Interview with thriller author Richard Armstrong

Novelist Richard Armstrong joins me today and we’re chatting a bit about his new comedy crime thriller (aka, a ‘caper’), The Don Con.

Bio:

Richard Armstrong's first book, Leaving the Nest (co-authored with his mother, Dorinne Armstrong) was published by William Morrow & Co. in 1986 and had five printings. His second book, The Next Hurrah, was published by Morrow in 1988. It was praised by The Los Angeles Times as “captivating and complete” and by Kirkus Reviews as “One of the best books on the ramifications of the electronic political process since Joe McGinniss's 'The Selling of a President.’” His first novel, God Doesn't Shoot Craps, was published by Sourcebooks in 2006 and optioned for film by the producers of the Broadway show "Xanadu." A 1974 graduate of Carleton College, he works as a freelance advertising copywriter and lives with his wife Sharon in the Glover Park neighborhood of Washington, D.C. If you’d like to contact Richard Armstrong with questions, comments, interview or book club requests, please visit www.TheDonCon.com

Welcome, Richard. Please tell us about your current release.

The Don Con tells the story of a washed-up actor who hit the high watermark of his career when he played a bit part as a gangster in The Sopranos. Now he makes a meager living signing autographs at pop-culture fan conventions.

But one day, a real gangster shows up in his autograph line and he makes the actor an offer he can’t refuse: “You’re going to help me rob all the celebrities at the next fan convention—or else.”

The Don Con is a pure entertainment caper novel with all the intrigue of Ocean’s 11, as well as a clever pop-culture satire that riffs on The Sopranos, Star Trek, and The Sting.

What inspired you to write this book?

I have an old friend who was one of the main actors in Star Trek: The Next Generation. My wife and I had dinner with him one night and he regaled us with funny stories about signing autographs at Star Trek conventions. (Until then, I didn’t know such things existed!) Among other things, he told us how much cash he brings home after one of these autograph sessions, because it’s still mostly a cash business. Not long after that dinner, I thought to myself, “I wonder what would happen if someone tried to steal the cash from all the celebrities at a fan convention.” And that’s how I got the idea for The Don Con!

What exciting story are you working on next?

I’m still looking around for a good idea. It’s been my experience that it only takes a month or two to write a novel. But it takes about five years to come up with a good idea for one! Then once you have the idea, of course, you’ve got to work out the plot and character development. That’s where it begins to get hard.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I started considering myself a professional writer from the moment I got my first check in the mail for a magazine article. That was about 40 years go. At the time I’d been working for a few years as an advertising writer. But I don’t really think you’re entitled to call yourself a “professional writer” until you’ve been published and gotten paid for it.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

As I mentioned, I make my living as a freelance advertising writer (also known as a “copywriter”). As a result, I’m writing or researching almost every day. I generally put in about three hours of creative work in the morning and then spend my afternoons at the local bar. No, just kidding. I spend my afternoon doing all the other tasks necessary with running a freelance copywriting business. When it comes to writing fiction, however, it’s more a matter of whether I have a good idea for a novel to work on. If I do, I usually clear the decks of my advertising work and then work on the novel very intensively until the first draft is done. If I’m in the throes of writing a novel, I can’t rest until it’s all out of my head and onto paper. So I might work up to ten hours a day on it. But writing is the easy part! The job of a novelist gets difficult when you start doing the editing, looking for an agent and/or publisher, and promoting the book.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

Every time I open a manuscript on my computer I give it a new number. TheDonCon5 ... TheDonCon6 ... etc. But I always skip the number 13 because it’s bad luck!

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Believe it or not, I wanted to be President of the United States. But I wasn’t a good enough liar to succeed in politics. So I write fiction and advertising instead. (Politics isn’t the only field for people who like to make stuff up!)

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

In the process of writing THE DON CON, I did a lot of research into how con men operate. I found out how they sucker their victims into making foolish mistakes. How they convince their “marks” to believe things that aren’t true. How they get away with the money before their victims even know they’ve been conned.

In my research, I discovered a number of of tricks and techniques—44 of them to be exact—used by con men that you can use (legally!) whenever you need to convince anybody of anything.

Please go to www.thedoncon.com and download your FREE copy of How to Talk Anybody into Anything: Persuasion Secrets of the World’s Greatest Con Men now. It’s an instant free download.

Thanks for being here today, Richard.

Interview with YA mystery author K.C. Tansley

I’m kicking off a new month and new week with YA author K.C. Tansley. She’s here to chat about her new young adult murder mystery, The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts. This is the first book in The Unbelievables series.

Feel free to leave comments for her below. She’ll be stopping in to answer any questions you may have.

Bio:

K.C. Tansley lives with her warrior lapdog, Emerson, on a hill somewhere in Connecticut. She tends to believe in the unbelievables—spells, ghosts, time travel—and writes about them.

Never one to say no to a road trip, she’s climbed the Great Wall twice, hopped on the Sound of Music tour in Salzburg, and danced the night away in the dunes of Cape Hatteras. She loves the ocean and hates the sun, which makes for interesting beach days. The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts is the first book in her YA time-travel murder mystery series.

Welcome K.C. Please tell us about your current release.

The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts is a YA time travel murder mystery. It is the first book in The Unbelievables series.

In The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts, prep school junior Kat Preston accidentally time travels to 1886 Connecticut, where she must share a body with a rebellious Victorian lady, prevent a gruesome wedding night murder, disprove a deadly family curse, and find a way back to her own time.

What inspired you to write this book?

It was a concept my best friend, Anthony, and I dreamed up when we were in 7th grade. The 11-year-old me loved the idea of ghosts, curses, spells, castles, time travel, and a murder mystery.

I was a huge fan of soap operas like Dark Shadows and Santa Barbara and that’s where the romantic thread came in. Back then, I only thought about the story I wanted to tell and this was it. Anthony and I never got beyond the character sketches and general concept because the original idea had way too many characters. He still has a notebook somewhere filled with dozens of character sketches.

Decades later, when I was working on Wall Street and mourning the end of the Harry Potter series, I thought if I could write my own novel, then the characters would always be with me. That was when the 28-year-old me remembered the story the 11-year-old me was dying to tell. I emailed Anthony and he gave me the go ahead to work on it. And then the work truly began.

Excerpt from The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts:

     The two weeks leading up to finals were the perfect time to do research at Gilman Library—if you needed to be surrounded by people. Bustle and noise didn’t distract me anymore. I was much more likely to be disturbed by quiet. Or, at least, what the quiet conjured up. Old buildings like Gilman were the worst.

I made my way to the library’s elevator. My progress was slowed by the twenty pounds of research material that I carried. I slid my thumbs under the straps of my backpack, trying to relieve my aching shoulders, while I waited.

Professor Astor’s classes were unusual—even by McTernan standards—and his paper topics were insane. But he was a prestigious university professor willing to teach prep-school kids, so the school let him teach pretty much whatever he wanted. This semester was “The Lore and Lure of Historical Places,” which might sound innocent enough, but Astor had me investigating a notorious double murder that had happened in 1886.

The professor expected McTernan students to do as much as his students at Georgetown, but he helped anyone willing to do the work. For my latest assignment, he’d loaned me some incredible resources from his personal collection. I couldn’t wait to explore the books in my backpack, but investigating a grisly mystery and a family curse meant that I had to take some special precautions. Working alone in my dorm room was out of the question. I needed the frantic energy of my classmates preparing for finals.

Once the elevator arrived, it was a short ride to the fourth floor. The place was packed, just the way I liked it. I found a free chair at a table with three sophomores. They didn’t look happy about my intrusion, but I was a junior, so they had to deal.

I had a lot of work to do. If I was going to discover anything new about what happened at Castle Creighton, I had to start by reviewing what was already known. While I read, I needed to look for blank spots and anything that had been overlooked. Professor Astor’s willingness to believe that I might be capable of unraveling a 129-year-old mystery was one of the reasons he was my favorite teacher.

I slipped on my headphones, cranking up some Taylor Swift. I needed happy music to explore something this dark and scary. Then I pulled out my binder and reread my notes on Castle Creighton.

The castle sat in the middle of an island just a few miles from the village of Wright in Connecticut. It felt a world away from the hustle of Washington, D.C. I’d only seen a few photos of the place, but my first thought was desolate and creepy. Maybe it was the isolation of the island or the Medieval Gothic architecture of the castle, but the place seemed designed to provoke bad dreams. I couldn’t help envisioning what I could face there—an endless line of restless ghosts, waiting for someone like me.

What exciting story are you working on next?

Right now, I’m working on the sequel to The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts. It picks up a month after everything that happened in TGWIG. It’s so exciting to get to continue the adventures with Kat and Evan. We’re going to discover so much more about the Langley family in this book. And if I’m channeling Toria, there will be more time travel for Evan and Kat too.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

It started out as a life long hobby. I wrote incredibly angsty poetry all through high school and college. Back then, it was just something I wanted to do. As I got older, it became something I snuck in time to do. Even after I wrote my first manuscript, I didn’t think I was a writer. I was just someone who wrote. I didn’t start using the title writer until I got more serious about it. When I was writing my novel with the intent to publish—that’s when I felt like I was a writer. So probably around 2009.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

I write full time, but I also teach part time to pay the bills. My days are mine. Two evenings a week, I teach. Those are half days of writing and promoting.

A typical day starts with me rolling out of bed and sliding into the chair at my desk. I spend an hour checking email and social media. I break for breakfast. Then I get down to writing. When I’m drafting, it’s 2000 words a day of writing. When I’m revising, it’s 50 pages of revising.

Around 1 p.m., I get in an hour workout. Then back to promo work like ad creation, social media, writing guest blogs, setting up events, etc.

Right now I’m creating workshops for school visits. Between developing the talks and creating the Powerpoints, that’s a few months of work.

My graphic designers all have day jobs, so I have to check email at night and respond to them about ad design, newsletter design, and website updates. My day usually starts at 9:30 am and ends at 1:00 am.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I have to feel what my characters feel. So if my character is depressed, I have to summon up that emotion and go into it. Sometimes it’s exhausting to write because my characters go through so much. I have to be right there with them, feeling my way through it. They say to torture your characters, which means I torture myself right along with them.

With The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts, I couldn’t time travel and see how it felt. So I had to approximate it. Think about what emotions it would trigger and summon them up. So shock, fear, and uncertainty were things I was constantly tapping into.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Green.

This is a true story. When I was five and my cousin was six, my grandmother asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up.

My cousin was playing with a cash register and replied, “A grocery store check out lady.”

When my grandmother turned to me, I said. “Green.”

“No, Kourtney, what do you want to be?”

“I want to be green.” It was my favorite thing in the world.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

My tagline is “Believing in the unbelievables” and I do. I’ve had some creepy ghost experiences.

When I lived on Wall Street, there were several nights in that haze between dreaming and fully awake where I saw ghosts at the end of my bed. People dressed in clothes from another era and exuding an eerie bluish light. It turns out there were some horrible fires that destroyed buildings down there. I think when people die tragically something of them remains.

Links:

Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon

Thanks, K.C.!

Interview with memoirist Ruth W. Crocker

Today’s guest is non-fiction writer Ruth W. Crocker to share some tidbits with us about her memoir, Those Who Remain: Remembrance and Reunion after War.

Bio:

Ruth W. Crocker, PhD, is a 2013 Pushcart Prize-nominated author, writing consultant, and expert on recovery from trauma and personal tragedy. Her memoir Those Who Remain: Remembrance and Reunion After War describes her experience following her husband’s death in Vietnam and how she found resources for healing.

Crocker’s essays have been recognized in Best American Essays and her articles have been featured in the Gettysburg Review, Grace Magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, O-Dark-Thirty, and T.A.P.S. Magazine.

She received an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Bennington College, a PhD in Nutrition and Human Development from the University of Connecticut and a Master of Education from Tufts University. Along the way she also became a Registered Dietitian.

Crocker worked in health care administration and clinical nutrition before becoming a full-time writer. Currently, she is the Writer-In-Residence at Riverlight Wellness Center in Stonington, Connecticut, where she teaches the art of writing memoirs and personal essays to aspiring writers who want to express their own stories. She lives, cooks, and writes in Mystic, Connecticut and is available for workshops, readings, and public speaking.

Welcome Ruth. Please tell us about your current release.

Those Who Remain: Remembrance and Reunion After War is a memoir about my husband’s death in the Vietnam War in 1969 and what I chose to do immediately following his death as a way of surviving grief. The decision to bury our letters and significant memorabilia in the coffin in which he returned, and to have him cremated and take his ashes to the Swiss Alps, seemed, at the time, to be the only way to cope with the tragedy. In the book I also look back on my earlier experiences of growing up in a family against war to reflect on what might have influenced my dramatic decision and also helped me to survive. The story then moves ahead thirty-five years to the experience of meeting, by chance, the men who were with him when he was killed. This meeting, and hearing their stories of his great leadership and compassion, created the ultimate healing and eventually convinced me that I should dig up the letters and revisit his words written during his last six months in Vietnam.

What inspired you to write this book?

Back in the 1990s my son started urging me to tell my story but I wasn’t ready, so I started by writing a fictionalized version (a one-act play). I also started writing personal essays about my early experiences. Eventually, in 2006, after meeting the guys who served with my husband in Vietnam, I realized that I needed and wanted to write my story, and also to include some of their stories. Today, after the long silence that followed the Vietnam War, more and more people are sharing their experience of that tumultuous and confusing time.

Here is a link to the book trailer that was created by my son, actor and director, Noah Bean. 

What exciting story are you working on next?

I’m collaborating with photographer Steve Horan to create a unique portrait of Yellowstone National Park through the pictures and stories of people who live and work there, including: back country rangers, wildlife preservationists, search and rescue team members, troubadours, artists, hikers, animal tracking experts, oral historians and many more. Some of these people have been drawn to Yellowstone after traumatic experiences in war. They all have great stories.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

The experience that confirmed that I was writer was when I received my first acceptance for a personal essay from a literary journal. In this case it was an essay about growing up with my younger brother who eventually died of AIDS. I was paid for the essay! And, eventually it was listed as a notable essay in Best American Essays 2013. That was a huge confidence booster, but I remind myself everyday that I can’t continue to call myself a writer unless I keep writing!

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

I balance my writing life between teaching, editing other people’s manuscripts, reading and trying to keep my house from falling down. I also participate in community service activities and serve on two boards, The Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut and the National Board of Gold Star Wives of America. Some weeks are busier than others. I don’t have a regular writing schedule. Usually it helps me to give myself a deadline on a daily basis – like, just write one page. That gets me started. I make notes continually in a journal. Some of it is useful and some not. Sometimes my journals are a mixture of writing ideas and recipes I want to try. I don’t use outlines unless it’s a writing project where I know I have to cover particular areas. I prefer to write in the afternoon into the evening. I also try to keep up with some social media activities everyday and answer letters and e-mail.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I usually don’t know where I’m going when I start to write. I just follow my thoughts as they come to me, get them down on the page, and then go back and figure out what I’m trying to say later. I revise a lot.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Until the age of ten or twelve, I wanted to be a nurse like my mother. Then I began to draw and paint every day and was sure that I would be an artist.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

If you’re trying to find a way to start your story, try starting with, “I remember…”

It’s amazing how those two words can free the mind and the imagination.

Website | Amazon | Elm Grove Press 

Thanks, Ruth!