Where were you born and how has it affected you?
I was born in Baltimore City, Maryland, and when I turned 12 years old, having failed the sixth grade, my family moved to Ellicott City, Maryland. I became close to my cousin, Joe Perry, who had a significant influence on helping me to stay focused in school and I was on the Dean’s List through high school. I became interested in reading and started writing more on answering my essay questions.
Which of your childhood dreams was the first to die?
Playing the drums. Once I entered high school, school work absorbed all of my time.
What developed your love for writing?
When I went to New York to study acting, the second summer I was there, I couldn’t get an audition at this particular theatre. So, I called them to set-up an appointment to audition, and the secretary said their schedule was full. I said, “Please, give me a chance.” The secretary said, “No.” I said, “I am a very good actor. What can I do to get an audition?” She said, “You can write your own play and be the star,” then hung-up.
Well, after that phone call, my writing career began. I wrote a one act play that my friend, Ken Fitch, who was an actor and also a director, liked, and wanted to direct. He said that he had the perfect actress to play the part. Her name was Mary Eileen McDonnell. I watched her audition for it, she liked it, and we were going to start rehearsals in a week. In that time, she was offered to play the character of Shelly in the play ‘Buried Child’ by Sam Shepard that was to premiere in New York in October at the Theater for the New City. Afterwards, she became the star opposite Kevin Costner in the movie Dances with Wolves.
What do you enjoy reading the most?
I enjoy reading Historical Fiction and Young Adult literature.
Which genre do you enjoy writing in the most? Which is a genre that you are yet to explore, but hope to in the future?
My first novel was a Western. I enjoyed writing a Western from the point of view of an actor who was very skilled with a gun. Believing he was responsible for his wife’s death, he had a death wish and wanted to take his acting company out West in 1878 to the popular growing towns out there to perform. And knowing the towns had problems with violent outlaws, he wanted to die nobly defending the innocent civilians out there instead of drinking himself to death. My second novel was a coming of age Young Adult. And so is my third. So, I believe my genre of preference is going to be YA.
What challenges did you face while setting up your story, Nina’s Salvation for Joey, in the year 1974?
I only had the minor challenge of remembering some of the businesses that were in the neighborhood. I also researched online some of the popular bands and musicians of the period. For Nina’s friends and neighbors, I used people that I had already known and who were my relatives.
Before you became a writer, what direction did you imagine your life taking? What is your dream job (besides being an author) ?
Before I became a writer, I imagined my future being an actor. After studying very hard in high school, I went to UMBC in Baltimore County, Maryland. I was taking acting courses and after hanging out with three other guys who loved acting, we decided to drop out of college, find jobs to save money, then move to New York City. Unfortunately, after spending ten years in New York, I realized that not being a singer or a dancer, I wasn’t going to be successful. I came home and finished college with a degree in Education, got my masters, and while seeking a job began writing short stories and eventually wrote my first novel, The Defending Guns, a Western.
How did you come up with the character of twenty-one-year-old Joey Maks?
I always loved passionate rock n’ roll music, but never wanted to put the time into learning how to play an instrument. While studying acting in New York, I became friends with Billy who was Italian and had mafia friends. When I was desperately looking for work, he used his mafia connections to get me a bartending job in an upscale Italian bar and restaurant in a rich section of mid-town Manhattan. I used the lively stories of musicians, drugs, and violence that I heard there and wrote them in a notebook. Over the years I kept rewriting one particular story from those notes. It was a coming-of-age novel about a young musician learning from his mistakes and nurtured by his grandmother’s love and support not to give up playing his music.
Do you have any kind of weird or unusual habit or talent that only those close to you know about?
I watch and study the shapes of the clouds during the sunrise, the day, the sunset, and during a full moon. And I try to figure out what animals they might be, or interpret what they might portend for mankind on Earth.
What was your reaction when you received your first book review from a reader?
I felt like a heavy burden was lifted from my self-doubt because someone I barely knew said that she could relate to the internal struggles of my main character, Joey, and of the girl he met when he came back home to heal while living with his grandmother.
How did your life change when you launched your first book?
I felt like I had achieved something so special within my family and amongst my peers! My creative dream comes true! Shortly, however, the need to advertise my book loomed before me. I had to spend money and invest time into researching how to do it. I knew it was necessary, but working all day made me feel guilty that I wasn’t devoting time to writing.
Who are the people that have influenced you as an author? Are you inspired by any other author specifically?
My grandmother, Nina Hickman, influenced me as an author because she would unselfishly sacrifice her free time to not only help her family, but also the poor, needy, and the handicapped in her neighborhood. She is a main character in my book, Nina’s Salvation for Joey, who is instrumental in helping Joey realize how important his life is and not to take it for granted.
I feel inspired every time I read a different author’s book. I learn something new, I get an idea, and I meet a variety of amazing characters with unique personalities and thoughts living in strange situations that not only teach me about writing but supply me with ideas on what to write about in the future.
What percentage of your daily writing do you end up not using in published works?
Since I work everyday and make dinner when I come home, I write around 500 words a have to re-write 50 to 60 percent of it before I can begin on the next 500 words. Writing for me is ‘re-writing’ !
Are you working on a new book? Is it going to be a series or a standalone?
Currently, I am not working on a new book. I’ve decided to write some short stories on various themes so as to hopefully generate an idea for my a new novel.
How has your experience of being associated with AllAuthor been?
My experience of being associated with AllAuthor has been very enlightening. They not only help to advertise your book in imaginative ways on social media, they also make it possible for an author to meet other authors who write in other genres. More importantly, AllAuthor enables you to contact these authors to share ideas and talk about writing and share tips on publishers, publishing, and other ways of advertising your novel.
