Playlist: Smoke City by Keith Rosson

I wrote the vast majority of Smoke City, or at least what would become the general story arc and plot of the novel, while living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I handled shipping at a parts manufacturer that was staffed almost entirely by blind and visually impaired people, one of the few such operations in the country. The bus ride was an hour each way, and I made constant notes on the way to work about plot and storyline while listening to music. I had an office in a spare bedroom and at night would listen to the drunk UWM students scream and fight with each other on Oakland Avenue below my window. Later, I moved back to Portland and finished the book and began the arduous process of getting an agent and then landing a publisher. It took a while, but all told, these were some songs that definitely stood out as mainstays in the entire process. I suggest tempering these songs with the occasional listen to some Gregorian chants, which I did regularly in the writing of Smoke City. Hope you enjoy.

SPOTIFY PLAYLIST LINK: https://open.spotify.com/user/xmevn0eg51v8x5at7ln4hgqop/playlist/5g9oSXbnEK0hKfIKLB3pHq

JOE PUG, “Hymn #101”
CONCRETE BLONDE, “Little Conversations”
PROPAGANDHI, “Failed Imagineer”
ARMS ALOFT, “Skinny Love”
LAURA STEVENSON, “A Shine To It”
BANNER PILOT, “Skeleton Key”
DEAD TO ME, “Little Brother”
RIVERBOAT GAMBLERS, “Catastrophe”
J CHURCH, “Quickstep”
RVIVR, “Wrong Way/One Way”
THE MOUNTAIN GOATS, “This Year”
DAN WEBB & THE SPIDERS, “I Was A Mess”
TRANZMITORS, “Bigger Houses, Broken Homes”
P.O.S., “Optimist”
THE HAVE NOTS, “Used To Be”

My Favorite Romantic Destination by Michelle Smart

Who out there has a firm place in mind as a romantic destination? The place where you sigh and say ‘one day?’ A couple can save up for months – years – with an ideal in mind… only to find the reality a slight (sometimes major) disappointment after all that expectation.

Of all the places I have travelled to over the years there is only one that has exceeded my dreams. The Seychelles, a beautiful archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean.

We travelled there a few years ago for a friend’s wedding and it was one of those holidays where the magic starts the moment you land and step out of the plane into glorious sunshine and smiling faces.

The tiny resort we stayed at on the main island of Mahe, Anse Soleil, was dream-like. Set in a bay, we opened our cabin door every morning to be greeted by the ocean. In less than a minute we would be on the beach and treading our toes through fine golden sand. The water was so clear that you didn’t need a snorkel to see the fish beneath the surface but for those who did, it became a memory that will last with them forever. I must have read a whole book while my husband was snorkelling one afternoon – he spent so long out there that his eyes were bulging from the suction of the mask when he finally came back to join me!

What I remember most vividly about our time there are the colours. Greens of all shades (including the shell of the resort’s resident giant tortoise), cobalt sky, turquoise water and an abundance of flowers everywhere… the scent of frangipani trees is a scent I will remember forever. And I will always remember the feeling of tranquillity that stayed with me the entire holiday, a feeling I’m hoping to recapture when the kids have flown the nest because my husband and I have promised ourselves another, much longer holiday there. Who knows, maybe next time we won’t come back…

I hope some of the wonderful memories I made on this trip are filtered successfully in my latest release, A Bride at His Bidding, which is partly set in the Seychelles. Any failure to inspire the reader to yearn for a holiday there lays entirely at my fingers.

Q&A with author John Thorngren

John T. Thorngren’s life has been one of varied experiences that have taken him from Paris, France, to the oil fields of Texas. He’s manufactured car-wash soap, owned a retail store, operated a chemical plant, and programmed computers. He’s the author of a book about probability and statistics and a songwriter of Southern Gospel.

So maybe it’s only fitting that an unexpected path led him to tell the story of a woman condemned to die on Texas’s Death Row, now hoping for parole in 2019. The twists and turns of his life have led Thorngren to find the value in every human soul, regardless of the journey that soul has taken.

This is the background behind Salvation on Death Row: The Pamela Perillo Story.

How did you come to know Pamela Perillo’s story, and what made you decide hers was a story you wanted to write? 

I discovered an old friend was on Death Row in another state. Drugs were the root cause. As an effort to bring attention to his case, I decided to write a fiction novel about a woman falsely accused and condemned in Texas. Needing realism, by chance, I contacted Pamela Perillo, currently incarcerated in Gainesville. Pamela is a private person and had never allowed anyone to tell her story. We found we had a spiritual match and so began this effort.

Tell us about the process. How long did it take you to research the many documents and legal proceedings you cite, and how did you work with Pamela to bring her voice to the project?

Pamela and I worked on this project from 2010 through 2017.  This involved over fifty telephone conversations, 150 letters, and countless hours of research.

Did you ever find yourself surprised or challenged by what you learned as you wrote the book?

Yes, very much surprised. I was surprised about how political the causes for and against the death penalty have become. I was extremely surprised about the Frances Newman case. She personified the worst fear of those against the death penalty—the execution of the innocent. I and many others believe she was unjustly convicted and condemned.    

How did this project change or affect your beliefs about the criminal justice system and, specifically, capital punishment? 

I once believed that the criminal justice system and capital punishment were fair and equitable—a sort of Pollyanna viewpoint. Now, I believe that there are dark undercurrents to the contrary, and that once you are convicted and condemned, the justice system behaves like the proverbial snapping turtle that will not let loose till it thunders, regardless of evidence to the contrary. Slowly, I see our country becoming more compassionate regarding the death penalty, and I am encouraged.

Can you tell us a little about Patriot PAWS and why you chose that organization to benefit from the proceeds of Salvation on Death Row?  

Patriot Paws was chosen on behalf of Pamela’s efforts to train service dogs. As noted in the book, Pamela’s encounters with animals throughout a difficult childhood shaped her talent in what she is doing now. She and her fellow trainers have made many service dogs available without cost to disabled American veterans and others with mobile disabilities and post-traumatic stress symptoms. Pamela plans to continue this effort after she is released. Certainly, any monies from my involvement should go to Patriot Paws, as neither Pamela nor I began this effort for profit. A beautiful video describing Patriot Paws through the eyes of Texas Country Reporter can be seen at www.patriotPaws.org. Several scenes depict Pamela.

How does your own experience, as the survivor of three heart attacks and two heart surgeries, influence your thinking about the value of all people’s lives? 

I am sure everyone who has had their chest cracked open like a crab will tell you how much bluer the sky looks. But I believe everyone, if they look back on their life with discerning eyes, regardless of their health, prosperity, or misery must conclude that they were put here for a purpose, that every life is precious and none worth taking. 

What do you hope readers take away from learning Pamela’s story?  

I would answer this with a short story from a personal experience. Years past, I used to write my own Christmas cards, a poem or a two-paragraph vignette. These went out not only to family and friends but to business contacts, many of whom I had never met. For several years there were no comments—good or bad. One afternoon, one of these business contacts, whom I did not know, telephoned and said the card had made his Christmas. One rarely knows what we do that benefits others, but when we do—even for just one—we leap with joy. So if the story of Pamela’s life helps but one soul, then our effort was well worth the undertaking.

Q&A with Rick Pullen, The Apprentice

As a former investigative reporter, do you feel that instinct to find the story has helped transition to write suspense/thriller fiction?

You bet. I think to be an investigative reporter you always need to think a couple of steps ahead. Always asking yourself the “What if?” question. If you can anticipate several directions an investigation might go, you also have a good idea of what questions to ask, which might lead to the truth. As a journalist you must always be on guard to never steer a story in the direction you want it to go. The facts will dictate that. Still, I think being a good investigator is part intuition and part suspicious nature. I just use the same skills from my days in journalism and now apply them to writing thrillers. Of course when writing fiction, unlike in journalism, I do get to steer the story wherever I want it to go.

There are a lot of ideas that can be inspired by today's politics, what is the hardest part about writing based on true events?

You have to take the storyline where you want it to go. Yes, you can use recent historical events, but in the end, you’re writing fiction. The interesting part of it though, is you may also be writing the future, so you wonder if what you write might someday come true. An example is my first thriller, Naked Ambition. It was published in the middle of the presidential primaries in the spring of 2016, before the parties chose their nominees. It was about a Republican candidate for president who was opposed by his own party.

Past or present, is there any author you would love to collaborate with?

Lawrence Block, Michael Connelly, Steve Berry and Lee Child. Met and love them all. They’re all generous to a fault with other writers.

What author has inspired/influenced you as an author?

Scott Turow. I think Presumed Innocent is a brilliant novel. It is my favorite, by far. I’ve read it three times and watched the movie a half dozen times (the book is much better). It was the reason I started thinking about writing fiction.

Tell us about your latest, The Apprentice?

It’s meant to be an old fashioned serial. Of course that will be up to my publisher. It revolves around Tish Woodward, a neophyte reporter who lands in the middle of the biggest story of the year. She keeps blowing everyone away with her constant headlines and discoveries, but underneath it all, she worries she doesn’t have the experience to belong in the top echelon of her profession, dealing with the most powerful people on earth. Her nemesis is the new president-elect, a billionaire businessman who himself is a political novice. Thus the name, The Apprentice.

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Are you working on anything that we should be looking out for?

I’m doing final edits on Naked Truth, a sequel to my first novel, Naked Ambition. It will come out sometime this spring. Beck Rikki returns as a seasoned investigative reporter hunting down a murderer. But of course, there’s a twist. There’s always a twist in my novels.

What advice do you have for anyone who would like to become an author?

Very simple. Butt in the chair. I know too many gifted writers who lack the discipline to do it. You will never get published if you never finish your book. So set aside a time every day and just do it.

Once you’ve finished writing, you must be persistence and resilient. Learn how to deal with rejection. (Notice I didn’t say accept it.) Less than two years ago, no agent would touch me. I never gave up and now my third novel will soon be published.

Writing is difficult. Get over yourself as an artist. Understand writing is a craft and getting published is a business. Treat it as such. And then go have a blast making up stuff!

RICK PULLEN is a novelist, award-winning investigative reporter and magazine editor. His 2016 thriller, Naked Ambition, about a reporter investigating a corrupt presidential candidate, became a bestseller. The Apprentice is his latest release. In 2018, newspaper reporter Beck Rikki returns as she sets out to discover the Naked Truth, the sequel to Naked Ambition. Pullen is a member of the Folio 100—the 100 most influential people in magazine publishing—and was a finalist for Editor of the Year. Learn more about his books at rickpullen.com.

Guest Post: Dana Stabenow, author of Silk and Song

I read The Adventures of Marco Polo and by his own account he loved the ladies. He was all over eastern Asia for twenty years in service to Kublai Khan and he had to have scattered some seed around. I wondered what happened to those kids. Silk and Song is the story of one of his grandchildren, Johanna, who travels the Silk Road west from China to England during the years 1322 to 1327.

Uh, major problem: My traditional publisher in New York didn’t want to publish it. “I’d be happy if you wrote five more Kate Shugak novels,” my editor said hopefully. Kate Shugak being the main character of twenty-one crime fiction novels, which I’ve been writing since 1993 and which have sold pretty well for the house.

I get it; if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But Silk and Song was an itch I had to scratch, so I wrote it anyway and self-published in e and in trade paperback.

And then lightning struck!  My UK publisher, Nic Cheetham at Head of Zeus, read Silk and Song and loved it and published the trilogy in a single volume in the most beautiful edition that has ever had my name spelled correctly on the cover. Seriously, you should see this book—silk bookmark, gold leaf on the cover, high-rez map, a gold leaf dragon on the spine—! If I’d known historical novels were this beautifully produced I would have written one a lot sooner. “If we can’t make beautiful books, why are we in this business at all?” Nic said. No publisher has ever said anything like that to me before.

He shouldn’t have encouraged me, because now I’m writing what I hope will be the first of a series of novels set in Alexandria in the time of Cleopatra featuring Cleopatra’s fixer, job title the Eye of Isis. And then I’ll write the twenty-second Kate Shugak novel, because I’m not done telling her story yet.

Which only shows how important it is to follow your bliss as a writer, and how lucky we writers are to be alive right now (Hamilton reference!) to take advantage of current technology to do so.

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Dana Stabenow is the author of thirty-three novels and a bunch of other stuff. She lives in Homer, Alaska.

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Q&A with Khaled Talib, Gun Kiss

How do you feel your former experience as a journalist has influenced your writing? 

In terms of writing, not much, but journalism taught me how to research materials. I'm able to find the needed information fast. Also, if I need to speak to someone relevant I know how to go about doing it.  It also aided me in learning how to fact-check information and details - to sieve out truth from myth.   

What do you think makes a good story?

Depending on the genre, I would say if a reader keeps turning the page, that's already a sign of success. 

What inspired the transition to become an author?

I have always wanted to be an author, but the opportunity never materialized. In school, creativity did not receive as much encouragement as other subjects, so I felt out of place. My little voice kept urging me to write, but I never took it seriously. I dabbled but that's as far as I went. I felt it was unrealistic, especially in a society where I live, people have no appreciation for the arts. Few people read here. But that little voice was stubborn and kept pestering me, so one day I conceded. I sat down and began to pen a story.  

What books have influenced and shaped your writing experience?

All kinds of books from literature to commercial fiction. Even though I write thrillers, I feel that literature has shaped my thinking. It could be a theme, a plot or a quote from a book that could steer me in a certain direction. Some people who have read my novels have described it as one written in the style of Robert Ludlum. 

Where do you draw your inspirations from to write your books?

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I think there's a bit of everybody in my writing since I've read all kinds of books. My books are written in simple English but it is the toughest way to write. This is something I do naturally, but it's also something I've learned from Ernest Hemingway. In fact, while describing a scene in one of my books, my editor said the style reminded her of Ernest Hemingway. 

Your latest Gun Kiss just released, tell us about it.

Gun Kiss is a metaphor to describe a couple finding love at a time of danger. The bulk of the story takes place in South California with scenes in Mexico. Covert agent, Blake Deco, fresh from a mission in the Balkans, returns to the States having to rescue a Hollywood movie star, Goldie St. Helen,  from a diabolical and psychotic drug lord.  

After he successfully rescues the actress, the drug lord launches a terror campaign against them in a bid to get her back. There's also a subplot involving the stealing of the Deringer that shot Abraham Lincoln at the Ford's Theatre Museum. It all falls into place eventually. 
The novel also features current themes from sexual harassment, drug abuse, and racism. 

Do you have any advice for anyone that would like to become an author?

Listen to your inner voice. Trust your editors, and never let anyone else put you down. Above all, don't give up. It's tough, but keep the faith. Take a break if you must, but stay the course. Personally, I imagine myself as Conan the Barbarian going through a series of obstacles as I try to defeat the enemy to reach the end goal. Hold that sword high. You get the picture. 

For more information on Khaled, you can reach him via: Website | Twitter | Facebook