Genre: Fiction
What has been your most rewarding moment as an author?
I had my latest book, Flatline – One Man’s Search for the Afterlife, turned into an audiobook by Audiobook Network and narrated by Benjamin Fife. Mr. Fife has narrated over 100 books and did an excellent job. While this audiobook production was very rewarding, it does not exceed in importance my very first book, Martian Year 500 – The Second Beginning. This was truly a “bucket list” item as I didn’t write that book until I was 77 years old. My experience with that first book got me started writing another three books and I am now working on book 5.
What kind of research goes into writing your novels and how much time does it take?
Research is almost as much fun as the writing. I am amazed at how much I learn doing the research. One of my goals in writing is to educate my readers with facts as well as entertain them with a good story, so the research is key to my credibility. I place no time limit on my research, and I only stop when I am confident that my facts are right. My last book, Flatline, had a good amount of medical information, and despite my research, I had two of my doctor review my writing to validate what I was saying.
If you could offer one piece of writing advice to a novice author, what would it be?
Have someone edit your work as you write. I self-edited my first four books, and while each book improved over the previous one, each review still uncovered additional errors. I now have help from a more professional editor on my current book and I am paying very close attention to grammar, punctuation, wording, repetitions, and factual content. It is too expensive to have several editors, and I haven’t found a publisher yet. I do plan on going all out on my current book to see if I can go beyond Amazon/KDP so my books will end up in bookstores, but it isn’t easy.
Written resources, classes or conferences, fellow writers you’ve learned from or have mentored you, other?
I have drawn upon a few more professional writers whom I’ve developed a relationship with. The most prolific writer that has helped me and even provided book-jacket recommendations is Howard Bloom, who is now on book nine or ten. I also communicated with Andy Weir, author of The Martian, as I was preparing to do a lecture series for Senior University (now Lifelong Learners TX). He was quite helpful and gave me permission to use his work as the basis for my class.
How often do you write, and do you have a strict routine and writing plan?
Unlike authors who write as a profession, I do not have a routine that I religiously follow. I only sit down at the computer after I’ve reached decisions on where my characters might go. Actually, I almost let my characters develop the story, and sometimes they box me in, so to speak, and I have to give them time to figure out where they want to go next. As an example, in Flatline, I had a chimpanzee show up early in the story, with no intention of it having more than a minor role. Foolish me! Lulu (the chimp) wound up almost taking things over, and my readers and listeners were ecstatic at how vital she became to the story. So vital, I might add, that she also has a role in my follow-up book, What Comes Next, currently in work.
Have you ever based characters on real people? Give us a couple of examples.
Definitely. I’ve used several of my own personal experiences along with those of my wife. In Flatline, the major character had prostate cancer early in the story, and as I had the same issue, my experiences were quite helpful to the storyline, both early on and later in the book. In the first two books, both about going to and living on Mars, my background in America’s military and civilian space programs were invaluable to the story lines, and as I was intent on presenting good space-related learning material for my readers, my expertise in manned space travel was very helpful.
Biography: I am a retired United States Air Force officer. Much of that 20-year career was spent in the both the military and NASA space programs. I was the Mission Director for both a National Reconnaissance Office satellite program and later the Mission Director for Air Force support the early Space Transportation System (Shuttle) flights. During my Shuttle efforts, I worked closely with Gene Kranz, the NASA Operations Manager of Apollo fame. I then joined IBM for a follow-on career as a Project Manager and retired 17 years later as an Executive Project Manager. Upon this second retirement, I opened an S-Corp and spent another 17 years traveling the country teaching Project Management to many of the country’s largest corporations. When I finally concluded that effort, I began teaching classes for Senior University in Williamson County, and finally, after an aorta valve replacement, I slowed down and began writing books.
San Gabriel Writers' League 