My Interview With Smashwords

I first started writing when I was around ten years old. I thought up wacky interview questions for classmates, asking them to make up what planet they were born on, what fake person they would vote for President of the United States, what was their favorite time traveling vehicle, stuff like that. I also wrote short stories, and I managed to get one published in high school in the early '90's through my Creative Writing class. I won a whole $35 for being third for this particular contest the short story was entered in. My mom took that and framed the check stub, a newspaper article she placed in our newspaper, and my senior class photo.

 

Times of Turmoil, my latest novel, is a prequel to my End Times novels, Times of Trouble and Times of Trial. I had reviews and readers who wanted the story to be fleshed out more, so I went back nearly a hundred years (the other novels are set 20+ years from now) to World War II. I explored how the Evans family gets the money and power to influence events in the United States and make it their mission to destroy Christian influence in the United States. I was inspired by some of the current happenings involving the United States government.

 

I actually always wanted to be independently published. I did a lot of research in high school about getting published, and seeing that I had to write query letters and send in manuscripts, only to be rejected, didn't appeal to me, so I decided to wait until the opportunity to publish my own works myself appeared. I wanted to be in control and figured doing it myself was the best way to do it. I got my chance in 2008 with the appearance of the Kindle and its publishing platform, so off I went.

 

Smashwords has contributed to my success by letting me get published to Apple, Sony, and even into libraries when I wouldn't be able to do it myself. Smashwords also gives me the ability to offer my novels for free when doing free promotions, and then I'm able to reach readers who probably wouldn't normally give me a chance.

 

I think the greatest joy for me is being able to create my books my own way without anyone looking over my shoulder telling me I'm doing it wrong or telling me I have to put in a lot of filler that I don't want just to get over a certain word count.

 

The next novel I'm working on is called Timothy Phillips. It's set in the same universe as my End Times Saga. It's about a Christian young man who sings and is discovered by a record producer, he gets to compete on a national talent show, and then he wins the portion of the show he's on. We follow his highs and lows as he goes through his career while the End Times rapidly approach.

 

I have a few favorite authors. Of the traditional variety, I enjoy reading Tom Clancy, Harry Turtledove, S.M. Stirling, and a couple of the Star Trek writers. As for indies, I've read and enjoyed Seb Kirby, J.C. Phelps, Richard Stephenson, K.C. May, just to name a few.

 

I spend my time promoting my novels all over the internet and occasionally in person.

 

I've discovered them through Kindleboards, Facebook, Twitter, and some other sites as far as indie books go.

 

I read a lot of different genres for pleasure, even nonfiction. For fiction, I read alternate history/speculative fiction, political thrillers, End Times fiction, time travel, science fiction, and sometimes fantasy.

 

For non-fiction, I read a lot of biographies and historical books about the United States.