Where were you born? What's one cool fact about your hometown not many know?
I was born in Cleveland two months after Pearl Harbor. Yeah .. a loooonnng time ago. A cool fact about Cleveland? It’s the birthplace of Superman. In 1933 Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created the Man of Steel while they were still in high school. They said his birthplace was on the planet Krypton but his inception was by Lake Erie.
What was the name of your high school? What crowd or "clique" would you say you hung out with the most?
I graduated from Burbank High School. I hung out with the “jocks” but could have been part of the “brains” since I my report cards had the letter A for almost every subject (except Algebra -x and y are still not friends to me).
What first drew you into the crime fiction genre?
Mysteries, probably starting with Poe back in junior high, just fired my imagination.
What do you love most about writing suspense? What do you like least?
I don’t outline, so I’m writing into the unknown- not so much about the eventual ending, but how we’re going to get there. However I’ll make sure the trip is always, always entertaining.
I don’t have a least, but one of the trickier parts of my books is that whatever sentence I finish a chapter with, the opening sentence of the next chapter will always be a counter-point or rebound from it. For example in “Paraiso Lost”, the third book in my “sunshine noir” series (where dark things happen in the bright daylight of southern California’s richest beach town, Chapter 4 and 5: “What did you expect?” my dad said …”I wasn’t counting on seeing red,” I said. This gives a flow to the book.
What was your inspiration behind the story of "Paraiso Lost"? How long did it take you to write and how long of that time was time taken for research?
I always remembered Fitzgerald’s line that the rich were very different than the rest of us; that their money gave them an opaque shield. I also knew that when tragedy strikes a family, no matter their wealth, they’ll have to deal with it just like everyone else. And to lose a child is the most soul-destroying thing that can ever happen to a parent.
Unfortunately, I didn’t need to do any research since I lost my youngest daughter, Leslie, to colon cancer.
Besides crime fiction, what are some other genres you want to experiment with?
I’m also an optioned and award-winning screenwriter. Most of my scripts have been in the action genre, but I just finished a time-bending one called “Ask Not” – a scruffy man shows up at CIA headquarters and tells the agents that he’s from the future and came back in 1963 to reluctantly orchestrate the assassination of JFK because it was necessary to save mankind.
Who served as the inspiration for Billionaire Charles Dillard in "Paraiso Lost"?
Like Matt and Jamal, I’m also a real estate agent. Charles Dillard is a blend of some of the most ego maniacal owners I’ve had the displeasure to meet.
How would you describe your writing? Do you think your writing process has changed much since your last book?
My writing process (see above) is seat of the pants. I jump into the story and go from there. My process has gotten harder. I’m now almost finished with the eighth book in the series, so it’s a challenge to make sure that this book can stand alone and not rely on the previous seven so the reader “gets” the story from the book.
Before you became a writer, what direction did you imagine your life taking? What is your dream job (besides being an author)?
I worked for a couple of decades in advertising, rising to copy chief at one of the country’s biggest agencies. I was pretty naïve in that my goal was to give the client the best work possible, but not understanding the internal politics of the agency and how even my so-called team members might pat you on the back but they were only feeling for the best place to stab the knife.
What time of the day do you feel most inspired to write?
I like to fire up the computer first thing in the morning, have my first cup of coffee and see where the heroes and villains are taking me.
What is one thing that you wish to impress upon your readers when they read your books?
That this could be your life.
Do you have your own writing office/desk/space or do you write wherever?
We’ve moved a few times in the last few years. But in each, I’ve always made sure there’s a big window in the second bedroom underneath which I’ll place my desk, computer, pencils & pens, etc. so I can look out at a different view from each new home --the blue Pacific … a nest of scrub jays … and a beautiful ruby-chested hummingbird who would hover a foot or so beyond the glass and peer at me.
If you found a magic lamp and the genie granted you one wish, what would your wish be?
That my daughter Leslie was still alive.
Is there anything new that you're working on? When can we expect the next book to come out?
As I mentioned before, I’m finishing up the eighth book. I am hoping to find a publisher for it, but I’ve found that it takes as much time to try and find an agent or manager or a publisher as it does to write it.
How were you first introduced to All Author? Do you have any feedback?
A writer pal sent me the link along with highly positive comments and the rest, for me, is history. I think All Author is easily the best site for any/every writer around. You can find brilliant insights, savvy marketing ideas and best of all, comments from other writers who’re walking the same path.
