Interview with John Reinhard Dizon, Author of Redemption

Hello,

Today’s interview is with John Reinhard Dizon, author of Redemption.

Please see the interview below.

Best,

-Vincent Lowry

 

Interview:

1) What is your author name and in what state do you live (or country if not in the US)?

John Reinhard Dizon, permanent resident of the Great State of Missouri!

2) What is the title of your newest book and what is the genre?

Redemption is a suspense/thriller that could also be classified as women’s fiction.

3) What is the book about?

It’s the first two-part book in the series. Sabrina Brooks is a masked vigilante known as the Nightcrawler. International crime syndicates have placed a ten million dollar bounty on the vigilante. The media has publicized the fact that Sabrina, the CEO of the Brooks Chemical Company, is suspected by Homeland Security of having ties to the Nightcrawler. As a result, the cartels initiate a series of attacks on her to draw the vigilante out of hiding. Her factory is bombed, her fiancee killed and her best friend crippled. She goes into seclusion, traumatized by the losses. In Part Two, she decides to take revenge against the perpetrators. She renounces her campaign principle of fighting her battles unarmed. As a result, these become the most action-packed episodes in the four-book series.

4) Where did you come up with the idea?

As I mentioned, this could be categorized as women’s fiction because of Sabrina. The entire series is about her personal conflicts, which include her ongoing struggle to survive in the chemical manufacturing industry as a young female CEO. There is also the irony that the world thinks the Nightcrawler is a man. For her enemies, anything else would be unimaginable. Her relationship with NYPD detective Hoyt Wexford and her mentor and partner Jon Aeppli gave her a sense of balance in her life. Without them, her repressed anger is unleashed. As is said, hell hath no fury as a woman scorned.  

5) How long did it take you to write it?

About a year. Part One was originally intended as a stand-alone book in the series. However, as authors know, sometimes your characters take over the storytelling. Sabrina wasn’t letting this go, she had scores to settle.

6) Did you learn anything from the project?

The Harlem section of Upper Manhattan in NYC is a major setting in each of the novels. As the tales are meant to be socially relevant and time-sensitive, my research required me to keep abreast of neighborhood developments. I continue to be impressed by how Harlem changes with the times while keeping its character and traditions intact. It is a wondrous community with strong and ambitious residents.

7) Do you have an author website and/or blog? How about a book video?

The best place is my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/johnreinharddizonUSA — I also have a dedicated Sabrina page at https://www.facebook.com/sabrinabrooksnightcrawler/

8) Do you have any success tips to pass on to fellow authors? How about any great editors/cover artists?

Write, write, write and NEVER throw anything away. Writing is a lifetime effort, a gift that should be fully appreciated, a skill that must be developed. My publisher, Miika Hannila at Creativia, has done more than anyone to bring the Nightcrawler to the world market. My own enterprise, SPOILER Publishing Company, features some of my more obscure projects. Marcha Fox is the cover artist and editor that brings those works to life.

9) What genres do you like to read? Are you open to reading new authors and reviewing their work?

I’m at the stage of my life where the Bible is all that’s truly worth reading. However, I delight in finding gems in the works of my fellow authors. I am always open to a review swap (GASP!) and fairly well guarantee that I will give the other party the best of reviews. I am an expert reviewer and stand by my work.

10) What is your favorite book of all time and why?

The Bible is the guidebook to human existence, the only one co-authored by the Holy Ghost. It is ironic that the second-greatest books of all time, the works of Shakespeare, are written in Old English. You can’t speed-read your way through to find the treasure. For technique, I’ve admired Ian Fleming (creator of James Bond) and Robert E. Howard (creator of Conan the Barbarian). They were greatly inspirational and influenced my style. 

11) Fun Question: Do you have any pets? If so, what kind?

I believe Jigsaw has his own fans among my Facebook friends and family. He is the Greatest Cat Who Ever Lived and has stood up to every dog he has ever met.

12) Fun Question 2: Do you own an electronic reading device? If so, what kind and how do you like it?

Nope. I’m a hardcover and paperback guy. I review PDF novels on my PC. My phone is in the truck in case of emergencies. Walking around with wires sticking out of my ears is not my style.

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Town and Train by James K. Moran

In a small Ontario town, seventeen-year-old John Daniel wakes by the railroad tracks with no recollection of how he got there. Something called him from his bed. Officer David Forester, a recent transfer from Toronto, struggles to fit into the local police force, despite resistance from established circles. Both soon suspect a more pervasive and menacing collusion occurring in town when an antique steam train arrives late in the night. At the phantasmal engine, a conductor promises the desperate locals escape from their town dying with so many closed stores and shattered dreams–but there is no denying what the stranger really brings is the stuff of nightmares.

 

*As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Interview with Judy Nedry, Author of Blackthorn

Hello, here is an interview with Judy Nedry, author of Blackthorn!

Please enjoy!

Best,

-Vincent Lowry

Interview:

1) What is your author name and in what state do you live (or country if not in the US)?

Judy Nedry, Lake Oswego, OR

2) What is the title of your newest book and what is the genre?

BLACKTHORN   Mystery genre, traditional gothic in the style of Rebecca or Jane Eyre

3) What is the book about?

Unlike my previous mystery novels, the Emma Golden Mystery Series, BLACKTHORN is a stand alone. It is the story of Sage Blackthorn, 30, a travel editor living in New York City who after high school left her family’s crumbling resort hotel on the Washington side of the Columbia River hoping never to return. Her life is upended when her older brother Ross, an unemployed alcoholic who lives at the Blackthorn Hotel and takes care of their senile grandmother, is found dead. Almost concurrently, Sage gets herself into terrible trouble in New York and takes a needed leave of absence from her job. Sage needs to find out what happened to Ross and reset her life. But when she returns to her former home she finds the situation there is much worse than she expected. And, in the gothic style, mysterious and creepy things begin to happen around her. She is haunted by her own demons and nightmares. A boat appears at the family moorage in the middle of the night…or did she imagine it? And that’s only the beginning.

4) Where did you come up with the idea?

I’ve loved gothics (the Bronte sisters, Victoria Holt, Daphne DuMaurier) since I was very young and always wanted to write one. The setting–the mysterious, moody Columbia River Gorge–seemed the ideal place, especially after I visited an old resort/spa there many years ago for a soak, wrap, and massage. The old building possessed the requisite creepiness. Then it was only a matter of finding the characters and the story to insert into this milieu. Not an easy thing to do. But for me, the setting has to be absolutely right, and then I can build the story around it.

5) How long did it take you to write it?

There were many changes in my life during the writing of BLACKTHORN. It took nearly four years to complete.

6) Did you learn anything from the project?

This was a big project for me, and I learned to keep working on it even through some very difficult times in my life. I trusted that this would be my best book to date, and that has proven true. I learned a lot more about character development and expanding scenes–lots of writerly things that the reader doesn’t necessarily plug into. And I learned even more about the importance of place in a novel.

7) Do you have an author website and/or blog?.

Yes, https://www.judynedry.com   The website is where readers can learn more about my novels, read first chapters, order books…the usual things on a writer’s website. You can sign up for my monthly newsletter there and read past newsletters. I also review live theatre in the greater Portland area, and am just starting a regular feature where I review other mystery novels.

8) Do you have any success tips to pass on to fellow authors? How about any great editors/cover artists?

It’s up to the author to promote her work. In a market flooded with books it’s difficult to be seen and heard. I am always on the lookout for opportunities to interact with serious readers–people who actually will buy a print book or ebook. I love talking to readers and going to events. So I would say, promote, promote, promote. Learn how to discern between events that will benefit and those that will suck the life out of you. 

It’s important to network. I am a member of Northwest Independent Writers Association, Sisters in Crime (national plus local chapter), and several online networking sites. Get your name out. Blog. Find a good designer for books (if your indie) and for your website. A local writers group such as Willamette Writers has plenty of names on file for designers, editors, etc.

 Write every day. I journal each morning, whether or not I will find time to work on my books. Many of my ideas and observations and pithy comments are born on those pages to be used later.

Read the kind of books you want to write.

9) What genres do you like to read? Are you open to reading new authors and reviewing their work?

I devour mystery/suspense/thriller, and gravitate toward those by female authors. I like literary fiction when it’s not gimmicky or overwritten, and biography, and history. Yes, I will read and review new authors if they catch me with a good story.

10) What is your favorite book of all time and why?

GONE WITH THE WIND by Margaret Mitchell because it is an epic of American history that still resonates today. I’ve read it four times, and will probably read it again. Margaret Mitchell was an Atlanta native who grew up on the laps of people who lived through the Civil War and experienced the siege of Atlanta. Her journalistic skill and firsthand knowledge enabled her to depict the hubris and foolish eagerness with which the South embraced the Civil War, and its utter and complete fall. The breadth and depth of the book’s historical perspective still amaze me. And the lead character, Scarlett O’Hara, is a piece of work. She has many unlikable traits, but she is unforgettable for her strength, toughness, resourcefulness. Need a dress? Pull down some curtains. Man in the house? Shoot the bastard. Need a husband? Wiggle your finger. Scarlett is the original steel magnolia. And yet, because she is flawed, she brings about her own ruin: a tragic heroine, an indelible portrait of someone entirely wrapped up in herself. 

*As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

 

Clean – A Conspiracy Thriller by Tom Lytes

When police officer Peggy Whitfield receives a series of social media messages instructing her to commit murder, she is plunged into a nightmare from which there seems to be no escape. If she doesn’t obey the mysterious messenger, she herself could be killed. But if she does as she’s told, she’ll kill her estranged brother. As the bodies pile up, Peggy will have to look closely at her past relationships and work with her kind-of-honest, kind-of-boyfriend in the FBI. But can they contain CLEAN before no one is safe?

Today’s headlines are dominated by addictive iPhones, computers taking over our homes and finances, the invasion of privacy, and shadowy figures influencing our every move from afar. Clean tackles head-on one of current society’s biggest fears: what happens when we use a computer to make decisions, and the computer starts making decisions by itself?

 

 

*As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases.