited Auschwitz in 2003, so a lot of the imagery came from that visit. I also lifted verbatim from Nazi propaganda.  My reasons for doing this is to convey the message that whenever a society devalues a segment of its people, horrible things can accrue.

MA: That’s a good message we should all keep in mind.  Do you have any future novel-writing plans?

JO: I am currently on my third re-write for a novel that lampoons overt materialism. The working title is Betty Boop’s Skirt is Frayed. I expect to send the manuscript to my publisher by beginning of May 2010.

MA: You do come up with some clever titles for essays and books!  So, there won’t be a sequel to The SIN of Addison Hall?

JO: I am also working on the first draft of The Redemption of Addison Hall, an obvious sequel to The SIN of Addison Hall.  My goal is to have the manuscript off to the publisher by Christmas 2010.

MA: That’s good to hear.  If you would like to read more about Jeffrey Onorato and The SIN of Addison Hall, please visit: http://www.blockislandbooks.com/

Thanks, Jeffrey, for stopping by!

What’s Your Book About?

by

Mary Deal

How to capture a potential reader’s interest with few words.

In our day-to-day lives, our simplest personal actions say something about our motivations, temperament, and mind-set. Stories and their plots reveal much more that can be stated by quoting the story synopsis when a potential buyer asks, “What’s your book about?”

In my adventure/suspense novel, The Tropics, the plot is about the dangers of island living, cloaked from tourists by balmy breezes and swaying palm trees. It’s about people fighting for survival and finding inner strength to go on in spite of life-threatening situations in which they find themselves. It’s about inner strength.

In my paranormal Egyptian suspense, The Ka, the story is not just about archaeologists discovering a tomb and becoming affected by mysterious spells and magic. What it’s really about are two characters who, in spite of having intense mental and intuitive capabilities way beyond the norm, struggle to maintain lives in a setting that threatens to forever alter their understanding of sanity.

Once you know what your story is really about, you will easily distill it down to very few words.

If someone asks me what The Tropics is about, I don’t begin to reveal the plot synopsis. I say it’s about the ability to survive against all odds. Or I say it’s about the myths of stereotypical islands of paradise being shattered.

Readers want to know what they will get from a story. They want upbeat endings. If I tell someone The Tropics is about survival in spite of all odds, the reader knows these characters face some life threatening and dire situations before they save themselves. In surviving, the reader then looks forward to an exciting storyline knowing they will get their happy ending.

When potential readers ask what the The Ka is about, I tell them that it’s about believing in yourself even though the rest of the world thinks you’re nuts; even in the face of knowing you are different.

These can be distilled down to still fewer words. The Tropics is about “the desire to live.” The Ka is about “knowing when you’re right.”

As you can see, some of the descriptions have nothing to do with the plots. When people ask What’s your book about? they want to know what knowledge or lesson they will derive from reading the book.

In my award-winning thriller, River Bones, about a serial killer terrorizing residents in California’s Sacramento River Delta, when people ask What’s it about? I say, “It’s about forgiving old hurts and making a new life.” Or I say “It’s about renewal.”

My newly released thriller, Down to the Needle, is about a woman facing lethal injection for a crime she didn’t commit. When asked, I say, “It’s about standing firm when you’re right.” Or I also say, “It’s about the justice system gone wrong.” The shortened version of what I might say would be, “It’s about justice.”

Readers need to know what they will derive from your story. Instead of telling them the story synopsis, which may be lengthy and cause them to lose interest, give them a few words first to spark their interest. Then, elaborate by telling them what the story is about.

Please visit Mary Deal’s website for more wonderful articles like this one: Write Any Genre.

Naming Characters

by

Mary Deal

When naming your characters, the moniker you give them should agree with the role they play in the story.

Think about some of the Classics you adore, or even recent releases. You probably not only love the stories, but the character names as well.

When it comes to naming your characters, try not to make up names that are too far-fetched. In other words…

A writer-friend wanted to name all her characters with names she devised in order to help make them different from every character in other books with similar names. She came up with names like Tracford, to be nicknamed Trac. Or Analoon, nicknamed Loony because her (character) mother knew at birth she would be a little zany.

When I asked her how she expected her readers to feel any empathy for these characters, she said she would explain in the story how the person got their name.

This is not a great thing to do. Whether you write two or twenty books, you might get away with describing what’s behind a strange name once, but twice or more? And in each book too? It just won’t fly. If you are the type of writer with an old-fashioned story telling bent, then you might describe all your characters personalities and their names, like an old geezer spinning a yarn. But no one really writes like that anymore.

Readers must feel a connection with story characters. Names can attract or repulse. If you want your lady character to be loved, don’t make her loveable but give her a name like Analoon and call her Loony. And here’s something that can backfire. If you have a silly nonsensical lady in your story and name her Analoon and call her Loony, it comes across as entirely unbelievable and contrived by the writer. Naming characters is vitally important.

My suggestion is to get a name source dictionary, one that defines what each name means. Find the right sound in a name and the meaning for each character you create. You will be more than safe and you as an author will viewed as serious about your craft.

Please visit Mary Deal’s website for more wonderful articles like this one: Write Any Genre.