INTERVIEW JOE CLIFFORD

 

Interview with Joe Clifford, 10 Questions    https://joeclifford.com/

 

Questions for Joe Clifford (for Miami Writers and Books, interviewed by Neil Crabtree)

·         Joe, tell us about your Miami connection. You worked with the Creative Writing program at FIU, is that right?

 

Yes! I earned my MFA from FIU back in 2008, an experience, to quote the Hold Steady, almost killed me. I went through an ugly divorce and near-fatal motorcycle accident that left me like Darth Vader (i.e., more machine than man). But I’d do it all again in a heartbeat. I wouldn’t be a working writer without Florida International. Certainly not writing mysteries, which is one of the few markets with a built-in, profitable readership. Few MFAs even allow genre, let alone encourage it.

 

·         Say My Name is tremendously popular with readers. Give us a synopsis of the story and what you think makes it work.

The book has done well. Probably my best-selling effort since my debut, Junkie Love, my memoir chronicling the ten years I spent as a hobo. Or at least Lamentation, the first in the Jay Porter thriller series. Which is a little funny. I mean, most of my publishers have been mid-sized indies (Oceanview, Polis)—and I love them all. But for whatever reason, the small the press, the more I’ve sold. I think part of that is owed to putting the whole thing on my back and doing what I do best (being stubborn and banging my head against walls).

The synopsis? A mid-list mystery writer returns to his hometown of Berlin, CT, with the hopes of teaching at his alma mater, Central CT State, only to be sucked back into a decades’ old cold case involving missing twins. Two of those things are true. And I think you can apply that same formula to the rest of the book. Two out of every three things you read is 100% factual. It’s couched as “true-crime novel,” which, of course, can’t exist. One is true, the other make-believe. I think that dichotomy factors into why it’s been working. There’s less distance between the writerly “I” and the I “I.”

 

·         Tell us about your own story. How did you decide to become Joe Clifford, Author?

This is the age-old question, isn’t it? Do we choose our professions or do our profession choose us? In my case, I’d say it’s a little of both. I’ve always been an artist. I paint, draw, write, play music. All the skills that don’t come with a steady paycheck or health insurance. I also can’t do anything else. I’m not a “people” person. I’d last about an hour in an office setting. After the motorcycle accident, I can’t do much physically. If I do do something, e.g., golf, weight lift, exercise, I have to pick and choose spots, and I need patches and pills, lidocaine injections, periodic spinal ablations, etc. I’m also at a certain age (50-something) where I’m not learning a new skill set. I am easily confused by my TV remote. I haven’t worked a conventional day job since the mid-nineties. It’s writing or crime, and I tried the latter and wasn’t very good at it.

 

 

·         Who are some Miami writers you enjoy?

Too many to list! All the faculty I studied under at FIU (Les Standiford, Jim Hall, Dan Wakefield, John Dufresne, Campbell McGrath, Denise Duhamel, and of course Lynne Barrett, who is the smartest person I’ve ever met. And I can’t begin to touch on all the folks I studied with. I’ll single out Jennifer McCauley, because she’s next on my TBR!

 

·         What are your writing habits? Do you keep to a schedule?

I write in burst. Frantic, manic bursts. I think all writers are a bit mad, aren’t they? I write two books a year, one in January, one in August. Our subconscious does so much of the heavy lifting. I’ve kept this pace for 10+ years. So when December and July roll around, my dreams start getting … weird

 

·         How is your relationship with your publishers?

Like I said, I’ve been published by mid to smaller indies, so … easy? Most of these houses are a handful of people, so it’s quite personal, your interactions. The ultimate question (for these houses) comes down to: can I make money with this author? If the answer is no, or yes (for a while) and then no, it’s nothing personal. That’s the part about writing you need to keep in mind: it’s a business. The publishing part. The writing part? That I’m doing with—or without—permission. My books are going to get out there, one way or another. Which is a very liberating (and calming) feeling.

 

·         Tell us about your earlier books.

Can you narrow that down? It sounds like a humblebrag, but it’s not. Or maybe it’s a straight up brag, I don’t know. I honestly lost track of how many books I’ve written. I could take the time to count them up. It’ll be between 17 and 20 (when the last one slated for publication, I Won’t Say a Word: A Say My Name Novel, comes out in May 2024). If there’s a theme or center, milieu, I tend to write about the marginalized and voiceless that I know about, which is drugs addicts. Having survived drug addiction, I have, like Liam Neeson, a specific set of skills. Or maybe that should read “limited.” I know what it’s like to be homeless and hopeless, so all my work contains some element of addiction, even if it’s only in a supporting role. I have a book coming out in January 2024, A Moth to Flame (Square Tire Books ©), and it’s domestic suspense, and the characters are all suburban and married or at least live in a house, but the shadow of addiction can still be seen.

 

·         Tell us about what’s next for you.

I’m working on a book about harm reduction with a former professor. And I’ll be starting my next mystery in a few days. This one is about a man who returns to the house he grew up in, with a strange request of the new occupants: he’d like to die there. Of course from there things … happen.

 

·         Do you remember John Dufresne’s Friday Night Writers?

I do! But I’ll tell you what I remember more about John. When I had my near-fatal accident in 2006, John and Cindy invited me to live with them while I was recovering. I wasn’t even in a wheelchair yet. I wouldn’t walk for six months! And here are two people, who I’ve known less than a year, who offer to let me convalesce and come back to life and, literally, learn to walk again. That tells you all you need to know about John, FIU, and how I feel about that community. I owe them all a tremendous debt.

 

·         Are we going to be watching a Joe Clifford movie any time soon?

Funny you should ask! Actually, a couple years ago, I contributed to a collection called Culprits. It’s a collaborative anthology about a heist gone wrong, edited by Richard Brewer and Gary Phillips. Anyway, Disney+ bought it—and better yet it’s in production by Character Seven. J Blakeson is the showrunner and the folks who produced Killing Eve are handling that end of it. It’s supposed to come out soon. Although with Hollywood’s refusal to pay writers fairly (I also side with labor), I can’t say when that will be!

Thanks for having me, Neil. A pleasure! 

UNBOOK 1

Changed Man

             I take a castration chemo drug every day, Abiraterone Acetate, 1000mg in four tablets. To make it work, I take a steroid, Prednisone. Chemical castration keeps the prostate cancer from spreading to my bones via testosterone. Prostate cancer won’t kill me, Doctor Sharma assures me. Cancer in the bones could kill me and so we reduce that possibility as best we can. Low testosterone is a major industry target market, for most men feeling less vigorous than before. But…if you increase your testosterone level and thus increase your PSA, you may learn what price glory the hard way. I never see any warnings on the TV ads, and often wonder what the Society of Urologists has to say. Though why kill the cash cow? The waiting rooms of urologists are packed all day. Business is good when the prostate is bad.

            So I start the day with a good swift kick in the balls. I’m used to it now. And I get a shot of Lupron every three months, female hormones in a time-release injection. I’m not sure of the science of this, though medical journals swear by immuno-therapy as the best treatment. God knows it’s much better than the radiation therapy I endured for nine weeks. Radiation is like medical science meets the Spanish Inquisition. It beats the daylights out of you, then two years later your condition comes back but your prostate is so burned and scarred, corrective surgery is no longer an option. Castration actually seems like a good idea compared to more radiation. Heroin suppositories seem like a good idea compared to radiation.  Maybe you have had radiation. Am I right? And chemo-therapy is brutal in many situations. My wife’s beautiful hair is gone and it’s not coming back. She’s cancer free now, quite healthy in fact, but she wears a wig when we attend a social function. We all know people with cancer. We all know people who have had the different therapies. As my brother’s physician, Doctor Fox, told him after a trip to the emergency room, the hospital will kill you quicker than the disease. Life’s full of surprises. God has a very strange sense of humor and we are constantly amazed by what new thing He has thrown our way. A kick in the balls each morning helps keep things in perspective.

            Over time, I have noticed I am a changed man. The castration, the female hormones, none of it hurts in any way. But I am mellowing out. I’m not horny anymore, which is so strange. My life has been dominated by cold-blooded lustfulness, as a girlfriend’s astrologist mother told me fifty-three years ago. Capricorn is a sign prone to this, she said. It made me feel better, for some reason. At least it’s not just me, I told her. 

            This loss of hormonal instincts has made me feel different about a lot of things. It has affected my writing, lowered the competitive drive. In group this coming session, I want to see if I can be more respectful of the efforts of others. I want to be more helpful, look for the good in each submission. If this had happened to me years ago, what might have happened? Would I have been a better writer? Would I be more considerate? More helpful? Would I be less cruel?

The novel I have been working on for a dozen years has fallen to the wayside. The Covid pandemic drained the life right out of me. It’s hard to worry about imaginary characters when the people around you are in danger. Still, I sit down and make a change here or there in the manuscript. Time away from a draft is not always a bad thing. I can see the whole story more clearly now, rather than individual chapters. Put in a China reference in the first chapter that now appears in the sixth. Connect the two. Make the heroin deal a red herring, the real deal being for Chinese Virtual Reality code. Get rid of some side plots. Or convert them to the setup for the next novel. I have nearly three hundred completed pages to revise. It ain’t easy, but it’s not that hard. Making time is somehow easier now. The hangovers less painful. The loss of my best reader/friend seems to send its own message: Move on.

I grew a beard as my Manly Man protest to the all the biological warfare on my virility. What started out as a Papa Hemingway attempt is now closer to Poopdeck Pappy. I found by shaving the mustache and some chin hair, I can achieve a kind of Planet of the Apes look. After all, I too am amazed that humans can talk. Not much amazing gets said, but the effort shows hopeful signs. Some say words are all used up but it’s repeated words that are used up. See something on social media and share it and a thousand others will be sharing the same thing at the same time. So I read strange things, looking for the lost communication. Have I lost the ability to write?  Did I ever have it? What has always been a problem for me is finishing projects. That’s why I love cooking, especially on my Weber grill. I get an idea and try it out, change ingredients in standard fare menus, and actually create something new and tasty and my critics are right here, hungry and willing to try Swordfish Kabobs with Mango and Pineapple or grilled pizza without red sauce on crusts bought at the bakery. The art is not so much in the cooking as it is in the shopping. I make Swordfish kabobs for five people and my food costs are under twenty dollars ($20). Being poor enables me to do what my grandmothers did, take simple things and make meals everyone remembers. And it all happens in one day. I never got that satisfaction from writing. Or, back in the old days, I got so excited I sent out unrefined drafts to considerate readers who were probably embarrassed by my enthusiasm and need for praise. Testosterone! Vanity! I should have been castrated years ago. Now I’m a shopper, a cook, a driver for family members without cars. And people with anxiety come to me to tell all. Being stuck at the grill makes me a captive audience. Does that make me a confessor? I don’t think it’s quite that formal. It seems everybody has a lot bottled up inside and I do the one thing that helps: I listen. There is a terror attached to modern life that makes communication nearly impossible. With smartphones, we can modify pictures of ourselves and add monkey ears and tails. But we can’t say what we mean, can’t mean what we say. Why? Because that’s the same as writing. The writer takes responsibility for what he writes and so must have the courage to make it available to be read by others. On Facebook, for example, some confess to depression and get daily reinforcement responses from Facebook friends. The key is: responses. Someone says something from out of the void. But the same person says something amusing and gets no response. The bell doesn’t ring, the food pellet doesn’t drop into the bowl. Back to depression posts, fishing for responses. Just being alive is not enough. The Internet has created monsters, kids gang up on other kids and drive them to suicide, to risk-taking, to mass murder. The behavioralism of social media was predicted by Marshall McLuhan in the 1960’s. No reads McLuhan anymore. No one reads B.F. Skinner. Beyond Freedom and Dignity was the book that ended his career. Modifying the behavior of individuals generated enough liberal outrage colleges like USF dropped the School of Behaviorism from its Psychology curriculum.  Anthony Burgess and then Kubrick satirized it in A Clockwork Orange. You can’t take away their freedom and dignity! You can’t take away their AR-15s! What, are you some kind of fascist? So, we settle for endless conversation. Why do people act this way, we wonder? And every day on television there are at least twenty shows featuring murder as the plot source. There are video games where shooting, slashing, and beating are not only featured but are so graphically realistic you might as well be in a building actually shooting total strangers. Why do people act this way, we wonder? We are conditioning them to act this way. We are protecting their freedom and dignity while they are exploring how many rounds of ammunition are required to kill everyone in a gay nightclub.

 

Lucky Jay Series

Are you a Lucky Jay fan yet?

Awards, News and Reviews

At the 2015 Miami Web Fest, 200 series were selected, 11 were nominated for Best Screenplay and Lucky Jaywon the gold trophy! Congratulations to writers John Dufresne, Angelo Eidse and Harper Philbin for this honor.

Watch Season 1 here

Watch Season 2 here

Interview with Neil Plakcy

Neil Plakcy is the author of over thirty novels and short story collections, a former president of the Florida chapter of  Mystery Writers of America hosting this year’s Sleuthfest, a teacher at Broward College, a social activist for LGBT issues, and a pioneer in eBooks and self-publishing. An incredibly active guy, Neil takes time to talk to readers of Miami Writers and Books.

1) Neil, it seems like a hundred years ago that I first met you at John Dufresne’s Friday Night Writers. That group included Ware Cornell, David Norman, Carol McFrederick, Mark Ginzburg, Henry Greenfield, and several other struggling writers. I can remember clearly what a stickler you were for good grammar, spelling and word usage, and how those who failed your standards got roasted quickly. Then encouraged, of course. You always encouraged improvement. Do you remember any of that?

I remember admiring John Dufresne for his commitment to helping writers -- all those chapters and stories to read! There were a lot of very talented authors there who provided me with insightful feedback, and it was an excellent opportunity for novice writers and those not involved with the MFA program at FIU to get the chance to put their work in front of readers and become familiar with the workshop method used in many creative writing courses.

Tell us about your involvement with MysteryWriters of America.

I joined MWA before my first mystery was published because someone told me I ought to. I started attending the monthly lunches and quickly got roped into helping out. I love the opportunity MWA provides to learn more about the craft of writing, the business of writing, and all the technical aspects that go into creating crime fiction. I have made many friends through MWA and participating in conferences like Sleuthfest. I’ve had the chance to meet many of my writing idols and also watch many talented colleagues succeed.

 Several years ago, you started your Mahu series, featuring a gay detective in Hawaii. I remember being shocked. For a redneck Catholic from Virginia to read a mystery where the good guy actually goes down on the bad guy and likes it, Good Lord man, I think I had an Afib right there in the bookstore. How are the Mahu books doing now, and where can readers buy them?

The company that published the first edition of Mahu was sold to another publisher who discontinued their fiction line, and I was lucky that a second publisher stepped up to continue the series. Then sadly they went out of business after I published three books with them. I started to worry that I was the kiss of death for publishers but then was fortunate to hook up with MLR Press, an independent publisher who has since brought out eleven books in the series. I’ve had the opportunity to work with MLR as an editor as well, strengthening their line in gay mystery. I’ve been able to edit some authors I really admire that way.

I recall that you literally had to go to New York City and pound the pavement to get your early work published. How has that changed over the years?

I think you still have to pound the digital pavement to find the right home for your works. Right now I publish with two different online presses—one for mystery, one for romance, which both put out my books in print as well as electronically. Last year I hooked up with a small operation in New York, Diversion Books, started by a pair of literary agents, and was very happy with the treatment I got for my first FBI thriller, The Next OneWill Kill You.

At the same time, I’ve seen several formerly well-regarded presses go out of business, so you have to know who you’re getting in bed with before you start taking off your clothes!

You were the first person I ever heard say that literary fiction was going nowhere, or held no interest for you, and that genre fiction was the right path for writers looking to get published. Maybe you could elaborate on that, since I’m sure I mangled your comment.

Literary fiction, when done well, is awesome and I hope there will always be publishers ready to take on those books. But you don’t have to be able to write something worthy of an American Book Award in order to get published today, and if you can tell a good story then the world of genre fiction is wide open. I consider myself a story-teller rather than a literary artist. Sure, I’m capable of writing a great line now and then, but what I want is to grab you by the lapels and make you listen to the story I want to tell. I try to do that using the tropes of romance and crime fiction to create characters you’ll want to meet and situations you’ll want to explore.

You taught a seminar at the 2010 Sleuthfest I attended. Will you be doing that again?

I won’t be at this year’s Sleuthfest (so you might want to skip this question.)

 Do you self-publish any of your work these days? At one time, you actually produced an excellent PowerPoint on self-publishing and marketing. It seems like that industry has grown tremendously.

I still self-publish my Golden Retriever mysteries, and I’m not opposed to self-publishing new work if that’s the way I can best (and most profitably) reach my readers. But as an example, I signed with Diversion because they could provide excellent editorial feedback, terrific cover design, and help with marketing. Self-publishing requires the author to do all those things, and more, so if I can find a partner with mad skills I’m happy to split my royalties.

I’m going to be the March luncheon speaker for Florida MWA, where I’m trying to take that old presentation a step further. Once you have a book published in print or electronic format there’s still more you can do—audio books are exploding in popularity, and I think the next wave is going to be translation into other languages. I’m going to talk about my experience in those areas.

Who are some local writers who should be featured at Miami Writers and Books? I know I’ve seen many writers from this area at your Book Launches. You introduced me to Barbara Parker at the Mahu Surfer booklaunch at the Mai-Kai years ago. She certainly had a great affection for you.

Sharon Potts, who like me is a hybrid author – published by Amazon’s Thomas & Mercer imprint and Oceanview, as well as self-publishing a couple of romances. http://www.sharonpotts.com/

Two of my colleagues at BC might be worth a look. Lourdes Rodriguez-Florido has published 2 YA books. I edited the second one for MLR—A Whisper of Angels. An interesting mashup of YA, M/M romance (very little romance) and angels. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4626015.Lourdes_R_Florido

If you’ll consider a poet, there’s Elisa Albo. She has two books out so far.

What is your schedule like this year?

Wish I knew! Still trying to figure out where to go and what to do.

 Do you do your own marketing and social media? Your sites look very professional.

Thanks – I used to be a technical writer and web developer so I enjoy getting into the HTML and fiddling with images, layout and so on. Social media is a huge time suck and it’s hard to strike a balance between “buy my book!” and “here’s something interesting about me.” Still working on that!

 Do you write every day?

Yes, I try to write for an hour every day, almost always in the morning and almost always at Starbucks. Writing is work—so my reward for putting my butt in the chair and opening my laptop is a nice grande mocha with whipped cream and mocha drizzle. Doesn’t do anything for my weight but does get me to knuckle down.

What’s your idea of a great vacation?

My next vacation goal is a river cruise somewhere in Europe. I have this fantasy of relaxing on deck with my laptop, writing while the world floats by! Breaking up the writing with stops in picturesque locations, and no need to pack or unpack every day.

The Lit of Flawed Democracy

These are days when millions of people in America and around the world question the recent election. Is democracy flawed in the United States? There are several books of note that have dealt with this very question over the years.

I.F. Stone (no relation to Sly Stone)had a famous weekly in the Dick Cavett  era, and also wrote an informed but opinionated history of the most famous Greek philosopher, Socrates. The Trial of Socrates. Most people know Socrates had to drink hemlock as his death sentence, but not many know why.

Socrates thought that allowing the common people to vote in a democracy was a bad idea. The undereducated could be easily swayed by a popular demagogue making promises of wealth and glory with little or no substance to back up the claim. Disaster would result.  A history of the Peloponnesian War would later bear out his argument.

The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon is probably the most famous tale of outside interference in a US election. Communist Chinese have brainwashed American soldiers captured during the Korean War and transferred to a secret "re-education" center in Manchuria. One of the Army officers is the son of a wealthy politician running for president, and he is the main target, brutally conditioned by torture and hypnosis to become a sleeper agent and assassin. The book has been in print for over fifty years, and made into two tremendously popular motion pictures. My favorite is the 1962 film starring Frank Sinatra, Lawrence Harvey, Janet Leigh, Henry Silva, and Academy Award winner Angela Lansbury.

Recntly, I have seen posts encouraging people to read It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis, which recently sold out online. An article in the Washington Post referred to both the Lewis novel and the more recent National Book Award winner by Philip Roth, The Plot Against America, a dark tale of pro-Nazi Americans led by national hero Charles Lindbergh who win the 1940 election and send America into a Fascist spiral. The article, by Carlos Lozada, June 9, 2016, gets into Trump-bashing more than I care to share here in this blog. I'm not into political statements; I'm writing about books and flawed democracy. Obviously, I am not the first or last to do so.

One of my favorite books ever is Burr by Gore Vidal. In this well-researched historical novel, Vidal examines the character of our Founding Fathers, and takes a close look at the Electoral College, where Aaron Burr tied Thomas Jefferson in electoral votes. Vidal also wrote another historical novel about rigged elections, 1876. Both should be popular reading these days.

Mark Frauenfelder at BoingBoing.net recently posted about another excellent book on outside interference, The Twentieth of January.

If you have other books to recommend, please do so. Try to avoid blatant attacks on the current president, no matter how strong the temptation. Remember what Frank Zappa said: Politics is the entertainment division of the military-industrial complex.

Guest Author Louis K. Lowy
In the interview below, the highlighted words are hyperlinks. You can click on them and go to the website represented, either an author site or book or even, thanks to Louis, a YouTube video of him and the band Hemlock performing in the 1980's. Find the online book review in one of the links.

Q & A with Louis K. Lowy

 When I first met you, you had written some short stories with very real characters and dialogue. Now you have three full novels published. Tell us about the development of your work.

First off, thank you for giving me the opportunity to be on your site, Neil. It’s an honor to be included. Regarding how I transitioned from short stories to novels, it was more a natural progression than a conscious effort. My short stories started out around 6-8 pages and gradually increased to forty-eight pages, which is venturing toward novella territory. When I started my first novel, Die Laughing, it was intended to be a short story, but as wrote it, I kept finding new avenues to explore. About fifty pages into it, I made the decision that it was going to be a novel. Of course, I had no idea how I was going to do that, but I kept plugging away.

 You have the official Book Launch for To Dream: Anatomy of a Humachine coming up Saturday January 28 5p.m. at Books & Books in Coral Gables. You must be very excited. How do you set something like that up?

Yes, indeed. I’m very excited! As to how you set it up, welcome to the business of writing. Basically, it boils down to contacting Books & Books, speaking with the person in charge of events and working out the details; contacting the caterer and working out the details; contacting the publisher and making arrangements to have the books; sending out notices via word of mouth and social media; figuring out what you’re going to present and then practicing it. There are numerous details in-between, but that’s the basic steps. It’s sometimes uncomfortable and time consuming work, but in the end it’s wonderful to see friends and book lovers gathered to hear your work. I also love the question and answers, I never know what’s going to pop up—or for that matter how I’m going to answer. One other thing, let me throw a special shout out to John Dufresne, he’s graciously agreed to do my introduction.

Do you have an agent? How did you find your first publisher?

I don’t have an agent. I found my publisher—IFWG Publishing—the old-fashion way. Hard work. First, and most importantly, before sending out my manuscript (or any of my work, for that matter) I made sure it was as perfect as I could make it. That includes edits and typos. When I felt confident the manuscript was ready, I researched publishers and how to contact them. There are great online resources these days. I also researched how to write a query letter and put one together. I sent it to many publishers and was fortunate to find that IFWG was interested in work. They’re great to deal with. Word of advice, you’re going to get a lot of rejections. I won’t lie, they sting, but the key is persistence. Remember, it’s not the amount of no’s you may receive, it’s only that one yes that counts.

 I see some very active social media campaigns promoting your work, on your website, Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads, for example. Do you do all that yourself?

Mostly, but not all of it. This is my third novel and I’ve made some wonderful acquaintances along the way in person and online. They’ve been generous in supporting me, reposting, retweeting my notices. I would be negligent if I didn’t mention how supportive the South Florida writing community is. My creative writing alma mater, FIU, has been particularly encouraging, that includes the staff, fellow grads, and the instructors.

Has your background as a musician helped you with the literary arts? Tell us about your music and bands. Do you still play professionally?

Playing music has definitely influenced how I write. I tend to think about the rhythmic structure of words and sentences, which is a throwback to my music. I unconsciously throw in bands and music in nearly all of my stories—certainly in all of my novels. I also think of playing music and writing in similar same terms. Both take discipline, constant listening (or reading), and practice.

Regarding bands—the most well-known was a group called Hemlock. We were signed to Warner Brothers Records and had a minor dance hit called “Disco Break.” This is super-embarrassing, but here’s a YouTube link of us playing it on a local TV show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKoYsKjmdV0 I played in original bands after Hemlock and loved the creative process. In most of the groups I was the go-to guy for lyrics, which helped later on with my writing.

I don’t play professionally anymore because I love writing too much. I do have to admit, though, that writing is like being in a one man band. You make all of the decisions about timing, structure, pacing, feel, and length. When it works, it’s very satisfying creative wise.

What are you working on now?

I’ve recently completed a fantasy novel about a gambler on the brink of death who gets a chance to save his soul, and a late Victorian era horror story. I’m current working on my sixth novel - a crime story that takes place in Florida, circa mid-sixties.

What sells best for you, print books or eBooks? Do you have to format your own eBooks?

Hmm, I don’t know. It’s probably a combination of the two. I’ll have to look at my publisher statements closer.

As far as formatting eBooks, I don’t do anything involving the actual process of publishing, including formatting. The publisher handles that. I do get a say on the interior look and the cover, which I’m always happy about.

How did the Creative Writing program at Florida International University help you?

In addition to their support, the beautiful thing about the Creative Writing program is that it saved me time. Through their classes I was given the opportunity to learn the craft of writing, and to avoid a lot of trial and error. Not all of it, of course, but more than if I had worked on it without any guidance and instruction.

Who are some of your favorite authors and books?

Charles Dickens – Great Expectations, James Joyce - Dubliners, Jane Austen – Pride and Prejudice, Stephen King – Carrie, etc., Ray Bradbury – R is for Rocket, Stan Lee – his Marvel comics body of work, William Gibson – Neuromancer, Louise Penny – Bury Your Dead, J.R.R. Tolkien – Hobbit, etc., Haruki Murakami – Norwegian Wood, Ernest Hemingway – To Have and to Have Not, and the one I’m currently reading, J.D. Salinger – Nine.

What is your schedule like this year?

Busy! Between my writing schedule, preparing for my book launch of To Dream, keeping up with my writing groups and sending out queries for my other novels, days zip by.

Do libraries carry your books? Where do they get them? (Direct from the publisher or through Ingram, for example)

Some libraries do carry them. Sometimes I’ll make the acquaintance of librarians and they’ll get the book through me, other times they’ll order them through the publisher, I suppose, but possible Ingram, too.

Tell us about  To Dream: Anatomy of a Humachine

It’s my most ambitious piece to date. Four key storylines are going on in different centuries and different planets, but they all intertwine and affect each other. As to the actual plot, I’ll quote from IFWG Publishing: “Guilt ridden over the death of her 17-year-old son, Jay, scientist Niyati Bopari heads a team that creates a Humachine (human machine) for mega-corporation Ameri-Inc. Niyati dubs the Humachine J-1 and creates it in Jay’s image. She secretly infuses it with Jay’s DNA. J-1 is the most sophisticated robot ever created and its purpose is to replace human labor. Before J-1 and his blueprints can be transported to Ameri-Inc. headquarters a rogue Ameri-Inc. agent attempts to steal them. 

“Anatomy of a Humachine is a science fiction epic spanning two centuries and crossing two planets. Book I: To Dream centers on J-1, an artificial intelligence struggling to find his humanity; the grieving scientist who created him; the ruthless head of the corporation who owns him; and the iron-willed leader of a rebel force seeking revenge for the death of her family and the destruction of her planet.”

Do you write every day?

This is my writing schedule: Monday through Friday, minimum three hours a day (though I rarely go over three hours). I’m strict about it and only break it if I have no choice.

Who are some local writers and artists you’d like to see featured at Miami Writers and Books?

There are so many amazing local writers, including, but not limited to, Mike Creeden, Jan Becker, Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello, Corey Ginsberg, Fabienne Sylvia Josaphat-Merritt, Nina Romano, M.J. Fievre, Rita Fidler Dorn, Cathleen Chambless, Laura McDermott, and, of course, John Dufresne, Lynne Barrett, Julie Marie-Wade, Campbell McGrath, and Denise Duhamel.

What else would you like to say to readers interested in your work?

Check out my website, follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. I’m easy to find and love to hear from anyone interested in reading and writing.

The gentleman in the photo is my friend Sam Hazelrig. Sam figures in Miami literary history in several ways. One, as one of the co-heroes in Ron Oliver's book, Mock Two. Mock Two is a novel written about fighter pilots like Sam and Ron and the wild life they led during the VietNam war and back here as bachelors in 1960's era Coconut Grove. The Grove at that time, just imagine. That's where 
Fred Neil and friends played music, where Spanky MacFarlane met them and got together a group called Spanky and Our Gang. Sam continued his legendary life, and figured as a central character in my story, "Ladies Man" in the collection Believable Lies. His life story lives on in the hearts of friends and family from California to Florida, Tampa and Miami, Alabama to Washington, and we share this with his lovely widow, Gabrielle Ayala, a modern-day Delta Lady if there ever was one.

This post is to show that Miami Writers and Books has a far reach, and will include folks near and far, like James Jones, who taught briefly at Florida International University, Barry Jenkins, the director of Moonlight, Peter Matthiessen, whose Killing Mister Watson tells the history of the Ten Thousand Islands, Ted Smallwood's store, and how Alligator Alley got built. More to follow.