Thanks, Andy! Born in Portugal and emigrated to Canada as a baby, now retired (48) in Central America with my wife. Had enough of paying taxes and decided to jump out of the "you must retire a millionaire to be happy" poopoo. Since then, we've spent nearly all our time volunteering with native communities and locals, trecking through swamps, the backhills and mountainbiking deep into the bush to reach and help these communities. As a hobby, I write books and play guitar.
Now, for The Same Six Questions
1. Have you published a book yet?
Actually, I’ve published five books and contributed to an anthology. Never thought I’d actually write anything until, out of pure boredom, I started We’ve Seen the Enemy at work during lunch hours. This little hobby turned into 6 years of hard work. Have you ever tried editing 210,000 words? I’ve edited it over 50 times...
We’ve Seen the Enemy is a space opera and something I completely loved doing. I’m a science nut and love getting the details right, and the multiple threads all neatly and, ahem, rather smartly converged to a rather surprising double ending.
The Eye of the Idol
(murder mystery/treasure hunt), Pandora’s Sister
(the stand alone sequel), Retire at 45
(conglomeration of real stories), and And You Thought Your Family Was Dysfunctional!
(humor) are some of my other works. 2. When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
About the time my boss threatened to send the mafia to kill me. True story. In short, I hurt myself at work, instantly changing from the shop hero to Satan’s brother. At this point I decided I hated my job and I should retire. It took me a few years to do that, but I eventually did, at 45. I wrote Enemy first, then Retire at 45 next.
3. What was your first lengthy piece of fiction (say, >1000 words)? What was it about? When did you write it? Do you still have it?
I did a couple of shorts, the first one about a small group of post-apocalyptic survivors barely able to conquer religious infighting, which threatened to destroy them. This eventually became part of We’ve Seen the Enemy. My second was a supernatural short of an unusual alien that decided to take out revenge. I was particularly pleased with this one, and even got some royalty payments!
4. When was your first indication, "I can do this (write)"?
When We’ve Seen the Enemy was accepted by a picky publisher! I was happy to have my very first book released in this way.
5. If you could meet one of your characters in real life, which would it be?
In Enemy, a seemingly indestructible and very likeable person called Keenan drove a suicide missile into enemy territory, obliterating their homeworld. He was cool, collected, and seemed to make the impossible happen. And, he survived. I wanted a real person – not some action hero, and I wanted to present him as someone with real human frailties and strengths, someone men could admire and women could love. Usually, you get one or the other, but not both. Fortunately, some readers have told me I reached my objective.
6. It's a dark and stormy night...you're alone in the house...there's a knock at the door...you open it, look out, and proceed to scream like a little girl/boy (they kinda scream the same anyway). What's on the doorstep?
A clown. Gawd, I hate clowns. They give me the creeps. Of course, Stephen King's book It
didn’t help. Never did use that in any of my books. Probably give me nightmares. I could take anything else. _________________________________________Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by, Paul! For more of Paul and samples of all of his work, be sure to check out his web site.
On Thursday, please stop by to meet my next guest, author Jeanne Tomlin.
The character Booth in the television show "Bones" also hates clowns.
ReplyDeleteGreat interview - and I like being called a "picky publisher". But honestly Paul's story is absolutely fantastic, I personally couldn't put it down.
ReplyDelete