Please start by telling us a little about yourself,
including things like education, jobs, spouse, children, pets, etc.
Okay.
B.A. Degree in Special Education from Brooklyn College. I taught for ten years,
including autistic children and adults. My longest-term population though were
gang kids, drug addicts, kids from broken homes.
As for
jobs, well ... I worked over 100 of them (some for days) before making my
living as a writer. Hence my 2005 book, "How to Survive a Day Job".
Let's see, I was a teacher, a telemarketer, a laundry attendant for a mental
hospital, an insurance salesman ...
Married to
my beautiful wife Lorie, who was one of the top pharmaceutical sales reps in
that industry for many years, before we started to work together nearly six
years ago. We have a beautiful rescue dog - Koko ("double knockout"),
a boxer-pit. We call her variously a "K-10" because she's damn near
human, or "Rin-Tin-Tits" as she has nine nipples from a litter (we
have twisted senses of humor in our house).
Tell us about your latest book and what inspired you to
write it.
My latest
book is fiction, actually, my first novel. It's an epic 8-book series,
"The Chronicles of Ara", where my co-author Stephen Hillard and I
attempt to discover the very origins of artistic inspiration, within a fantasy
setting.
To this
end, we study the works of many "darker" authors, who appear as
supporting characters in the books. Tolkien, Lovecraft, Poe, Mary Shelley,
Verne, Carroll, etc. We look specifically to these writers as they tended to
troll the bleaker side of human nature more than most and, by extension,
confront some uncomfortable questions ... and answers.
Do you belong to any critique groups and/or do you have
other people read your work as you're writing it? Who's brutally honest and
who's a cheerleader? Which do you prefer?
I used
to; I don't now. I've been in the film business for a long time, and realized a
while back - many may disagree - that you show your work to 100 people, you'll
get 100 different responses. At some point, you need to trust your instinct and
say "that's it."
That
said, I'll show the work but to no more than 4 or 5 trusted associates.
Which authors have been the greatest inspiration to your
writing?
Good
question. Poe, Anne Rice, Clive Barker, Shirley Jackson and Joseph Campbell,
the mythologist.
Do you outline before you write or just dive head-first
into a manuscript? Do you maintain
a schedule for writing, or is it more haphazard?
I NEVER
outline. To me, writing is akin to dreaming. I don't outline my dreams. When I
write, I let the words flow from my head to my arms to my fingers to my iPad
...
I have a
very strict schedule. I wake 3:30 AM every morning, hit Starbucks at 4:30, take
a half-hour to drink my coffee and eat my peanut butter and bagel ... set my
music preferences ... and work non-stop from 5-8:30. I go home, have breakfast
with my wife and walk Koko ... then write with some breaks until about 7PM. A
very long day.
Where do you do your best writing? (Ex: desk in your
office, public library, under a tree in the park, in front of a Real Housewives TV marathon, etc.) Do
you like music or some other background noise, or do you need quiet?
Starbucks
and I always listen to music. Loud music.
What are the best and worst parts of writing a book?
There are
no "worst" parts to me. I love writing. I am passionate about writing.
It is my peace.
When you're driving and you have a sudden, brilliant idea
for the new manuscript you're working on, what do you do? (Ex: pull over and
fire up the laptop, keep driving while scribbling on a McDonald's bag, tell
Siri, etc.)
I record
it on my iPhone.
When you go to the zoo, which animals do you visit first?
Always
the monkeys. I don't know why - no kidding - but I've always been drawn to the
"Planet of the Apes" film series.
What are the top 5 titles in your Netflix queue? (Be
honest.) Or if you don't have a Netflix queue, which books are on your bedside
table? (Again, be honest.)
Okay, I
have no queue. But, in the interest of fairness I can watch the following
hundreds of times over (again, no kidding. I'm obsessive I guess): The orig
Star Wars trilogy, Grand Canyon, Casablanca, City Lights, Carrie (orig), The
Last Dragon and The Big Picture (guilty pleasures), Halloween (orig), Dawn of
the Dead (orig), Bride of Frankenstein, Boogie Nights, Rocky (all of them),
Magnolia, etc.
Do you prefer to read ebooks or print?
I was an
avid print book collector, then went almost fully to ebooks ... now find myself
missing print.
What do you enjoy doing, apart from writing?
Running,
biking, reading, movies, traveling ..
Where is your favorite place in the world?
Great
question. How about ... New York. My home town. Followed closely by Hawaii and
Italy.
Do you have any advice for people who want to write a book?
Just do
it. This response is cliche, but there really is no better advice. Clive Barker
once told me, "Never pause to consider how impossible your task is, just
get it done." I've rarely received better advice ...
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