Author Interview from Writers Block Party Oct 8 and 9 2012

Found this in my draft folder... publishing now.
Getting ready to self-publish Wilcox-PFC prequel to Julie Rayzor and RayzorWire.

Originally posted here:
http://writersparty.com/2012/10/07/authorinterviewrichardhowes/

Author Interview and Giveaway with Richard Howes

For the chance to win a free e-copy of Julie Rayzor by Richard Howes, please leave a comment on this post with your email address included in the body of the comment. This giveaway will end at 3 PM (EST) on October 14th.

Richard Howes is a 30 year computer programmer, 20 year electronic engineer, a wild horse trainer, artist, father, husband and writer. He was born into the family of a Cape Cod Yankee dad and an Irish mom. Went to college in Boston and spent 14 years exploring the Nevada mountains and desert from horseback, he won a world championship buckle in the sport of Cowboy Mounted Shooting plus he programmed slot machines and worked as an engineering manager saving companies over $20 million dollars in sales during a three year stint of international travel fixing engineering problems in the field. He turned to writing as another one of his many hobbies and he hopes to retire some day in front of a keyboard writing books.

Visit Richard at: His blog  or  Amazon,

Hello! What’s your name?

My name is Richard Howes

What do you write and why?

I write because I love the process of creation. I’ve always been artistic – very right brain, but I work as a software engineer so I’m very logical also. I used to create oil paintings of horses and landscapes and I had a teenage point where I painted dungeon adventurers and dragons. (Yes. I’m a geek. I played Dungeons and Dragons [on paper with dice]). My artist side came out in bird carvings; chickadees, parakeets, hawks, etc. I’ve recently started playing guitar and I’ve owned a dusty keyboard for over twenty years. I’ve written three unpublished fantasy novels about a young wizard – not quite Harry Potter – my wizard-apprentice was dispelled from his home town for inappropriate relations with the Lord’s daughter. I spent about 17 years intermittently writing those novels and getting rejected from publishers and literary agents. There was a changing point in my career where I was laid off due to a company shut-down. It was one of those major crossroads in life. I sat down and wrote a 350 page mystery novel (The Killers Co-op) which came out in August 2011. I was toying with a zombie theme for a first-person 17 year old girl when I wrote forty pages of “Julie Rayzor” in three days and another 190 pages in five weeks. I spent the next ten months editing and proof-reading the work and published “Julie Rayzor ~ Romance, Adventure, Zombies” on July 27^th 2012.

Do you read the same genre that you write? Why or why not?

I spent the greater part of the last ten years reading mysteries. I started with Robert Parker and added Dick Francis. Before that there was a span of Larry McMurtry and Zane Grey westerns. (I ride and train horses and drive an old pickup truck in mountain explorations, so I’m sort of a computer programming cowboy.) I used to read a lot of Steven King and some Anne Rice, so I love the horror genre also. Mostly I read zombie books now.

What is the title you are promoting right now?

Julie Rayzor ~ Romance, Adventure, Zombies

What is it about?

The short description is this: What do you do when you’re 17, in a fortress surrounded by a zombie apocalypse, and your boyfriend is outside and lost? If you’re Julie Rayzor, you lock and load.

17 year-old Julie is caught between a world of zombies outside of “Fort Tulsa” and a life of drama inside. When everything she loves in life is stolen away; her soldier-boyfriend missing-in-action; troubles with Jill, her best friend; Felix, a nerdy medical researcher fawning over her; plus a broken leg in a cast to weigh her down, she has to join the zombie war to fight or be killed. When she learns of a plan to rescue her boyfriend and save the city, she uncovers a dark secret – a secret that she must keep hidden deep inside until she can complete the most dangerous task of her life.

This other version is a little more descriptive: “Julie Rayzor ~ Romance, Adventure, Zombies” is about the self-discovery of a 17 year old girl plus her interactions with, and the drama of teenagers and twenty-something soldiers; betrayal, deception, theft, the test of personal values and the heart-wrenching destruction of memories of the old world. A little horror (two somewhat gory scenes and a couple battle scenes fighting zombies and Scabs), some romance and a fair amount of action-adventure http://tinyurl.com/JulieRayzor

What makes this book different from others in your genre?

I think the main difference is that I didn’t read zombie books or watch zombie movies before I wrote Julie Rayzor. I came at the subject from a fresh perspective. There’s a minor mystery to solve and there’s lots of action with romance too. John Hill, the author of one of my favorite westerns, Quigley Down Under, LA Law, and Close Encounters mentioned that Julie Rayzor is a blend of sci-fi, a love story, and a war story and that the writing is of Elmore Leonard’s style and found in male adventures. That’s a pretty good summary for I believe that men and well as women will enjoy this book. I aimed towards the young adult audience but when I came to crossroads of where to take the story and writing style, I let the words flow. I’ll let the market decide exactly what kind of book “Julie Rayzor” is, just as I let her character define herself and her relationships during the writing.

What’s the story behind the story?

I had just moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma when I finished writing The Killers Co-op and as part of the culture shock moving from Las Vegas I wanted to accustom myself to the vibe that goes in Tulsa-time, and also learn about the city. I think of “Julie Rayzor” as a small tribute to Tulsa and Sapulpa. The people of Sapulpa were wonderful to me when we shot the book-trailer videos. The city manager was awesome and the chief of police supplied multiple patrol cars and details for crowd control – seeing as we were going to be having guys in full military gear running around with authentic looking airsoft machines and shotguns. If you look in the opening scenes of the videos the Sapulpa Buffalo monument is in the background.

What is your goal as an author?

Goal as an author? Write. Write well. Build a fan base. Having people like the work is important but learning how to improve my writing is critical to my own personal success. As I tell my friends and family, please be honest with me. Tell me the parts you didn’t like as well as the parts you enjoyed. So far, only my wife has been brutally honest! That’s okay. I ask people to write reviews on Amazon and to not hold back. Rate it how you saw it. Good and bad. We are all grown up here and I can take it! I did have someone tell me she didn’t want to read the book because she didn’t like the title, or the character’s first name, or the picture of the girl on the cover! That’s was pretty funny! I struggled with the title because it is not a true Harlequin romance type of novel and I’m sure some people are turned off thinking the book is something different from what it actually is. In the end I left the title alone because we already had an ISBN number assigned!

Are you working on anything new? Give us a preview of what’s to come!

RayzorWire is in production. It is a sequel to Julie Rayzor and it will be about 230 pages (plus or minus). I just returned from my honeymoon – my wife and I put it off for over three years while we struggled with debt, unemployment, and moving across the country. So while we were enjoying some places from a childhood destination of hers I stole a few moments away to write add about 30 pages to RayzorWire and I even took some photos for the new book cover. How many people will be able to guess that the coils of barbwire came from a Caribbean island dock and not an Oklahoma industrial facility?

Additionally, I have most of a Las Vegas murder mystery finished called Sullyland. It’s somewhat similar to Robert Parker’s novels. I’ve got a very strong emotional attachment to the book that I just can’t seem to break – it’s preventing me from finishing the book, but I might start-over someday because I really like the characters.

Thinking back… I have three fantasy novels written about that young wizard, but that needs a complete rewrite…

Who is your favorite author and what is your favorite book?

Dick Francis at the moment. Just about all his work is awesome. I have a love of horses and mysteries and his books are steeped in those subjects.

Where can readers find you and your work?

I keep a writing blog and my books are at amazon and createspace but the fastest links are these: “Julie Rayzor ~ Romance, Adventure, Zombies” Http://tinyurl.com/JulieRayzor and “The Killers Co-op”http://www.tinyurl.com/TheKillersCo-op

What’s your view on the self-publishing/traditional publishing thing? Ideally, which one would you prefer and why?

I would love to get picked up by a traditional publishing house. I’d love to find a literary agent. I spent years sending short stories into fantasy magazines and writing query letters only to be rejected. The time just wasn’t right. I knew it then, just as I knew the karma/biorhythms were in a good place when I wrote The Killers Co-op. For now I’ll self-publish and write. Writing is a good place!

Do you have a favorite quote?

“All the best stories are about loneliness.” – Tom Hanks. Mr. Hanks said that when the movie Castaway came out and that has always struck me as being very true. We are all just boats adrift in the vast see of the world, sometimes surrounded by other people and still feeling lost and alone. To me, those inner struggles that we all have, that we all suffer silently, are the basis for great stories.

What is the most important advice you have for aspiring authors?

Write. Hire a copy editor. Keep writing. Write for your own enjoyment. Read a lot of works of authors that you enjoy. Study that writing style. When you are proof reading your book once it is written open a thesaurus and learn new words. Proofread your book no less than 12 times. I did it at least 11 times and I still found a mistake or two.

Is there anything else you’d like to say before we finish up?

If you are writing – Keep writing! If you are reading – keep reading and I’d like to say that my fans are awesome.

Awesome, thanks for allowing me to interview you!

You are welcome! Thanks for having me.

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About Lisa Taylor

Hello! I'm an author, and in my time as an author I've realized that there are thousands of authors out there that just don't get the attention they deserve. So I'm hosting this "Writer's Block Party" so you can get to know the people that create the stories we all love!

View all posts by Lisa Taylor →

Eleven ways to make your novel better.

1.       Find and replace the word “even” with the word “odd.” If the sentence doesn’t work, delete it.

2.       Quit using adverbs. They are evil, lazy, and destructive. They will destroy your creative work and cause you to rely on lazy writing techniques such as passive voice. They are evil because they should be considered evil and destroyed like ISIS.

3.       Get rid of to-be verbs. Rewrite, restructure, and reinvent any sentence with the words: were, was, would, have, been, had, etc. If the sentence sounds lazy, rewrite it.

4.       Please stop using passive voice. Take this: “They had decided long ago, almost as soon as we had left the cars and began this trudge up the mountain, that I was just slowing them down. They were right. If we did this hike at my preferred pace, the speed would be much slower than this kamakazi attack on the welch landscape.” Fifty-four words. I count five to-be verbs, incorrect punctuation that MS Word catches as an error, the word “right” being used instead of “correct,” extraneous verbosity… And do I see mixed present-past tense? Plus, you can tell the writer sees this sentence as a darling, and all darlings must be killed.

I’d rewrite this section as follows: “We left the cars and started up the mountain. If they let me set the pace, we’d proceed much slower than their attack on the steep welch landscape.” This is Twenty eight words that relay action and reads fast with the same point made. There is no prose, but the reader doesn’t expect to be reading a candidate for the Nobel Prize for literature. Give the reader a good read and he or she will buy your next book and recommend you to others.  

5.       Get rid of the word, “that.” Most of “that” can be deleted and not change the meaning of the sentence.

6.       Kill your darlings. I know. I know. I’ve been there. We all have written beautiful prose. We’ve put them in places where they don’t fit, or yank the reader out of the story. Those are verboten. Kill your darlings!

7.       Never use clichés. Those cute mousey phrases creep into any writers work as they pound the keys to get their story down. As you edit your own work recognize these rodents for what they are: vermin. Then exterminate them. Your readers will not know why your book is better than the average slush on the self-publishing book shelves, but you will.

8.       Hire a competent editor. There’s millions of writers who need to make a living. Editing your self-published book is a good way for them to make five hundred bucks. Hire an editor who has proven credentials and pay them several times more than that. You get what you pay for. Or learn the hard way, write four or five novels, then hire and editor, and wish you had hired a good editor first.

9.       Pick a theme for your story and stick to it.

10.   Each chapter is a scene. Each scene must have a point. It must tell the reader something that drives the story forward.

11.   Memorize the preceeding ten.

That's 11. Now edit, edit, and edit your novel. (That's 12.) And quit spending so much time promoting them on facebook. All you are doing in selling to other writers. (That one is 13.) 

Sully - a Las Vegas short story.

The intentions of the man on the corner became obvious upon a second glance. At first look, he's warm jacket and blue jeans announced he was a local because winter-time visitors to Las Vegas wore shorts and Hawaiian shirts. The fifty degree days felt balmy compared to the near zero temperatures of the northern climes. Not-so to thin blooded Vegas residents grown accustomed to 108 degree summers.

My second glance revealed the muzzle of a handgun under the jacket, breaking smooth lines. The calm, almost sanguine early morning, with the rising sun back lighting the aptly named Sunrise Mountain promised excitement. Nothing ever happened at 5am, no hookers, no deliveries, nothing, except for...

I leaned against the neo-roman concrete fence of Caesars Palace and watched the man standing at the head of the alley between the Flamingo Casino and O'Sheas, my early morning job for a client temporarily postponed. No one posted an armed guard on Las Vegas Boulevard without cause. After a moment, I walked up to the man. He looked away, pretending we didn't know each other.

"Stephens."

"Get lost, Sully."

A radio-mike protruded from his collar. A clear coiled tube ran from under his jacket to his ear.

"Need any help?"

"Not your kind."

"Oh. One of those jobs?"

"Bounce." Beads of sweat formed on his brow.

"Just checking out the competition."

"Extraviarse."

"You looking a little sick. Are you okay?"

Stephens put his hand under his jacket and stared into my eyes.

"Extraviarse. I get it. One last question: When the shit goes down, which side am I on?"

Stephens's muscles tightened.

I departed, returning to the Caesars Palace side of the street to watch and wait. Stephens glanced at me. I imagined his thoughts: I've been made. Do we call this off? Is it too late? How do I handle him after this goes down? Should I kill Sully now? Is he packing? Probably. How messy is that going to get? He's got friends on the force.

I enjoyed fun on the Strip at any hour.

Ten minutes later the Oshea's side-door opened. Two guards and three drop-crew personnel manhandled a cash-cart over the threshold and down the concrete ramp. Stephens moved, talking into his coat collar.

I looked at the second hand on my watch.

A rented box truck, it's rear loading gate out and lowered, sped up the street, turned into the alley, and missed hitting the casino crew and cart by inches. The truck's brakes screeched as the vehicle stopped. The rear door opened and three men with sub machine guns jumped out. The loading gate straightened and lowered to the ground. The unarmed casino guards raised their hands and the drop-crew froze, bewildered. Gun barrels swung and pointed. Commands rose. Within half a minute the guards pushed the cash-cart onto the loading deck and the money disappeared into the truck. Five seconds later the truck went mobile again, and ten seconds later, police sirens echoed through the streets.

Those dumb bastards, I thought. I later learned that for ten years, since Flamingo purchased O'Shea's, they'd been taking the cash up an elevator and across the alley through the overhead walkway, then down five stories in another elevator to the count room in the basement. Concealed and secure, but inconvenient and a pain to manage, the bosses did something dumb-deciding to take the money outside, in public, rather than tolerating drop-crew complaints. They finally gave in. I wondered for how long. A day, maybe two, until they got robbed. The eyes on the city, eyes like mine, watching, learning, waiting to see how obtuse the managers were. Street people watched everything. Seeing this one time might be weird. Twice: an anomaly. Three times: opportunity not missed.

An hour afterwards, Detective Esposito, my current nemesis, and certainly not one of my friends, crossed the street. "Sullivan."

"Detective."

"Casino Surveillance says you were talking to one of the gunmen and you've been standing here since before it happened. Are you stupid or do you wish to go down as an accomplice?"

"Nice to see you too."

"What happened?"

"Nothing."

"I should arrest you for being an asshole." Esposito's eyes narrowed and he turned away.

"Well... I might have seen something." I walked after him, crossing the street.

"I'm not hiring you."

"Let's call it a finder's fee."

***

I expected the knock on my office door when it arrived that afternoon. I discussed with a visitor if his side would pay and which small-time, virtually unknown drug-dealer he would frame, deflect suspicion, and allow Esposito the glory of solving the case, recovering half of the million dollars stolen from the casino. The casino certainly reported twice that amount stolen to the insurance company. This profited the bad guys and the casino. I'd deposit two nice paychecks into my vacuous bank account. Everyone wins.

Three FREE NOVELS

♥➷♥ 3 NOVELS FOR FREE ♥➷♥  Mystery or Horror. You pick!!!
....What do you do when you are drugged, tied, hanging from the ceiling, and your feet are planted in a bucket of concrete? P.I. Sully digs deep in Sullyland - A Las Vegas Mystery
....What do you when you're 17, trapped with elite soldiers, surrounded by zombies, ammo and supplies run low, and your boyfriend is outside and M.I.A.? Julie Rayzor locks and loads for the final battle.
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Starting Thursday May 21st until the 25th for Memorial Day weekend only!!!  (And always free on Kindle Unlimited.)
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PLEASE SHARE THIS POST - my goal is to give away over 5000 copies !!!
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Do you need three full-length fast-paced adventure novels for Memorial Day weekend?
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Sullyland - A Sully Las Vegas Mystery: http://www.amazon.com/Sullyland-Sully-Mystery-Mysteries-Volume/dp/1492829579

Julie Rayzor - Zombie War Series Book One: www.tinyurl.com/JRZWS1
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RayzorWire - Zombie War Series Book Two: www.tinyurl.com/Rayzorwire
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“Crisp, fast-paced action novel... Writing style is very impressive... realistic energy and highly effective tough combat... Great dialogue in this entertaining novel... Elmore Leonard type: short, character-revealing, and advancing the story conflict. And conflict is everywhere... I will not give away any secrets in the plot... I won’t tell you about the train scenes, wow, you’ll have to discover those yourself...” says John Hill, Author and Screenwriter of "Quigley Down Under", and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (uncredited), "LA Law" and "Quantum Leap".
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Sullyland Excerpt:
Roused into a hazy darkness, dust with a hint of lime-the odor of fresh concrete, a stretching of my arms and a slap across my face made the world clearer. John Medici rubbed his hands, injuring himself on my jaw-line. I smiled.
“Wake up, dead man,” Anthony ‘Tall-Tony’ Constantino said. A half-dozen men stood around me.
My head swelled, aching, thudding, as the drug wore off, my crossed eyes focused in the dim room. I hung from my arms, propped upright.
“I want you awake for this,” Medici said. “You don’t get to die easy. I want you to suffer every agonizing gulp of water as it floods your lungs and try to grow gills and breathe like a fish.” He laughed.
With wrists tied above my head, my body hanging down, ropes secured me to a gaffing hook bolted to the ceiling. I sighed and dropped my eyes, gazing at the floor.
Legs weighted down, frozen, paralyzed, my feet held inside a bucket of masonry cement. No one wore concrete galoshes since Whitey Bulger won the Massachusetts state lottery and went on the lam… no one until me. My murder would be stereotypical... a cliché from old movies about Al Capone. I’d be embarrassed for them if the victim was anyone else. Blood drained from my head, I grew weak, panic rising.
Calm, I told myself. What can I do? Analyze the situation… How did I get myself into this mess? Anthony promised not to kill me… Fat joke. What did I do? I insulted John. A minor jab to anyone else except a man who possessed no humor. Killing Butterfield didn’t scare me off… probably upsetting Veronika more than worry of her own death… She wanted her children to be safe. This doesn’t help.
Eyes opening wider and my face flushing renewed bouts of laughter from the audience. They pulled at beer bottles until John gestured–retiring to the upper decks and saying, “Let’s wait while the concrete dries.”