Thanks, Andy! I am a novelist and lawyer in Virginia, where I live with my family. When I'm not writing or obsessing about writing, I like to spend time with the family, read, watch movies, get some exercise, and eat bad food to counter the effects of exercise.
The Same Six Questions
1. Have you published a book yet?
I published The Jackpot to the various e-reader platforms in May 2011. It's about a young attorney who discovers that her financially desperate boss is planning to steal their new client's huge lottery ticket and her quest to return it to it rightful owner.After a not-very-great 2011 for sales, I pulled the book from the other retailers and enrolled the book in KDP Select in January. After a successful freebie promotional run on January 25 and January 26, the book took off and became the No. 1 Legal Thriller on Kindle for about 4 days. It was the #1 Mover & Shaker in the Kindle Store on Jan. 27, and it reached No. 34 in the Paid Store on Jan. 31.
2. When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
Looking back, I think I knew all along. As a kid, I wrote short stories, mostly about sports, I wrote my own Choose-Your-Own Adventure books (I used a real book for the template to get the page numbers to line up properly). I got away from it for a while as I pursued the normal grown-up route, but eventually, I saw the light. To be honest, I have no idea how good a writer I am, but I'm probably better at writing than I am at anything else.
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?
It was probably one of those CYOA books, written when I was probably 11 or 12 years old. I wrote several of them (by hand, no less) -- the one that sticks out was called Escape from Alcatraz. The premise was that you were incarcerated on Alcatraz (for a crime that you, of course, did not commit), and you were trying to escape from the prison.
My first lengthy piece of real fiction was a short story about a lottery ticket called The Winner, which I wrote in 1999. It was published in a now-defunct literary magazine. Although the story is quite a bit different than The Jackpot, I guess you could say the novel had a few of its seeds there.
4. When was your first indication, "I can do this (write)"?
It came to me a little bit at a time. I went for years without ever wondering whether I was any good at it. When I was writing for my college newspaper in the early 90s, I interviewed for a summer internship with a large daily newspaper. After reviewing my clips, the interviewer told me that I was as good a writer as he'd seen in the
college ranks. That stuck with me, and I kept building my confidence from there.
5. If you could meet one of your characters in real life, which would it be?
Charles Flagg, the homicidal mercenary from my novel. He believes that humanity has become weak, and that it's his duty to "thin the herd" so that we continue to evolve as a species. I'd be curious to see if he thought I measured up.
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. What's on the doorstep?
A clown. I would probably experience a psychotic break.
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Thanks so much for sharing with us, David! For more of David and his writing, be sure to check out his blog, Twitter, and Facebook.
Swing back on Monday when my guest will be Scott S. Phillips. See you then!
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