Warren Bull

Warren Bull has won a number of awards including Best Short Story of 2006 from the Missouri Writers’ Guild, Great Manhattan Mystery Conclave short story contest, The Mysterious Photo Contest in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, and Best short story in Strange Mysteries Anthology. He was a finalist for the Young Adult Discovery Award and a Derringer Award.  He has more than forty short stories published, novels Abraham Lincoln for the Defense, Heartland and Murder in the Moonlight, and a short story collection, Murder Manhattan Style.

Please tell everyone a bit about yourself, Warren.

Warren: I spent my childhood in Rock Island, Illinois, which is along the Mississippi river. I attended Knox College, where one of the Lincoln – Douglas debates took place, and the University of Illinois. My graduate training was at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and what is now Alliant University in Fresno, California.

I was first licensed as a psychologist in 1983, and have worked for agencies and in private practice with people of all ages as a therapist and as an administrator. I worked as a clinical psychologist for more than twenty-five years but still claim to come from a functional family.

I blog at Writers Who Kill. I’m a lifetime member of Sisters in Crime and an active member of Mystery Writers of America. 

When did the writing bug bite, and in what genres?

Warren: I had a very good writing teacher in the fourth grade and I’ve been writing ever since.  My mother used to read letters I sent her from college to the neighbors, which I discovered to my deep embarrassment during my first visit home from the holidays.  As a psychologist, I shared an office with Casey Dorman who wrote e-novels long before they became popular. Casey’s an excellent writer and a good guy, but I thought if he could do it so could I.  I write mostly mysteries because I enjoy mysteries and I’ve written essays, memoirs, general or “literary” fiction, historical fiction and fantasy.

When you started to write what goals did you want to accomplish? Is there a message you want readers to grasp?

Warren: Good question. My initial goal was to get published. Once I got published, my goals evolved and they continue to evolve over time.  I’m not very interested in “solve the puzzle” mysteries. I like to read and write about characters in a variety of setting facing life challenges.  I’d like readers to identify with my characters and share their experiences. I’ve written about Abraham Lincoln as a great man who is flawed and fully human.

Tell us about your latest book.

Warren: Heartland available at Avignon Press is a Young Adult novel recently chosen as the Book of the Day by Killer Nashville.  The paperback edition is available at the link above. Please support the publisher who supported me.

Sixteen-year-old Tom Allen life is imploding. His father has all but vanished from his life; Tom’s stepfather is entirely too involved. Tom’s beloved grandmother suffers a stroke, which leaves his mother emotionally distant. Meanwhile his sister is too sophisticated to worry about his concern.  When Tom reads an old family memoir from his grandmother’s cedar chest, he becomes intrigued by his ancestors’ struggle to form one united family from two shattered families. They face man-made and natural dangers while they battle to survive the smoldering conflicts in “Bleeding Kansas” that will soon erupt into the bloodiest war in American history — the Civil War. With the help of friends and family, past and present Tom eventually comes to terms with the pain and possibilities of his own family.

What’s the hook for the book?

Warren: When the two riders appeared out of nowhere, I knew they came to kill my pa.

(The opening sentence.)

How do you develop characters? Settings?

Warren: With historical stories and novels research is essential.  There are readers who know all about things like shooting a black power rifle or men’s trousers in the 1840s so if I refer to “cordite” before it was invented or write about a man putting something into his non-existent rear pants pocket, I am going to make readers angry They are going to throw my book against the wall and never buy anything else from me again.  I like to have three independent sources for everything. 

Who is the most unusual character?

Warren: I have a number of characters who keep popping up in my work because they keep popping up in my head. One of them has been in half a dozen short stories in various venues but he never gives his name.  I know it but he wants to keep a low profile.  I don’t know that anyone except me knows how often I write about him.  He is a veteran of World War II who fought in the battle of the bulge, like my father.  He has a post-traumatic stress disorder and a deep – set distrust of authority.

 Do you have specific techniques that help you maintain the main course of the plot?

Warren: I use a timeline and a list of characters.  I also make a few notes of events that I want to use.  Every time I try to use an outline I get bored with the story before I get the novel written. I wish I could use an outline but I can’t.

What colors your writing?

Warren: I worked as a psychologist for more than twenty-five years, which gave me the opportunity to know and work with a wide variety of people I would probably never have met otherwise. I worked with people of all ages, ethnic backgrounds, religions and social classes.  My clients had many unusual life experiences.

Also, although I am a male Caucasian, I have lived and worked in settings where my ethnicity and gender made me a minority. 

 Share the best review that you’ve ever had.

Warren: I’m grateful that Murder Manhattan Style has garnered some great reviews. The stories have been compared to the works of Damon Runyon and Raymond Chandler. New York Times Bestselling author Nancy Pickard wrote, “Warren Bull is a short story master, and this collection shows him at his best with quick stories told in crisp, clear prose. There’s variety, drama, history, humor, pathos, compassion and even Shakespeare here, along with surprising and satisfying endings to every story.”

What are your current projects?

 Warren: I am working on two very different projects at the moment. I am waiting for copyediting on a short story collection of very dark stories tentatively titled, No Happy Endings, and I am about 1/3 of the way into a middle grade novel about the adventures and misadventures of three sisters whose mom has run off with a rock bank.  I am busily researching television schedules, mimeographs and dial telephones in the early 1960s.

 Where can folks learn more about your books and events?

Warren: I have a website http://www.warrenbull.com/

An author dashboard on Goodreads Goodreads Author Page

And an author page on Amazon.com  Warren Bull’s Author Page

 Thank you for joining us today, Warren.

Warren: Thanks for the opportunity.

Susan Wingate

Susan Wingate, award-winning, bestselling author, has written nine novels, two short story collections, a few plays, one screenplay and tons of poems. Her latest novel Drowning (contemporary women’s fiction), won 1st place in the 2011 Forward National Literature Award and was a finalist  in the 2011 International Book Awards.

Hi Susan, please tell everyone a bit about yourself.

Susan: I co-host the very popular talk radio show, “Dialogue: Between the Lines.” I was born in Phoenix, Arizona and graduated from AZ State University in 1994 with an undergraduate degree in accounting. Three years later, I moved from Phoenix to an island in Washington State where I began to concentrate fully on writing. After the writing “bug” bit me, I quit accounting to write full-time. Since then, I’ve  written several plays, one screenplay, two short story collections and nine novels. My amateur sleuth series entitled The Bobby’s Diner Series has received acclaim from reviewers and in book competitions. My pseudonyms include, Myah Lin (literary fiction) and JJ Adams (noir mystery). My gritty novel, A Falling of Law (JJ Adams) is often described as Chandleresque in style. Writing as Myah Lin, my novella, Camouflage was a Finalist and received an Editor’s Choice Award in the 2009 Textnovel Writing Contest. 

As a lover of education and the arts, I teach writing,  draw and paint abstracts using oil as my favored medium. I still live in Washington State with my husband and a bunch of crazy animals.

When did the writing bug bite, and in what genre(s)?

Susan: My passion for writing really took hold in my thirties. I guess you could say I was a late bloomer. I always enjoyed writing but had some negative writing experiences very early on that colored my ambitions to the point of quelling the longing to write all together — for a while, that is. Then, it seemed nothing could keep me from putting pen to paper. At first I wrote poetry, then short stories, then on my move from Phoenix to Washington State, I formulated an idea for a novel, for the entire 1900-mile drive. The moment I set foot into my new home, I dragged out my ring-bound notebook and started to scribble. It felt like I hadn’t been alive before that moment. I knew writing would be my life from then on.

When you started writing, what goals did you want to accomplish? Is there a message you want readers to grasp?

Susan: Well, our goals change as we grow in writing but my very first goal was to write a novel. It was like baby steps. I’d never written a novel and I really had no right to be writing one then! Only three years before my move, I’d gotten  my bachelor’s degree in accounting but my life was undergoing a big metamorphosis. I honestly believe that the urge to write in me was so strong that I somehow created this metamorphosis and moved (under the guise of different reasons) in order to get to a place that would feed my muse and could free me to write. By the way, this is the first time I’ve ever expressed what happened to me, in words, written OR thought. So, thank you for the reveal — to your readers and also to me.

A message for readers? Yes. Always do what you love. Grab that brass ring. Now!

Briefly tell us about your latest book. Is it part of a series or stand-alone?

Susan: I’m nearing the close of a year-long book promotion for Drowning, which did remarkably well in sales and in competitions — Thank you, God! And, now my publisher is getting ready to release my debut YA novel entitled Spider  Brains. We’re serializing Spider Brains chapter-by-chapter on my blog “Writing from the Couch” at www.susanwingate.com. Spider Brains is the first in a series of four companion books.

What’s the hook for the book?

Susan: Addition Problem: If you have one teenage girl plus a spider bite, what does that equal? Answer: Transformation!

If one were to bake the story Spider Brains into a cake, they should sprinkle in Charlotte’s Web, toss in one Jellicle Cat, then stir in a little Spiderman — but as a girl and not in that goofy latex outfit! A tale of hope, transformation, transition and inspiration.

Who’s the most unusual/most likeable character?

Susan: In Spider Brains? I happen to think Matthew is the most likeable character.

How does your environment/upbringing color your writing?

Susan: Well, my father was a very funny, loving person. He was also a writer. So, I guess you could say that I have inherited my father’s funny gene. He loved words and their usages. I remember many days whether sitting around the table talking or taking long drives through the Arizona desert, my dad would play this game — to make up new words and then give them definitions. I still play it today. In fact,  Spider Brains has a few original words slipped in just to keep people on their toes. But, in  Spider Brains, Susie Speider loves words too and longs to be the editor of the high school newspaper. The current editor, Tanya, is Susie’s idol.

Today, I live in a home that sits on five acres of lush water-soaked land on an island in the Pacific Northwest. I look out my windows and see snow spattering the ground and patches of grass sneaking through the icy layer. Deer visit each morning, each afternoon for rolled oats, corn and pellets. Eagles perch on an enormous Noble Fir and they peer down into the massive pond for fish and ducks. My windows create a total encapsulation of nature at every turn of your head. It’s like heaven here and I get to sit and write about it. That’s my environment.

Share the best review (or a portion) that you’ve ever had.

Susan: One that stands out from the crowd just happened, for  Spider Brains , I’m happy to say. It was written by another Amazon bestselling author and award-winning novelist, Joshua Graham. This was what he had to say about  Spider Brains:

Simply put, Susan Wingate is a master of the written word.  In  Spider Brains, she weaves a heart-warming tale full of wit and intrigue: a nod to Kafka’s Metamorphosis in a quirky blend with The Princess Diaries.  There are laugh out loud moments with the teenage protagonist, Susie Speider, whose voice was well executed and credible.  But there are also moments that tug at the heartstrings and even bring a tear to the eye, as we see Susie’s angst when she faces pain from the past, as well as redemption through the relationship with her mother. Whether or not you’re a fan of YA literature, you’ll love  Spider Brains.  But don’t expect anything ordinary!

 I kind of like that one! OMGeee. Who wouldn’t? Right? Thank you, Joshua. J

What are your current projects?

Susan: I’m currently working on an Apocalyptic Thriller entitled Eschatos: The First Witness. I love this story. It will be such a joy to put the final period on this one and then send it out to publishers.

Where can folks learn more about your books and events?

Susan: They can find me all over the internet: at my website www.susanwingate.com, on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Goodreads, EZRead.com, Amazon.com, B&N.com and Smashwords. My print books can be found in libraries and bookstores across the country as well.

Thanks for joining us today, Susan.

Susan: Thank you so much for hosting me! I’m thrilled to have been asked to contribute to Literature & Fiction.

Ivana Hruba

Ivana Hruba specializes in writing bold, quirky and outrageously entertaining fiction. So she says.

Shelagh: Hi Ivana, please tell everyone a bit about yourself.

Ivana: I am the author of A Decent Ransom, a thriller about a kidnapping, which was published by Kunati in 2008. Apart from writing, I love to draw cartoons.

Shelagh: When did you first begin writing and in what genre(s)?

Ivana: I’ve been writing stories since childhood; first in my native Czech, then in English. I don’t have a particular genre I write in; for me, it’s the plot that influences the genre of a particular story.

Shelagh: When you started to write, what goals did you want to accomplish? Is there a message you want readers to grasp?

Ivana: I have always wanted to entertain with my stories. As a reader I am most drawn to deeply human, meaningful stories told with a good dose of humor, and that’s what I try to accomplish in my own writing.

Shelagh: Briefly tell us about your latest book. Is it part of a series or stand-alone?

Ivana: A Decent Ransom is a story of a kidnapping gone right. It’s a stand-alone thriller told in multiple perspectives.

Shelagh: What’s the hook for the book?

Ivana: A Decent Ransom deals with a kidnapping in which nothing happens according to plan when a woman gets kidnapped for ransom which never arrives, creating a moral dilemma for the kidnappers who are left with the kidnapped girl. Everyone’s motives are gradually revealed to the reader through the multiple points of view. And just as you think you’ve got it all worked out – here comes the surprise ending.

Shelagh: How do you develop characters and setting?

Ivana: For me, character development is a gradual process. It is something that happens as the story progresses, although I do have an idea how to position the characters from the outset. I like complex, morally sound characters who are, nonetheless, capable of great evil if properly motivated. I usually have a good idea of the setting as I need to be able to start the story from there.

Shelagh: Who’s the most unusual/most likeable character?

Ivana: In A Decent Ransom the most likeable character is the young kidnapper Phoebus. He’s the one true innocent in this story. Phoebus is a fifteen year old boy who’s been forced to take part in the kidnapping. He’s then charged with taking care of the kidnap victim and has to cope with all the unexpected turns in the situation.

Shelagh: Do you have specific techniques to help you maintain the course of the plot?

Ivana: In this story, the multiple perspectives move the plot along from one event to another. It keeps the reader engaged and the story moving at a quick pace.

Shelagh: Do you have a specific writing style? Preferred POV?

Ivana: I like to tell a story ‘after the event’ rather than ‘in the moment’ as it allows me to draw conclusions and show consequences. In A Decent Ransom each of the four main characters who get to ‘speak to the reader’ have a particular style – some are telling the story in past tense, others are showing it to the reader as if it were just happening. In my new novel, I have an omniscient narrator ‘telling’ the reader rather than ‘showing’ the action.

Shelagh: How does your environment/upbringing color your writing?

Ivana: We all draw on our experiences to make meaning of our lives. It is inevitable that a writer will draw on their own environment when writing a story; not so much in terms of plot, setting or action, but certainly in character development. I find that my ‘heroes’ are essentially the same person, imbued with pretty much the same characteristics – witty, good-natured, a lot of fun to be around but with a dash of the unexpected thrown in. When I’m developing a character, I spend a lot of my time in that person’s company so I like to give them the human qualities that I like.

Shelagh: Share the best review (or a portion) that you’ve ever had.

Ivana: I’ve been lucky to have got some great reviews for A Decent Ransom and I’m grateful for them all, but my favourite line is … “Told in multiple character points of view, the author somehow has designed a story that elegantly presents each character’s viewpoints without the need to label or overtly lead the reader.” I love the ‘somehow’; to me it show that the reader grasped the story but couldn’t quite work out how I did it, which is exactly what I had intended to happen. To read this review and others, please go to my website listed below.

Shelagh: What are your current projects?

Ivana: I am currently finishing a novel based on my life. As a child I lived in then communist Czechoslovakia which my family left in 1983. We escaped by walking across the Alps from the former Yugoslavia to Italy and we stayed in a refugee camp in West Germany before eventually ending up in Australia. The book is about my childhood, the escape and the refugee camp, and our resettlement in Australia. I am also developing a comic book series for children. For all the details, please see my website.

Shelagh: Where can folks learn more about your books and events?

Ivana: Currently, the best place is my website www.ivanahruba.com . I hope to see you there. Otherwise, A Decent Ransom is available in lots of libraries worldwide.

Malcolm R. Campbell

Malcolm R. Campbell, is author of The Sun Singer and two satirical novels in the Jock Stewart series.

Shelagh: Please tell us a little more about yourself, Malcolm.

Malcolm: Shelagh, I’ve spent the bulk of my career as a technical writer for computer companies, most of which fell on hard times, though I don’t think it was my fault. I’ve also worked as a college journalism instructor, grant writer, and corporate communications director. Currently, I’m a contributing writer for a north Georgia magazine called Living Jackson. My first novel, The Sun Singer, was published in 2004, followed by a book of satire in 2006 called Worst of Jock Stewart.

Shelagh: When did you first begin writing and what did you write?

Malcolm: When I was in high school, I was quite certain I’d end up traveling the world writing exciting articles about exotic places for National Geographic. While I have written a few articles about exotic places, they were published in the shipboard magazine of the aircraft carrier I served aboard while in the Navy. My Indiana Jones career didn’t quite pan out. So now, I visualize exotic places in my fiction.

Shelagh: Briefly tell us about your latest book. Is it part of a series or stand-alone?

Malcolm: My latest novel is a mystery/thriller, published by Vanilla Heart in August, with a large dash of comedy in it called Jock Stewart and the Missing Sea of Fire. Stewart lives in the exotic states of inebriation and Texas where he works as an gruff, old-style investigative reporter for a small-town newspaper. He’s hot on the trail of the thieves who appear to have stolen the mayor’s race horse Sea of Fire and who might just be the same people who killed his publisher’s girl friend Bambi Hill. The police chief has warned Stewart that he (Stewart) has a target on his back. Stewart believes that as long as your number’s not up, you’re going to be okay.

Shelagh: What’s the hook for the book?

Malcolm: Jock Stewart goes out of his way to mock those in authority by pretending to kowtow to them. He admits he does his best work by “being an asshole” and a mix of Don Rickles and Don Quixote. He’s the man for the job when the skirts are up and the chips are down.

Shelagh: How do you develop characters and setting in your books?

Malcolm: Jock Stewart and the Missing Sea of Fire arose out of the characters and settings I created several years ago for a blog called Morning Satirical News. I used the blog to satirize everything via fake news stories for a newspaper called the Star-Gazer at the fictional everyman’s town of Junction City. When I decided to put Stewart into a novel, he dragged the whole crazy mess of people and places right along with him. I had no choice but to just let it happen. I typed the first draft straight through to the end without planning or worrying about anything. Needless to say, I faced a fair amount of editing after that!

Shelagh: Do you have specific techniques to help you maintain the course of the plot?

Malcolm: I put myself in the shoes of every character in the book and “see” the world through their eyes when they are in a scene. It’s almost a free association technique while within each character’s mindset. Words and actions for each character simply pop into my mind when I’m thinking about them. Sometimes I wonder who’s actually writing the novel. Is it me or am I channeling a bunch of people who are competing for the best lines and the best scenes? Some day this is my muse, while others claim it’s my subconscious mind. Whatever it is, I’m not going to mess with it.

Shelagh: Do you have a specific writing style or preferred POV?

Malcolm: I write in third person restricted, staying within the protagonist’s point of view throughout a book or story. In The Sun Singer, my style was magical realism with a fair amount of interior monologue and description. In Jock Stewart and the Missing Sea of Fire, the scenes and dialogue were much shorter and faster with the voice-over flavor of an old noir film out of the 1940s or 1950s.

Shelagh: How does your environment/upbringing color your writing?

Malcom: My father was a journalist and journalism educator. The house was filled with books, magazines, and writing professors. It would have been difficult to escape this kind of influence even if I’d wanted to. The Jock Stewart character has a lot in common with many of the older journalists who were on my father’s staff, men who came out to the house and told stories about moonshiner raids, tough editors and weird reporters hanging out in the newsroom, and afterhours trips to a favorite watering hole. I was a journalist for the Navy, but the low salaries wouldn’t put Scotch and/or food on the table, so I ended up in corporate America rather than the newsroom. I probably would have had fewer ulcers in the newsroom.

Shelagh: Share with us the best review that you’ve ever had.

Malcolm: Author Nancy Whitney-Reiter wrote that the novel features “small town hi-jinks delivered with healthy doses of sarcasm and wit. Jock Stewart is like Guy Noir freed from the confines of public radio. A must-read for anyone who likes their sleuths hard-boiled, their women salty, and their plots with as many twists and turns as a plate of the Purple Platter Diner’s spaghetti.”

Shelagh: Where can folks learn more about your books and events?

Malcolm: My books are available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble and Vanilla Heart. Readers can learn more about my books on my website at http://www.malcolmrcampbell.com and my author’s weblog at http://sunsinger.blogspot.com/.

Shelagh: Thank you for joining us today, Malcolm.

Malcolm: I enjoyed chatting with you here today, Shelagh.

Jean Holloway

I would like to welcome Jean Holloway, who has stopped in on her blog tour, Banned from Vegas. Jean’s books from her Deck of Cardz series are fictional detective stories following the career of a female lead homicide detective, Shevaughn Robinson. Ace of Hearts and Black Jack are currently available online and by request at your local bookstores.

Shelagh: Please tell us about Black Jack, Jean.

Jean: Black Jack is the sequel to my debut novel, Ace of Hearts.

Black Jack picks up four years after Shevaughn Robinson, lead homicide detective in Portsborough, NY, solves her first major case. She is anxiously living in the shadow of her high rate of arrests and closed cases. But it has all come at a price?

In Black Jack, Shevaughn tries to regain balance in her personal life just as the past comes back to haunt her. She will quickly find herself the center of yet another unique murder that feels a little too close for comfort.

Shelagh: What genre is Black Jack ?

Jean: I like to make sure I’m juggling a few genres. I’d say Black Jack is an adult romantic, psychological crime thriller.

Shelagh: That’s an interesting combination, Jean. I think you’ll have to explain how you married these genres in your book.

Jean: First, I classify it as adult, because my books are for the grown and sexy. It’s erotic, not erotica, yet definitely not for the kids.

The romantic elements involve you as you watch the growth of a loving relationship between the couples in this book, one being Shevaughn and Marcus, a local bookstore owner in Portsborough.

The psychological segments were a push for me. Out of nowhere, a past character, Terri Becker, emerged and I hate to say it but she’s a few a cans short of a six pack (if you know what I mean).

The crime is murder with the plot revolving around Shevaughn’s career and life depending on her solving this case. She has to get him or her before her life is tragically affected.

Lastly, it’s a thriller because you, the reader, have an opportunity to take in the story for the viewpoint of the lead detective attempting to balance her family obligations and her career and that of a depressed and confused psychopath looking for love in all the wrong places.

The two very different women are brought together by an opportunist that preys on weakness in others.

Shelagh: What should readers expect from Black Jack?

Jean: Expect the unexpected. Things are not what they appear to be, even I was surprise by the direction this story took.

Readers should turn the first page with an open mind and end the last page knowing that there is much more in store for Shevaughn Robinson.

About Black Jack

Black Jack is the sequel to Jean Holloway’s acclaimed debut novel, Ace of Hearts. Buckle up and follow Shevaughn as she moves closer to solving the murder of a lonely widow, unknowingly rekindling old grudges and awakening a sinister spirit.  Get ready, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Visit Deck of Cardz to learn more about Jean Holloway and her work. There you can download Black Jack eBook; watch the book video: Black Jack … Wanna Play, read the book synopsis; and more.