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Q: What inspired you to start writing?
My dad is the reason I write. He wasn't a writer by trade, he fixed cars. My father learned to be a mechanic in my Uncle Tony's garage in Hartford, Connecticut during the depression. He went on to fight in World War Two. Once he returned home, he met and married my mother and started a family. At night he told me stories about the little boy factory and Archibald Popscaluski. He made Archibald up and factories and as I grew up, his stories always stayed with me. My dad was a master storyteller and that's what inspired me to write.
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Q: Can you tell us a little about your latest book?
The latest book in the Bruce Westman series is called Missing. This is loosely based off of a case in Houston, Texas. A 15-year-old girl stepped off her school bus and was never seen again. As a retired police officer, this story touched my heart so much that I wrote and dedicated a story to her. My private investigator, Bruce Westman, is hired by a mother whose daughter has been missing for 16 years. She hires Bruce because she is dying of cancer and wishes to see her child before she dies.
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Q: How do you create your characters?
The character of Bruce Westman actually started many years ago back in high school. I created Bruce Westman and made him a private investigator, but back then he chased things like vampires and werewolves. It was stuff a teenager would write. Fast forward to the fall of 2019, I'm sitting in the parking lot of a town swimming hole called Globe Hollow. It's late November, the sun has set but there's still a little light to see by. I'm looking through the fence at the pool and think to myself, "What if there was a body floating out there."
I go back to my hotel and start making notes. As the idea grows, I begin to think about Bruce Westman and how I could bring him back and ground him in reality.
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Q: What does your typical writing day look like?
Half the time I'm writing up on a balcony at my Granddaughter's gymnastics practice. When I don't take her to gym I write in an office I built with a friend above the garage. Wherever I am, I try to write about ten pages. I am what I call a loop writer. I write ten pages and stop. The next day I go over those pages and edit what I wrote and then write ten new pages.
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Q: What has been the most rewarding part of being an indie author?
Book shows have been the most rewarding part for me. I love doing them even though every time I'm so nervous. Most police officers are introverted by nature and so am I, but for some reason I shine at these events and meet so many interesting people.
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Q: What’s one challenge you’ve faced in your writing journey?
Selling myself. I thought, write a book, publish a book, and that was all there was to it, but wait, there's more. I'm still learning how to do this part of the business. It's not easy.
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Q: Do you have any favorite writing tools or apps?
I really don't have anything. I just sit down and write. I've never suffered from writer's block and I've never needed prompts to get me going.
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Q: What advice would you give to new or aspiring indie authors?
Just write. It doesn't matter if it's good, just write it out because you can always come back and improve it later. Also, read everything you can get your hands. learn from how others craft their stories.
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Q: How do you handle book promotion as an indie author?
Not very well so far. I've tried things, paid for things. I push my books out on Facebook and Instagram, and do every book show I can get into. If I had advice to give, it would be to do the book shows, and don't worry about how many books you sell. I average 24 books a show, but at my last show I sold 40 books. That was a good day for me.
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Q: What’s next for you? Are you working on a new book?
So far, I've published the first 3 books in the Bruce Westman series, but I am currently working on Book 8 in the series. Books 4, 5, 6, and 7 are written, but only Book 4 has gone through and edit.
