Thursday, February 7, 2013

The Next Big Thing - A Blog Hop


blog-hop-the-next-big-thing









Many thanks to Patricia Zick (http://pittsburghwriter.wordpress.com) for tagging me for this blog hop! Due to a little...uh...er...procrastination on my part, I'll be following this up with some additional tagged authors in a few days. Until then, enjoy, and please visit the authors tagged at the bottom.

What is the working title of your next book?

SEVEN UNHOLY DAYS is the working and final title. Once I get a concept in my head, I find it impossible to really move forward until I've named it.


Where did the idea come from for the book?

After losing power for a couple of weeks in an ice storm, I became acutely aware of just how dependent we are on electric power and wanted to explore that issue in a story. From that seed the story grew into a techno-story peppered with deciphering ancient clues.


What genre does your book fall under?

Thriller, specifically a technothriller.


Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Matthew McConaughey would be a great Matt Decker (the main character). Jack Nicholson would be the ultimate actor for the villain.


What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Lunacy plus vast techno-resources make for a REALLY bad week for the world.


Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I'm going the independent route with this one for now. I've been agented a couple of times and am at a point in my writerly pursuits where I prefer a little more control over the process. I've gotten enough brutally candid feedback over the years to hone my craft to a commercial level, and I'm enjoying this newly viable process.


How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?


I worked on the first draft for about a year.


What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I think readers of Daniel Suarez's titles DAEMON and FREEDOM will find it particularly engaging, along with those who enjoy clue-driven tales like those by Dan Brown.


Who or What inspired you to write this book?

There are a lot of authors whose work inspired and influenced but at the end of the day, I wanted to write a story I would love to read myself. I'm a big fan of Grisham's crisp narratives, the clue chases of James Rollins, and the overall power to craft a compelling story of Nelson DeMille.


What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Based on a lot of feedback from private readers, this is a story that grabs you early and never lets go. James Rollins did me the honor of reading it and told me it kept him up most of the night because he couldn't put it down. It's timely and very contemporary while also revolving around a hunt to find and decipher ancient clues. Give it a look!



Please check out the answers to these same questions from these authors!

Inez Reilly
Elise K. Ackers
Harriet Cammock

Ferris Robinson


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Tuesday, February 5, 2013

And not a Rebel was sleeping...

At least not any Ole Miss Rebel who follows football recruiting. It's an anxious evening, much like the night before Christmas. National Signing Day will get kicked off at 6:30 AM tomorrow morning, a day that could yield the best recruiting class in school history, a history that includes a whole lot of good football teams. There are a multitude of stories out there right now on this Ole Miss recruiting class and thanks to Google and Facebook and Twitter, they're easy to find. My story is more personal. (You knew there had to be a story involved, right?)




On an October weekend in 1974, I had gone home with a high school friend on Friday afternoon and spent the night. When we woke up the next morning, his father asked at breakfast if we'd like to go to an Ole Miss game that afternoon. While my friend and his family had no doubt been to many such events, I'd never been to anything beyond a high school football game, so it sounded quite exciting to this Delta boy who, like everyone else in the country at that time, had heard of Ole Miss and its not-too-long-departed quarterback, Archie Manning. We departed the flatlands and arrived in the rolling hills of Oxford, and made our way to the stadium. I still vividly remember walking up through portal E and seeing the field of what is now Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. It was like something from a picture, brightly colored perfection full of wondrous sights and sounds. The field, the crowd, the band, the football, just the whole experience, would enchant me from that day.

I would eventually attend Ole Miss as a student and be a genuine fanatic for Ole Miss football for decades. Over those decades, I would witness many ups and downs in football wins and losses. I would have kids, raise kids, and take them to games from the time they were five years old. I would take in the wonders of The Grove and follow the team around the SEC and bowl venues spread far and wide. Fall was my time of year. Color in the trees and football in the air. Nothing like it. I would witness The Divine Wind, The Drive, The Stand, The Hit, and most of the other extraordinarily memorable moments of Ole Miss football as the years passed.

In all these years, I have never felt anything remotely like this sense of excitement around our football program. Not even in the Eli years. It's an amazing thing to behold, and it's a thing this Rebel has awaited for almost forty years. Will the dominoes finally fall our way tomorrow and signal a new era in Rebel football? Yes, I think they will. It's gonna be a long night!

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