From Pages to Pages: Author Interview

How long have you been writing? Seriously since 1992, screenwriting since 2002, and full time since I retired from teaching in 2011.

When did you first know you could be a writer? When my teachers would rave about my talent in elementary and junior high school.

What genre are you most comfortable writing? I’m most comfortable writing stories that involve kids and/or families since that’s the audience that I’m most familiar with, know best, and I have the most prior knowledge of other works in the genre. Within that genre, I enjoy most stories that have fantasy or sci-fi elements that fascinate me and/or my audience.

What inspired you to write your first book? A student in one of my 6^th grade classes and her atrocious home life. One day, I thought to myself “cavemen could do a better job of raising this kid than her parents.” Thus was born the premise for WINDFORK SECRETS, my first self-published novel, which is, btw, coming out now completely re-edited from a traditional, new media publisher. Can’t wait!

What do you consider the most challenging about writing a novel, or about writing in general? The most challenging part of writing a novel is sticking with it long enough to finish it. It takes a loooong time, and in that time you can become pretty discouraged.

Did writing this book teach you anything and what was it? This book taught me a process for writing a novel from a screenplay, which is considerably easier than writing a novel from scratch. A screenplay makes a perfect “extended outline” for a novel, where all your basic settings, characterizations, and dialogue are already there—they just have to be expanded on to make them read well in narrative form.

Do you intend to make writing a career? It already is.

What is your greatest strength as a writer? My greatest strength is screenwriting, and within that, it’s coming up with high-concept premises and dialogue, especially where the kid/family audience is concerned. It’s very authentic.

Can you share a little of your current work with us? Certainly!

How did you come up with the title? It’s a play on words, has to do with both the setting for most of the story as well as the unique way that the main character wreaks revenge upon his enemies.

91SAcI6gNpL._SL1500_