Interview with novelist Eric Rill

Today's guest is novelist Eric Rill. He's touring his latest novel, An Absent Mind, with Goddess Fish Promotions.

During his tour, David will be choosing one random commenter to win a $50 Amazon or BN gift card (winner’s choice). To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit other tour stops and enter there, too. 

Bio:

Eric Rill was born in Montreal and graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Arts, and from UCLA with an MBA. He held several executive positions in the hospitality industry, including president of a global hotel group. His hobbies include trekking, scuba diving, and collecting antique carpets. Eric has two sons and divides his time between his residence in Panama and international travel. You can reach him at his website at: www.ericrill.com

Blurb:

A riveting new novel from Eric Rill, author of Pinnacle of Deceit and The Innocent Traitor, is about a race against time. The ticking time bomb is Saul Reimer’s sanity. His Alzheimer’s is going to be the catalyst that will either bring his family together or tear it apart.

Excerpt from An Absent Mind:

Saul: My Last Place on Earth

It’s all unraveling.

Last night, I found myself somewhere on Monkland Avenue. I had no idea how I got there. I looked in a store window and saw my reflection. It took me a bit to figure it all out—like that the person in the window was a man, and that the man was me.

I didn’t know what to do. I glanced down at the bracelet on my wrist and everything— well, not everything, but the gist of it all came back to me. I am Saul Reimer, formerly a healthy, intelligent man, married to the same woman for many years, and the father of two children he loves more than anything in the world.

The key word is formerly, as I am sure you’ve already figured out. Because today—and I have no idea what day it is, other than it is really cold and I wish I had a jacket on—I am nothing, not a real man, that’s for sure. I mean, how can you be a real man when you don’t even know where you are half the time, and when you do know, more often than not, you can’t grasp the concept of your surroundings?

I felt in my pocket for my wallet, but it wasn’t there. All I had was my bank card. I spotted an ATM machine at the corner. But when I got there, I couldn’t figure out how to work it. A woman walked up from behind. I gestured for her to go in front of me. She smiled and said she was in no rush. I looked at the machine, with all the words flashing across the screen. My hands were getting slimy, and beads of that wet stuff covered my forehead. Why couldn’t she just go first?

Then suddenly, it all made sense. I followed the directions, but it took me a few tries to get the card into the machine with the strip the right way. I looked behind me again. The woman was fidgeting with her purse strap. Then the machine asked me for a personal identification number. The good news is, I knew I had one. The bad news is, I had no idea what it was. My brain is like a shortwave radio, mostly static that occasionally finds the station, but even then the sound isn’t always clear.

In a way, it will be a blessing when my mind is totally gone, when I am a vegetable, slouched in a wheelchair. Like many Alzheimer’s patients on Montreal’s West Side, I’ll probably make a pit stop at Manoir Laurier. Then, when Manoir Laurier can’t cope with me, or we can’t afford it anymore, they’ll ship me off to Belfrage Hospital, my final stop on this beloved earth. I’ll be there, incontinent, drooling, and incoherent—that is, if I can even manage to get a word through my blistered lips. And when it’s all over—when my heart finally gives out, or I contract pneumonia, and my family says, “Let Saul go; he deserves some peace”—when that happens, they’ll take me down to the autopsy room, cut my skull open, and find the tangles and plaques on my brain. Then they will be able to say with 100 percent certainty that Saul Reimer had Alzheimer’s.

Do you ever wish you were someone else?  

Not really, but if anyone for a short time…Larry David. He’s funny, intelligent, and independent . Oh, and did I say rich?

What did you do on your last birthday? 

I’m not big on birthdays, but one I remember was a surprise helicopter ride to a glacier near Queenstown, New Zealand. On my last one I spent the whole day trying to program my fitbit scale, which for some humane, or inhumane reason, only recognizes me as a guest.

Do you have any tattoos?  Where? When did you get it/them? Where are they on your body? 

No, I didn’t know that was a requirement for an author.

What are you working on right now? 

Trying to organize a vacation after finishing my book, but it seems marketing it takes longer than writing it!

What do you think you’re really good at? 

I’m a people person

What do you think you’re really bad at? 

Understanding people!

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Buy links:

Barnes and Noble |  Amazon   

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