A Word Please

I’ve got two fun guests today! We’ll be talking about author Susan Helene Gottfried’s new book King Trevor. This is the sequel to her first novel, Trevor’s Song. You’ve probably guessed that one of my guests is Susan, this book’s author. The other guest has come strapped with attitude, so be prepared. His name is Trevor Wolff, otherwise known as King Trevor. By the way, for those of you unfamiliar with Trevor, he’s not called ‘King’ because he’s true royalty. He’s a rock star and the ‘King’ bit is all about his ego.

Before we get too involved with Trevor, here’s a brief introduction to his creator:

Susan Helene Gottfried is the author of ShapeShifter: The Demo Tapes — Year 1, ShapeShifter: The Demo Tapes — Year 2, Trevor’s Song, ShapeShifter: The Demo Tapes — Year 3, and King Trevor.

A tone-deaf rocker-at-heart, Susan worked in retail record stores, in radio stations, as stage crew, and as a promoter while earning two college degrees in creative writing.

You can connect with Susan in the following places:

Website: http://westofmars.com
Blog: http://westofmars.com/blog
Twitter: www.Twitter.com/WestofMars or @WestofMars
Facebook: www.facebook.com/WestofMarsFans

Now for a look at the book:

The aftermath of his onstage collapse has taken its toll on Trevor Wolff. He’s become a virtual shut-in, dependent on the people around him to help in his healing. To make matters worse, he might have hung up his bass for good.

This is not the Trevor Wolff way.

When Mitchell hatches a plan to turn Trevor into the official King of ShapeShifter, it sounds like bunk. However, when Mitchell finds the perfect building to repurpose, the Big Idiot hires the best architect around—the brother-in-law he’s never met. Trevor can’t help but smell secrets that awaken the person he used to be.

After all, there’s nothing Trevor Wolff likes more than intrigue—except maybe a chance to square off against his arch-nemesis: Mitchell’s wife, Kerri.

On to the fun part – a chat with Trevor and Susan. For those of you yet to meet Trevor, this is not him in a foul mood. This is him on a normal day.

Despite your status as King, much of this story revolves around Kerri. How do you feel about sharing your spotlight with her?

I’ll never like sharing anything with her, especially books with my name on them. And Mitchell. And the fucking dining room table. Or the table in the kitchen. Or… well, anything. That covers it, doesn’t it?

I do love your restraint.

Your illness and recovery process have prevented you from touring. Do you miss it?

Do you get paid to ask stupid questions? Of course I miss it; it was all I did for years. Now, there’s no one around to chase around with our rubber snake, or smack with one of those sticky hands, or … yeah. Go read the books. You can see the sort of fun I used to have. Wouldn’t you miss it?

Actually, I’m not getting paid to ask questions, stupid or otherwise. Maybe that’s the problem.

I’m sure you received lots of get well cards and gifts from fans. Do you have a favorite? Did anything stand out as funny or unusual?

Mitchell wouldn’t let me see anything that made it past management. Talk to him about it.

Leaving out your own music, what are the top 5 favorites on your playlist?

Bands you’ve never heard of because Trevor Wolff lives in a parallel universe that exists simply so Susan can make shit up without anyone getting pissed that she fucked up the details.

Ah, yes, how could I have forgotten?

Each of the characters in both Trevor’s Song and King Trevor has a distinct personality. What is your approach to character development?

I let them run around my brain and interact and come alive. Maybe I’m actually schizophrenic, but I doubt it. After all, the only thing I do that they tell me to is write down their activities.

Seriously, that’s the approach. I take a real-life situation or experience and drop my characters into it and say, “Go. What do YOU do?” Instead of putting myself on the characters, I like to step back and watch them do their thing.

You’re also a super talented professional editor. I know from experience that you keep all your suggestions true to the specific characters and storyline. I’m not an editor, but occasionally when I’m reading a story I find myself saying things like, I wouldn’t have gone that route. Do you find it difficult not to interject your own thoughts on where a story should go or how a character should react?

No, not really – I’ve been hired to do a specific job, so I focus on doing that job. However, I also work as a paid book reviewer for one of the big, long-time media outlets such as Kirkus or Publisher’s Weekly. When I read those books, I often yell at them. Not that it’s the book’s fault, but sometimes, all you can do is shoot the messenger.

You know I have to ask: Do you foresee a third book for Trevor?

Not at the present moment, although you’re not the first or last to have asked that question!

I think it will depend on how sales go. Right now, the books aren’t selling enough to justify the time spent on more Trevor instead of new characters, who will pull fresh people into my world.

If you could spend the day with any one rock star, who would you pick and why?

Okay, steel yourself for this answer. Most people automatically assume I am going to answer this by picking James Hetfield, the lead singer/rhythm guitarist of Metallica. After all, the Mighty Metallica is, far and above all else, my favorite band. Ever. I may even like them more than my own fictional creation, ShapeShifter. Maybe.

But to spend a day with someone? Dude. Gotta be Axl Rose.

Why? Because he’s effing nuts and equally as brilliant (I think). Because I want to know if the reality matches the version of W. Axl Rose that, over the years, I’ve created for myself.

I love Axl in all his craziness! But spending an entire day with him? I must be getting old because the prospect scares me a little!

Anything else you’d like to say?

On behalf of Trevor, I’d like to thank you, Darcia, for hosting us today!

Thank you, Susan and Trevor, for hanging out with us here!

Here are Susan’s books on Amazon, in both print and Kindle format:

Thanks for reading.

My guest today is author Sarah Tate, a remarkable woman whose memoir Web of Lies – My Life with a Narcissist reads like a psychological suspense novel. Before we get to the book, let’s meet the woman behind the words:

Sarah Tate is a single mother living and working in Switzerland. She arrived in Switzerland ten years ago and apart from a brief stay in France, has remained ever since, as Switzerland has become her adopted homeland.

Sarah has three young kids, who take up most of her time, but she still managed to find time to write her first book ‘Web of Lies – My life with a Narcissist’. The book is an auto-biographical novel which describes in graphic details, the ups and downs of life with a person who suffers from (amongst other things) Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

Web of Lies takes the reader on an emotional journey and gives a deep insight into what it’s like to be sucked into the world of a disordered individual, and more importantly, how to escape with your sanity in tact.

Her second book, with the title ‘Renaissance – A Journal of Discovery‘ was released in March 2011. It describes the road to recovery from narcissistic abuse, and charts the progress of Sarah and her children as they rebuild their lives following the break up of the family, and slowly come to terms with the devastation caused by Sarah’s ex.

This is the book we’ll be discussing:

Web of Lies takes you on an emotional roller-coaster, experienced through the eyes of Sarah Tate, an intelligent, young newcomer to Switzerland who is swept off her feet by an older, more experienced company manager. Within weeks of their meeting, Bill impresses her with a courtship vastly unusual in modern times. He lures Sarah with his intellect along with numerous gifts, expensive restaurants, and trips to luxury hotels. Sarah, who is searching for not only love but security, quickly finds herself falling for the worldly but sensitive and caring man Bill represents himself to be. In Web of Lies, she describes the highs and the lows of what it is like to be involved with a person with Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), how to come to terms with the abuse, and most importantly, how to escape.

Now for a chat with Sarah:

What made you decide to write your story and share it with the world?

I knew from the very beginning that I had an important story to tell. Many of my friends and family encouraged me to get the whole experience down on paper whilst it was still fresh in my mind. Once I began researching the psychology behind what had happened, I was struck by how few ‘real life case histories’ are out there for public consumption. I wanted to write a book that was not only a gripping read, but could also be used as a tool to help others who have suffered in a similar situation. My motivation in writing Web of Lies was to help others (both men and women) to spot the red flags, by seeing these traits being played out in an everyday situation. I also wanted give the readers hope that there is a way back from it.

A big part of your struggle seemed to be getting past your own guilt. You felt responsible for much of the problems in your relationship, which I think is all too common with women. Looking back, why do you think it was so much easier to blame yourself, rather than see your husband for what he was?

Not only is guilt a common problem for most women, invoking feelings of guilt is also a huge part of the Modus Operandi of the psychopath. It wasn’t really a question of it being ‘easier’ to blame myself, it was a question of being manipulated into genuinely believing that I was the one who was failing in the marriage. This is all too common in these situations, and I’ve heard from countless women and men who all had a ‘lightbulb’ moment whilst reading the book, realizing that they too were blaming themselves instead of recognizing that they were being manipulated. It’s very easy with hindsight to spot the red flags and glaring lies, but when the person concerned is a practiced pathological liar, they can easily pull the wool over your eyes. I’ve written articles about this on my blog and websites. I feel that an important part of the process of recovery is to recognize which of your own character traits left you open for manipulation or exploitation by the NPD/APD. A narcissist/sociopath/psychopath cannot sustain a relationship unless the partner provides a source of supply. Once you have recognized that you are the supply, you’re half way to making the break.

I’ve had my own experience with a pathological liar, and you’re so right about the manipulation. That’s an excellent point about recognizing what it is or was in yourself that allowed the manipulation to go on.

At the end of your book, you state, “The key to successful recovery lies in the letting go.” Have you been able to let go?

I won’t pretend it’s easy to let go, especially when you have to live day to day with the fallout of the toxic relationship. Getting out of the situation is only the very beginning. Recovery is a process which can take many years. I wasted a great deal of energy on self-recrimination; you can read about that in the book. I no longer feel those emotions. I have recognized my mistakes and I’ve accepted them. I have also recognized his character traits, and accepted them too. There is no longer any blame. This is what I refer to as ‘letting go’.

How are your children coping with their father’s absence?

Children are amazing and incredibly resilient. I took great care from the very beginning to get the best advice to enable me to support them through what was initially a grieving process.
All children require to thrive is love and security. As long as they have your attention, and feel loved, they are happy. Mine no longer ask about why their father left. They have accepted that it was what he needed to do. They were incredibly young when he left and they have now spent longer without him than they did with him. They still mention him from time to time, but he has become a figure from the past.

As they grow, they will no doubt want to learn more, and I will always remain honest and open with them about what happened and why I made the decisions I did.

Narcissism is just one of many personality disorders. Often, a person will have a combination of two or more. Now that you’ve escaped the situation and can look back on things clearly, what signs do you wish you’d seen earlier? Are there personality traits that stand out as things to avoid?

There are several levels of narcissism and not all of them are dangerous. Narcissistic Personality Disorder is when narcissism becomes pathological. It is one of the Cluster B variety of disorders, grouped together with APD (Antisocial Personality Disorder….ie. a sociopath/psychopath), Borderline Personality Disorder & Histrionic Personality Disorder. This cluster of disorders almost always has co-morbidity with other disorders in the group.

NPD and APD are closely related. I think it’s safe to say that whilst not all narcissists are psychopaths, ALL psychopaths are narcissists.

Looking back, I wish I’d spotted the superficial aspects of Bill’s character much sooner. I was unable to spot many of the red flags because I was ignorant to the personality disorders being displayed. The only way to recognize these traits it to learn what to spot:

Elevated sense of self importance
Over exaggeration of personal achievements
Disregard for the feelings/achievements of others
Inability to empathize
Superficial charm

Do you have advice for women who feel they might be married to or involved with a narcissist?

If you can, get out. Cut off the supply. There is no cure for pathological narcissism and psychopathy. Try to talk to somebody about what you’re experiencing. There is a wealth of information available on line, and also many fantastic support fora. Sharing your experience with others makes you feel less alone and more able to face up to what is happening.

I know nothing about Switzerland but your book made me want to visit. What is it about the country that you fell in love with?

The peace and tranquility, the pristine beauty of the mountains and the lakes, and the sedate way of life. All these things were a big attraction initially. I believe it’s a great place for children to spend their younger years, as it’s generally a very safe place with little crime. I would certainly recommend it for a holiday, you’ll be blown away by the scenery!

You’ve written a follow-up to Web of Lies, entitled Renaissance – A Journal of Recovery, which is currently available. You’ve also stepped into the fiction world with a psychological thriller called In the Shadow of an Angel. Can you tell us about that book? When will it be available?

‘Shadow’ will now actually be the fourth book, the second fictional title. I’m currently working on another book entitled ‘The Middle Aged Twist’, which is the story of two lifelong friends who meet at University against the back drop of the early nineties party scene. Their lives then take very different paths, but they both struggle with depression and addiction as they grow older. Their lives are intertwined, but both cope with their demons in very different ways. It’s a book about triumph and tragedy, which I hope a lot of people will find both interesting and moving. I’m about a third of the way through it, and plan to have a finished manuscript by late June.

I can’t wait to read it!

Thank you, Sarah, for joining me here today.

You can watch the trailer for Web of Lies below, or you can find it on YouTube:

If you’d like to learn more about Sarah and her writing, you can find her in the following places:

Author Website: www.sarahtateauthor.com
Awareness Website: www.waking-you-up.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Sarah-Tate-Author/358586909900
Blog: http://singlemumsal.blogspot.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/SarahTateAuthor or @SarahTateAuthor

I hope you’ll take the time to connect with Sarah and learn more about her journey in life.

Thanks for reading.

I’m excited to present something a little different today. My guests are Les and Sue Fox and they’ve written a book called The Art Hunters Handbook: How To Buy Art For $5 And Sell It For $1,000,000. Here’s a look:

The Art Hunters Handbook is an Antiques Roadshow type book that reveals Trade Secrets to hunting down valuable paintings at garage sales and flea markets. The cover photo is the true story of Ripening Pears, a 19th century masterpiece by Joseph Decker bought at a garage sale for $5 and sold to the National Gallery of Art for $1,000,000! Will you find a million-dollar painting for five bucks? Probably not. But you might find a $5,000 painting for $100. Think Of This Book As A Lottery Ticket, the Foxes claim, With Better Odds. The Art Hunters Handbook is a profusely illustrated art book for the average person, not just art collectors, who’d like to make money while having fun. Based on decades of personal experience, it contains dozens of exciting stories of art discovered in garage sales, schools, attics, basements, farmhouses, estates, even in the trash, often bought for very little and sold for a lot. However, in order to find some of the millions of undiscovered paintings that may be waiting for you just around the corner, the authors need to teach you the basics of Art Appraisals (they offer Free Art Appraisals to the general public), and How To Sell Art At Auction, including Sotheby’s and Christie’s. Believe it or not, by following the simple Art Hunter Tips in this book (like don’t assume a painting isn’t valuable just because you don’t like it, especially modern art), and comparing the Artist Profiles of 120 American, European and Latin American artists, Les and Fox say they’d be surprised if you don’t find several valuable paintings a year. How valuable? That’s the thrill of the chase! Although this book is intended for everyone who loves TV shows like The Antiques Roadshow, American Pickers, Pawn Stars and Buried Treasure, the Foxes are knowledgeable art experts with a knack for plain talk and common sense. You won’t be intimidated by this art book. Instead, will find it as entertaining as a page-turner novel. But what you’ll also like is that your $16.95 investment may come back to you a hundred-fold, or maybe a thousand-fold or more, if that weird painting of colored rectangles, or people eating dinner, or a winter landscape, turns out to be something unexpected. The Art Hunters Handbook is not about finding Picassos or Van Goghs. Forgetaboutit. This book will teach you about the other 240,000 listed artists whose paintings are worth $1,000 to $10,000,000, most of whom you’ve probably never heard of. Like Lyonel Feininger, Emile Gruppe, Hayley Lever. One of these three artists is worth millions. The other two are generally worth $5,000 to $25,000. The only way to find out who’s who, and how you can cash in on becoming an Art Hunter, with Les and Sue Fox as your personal guides, is to read The Art Hunters Handbook.

This is really a fun book for both art lovers and anyone who enjoys estate sales and secondhand shops. I learned quite a bit by reading this! Les and Sue are super nice people, who agreed to answer my questions and share some of their knowledge with us today. Here’s our chat:

How did the two of you first get involved with art hunting?

Actually, we started buying art on our honeymoon in 1968! We stayed at a nice hotel in upstate New York when someone told us about a local art auction, which sounded exciting. We didn’t have a lot of money, but we had just received some wedding gifts. It was enough to buy a few inexpensive paintings and lithographs in very attractive frames. In time, we learned that the frames were worth more than the art. The lithographs were by famous artists like Mark Chagall. But while Chagall’s originals are worth millions, most of his lithographs are only worth $10 to $100. This was the beginning of a life-long quest to understand the value of art. We are self-taught art experts.

According to your research, an estimated 50 million valuable paintings are out there waiting to be discovered. In your opinion, how did all these valuable paintings get overlooked for such a long time?

Most valuable paintings “in private hands” were inherited from people who bought them from the original artists, or from galleries, at very reasonable prices many years ago. While the best paintings in the world (Monet, Picasso, Rockwell, etc.) are in museums and billionaire art collections, millions of lesser works by famous or semi-famous artists are still hanging on the walls of people who like them but who often have no idea of their true value. When someone leaves art to their children, grandchildren, nieces or nephews, surprisingly it isn’t always appraised professionally. As described in the chapter titled “Art Just Around The Corner” in The Art Hunters Handbook, a woman who worked as a seamstress for a wealthy New York family gave two valuable 19th century paintings by the famous American “Hudson River School” artist Jasper Cropsey to her family, which she had apparently received as a gift from her employer. For decades, the paintings were believed to be reproductions and the family almost used them as a dart board before discovering the truth, and selling them at auction for $840,000! In addition to the 50 million valuable paintings waiting for art hunters to find them, there are probably 50 billion pieces of junk! Many people can’t tell the difference, especially with modern art.

I’m one of those people who can’t tell the difference!

One of the things you point out in your book is that the value or art doesn’t have anything to do with its beauty or appeal. Instead, the value depends on the artist’s fame. I’ve always been curious about this. What brings fame to one artist, while another, whose work might be more appealing to the majority, never reaches the same stature?

Fame is hard to explain, not only in art but in music, literature, sports and Hollywood as well. But there is something very original and distinctive about the work of famous artists, even modernists like Mark Rothko who painted gigantic rectangles now worth up to $70 million apiece, and Jackson Pollock, whose “drip paintings” sometimes appear to be the creation of a child or a chimpanzee! Famous artists all have a “voice” that sets them apart from others. You may not like the voice of some artists, but when knowledgeable art critics, museums, prestigious art galleries and other connoisseurs put their stamp of approval on an artist, he or she will become famous. That is no easy task. True, you don’t automatically become famous by painting “pretty pictures” like Thomas Kinkade, and an artist doesn’t become famous just because he dies. It’s a lifetime process. Most famous artists were taught by other famous artists, they attended important art schools, they showed their paintings at hundreds of public exhibitions, they had a vision, they were obsessed, they were dramatically different, and they often struggled for 10 to 40 years before achieving serious recognition. Ironically, Vicent Van Gogh, one of the most famous artists of all time, did not receive fame or even commercial success during his brief lifetime of only 37 years. This is because he was the first “Expressionist”, which describes an artist who paints what he feels, not just what he sees. Even the French Impressionists, who had just broken away from the traditional Barbizon / Realism art genre, did not understand or accept Van Gogh’s new voice and great talent. They said he was ruining Impressionism. In fact, he was transforming Impressionism into Modernism which now embraces every style of art.

Of the artists included in your book, do you have a favorite?

Our favorite artist is Fern Coppedge, the only female member of the “Pennsylvania Impressionists” group (or the New Hope School) led by Daniel Garber and Edward Redfield, All three artists are showcased in The Art Hunters Handbook, and can be seen at The Michener Museum in Doylestown, PA. Fern was a prolific artist who painted seasonal landscapes, including phenomenal winter scenes along the Delaware River and primarily in Bucks County. She also painted very nice harbor scenes in Gloucester, Massachusetts. She did not paint portraits, and people almost never appear in her outdoor scenes. Like Van Gogh, Coppedge took the liberty of painting what she felt and frequently altered the colors of her landscapes to suit her inner self. Her paintings generally keep to the standard of Impressionism, but they are stylized in a way that none of the other Bucks County artists did. We own two painting by Fern Coppedge, one from the 1930′s and one from “New Year’s Day, 1949″ (dated in fountain pen on the stretcher). They’re worth $50,000 to $100,000 apiece, and we bring them to art events and book signings to show people what can still be found. Both paintings were found in attics, one in Florida in 2009, the other in Pennsylvania in 2004.

Is there one state or area of the country where these undiscovered gems turn up for often, or are more likely to be found?

Although valuable paintings literally turn up everywhere, a higher percentage seem to be found in Florida, the Carolinas and the southern states. Maybe because when people retire, they bring their stuff with them. Surprisingly, we are offered a lot of art from people in Minnesota and California, as well as New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Because people move a lot, family treasures get scattered about the country. If someone is thinking of taking a cross-country road trip they could probably recover the cost of the trip by visiting flea markets, garage sales and antiques shops along the way, accompanied by our book, a computer and a cell phone!

My husband loves this idea!

What is your favorite piece of art that you’ve found yourself, and where did you find it?

We bought a 30″ x 36″ oil painting by the Indiana Impressionist Edward K. Williams on eBay about 8 years ago. It’s dated 1922, and it was either painted on a farm in Wisconsin or Indiana. Williams was in the process of moving east at the time and there is no documentation as to exactly where this beautiful painting was done. The painting surfaced in Chicago, where someone had apparently nailed it to the wall as a decoration for many years. Fortunately, the small nail holes were very close to the edge of the canvas and were covered by the frame. Other than this slight mistreatment of Williams’ earliest known masterpiece, the painting was fresh and original. The eBay auction enjoyed competitive bidding from several serious Indiana collectors, and we had to pay $35,000 for the painting. A similar painting (which we don’t think is as nice) is shown in our book. It was sold in an Indiana auction in 2005 for $70,000.

Tell us about the Art Auction Partnership.

We began our “Art Auction Partnership” program in 2006 when we realized that people with valuable art for sale had only two choices: (1) Sell to a dealer for a fixed price, where the dealer kept the entire profit, or (2) Sell at auction, which takes 3-6 months with no guarantee of what the price will be, or if your painting will even sell. So we came up with a creative alternative: Sell to us for a fair price based on previous auction sales, then we put the painting up at auction and share the profit 50-50 with the original owner. For example, if we think a painting is likely to bring $25,000, we might buy it for $15,000 to $20,000 plus half the auction profit. The price we pay up front is a guaranteed minimum, and we pay as much as any other dealer would pay. But we are the only dealers, or as we call ourselves, art auction brokers, who will share our profit with the original owner. Because we sometimes lose money at auction, we are very selective in the paintings we choose for this program. We don’t buy paintings worth less than $3-$5,000, and we try to choose paintings with “eye appeal” or historical perspective in the hope that this will translate to strong competition at auction, which is what drives prices up. By the way, we are happy to appraise paintings for people at no charge if they send us good digital photos of both sides of the paintings, the artist’s name and the size. We only appraise original paintings, not prints or reproductions, by artists with public auction records. All of this is explained in great detail in our book. (Note: The 120 artists in our book are not necessarily easy to find. But they clearly illustrate why you shouldn’t judge a book, or a painting, by its cover! We can research an online database of 240,000 artists with 5,000,000 auction records to determine current market values.)

You’ve written several books on the art of collecting, including The U.S. Rare Coin Handbook (which my husband has) and The Beanie Baby Handbook. Are there ways to tell at the start when a certain toy or product will become a collectible?

To be honest, it’s hard to tell when something like Beanie Babies will become a national obsession. In April, 1997, when we published the first edition of The Beanie Baby Handbook, the toy had been around for three or four years. Beanie Babies didn’t become a huge phenomenon until “Lefty” and “Righty” became the hot collectibles of the 1996 Democratic convention. At that point, the manufacturer, Ty, Inc. decided to start “retiring” Beanie Babies, which created “limited editions” instead of an unlimited open production run. A woman in Chicago named Peggy Gallagher published the first book about Beanie Babies, titled “The Beanie Baby Phenomenon” which was an instant success. We published the second book, and the most successful. The Beanie Baby Handbook became the # 2 New York Times bestseller for 6 months, selling 4,000,000 copies. This allowed us to develop our Art Auction Partnership business. It would be nice to know what little-known toy or product will become a huge collectible. Rare coins and high quality art are staples. They will always enjoy a large collecting base, from modest prices to millions of dollars. So we just stick with the winners!

Thank you, Les and Sue, for joining me here today!

This book is a brand new release! Here it is on Amazon:

You can learn more about Les and Sue Fox, and their world of art, on their website: www.AmericanArtAdvisor.com

I hope you’ll get a copy of The Art Hunters Handbook: How To Buy Art For $5 And Sell It For $1,000,000 and go on your own treasure hunt! You never know what you’ll find in Grandma’s attic or your neighbor’s garage sale!

Thanks for reading.

What scares you the most and why?

Being a parent, I think, is pretty much the most terrifying thing ever (and that shows up in a lot of my writing, including Changes). My oldest daughter was in the newborn I.C.U. for about a week when she was born, and I was a wreck. I had read all the books when my wife was pregnant and of course I had sort of considered the worst case scenarios, but the whole game changes when you hold this tiny person for the first time, and you love them more than you could ever imagine loving anything… and then to realize that they could be taken away from you… That’s scary.

I hope all is well with your oldest daughter now. I totally understand the fear. My older son had surgery at 3 weeks old. There is nothing more terrifying.

Thank you for joining me here today, Charles!

You can find Charles on Amazon:

Thanks for reading.

I want everyone to read Facing the Son, A Novel of Africa. This book is that good. Today I get to introduce you to Mark Rudolph, the book’s author, and share our Q&A session.

Meet Mark:

M L Rudolph has worked for CNN, HBO, and Playboy among other American and British television companies around the world. He has written for general interest and trade publications. He has a bachelors degree in English Literature and an International MBA. Rudolph is a dual US/UK national and lives in Pasadena, CA. Currently: Teacher, trainer, tutor, spy.

You can learn more about Mark and his writing on his website: http://markrudolph.wordpress.com
Connect with Mark on Twitter at: www.Twitter.com/MLRudolph or @MLRudolph

Here’s a look at the book we’ll be discussing:

American Matt Reiser travels to The Ivory Coast on a mission to locate his estranged son. His only guide is a three-year old postal address. Fighting cultural vertigo and disorientation at the Abidjan airport, Matt relies on a glib and persistent limo driver who speaks just enough English to gain his trust.

The next morning, Matt wakes up drugged, robbed, and dropped into a grim city slum. Without ID, without money, and with no idea where to turn, Matt forges unlikely alliances that take him on a perilous journey out of the city and through the backcountry, where he fights on to continue his search for his son.

When he finds him, the struggle really begins.

Intrigued yet? Mark’s background fascinated me almost as much as his book. I could have – and wanted to – ask all sorts of questions. But I mostly restricted myself to questions pertaining to this book and Mark’s writing process. For now, that is. Maybe we can get him to come back and tell us more another time.

Matt is an average guy who’d never traveled, and suddenly he’s traipsing through African villages in search of his son. This plot has many layers, with tremendous emotional depth. What inspired the story?

Ouch. Right to the heart of the matter.

All of us have parents. Some of us have children. Some of us have terrific problem-free relationships with our family. Some of us struggle to achieve that sort of balance.

The story is fiction. The characters are developed to carry the story. But the emotions are real, and many of them are mine. When I struggled with a painful family situation some years ago, I turned to the blank page to analyze and understand the pain, and to a great degree the composition of Matt Reiser’s tale was therapeutic. (Though the family situation is unchanged.)

Also, whenever I met someone new and we swapped backgrounds, my years working in West Africa seemed to spark all kinds of interest. People responded to my stories. And I didn’t mind expanding on my tales to keep people’s attention. So when I needed a background for a family saga, why not West Africa? I enjoyed digging into my old materials, into my old memories, and researching the area for the story.

I’ve long believed that the best fiction comes from a personal place within the author. You proved that with this book.

The story takes place in Africa in the late 1970s. You paint a vivid portrait of the various African countries. I felt like I was there with the characters. Only someone familiar with the areas could have transported me so easily. I read that you had traveled extensively in West Africa. Did you immerse yourself in the native culture, as Matt reluctantly did? What was the experience like for you?

Unlike Matt, I never ran into any troubles in West Africa though I traveled alone most of the time. I developed great admiration and respect for the people, both expats and natives, that I got to know. And I maintain a keen interest in that part of the world.

That said, I’m by no means an expert in West African lore. I realized how little I knew when I got into the thick of writing this story. I read about fifty books of fiction and non-fiction while I was creating the early drafts. I needed to keep reading in order to have any level of confidence to write about the area. Even though I spent three years, on and off, traveling there, three years is no more than an introduction to cultures as rich as these. And I know there is so much more I could have inserted about the peoples and their lives. But to be true to Matt’s story, I had to be careful not to take local side journeys just to show off my reading. I got pretty ruthless in the editing and if something didn’t pertain to Matt and his trip, out it went. I did try though to include enough cultural and historical background so the reader might share my enthusiasm. If anyone wants more, she can always grab one of the many great works coming out of Africa today by major talents who do much better work than I do.

Jean-Louis, a native African, has a lot of negative feelings on the French and their treatment of Africa. Are his sentiments typical of the African people at that time?

Jean-Louis is not meant to be typical. He is a character with father issues that align with historical and cultural issues. I wasn’t in Africa at the time of independence and I’m sure feelings ran pretty high on both sides. The French did abandon their former colonies in pretty ruthless fashion. De Gaulle never expected the votes for independence to go against him. When they did, well, bah. Let them fend for themselves, was the first reaction. Jean-Louis allows expression of that part of the history.

The following generation would have only known boom – until the bust – but during the boom, independence was pretty fine for many people. Jean-Louis is one of those men drawn to the city for work education, income, who found himself there when the boom began. He lived a life completely different from what he knew as a child, in good ways and in bad.

Your characters are well-developed and multidimensional. They felt real and I easily got swept up in their world. How do you go about developing your characters?

How to create characters from scratch and make someone care about them? I’m glad you were swept away. That’s a real compliment.

We all have multidimensional lives. We play many roles in the course of any given day, sometimes in the course of an hour. As I started with the characters it seemed natural that they too would have all these different roles, all these different demands on their time and on their emotions. With each scene, each character would reveal more about his or her past, and with each scene, we would get to know them better through their interactions with other people, through the choices they make, and through how other characters perceive them.

One more thing. I revised over and over again. With each revision the characters came into better focus, how they would act in a given situation became clearer, and it became easier to let the characters do the talking. I know that sounds like a silly cliché, but I learned through this process that a character will eventually flesh out, and trying to make one act out of character simply will not work. Your fingers won’t go there. Your instinct will tell you no. And if you don’t listen to your instinct, your readers will tell you no.

I totally agree about the characters doing the talking. If mine are talking to me, or through me, then I know I’ve lost touch with their truth and the story I’m writing.

Describe your writing environment. Neat or messy? Silence or noise?

Rough draft stage: ideas all over the place. Messy brainstorming. Notes on legal pads. Texts, emails, and voice messages to self. Breaks during the process to outline, but the outline is descriptive not prescriptive.

Now into a fourth book, I’ve got to the point where I have trouble keeping track of all my characters. So, I bought a little composition book and each character gets his or her own page. They are all numbered, and each character’s page includes key relationships, traits, and whatever.

Mixture of quiet and noise. When I need energy, I crank it up.

Do you work from an outline? Or an idea sparks and you run with it?

I start with a character, a scene, and a general story idea. Every writer has their own approach, but I believe story flows from character. And character is revealed by story. So I develop characters and turn them loose on the story.

You have a fascinating career history, including a job with CNN that, I understand, included a lot of travel. What was your favorite place to visit? Least favorite?

I’m not a favorites kind of person, other than to say my favorite place is probably where I am at the moment. When I was in Berlin it was Berlin. Moscow it was Moscow. New Delhi, Cairo, Johannesburg, …or a salt lick two hours outside Niamey. Pasadena, today, that’s pretty nice. I loved all the travel, everywhere I worked, and I’m especially proud of my time at CNN. I had the best job in the world.

What a great answer!

You have a new book in the works. Please tell us a bit about it.

Two books coming out later this year hot on the heels of one another. First one is Pasadena Payback, a story that unfolds on the seamier side of Pasadena following an old debt repaid with dirty money through the hands of some unlikely characters. Pasadena Put Down, a trainee private investigator stumbles on a criminal enterprise in the heart of this storied town and quickly realizes he’s in over his head.

Some recurring characters, but the main carry over is the town of Pasadena. Such a great place with such an interesting history. But also with a great PR department. There’s more to this town than meets the television eye on New Year’s Day.

I’m looking forward to reading them!

Aside from writing and reading, what might we find you doing in your spare time?

Family. Friends. Fitness. I swim in the Rose Bowl pool every morning at six a.m.

Favorite ice cream flavor?

Knowing Matt’s story, there is only one possible answer to this one: Rocky Road.

Of course! That makes perfect sense!

Thank you, Mark, for taking the time to answer my questions.

As I said at the start, I would love for everyone to read this book. The characters are richly developed, with strengths and flaws. The plot is immediately engaging. There is mystery, suspense, drama. There are layers to uncover, emotions to explore. The setting gives a sense of wonder, a feeling of exploring as if you’re trekking across Africa right alongside Matt. I was riveted. I laughed and I cried. I connected. This is a book you won’t simply read. It is one you will experience.

Thanks for reading.

My guest today is the talented author Lea Ryan. I recently had the pleasure of reading Lea’s book Lair of the White Wyrm. Is pleasure the right word when something creeps you out, but in a good way? This book is a little paranormal, a little horror, and a lot entertaining! Here’s an introduction to the woman behind the words:

Lea Ryan was born and raised in Indiana. She currently lives there with her husband, two kids, two cats and a dog. Her specialty is fiction about the paranormal. She is the author of two fantasy novels – Babylon Dragon and Destined for Darkness, some short stories and a novella entitled What the Dead Fear. She also blogs about life, writing, books, and movies at http://Lea-Ryan.blogspot.com

You can also find Lea in the following places:

Website: www.LeaRyan.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/LeaRyan1 or @LeaRyan1

Here’s a look at the book we’ll be discussing:

Sometimes when you run from your problems, they follow you.

Eric Duncan wants nothing more than to be an ordinary, sane guy. He believes he can escape his troubled past by leaving home. However, the voice in his head, that of his dead friend Benjamin, fights him every step of the way.

Eric finds his new home is a place filled with secrets far darker than his own. A monster prowls the grounds, and it wants to keep him close.

He will discover that his inner demons aren’t the only things he should fear. In order to confront the wyrm and survive, he must also face the worst parts of himself.

On to the fun part, where I get to ask lots of questions:

What inspired you to write this specific story?

Lair of the White Wyrm was inspired by Bram Stoker’s final novel. I read it last year after downloading it from Project Gutenberg. I really loved the premise. Lady Arabella is this creature who has two forms – a reptile called a “worm” (Stoker’s spelling) and a human woman. I thought she was an interesting character because she lived a dual existence. When she wasn’t a carnivorous reptile, she appeared almost normal and was driven by human desires, specifically when it came to her obsession with Edgar Caswall.

I loved your array of characters. Each has a unique personality and all are multi-dimensional. How do you go about creating them?

Thank you! I try to make them as vivid as possible. I usually work out who I want the characters to be before I start writing the story. I can hear their voices in my head, which probably sounds crazy. If they have memories they need to share, I sometimes come up with those later.

Dialog is really important to me. I try to develop speech patterns for the characters. For instance, Chelsea speaks quickly, sometimes without really thinking or listening. She’s high energy, and I tried to convey that through what she said and how she reacted to certain things.

The voices in your head doesn’t sound the least bit strange, particularly since my characters speak to me as well!

While we have closure at the end, you’ve also left an opening for a possible sequel. Do you have future plans for Eric?

I don’t have a sequel planned, but I did intentionally leave it open, just in case. I get attached to my characters, so I like to have the option of circling back around to them.

Do you outline? Or do you get an idea and run blindly?

I plan meticulously. I use outlines and worksheets. For Lair of the White Wyrm, I also had a sketchbook page with a map I drew of the property and a diagram of the tower with each floor labeled with its respective resident. It’s the only way I can keep track of stuff like that. I need to get my thoughts in order and be able to refer back to those thoughts often or I lose track of where I am and what I should be doing.

What is your writing environment like? Messy or neat? Noisy or quiet?

My writing environment is reasonably neat. I take my writing stuff to the day job and work on lunch breaks, so I try to keep everything compact and mobile. I also work in different areas of the house, my recliner or the bedroom.

I need my work environment to be somewhat quiet when I’m really deep in a story. However, if I can’t find quiet, I can substitute instrumental music on headphones and that does the trick.

As a reader, what draws you to the paranormal? And as a writer?

As a reader, the paranormal makes things interesting. Regular life gets boring sometimes. I think of books as a way to escape, both the reading and the writing of them. As a writer, I like being able to make anything happen. Maybe it’s a control thing. Incorporating the paranormal into a book is like filling your world with magic.

Do you have a favorite book? Favorite author?

My favorite book of the moment is American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I read it last year. It was deeply creative and vividly written. I read that HBO is developing a series based on it, so I’m really excited about that.

My favorite author is Stephen King. He’s brilliant – his descriptions and people and his crazy stories. His imagination seems endless. I would like to meet him at some point.

I have American Gods but have yet to read it. I loved his book Neverwhere.

Aside from writing and reading, what are your favorite pastimes?

I draw. I do my own book covers and trailers. I did some illustrations for an earlier version of Destined for Darkness. Those are up on my website if anyone wants to look at them.

I also play video games. We have an Xbox, Playstation 3 and wii. The Playstation is my fave. I’ve been a playstation girl for as long as there have been playstations.

Rock or country?

Ooh, rock. My current audio obsession is the Black Keys. I saw them in concert last summer. A-mazing. I would definitely go again. They are very talented.

Great band!

Give us one word or phrase that describes you.

Persistent. If I really want something, I’ll get it eventually. Getting there might take a while, but I get there.

Thank you, Lea, for hanging out with us here today!

Here’s a look at Lea’s books on Amazon:

You can also find her books in all ebook formats on Smashwords, and a limited print edition of Lair of the White Wyrm on Lulu.

I hope you’ll take the time to learn more about Lea and her writing world.

Thanks for reading.