Featured Interview With Bella Di Corte

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
Hi, my name is Bella, and I love to write. It’s one of my favorite things to do apart from spending time with my family, reading, cooking, and listening to music. I love to take photos too, but I find it harder and harder these days to get willing subjects– no one wants to keep still for me anymore. My child is over it and so are our three dogs. But my true passion is writing. I grew up in New Orleans, and I found that it was a creative playground. It’s filled with so much history, interesting people, and amazing food. I found it nearly impossible not to find inspiration growing up. In fact, I could probably write a few good stories based on a few people I’ve known.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
As far back as I can remember, I’ve always loved to read. Getting lost inside of a good book always felt like an adventure to me. And it never seemed to fail, after I finished reading, creative juices would start flowing in my head, and before I knew it, I’d have a pretty cool scene written out in my thoughts. But I didn’t realize back then that it was a sign that I should start writing. It just seemed like something normal to do. Read and then get a pretty cool rhapsody going inside of my head. Then one night I imagined (or dreamed about) a man with insane hair and a woman he couldn’t stop staring at. I was intrigued and wanted to know more about them. That’s the moment I became a writer.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I have so many…but the one author that sticks out the most to me is Diana Gabaldon. I could read her writing for the rest of my life and probably be okay with it. I love the world she’s created. I love how she takes something unbelievable and makes it probable. She has a magic touch when it comes to words. I’ve always enjoyed Shakespeare. Nicholas Sparks. Mario Puzo. Nora Roberts. Frances Mayes. I could go on and on. Honestly, I just love to read, but when a story has romance, especially an epic one, I find myself totally lost to the world the author has created for me.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
Writing mafia romance never occurred to me until I started writing my first. It came as a surprise, and I had no idea what kind of story I was writing until the second book in the saga. The hero was holding out on me. His history was a big secret until it wasn’t anymore. And after realizing how much I enjoyed writing the saga, I couldn’t wait to see what I was going to write next. Machiavellian was the next book, which is my latest book. It’ll be the first of three in the Gangsters of New York series. Machiavellian has so many elements that I love. A secret history between the hero and heroine that only the hero knows about. An alpha with a mafia ego and a strong heroine who demands to be seen in a big, savage world. It releases May 8, 2020, and I can’t wait for the world to meet Mac and Mari!

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Featured Interview With Tommy S. W. Wong

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born in Hong Kong to a father who was a successful businessman. I studied civil engineering in UK, practiced engineering in UK and Hong Kong, and taught civil engineering in Singapore. Yet, I've become a spiritual philosopher. Nowadays, I live spiritually in the midst of modern Singapore. I actively share my spiritual philosophy, which is not religious, in my books and in my talks.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
As a young boy, before the internet age, I was always attracted to go to bookshops to browse and buy books, and read them afterwards. When I was in my forties and interested in spirituality, I read many religious as well as spiritual books. It’s the latter set of books that opened the door for me to a new type of spirituality which is not religious.

When I was teaching engineering, I published my first engineering book in 1992. Then, in 2009, I published my first spiritual book.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
"Conversations with God" book series by Neale Donald Walsch really inspired me.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
“Wisdom for Living with New Spirituality” with the subtitle “How to Become a Better Soul” is my latest book. I was inspired to write this book because I note that humans having lived with the old spirituality (religion) for thousands of years, and yet, there is no peace on Earth. This book explores the problems with the old spirituality, and offers a new spirituality that can bring peace to Earth.

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Featured Interview With B.T. Keaton

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now? Do you have any pets?
Thank you so much for having me, this is just so great. I like to say I’ve got “gypsy blood” in me because my family moved every couple of years when we were kids. My father was a mechanical engineer working for nuke plants all across the south. But we finally settled a bit when we moved to East Tennessee in early 1992, which I remember vividly… and I have a real fondness in my heart for that time in my life. That’s the place that always felt most like “home” to me, and when I go back it still kinda does. I now live in Wellington, New Zealand, and I’ve been here since 2006, with a few short-lived stints back to the U.S during that time.

Growing up we had a cairn terrier named “Dude.” He looked a lot like Toto from the Wizard of Oz… and he was such a sweet boy. I’ve had a few pets over the years as I’ve gotten older, but sadly I don’t have any now because my apartment building doesn’t allow fur babies. But I very much adore cats and dogs.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I think my fascination began at birth! There are pictures in existence of me, as a baby, pulling at the dust-jackets of my Dad’s book collection. Why they were at crawling height I do not know! (laughs) I remember as I got older, my parents encouraged my love of comic books, and as a teen I read voraciously. My father also had an immense library in the house, which doubled as his office, and almost everything on the shelves was generally open to me. I had to run my title selection by him first, but he was pretty good about allowing me free-reign. I recall a book by L. Ron Hubbard titled “The Invader’s Plan” which I was not allowed to read. To this day I’ve no idea why he wouldn’t let me read it… and you know what’s really funny? I’ve still never read it! Now that I’m in my 40’s I think it’s safe to say Dad would allow me to read it. Perhaps. (laughs)

I don’t remember exactly when I started writing, though… probably early on. Junior High, maybe. But I think I always had a knack for it. I was the sorta half-nerdy (okay, mostly nerdy) guy in class who didn’t groan when the big exam turned out to be essay questions instead of multiple choice. So my writing, if it is good, may have stemmed from me simply having great teachers, or the proclivity to write stories was there and then developed because I had been exposed to good stories.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Oh my goodness, it just doesn’t get much better than J.R.R. Tolkien (and his son Christopher) for me. I probably harp on about Tolkien too much! But yeah, his genius cannot be overstated. I’m endlessly fascinated by the universe he created. And what’s more wonderful about his work, especially The Silmarillion, is that somehow I always seem to find something new in the pages whenever I re-read it. I do of course love sci-fi… Robert J. Sawyer, John Scalzi, Frank Herbert, Ann Leckie, and Robert Heinlein are a few faves. But I also really dig Kurt Vonnegut, Elmore Leonard, and James Ellroy, too. And comic books are still my first love… Frank Miller, Jeff Smith, Jim Starlin, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman… man, I’m all over the show! (laughs)

I’m probably inspired to write in part by musicians and songwriters, authors and artists. Music comes from the soul, and I think writing stories does, too. But my true inspirations come from my family. My sister Megan, my brother Trenton, and my late parents, John and Natalie. They make me wanna be better. I never really wanted to make anyone proud of me, except for them. But truthfully all my friends and family inspire me. Everyone that’s ever had a part in my life has made me wanna step up my game. It’s about people, and the experiences you’ve shared with others throughout your life, you know? That’s what really counts. That’s the good stuff.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
Well, Transference takes place in a future-Earth, about about eighty years from now. A mad prophet has gained mastery over a new form of technology which allows for the human soul to be transferred from one body to another. I imagined what it would be like if we would capture an ethereal being, and then keep it here in this plane of existence. So, essentially, mankind has found a way to live forever. I can never really discuss it in short terms because I’ll go off on so many tangents. I’m like Chris Farley in Tommy Boy… that diner scene where he scares the waitress with his sales-pitch! (laughs) The book’s about so many things… family, self-sacrifice, revenge, duality and identity. All of those things are kind of the foundation of the story, which slowly float to the surface as the narrative drives itself towards its inevitable, and I hope mind-blowing, conclusion.

It took me so long to get it right, too. Originally the idea came from a two-page synopsis that I had written as a plot for a movie… that was back in 2010. Then, two years later I found myself unemployed, and I bashed out the manuscript in about 6 or 7 weeks. By early 2013 I had completed the 2nd and 3rd draft(s) with my editor Pat LoBrutto. We had a 98% finished project and then I shelved the whole thing. The ending fell a bit flat, and I was afraid. I was afraid people would hate it. I think at the time I felt I couldn’t have handled that kind of mass rejection. I’ve come to realize since that the “success” was in finishing the book. Success is not sales. Success is doing the work, and sharing it with the world. I think I mostly got it right. I think. Don’t quote me on that, though! (laughs)

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Featured Interview With Shakeil Kanish

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I'm a member of the USAF and a member of the LGBT community. I just wanted to tell stories that kids like me could look up to and see in bookstores one day. I love the Greatest Showman I think it's the best movie ever. Also, love me some anime! I totally just saw the new My Hero movie and started bawling in the theater but that's not important ha. I was raised all around my mom was prior AF as well so grew up in Europe and Texas and just all around so haven't really found a place to call home BUT I'm working on it! 🙂 I don't have any pets but we did used to have a Morkie named Shai, he was amazing! Now I'm stationed in Abilene, Texas!

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
Really young maybe about 5? And I started writing about the same time ha, I was part of the talented and gifted program (basically I wouldn't stop talking so they made an excuse to make me feel special). Kidding but it was great helped me slow down a little and just start getting into writing.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Madeleine L'Engle, Alexandra Bracken. I love reading fantasy, or thriller or horror. Anything that just pushes the boundaries of reality and takes you to another world. As far as who inspires me? I know I sound like a broken record but it really is that boy I used to be and the kids I see circling around bookstores sad that they don't see heroes of color in big fantasy/fiction novels or the LGBT community that is upset that they don't have their own Harry Potter or Hunger Games. I do this for them.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
The Sigil : A Novel. Um I think what inspired it was just the lack of colored protagonists and LGBT MC's out there. It made me sad to get on LGBT community sites and see people upset that they felt like they weren't represented so I wanted to try and do something that mixed both of those worlds together.

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Featured Interview With John Grabowski

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born in Philadelphia, just outside of Bucks County, and grew up in a pretty ordinary suburban middle-class environment. After law school I decided to head west and moved to Northern California, where I live now. I've worked in TV news, public relations and advertising, and done volunteer work for classical music organizations, as classical music is a passion of mine (and figures into several of my written works). Currently I'm working on a novel about the dotcom mania of the SF Bay Area while pursuing a new career in residential real estate. Real estate has long been a passion of mine.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I learned to read before I started kindergarten. Actually I can still remember the day my father sat me down and started teaching me the alphabet. I've read books since I can remember but I rarely read "children's books." I preferred science, especially astronomy, then history and biographies. My interest in fiction came a lot later. I still like my fiction marinated in reality, and shy away from pure fantasy and sci-fi.

Throughout my school years I wrote parodies and funny stories. They just flowed out of me without any need for revision. Some time in high school or early college I was bitten by the bug to write "serious" fiction, but there was only one problem: I hadn't really lived life yet, so I could never get a novel or story past the exposition, or the "problem." To solve your characters' problems you need to know things, and at the time I didn't know very much about anything. I also tried writing a screenplay about the late 90s bull market but things in real life came to a head before I could finished, which brought a realization to me: If you want to write stories "ripped from the headlines," you have to work *fast.* One day about ten years later I was sitting at my newswriting job one evening between shows and literally heard a voice in my head whisper the one-sentence elevator pitch for what became my first novel, *Entertaining Welsey Shaw.* It took me nearly eight years to finish it however, but in that lengthy period I learned a lot about what not to do. So my second book, a collection of my shorter fiction, was born a lot more quickly. Thank heavens!

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My favorite contemporary author—and I've been blessed enough to meet her and correspond with her—is Deborah Eisenberg. She may not be a household name for many, and they likely are more familiar with her lifelong companion, Wallace Shawn, whom I've also met (on a rather interesting night where I also encountered their friends, Howard Hesseman—Dr. Johnny Fever to you—and his wife). Deborah Eisenberg's stories have clearly influenced my own in numerous ways. Other contemporary favorites are Joseph O'Neill (Netherland), Richard Ford, Richard Yates, Milan Kundera, and José Saramago. Oddly, I like either realism or magical realism, if the magical part is there to illustrate a point about the real world we live in. I generally don't like anything that's "escapist." My next novel, which will be expanded from an award-winning novella I wrote some years ago, will be magical realism, the story of a man who starts dating Death, Death being a beautiful, sad and mysterious woman who appears from the shadows when it's time to take people away. He falls in love with her.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
i Violet Rothko and Other Stories is a collection of my shorter works, some of which I wrote while I was working on my first novel, Entertaining Welsey Shaw. I wrote shorter works to take a break. I wrote the titular story to enter into a contest and I sent it with reservations on the last day for entries. I was close to hitting the delete button instead, because I was so ambivalent. To my surprise it won first prize, and the editors of the site (now defunct; it was bought by Random House) told me it was the best story they'd ever read. Joseph Freda, author of the superb The Patience of Rivers, recently told me it was as perfect a story as he'd ever read. That's the only reason I included it in the collection—I still don't know if I like it!

The rest of the stories have less clearly-defined, good-bad characters. I like to write slice-of-life stories that observe people from a certain distance without insisting that some are heroes. I have a somewhat jaded view of humanity, in other words. Okay, let's just say I'm an outright pessimist. Most of the time. Personally, my favorite stories in my latest collection, which comes out in paperback on February 25th and is already available in hardcover, are "Katabasis" and "Haydn." The former is about two married movie stars with their pampered children as we see what life behind the scenes is like, and it's not pretty. The couple is so self-indulgent and divorced from reality that the children, we realize, don't stand a chance of being normal. The latter story is about a rich Southern California power broker whose fragmented family includes a daughter who wants to do good in the Third World (much to her father's puzzlement), a wife he's slowly losing to dementia and mistress he likes because he can control everything about her right down to exactly what she wears and what she says and thinks. His world comes crashing down at the end, even if he doesn't quite learn from it.

Yes, my take on humanity is a bit dark and unromanticized. I find people fascinating, especially their flaws. And as my bio on my own website says, I write stories steeped in the zeitgeist of today, that are often complex and boast neither heroes nor anti-heroes.

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