Recently, I was interviewed by Pretty Hot Books!
We discussed the Award-Winning "North of Ordinary" Trilogy, what I'm working on now, and the Writing Life. Take a look!
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Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I started writing for television but didn’t particularly care for the time constraints, so transitioned to novels pretty quickly. To date, I’ve written 16 novels and several short stories, although many are out of print.
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What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The North of Ordinary Trilogy is the last thing I published, which I wrote not only to highlight the fast-paced adrenaline rush of Hollywood’s music scene, but also what it’s like to live in the harsh spotlight of fans and paparazzi while trying desperately to hide some life-altering secrets.
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Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Besides the requirements of cats and coffee, I research everything! My former career depended on legal accuracy, so most things in my books are bizarrely precise, even if it’s a throwaway sentence about a random place, tradition, occurrence, etc.
What authors or books have influenced you?
Story telling-wise, the biggest would be Colleen McCullough. I couldn’t venture to guess how many times I’ve read The Thorn Birds. Writing-wise, Oscar Wilde, Tee Corinne, Charles Bukowski, JD Salinger, John Grisham, Bill Bryson, Shakespeare…
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What are you working on now?
Like always, my next novel features Hollywood as a main character. This one is about a spoiled actor who’s forced out of his extravagant life and into some pretty uncomfortable—even dangerous—situations, causing him to not only question his superficial existence but make drastic changes.
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What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I trust the readers; any website or social media page that has readers talking about books or giving honest book reviews.
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Do you have any advice for new authors?
Study. Read. Buy books about writing. Treat writing like a business, because it is. Write every day because it will become a habit. You can edit bad writing, but you can’t edit a blank page. If you can do anything other than writing, DO IT. Be ready for rejection because you’ll get plenty of it.
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What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I was very lucky to have grown up surrounded by artists, so I actually received a lot of advice from some well-known names. The best advice I got was to not avoid the darkness. This person told me that a lot of writers avoid unpleasantness and unlikeable characters. He told me to steer into it, then light a match—not to illuminate the dark, but to show how much darkness the character is surrounded by.
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What are you reading now?
Dark Places by Gillian Flynn and
Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bordain
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What’s next for you as a writer?
Another round of edits for the book I’m working on and then… who knows? I go where the ideas take me.
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What is your favorite book of all time?
That would be like picking children.
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