Thriller/Espionage
Date Published: 07-04-2025
Publisher: Logikal Solutions
Is There a Message in Your Novel That You Want
Readers to Grasp?
What goes up doesn’t
always come down. Assumptions are what get people killed.
Is there anything you find particularly
challenging in your writing?
Low quality Agile
developed software. Cannot tell you how many times a “forced software update”
trashed a file. Even with backups you can spend days trying to back out that
“update” while attempting to block the OS from ever updating again. Honestly, I
miss the days before the Internet. If you didn’t load it from disk, it didn’t
get installed. Privacy was real then too.
How many books have you written and which is your
favorite?
The Zinc It! Series
had three titles but I do not know if the third got printed. The Minimum You Need to Know book series
currently has nine titles. The Earth That Was trilogy has, of
course, three titles. Twenty of Two The Infamous They has one
with another “in process.” I guess the current count is sixteen.
If You had the chance to cast your main character
from Hollywood today, who would you pick and why?
I wouldn’t pick anyone
currently “known.” Old Timer needs to be played by a complete unknown. An older
character actor who is in reasonable shape but you wouldn’t look at twice
passing him in an airport or seeing him at a bar. This is the kind of story a
small studio could do on a small budget. If it has to be a known name, John
Cusack might be able to pull it off, but he is too recognizable. William
Fichtner is a guy good at disappearing on screen when he needs to. I mean
Nicolas Cage is someone I love, but he would try to make it an “edgy” role. You
really need an unknown or someone that will disappear into the role for this.
If you read the book you realize, it’s the story. Just how much is real?
A good looking, highly recognizable actor with substantial fan base could
actually be a detriment. David Morse might be another candidate. He’s in the
right age range with an “every guy” kind of look most people wouldn’t notice in
a crowd.
Long ago there was a
documentary, perhaps a long Dateline type show about Carlos “The
Jackal.” He was the most wanted man in the world for roughly two decades and he
walked through airports without disguises. How? As the documentary said and
showed with all of the surveillance photos, nothing stood out. He was so
plain nobody ever noticed him.
That’s really what you are
looking for in an actor for Old Timer. Why? Credibility. Someone like Arnold
Schwarzenegger could not play this role because he stands out in a crowd. Pay
attention to Melony’s dialog in Arrival. What did she actually see in
Old Timer?
When did you begin writing?
Long before we had
Internet or even computers, my grandmother and her sisters insisted I write
them as a child. It became habit. My first published book was Zinc It!
Interfacing Third Party Libraries with Crossplatform GUI’s
published in 1995 by John Gordon Burke Publisher, Inc. Only got into writing
novels and novellas over the past few decades.
How long did it take to complete your first book?
Less than three months
even with the back-and-forth with the publisher. Geek books have to be banged
out fast.
Did you have an author who inspired you to become a writer?
Honestly, no. As a child,
because we only had five television stations, three if the weather wasn’t
clear, I checked out lots of books from the school library. I’m probably one of
the few people you will speak with who read the first three books from The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant while in
high school. Agatha Christie was a favorite, but so was Bulfinch’s Guide to
Mythology.
What is your favorite part of the writing
process?
Those cherished few days
when nobody calls or drives up, I’m sitting at a comfortable keyboard, and the
characters are just screaming their stories. I took typing in high school (yes,
it was a course then, taught along with shorthand) and barely managed to type
35 words per minute required to pass the class. After years of writing
software, when I’m at a comfortable keyboard and the characters are screaming
I’m at least three, if not four-plus times that fast.
Describe your latest book in 4 words.
It could be real
Can you share a little bit about your current work or what is in the
future for your writing?
I’m currently focused on an Open Source software project called BasisDoctrina
and helping on the family farm. Harvest is just around the corner. I did start
writing the sequel. Twenty of Two The
Infamous They – The Druids. At least
that is the working title. Some extremely interesting characters demanded to be
in the sequel. We shall see when I get it done and if the title remains. Like Five Nuclear Wars You Can Win, it
doesn’t go where you think it will. That book was a very long journey. Oldest
backup files I found went back to 2008. Old Timer wasn’t even in the early
versions. An author must listen to the characters. Not just the ones speaking
loudest or most often, but the ones with the really interesting story.
About the Author
When he is not consulting or writing geek books for his award winningThe Minimum You Need to Know technical book series or helping out on the family farm, he writes novels and blog posts. You can find him on logikalblog.com and interestingauthors.com/blog
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