This holiday season, I’ve decided to promote some of my writer friends and ask them some of the same questions that folks ask me. Today’s guest/victim is:

Alexander S. Brown

First, a little something about Alex.

Alexander S. Brown is a Mississippi author who was published in 2008 with his first book Traumatized.  Reviews for this short story collection were so favorable that it has been released as a special edition by Pro Se Press.  Brown is currently one of the co-editors/coordinators with the Southern Haunts Anthologies published by Seventh Star Press.  His horror novel Syrenthia Falls is represented by Dark Oak Press.

He is also the author of multiple young adult steampunk stories found in the Dreams of Steam Anthologies, Capes and Clockwork Anthologies, and the anthology Clockwork Spells and Magical Bells. His more extreme works can be found in the anthology Luna’s Children published by Dark Oak Press and State of Horror: Louisiana Vol 1 published by Charon Coin Press.

Visit Smashwords.com, Amazon.com, and Barnesandnoble.com to download his monthly short stories known as Single Shots.  These are represented by Pro Se Press and they are known as stories that will be featured in the upcoming book The Night the Jack O’Lantern Went Out.                                                                                                                                                                           

Do you base your characters on people you know or know of? Family or celebrities?

It depends on the story.  My character development can be inspired by people I know, strangers I watch, the news, celebrities, and literary figures.

Do you plot out your stories or just make it up as you go?

I have tried plotting out stories, but the stories never turn out the way I planned.  The characters take on a life of their own and I have no other choice but to document their decisions.

Which of your characters would you most like to meet in person? Which character of another author would you want to meet?

I would like to meet Syrenthia from my novel Syrenthia Falls, she is a gray character that represents the beast hidden in all of us.  As a villainess, she is a character that I hated to love.

From another book, I would like to meet Lestat from Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles.  He’s a rock and roll vampire, who wouldn’t want to get bitten by him?

What is your latest project/release?

The anthology I composed with Louise Mysers Southern Haunts 3: Magick Beneath the Moonlight is my most current release.  Southern Haunts: Spirits that Walk Among Us regarded ghosts, its sequel Devils in the Darkness regarded demons, and this volume regards occult practices amongst the southern states.

Do you have any signings or appearances coming up?

I will attend Geekonomicon in Biloxi, MS on December 11,12 and 13 as a special guest.

Who were your inspirations?

I was inspired by Stephen King, Clive Barker, Edgar Allan Poe, and H. P. Lovecraft during my teenage years.  In my adulthood, I have found inspiration in Joe Hill, John Ajvide Lindqvist, Scott Sigler, and David Moody.

Do you have a dream project that you want to write in the future? 

My upcoming book The Night the Jack O’ Lantern Went Out is one of my dream projects.  Besides this book, there are other horrors trapped in my head.  I guess you could say that I have many dreams, or in my case, nightmares.

How much of you is in your characters?

Since the main characters in my horror stories are villains, very little of me can be seen.  Between the genres I write, my steampunk characters reflect me most.   Two characters who share most of my personality would be Dr. Xavier Hess (steampunk) and Syrenthia (horror).

Do you prefer writing short stories or novels?  And why?

I enjoy writing short stories as much as I do novels, but I enjoy them for different reasons.  Short stories allow a minimal amount of time to create.  In this small time frame, the author has to create likable characters, provide a solid setting, and get to the point.  In a novel, the author is granted a much larger scale for world development, character development, and the opportunity to have a reader become emotionally attached to the characters.  The challenge that either task provides is fun for me.

What are you working on now?

I am currently editing my first fantasy/horror novel The Looking Glass Creatures which will be published by Seventh Star Press.  For Pro Se Press I’m finishing Traumatized 2 and will soon have edits complete for The Night the Jack O’ Lantern Went Out.  I am also building characters for the Syrenthia Falls sequel.

What 3 things do you feel every aspiring writer should know?

1. Write because you want to share your story not because of money.
2. Write every day and don’t start editing until your story is complete.
3. Be a hard critic on yourself, but have enough confidence in yourself to know your story deserves to be read.

How do you use social media in regards to your writing?

Social media is extremely important to me.  It allows me to connect with not only readers in my country but the world.  My best advice is to go onto the internet to connect with others, have fun, and don’t be afraid to engage in conversation.  Remember, when doing this, you have to sell yourself as a person no differently than you sell yourself as an author.   Post updates on your work and your success, but also post updates in regards to your personal life, and share news that you find interesting.

Thank Alex. To find his books, click below:

This holiday season, I’ve decided to promote some of my writer friends and ask some of the questions that folks ask me. Today’s guest/victim is:

Tom Woods

First, a little something about Tom.

Veteran sports writer and copy editor Tom Wood has covered a wide variety of events, ranging from Nashville universities to boxing, from the Iroquois Memorial Steeplechase to the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games—for the Tennessean, where he also wrote a number of entertainment features. After his retirement from that newspaper, he has continued to contribute freelance articles for several news outlets.

At what age did you start writing or know that you wanted to write?

I’ve been writing since I was five years old, a story about my Grandmother coming for a visit. The story ended with a knock at the door and me opening it wide. The final line was … “And there stood dear, old Grandma.” Not bad, considering my age. She kept it all her life and gave it back to me a few years before she died. I worked on my high school newspaper in Atlanta and on the college newspaper, yearbook and creative magazine at Middle Tennessee State University. That experience helped me land a part-time job in the sports department at The Tennessean, which I was able to turn into a 36-year career as a sportswriter and copy editor. I primarily covered local universities. I also wrote about boxing, covered the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and spent a couple of summers writing entertainment features for the paper. The last half of my career I devoted to writing headlines and editing. I’m enjoying creative writing again.

Where do your ideas come from?

Sometimes from the news, sometimes from books/other media, sometimes … the universe? I often feel like I’ve been led to an idea, being in the right place at the right time. In Vendetta Stone, for example, the novel is completely fictional, and not based on a true case as I am often asked. But I did get the idea for the novel from a Nashville murder several years ago. A teen-ager was murdered in a restaurant robbery and the father was being interviewed on the local TV newscast. The man was very angry and after the segment ended, I turned to my wife and said, “Wow, he doesn’t want justice. He wants revenge.” Then I added, “And so would I if something like that ever happened to you.” Then I thought to myself, “That’s a pretty good line,” and couldn’t let it go. An hour later, I was writing and trying to figure out how Jackson Stone would go about seeking vengeance for the murder of Angela. I don’t have those skills, but Jackson does. It just took off from there. But the point is, if I hadn’t seen those couple of minutes of that particular newscast, I might never have gotten the idea for the book.

My first Western short story, “Death Takes a Holliday”—gambler/gunfighter Doc Holliday plays his last poker game against Death himself—came after reading an anthology called “Stagecoach” while I was sick. Every story had a stagecoach theme. All great stories, and after finishing, I thought, “I bet I could write one of those.” I turned on the TV, and Tombstone was playing. I’d always been fascinated with the Old West, particularly Wyatt Earp, Doc and the Gunfight at OK Corral, and the story just flowed out of me. Again, right place, right time.

Do you base your characters on people you know or know of? Family or celebrities?

Having spent my working career as a journalist, I was privileged to meet some great characters in The Tennessean newsrooms. John Seigenthaler, John Bibb, Al Gore, Larry Woody, Jerry Thompson, Gale Kerr, Sandy Campbell, Nick Sullivan, David Climer—the list goes on and on. Wonderful reporters and writers, rich personalities—and all with great stories to tell. And you get to meet and interview some amazing personalities in the news business, both on and off the field. And I come from a family of great jokesters and story-tellers, my dad especially. He kept all us kids rapt with ghost stories and tales of growing up in North Carolina. Ditto for the TV reporters and editors I’ve known over the years. All of my characters have bits and pieces of all of us, but none specific. You want your characters to live and breathe on their own.

How much of you is in your characters?

A lot of readers think Vendetta Stone narrator Gerry Hilliard is me—except with hair. We both worked (he still does) for Nashville’s morning newspaper, so that’s a natural assumption. Gerry has character traits of a lot of newspaper folks I’ve known over the years. Ditto for the TV reporters and editors I’ve known over the years. The biggest difference between me and Gerry is that I spent my career in sports, not the crime beat. But there are overlaps in sports writing, when an athlete gets in legal trouble or when he gets hurt (medical writing) or a new pro franchise (business). Journalism is a great training ground for novelists.

My protagonist, Jackson Stone, is also a lot like me in that we’re both Christian. We share similar values and beliefs, in some respects, but differ in many others. He was a lot better athlete than I ever was, for one. And as a former Marine, he’s a heck of a lot tougher than me. I could not (and would not) do or make some of the choices he makes in Vendetta Stone. The book explores Jackson’s plan for revenge against his wife’s murderer, how he reconciles his faith and his motives. And he has to deal with backlash from the media, the police, his friends, co-workers and family, and his Pastor and Church family. Brother Robert Armstrong uses the Sunday pulpit to talk about the case. So there are a lot of subplots. But it’s basically a fast-paced revenge/redemption story.

If you could live the life of one of your characters, who would it be?

Since I’ve pretty much lived Gerry’s life as a journalist, there’s a new character in the sequel I’m writing that I really like. His name is Mitch Westman and everybody calls him Cowboy. He is a former Marine sniper who is descended from a long line of Texas Rangers. His role was initially a minor one, but it has grown substantially—so much so that I may do a spinoff with him as protagonist. Cowboy’s had a hard life, but has lived it on his rough-and-tumble terms. We have little in common, so it’s been fun exploring his personality.

Do you plot out your stories or just make it up as you go?

I’m about 50/50 on plotting. Once I figure out the basic plot—the start, then mid-point and the finish—then I let the story tell itself on how to get from point A to B to C. Occasionally, I will run into a brick wall when writing this way, something doesn’t make sense or whatever, so I just back up and take the story in a different direction. Some writers plot chapter by chapter; it’s just whatever style works best for you. I have done more plotting for the second novel.

Do you listen to music while you write and if so, what do you listen too?

I grew up doing my homework with the stereo record player at full blast (driving my parents nuts). The volume’s not as high as today, but I do like having background music. Mostly last century music, generally 1950’s-70’s rock that I grew up on, some 80’s. I like new music, but not when writing. Occasionally soundscapes or country or big band or whatever it takes to get into the spirit of the scene I’m writing. When I was writing about the serial killer in Vendetta Stone, I would play heavy metal, darker lyrics. It worked.

Is Writer’s Block ever a problem for you?  If so, how do you deal with it?

Not really, because of my journalistic training. I rely on the time-tested Five W’s and an H—Who, What, When, Where, Why and How—to answer every plotting question. Who’s the protag, the love interest, the killer? What happened to Baby Jane? When is the story set, last week, next year or next century? Where is the setting, the sea, the mountains, or in the dank basement of the house next to you? If so-and-so said or did this, what are the consequences? Why did it happen? Answer those questions and you’ll work through any blockage.

What is your funniest/ awkward moment at a convention/signing event?

At one signing, a little boy came in with his parents. They headed to the back of the store while he lingered over a book, thumbing through it. I smiled and said very pleasantly, “That’s my book.” His eyes grew wide, horrified, and he dropped the book and ran off to find his parents. I’ve had people tell me they don’t read books; I usually answer, “Well, they make great gifts for somebody in your family who does.” It works sometimes.

How much do you write each day/week?

Not as much as I should. When writing Vendetta Stone, I was still at the newspaper and wrote 2-3 hours before going to work, then wrote 8 hours on my days off. Since I self-published, I have to do everything, from booking appearances and doing promotion to keeping up with the financial end to, well, everything. As one writer friend put it, “writing is art and everything else is business.” And everything else cuts into the writing time. It’s been sporadic, but I am cutting back on PR aspects until the next book is finished. I need to write several hours each day to knock it out. Then the cycle will start all over again.

Favorite authors? What book do you read over and over the most?

I just finished re-reading I, The Jury by Mickey Spillane, one of my favorites. Mike Hammer was as tough as they come. I loved anything by Alistair MacLean, Mark Twain, Stephen King, John Grisham, Mario Puzo, Robert A. Heinlein, Arthur C. Clark, and so many others. I enjoy re-reading The Godfather and Stranger in a Strange Land. And I am a big fan of Louis L’Amour.

What is your latest project/release? What are you working on now?

      Vendetta Stone (2013) was my first full-length novel, and it is the first in a series about Jackson Stone and his friends (and enemies). The sequel, tentatively titled Turn to Stone, is near completion and will be released sometime in 2016. I’ve mapped out five books in the series, but will keep writing about Jackson and his friends (and enemies) as long as people are interested. I’ve written a screenplay based on Vendetta Stone, and it made it to the semifinals of the 2015 Nashville Film Festival screenwriting competition, so we’ll see where that goes. I mentioned the Western short stories; I also have an ongoing Western anthology project with four other authors.

Thanks Tom. You can find his books here.

This holiday season, I’ve decided to promote some of my writer friends and ask some of the questions that folks ask me. Today’s guest/victim is:

 Stephanie Osborn

First, a little something about Stephanie.

Stephanie is a retired rocket scientist turned writer who likes to mingle science fiction and mystery with a strong element of action thriller and a touch of romance. Her style has been described as, “Hard-edged SF that wraps a compelling mystery around ‘this is the real thing’ space science…tight, tense, and gripping. Osborn tells a damn good story, and tells it well.”

At what age did you start writing or know that you wanted to write?

Wow. I started writing when I was a kid. I think I wrote my first poems in 3^rd grade. I know I wrote a play when I was in 4^th grade. It was horribly derivative of the television I was watching, but evidently my English teacher saw something in it, because she let me cast and produce it for the class. By grades 5-6, I was writing short stories, and when I was in high school I wrote a Sherlock Holmes short story and submitted it to the school literary magazine. They were blind-judged, and the English lit teacher threw it out for a plagiarism. She thought someone had copied down one of Arthur Conan Doyle’s original stories and submitted it.

Where do your ideas come from?

If I knew that, I’d really have something going. I could even sell it! Closest I’ve ever been able to come is the half-formulated idea from the Displaced Detective books that writers record events from alternate universes. It’s as good an idea as any, I suppose.

Do you base your characters on people you know or know of? Family or celebrities?

When I first started writing professionally, I used to mentally “cast” the characters. The leads would be actors/actresses, and the secondary characters might be based on people I knew. But now they are pretty much sprung whole-cloth from my imagination. I have to be reminded to Tuckerize people who have asked for it.

Do you plot out your stories or just make it up as you go?

Oh heavens, a little of both, actually. Since I write some fairly hardcore mysteries, you pretty much got to do a LITTLE plotting, just to make sure you get your clues in the right places, and they point in the right direction. But my general inclination is to pants it.

Do you listen to music while you write and if so, what do you listen to?

I used to. There were a couple of cable stations on TV that would play the local National Public Radio stations, and I’d listen to that, because it was largely classical or jazz. Then they took those off, and I find playing stuff on my laptop slows it down too much. If I do, it has to be something that is purely instrumental, otherwise I get distracted, singing along.

Which of your characters would you most like to meet in person? Which character of another author would you want to meet?

I think I’d really love to meet Sherlock Holmes. We might not get along very well, but it would be interesting!

Which of your stories/books/works do you consider the best?

Now, now. That’s like asking a parent which child is their favorite.

How much do you write each day/week?

It varies. Depends on how much inspiration I have, and how much energy. My physical condition is a huge factor. If I’m sick or worn out, I haven’t the energy to create. When I’m in peak condition, with some real inspiration on, 5000 words a day is not unreasonable. The last couple-three years have been rough for me medically, though, so I’ve slowed down a bit.

What is your latest project/release?

That would be Sherlock Holmes and the Mummy’s Curse, book 1 of the Gentleman Aegis series. It’s a prequel series to my Displaced Detective series, about the adventures of “my” alternate-universe version of Sherlock Holmes, only it’s set long before he transitions to the modern day in our universe.

So think Holmes and Watson as very young men, still trying to find their way in the world. Their famous reputations are still in the future, cases are few and far between, so when one of Holmes’ old university professors invites them along on his Egyptian expedition to find the tomb of the first Pharaoh – a paying gig – they eagerly accept. But what they find is something quite different.

Do you have any signings or appearances coming up?

I have the Killer Nashville mystery convention on Halloween weekend, and I’ll be at CONjuration in Atlanta in mid-November. After that, I tend to back off on conventions and such, and enjoy the holidays with family and friends. I’ll pick back up again in January. And I’ll certainly be doing interviews whenever anyone wants one.

Who were your inspirations?  Favorite authors?

I’m going to lump these two questions together, because it’s kind of the same for me. Doyle, Tolkien, Bradbury, Asimov, Pournelle, Niven, Shakespeare, H.G. Wells, Dickens, Thoreau, Twain…I think you see the pattern there. I’ve also read Thomas Mallory, Dante, Aristotle, Plato, Stoker, Mary Shelley, Whitman, Sandburg, Sophocles, Euripedes, Aristophanes, Chaucer, and many more. Somewhat eclectic, and all classic. And yes, I’m an omnivorous reader.

What book do you read over and over the most?

Oh geez. I’m thinking it’s a toss-up between Dicken’s A Christmas Carol and Wells’ War of the Worlds, though I read Doyle and Tolkien an awful lot too, especially Doyle. But I nearly always read War of the Worlds at Halloween, and A Christmas Carol at Christmas.

How much of you is in your characters?

Very little, actually. It’s kind of funny; I have been accused of writing Dr. Skye Chadwick-Holmes, the wife of Sherlock Holmes in the Displaced Detective series, as my own personal Mary Sue – because she’s a world-class hyperspatial physicist, and I’m an astrophysicist, so it apparently seems obvious to some people that she MUST be me. But she’s not me, and hyperspatial physics is most assuredly NOT astrophysics. I can do astrophysics, but had to work hard and do a lot of research to ensure I got the description of the hyperspatial elements in the stories correct. I would really hate to have to sit down and work out the kinds of tensor analysis that I have Chadwick doing in the books.

In fact, any time I take one of those “What Literary Character Are You?” quizzes, I always come up as Sherlock Holmes. I was talking to a publisher friend about that dichotomy, and his response shocked me. He said, “Well, of course! You ARE Holmes! Your HUSBAND is Skye Chadwick!” And I had to admit, after thinking about it for a bit, that he was in many respects correct. And certainly Holmes is actually very easy for me to write. But I didn’t model either character upon myself OR my husband.

What genre do you prefer to write?  To read?

I’m pretty much an omnivorous reader. About the only thing I don’t read is horror, because I have a vivid imagination, anxiety disorder, and dream in color.
But I tend to write genre-crossing stories. I’m particularly fond of mixing science fiction and mystery, often throwing in strong romance and thriller elements. I just like that sort of story.

Do you prefer writing short stories or novels?  And why?

Novels, actually. I can and have done both, but it’s actually hard for me to write short stories. I do nearly the same amount of research for both, anyway. And somehow the story concepts seem to always blow up into novel-length!

Is Writer’s Block ever a problem for you?  If so, how do you deal with it?

Oh yeah. I get stuck every so often. I’ve even been known to write myself into corners. (Easier to do than you might think, when you write mysteries.) Brainstorming is my best solution. My husband is my best co-brainstormer, because he “gets” me and he’s probably more creative than I am. But if he’s not available, I have several friends that I check with, and will brainstorm with them. I’m planning a short story collection that ties into both the Displaced Detective and Gentleman Aegis series, and it’ll be titled Project Tesseract: The Holmes Files. The concept is to chronicle alternate versions of Holmes – where he did NOT become a detective as such. And I had lots of help brainstorming all those short stories! I have the basic plots all sketched out for myself now; I just need the energy and time to write them.

What are you working on now?

I generally have several projects going at any one time. Right now those projects are:

• Heritage, book 4 of the Cresperian Saga, with Dan Hollifield,
• Fear in the French Quarter, book 6 of the Displaced Detective series,
• Project Tesseract: The Holmes Files.

And I’m brainstorming several more, including:

• Escape Velocity, the sequel to Burnout: The mystery of Space Shuttle STS-281 (I do have some written on this)
• Sherlock Holmes in the Wild Hunt, book 2 of the Gentleman Aegis series
• A Little Matter of Earthquakes, book 7 of the Displaced Detective series (I’ve got some written on this too) and a few other things besides. I also have the first book of a new series that is being shopped around. The series is The Adventures of Aemelia Gearheart, and the book is The Bellerophon Club. It’s a steampunk series.

What 3 things do you feel every aspiring writer should know?

1. It’s harder than you think. Writing and creating takes a lot of energy. If you’ve never done it, you’d be surprised. My writing mentor, Travis S. Taylor, described it to me as like running a mental marathon. And when your mind is envisioning all these action scenes, your body reacts, tensing, releasing adrenaline, preparing for fight or flight – whether you realize it or not.
2. It’s slower than you’d like. You’re not going to knock out the Great American Novel in a couple weeks. And once you start submitting it – to publishers, to agents – you have to give it more than two weeks for whoever you’ve submitted it to, to respond. I know some would-be authors who seriously expected a response inside a month, and got pissed when it didn’t happen, pulling the submission and going elsewhere, only to repeat the process. And yes, you guessed it – they’re still trying to get published. Look – if you’ve made an unsolicited submission, your manuscript goes on the “slush pile,” and an editor or professional reader will get to it…just as soon as s/he has worked down through all the stuff that was submitted before yours. Even if you have a solicited manuscript, you have to remember that editors have lives, and they have other projects, some of which might be due in the next few weeks, which puts those at the top of the priority list. (Don’t you want ‘em to devote so much attention to ensuring your baby is ready to hit the bookstore shelves? Then don’t denigrate ‘em doing so for other writers too.)
3. Don’t stop reading just because you’ve started to write. Now is the second most important time to read – the first being when you were younger, and absorbing everything you read. Now is the time to ensure you’ve read what I call “the good stuff” – the classics of literature. Why? There are multiple reasons why they’re classics, and you want to absorb all of that – because then, when you sit down to write, it’s going to distil out into your writing, and make it that much better. Now is the time to read what’s really popular, and try to analyze what makes it so popular – then try to apply that to your own writing. Now is the time to read your preferred genres, and figure out what makes them different – then sit down and try to put a new spin on it.

These are the things that can make a good writer great.

What is your funniest/ awkward moment at a convention/signing event?

Oh, well you see, since I write science fiction, and have used UFOs, Area 51, Roswell, Rendlesham, and aliens, and because I’m a friendly, open sort, I tend to get a lot of the, ah, well…I’ve been told all about people’s alien abductions, including details such as the probing and stuff. Very much TMI, and I could really do without all those details…

Thanks Stephanie! To find her books, click here:

Alan’s new audio books

Audio books have been popular for many years. But with the selling power of Amazon and Audible.com, audio books have exploded. Two of Alan’s works are in audio format, with two more (The Blood in Snowflake Garden & The Lightning Bolts of Zeus) on the way.

And one of Alan’s publishers, Pro Se Productions, is working with Radio Archives to bring The Bishop of Port Victoria, plus a number of anthologies that include Alan’s stories to audio book fans.

Click on the books below to check out the Audible.com pages.