Interview with J Walt Layne

Interview with J Walt Layne      

Author of A Week In Hell

Questions by Roy Murry

Can you tell me a little about yourself?

I live in Springfield, Ohio. The city is rather unique, one of yesteryear’s industrial giants that has been languishing since the late 1950s. I’m a veteran of the US Army, a married father of three, and a voracious reader. I guess I’m a prolific writer. I’ve turned in about a dozen projects so far this year. My first novel was Frank Testimony, a legal thriller set in Bedford, Mississippi in the 1950s. I’m also the author and creator of The Champion City Series of pulp detective stories to be published exclusively by Pro Se Press (August 2013) I’ve written a laundry list of articles for Backwoodsman Magazine and I am the former Op-Ed columnist for The Albany Journal (Albany, Georgia). You can catch up with me on Facebook as Author J Walt Layne.

Do you remember the first story you wrote?

Yes. The first REAL story was a teleplay. I scripted an episode of the 1980s television series The A Team for a writing project at school. I was in 6^th grade. It was everything a growing boy needed- violence, language, action, and girls…  I got a very stern talking-to and was advised nothing good would come of it…     

Were you inspired by someone or something?

Yes certainly so. I had a grandparent who loved garage sales. On many of these trips around her bargain hunting grounds I found a lot of great classic era pulp novels and magazines and pre-code comics. Howard, Spillane, Hammett, to name a few. The first book made me think of being a writer and really grabbed me on storytelling and the necessary imagery of location as a character was the novel Body Count by Lt. William Turner Huggett, based on his time in the USMC in the Vietnam War. Of course one war novel leads to another and I discovered Robin Cook, Dale Dye, and Leonard B. Scott.

I went twenty years or so without reading much pulp, during that time when you’re supposed to have outgrown stuff you liked as a kid.  Somewhere in there I found Black Lizard’s Big Book of Pulps and read a short story titled One, Two, Three by Paul Cain and it was on… I wrote my first and worst pulp tale ever and I was in love with it.

         

What do you like about writing a story?

Loaded question… It gives me, an average guy from the Old Northwest region of the US a chance to go to interesting and exotic places, meet intriguing people, and kill them. No, really this is a serious question? Writing stories is…Aside from my family…Everything. Frank Testimony brought Bedford Mississippi to life from the magnolia tree in the lane near the cotton field, to the music in the jukes, and the smell of catfish and cornbread or pulled pork and gator backs.

My (unpublished) spy trilogy gave me a chance to bring my own super spy to life and get a look at what everyone suspects about the layers of intelligence and espionage. Then this pulp racket happened… Welcome to Champion City… Home of mobsters, murderers, transients, thugs, rapists, murderers, a butt high pile of victims, and Thurman Dicke, old fashioned two fist crime fighter. When a writer writes and shares, they give you a piece of their soul, in my case it isn’t the warm fuzzy part.

Can you tell us about your book? 

Writing A WEEK IN HELL, was a chance for me as a writer to try and give something back to the pulp novels and magazines of yesteryear that I enjoyed reading as a kid when no one was looking. There’s something about the honest, yet ornery sound of the language - the not so innocent victims, and uncompromising men. The story bigger than the hero can handle, yet coming out on top against all odds - forty Miles of bad road for the big payoff or the big sleep."

It all starts with a girl and a bag of cash. Candi was the kind of gal who could give a guy indigestion. She was poison, with looks to kill, a reluctant moll looking for a way out. Thurman was a young flatfoot, not necessarily the knight in shining armor. He went to shake out a brawl and nearly fed her his gun, was it any wonder he got a date? They spend an evening on the run, but where does it lead? Just when it looks like it’s over, BOOM! Is it a dead girl, a bag of somebody else’s dough, or both?

What genre best fits for the book?

This is pulp fiction… It’s a thriller, it’s a noir crime story, it’s a mystery but not cozy at all… There’s action that doesn’t quit…

Are you working on something new at the moment?

There are a lot of projects in the works right now… As I mentioned, I’ve turned in about a dozen projects so far this year- novels, short stories, articles and a couple of columns… Fiction wise I’ve been writing out short stories and a historical novel based on Major General Anthony Wayne and the Northwest Indian Wars.

I’m also getting ready to start the next Champion City book. I have an opportunity to write a pulp character from the golden age and I have a number of things in the skunkworks that I want to keep under wraps for a while…  

Do you have any tips for aspiring writers?

Good advice I gleaned from a book said, “IF you aspire to write professionally, you have to read and write a lot. Which means a book a week at least, I try to keep both a fiction and nonfiction going… If you have a problem with criticism, this may not be your game.

Publishing is a number of things- do your best, let it cool. Reread, rewrite and polish. Be the best version of you that you can be, remember that 90% of business is relationships, some with people who you wouldn’t invite to a greasy spoon. Write every day. When people who don’t get it discourage you, write more. There is always time to write, if you’re meant to be a writer, you’re thinking about it now…

Where can people go to read your work?

I have a website at www.jwaltlayne.wix.com/author. A WEEK IN HELL is available in print for $9.00 from Amazon at http://tinyurl.com/n6meb2q and via Pro Se's createspace store at https://www.createspace.com/4407054. This crime thriller is also available as an Ebook for $2.99 for the Kindle at http://tinyurl.com/lsgbvo5 and on the nook from Barnes & Noble at http://tinyurl.com/n5lgkjx and in most digital formats at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/348511.

Do you have anything to add?

          Be yourself. Write what you know. It is in my opinion, very important that your story feel like it is being honest with itself. This doesn’t mean it is a true story, but that it is true to itself in the rules of the road you as writer have established from page one. You’ll find inspiration everywhere, be careful what you do with it.

Beware the water cooler, be friendly, social media is a necessary evil, anyone who has a story idea you just have to hear should be avoided. Remember its high school, people will expect you to take their side and share their opinion, tell you things that are none of your business and repeat things you say out of context. They fit nicely into future stories as victims.

Review of Birthright Bestowed

Review of Birthright Bestowed

Book 1

Ilona the Hun trilogy

Written by Author Erika M. Szabo

Reviewed by R. Murry

Fantasy means a product of the imagination. “Everything is possible if we take into account the fact that we’re True Huns,” is a statement made by one of the characters of this magical contemporary fantasy. This belief is there when a child is taught to believe in oneself no matter the culture.

Ilona the Hun, the main character of this somewhat mind awakening novel, comes of age at the ripe old age of twenty nine. Why twenty nine? That is the age a Hun becomes of age, an ancient decision. She awakens to the fact that she has powers a normal human from other cultures don’t have.

As a medical doctor, Ilona’s journey begins for the reader. Ms. Szabo, using sometimes comical prose, has our protagonist explain her history, thoughts, feelings, and reactions to events around her, which all relate to her being a True Hun, a true blood descendant of the Huns who at one time ruled the world.

At this point in her story, her world becomes an overpowering mystical one if one is to rule out the fact that the events are seen by humans. Because the stand biers are not Huns, they don’t see or react to the situations as an insider – they see the conclusions as miraculous. Only Ilona and her inner circle understand what has transpired.

This all leads to interesting turns of events that will keep the reader wanting to know what comes next. Well, you’ll have to read Book 2 to see if Ilona’s powers develop, if her love affair continues, if death is around the corner, and if dreams come true.

Birthright Bestowed is a well written lead book for a trilogy that I recommend for Romantics and Mystic readers alike. Or, if you’re a non-believer, it’s a journey to enjoy. 

Where can people go to read her work?

AUTHOR WEBSITE: http://tinyurl.com/kmphe8m

FB AUTHOR PAGE: http://tinyurl.com/jwdg529

FB BOOK PAGE: http://tinyurl.com/kuzqc5h

BOOK ONE OF ILONA THE HUN NOVELS:

AMAZON: http://tinyurl.com/mw66yzb

BARNES & NOBLE: http://tinyurl.com/lllr3fk

ITUNES: http://tinyurl.com/lnkhj7l

PRINT: http://tinyurl.com/l5l8xva

BOOK TWO OF ILONA THE HUN NOVELS:

AMAZON: http://tinyurl.com/lccfpoj

BARNES & NOBLE: http://tinyurl.com/mbszacr

PRINT: http://tinyurl.com/kxgtumb

Interview of Erika M. Szabo

Interview with Erika M. Szabo

Questions: R. Murry

Can you tell me a little about yourself?

Thank you for inviting me to your website Roy.

I’ve been writing Alternative Medicine related books in English and Hungarian. I love healing as passionately as I love to write and read. I was playing with the idea of writing a fantasy story peppered with historical facts for a while. The history of the Huns always fascinated me - they were my ancestors – and one day I started writing my Ilona the Hun trilogy.

Do you remember the first story you wrote?

I must have been about nine or ten; we had an assignment in school to write about our favorite pets. I wrote a 30 pages long story about my black Puli Crumbs about his ability to herd the chickens, his sneaky ways to steal food and how protective he was towards family members and our house and property. My teacher gave me an A+, but my friends hated me because there was not enough time left for them to read their stories.

Were you inspired by someone or something?

Growing up in Hungary greatly influenced my writing. I learned the benefits and uses of herbs from my mother and grandmother as a small child. I furthered my knowledge of Alternative Medicine by receiving a PhD in Naturopathy. My Hungarian heritage influenced my novelist side as well. In my contemporary fantasy trilogy, Ilona the Hun contains a lot of legends, historical facts and beliefs.

What do you like about writing a story?

I love using my imagination when creating a story. I ask the question “What if…” and the story, characters and scenes come to live.

Can you tell us about your book?

Two books from my Ilona the Hun trilogy, Birthright Bestowed and Secrets Revealed (available on Amazon and Barnes&Noble) the third book Destiny Altered is coming in December are based on my Hungarian heritage and working in the medical field all my life, combined with fantasy elements such as magical healing, time travel, ancient secrets and mystery with romantic love story.

What genre best fits for the book?

Contemporary fantasy, alternate history

Are you working on something new at the moment?

I started writing a ghost story after asking myself, “What if” and, “Why not?”

Do you have any tips for aspiring writers?

Follow your dreams and don’t let anyone stop you.

Where can people go to read your work?

AUTHOR WEBSITE: http://tinyurl.com/kmphe8m

FB AUTHOR PAGE: http://tinyurl.com/jwdg529

FB BOOK PAGE: http://tinyurl.com/kuzqc5h

BOOK ONE OF ILONA THE HUN NOVELS:

AMAZON: http://tinyurl.com/mw66yzb

BARNES & NOBLE: http://tinyurl.com/lllr3fk

ITUNES: http://tinyurl.com/lnkhj7l

PRINT: http://tinyurl.com/l5l8xva

BOOK TWO OF ILONA THE HUN NOVELS:

AMAZON: http://tinyurl.com/lccfpoj

BARNES & NOBLE: http://tinyurl.com/mbszacr

PRINT: http://tinyurl.com/kxgtumb

Review of Turnabout Is Fatal Play

Review of

Turnabout Is Fatal Play

Written by Glenn Harris

Reviewed by R. Murry

Rick said at the end of Casablanca to the chief detective, “Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” is an appropriate quote to describe the relationship between the main characters in Mr. Harris’ novel, McCall, and Malone, private detectives.  It is also true for the reader who loves detective stories because this series beginner endears you to its characters.

Clint McCall and Devon Malone combine to unravel some situations that range from funny to gruesome.  Even though their styles are clearly different, they mull over events, concluding where the circumstances may end.  Like any partnership, all doesn’t always end the way one may want.

Glenn Harris has put in place the start of a series that flows with some sparks flowing between the main protagonists up to and including the last scene where all seems well in their little part of skillfully defined Portland, Oregon.

Their relationships, future mishaps, and Portland’s landscape will be the base of upcoming episodes, which Mr. Harris has skillfully put in place.

With this background, the gamut of characters come alive, propelling events into action that our detectives fence against. Their duels are sometimes physical, mental, and cute. Whatever the situation, McCall and Malone find a way to deal with it, which is why I feel you’ll admire their accomplishments.

If you’re looking for a series that will keep you attentive, I recommend that you look into this one.

Glenn's books are currently available only in electronic form. There are links on my website, www.glennharris.us, to Amazon (for Kindle owners) and Barnes and Noble (for Nook owners). 

Interview with Glenn Harris

Interview with Glenn Harris

Questions: R. Murry

Can you tell me a little about yourself?

I was born in Illinois and grew up in the Midwest. Since my late 20s I’ve lived on the west coast, first in Berkeley, California, and for more than thirty years now in Hood River, Oregon. I’ve been a writer since experiencing the thrill of having a “poem” published in my second grade newsletter. I’ve been a journalist, editor of a weekly newspaper, had my own public relations and (very small-time) publishing business. I’m only recently a published author for the first time but I plan to make up for it with a long series of detective novels.

Do you remember the first story you wrote?

Vaguely. My parents bought me a typewriter when I started high school and one of the first things I wrote on it was a “science fiction story” about a kid who stowed away on a spaceship. Not too surprising, since I was at the time a kid who desperately wanted to stow away on a spaceship. I actually sent it in to a pulp magazine but it was mercifully rejected and I didn’t save it.

Were you inspired by someone or something?

So many things. First of all, my mother reading books like Black Beauty to me when I was very small. Too many teachers to name even if I remembered all their names. Perhaps most importantly the librarian at the local public library when I was in elementary school. I particularly wish that I remembered her name, but I don’t. She was a big woman with gray hair and glasses, always wearing a print dress—the perfect grandmotherly type. And she indulged me like a grandmother with those books. The limit was supposed to be three at a time. She let me take home a shopping bag full every week—and I read them all every week. It was there that I discovered all the wonderful worlds of the old Winston Science Fiction series and the simple but compelling mysteries of the Hardy Boys. I wanted to live in those worlds and solve those mysteries myself.

What do you like about writing a story?

That’s really it. I get to create my own worlds and solve their mysteries. Not long ago I described it in a blog post this way: In the beginning there’s a wonderful new story forming in your imagination, growing and blossoming and spreading out like the most beautiful flower you’ve ever seen. (Yes, it’s that good.) There are fascinating characters with compelling lives and terrible conflicts and great loves and greater danger and consequences that could not possibly have been known before you came along. It’s a heady time, looking forward to filling all those pages.

Can you tell us about your book?

It’s the first book in what will be a series featuring two Portland, Oregon, private detectives named Clint McCall and Devon Malone. In Turnabout is Fatal Play, they each have a client who wants to catch a cheating spouse—and it turns out the clients are married to each other. This is what brings the two of them together and they ultimately find themselves trying to stop a serial killer who is targeting young women in downtown Portland and might have his eye on Malone.

What genre best fits for the book?

It’s a classic private detective story with some elements of romantic thriller.

Are you working on something new at the moment?

Just finished the second book in the series, Decease and Desist; I expect it to be available in September or October. I’ve started working on the third, entitled One Deadly Game.

Do you have any tips for aspiring writers?

Live a wide life. Pay attention to people. Write rather than planning to write or talking about writing. Write.

Where can people go to read your work?

My books are currently available only in electronic form. There are links on my website, www.glennharris.us, to Amazon (for Kindle owners) and Barnes and Noble (for Nook owners). Free apps are also available so that you can read them on your PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows phone, Android tablet or Blackberry.

Do you have anything to add?

Only that I’m very grateful for this opportunity to visit with you and let more people know about what I’m doing.

Review of Someone Has To Pay

Review of Someone Has To Pay

      Written by Joe McCoubrey

Reviewed by R. Murry

Without prejudice, Mr. McCoubrey weaves a thriller that a non-follower of the events that led up to peace in the Isles of Ireland and Britain over separation can assimilate to.  That being the control over one’s own destiny and what one will pay for that freedom.  In this case, what will an Irishman pay for the right to be independent?

Joe McCoubrey, an Irishman, from the town of Downpatrick, writes a tale of a high level British operation that is used to propel the peace process forward by fending off the IRA’s activities that are on a different level and are supposed to have the same effect.

On each side of the divide, a champion has been picked - a man who gets the job done.  These agents had met once is part of this fast pace action drama and that fact is only known to them.  If and when these two meet again, is the secondary plot and is one of the reasons the British agent got involved.

As the main plot thickens, the general populous lives are disrupted with bombings, general killings, and assassinations.  Operational plans are made by both sides to capture political sympathy for their cause – separation or not.  When will the conflict end is not part of Joe’s novel, only hope.

Both sides converge at an unlikely place.  All havoc commences and the reader is on pins and needles awaiting the last shot to be made.  And that shot is made thrice in a lethal triangle shape leading to an ending the reader can live with after all the political postulating that follows.

Mr. Joe McCoubrey has put together plausible events in down to earth English we all can understand.  Those events could have helped lead both sides out of their turmoil.  I was convinced.  However, it was fiction.  Wasn’t it?

Joe McCoubrey’s interview: http://
bit.ly/1o392Yn

Interview with Joe McCoubrey

INTERVIEW with JOE McCOUBREY

Questions: Roy Murry

Can you tell me a little about yourself?

These days I am now a full-time action thriller writer, although in a sense - as a former Irish newspaper editor - I always was! In the early seventies I was working in the Civil Service based at Stormont, the seat of the Northern Ireland government, and was watching behind the scenes as some of the country’s most momentous events unfolded. These were the early dark days of the “troubles” — events that reverberated around the world, and somehow served to push me towards my real passion of writing. I became a newspaperman, started my own media business, and took a front row seat as history was played out in Ireland.

I have lived all my life in the beautiful Irish town of Downpatrick, made famous by its association with the national patron saint, St. Patrick. I have three wonderful daughters and two grandsons.

Do you remember the first story you wrote?

Goodness, that’s almost too far back! I used to relieve the urge to write by penning a number of short stories – anywhere between 500 to 2,000 words. I never published any of these and, sadly, I’ve since lost the manuscripts which were produced on an old portable typewriter and boxed away in an attic. There was no such thing in those days as saving work to a file and uploading for safe storage on Cloud!

They were, however, an excellent way to develop my writing style, as well as learning how to overcome some pretty basic early gaffes that paid scant attention to POV, head-hopping and other such pitfalls.

Were you inspired by someone or something?

The first big influences on my writing could not have been farther apart when it comes to style. They were romantic novelist Jane Austen and action guru, Alastair Maclean. With Austen, there is a constant sense of how captivating the written word can be, while with Maclean there is the sprinkling of drama, tension, and pathos that often make the words come alive on the page.

Over the past number of years I've enjoyed the styles of Lee Child, Matt Hilton, the late Vince Flynn, Brad Thor, David Baldacci, and James Patterson. They produce works that are not only a great read but succeed, where too many others fail, in putting the reader into the heart of the action. You can learn a lot from the style of writers like these but budding authors should never try to emulate. It’s important for an author to find his or her own style – without it I would suggest it is almost impossible to pen a credible story.

I guess the biggest influence was being in the heart of the Irish troubles. These were horrific times but, perversely, they produced fertile ground for fiction storytelling – not least because so many incidents and experiences could be based on fact. In those days it didn’t need much imagination to come up with plausible plots for a range of action thriller scenarios.

What do you like about writing a story?

I love the freedom that writing provides in being able to take my imagination into dark and dangerous places! I am not one of those authors who like to storyboard or plot out their book before committing the first words to paper. I like to fly uninhibited, letting the story move off in different directions, almost on a whim. I think it adds to the creativity of a story line if you can suddenly decide to open a new angle, or kill off a character simply because the point at which you are in a story demands it. Pre-planning or pre-plotting would, for me, destroy this ad hoc excitement.

Can you tell us about your book?

My first book – SOMEONE HAS TO PAY – has its background in the last days of the Northern Ireland troubles.  Essentially, it is about how the British Government and the IRA tussle for superiority as the clamour for peace points inexorably to a permanent ceasefire. Both sides know they are heading for peace talks but each are determined to hold all the aces when the time comes to get around a table.

The follow-up book – ABSENCE OF RULES – is more global. In many ways it is a bit of a throwback to James Bond, brought up to date with current current-terrorism campaigns against the like of al-Qaeda. The action takes place in Paris, London, Moscow and various parts of the USA.