Noahan Author Issue #3

Thank you all for joining us again! This is the third issue of Noahan Author. If this is your first time joining us, let me urge you to go back and read the first two issues. We have had some really involved interviews! Now I know that usually when people come to read author interviews they are visiting to read about writers they already know and enjoy. Please also take the time to read the interviews with the other storytellers. You may be surprised and find someone new and interesting that you might want to read a book by!

Before we get started, I would like to announce that I have just released a new ebook: The Song of Ballad and Crescendo! It is available now on Smashwords.com https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/22165  and will appear on Amazon in the next day or two. It’s a short story about love back when the sky used to be made of stone, and it’s illustrated by some of my own photography.

You can download a FREE copy of the book between now and August 29th if you use coupon code LF67C on Smashwords. I hope you’ll check it out!

Noahan Author Interview – Dawn Judd

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: Dawn, please tell us about Reining In (The Network.)

DAWN JUDD: Reining In was originally written for my two teenage daughters.  I shared it with some friends who convinced me to publish it.

The book really is about Khalida’s struggle with holding on to her humanity.  She is trying to become part of the human world, which isn’t easy to do, especially when people notice that you never age.  The Network is a group of people who know her secret and help her keep it.  They aren’t just people she’s picked randomly.  You could say Fate has brought them together.  Circumstances that brought these people to her have also made them feel like they owe their lives to her, so they are happy to help her.  Because she has outlived everyone else she ever knew, these people become like family to her.  Most would put their lives on the line for her.

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: What can you tell us about Khallie and her relationship with Raymond?

DAWN JUDD: Raymond is Khallie’s best friend.  They have known each other for nearly a century, their relationship evolving as he ages and she remains the same.  Losing him is very painful to her because it is a reminder that she will lose everyone she ever loves.

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: If I am reading your preview right, Vampires in your book have no problem with sunlight. Can you talk a little about why you decided to go that route?

DAWN JUDD: I wanted something different.  All myth’s are based loosely on some event in reality, but are twisted far from the truth.  That’s what I wanted with this.  So she peeled away the layers of myth and left the bare truth.  Vampires are just like us, except they drink blood and live “forever.” Vampires created the myths to make themselves less believable.  Vampires by nature don’t want to be discovered by the human world.

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: I have found memories of enjoying Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles when I was in High School. The Twilight series has obviously been enormously popular and successful recently. Can you talk about what Vampire stories have been most important to you?

DAWN JUDD: I am a vampire fanatic, and can’t begin to name off all the stories and movies I love.  But if I had to name my favorites, I think some of the older ones would be at the top.  Vamp, Lost Boys and of course Bram Stoker’s Dracula. 

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: In many Vampires stories, the Vampires eventually tire of life and either go to sleep for long periods of time or kill themselves. Your protagonist Khallie has been around for 5,000 years. She mentions having been around when the Pyramids were built. (So much for weather erosion theories!) I have personally never understood why anyone who was healthy and strong would decide to end things, even after centuries. What are your thoughts?

DAWN JUDD: Although Khallie has no desire to die any time soon, she has issues with creating other vampires.  She feels it is a curse, not because of what you become when you turn, but what you become after living so long.  She feels that vampires lose their humanity, and eventually their sanity, when they realize how long an eternity is.  Her relationship with the people in the Network is her trying to regain her humanity.  She wasn’t always the person she is when we first meet her.  She has come full circle and is working her way back to a sane place.

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: Aristotle believed that friendship was impossible between unequals. If I’m rich and you’re poor we cannot be true friends. If you’re educated and I’m not, we cannot be real friends. In the opening pages of your book you detail a friendship between very different people; one of which is thousands of years old. Now, of course, this is fiction. We do and should allow some leniency here! But what do you think? Could a five thousand year old woman and a mortal man ever be proper friends, or would their lives make them too different to ever really understand each other?

DAWN JUDD: I think for the most part that is true, but as with everything else in life, there are exceptions to the rule.  (In viewing the friendships that I have in my own life, I really believe this to be true.)  Khallie’s relationship with Raymond and with the rest of the members of the Network is based on her desire to regain her humanity.  Raymond is fascinated with Khalida.  She has witnessed things that he has only read about in books.  She is also the reason he is alive to hear the stories she has to tell.  He feels indebted to her, and out of it, a friendship is born.

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: What have you done and what are you doing to promote your work?

DAWN JUDD: When I first released the book, I spent six months doing nothing.  I didn’t really have any hope of it becoming anything, and was more concerned with having a copy for me.  That was good enough.

But I was encouraged to join the ABNA contest and after talking to some of the authors there I decided to really work at it.  The internet is a wonderful tool that should be used by anyone trying to promote anything at all.  I have started websites and blogs specifically for me and my book.  I have started Indie sites and blogs, working with other authors.  That is probably the biggest leap forward I made in the marketing world.  Authors promoting other authors is a great thing.  Who knows better what you need than another author who needs exactly the same thing?

I have recently started handing out promotional items, and people do stop and ask, “What is that about?”

I will be attending my first book signing in another month, and later in the fall, a book carnival put on by my daughter’s FCCLA team. 

It seems like a lot of work, but if I could quit my job and do this full time, I would do it in a heartbeat.  It is the most fun I have had in my adult life!

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: I understand that you are also involved with Breakout Book reviews. What can you tell us about that experience?

DAWN JUDD: The review site and the sister site have both been so rewarding.  When I started the book club, it was great to talk to the authors and share our experiences.  It was wonderful to see that the site was bringing readers to all of us.  But the most amazing experience was when I started the review blog and started reading the books that these authors were writing.  They are great books written by great authors.  My reviews are from the heart.  When I post a review that says I loved the book, I really loved the book. 

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: Looking at your Amazon page I noticed a startling fact! While a full 72% of the people who view your page DO buy your book (which is an excellent statistic!) another full 28% buy the book Portal by Imogen Rose. Do you feel that your work is similar?

DAWN JUDD: The two books are really nothing alike, except that they really have the same target audience.  I think the number of people who buy both books comes from the fact that Imogen and I work together to promote each other’s work.  I can say for a fact that it has paid off, at least for me. I owe a lot of my success to her. 

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: If you could leave your body and travel astrally, would you? Where would you go?

DAWN JUDD: In a heartbeat.  I think it would be an amazing experience.  I’m not sure where I would go.  If I was able to project myself anywhere, I would probably go to places I’ve always wanted to see like Stonehenge, Loch Ness, the Pyramids, etc. 

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: What is your deepest, darkest secret?

DAWN JUDD: If I told you, it wouldn’t be a secret anymore.

DAWN JUDD: My question for you: Interviews can be a great promotional tool for authors and I'm sure all who have been interviewed by you appreciate all you've done for them. What made you decide to start this project?

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: Well, I'm sure you can guess it began as a tool to promote my novel; The White Hairs. I'm fairly new to self-publishing, and even newer to digital publishing. I was interviewed by a couple of very generous sites and I enjoyed the process. It occurred to me that the sites that interviewed me were getting something out of it. They were drawing the fans of all of the authors they interviewed to their own sites where they then had a chance to sell their own books.

So, I decided that I needed to try something similar. At the same time it occurred to me that there were some ways I could do things better than they were doing. No, I didn't have time to read every author's book - not if I wanted to read anything else or keep writing - but I could read the free preview for each book and then generate questions specific to each guest.

Also, I liked the idea of asking questions that pushed the authors into giving us some depth in their answers. I don't like interviews that read like high school tests. The goal isn't to give the correct answer, it's to spend a little time with the audience. What we do here isn't really that different from an evening talk show. The guests on my "show" would be wise to come with stories, jokes, anecdotes. Bring a persona, if you want! How are you different from the authors who go on The Daily Show to sell their books? This is your opportunity to make a connection with people and draw them into your world.

So, what started as a promotion has turned into something that I enjoy for its own sake. Yes, I'll make sure everyone who comes here sees the link to my novel. That's still my main goal in life! But I'm quite proud of what this interview series is developing into, as a goal unto itself!

Noahan Author Interview – Derek Prior

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: Please tell us about Thanatos Rising.

DEREK PRIOR: I began working on Thanatos Rising in my university days back in the 90s. It started as a “what if?” scenario that sprang from my PhD research into Antonin Artaud and the Theatre of Cruelty.

Aberystwyth is a small Welsh town but I couldn’t resist asking “What if there was an undercurrent of dark science/dark magic that was centred on the academic community?”

The protagonist, Harry Chesterton, is a very old character I used to write about in virtually all my school assignments in the 70s. He was a sort of “everyman” who had adventures in just about every setting imaginable. He’s been an astronaut, explorer, pirate, cricketer, punka wallah…

In Thanatos Rising, Chesterton’s a much more sombre character with a morbid fascination for the writings of a certain Dr Otto Blightey, whose pioneering research into post-mortem consciousness had him expelled from Oxford and ridiculed by the scientific community.

Chesterton hopes to track Blightey down in Aberystwyth, where he’s rumoured to have taken up residence in the old Carmelite monastery above the town.

The book starts with a letter from Chesterton to the author, a letter discovered in an attic flat in a sleazy part of Eastbourne in England. Chesterton speaks of his translation to another world, Thanatos, and has left his memoirs for publication by whoever should stumble upon them.

One of the major themes of the story is that of Plato’s Cave and the emergence of a deeper/alternate reality.

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: What effect do you hope your story will have on the reader?

DEREK PRIOR: I hope that the reader is drawn into the close POV of Chesterton and made to feel a little disorientated by the phantasmagorical happenings. The book is riddled with mystery and suspense, which should compel the reader to keep questioning even right at the end when so much is resolved but a whole new set of questions present themselves.

The book should challenge, excite and induct the reader into Chesterton’s idiosyncratic world view, which shifts the deeper he delves into the mysteries of Dr Blightey.

I hope the experience of reading Thanatos Rising is something like being buried alive and then emerging into bright daylight (with a couple of maggot bites to show for it).

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: I understand that Thanatos Rising is a horror novel, but the free preview ends before anything frightening happens. Can you talk a little bit about how horror is portrayed in your work?

DEREK PRIOR: Much of the horror lies in Chesterton’s utter disorientation (and what ‘s causing it). He becomes mistrustful of his own thought processes and retreats into a half-life amidst the filth of his own flat and the dirty little café in Pier Street, which is frequented by self-indulgent poets and a militant group of mental health service users.

There’s also a very sinister undercurrent throughout the book involving the manipulation of some of the characters’ beliefs and philosophies.

On a more visceral level, and without giving too much away, there are things in the tunnels beneath the town, a demonic creature preying upon the mentally ill and poor undergraduates, and a dark ring-master who seems to cross many worlds and many times.

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: Derek, I loved the voice you used to write THANATOS RISING (The Memoirs of Harry Chesterton: Part I). It manages to be erudite without also being difficult to penetrate. How similar is the style you used to your “every day” style? Are you really that posh? ;)

DEREK PRIOR: Yes and no! My mother won’t talk to me without a dictionary in hand and my US friends think I’m related to the Queen (which of course I’m not as I’m not German).

Chesterton is a sort of hybrid – bits of me merged with elements of academic friends (some of whom make me sound as common as muck). His “voice” very much sets the tone of the book: he’s middle class, academic, pleasantly pompous (almost a Georgian man-of-letters in that sense); and he’s also got shades of the well-spoken and well-mannered heroes of classic fantasy/SF (i.e. Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars).

As the book is written in the first person, the reader is immersed in Chesterton’s voice and thoughts, whereas in other works I’m able to introduce different vernaculars. Some of the supporting characters are quite definitely not posh – Dave West, the psychic quester springs to mind. Dave is very clearly from Essex!

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: You have two works available for download on Amazon: THANATOS RISING (The Memoirs of Harry Chesterton: Part I) and The Resurrection of Deacon Shade. I notice that neither book is available for purchase in a physical format. Why did you choose to publish digitally? Do you plan on making a paperback edition of either story available?

DEREK PRIOR:The Resurrection of Deacon Shader is now available in paperback from Amazon, and the print copy of Thanatos Rising has just been released.

I chose to publish both titles digitally so that the cost to the reader is minimized. My goal is to have the highest possible volume of readers rather than short-term profits. The print copies are PODs which are comparatively highly priced.

I also think that we are in very interesting times as far as traditional publishing is concerned. Publishing digitally has narrowed the playing field considerably for independent authors. The most exciting thing about this (as far as I’m concerned) is that writers don’t need to worry about conforming to the expectations of the industry gate-keepers (and thereby contributing to the formulaic, imitative slush that finds its way onto bookshelves from publishers concerned only with profitability). My experience here is only with the fantasy genre. Besides a few passages of Joe Abercrombie and the occasional new work from Stephen Donaldson, I can’t say I’ve found anything worth reading in the genre since David Gemmell passed away.

Indie writers are free from such concerns – we can just get on with telling whatever stories we like. If they connect with people, then that’s great. If not, we lose nothing and are free to try again. Some of the best new fantasy books I’ve read in the last couple of years have been from indies. It reminds me of the golden age of Sword & Sorcery when writers like R.E. Howard were producing wonderful, original work that shaped so much that followed. It’s a sad indictment of the publishing world that these writers probably wouldn’t make it into print today (unless they went the indie route).

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: THANATOS RISING (The Memoirs of Harry Chesterton: Part I) is set in the Welsh University town of Aberystwyth. What can you tell us about your relationship with Wales?

DEREK PRIOR: I spent seven years in Aberystwyth as both an undergraduate and a postgrad. There was a little bunch of us writers, actors and musicians wandering from café to café, playing lawn bowls, smoking pipes and organizing chess tournaments in the launderette. They were good days, days I’m very nostalgic about. Gradually we all separated and went our own ways – me to Australia initially, some to France, Croatia and England.

I learnt a bit of the Welsh language whilst in Aberystwyth and I also had the privilege of weekly three hour debates with my late friend, Fr John FitzGerald, O.Carm, who was a wonderful philosopher, theologian, poet and mentor.

I think my fondness for these times shines through even the darkest moments in Thanatos Rising. It may be horrific at times, but it’s all in the spirit of discovery, adventure and camaraderie.

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: Please tell us about The Resurrection of Deacon Shader.

DEREK PRIOR: The Resurrection of Deacon Shader was intended to be a reworking of some of the themes from Thanatos Rising in the fantasy genre. I began writing Shader in Australia and it went through several drafts before being released last year.

It is the tale of a Christian knight who wants to give up fighting. He moves to a remote abbey in Sahul (Western Australia) but can’t make it as a monk. He leaves and manages to save the village of Oakendale from marauding monsters called mawgs, in the process falling for a young Sahulian lass, Rhiannon.

Unbeknown to Shader, his path is being manipulated by a Dreamer shaman who wants to use him for the protection of an artefact known as the Sun Stone. The shaman persuades Rhiannon to reject Shader.

Shader returns to the Abbey where he witnesses the coming of an army of undead led by the wraith Callixus (formerly a knight of Shader’s Elect Order). Callixus steals the Grey Abbot’s piece of the Sun Stone and takes it to his necromantic master, Dr Cadman, thus setting into motion events that will take Shader to the dream world of Aethir to confront the shadowy figure of Sektis Gandaw who plans to use the Sun Stone to un-weave the whole of Creation.

Shader is an old style fantasy that appeals to those who like the classics in the genre. During the writing of the sequel, The Archon’s Assassin I became obsessed with changing the style and removing some of the elements (including Christianity) that prevented it from finding an easy niche in the fantasy genre. Eventually, I decided to leave Shader as it was and instead began to write a new first book of the SHADER trilogy, Gods in the Dreaming, which will be released before Christmas. Gods is much more contemporary in style. It has some of the basic plot elements of Shader but changes the fundamentals of the world and the characters. There’s tighter POV, more intrigue and much more geographical and political depth.

Nevertheless, The Resurrection of Deacon Shader still stands up as a fun read in its own right and will remain available in both eBook and paperback formats.

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: What have you done and what are you doing to promote your work?

DEREK PRIOR: Promotion’s been a matter of trial and error coupled with some helpful advice from the Kindleboard community. I’ve got a website and a blog which is linked to a Facebook page, and I’m a regular visitor to Kindleboards. I’ve been fortunate enough to forge links with some review sites and have become good friends with the guys at Contemporary Fantasy Review who were kind enough to write about Shader when it first came out.

I tried Facebook and Google ads for a few months but the results were disappointing. So far, the best results have come from the forums (although you have to tread carefully on the Amazon boards).

In the future, I plan to start setting up shop at conventions (just missed Gen-Com this year), and working with authors to advertise in each other’s books.

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: If you could leave your body and travel astrally, would you? Where would you go?

DEREK PRIOR: I can! Who do you think’s looking over your shoulder? Put it away! What would your mother say?

But seriously (!) I’d go to Barsoom with John Carter, bump him off and whizz away on an air-raft with the incomparable Deja Thoris.

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: What is your deepest, darkest secret?

DEREK PRIOR: I was tortured with a coat-hanger and a pair of Marigolds in Ben Halligan’s fly-on-the wall docu-drama,  In God’s Name. That’s pretty dark and all you’re getting out of me. Of course there was also the time….

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN (Asked a few days later): I see that you've had a very busy week publishing. What can you tell us about your other newly published works, and what else is forthcoming?

DEREK PRIOR: I've spent hours every day making sure "Thanatos Rising" is visible to potential readers. That involves posting all over the forums, Facebook, blogs, Amazon and Smashwords.

I've also changed the pricing on two other books, The Resurrection of Deacon Shader and Foundations for a Better Physique (both now $0.99). Foundations is my guide to starting weight training and diet for improving body composition (when I'm not writing I work as a freelance Personal Trainer).

The price reduction is part of my preparation for the launch of two major novels at the end of the year, SHADER: Gods in the Dreaming and SHADER: The Archon's Assassin.

These are the first two parts of the SHADER trilogy, which takes Deacon Shader firmly into the contemporary fantasy genre: sprawling worlds with all the politics, geography and demography you'd expect; complex characters; full POV and Sword & Sorcery type action.

Gods replaces The Resurrection of Deacon Shader as the start of the trilogy. I was two thirds of the way through Archon's when I realised how far I'd developed as a writer. Suddenly Resurrection was letting the side down. I've retained some of the plot elements, most of the charatcers and parts of a few scenes, but God's is much grittier, multi-layered and tighter. It also lays some pretty deep foundations for the rest of the trilogy.

One other thing I should mention: the nefarious Dr Otto Blightey, who we meet in Thanatos Rising has a nasty habit of turning up in a number of different worlds. He's lurking in the background of Gods and puts in a very nasty (painful for some) appearance in Archon's. He's also scheduled for a role in my forthcoming serialisation, Nameless, a collection of sequential short stories featuring the Nameless Dwarf from the SHADER books, and his new travelling companion, Silas Thrall, thief and scholar who is researching something that's probably best left alone.

The first Nameless story, The Ant-Man of Malfen will be released in the next couple of months.

The third SHADER novel, A Dark Perdurance will follow late in 2011.

I've also been finishing off some editing work on other people's books (I've finally put my obsessionality to good use!) and going over cover art ideas for Gods in the Dreaming. I'm working with fantasy artist Mike Nash once again (Mike did the cover for The Resurrection of Deacon Shader). For Gods in the Dreaming, he's gone for a very striking image based on the original sketches he drew of Shader last year. I've just seen the preliminary design and couldn't be happier. Mike's also working on the lettering and what sounds like an interesting background design.

DEREK PRIOR: Question for Noah:

What would be your ideal alternate world, and what would you do there?

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: I find something depressing about the suggestion that the ideal world would have to be an alternate one. Can't I have an ideal future? That would certainly be more useful! How about we say that my next novel turns out to be so brilliant that the universe grants me powers like flight, time travel, etc etc etc. I then use those powers to redesign the world to what I think it should be.

Yeah, let's say that in the ideal future, the fabric of the universe itself will be so impressed by my humble efforts that it decides at last to put me in charge. That works for me!

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: As an editorial note, I would like to tell you all that I ended up buying the paperback version of Thanatos Rising based upon my experience of his free preview. I suggest you all do the same!

Noahan Author Interview C.E. Grundler:

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: Tell us about Last Exit in New Jersey.                                                                                             

C.E.GRUNDLER: My book has been described as ‘Jersey-noir’, a term I’ve happily embraced. My intention was to write something along the lines of a classic hard-boiled noir formula with a dash of dark humor and a twist. With my story, readers will quickly discover the protagonist isn’t a gritty ex Marine or retired cop but a quiet young woman. In the first pages they’ll meet Hazel Moran as she heads offshore to dump lumpy black trash bags at sea.  Not one bag but several, and yes, there’s a body and evidence distributed evenly between them. Further details emerge in the coming pages but as the story unfolds it’s up to the reader to decide how exactly the body came to be in multiple bags and just how vulnerable – or potentially dangerous – shy little Hazel truly is.

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: What can you tell us about Hazel?

C.E.GRUNDLER: First and foremost, she’s not your typical Jersey girl.  Hazel’s grown up in the cab of an old Kenworth beside her father, and when they’re not on the road, home is an aging wooden oyster schooner docked in a Delaware Bay ghost-town. Hazel sees herself as quite capable; she’s been raised knowing how to hunt, fish and there’s little on the road or water she can’t handle, though her people skills are seriously lacking.  For the most part that’s not an issue; she merely avoids human interaction, but when pressed she’s deliberately difficult to deal with, a strategy she uses to keep most people at arm’s length.  

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: Tell us about Micah.

C.E.GRUNDLER: Micah is a sweet kid, plain and simple. He’s friendly and easygoing, though sometimes he doesn’t really think beyond the moment. Unlike his cousin Hazel, he assumes the best of people and has faith in his fellow man.  He and Hazel are close in age and they’ve been inseparable since childhood. In many ways he’s as protective of Hazel as she is of him, though their concepts of protection are two entirely different things.

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: I’m from New Jersey. I lived in Montclair until I was 15. I loved it. I think it’s an amazing and beautiful place. What’s your experience of the state been?

C.E.GRUNDLER: I’ve lived here my entire life and I agree, this state is beautiful. That may come as a surprise to those whose only impressions of New Jersey come from the unflattering media images or landing in Newark Airport.  Most every state has a heavily industrialized area; unfortunately it’s that small section of the Turnpike with its trucks, trains, ship terminals and oil refineries that countless travelers recall when they think of New Jersey.   They’re not seeing the densely wooded Palisades cliffs that tower hundreds of feet above the Hudson River or Sandy Hook, a six mile long barrier peninsula of dunes and beaches, with abundant wildlife and breathtaking views of the harbor and New York City on the horizon. They haven’t seen the true ‘Garden State’ of Down Jersey with its farms, meadows and tidewater marshes, or watched a sunrise in the Pinelands.

The latitudes and longitudes I give throughout the story are the precise coordinates for each location… though in the case of a specific house or building you may find a vacant lot. But everything else from the White Castle on Route 9 and the Cheesequake Service area to the Maurice River Bridge in Bivalve are actual locations. Yes, Bivalve, New Jersey does exist -- and the history I recount for that town is genuine.

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: In the free preview of Last Exit in New Jersey you talk a lot about boats. Have you spent a lot of time on boats?

C.E.GRUNDLER: You could say that.  My parents claim that ‘boat’ was among my first words; it’ll likely be my last as well. For as long as I can remember there’s been one boat or another around.  I learned to sail an 11’ dinghy around the same point I figured out how to ride a bicycle, and from the time the ice melted until the Hudson River began to freeze again I’d spend every free moment in that little boat. For a few years I even worked in a boatyard, and until 2006 I had a lovely gaff-rigged catboat I’d restored. For the last three years I’ve been restoring Annabel Lee, a 32’ diesel trawler. She’s a unique, distinct looking little boat and she draws attention where ever she is. There’s more information and pictures on my website: http://cegrundler.com

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: What effect do you hope your novel will have on your readers?

C.E.GRUNDLER: I’d like them to be entertained.  I want them to laugh out loud, even when things seem darkest and there’s no way any of it should be even remotely funny… yet it is.  There’s a few points where I’d like them to say, “HOLY #@&*!!! I didn’t see THAT coming!”  And I want them to reach the final pages and say, “It all makes sense now.”

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: What have you done and what are you doing to promote Last Exit in New Jersey?

C.E.GRUNDLER: That’s something I’m still figuring out as I go. I’ve had a blog for many years, http://cegrundler.wordpress.com but that’s never really been a promotional tool; I only recently added some links to my book.  I’ve heard social networking is supposed to be beneficial so finally broke down and joined Facebook, thought I’m still getting the hang of it. For the most part I’ve just been active in the forums, both on Amazon and the Kindle Board, where I’ve had fun joining in discussions covering just about everything EXCEPT my book. If people are interested in what I post, it seems they take a look at my book and that’s led to a rise in sales.  And it’s through these forums I’ve met kind people like you who offer me this wonderful opportunity for increased exposure.

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: The cover to your novel has an image that I’ve seen a million times: the sign on the Garden State Parkway that reads “Last Exit in New Jersey.” What can you tell us about the process that went into creating the cover?

C.E.GRUNDLER: I pass that sign regularly as well; it’s close by my home. Years ago I worked in graphics design doing catalog and magazine illustrations so I decided to tackle the cover myself.  I started with a few photos I’d taken late at night and early dawn. I repositioned the sign a bit closer to the foreground to increase readability. The surrounding scenery was textured to create the look I was going for. I wanted a car on the empty road; based upon the story a ’78 Fairmont was the logical choice though not a readily available one, so I created one in Photoshop and layered it into the picture. From there I adjusted the color balance of the entire scene until I was satisfied with the levels of darkness and detail. The car’s taillights, the sign and all the markers were enhanced to create their nighttime appearance. From there it was just a matter of adding in my name and the tag line.

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: If you could leave your body and travel astrally, would you? Where would you go?

C.E.GRUNDLER: I don’t know, I’ve always been so connected to the water, and to me getting there is half the fun.  Still, I’ve been reading The White Hairs and I’ll admit Farshoul’s impression of traveling on the wind really resonated with me.  I find sailing an almost spiritual experience, though sometimes it involves much praying or cursing of all that is holy. But when everything comes together right, when the wind is strong and steady, the waves long and even, the boat seems to glide as if a part of nature, moving with the elements rather than fighting them.  For me nothing can compare to the feel of the deck swaying beneath my feet, the pressure on the tiller, the sound of the water and the curve of the sails—that absolute peace and exhilaration all at the same moment – it’s a high beyond compare. As for where I’d go, eventually I hope to explore much of this nation’s coastlines then head up to Alaska. For now, I’m just happy to poke around New Jersey and New England.

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: What is your deepest, darkest secret?

C.E.GRUNDLER: I drink straight from the milk carton. Frequently. Don’t tell my husband.

C.E.GRUNDLER: And now my turn. Noah: You say you lived in Montclair, New Jersey until you were 15, but various places since then. My question to you: How do you feel your formative years played into who you are today, both as a writer and a person as a whole. What other factors do you feel had a strong influence on your creativity.

NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: Wow. I feel like I should respond by writing a whole autobiography! I lived in Montclair from the time I was born until I was 15. (Except for one year when I was nine and ten when we went to explore Australia.) It was my home, and I was incredibly sad when my mother decided that we were going to leave and go live in the Catskill region of upstate New York. To be frank, I don't think I've EVER gotten over it! If I somehow manage to figure this business out and become a rich and famous author, I hope to buy a house in Montclair again. Of course, I'll also have one in L.A., Australia, England, and Italy, but don't think that makes the thought mean any less! I'll keep all my STUFF at the house in Montclair - My home!

What other factors had a strong influence on my creativity? Well, I was born into a family of Astrologers. My parents encouraged creativity in me early on. I did get to travel early in life, but the biggest influence of all? Choice. I chose to spend the years of my life actively building and growing my own creative ability. I did it consciously and put in decades of work. A lot of people think that creativity is either something you stumble into, or a gift from the gods. I think that this delusion frees them, a little bit, from the responsibility of cultivating it in themselves. But the truth is musclemen don't get those muscles unless they lift weights, and the rules aren't very different for artists.

Thank you all for joining us again! We'll be back again next week with 3 more interviews. In the meantime, please go and download my free book!

The coupon LF67C is only good this week!