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Featured Interview With Stephen Perkins

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born in Boston, but experienced a rather idyllic childhood growing up in the rather small working class enclave of Danvers, Massachusetts-what used to be known as old Salem village, where the witch trials took place! The historical richness of old Salem village inspired the magical and occult concepts found in Raging Falcon!

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
From my earliest memories, I always suspected an inclination and propensity for artistic pursuits, including reading, writing, and composing music. I’d never entertained attempting this professionally, until now. Lately, having noticed the success of so many great indie authors-I decided, why not, I can do this too! Life is filled with opportunities, and one should never waste them. Needless to say, I have endeavored a comparatively late start, considering the youthful age of most of my fellow indie authors. But, better late than never! Besides, no matter how old chronologically, I’ll always be young at heart!

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I started reading the classics when young-Dickens, Fitzgerald, Poe, as well as Steven King, H.G. Wells, Orwell. I’ve always been a voracious reader, not just books, but magazines, newspapers, periodicals. I find there is inspiration everywhere. If one is always reading, in combination with observing the interactions of fellow human beings, the phenomenon of writer’s block shall never become truly problematic!

Tell us a little about your latest book?
Raging Falcon is filled with political intrigue and social commentary. Although it has a futuristic, dystopian setting, it is reminiscent of today’s Orwellian political and social climate. Some, may find the content and subject matter controversial. But, the last thing I wanted to do was attempt to rewrite the Hunger Games or Divergent. I believe what I’ve written is original, and from the heart, rather than an attempt to ride the coattails of what is perceived to be commercially successful. I don’t believe one should ever be formulaic. Following your heart will always result in something that rings sincere. Although that approach may not immediately yield stellar sales rankings at Amazon, I believe expressing your own vision is a more sound long term approach. I saw Raging Falcon playing out in my head like a movie, before I even sat down at the laptop. It was then a very simple matter to plot an outline. The first draft came very easily, because I could vividly observe all aspects in my head- characters, settings, as well as the three act story arc. Raging Falcon deals with the life story of Jim Keogh, and how even though life-some would say fate-has dealt him a bad hand, he never wavers from a prevailing feeling of hope. Though he is a tragic figure, he somehow believes there is always a chance at transcendence. Creating this story wasn’t always easy, though. In arriving at a final draft, it then became a struggle to fine tune things, before I felt it was even ready for ‘prime time’ on Amazon. With all the great indie competition out there, particularly in my chosen genre, I wanted to be assured Raging Falcon was the best it could be. Of course, copious amounts of fresh brewed coffee always helps stimulate the creation of good ideas for stories!

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Stephen Perkins’s Website

Featured Interview With Dorothea Shefer-Vanson

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born and brought up in London, England. My parents, who were refugees from Hitler’s Germany, had very little money and we lived in a very run-down part of the city, which anyway was partly destroyed due to bombing during WWII. I benefited from the education system and was able to go to university, where I acquired a B.A. in Sociology and Economics from the London School of Economics. I moved to Israel in order to study for an M.A. in my field, but the Six-Day-War and the birth of my first child (I married Yigal Shefer two years after moving to Israel) got in the way, though I did go back to university (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) to acquire an M.A. (in Communications) several years later. For most of my working life I have been a translator/editor (from Hebrew to English), both free-lance and in-house, but my passion has always been writing, and I’m glad that in the last few years I have been able to write and publish the novels that I have always felt were in me waiting to see the light of day.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
The moment I learned to read (aged five) I became a bookworm. I remember trying to write something of my own when I was quite small, nine or ten years old, I reckon, but I have essentially written throughout my adult life, though not for public consumption. In my childhood being without a book to read was a situation I dreaded, and my father obtained special permission from the public library to allow me to take out more books than the accepted norm for a child of my age. I also read the books on my parents’ bookshelves, not all of which were exactly suitable for children.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I like biographies and autobiographies, some historical novels (though not the Regency romance kind). Jane Austen has wonderful insights into the folly of human nature, and Virginia Woolf penetrates the depths of the human psyche. I also like George Eliot. It looks as if all my favorite authors are women, and there may be something in that, but I also like some male authors.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
‘Chasing Dreams and Flies; A Tragicomedy of Life in France’ (available as an ebook and paperback on Amazon) was intended to be a light-hearted romp about the folly of retiring to France if one is unacquainted with the language and culture of the place. To some extent it does achieve that aim, but the development and denouement became less and less light-hearted as I plunged deeper and deeper into the plot. The characters are based to some extent on people I have known during my visits to France (where I stay every summer), but of course there is no exact correspondence with any real person.

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson’s Website

Featured Interview With Eve Barrett

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I grew up in a beautiful small village overlooking the mountains. We did have pets, more like a small sanctuary of cats and the occasional dog. I’d sit on my window and enjoy the peace and quiet back then, so different from the buzz of London where I currently live. Mind you, I’ve grown terribly attached to it.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I’ve always loved books! My first two favourites were Mary Poppins and Pipi Longstocking. I loved the opportunity to be invited on a magical journey and block out the outside world. I’ve always written essays, but I wanted to do other things before, so the priority for me finally shifted!

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I write Chick-lit, so of course I love that genre, but I also love everything that’s just positive and makes me smile! And, of course, I love a healthy doze of thriller!

Tell us a little about your latest book?
It’s my first, actually, my debut novel ‘It’s Complicated: Confessions of a Modern Day Cinderella’, the perfect light-hearted form of escapism. I started writing it one night on the train back from a very posh night out with a friend. Clearly the evening had left an imprint in my mind and as I was dozing off I had this scenario of a girl in a hotel lobby…so it all started from there, really.

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Eve Barrett’s Website

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Featured Interview With J.D.R. Hawkins

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
My hometown is Sioux City, Iowa, although I have moved around a lot during my lifetime. My residence is in Colorado Springs. I have been married for 35 years and have two grown sons, a daughter-in-law, and a three-year-old grandson. Right now, I have downsized to only two dachshunds and an aquarium, but I’m looking to get a cat.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I have been fascinated with books ever since I can remember. I started writing at a very young age, maybe four or five. My first creations were songs, and then I graduated to poetry and short stories.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I am fond of Geraldine Brooks and Margaret Mitchell. My favorite genre is historical fiction. I am inspired by many people in my writings, including people I know, famous people who lived during the times I write about, and people I encounter in everyday life.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
My latest book, A Rebel Among Us, takes place primarily in Pennsylvania. The story takes up where the last novel in the Renegade Series left off. This is the third book in the series. The book is about David Summers, a Confederate cavalryman who is wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg. His horse takes him to a nearby farmhouse, where four girls decide to nurse him back to health. But saving his life creates major complications for them all.

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J.D.R. Hawkins’s Website

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Featured Interview With Pablo Michaels

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
Pablo Michaels resides on a quiet country set in the San Francisco Bay Area. He lives with his husband of twenty years with his pet American Eskimo Husky, Bailey. He was born in a private lumber town overlooking the slopes of Mount Shasta in Northern California. Pablo loves the outdoors and gardening but is restricted to a minimal amount of tasks he used to enjoy due to a disability. He enjoys food, wine, reading, and writing. Vacations to travel are prized by both his husband and him.

Pablo Michaels disguised himself as a shy, friendly heterosexual during his adolescence, fantasizing other males. Falling in love with another man his first year in college, he followed him to another university to maintain their platonic love, while he continued in his in studies. When he had his first sexual encounter with another man, just before turning twenty-one, he exploded into gay life with lust and anger. He attempted to live his new life naturally, seeking love, ignoring the statistics of the books he read on homosexuality in high school, and proving what he had read was wrong.
He wrote poetry and stories since third grade. When he turned twenty-one, he moved to San Francisco to work and write, experiencing more of gay life. In the 1980’s he wrote every chance he had, trying and failing miserably at publishing mainstream fiction. He published his first story in 1986 in a literary magazine.

After writing plays, short stories, poetry, and two novels, he began writing gay genre stories, since he had more knowledge and experience with gay lifestyle. Trying to publish, he went to a library seminar hosted by two published authors. Inspired by the gay writer, Scott Kemble he connected with him on the internet site for The San Francisco Bay Area Literary Arts Newsletter and Review, which published four of Pablo’s short stories.

Feverously writing since 2004, he published his first e-book, “Pagan Knights of Cambria” with Life of Riley Productions in London. Soon a mainstream story, “When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again Hooray”, published also. In 2012 Pablo self-published his first novel, “Catnip, Rosemary, Rage and Time”, combining mystery and humor in a gay, erotic romance. He continues to write more episodes in his next novel, The Deer in the Forest The plot spreads over several decades, about a man’s attempts to adapt to the world he lives, all with love, heartache, history and survival at no cost.

His latest article, Why Gay Men Retire to Palm Springs, was just published in the very popular SimplySxy.com online magazine. You can read the insightful article here. http://simplysxy.com/articles/2015/06/08/why-gay-men-retire-to-palm-springs/

Pablo retired from gardening and landscaping to devote his energy to write fiction. As a gay man he wishes to promote his writing in the fictional, gay genre to help others understand the necessity for equal rights for LGBT people and comprehend that love between a man and a man, people of the same sex, is as natural as love between a man and a woman. Throughout his lifetime he has experienced the long battle of achieving acceptance. He has searched for a committed relationship with another man. He has loved his partner for eighteen years. They were married legally in front of Harvey Milk’s bust in the rotunda of San Francisco City Hall by a judge, in 2008. Although their marriage remained legal after the passage of Proposition 8, they continued to work to repeal DOMA and Prop. 8. Throughout his life he has attempted to live and practice peace as a process for living.

His book, Blood, Sweat and Black Leather, a gay paranormal romance, was published by Yellow Silk Dreams in January 2015. His Latest book, Affairs of Men’s Hearts, published in May 2015 by Yellow Silk Dreams is an anthology of four stories connected by the themes of gay men seeking love with another man, from wishful thinking male to male romances to gay marriage. Jack and the Magical Beanstalk Book 1, gay adult fairy tale, published in November, 2015 by Yellow Silk Dreams, Jack’s Magical Beanstalk & the Jeweled Grotto Book 2, gay, erotic, fairy tale, romance, published in September 2016 by Yellow Silk Dreams, Prelude to Jack’s Magical Beanstalk & Sam’s Quandary Book 3, gay erotic, romantic, fairy tale, published in September 2016 by Yellow Silk Dreams

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
Pablo’s mother was a primary grade school teacher who excelled in teaching reading and enjoyed reading almost any subject or genre. She taught him the value of books and the skill to read. His desire to write emerged in the third grade, after he wrote his first book, It Happened in England. He enjoyed writing through primary, middle, and high school. He worked part-time at the city library after school and on weekends, where he began his thirst to read erotica and other adult only books. During his last years in college the emphasis of his required reading was technical books in biology, botany, chemistry, physics, and other sciences to acquire his Bachelor’s degree. He had a diverse education that focused on the liberal arts, especially literature and creative writing. He wrote periodically through college and after he began employment after graduating. His real urge to focus on writing happened in 1970 when He moved to San Francisco to experience a more diverse cultural environment.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I like to read any books containing ancient Greek mythology, most gay genre romances and mysteries, like Blak Rayne’s Reaper Series and other books, all of Richard Stevenson and Joseph Hansen’s mysteries any well written love story like Muffy Wilson’s Moonbeams of Unintended Consequences. I also like to read Tom Spanbauer, Edmund White, Dashiell Hammett. However, I don’t see any of a mixture of these writers who inspire me in my stories. Two authors I aspire to write like are two authors and their two books. Mary Renault’s The Charioteer, and Leonard Cohen’s Beautiful Losers have multiple subplots within them. I strive to create a similar story with more than story contained in the book.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
Jack’s Magical Beanstalk & the Jeweled Grotto Book 2 is the sequel to Jack and the Magical Beanstalk Book 1 in the Jack’s Magical Beanstalk Series. Book 2 has Jack and the main character trying to salvage his mother’s failing farm after a late spring blizzard destroys their spring crop. Meanwhile, Sam, Jack’s new love interest who followed Jack down the magical beanstalk when they were forced to chop it down, schemes for a way to find a way to grow another magical beanstalk to help his ailing father and brothers up above in the land where he originated. He has to keep his plan a secret once he bargains with a strange old man to grow another one. But he is unaware that Duchess Luscious Lips Loretta and Queen Buxom Bosom Belinda, two new giants, who are two huge men who dress like women, have taken up residency in the deserted castle where Master and Slave once lived. The need for the spice, saffron is needed to cure Sam’s family from the dreaded disease, Giant Fever. But the giants who covet the spice for use in their meat and poultry dinners and keep it out of reach. Jack and Sam have to devise a way to steal the seasoned food from the Queen and the Duchess and not be captured. Will Jack and Sam accomplish their missions and survive?

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Pablo Michaels’s Website

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