Razored Zen Interview: G. B. Miller

I think it’s time to run another author interview. My guest today is G. B. Miller.  I first became aware of G. B.’s work on his Blog, and through a story of his called “Cedar Mountain” that was published over at Beat To a Pulp. We’ve corresponded frequently since then. Without further ado, here’s G.B.  (RZ represents Razored Zen and I’m sure you can figure out what GBM stands for.)

RZ:  Tell us a little about yourself outside of writing.  Home town. Family.  Job.  That sort of thing.

GBM: I have lived in Newington, CT practically all of my life, with my wife and two children. As a matter of fact, I live in the same house that I grew up in. I’ve been working for the State of Connecticut for the past 16 ½ years, with the past 8 ½ being spent slaving away as a payroll clerk. I don’t have much in the way of hobbies beyond walking and bicycling (hand problems), but used to be an active pool player and bowler back in the day.

RZ:  What made you want to write? Is it a desire that’s always been with you?  Or was there some particular event or book that ignited the fire?

GBM: I’m not sure if the desire for the written word has always been there for me. Certainly doing the verbal thing was. I’ve always enjoy creating parodies (both song and non-song) about all kinds of things but sadly never wrote anything down. Sometimes being blessed with a good memory is a bad thing. But yes, a particular event did ignite the fire back in 2006 and I found that writing was the easiest form of therapy there was. While the initial effort proved to be disastrous, prodding from friends and co-workers persuaded me to continue this sometimes quixotic journey.

RZ: Writers always get asked about their influences.  Consider this that question.

GBM: Strangely enough, I don’t think that I had any influences on my writing, at least consciously. I didn’t read a lot of fiction while growing up, basically keeping myself limited to non-fiction and historical fiction. I guess you can say that while no one individual influenced my early writing, genres certainly did, in that I wanted to write stories that would make the reader walk away after reading it with that story still milling about in their head. As for my later writing, certainly cruising other writer’s blogs and e-zines to pick up tips, pointers and advice helped me tremendously.

RZ:   G., you seem to enjoy writing fiction with erotic elements. What is it about that genre that has attracted you?

GBM: It was the easiest thing to perform. Seriously though, sex is one of two elements (in my opinion) that have an unlimited amount of tangents to explore. So when I started to get serious about my writing back in ’09, I choose to combine my strong point of character description with the unlimited potential of sex exploration and try to create something truly unique. A good example of this would be my short story “Red Stripe,” in which I combined the elements of heavy metal, punk and sexual excess to create a truly unique story. Plus, and I know this will sound kind of sexist, sex is the easiest thing to write if you enjoy writing from a female point of view. Sex as a weapon, so to speak.

RZ: Writing can be hard work. What motivates you to keep going?  What inspires you?

GBM: The fact that a lot of people have denigrated me for my writing over the years perpetually motivates me to write. I’ve actually permanently enshrined this little annoyance in the acknowledgment section of my novel. As for inspiration, the world around me does. I know it sounds cliché, but a lot of the stuff and people that I observe throughout my day-to-day activities plant multiple seeds of ideas for me to choose from.

RZ:  What are you working on currently?  And what’s next for you? 

GBM: I’m in a state of flux with my writing at the moment. While I was waiting for “Line 21” to drop, I was keeping myself busy by writing a novella in a genre that I’ve had mixed feelings about for quite a while. Once “Line 21” dropped, I started thinking about a couple of partials that I could work on next. However, by doing a little networking on Facebook, I got a potential publishing lead for a completed novella of mine, so I plan on doing the whole submission thing all over again: editing and writing a synopsis.

RZ: What work is available from you right now, and where can readers find it?  Is there a place online where folks could go to learn more about you and your work?

GBM: My commercial debut for Line 21 is available at Solstice Publishing; and at Amazon. Also, you can find my short story “Cedar Mountain” at Beat To A Pulp (in the archives for 2009), and my short story “Red Stripe” at The Cynic Online Magazine.

I can be found at my main blog Cedar’s Mountain; and on Facebook.

And you can check out the book trailer for Line 21 on You Tube.

 G., thanks for visiting Razored Zen.

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Razored Zen Interview: Patti Abbott

My most recent guest on Razored Zen Interview is Patricia (Patti) Abbott. Patti has had her short stories appear in a number of anthologies, and around the web. Recently, a substantial collection of her tales has appeared from Snubnose Press called Monkey Justice. Patti’s stories are known for capturing the essence of people’s humanity even within worlds of darkness. And so, I present Patti Abbott. (RZ represents Razored Zen and PAB is Patti.)

RZ: Tell us a little about yourself outside of writing. Hometown. Family. Job. That sort of thing.

PAB: I grew up in a lower middle class neighborhood in Philadelphia and moved to Detroit, Michigan at 22 when my husband, Phil, finished his Ph.D. and got a teaching job in political science at Wayne State University. As my children grew, I finished my degree, eventually taking a job at Wayne State writing newsletters, catalogs, web material, and brochures for the next twenty years.

My degree is in history and I didn’t start to write until I took a poetry writing workshop in the late nineties. Having access to a university probably allowed this to happen.

RZ: What made you want to write? Is it a desire that’s always been with you? Or was there some particular event or book that ignited the fire?

PAB: I have always wanted to write but lacked the confidence to try for years. My parents were the sort of people that discouraged ambition because they didn’t want to see me get hurt if I failed. They had very limited goals for themselves and for me. Better to be a secretary or work for the phone company (which I did for years) than try something so grandiose.

But some success in the poetry workshop convinced me I had some ability. Next, I won a chapbook contest and then switched to writing stories. My poems were really stories in verse so I was able to use them as blueprints for my first stories. I took four writing workshops with the wonderful Chris Leland and his encouragement made me begin to submit stories in the late 1990s. My stories were always dark, but the first dozen or so were basically literary. Sidebar: my mother changed her mind about my writing as she grew older and was very supportive of these ambitions, realizing she hadn’t encouraged me enough earlier.

RZ: Writers always get asked about their influences. Consider this that question.

PAB: I greatly admire the short stories of Alice Munro (the early ones in particular), Raymond Carver, Bobbie Ann Mason, Flannery O’Connor, John Cheever, Mary Lavin, William Trevor, Lorrie Moore, Eudora Welty and Charles Baxter. If I were to talk about my influences as far as crime goes, I would say Patricia Highsmith, Margaret Millar and Ruth Rendell, especially her non-Wexford work. That’s the tone I strive for at least. I like short stories that have a great voice, an unusual point of view. I am not as interested in plot. Complex plots are difficult to pull off in 4000 words so just as well.

RZ: Patti, I know this is a hard question to ask a writer, but tell us about your favorite story in Monkey Justice, and why it’s your favorite.

PAB: I think my favorite story in MONKEY JUSTICE is “Raising the Dead.” It’s the story of a female photographer who comes up with the unusual, if slightly repulsive, idea of taking pictures of dead men. I like the fact that she’s a difficult woman and relate to her need to find a way to express herself. To find a way to succeed artistically. I like that the story is set in Detroit and is gritty. There are no pretty moments in the story or the book. No noble acts. She does a rather shocking thing at the end of the story. It’s not something most people can understand, but I felt it was consistent with who she was. And perhaps who I am. That’s why I tried to turn it into a novel. The novel is able to develop her, her relationship with several men, and with the city more fully.

RZ: Writing can be hard work. What motivates you to keep going? What inspires you?

PAB: Age motivates me. The idea that time is running out and I have to cram as much as possible into every day. There have always been reasons why I didn’t have enough time to write before this year, but all of them are gone now and there is nothing to do but to sit down in front of the screen and write. I am inspired by my husband who will write anytime he has ten minutes to spare. He is my greatest inspiration and my greatest supporter. He has never once suggested I put my writing aside to do something for him. I wish I could say the same.

RZ: What are you working on currently? And what’s next for you?

PAB: I have promised my writing group to spend more time in trying to place the two novels. Twice I tried to find an agent but gave up after less than a dozen queries. Again I am up against my cursed fear of failure. Better not to try than fail. Better to let the novels wither on my hard drive until someone carts me and the computer off.

I am also working on about half a dozen stories and have about that many coming out over the next few months. I also should say here that I take my blog very seriously, especially the attention we pay to forgotten books. I also like to promote other writers whenever I can. These are hard times. I don’t have to support myself through my writing and am miserable for those who do.

RZ: Besides Monkey Justice, what other work is available from you right now, and where can readers find it? Is there a place online where folks could go to learn more about you and your work?

PAB: My website has links to most of my stories still online. (http://pattinase.blogspot.com) I also have stories in the print journals DAMN NEAR DEAD 2, NEEDLE, CRIMEFACTORY: FIRST EDITION, BEAT TO A PULP: ROUND ONE and TWO, DEADLY TREATS, and D*CKED. And one in the new Ed Gorman anthology. Ed has included my stories in three of his anthologies and I am very grateful to him.

Patti, thanks so much for visiting Razored Zen.

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Razored Zen Interview: Bret Funk

My guest today on Razored Zen Author Interview is Bret Funk. Bret is another Louisiana author. I’ve known him for a lot of years now. I’m not quite sure how many. I first met him at a local science fiction convention where we were both guests. Bret is the author of the acclaimed Boundary’s Fall fantasy series, and editor and publisher of Tyrannosaurus Press. He also edits The Illuminata, for which I’ve written a lot of articles and essays over the years, including quite a few that appeared in my book Write With Fire. Now, here’s Bret. (RZ represents Razored Zen and BF is Bret.)

RZ: Tell us a little about yourself outside of writing. Home town. Family. Job. That sort of thing.

BF: I grew up in southern New Jersey, not too far from Philadelphia. It was a rural area when I was born but morphed into a suburban haven, full of housing developments and strip malls, during my childhood. Two sisters. Parents who worked hard. Good friends. But it was still NJ, so as soon as I graduated high school, I left.

College was a choice between Boston and New Orleans. A conveniently-timed visit to Tulane in February sold me on New Orleans. It was only after I returned in August of 1994 that I realized the pleasant February weather was partnered with ridiculously hot summers. For someone that had been always hot in NJ, that posed a problem.

I majored in Biochemistry, got a Master’s degree in Epidemiology, all with the intention of going to medical school. Fate intervened, medical school didn’t happen immediately, and as I watched many of my med school friends grow tired and miserable, I decided that it might not be the wisest career choice. I started writing, and since I couldn’t survive off my words, I went back to doing what I did in high school: fix computers. I’ve been in IT ever since.

RZ: What made you want to write? Is it a desire that’s always been with you? Or was there some particular event or book that ignited the fire?

BF: There was no particular event, but I’ve always had an active imagination. Giant battles were arrayed across the attic of my house (fantastic crossover wars with Transformers, army men, dragons, and even the occasional My Little Pony when troops were in short supply). I tend to pose myself a lot of “what if” questions, and try to follow those thoughts to their conclusion. And I have a tendency to criticize, and a habit of listing (in my head, at least) all the things I would have done differently to make a given book, TV show, or movie better. Eventually I decided to walk the walk, and I started writing down my own stories. It was tougher than I thought, and even tougher to get noticed. So I should offer a blanket apology now; some of the things I was critical of were probably more a result of the industry and less the fault of the author.

RZ: Writers always get asked about their influences. Consider this that question.

BF: I can’t, and probably shouldn’t for fear of forgetting someone, provide any particular list of authors who have influenced my writing. I have gravitated to science fiction and fantasy since childhood, with a tendency toward epic fantasy. Stories that are character driven over those that are plot driven. As a child, I preferred tales where the good guys won absolutely; as an adult, I tend to favor stories with more nuanced conclusions, where the line between good and evil is blurred in both protagonist and antagonist, and where even the noblest characters suffer for the choices they make.

RZ: Bret, tell us a little about Tyrannosaurus Press.

BF: Tyrannosaurus Press is an independent publishing house of speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, horror, alternate reality, etc.) born out of frustration with the way the publishing industry worked, and how difficult it was for an unknown author to get any sort of voice. Sadly, the demands of life mean that it does not always get the attention it deserves, but we have published five novels and two anthologies to date, and our ezine, the Illuminata, is about to enter its tenth year. Our goal remains the same: to help unknown but promising authors find ways to get their words seen, with the hopes of furthering their writing careers.

RZ: Writing can be hard work. What motivates you to keep going? What inspires you?

BF: Writing is an escape for me. It gives me the much needed break from reality that we all need to continue functioning. For me, writing is a better escape than watching TV or movies, or even reading, because it also offers me mental exercise as well. Figuring out how each character should react in a given situation, and the consequences born of those characters’ decisions, excites me. It’s that excitement, coupled with the rush of a finished story, that inspires me most.

RZ: What are you working on currently? And what’s next for you?

BF: At the moment, I am preparing to start the final volume of the Boundary’s Fall series. After that… I have a number of other ideas, but I haven’t decided which one will get my attention next.

RZ: What work is available from you right now, and where can readers find it? Is there a place online where folks could go to learn more about you and your work?

BF: I have four novels in the Boundary’s Fall series (Path of Glory, Sword of Honor, Jewel of Truth, and Forge of Faith) available now in bookstores. The latter books are available in ebook formats as well. By the end of the year, we hope to have all four books available in Kindle, Nook, and ePUB formats. There’s also a smattering of short stories available across the web, and a number of articles in the archives for the Illuminata, which are available on our website (www.tyrannosauruspress.com).

Bret, thanks for visiting Razored Zen.

NOTE: Bret’s books are also available in print on the websites for Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
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Razored Zen Interview: Mark C. Durfee

My next Razored Zen Author Interview features Mark Durfee. Mark is the first poet I’ve interviewed. Mark is a Detroit poet, what very well may be a breed apart. I’ve never met Mark in person but I know him from the online blogging community, and from his “Stink” trilogy, which includes Stink, The Line Between, and Scent of the Garden Within. I have read each of the volumes and reviewed them on Goodreads. Good stuff. So, here’ssssss Mark. (RZ represents Razored Zen and you know the drill on MCD by now.)

RZ: Tell us a little about yourself outside of writing. Home town. Family. Job. That sort of thing.

MCD: On steamy day in July of ’54 Mother Durfee had her second baby boy who was her fourth child. Though she had one more, two years later, she knew the oddest of all her children had been born already. That’d be me. I was born in Detroit and for the past 57 years never had a permanent address that didn’t have Detroit in it. I was born at the right time to be able to see the city at the tipping point of 1.7 million people to the current 700 thousand.

Our household was one of very literate, highly educated people, but I only paid half the fare so I became literate but not formally educated beyond high school. I enlisted in the navy at age 17 to get away from a mixed bag of problems, some self caused, some attributable to others but in either case now 40 years later I know it was the right thing to do. I may be the only honorably discharged veteran in the history of the United States to never fire a weapon, not even in boot camp. I had the compartment watch duty that day and was never rescheduled to hit the firing range.

My father went from his HS diploma to a PhD. In chemical engineering in the 5 years after WWII, my mother had her MSW by age 23 (social worker) and all of my siblings have advanced degrees, while I still need twenty some credits to get an associates degree in something. The thing about that much education in one house does is there were always books, newspapers, and an expectation that we would use them. My folks didn’t care what we read as long as we read. My father was a practicing alcoholic but a genius when it came to chemistry and especially polymers and plastics but he considered me to be his stupid child because I never could do basic algebra. Lord knows in his sober moments he tried to teach me but then I had more fun not understanding what a slide ruler was for but enjoyed making the parts move. I think it safe to say that I am my mother’s child, that woman could cut through more red tape for more people than any ten social workers and she spent 45 years at the same agency eventually rising to run the place.

The one thing I have always appreciated about my parents is they never shielded us from anything, nightly news with Walter Cronkite was mandatory. Many nights we never ate together but the Civil Rights, Viet Nam war and political news was a mandatory event. I believe they wanted us to understand not just the present but the effect of wars and what the black community not only in the south but in America has been through, they were good straight ticket democrats and personally I think they would be made crazy by today’s political situation after having lived as teens in the Depression of the 30’s and the war right after it.

After I was discharged from the navy, a few months before my 21st birthday, I looked around at a country still in turmoil with the winding down of Viet Nam (no I am not a combat veteran, I was a deep water sailor on a small ship on the North Atlantic.) and Watergate. The Arab oil embargo effects were still being felt and I looked at going into one of the auto plants for a job but I just couldn’t force myself to do that. Nothing wrong with it, it was a great living for them that could stand the same thing day after day but being at sea ruined that part of me. On the day I turned 21 I stuck my thumb out and 8 or so hours later I was somewhere in central Illinois.

I had no plan but to see what there was in America. So for the next 4 years I just moved about, sometimes I would work in the fields for a few days and other times just walk whichever way I was headed. In the military I had seen most of the East Coast cities so I pretty much stayed away from them and it was not un-common to spend a few weeks just quietly camping in the tree line. I never had any expectation for any particular day but it was at that time in my life I was able to be alone with the spirit of our being. And I found out through pointed questioning of that spirit creation and evolution are not mutually exclusive. One has to do some unbiased research into it but they are both in my belief structure true. The cosmos and all in it, included man was created many billions of years ago.

In ‘79 I came back to Detroit got married and divorced and had 2 children in between a very short marriage. They were still babies when my ex took them to a smaller town because she knew she didn’t want them to grow up in Detroit. I don’t blame her to be honest and she married again to a great guy who did a wonderful job raising the kids. But farm country just wasn’t for me, I knew there would be no way I could make a living so I let them go without to much problem and did my best to maintain some relationship with my darling children. I met my current wife in ’83 or so and we have been together ever since. It was a package deal and I inherited another son 3 months older than the one living in Farmville.

In the meantime I went to work for the city of Detroit and spent 20 years in four different departments, by far my favorite was the Art Department hanging art at the Detroit Institute of Art. That is one of the few places I can honestly say I was able to with the curators explanations get a fine education in the different schools of art and styles used. *shrug* 5 years and bad times hit and I had to go back to laboring in a fresh water plant. Eventually I finished up as a general auto mechanic when I blew out my L4-L5 disc and that was that. I was forced into a disability retirement. And two years later was in a roll over crash that broke my neck which stopped the idea of going back to work. That was 12 years ago, so since then I have been on a permanent week end.

So to end this question I was a blue collar working guy, I have never lived anywhere but Detroit permanently, never was a suburban type (not that there’s anything wrong with that) I have 3 kids 1 an engineer, 1 working on becoming an engineer, and my daughter who is an adrenaline junkie is an EMTS. My wife (commonly referred to as The Old Lady) and I have been together the better part of 30 years and even though we live on 25% of what I was making when I had a job I, believe all is pretty good for us personally. We are fortunate to have no debt, don’t mind driving beaters for cars and most of our neighbors actually, we get along with.

RZ: What made you want to write? Is it a desire that’s always been with you? Or was there some particular event or book that ignited the fire? Why poetry as opposed to prose?

MCD: I think that the poetry and the earlier wanderlust will have to be blamed on my grandmother. She was a wonderful woman who lived to 105. As soon as she could she left the farm outside of Ottawa and went to teachers college then moved four thousand miles away from home by herself to teach English in Calgary Alberta. It was still a cow town in 1907 and she stayed for 5 years before moving to Toronto. Once she married in her early 30’s she settled down and was content to be a housewife. She took care of me and my younger brother when I was between 3-6. She didn’t like children’s stories but in the afternoon while dinner was cooking and she had time to sit, she read poetry to me. I can’t claim that I understood it, but she knew how to read it and I loved the sound of her voice as she read. She introduced me to Dickinson, Frost, Guest, Sandburg and her other favorites. Once I was able to read for myself at about age 5 I always included some poetry in my choices among the comic books and other young adult books. Shel Silverstein wasn’t around yet but I was able by then to at least understand short works by the likes of Stephan Crane.

When I first started to put pen to paper at about age 14, spending hours writing a piece, I think it was to piss my father off. He thought I should be out playing football (fat kid, hold that line!) or baseball but like the factories later, that just wasn’t for me. I never followed sports, although I did like seeing Gordie Howe’s picture in the paper when he had dropped the gloves and was smiling with another tooth gone. To be honest I have rudimentary understanding of the rules of hockey but the rest of them…well the Old lady has to explain them to me if I sit and watch a game with her. She is the fan of the family.

Once I started writing though I never stopped, I like the solitude of writing and it is usually poetry that I write. Funny thing was when I returned from boot camp all of my journals had been burned and for once I did the right thing, kept my mouth shut. Just kept on writing but for the next thirty or so years I never kept any of it. I would write and drop it over the side for Poseidon to read and judge or just hit the circular file with it. A couple of times during that period some curious people would pay for my lunch as a trade for the napkin I was writing on. That was an interesting experience, but still when you are living out of a back pack you don’t waste space with pages of paper.

Now I have been keeping most everything I write because Michelle Brooks (Michelle’s spells—the only creative writing professor I ever had) said she would beat me if I threw any more writing away. So now I delete instead of throw away (just kidding Brooks). I don’t have this burning desire that will bust my gut to get published or anything so intense that I will go even more insane if I don’t write about it, but like Brooks taught me “There is poetry in everything.” I am just one of those fortunate souls who are able to see it.

I write prose, I just don’t often put out it out there. I have 6 or 7 completed novels that all need an editor’s hand and a few dozen essays and short stories. I am a poet though and it took me decades before I could say that about myself and become comfortable in those shoes. If one were to Google up “All I wanted was a little weed Mark C Durfee” they would come to Ivan Prokupchucks blog where he published that story. That is an example of my prose, a short memoir I wrote a few years back.

RZ: Writers always get asked about their influences. Consider this that question.

MCD: The easy answer would be who. I could run through a list of poets and writers that range from Yeats and Crane to Dickens and Dostoyevsky. I have favorite contemporary poets and musicians that I listen to and honestly love their work but what influences me I think most is yesterday, and today. Situations and people that come to mind who are for the most part voiceless or lost, crowded out by life’s loud and arrogant people. I have been in that position and I never liked it, then a couple of decades ago I learned to not be afraid to speak so in my own way I am speaking for my younger self as well as others who may stumble upon some of my work and find they can be courageous if they find a way to lose their fears. That one thought drives me, fear kills and I want most people to live, that they may learn to love honestly and fearlessly.

RZ: Mark, much of your poetry has a clear sense of place about it, and that place is Detroit. What is it about Detroit that sets you off?

MCD: Although I have spent my life here I do not love Detroit. I have great respect for her but it just seems that it has become too easy for the rest of the nation to say “bulldoze Detroit” and that pisses me off. I am honest, brutally so in my poetry that is centered on this city. I am not afraid to tell the truth of Detroit today. But Detroit is so ugly it is beautiful in its own way, it redefines beauty while at the same time acts as a portrait of the way America herself could find itself in as short as another decade if we don’t set our minds united to solving the great divide that is happening right now nationally.

Detroit since the early 20th century has always been segregated, not as racially as it is now but ethnically. Everyone who came here from somewhere else for a job moved into neighborhoods that they made their own. The Irish one place, the Poles another, Hispanics another etc. and no one ever integrated anywhere but on the factory floors. But what I find odd is that this city was one of the true drivers of the middle class, that group that earned a living wage and had access to some small luxuries like college for the kids or a boat or summer cottage.

Now that the factories are mostly gone, decaying or torn down the population within the city for the most part still does not yet value education because for generations, an 8th grade education could get you a great job. Those families that did value education when it was affordable have moved on now so what we are left with is a class of people who are semi-literate, and struggling with a 25% unemployment rate, not able to help their kids with homework and stuck in place. I could leave but I keep asking myself where would I go that I could do more than where I am at right now. I tutor first graders in reading, I do open mic’s in the suburbs and the city and I mentor other writers who ask for the help.

I don’t see Detroit as a hopeless place but rather like one of those voiceless people I mentioned earlier and I have a blog and a voice and I try to use both to reach an audience to inform them that “hey we are still here, we are able to work but someone has to come and do something with this 75 square miles of vacant and abandoned land within the city limits.” I see a reason for hope in a hopeless place and I want to stick around long enough to see some real change created by the hands of the people who live here. I don’t know what form that change would take but we are not on any known fault lines, are not prone to hurricanes, flooding or tornadoes and don’t have particularly brutal winters. That seems to me to be a starting point for some companies to come in here and build big projects, nuclear plants, hydrogen plants or anything that needs people who know how to use their hands and heads when putting things together.

RZ: What, or who, inspires you?

MCD: I do not like the word god. It is too generic a word. Who inspires me is that being that squeezed all matter so tightly it exploded into a cosmos for us to be awed by. I am still inspired by stars dressed in a dark blue cloth of sky. After that knowing my own individuality and commonality with others inspires me to want to keep breathing for awhile yet, I don’t think I am ready to have the last page of my personal book written yet. But if so I at least know I have been kind and done all I could do while I was here. In short that point where the mortal touches the infinite is my greatest inspiration.

RZ: Are you working on anything currently? What’s next for you?

MCD: I am not physically setting anything down for publication right now. The Stink trilogy took me about two and a half years to write and edit so I am not quite ready yet to shift gears to another theme. But I am thinking on a book of the political poetry I have been writing off and on because I am one who is always ready to make known my thoughts on religion (mostly a decent place to start but a poor place to end) and politics, which since the Reagan era has run the train of America off the tracks that a greatly diverse nation should be on. I am also thinking of doing an anthology with another much younger poet, I love her work and it is just as honest and raw as my own usually is, but she has a greatly different perspective on life. Either way it would be 6 months or so before anything would be ready. But the beauty of self publication once it is done the rest moves pretty fast.

RZ: What work is available from you right now and where can readers find it? Is there a place online where folks could go to learn more about you and your work?

MCD: I self publish, even though all of the three previous books have a publisher listed to get an ISBN for them, but the only way to get the books you named in your intro is at detstink@gmail.com I do it this way because it keeps the cost down. If I went the conventional publishing route the books would be subject to editing I may not want and the price would be in the $15-$17 range. So far I have been able to sell each 80 page book for $10 US and that includes return postage to anywhere in the world. Generally I am not trying to make a great profit on these books but just to be heard and maybe in being heard help someone find their way out of a briar patch.

No one, including myself has written a Wikipedia page about me yet so the only way to learn more about me is to ask me. I write The Walking Man blog where I float quite a bit of my poetry.

Mark, thanks for visiting Razored Zen.

From the bottom of my being Charles, thank you. It is to me a great honor to appear here and get a chance to really think out again why I am and how I have come to be as I am. I truly appreciate your readers and find them not only to have a wonderful sense of humor but to truly be interested in the craft and art of writing.
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Razored Zen Interview: Kent Westmoreland

My latest guest on Razored Zen Author Interview is Kent Westmoreland. Kent is the first author I’ve interviewed who lives in my geographical area. He resides in New Orleans now, though originally he hails from a farm. Like me. His was in North Carolina, mine in Arkansas. As Kent says, he eventually “stumbled into New Orleans and never made it out.” We’ve met a number of times. I first got to know Kent when he and I were in a writer’s group together. We met at a local bar called Cooter Brown’s. That’s about all I can tell you. Perhaps that’s enough.

Most recently, I attended a talk and a signing by Kent for his book BARONNE STREET, a detective novel in the grand tradition. It’s available in both trade paperback and Kindle. I read it, enjoyed it, and reviewed it on Amazon here. Without further ado, here’s Kent. (RZ represents Razored Zen and I’m sure you can figure out what KW stands for.)

(Photo Credit: O'Neil De Noux)

RZ: Tell us a little about yourself outside of writing. Hometown. Family. Job. That sort of thing.

KW: I don’t think I have been to Cooter Brown’s since the writers group stopped meeting. We exchanged some good ideas during those elbow bending sessions.
My personal story is not exciting. My parents were generous and loving; I have no sad stories of being tortured and abused. However, I made their lives a living hell.

The stork dropped me in rural North Carolina on a farm with cows and chickens; a situation I never really cottoned to (a nod to my native vernacular). But the location came with my parents and a pretty cool older brother, so there are no complaints.

After high school I moved to Charlotte and spent a few years drink and stupid before eventually attending college to become a software developer.

A few years after college I wound up in New Orleans as a stopping point on my way to south Florida. I never made it to south Florida

My day job is project manager for a company that provides banking software and technology services. My wife, Leslie, is CPA. We live in uptown New Orleans with three cats.

RZ: What made you want to write? Is it a desire that’s always been with you? Or was there some particular event or book that ignited the fire? Is there something about growing up on a farm that makes one want to write?

KW: Before I started to school I would dictate stories to my grandmother. I don’t know if she actually transcribed them or made a grocery list as I rambled about Civil War battles. The stories most likely had no plot, characterization, or point.
In second grade I started writing stories that were what you might expect from a seven year old -super heroic fantasies featuring me.

In junior high and high school, I wrote a number of short stories that were mostly period pieces: westerns, civil war, post-civil war. One story was set at the Woodstock music festival. I did write a an alternative history novella with the same premise, but different storyline, as the movie Red Dawn. It was quite dreadful as I recall.

After high school I put writing on the back burner. I wanted to focus on a financially rewarding career, a health plan and a 401K. My life has always been a left brain/right brain struggle with the left brain usually dominating. A few years ago I knew it was time to start writing again. The result was BARONNE STREET.

RZ: Writers always get asked about their influences. Consider this that question.

KW: In BARONNE STREET my goal was to tweak the traditional detective novel format. I started with the format pioneered by Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. To give the novel a more post-modern attitude I studied The Horse Latitudes by Robert Ferrigno. To create an atmosphere of decadence and ennui, I listened to the music of early and mid-period Roxy Music while writing the novel.

Burleigh Drummond, the protagonist, has a self-aware, sardonic voice I borrowed from the narrator of the Kurt Vonnegut pastiche Venus on the Half-Shell which was written by Phillip Jose Farmer. Drummond shares DNA with James West from the TV series The Wild, Wild West. What I always loved about James West is wherever he went people said: “There’s James West, secret agent for the Secret Service”. It was so absurd. But I realized this would happen to Drummond since he operates in small, insular New Orleans, a city with only three degrees of separation instead of six. So I worked that concept into the novel and the stories. Drummond seldom engages anyone who doesn’t know him or know of him.

RZ: Kent, much of your fiction, BARONNE STREET included, is set in the New Orleans area. What is it about this area that attracts you as a writer?

KW: Initially I had planned to base the Burleigh Drummond series in Palm Beach, but Lawrence Sanders had beaten me to that locale with his fine Archie McNally series. In retrospect Palm Beach would have been the wrong choice. Palm Beach is less of a city and more of a winter vacation community for the ultra-wealthy; they only stay for “The Season”. And then there is all that beautiful sunshine, white sand, and crystal-blue ocean. Burleigh Drummond needed to operate in a dark city with darker secrets.

Then I wandered into New Orleans. A city filled with secret societies whose members don masks once a year and toss trinkets to the masses. The bluebloods make backroom deals to restrain new business and influence politicians. The politicians bleed every dime from the city coffers and do nothing for the city. Then the bluebloods and politicians dance together at formal balls while the city decays. New Orleans was the perfect location for Burleigh Drummond to set up shop

RZ: Writing can be hard work. What motivates you to keep going? What inspires you?

KW: Writing is hard work. That left brain/right brain struggle keeps me from producing more. The second Drummond novel is abandoned. I admire writers like you who not only produce a lot of stories, but are prolific in subject matter.

RZ: What are you working on currently? And what’s next for you?

KW: I am working on a spec screenplay which will be marketed to production companies that make straight-to-video and TV movies. I think that avenue is less of a long shot to sell than a novel and more lucrative. That’s the left brain winning again.

RZ: What work is available from you right now, and where can readers find it? Is there a place online where folks could go to learn more about you and your work?

KW: In addition to BARONNE STREET, I currently have two short stories in Kindle format on Amazon.com. Ash Wednesday and Price Tag Attached. Both feature Burleigh Drummond.

Ash Wednesday is a re-telling of Cinderella with Drummond in the fairy godmother role. The Kindle edition has two versions of the story. The first version originally appeared in the anthology Erotic New Orleans and reads like a vintage Penthouse Forum letter. The second is safe to use as bedtime story and was published in Thrilling Detective magazine. An Amazon reviewer said the Kindle package is a good example of “how the same story can be written so differently”.

Price Tag Attached is collaboration with O’Neil De Noux. Drummond assists New Orleans homicide detective Jodie Kintyre in solving the murder of a French Quarter antiques dealer. Jodie is a character from O’Neil’s Dino La Stanza series. Since the La Stanza series exists in the 1980’s and Drummond is set in modern times I guess we have to term this work an alternative history mystery. The story was originally published in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.

My web site is www.KentWestmoreland.com. That's here. If anyone wants to contact me directly my email address is Kent@KentWestmoreland.com.

RZ: Kent, thanks for visiting Razored Zen.

KW: Charles, thanks for inviting me. We need to go back to Cooter Brown’s. In addition to your company I miss the dark German beer and the pastrami sandwiches.
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Razored Zen Interview: Chris La Tray

I think it’s time to run another author interview. My guest today is Chris La Tray. I first became aware of Chris’s work on Beat to a Pulp, with his story entitled “The Pickle”. Later, we exchanged blog visits, and then I got to meet Chris in real life when his job brought him to the New Orleans area for a visit. We ate some Italian food and had a few Italian beers. Then we had some American beers. There are plenty of geographical (beer) areas to explore yet on his next visit. Without further ado, here’s Chris. (RZ represents Razored Zen and I’m sure you can figure out what CLT stands for.)

RZ: Tell us a little about yourself outside of writing. Home town. Family. Job. That sort of thing.

CLT: I live in Missoula, MT. I was born and raised in the area, but have lived in other places (Pacific Northwest, Ohio) for enough years to know this is pretty much where I want to be. The University of Montana is here, so culturally we are kind of a little oasis in the midst of what is a pretty conservative state. I like that from my ass at my desk here, I could literally be on a trail in about 20 minutes where I'd be as likely to see a bear or mountain lion as I would another person.

As for family, I share the house with my 18yo son and my wife, Julia, who is a clothing designer operating under the name DonkeyGirl Designs (shameless plug, buy her stuff!). Both of them are wildly creative and keep me inspired with the things they do. We also have two cats and four dogs here -- three of which are Jack Russells. Those little bastards keep me on my toes too. In fact, I'm downstairs writing this with the music loud so I can't hear any mayhem they may be up to elsewhere in the house.

RZ: What made you want to write? Is it a desire that’s always been with you? Or was there some particular event or book that ignited the fire?

CLT: I grew up living kind of in the middle of nowhere and didn't have the opportunity to spend a lot of time with other kids when I wasn't in school. As a result, I read a lot, and that led to writing stories. I have this little blank book I received for the "Reading Award" when I graduated from 8th grade, and it has an inscription from my teacher that says something like "A little something to help you on your way to writing your first fantasy novel!"

When I got into high school I started playing in rock bands. That became my primary passion, but I always thought that writing a book would be something fun to do on the side (while on the tour bus, you know). When I realized that rock stardom probably wasn't going to find me (we arrived in Seattle in the late 80s/early 90s packing spandex instead of flannel), the rock band sort of went on the back burner, though I do still play in one. I wrote two fantasy novels back in the early 90s, then stopped for a few years. Started writing again, mostly record reviews and interviews and things, which led to some freelance stuff for the local weekly, and then I started writing fiction again after taking a couple local workshops. So I would stay it has been a path I've been staggering along since I was pretty young, really, with occasional diversions. Seems to be going pretty steady now, though.

RZ: Writers always get asked about their influences. Consider this that question.

CLT: I was into fantasy as a kid. Conan, the Lord of the Rings, stuff like that. When I started playing Dungeons and Dragons as a junior high punk, I used the "suggested reading" list in the First Edition Dungeon Masters Guide as gospel. As I've gotten older, the stuff I read and the writers I admire have become so varied that this could go on for pages and pages. What I like best, and what I try to create with my own writing, is the kind of stuff that reads quickly and tells a compelling story. I can forgive writing that could use some tightening up much more readily than something that is working magic with language but isn't saying shit to me.

RZ: Chris, you write both fiction and nonfiction. Do you have a preference between the two? Do you find one easier than the other? Is there any common thread between your fiction and nonfiction?

CLT: I love fiction, and I could go on and on with ideas of stuff I'd like to write, or stuff I've read that I had a great time with. But in the last ten years or so the stuff that really wows me the most, and inspires, and makes me say, "Damn, I wish I'd done that!" is all in nonfiction. Writers going out and learning about something and writing about it, having adventures, telling stories that are factual revelations. People like David Quammen, John Vaillant, Susan Casey . . . these are narrative nonfiction writers that have blown me away not just with their writing but with the adventures that drove them. I would LOVE to do that kind of thing.

As for a common thread, that sense of adventure is probably it. It goes back to stories of Conan or Tarzan exploring lost ruins, or Doug Chadwick chasing wolverines in Glacier National Park. I find it utterly thrilling, utterly compelling.

The majority of my nonfiction writing has been related to music, and I burned out on it. I got tired of finding descriptions and trying to find new ways to describe bands when it came to articles, record reviews, etc. I finally stopped doing it just because my heart wasn't in it. I would write a 200 word music review and get paid $15 for it. When I decided to stop, I was irritated that most bands, rather than send press kits with CDs and things, would send links to downloads. I didn't want to put in the time to find it, wade through all the MySpace bullshit (because that is where the majority of the links were directed), download it, and burn a CD, because I would do the bulk of my listening in my truck which would only play CDs. For $15 I didn't think it was worth my time.

Honestly? Big mistake. When I consider the thousands and thousands of words of fiction I've written for zero, zilch, no money, that irritation over a "measly" $15 is pretty stupid. I could sure use the extra $45 - $75 a month I was getting for the reviews, not to mention the occasional feature article that might net me $60 or $80. It also taught me economy of words, because 200 words isn't much to work with, especially related to something I liked. Or 800 words, for that matter. Trying to write an article about the Melvins, a band who has been around a long time, while also including quotes from Buzz Osbourne -- who is one of the most entertaining interviews ever -- is a real challenge with only 800 words to play with. I probably learned more from the discipline than I realized, not to mention the process of working with editors, deadlines, etc.

What am I saying? The nonfiction stuff I was doing was much easier in a lot of ways, paid better, (i.e. at all) was excellent practice, but was also irritating and mildly soul-sucking. But I was an idiot for dropping a gig that paid pretty regularly.

RZ: Writing can be hard work. What motivates you to keep going? What inspires you?

CLT: I think watching my wife work so hard with her clothing design inspires and motivates me more than anything else, just to keep at it. It certainly isn't the money, nor is it the idea that I have something huge and important to say that hasn't already been said, better, many times before. It really is hard friggin' work, and I'd be lying if I said I don't struggle with that. Not the work so much as just the turnaround. It sucks to write a story, submit it, then wait weeks and weeks or months and months to hear anything at all about it, for better or worse. If one hears anything at all, mind you. I haven't submitted a novel yet, and I'm already gnashing my teeth over that. I've been writing songs and performing them for most of my life, and the turnaround there is way faster. I could write a song tonight, go to rehearsal tomorrow and be playing it as a band in a matter of minutes. Then unleashing it live shortly thereafter and getting some feedback. The wait when it comes to that kind of sharing with writing is the hardest part for me. But I keep doing it, and try not to bitch about it too much because there are so many of us in the same leaky boat. I realize that ePublishing and stuff can alleviate some of that, but I'm not thrilled to join the throng screaming, "Buy my stuff!" over and over again. Right now there are at least three collections out I'd like to pick up, and at least that many I already have but haven't read yet. It all gets pretty overwhelming, because I feel that if I don't buy and support other people's work, then what right do I have to ask them to support me?

But what can I say? I do it anyway. At some point, though, as the day gig becomes less and less capable of making the ends meet, I may need to find something different to spend this much time on that actually includes the occasional check. But I'm not to that point yet. And who knows, there might be spare minutes here and there while delivering pizzas, or standing on a street corner with a belly shirt and that spandex on I mentioned earlier, to jot down the occasional pulpy paragraph or two anyway.

RZ: What are you working on currently? And what’s next for you?

CLT: I'm juggling two novel projects and have a couple short story ideas I'm kicking around. I'm really trying to focus most of my energy on the novels, because I want to get them complete and submitted so I can be pissed off about that part of the process for a while, muttering the names of agents and editors into a growing pile of beer bottles, stuff like that. As for what's next, I have a story coming out at Beat to a Pulp at some point that I collaborated on with Grainger/Cranmer where I "cover" his Cash Laramie/Gideon Miles characters, adding in one of my own, but I'm not sure when that will show up, if ever. David is doing so well with his own work on those characters there's no real reason to publish it; I'd ride that wave too if I were him! Then I have a story coming out in a future issue of Needle; the Winter one, I think. Finally, I have a story coming out in the inaugural issue of Pulp Modern; I think that comes out before the year ends, but I'm not sure. Honestly, once something gets accepted, I don't really care when it comes about because by the time it does I know I will have a) forgotten what it's about, and b) will likely hate it when I re-read it. I'm just grateful to editors who actually respond to a submission at all, let alone say they will publish it. That tickles me to no end. Those people are the ones who are doing the thankless work, that's for damn sure.

My current band is in the process of recording our first album too, that should be wrapped up hopefully in October sometime. I wrote all the lyrics for that thing (except, now that I think about it, one song), and they're absolutely awful. But I love every damn word.

RZ: What work is available from you right now, and where can readers find it? Is there a place online where folks could go to learn more about you and your work?

CLT: My website, which is just a fancy word for "blog", is the best place. There is a page there with links to stuff that can be found online, both stories as well as some of the other articles I've written. As for the blog itself, it is probably a perfect example of what a writer shouldn't do, because it's totally all over the place, and is hardly ever about writing. One day I might review a movie, another day I might have pictures from a kickball game, and then another day I might have a picture of a pile of bear shit I came across out in the woods. But it's definitely a snapshot into my day to day life, and if it seems like I'm a jackass as a result, then it's probably because I pretty much am.

Chris, thanks for visiting Razored Zen.

And thanks for having me, Charles!

Razored Zen Interview: Keith Gouveia

I’ve decided to do a few more interviews on my blog. These won’t be exclusive to writers, although that will probably make up the bulk of the posts. I don’t plan to make it a mainstay feature but I like learning about other folks and this will give me a way to do that. And maybe it will introduce those who visit here to some new writers or new blog pals.

My first guest is the writer Keith Gouveia. I met Keith in an online writing group called “The Parasitorium,” which was founded by my good friend Del Stone, Jr. Del went on to publish a collection of stories from group members in 2003. It was called The Parasitorium: Terrors Within. I had a story in the collection called “Thief of Eyes,” and Keith had one of his early stories published in that collection, a nasty little work called “Taper.” Without further ado, here’s Keith. (RZ represents Razored Zen and I’m sure you can figure out what KG stands for.)


RZ: Keith, tell us a little about yourself outside of writing. Home town. Family. Job. That sort of thing.

KG: I grew up in Fall River, Massachusetts and now live in Florida. I’m married to my lovely wife, Lisa, and I’m a mechanical engineer in my off hours.

RZ: What made you want to write? Is it a desire that’s always been with you? Or was there some particular event or book that ignited the fire?

KG: Telling stories has always been my favorite pastime. Unfortunately, in high school, I had a Literature teacher who berated me over my topic choice when it came to creative writing. He would often assign homework to write freely, I would chose a horror story as that was what I enjoyed reading the most outside of the Hardy Boys and Conan stories, and he would give me a C with a handwritten scribble “this trash will get you no where.” No red punctuation markups, just his vitriol. The mental block he instilled in me wasn’t demolished until Lisa entered my life (eleven years ago) and supported my writing. Been going strong ever since. I write to entertain myself, and if I can do that for someone else then that’s just gravy.

RZ: Writers always get asked about their influences, so consider this that question.

KG: Edgar Allan Poe is at the top. Robert E. Howard and Stephen King are close seconds. I remember reading Poe and feeling his pain, it resonated with me as I shared his pain of loss and loneliness. I borrowed my mother’s copy of Stephen King’s IT and was thoroughly frightened, and was and still am in awe at Howard’s vision.

RZ: Keith, one reason I wanted to interview you is because, like me, you seem to enjoy writing in a variety of genres. I’ve read horror stuff by you, fantasy oriented stuff, and even materials that border on Young/Adult. Why is that? Is there a common theme or thread that you see running through all your work?

KG: I think it boils down to my reading habits when I was younger. I read various age appropriate material and a lot of not so much, and when it comes time to explore a story idea, I’m open minded and allow it to fit where it’s best suited. Plus, I have two great kids and I want them to be as well read as I was. Regardless of the genre though, I will always fit in a horror trope or two.

RZ: Writing can be hard work, especially when you’re slogging through the middle passage on a novel. What motivates you to keep going? What inspires you?

KG: Life inspires me. Combine that with my wife’s nurturing words, and I rarely hit that proverbial wall called writer’s block. Once I get going, I have the strong urge to see it to completion. Discipline is one of a writer’s greatest assets.

RZ: What are you working on currently? And what’s next for you?

KG: Right now I’m working on new werewolf short stories for a sequel collection to my Animal Behavior and Other Tales of Lycanthropy as well as finishing my zombie novel Death Puppet. After that, I’ve been writing a fantasy epic off and on titled Sword of Darkness, Sword of Light and I’d like to get back to that.

RZ: What work is available from you right now, and where can readers find it? Is there a place online where folks could go to learn more about you and your work?

KG: Right now, my most notable works are the aforementioned werewolf collection and my continuation of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story The Black Cat, titled The Black Cat and the Ghoul. It is a zombie mash-up ala Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but rather than splicing zombies into the piece, I’ve continued the tale of a nameless character in Poe’s short story and turned it into book length in a way I believe true to Poe’s vision and macabre taste. But if you want Fantasy, check out my YA novel Children of the Dragon, all titles released by Coscom Entertainment and can be found at all on-line bookstores and can be ordered via brick and mortar stores as well. And to learn more about me, I have a website (though I’m terrible with updates) at http://www.keithgouveia.com or befriend me on Facebook.


Keith, thanks for visiting Razored Zen.

Thank you for having me. Until next time, “Pleasant Screams!”

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