Interview with mystery author Travis Haugen

Today’s special guest is novelist Travis Haugen. He’s here chatting with me about his new mystery thriller, SOUP: The Future Is Past and Present.

During his virtual book tour, Travis will be awarding a $30 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice) gift card to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit his other tour stops and enter there, too.

Bio:

Travis was born and raised in the prairies of Saskatchewan, lived in Calgary for over 25 years and presently lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Travis Haugen has spent forty years of his life touring on the road as a musician and has spent hundreds of hours in recording studios. Travis spends much of his time writing songs, writing stories, playing music and spending valuable time with his family and close group of friends.

Welcome, Travis. Please share a little bit about your current release.

The story spans 20 years from 2001 to 2021. It is the continuing story of the second generation of the Yonge family. They are a family in search of themselves while dealing with the premature death of their musical father. They find that answers come hard in this period of political unrest, an unrest that contributed to their father’s demise.

What inspired you to write this book?

Music. The writing of one song in 2001 started the process that led to SOUP.

Excerpt from SOUP: The Future Is Past and Present:

March 30, 2001 – Calgary

The melancholy sound of lonesome piano blues wakes Michelle from a restless sleep. She throws on Scott’s old faded black and white striped cotton robe and makes her way through the darkness to the living room. She takes her place beside him on the piano bench, his face partially lit by a solitary low wattage lamp sitting to the left, on the mantle of the old antique acoustic piano. He shows her a sad smile and continues playing an old blues tune she can’t place, but knows she’s heard somewhere before. “Scott, are you okay?” she asks.

He stops and turns to face her, patting her bare leg. “I’ve been better,” he replies with a wry grin.

“You’ve been crying,” she says softly. “What’s wrong?”

“The dream woke me again, same one. I remember more this time. A little, anyway. I’m a kid outside a blonde wooden door in a long white hallway. The door has number 519 stenciled in black on its surface. I don’t want to open that door, Michelle.”

What exciting story are you working on next?

My niece, Candy, and I, are working on bringing the second book in the ‘One Song’ series, Hedley, from the editing stage to the publishing stage. We are also working on music and prose for the 4^th book in the series, so stay tuned.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I have been writing songs since I was 15 years old. Writing one particular song on one particular lonely night in late 2001 led directly to me writing the ‘One Song’ series.

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?

When I write, I write full-time. Once I start writing, it flows and flows and flows until it stops. However, I also work as a computer consultant, play in numerous bands, do session work at ‘Bedside Studios’ in Winnipeg, and conduct philatelic on line auctions for ‘Bow City Philatelics in Calgary, Alberta. So, you can see, when the writing urge hits me, my life is not busy at all, lol. This is why Candy has become invaluable to me in this process, we are a team.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I do most of my writing while I am not writing. I have not driven since 1980 because of my eye sight. I get around, snow, rain or shine 365 days of the year on a bike. I do most of my writing, be it music or prose, while I am riding. When I get home, I sit down to a piano or a guitar for the music, or a computer for the prose and I put down what came to me during the day.

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

A Mad Scientist!

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

If you are an e-book reader, I strongly recommend this format for you. The links to the music are embedded in the book so the music is a simple click away. If you prefer the hard copy, the interactivity between the music and the website is a simple thing. Instructions are in the book itself on the very first page on The Note From The Author. I hope you enjoy our Interactive Musical Thriller.

Links:

Website | Online Bookclub | Facebook | YouTube | Barnes and Noble | Kobo | Amazon

Thank you for being a guest on my blog!

Thanks for having us.

--Travis Haugen and Candy Haugen

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Interview with contemporary fiction novelist M. Garzon

M. Garzon is stopping here today as she tours her contemporary novel, Blaze of Glory with Goddess Fish Promotions.

As part of the tour, M. is going to be awarding the entire trilogy on Kindle or Kobo (winner's choice) to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. To be entered for a chance to win, leave a comment below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit other tour stops and leave comments there, too! 

Bio:

M. Garzon rode horses professionally for ten years, until an injury prompted a career change. She returned to school and completed a BSc; then for good measure, an MBA. After several years of toiling as a business consultant, she turned to writing in a desperate bid to regain her sanity. A mom of two fabulous children, she lives in St‑Lazare, QC and considers herself extremely lucky to be a writer.

Welcome M. Please tell us about your current release.

Blaze of Glory is the first book of a trilogy set in the horse world, more specifically the world of showjumpers. The main character, Tea (pronounced Tay-a) starts the family drama rolling by falling in love with the exact wrong person. She then proceeds to dig herself into a deeper mess by making rash, impetuous decisions (thus angering her step-father), ignoring sound, loving advice (thus frustrating her twin brother), and being stubborn and clueless about her love interest (thus… no wait, I don’t want to spoil it for you). Still, she’s only seventeen so we have to cut her some slack. And she does redeem herself somewhat in the second and third books, which are already out.

What inspired you to write this book?

I wasn’t inspired so much as held captive and forced. My muse has a mean streak.

Excerpt:

“What do you need, Tea?” he asked quietly.

The question caught me by surprise. I needed a lot of things, but what sprang to mind first was Jaden. The one thing I definitely could never have.

I gulped. “Just be my friend.”

“I will always be that.” He pulled into the lot where my car was parked. Julia and Teri were following behind us.

He turned to me. “Will you think about what I said? About telling Dec?”

Truthfully, I had filed away his request as soon as he’d made it, under the heading of ‘not in this lifetime’.

“Why is it so important to you?” I asked a question rather than lie to him.

“Because I think it will help to extirpate your feelings of guilt,” he said.

Only Jaden could use a word like ‘extirpate’ and not sound like a total geek, I thought with a smile. I turned toward him, still smiling, and found myself being pulled into a hug. I hugged him back fiercely, my heart breaking into a mad dash. His body was hard, but very warm. I pulled away first—I liked being in his arms far, far too much to stay there. This was something I’d have to get under control, and quickly.

What exciting story are you working on next?

I’m writing a kids’ book with my children. It’s called Panther and it’s been exciting for me because I’m learning a lot about Canadian horses, our national breed. I also found an awesome illustrator for it, which I think adds a lot to the story. I never thought I’d write for children, but that’s what happens when you have kids – you find yourself doing a lot of things you never suspected you would.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

Sometime between my 2nd and 3rd books it just hit me one day that this is what I am now. How lucky am I?

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’ve been writing “full-time” for about a year now, but I’m also a single parent and my kids live with me 100% of the time. I write when they’re in school, but between PED days (teacher days), holidays, and illness, it seems there are never enough hours. I’ve tried to write at night after they’re asleep but what I produce is mostly gibberish. This past January the kids had chicken pox one after another, so I lost a whole month of writing, although I did gain some nice bonding time with my kids.

School days start with craziness – my kids are seven and nine but in the morning they somehow revert to being preschoolers. Once they’re safely off, the dog’s been walked, and the demanding bunny attended to, then I sit down and spend six hours living in my imaginary world.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I wrote my first book all out of sequence, and put it together like a puzzle at the end.

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

A horse trainer – and I was, for a while. I also, like many animal-loving children, thought about being a veterinarian, but when I got older and spent some time volunteering at vet clinics I realized it’s a very difficult profession for those with soft hearts.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

If you read the books now, you can be cool and say you liked them before they became a TV series ;)

Website | Facebook | Amazon  (also available on Kobo, NOOK, and iBooks)

Thanks for being today’s guest, M!