Raymond Benson, Author of the James Bond Anthology & Dark Side of the Morgue

June 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Dr. Kent: Welcome to Sound Authors. It’s starting to be Spring out here in New York; it’s very pleasant to see. We have 4 guests on the show today; 3 authors and 1 musician as always at the end of the show. We have the Lovell Sisters, who are doing very quite well, in the field of Bluegrass. They have a charming and skill sound about them, virtuosos on their instruments. I’ll be happy to chat with them at the end of the show. I’ve got 3 authors on, Paul Doyle, the author of Hot Shots & Heavy Hits. I’ll talk to him about the undercover drug world. At 3:30, we’re going to chat with Jeremy Robinson, who is the author of Antarktos Rising. The fascinating book he’s put together. At the beginning of the show, my pleasure to have on the show, Raymond Benson. He’s the author of a whole bunch of things including the James Bond Anthology that just came out. We’ve had him on the show before and we’re also going to chat with him on his brand new novel, Dark Side of the Morgue, a Rock ‘n Roll thriller. Welcome to the show Raymond Benson.

Raymond Benson: Hello Dr. Kent, How are you?

Dr. Kent: Very Good. Tell me about this new novel.

Raymond Benson: Well Dark Side of the Morgue is the second book in a series, featuring a Rock ‘n Roll detective named Spike Berenger. He’s a private eye. He works in the Rock ‘n Roll business. He is based in New York. The first book came out last year, took place in New York. The second book Dark Side of the Morgue just came out and this one takes place in Chicago. And lots of humor and music references. And cameo appearances by real rock stars. And sex drugs and Rock ‘n Roll. What more could you ask for?

Dr. Kent: Huh. True, true of that. Well tell me about the process of putting together this series, as well you know we talked about in past putting together the James Bond series. What do you do, when you have a character in your brain and you have to get him out?

Raymond Benson: Well Spike Beringer is really pretty much a lot like me. I’m a big classic rock fan myself and I’m a musician. I put a lot of myself into this guy, although he doesn’t look like me anyway. He plays guitar and I play piano, so there’s those differences.  He comes from Texas and which I do too. I lived in New York City for a long time as well. A lot of his taste in music and food and philosophies in life are very similar of mine. When I first got the idea for the series, it was mainly to come up with something commercial, that hopefully for people like music and like to read might latch onto.

Dr. Kent: And tell me about the first book in the series, and this is the second, and where is it going from here?

Raymond Benson: Hard Day’s Death was Spike’s first adventure. He is investigating the murder of a famous rock star in New York. It seems like he has too many suspects; the guy’s family, a many sons, and all ex-wives, ex-band members. And all this stuff, so he has to investigate that. In the new one I capitalized on the legendary aggressive rock school of music, that came out for the late 60’s, early 70’s. Guys like Sloth Machine and Jethro Tull, Yes, Gentle Giant. There’s like a family tree of these kind of musicians, and I invented a fictional one for the city of Chicago, with all these fans date back to 60’s. And one by one each member is being bumped off by some mysterious killer. So there is some common link between all these people, and Spike has to figure it out. I should add these books my tongue is firmly in cheek. Instead of Table of Contents, I have a track listing. So every chapter, name of a song. Instead of the acknowledgement, I have liner notes. So the book you can play the book

Dr. Kent: Wonderful, and tell me when you write book like this, compared to all the other books you’ve written. Do you have more fun with it, because you can bring in that side of you, the musical side?

Raymond Benson: Yes, its a lot more fun in any of my own original books, are more fun than when I’m writing for a franchise like James Bond for example. Or I’ve done some other tie in work, like last year I wrote the novelization of popular video game, Metal Gear Solid. And I’ll have a sequel coming out later this year. I wrote for Tom Clancy’s. I did a couple of his spin off series, The Splinter Cell 2 of Splinter Cell books. I kind of had my hand in the tie info world, which was for bread and butter money. Then I had my own original thrillers and novels that’s you know more personal.

Dr. Kent: Tell me actually as always, you know I’m very curious how is it to write for these other franchises. What is the whole process? What do they have you do? What kind of feedback do you give them? What’s the whole process like?

Raymond Benson: Well, it really depends on the franchise itself. With James Bond, I was approached in the mid 90’s by the Ian Fleming estates, to take over the original books continuation novels from John Gardner. Who been writing the books before me. I guess I got the job base on a nonfiction book that I wrote in the 80’s, call the James Bond Bedside Compaign. Which is everything you ever wanted to know about 007, type of coffee table book. And with that, I had full freedom basically the original stories that I came up with, they just had to approve them first. I had to write them in an outline. They gave me the green light, afterwards I wrote the rest of the books. Then I would also do novelizations of the movies that were coming out at that time that weren’t based on books. The later Pierce Brosnan films. Those were original screenplays to begin with, so they gave me a screenplay and I had to turn into novels.

And in those cases since I was king of working for the film company, instead of the Fleming estate, I had to stay pretty close to the script. I was able to embellish after a few of the scenes and add to it because you put a screenplay into pros, you’re about 30,000 words short. So I was able to actually invest some things and try to explain some of their complicated plots.

With Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, that’s based on a video game. I was basically given the characters and was allowed to come up with my own stories featuring the characters that were in that video game. With Metal Gear Solid, they wanted an actual novelization of the actual game story, so I had to stick very, very close to that. So it really depends on who you’re working for, and how much freedom you have, and what you’re allowed to add.

Dr. Kent: And I know I’ve asked you something similar to this in our last interview, but with fascination of most the listeners with writing for James Bond. Did you ever sort of start to dream like James Bond? Did you ever wake up in the morning think I’m James Bond? Did you ever just slip inside that character?

Raymond Benson: *Chuckling* I went to all the locations that I wrote about. I would walk in Bond’s footsteps and stay in the hotels I put him in and order the food I’d give him on a plate. I would it important for a writer, especially with the Bond books; you they are kind of like travel logs in a way. They go to exotic locations and teach the reader about that country and that culture. So, um, yeah, I did that, but I’d never jump out of an airplane with out parachute, or get into fights with scary looking guys, and unfortunately, I didn’t get to bed a lot of women that way either.

*Both Dr. Kent and Raymond Benson have a chuckle. * I’m married. You know Bond was very much a wishful film of Ian Fleming. He was the guy, Ian Fleming, wanted to be. So I just had to basically dig into the characters and try to capture the spirit of Ian Fleming. But no I don’t ever wish to be James Bond. I don’t have a high tolerance for pain.

Dr. Kent: And when you talked about when you wrote about like when you wrote about the jumping out of airplanes, this and that, and what was your research for like that stuff? Where did you find your information?

Raymond Benson: Well as writers, we always cultivate a notebook full of resources of people in various professions, that we can contract when we have a question. For instance, I have a military guy I always go to about hardware and weaponry and military stuff. I have contacts in different government agencies. I have contacts in the medical profession. So its pretty easy to find someone when you’re a writer, put their name in the acknowledgement, not hard to find someone to talk to you and give you information like that.

Dr. Kent: Hmmm, and what’s your next project, are you writing a third book in the music trilogy here?

Raymond Benson: Well, I would like to, but the publisher is on a wait and see basis. To see how this one does. If it goes ok, I’m sure I’ll do a third one. If not, I’ll just move onto something else. This is what we writers do; we’re constantly trying to turn stuff out. My next published book, will be the sequel to Solid Metal Gear. It comes out in the Fall, it’s Solid Metal Gear 2: Sons of Liberty. And the next Spring, the late Spring, I got another Anthology of my James Bond work coming out. The one that you mentioned, the union trilogy, its contained 3 of my novels and a short story that was out right before Christmas. The next anthology will have the other 3 novels and some more short stories. I’m also working on with publisher, Hard Case Crime, on a series of Hope Adventures, featuring a character named Gabrielle Hunt. Kind of an Indiana Jones type guy, and there is going to be six books in the series. Different authors writing each book, and I’ve done the sixth book and final one. My issue will probably come out in 2010.

Dr. Kent: You’re a hard working writer. How do you wake up each morning? Say, ok what’s the number one priority book I’m working on or what’s your process with that?

Raymond Benson: Its juggling a lot of things at once. Its, we authors also have to do their own promotion and everything else. We keep websites, facebook, myspace up. I spend certain amount of time morning, kind of maintaining all my various promotional sites. I spend afternoon usually working on the books themselves, and it kind of depends on what phase of the book I’m in, whether outline writing or conceptual phase dictates what I do that particular day. If I got more than one book going at once, then sure the one I have to finish first is the one I work on with the priority sometimes. I worked on three books at once

Dr. Kent: Now as a kid, would you have a thought you’d be a authoring these James Bond books and all these other thrillers and so on?

Raymond Benson: Never, in fact I was a huge James Bond fan as a child growing up. I grew up with Sean Connery movies. So you know, I never in a million years even thought, I was even allowed to even dream of doing that. In many ways, it fell into my lap. Wasn’t that I even thought it out, it just came to me. Which was a miracle in itself. As far as when I was a kid, I never thought I’d be a writer. I always thought I was going to be in theatre. I studied in college; I was a theatre major. I did spend over a decade in New York City, in the off Off-Broadway scene, as face director and as music director. I’m a film historian, as well, I teach film history at one of the local colleges outside Chicago. So the writing thing just happened, but I’m glad it did.

Dr. Kent: Well its been real pleasure chatting with you again, and I hope I’ll chat with you next time down the road when another one of these comes out. And we can find out more about Raymond Benson, on his website at raymondbenson.com. You can sign up for anyone of those social networking things he was talking about, and a list of all the books are there, and where to buy them and all that stuff. Anything else I’m forgetting?

Raymond Benson: No, you pretty much covered it all. I really appreciate you having me on your program.

Dr. Kent: Alright, well you be well and can’t wait to see the next books come out.

Raymond Benson: Ok. Thanks a lot.

Dr. Kent: We’ve been chatting with Raymond Benson, his website is raymondbenson.com. The author of a ton of James Bond stuff, and his newest book is called Dark Side of the Morgue and a Rock ‘n Roll thriller. Lets all go out and buy that, so he’ll write the third book in that series.

Ok, the next guest on my show is going to be Paul Doyle. He’s got a book called Hot Shots and Heavy Hits, talking about the undercover drug world come on back for that.

Posted by admin | Filed Under History, TRANSCRIPTS, Fiction, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST 

Paul Doyle, Author of Hot Shots and Heavy Hits, Special Agent in Bureau of Narcotics

June 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Dr. Kent: Welcome back to Sound Authors. My next guest on the show is Paul E Doyle. He served as a Special Agent, in the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs and also in the Drug Enforcement Administration. His book is called Hot Shots and Heavy Hit. Tales of an undercover drug agent. Can’t wait to chat about this book. Welcome to the show Paul E Doyle.

Paul Doyle: Hi, Good Afternoon Dr Kent. It’s a pleasure for me to be here a chance to talk with people who like writing and reading its good. So Thank You for having me on your show and letting me talk to your audience.

Dr Kent: Absolutely, so tell me about this book and your life in crime.

Paul Doyle: Well basically in a nutshell my book Hot Shots and Heavy Hits is my memoirs about my experiences as an undercover agent in the DEA in the 1970’s and that kind of sums it up. Its my particular story, I tell in first person its more of a worms eye view of a the everyday life of an undercover agent. And although its my story and my book it runs with every cop in the world who works undercover I get so much feedback one of the first promotions we did was in the DEA has an exhibit in Times Square and I spoke about the book, sold book over number months. And I get feedback from police officers all over the world actually who told me I hit it right on the head and of course speaking to audiences I also very happy to hear from people in recovery people in 12 grams have been addicted tell me you’ve hit this right you’ve nailed it Paul described it the heroin overdose and heroin highs being in these drug dens. You’ve told it like we’ve never seen it before so realistic, so I feel very good about that. It think its one story needed to be told. People often would ask me about my fears because I never talked about it. What I did I never couldn’t do a lot of things but basically I worked undercover in the Irish law of Boston. Familiar names with people like Whitey Bulger. I worked undercover with Italian Mob the Cosa Nostra, the Chinese Mob which is tong young tongs. Outlaw motorcycle gang and South American drug cartels. So I got wide range of experience in all these areas kind of begging to be told especially with people with whats going on and I got a chance to do this in I feel very good since the book been published. I’m working on a novel now based on a lot of these things.

Dr. Kent: What is the world you know you dropped all these things about the mobs and this world and that world. I most of us what we seen on CSI New York or on these television shows we seen about it. Tell us how realistic is this stuff. What was the real world like doing this work?

Paul Doyle: Its actually care, I’m glad you asked that it’s a lot of these programs very interesting very realistic to a point, but you never look down the barrel of a gun. AS I have many other officers and undercover agents have you really can’t get a get understand. I think that’s where I had the benefit of writing a book first hand. Other words I can tell you exactly what I was feeling thinking and what the other guy looked like and how a deal proceeded. And now what happened to very action packed story lot of fights, lot shooting, a lot of action, lot of drug undercover buys, and not all these actions. One of the others things people commented on my book for example Anita Shreve, she’s on the cover of my book, she writes the tight rope walk bet good and evil confronting violence from without and within and having to make spontaneous life or death decisions that seem light years away from that beautiful wife and baby nights called home. I’m proud I was able to convey that to someone like Anita Shreve, who writes in a totally in his mind but yet enjoyed the book and turn on tell audiences about it. So that’s one plain, Frank McCord initially I was tell about you and I known Frank and Penelope for number of years been. I feel like they’ve been more less very kind to me and adopted me into their family. I enjoyed it like to get with them on a regular basis, but basically my writing is to be as to be expected hot and direct except love and good humor and deep feelings unfortunate of the world and in my writing from my point of view as an agent. I’m not just a cop with search warrant locking these people up I’m literal with these people. I understand their feelings I understand whats good and bad about them what went wrong I look at addicts and junkies I saw the sorrow and sadness in the eyes in the mothers and fathers who lost their kids to drugs. I saw things first hand and as result I’m able to tell the big picture in a way most authors could never do. Unfortunate a lot of cops can’t because they’ve haven’t they didn’t sit down and write their stories in times not able to put into words I’m fortunate since I did this I discover I did have a gift for words in a way that some people don’t have so.

Dr. Kent: What I’m most fascinated about what you just talked about where Anita Shreve where she talks about where you being out in the middle of this violent world doing these crazy things from what we see in from what we see in reality this crazy stuff and then you come home to your children and your wife. For a lot of cops it is kind of the same thing kind of dangerous profession and after dealing with all this aggression you come home and you’re with your family. Talk about that for a minute.

Paul Doyle: Well most people don’t realize in today’s world of the undercover agent not only men but women working undercover. So I you stars in family your doing this kind of work they play such a great role its very very difficult from their other half going off to a completely different world and maybe not hearing from them for weeks or months at a time. Assuming different identities and facing the kind of danger they feel that they face while their sitting at home, not knowing exactly what’s going on. It’s quite strenuous on the family. I’m very fortunate I had I’ve been back to the same girl I met in High School and we’ve been married for 40 years I have 4 children that have grown up. One just going off to college. One married to a marine fighter pilot, she has 6 children. My other daughter married Christian, she has 1 child and then I have to thank my wife for what she’s done and sacrifices she faced and my children’s made. Growing up they didn’t know what I did and that’s part of the reason I wrote the book. That’s why I wrote the book not that I go off on tangent if I may. People always ask me How did you, What made you write why did you write this book? And if I can say it this was ground zero right after the attacks with NYPD on the search and rescue team. I cam home my wife asked me what it was like I couldn’t even explain what it was like so I said let me sit down and write some of my thoughts and I did. She read them and she started to cry and each of my daughters read same thing. Eventually what I wrote was made into an article and was in four national magazines that I get high praise for that depiction of what I saw and what I witnessed death and destruction. That point I decided after all these years undercover that I got to write something about that because at the on the pile with all the fires raging around in dark I think of only days prior to thousands of people alive and their dead now it dawned on me for the first time in my entire life that I had been a paratrooper or I’d been a drug agent and survived all these incidents this could happen to me. I could be dead in a minute then what would happen my kids; my wife would have no idea what I did. That’s when I thought about maybe putting that on paper some day and eventually I did and that’s what happened with the book.

Dr. Kent: And Tell

Paul Doyle: I hope I didn’t go to far.

Dr. Kent: No No I could talk to you for days about all these things but tell us a store out of this book kind of briefly like what’s a small world into this Hot Shots and Heavy Hits?

Paul Doyle: You know its starts off a young agent coming out of the narcotics academy and going to an office. And how it begins my first pot day on street. How we go on a raid and how they have me kick the door in because I’m the young new guy. I go on a heroin raid later on in night. Eventually the first experience I had was a textbook case with as federal agent you want to go up the ladder. What I did was I get these University of Boston by small amounts of cocaine ounce for like $2,000 I eventually with this case I brought it up to the level where first federal case first time crime figure Mafia figure. I was involved in this so I write it all in the book. Hand to hand sale bought sold so many chills cocaine that was big for a number of reasons. Number 1 I remember walking to the federal building in handcuffs and I said to him listen to Joe your our help yourself in drug school they teach to that to get people to cooperate and get information how police survive. He stop looked at me said kid let me tell you something I made the biggest mistake of my life today he said don’t ask me no questions I can’t tell you anything. He says I’m in enough trouble as it is. I tried that because he was the first guy who ever said that to me. He was the only guy in my entire career who never cooperated. He didn’t’ tell me a thing. In those days it was omit code of silence they wouldn’t talk. This particular fellow looked like someone’s uncle that turns out he had a reputation they called him the man who got away with murder because the last time he went on trial. He had one witness against him. Days before the trial a witness disappeared and they found the witness in the trunk of his own car with his hands tied behind his back, hog tied, his private parts in his mouth and pins in his eyes and that’s omerita that the code of silence in the work it out don’t mess with this guy. The young narcotic agent and I locked him up so that’s one of the one of the quick stories. My I guess time for another quick one?

Dr. Kent: What’s that?

Paul Doyle: Hello? Do I have time for another quick story?

Dr. Kent: Yes Please.

Paul Doyle: Ok there purest white heroin was coming into Washington early 70’s from Hong Kong Shanghai, it was called China White. WE couldn’t do anything about it. They was spreading it all over the country they were distributing it to all over out to Portland Maine. We couldn’t break it because we couldn’t understand the code. We had wire taps but so many different dialects the Chinese wouldn’t deal with anybody and then got a call from a Boston Police Officer who had arrested a hooker a young hooker from HighO housing project one of the projects that I’d grown up in. She was not only a heroin addict but she was in the house one of the Chinese geos. She offered to bring someone in. I was elected the guy; my new assignment for the next 6 months was nighttime in Boston’s combat zone China town area as a pimp. I established myself in eventually hand to hand by heroin from the heroin geos and we brought them down that’s another quick stories kind of things we did on a regular basis. You know assuming different things and story talks cases my book talks about cases all over from Boston to quite a few New York City and up to San Francisco. From most my expertise was from heroin and cocaine. I also brought down a LSD laboratory in San Francisco big in 70’s.

Dr. Kent: And now your own, we only have couple minutes left but your own background.

Paul Doyle: Ok.

Dr. Kent: I want to talk about that for a second because your story growing up in a tough part of Boston. Talk about that for a minute.

Paul Doyle: Sorry. I was an orphan at birth. I was adopted when I was 5 by the time I was 12 I’d lived in a dozen different places mostly housing projects and changed schools many times sometimes twice in one year, so its not hard to figure out why I gravitated to boxing. I was an amateur boxer I became the 1967 I was Heavyweight Champ. I got scholarship to Rockford Watkins University. I was about a graduate and was going to turn pro and the biggest tragedy of my life; my younger brother was killed in Vietnam. I put a stop to that sent me off in a new direction I joined the military. I served with second infantry division ten Special Forces. Then eventually I took an interview and started with the DEA this was a time when this was the 60’s and 70’s. Drugs, sex, Rock ‘n Roll time we were inundated with drugs and its what happening at the time so I wanted to be a part of it it. I wanted to do some good I was altruistic and that why I did what I did. So that’s basically it.

Dr. Kent: This been a real honor chatting with Paul Doyle and we’ll have to have you on again. This is a fun conversation I could talk to you along time about this stuff.

Paul Doyle: The honor was mine. Thank You.

Dr. Kent: The book is called Hot Shots & Heavy Hits tales of an undercover drug agent by Paul E Doyle. You can visit his website.

Paul Doyle: Thank You.

Dr. Kent: Website at pauledoyle.com. Thank You so much we’ll chat with you again soon.

Paul Doyle: Thank You very much Doc.

Dr. Kent: Alright we’ll be back after a little break with the third guest on the show his name is Jeremy Robinson. Come on back for that.

Posted by admin | Filed Under History, TRANSCRIPTS, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST 

Jeremy Robinson, Author of Antarktos Rising

June 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Dr. Kent: Welcome to Sound Authors. My next guest on the show is a fellow who has written a book that is doing quite well. Its called Antartktos Rising. That’s hard to say Jeremy Robinson is the author of a couple books and a welcome to the show Jeremy.

Jeremy Robinson: Thanks for having me.

Dr. Kent: So tell me about this book. First of all how to pronounce it because I did a horrible job there.

Jeremy Robinson: Chuckling I wrote it Guess I’ll get it right. Ant ark toes Rising.

Dr. Kent: Ant ark toes Rising.

Jeremy Robinson: Antarktos is the Greek for Antarctica.

Dr. Kent: So tell me about this book. Tell me in a nutshell.

Jeremy Robinson: Its starts with a disgruntle placement history of the Earth crust shifting over the core so that North Dakota becomes the North Pole and Antarctica ends up at the equator. Where it thaws and after event happens 2.6 billion people after are dead and rest of the world is displaced their all kind buying control over this new thawed continent.

Dr. Kent: Now where do you come up with ideas like this.

Jeremy Robinson: Um a lot of research I think the initial idea of this was I want to thaw out Antarctica how can I do that? And I started doing researching different possibilities and there is what I found was the most not realistic but most fun for me.

Dr. Kent: What is the process researching the book you did a lot of research on Antarctica?

Jeremy Robinson: Yup

Dr. Kent: Tell me about that whole process. How do you get about do that? Do you bury yourself in books? Do you read everything you can?

Jeremy Robinson: Ok I initially got my start in writing actually as an artist, I was a comic book illustrator at the time I started writing comic books as well. And that when I realized what I was doing through my art was story telling, so I realized my passion was really telling stories not necessarily being an artist. I started doing screenplays after that moved to Los Angeles I realize I didn’t like Hollywood and decided to try writing a novel. The first novel I wrote was The Didymus Contingency, which I published in 2005 and it did really well. I think probably because the premise the guy goes back in time to get through the story of Jesus, so that got a lot of attention. Got an agent and after that I started my own small press because that book did so well I figured why not do some more. My second book was Raising the Past that book’s kind of arctic science fiction story that did very well then I moved on to Antarktos Rising. Which did well enough to get the attention of an investor from a business a major publisher in New York. Which I now have a three book deal. The first of those books Pulse come out May 26, and that’s been all over the past few years.

Dr. Kent: And how’s that process been for you?

Jeremy Robinson: Which process the publishing or?

Dr. Kent: Yeah I mean your in a new world where publishing the book with your own independent publisher. Which is now possible to have success and then get picked up by a major publisher. How you felt through that whole process?

Jeremy Robinson: It’s a lot of work. I think normally people do one or the other. For the last year I been running what’s now a large publishing company and getting my book ready Antarktos came out in October. My newest book came out in January or February and now I have a book coming out in May. So I’ve been nonstop marketing my book but also marketing other peoples books at the same time.

Dr. Kent: And now your newest book is actually Kronos is that right?

Jeremy Robinson: Kronos is about a father and widower an ex-Navy Seal and oceanographer. His daughter has been estranged from him since his wife died and to help reconcile with her, he takes her out to go scuba diving off the coast of Maine. Instantly while they are out there scuba diving she is swallowed whole by a very large creature. Which is unknown to Atkins at the time. He kind of goes on a Moby Dick hunt quest for revenge trying to hunt down the creature and on the way o his path to kill this creature. He makes a discovery that kind of turns the whole story around and it’s a big surprise kind of fun.

Dr. Kent: What’s fun about your books your able to create different types of worlds but an author that must be kind of a tricky process of being a creating a different reality. Talk about the difference in this kind of book and sort of a fiction story about family living in New England or something.

Jeremy Robinson: Right. That’s what I actually enjoy about coming up with this new world and creatures that don’t necessarily exist or that might exist but what makes it really hard making it believable so I can’t just say in this instance in Kronos, I have this really large creature but I just can’t make something up so I had to do research on local legends because this takes place in New England and I found that there is a New England sea serpent that has been reported over 200 times since 1638. So I have a lot of historical background for this creature and then I try and work in some pints behind is all well. So I can kind of create what I want but then I have to back it up with history of science or it won’t be very believable. Its not straight fantasy or science fiction like people say teleport to another world.

Dr. Kent: How about I usually ask fiction writers. Do you dream about your characters? Do you find that they sort of exist in reality? Do you have file of open on their lives? How do you keep them straight?

Jeremy Robinson: I do have files on them. I create worksheets on them with details of their lives. I can’t say I’ve ever dreamt about any of my books and that actually surprising now that you mentioned it. But that maybe because I think about them all day long. If I’m in the car driving I usually inside a book inside my head which maybe a good thing or a bad thing I don’t know. But I think about them so much during my waking hours my mind likes to take a break from them honestly.

Dr. Kent: So you got this contract your in now. What’s the next couple projects your working on and all of that?

Jeremy Robinson: The next books area series. There is a three of them I’m contracted with Poblison Publishing, which is an imprint with St. Martin’s Press. And these are series called Chess Team series about a team of Delta Operators. Delta is basically our most special Special Forces unit, which is conspired of Army Rangers, Navy Seals, and all the best that we have. They in the all the best that we have. They in the story they are dealing with some strange things in the book the first book they are dealing with a genetics company who is trying to make a break through in a basically immortality. It starts with they are trying to regenerate arms and legs on people very quickly. They end up regenerating the mythical hydra and bring that back to life by accident. So its kind of a military thriller lot of mythology involved with a lot of with creatures or well so a lot of strange things happening.

Dr. Kent: It sounds like you have a career from the outside that seems kind of fun, and a tell us about the hard work aspects.

Jeremy Robinson: The hard work aspect is actually the marketing. The writing and the research and all the stuff that goes in to it before hand and during the writing is all the good fun for me. The hard part is marketing its putting yourself out there and traveling a lot doing book signing. I enjoy it, but its definitely not who I am wired. The hard part for me is marketing and large part of that I spend more time marketing than I do writing. Which for a writer is hard because we’d rather be in our office writing all the time. But to sell books you have to be out there and available out there doing things you aren’t necessarily comfortable with.

Dr. Kent: And what kind of things does your publisher or do you end up going to signing books? Do you go to mostly bookstores or do you go to larger events? What do you do?

Jeremy Robinson: I have it’s mostly bookstores. I will be at Thriller Fest, which is a large event in New York City at Grand Height. That’s a much bigger event there is a few hundred authors who go there and lots of fans tool. So its that’s more like a convention. I’m trying to thinking if there’s anything else but it’s mainly bookstores.

Dr. Kent: Cool. Well it’s been a pleasure chatting with you and I hope we chat with you again. It seems like you put out a book every six months so it’ll give us a lot of opportunity. Do you find that it’s hard to turn out books so quickly?

Jeremy Robinson: No that would actually be my preference to do one every six months. That will probably slow down this year been quick because we had three books that need to come out in about 12 month because I had written so many so there’s kind of a back log of books that need to come out. But now it’ll probably be once a year even though I’d like to see two. But someday.

Dr. Kent: Now do you have some sort of grand plan in mind like down the road you want to write a 1,500 page book on something? Do you have any sort of clever schemes down the road?

Jeremy Robinson: For world domination? (Chuckling) I don’t know it really just to improve each book has to be better than the next. I did the screenwriting thing for awhile so its always been a dream of mine to see something I created a film and that’s in the works for Antarktos Rising, as an animated feature that’s supposed to come out in 2010. I don’t know it that’ll happen or not that’s what the schedule is right now. But I’d really like to see my books as movies and I’d also like to see them as video games because I’m a big game player so.

Dr. Kent: Very cool, it’s been an honor chatting with Jeremy Robinson about his last two books. Antarktos Rising, Kronos, and about all his future projects. If you just go to Amazon you’ll find or ton of his book. Where else can we find out about you online?

Jeremy Robinson: You can find out about me at jeremyrobinsononline.com.

Dr. Kent: Wonderful all right lets chat again soon when that next book comes out.

Jeremy Robinson: Definitely.

Dr. Kent: My next on the show is a musician they are called the Lovell Sisters. They make a really incredible brand of music and they do it as a family so come on back for that we’ll be talking to them.

Posted by admin | Filed Under TRANSCRIPTS, Fiction, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST 

Janet Paschal, Famous Singer & Author of Treasures of the Snow

June 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Dr. Kent:  Welcome back to Sound Authors.  It’s my pleasure to have on the show the musician and author Janet Paschal.  Welcome to the show.

Janet Paschal:  Thank you very much, nice to talk with you.

Dr. Kent:  Well, I sure would like to listen to a couple tunes, I’ve got a couple in the queue.  But let’s talk for just one second before I do that.  Tell me a little about your latest record.

Janet Paschal:  Well, I’ve been doing what I do for a number of years, and over the years people have remembered songs from as far back as 30 years ago, and I’ve still continued to get mail and email about some of those older songs, so for this record project we went back and recaptured 12 of those most requested songs from as far back as 30 years ago and re-recorded them.  We kept the same, original arrangements and just updated the music and the technology of course, and we called it Treasure.

Dr. Kent:  I’d love to listen to a track from that, I’ve got the song Hide Me, Sweet Rock of Ages in the queue, so let’s listen to that.

Janet Paschal:  Okay.

Dr. Kent:  Actually, why don’t you tell me a little bit about that song before we listen.

Janet Paschal:  Ok, that song I recorded for the first time when I was singing with my first professional group.  I was 18 years old, I lived in North Carolina, I wanted to sing Christian music, and they were coming through my area, and they were looking for a soprano, and I auditioned and they hired me.  We recorded this song a couple years later, so it’s special to me for a number of reasons.  Because it’s a fun song, and because it was with my original group, but also, you know, a lot of times music and songs will take you back to a certain place in your life, and that’s just been another rewarding aspect of doing this CD, it recaptures those old tunes, and it reminds us of some of the places we were, and some of the experiences we had through those years.

Dr. Kent:  Wonderful.  So let’s listen to this song that will take us all the way back to the beginning, Hide Me, Sweet Rock of Ages.  Here it is.

(music)

Dr. Kent:  Wow, what a tune.

(laughter) It’s a fun song, it really is.

Dr. Kent:  It’s got to be fun, doing this kind of music.

Janet Paschal:  It really, really is, because it is feel good music.  It’s buoyant, and it lifts your spirits, and it has a positive message. It’s really a lot of fun, especially when you have a little history with it.

Dr. Kent:  You’ve been onstage for a lot of people in a lot of countries.  Tell us a little about that.

Janet Paschal:  Well, I have sung in almost every country.  Not every country, but certainly the majority of them, and it just astounds me that music seems to cross over language barriers, and facial expressions, and the actual chords and progressions of chords.  They translate in different languages, and I have always just sung in English, and many times the audience didn’t speak English, the majority of them.  But somehow they seem to have been communicated to, so it works.

Dr. Kent:  You are a unique musician on the show because you’re also an author.  So you’re a sound author and a sound author.  And your book is called Treasures of the Snow, and it looks very similar actually to the album Treasure, which is kind of neat.  But tell us about the importance of this book in your life.

Janet Paschal:  Well, it’s actually my second book, and I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005, and plowed through a year, about a year and a half of treatment.  I chronicled that journey, and of course I did newsletters and blogs and so many people requested that they get a copy of that, and was I going to publish it. So finally I was due for a new book.  So what I did is I worked this out so that the book is in three sections, and the first section deals with breast cancer, my plowing through that.  And then the other two sections are other stories from the road.  But the idea, and we did release the CD and book together, that’s the similar covers and the similar titles, but the idea is when Job was explaining to God about how faithful he had been, and explaining some of his (inaudible) to God, God just turned on him and asked where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth, and can you tell all the waters of the beaches, how far to come and no further? Do you know when a mountain gives birth? In other words he made Job realize how small he was.  But one of the things he asked him which intrigued me was, have you seen the treasures of the snow? And I had ton know on that a little bit, I didn’t quite understand it.  And then it occurred to me that snowflakes from a distance all look the same, but when you examine them closely, they’re very different, and they’re very unique.  So for me, that spoke to me in that the situations, the things that I will have to plow through, like breast cancer, you know, some of the rough places in life, if we just gnaw on those things and try to swallow them a little bit and understand what it means in the larger scheme of things, then there are real treasures to be had, there are wonderful life lessons to be learned, and great takeaways from those things.

Dr. Kent:  Well, and that’s such a hard thing to do when you’re going in and out of emergency rooms or clinics or hospitals, because those places have a horrible feel to them in some ways, and your family’s being dragged into it, and they’re all emotional, and…

Janet Paschal:  You know what was the strangest thing for me was following the signs to oncology for the first time.  I was treated at Duke Medical Center, and my husband and I were looking up at the ceiling following the signs to oncology, and it was just, it was so surreal, because my family didn’t have any history of cancer, and that was sort of a tough day for me, just following those signs.

Dr. Kent:  Yeah, and you are a very spiritual person no doubt.  Job is such a heavy book in the Bible that a lot of people like to skip over.  But when you’re going through times like that, it’s pretty brave to go into Job. Talk about the book of Job.

Janet Paschal:  Well, you know what I love about Job, a lot of times I go there and he does my venting for me.  Because a lot of times I’ll read in Job when he was saying, “Oh, God, why do the wicked prosper?” and a lot of times I sit and I read that and I go, “Yeah, yeah, I want to know the answer to that, too.”  And so it helps me just to sort of process whatever it is that I’m plowing through.  But you know, in the larger scheme of things we’re all creatures of this earth, and we’ll all have great days, and we’ll all have very painful days, and good times and bad times.  And so I think the crux of the matter is how we take the tough things in life, how we juggle those and balance them and how we incorporate all of that into our joys and our pleasures, and hopefully when we’ve figured it out, when it’s all said and done, then we have made good decisions and we have left the world a better place.

Dr. Kent:  Well absolutely. And certainly you have quite a list of accomplishments, and you’ve inspired a lot of people.  You’ve put out a ton of CD’s and probably all the way back to records.  Did you put out a record at the beginning, or was it a tape?

Janet Paschal:  Yes, absolutely.  My first solo project was an LP, and I still have people come up to me at concerts and want me to sign it.  (laughter)

Dr. Kent:  Well, I’ve got to say, I’m an iPod user, and an iPod lover, but there’s something about LP’s, the pictures on them, they’re so big and so tangible, and you put the needle down on them, there’s something about it.

Janet Paschal:  That’s exactly, and you know, the sound is sweeter too, I think.

Dr. Kent:  So you still have an LP player?

Janet Paschal:  Yes, I absolutely do.

Dr. Kent:  Well, it’s been such a pleasure speaking with Janet Paschal, she’s got a book Treasures of the Snow, and it’s really just a wonderful book to pick up, and such an inspiration to people, and for all of those like me who look at the book of Job with a little bit of fear, this is a good entrance into that.  And the album that goes with it called Treasure is really a great album, full of great energy.  So tell us where we can find out more about you.

Janet Paschal:  You can visit my website janetpaschal.com, or you can Google me, so Google will definitely get you there.

Dr. Kent:  Exactly.  Well, Janet Paschal has done so many wonderful things with her life.  Thank you so much for being on the show, and for helping so many people.

Janet Paschal:  It’s a pleasure talking to you. Thank you.

Dr. Kent:  Actually, before you leave, why don’t you say a couple words.  We’re going to go out with the tune We Shall Wear a Robe and Crown.  Do you have anything to say about that one?

Janet Paschal:  Ok, this is again, I recorded it back probably 30 years ago, but it was one of our, the group that I was in at the time, it was our big hit, so, and you know, it still is, it’s been recorded by 150 different people, but it is still a great song.

Dr. Kent:  Well thank you so much, and have a wonderful day.

Janet Paschal:  Thank you.  Bye.

Dr. Kent:  Now this song is from the album Treasure, and it’s called We Shall Wear a Robe and Crown.  Listen to this.

(music)

Dr. Kent:  And that was the tune We Shall Wear a Robe and Crown by Janet Paschal, off of her newest album Treasure.  Thank you so much to all my guests on the show today.  I had Mark David Gerson, I had Janet Paschal, I had Mark K. Updegrove, and at the beginning the wonderful children’s author Kathy Lasky, who wrote that wonderful biography of Charles Darwin.  Everybody have a safe week and pick up a great book.  I’ll talk to you on the flip side.

Posted by admin | Filed Under TRANSCRIPTS, Gospel, Pop, Religion, Inspiration, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, MUSICIAN INTERVIEW, PODCAST 

Mark David Gerson, Author of The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write

June 4, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Dr. Kent:  Welcome back to Sound Authors.  It’s my pleasure on this show to have my next guest, Mark David Gerson, and he is a Twitter friend of mine, and we’ve tweeted back and forth a good bit. If you know me well, I’m a big twitterer, or tweeter, as it will, and Mark David Gerson has written a book called The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write.  Welcome to the show, Mark.

Mark David Gerson:  Thank you so much, Kent, it’s great to be here.

Dr. Kent:  I want to start out with Twitter, because you’re into Twitter, I’m into Twitter, what’s your take on this crazy engine of thought?

Mark David Gerson:  I think it’s fabulous. I had a friend about a year ago who I’d actually met on MySpace, which was my first introduction to social networking, who tried to get me to go onto Twitter, and go on the website and I’d kind of shrug my shoulders and say, “I don’t get it.” That happened frequently, and then one day, probably when I was trying to avoid writing, I got on, (inaudible), nosed around, and before I knew it I was having wonderful conversations with lots of brilliant people.

Dr. Kent:  So how does it help someone like you, and author of The Moonquest and The Voice of the Muse?

Mark David Gerson:  Probably if it weren’t for Twitter, you and I wouldn’t be having this conversation, just to start. It’s been a great way to connect with other writers.  It’s been a great way to market myself as an author.  And it’s been a great way to just meet interesting people all over, and some of the people I’ve actually met on Twitter I’ve met in person, and they’ve been just as personable in (inaudible).

Dr. Kent:  Absolutely.  And what I find fascinating is that in 140 characters you can be so much more to the point than you would be in an email or an interview or a conversation or this and that.

Mark David Gerson:  Well that’s true, it’s a great training for being concise, and also for being creative in your abbreviations.

Dr. Kent:  So let’s talk about your book, especially the Voice of the Muse where it’s talking about something that I’m very familiar with, which is authors starting out, authors getting published, and what you were just talking about, which is getting into places like Twitter and saying, “Hey, here I am,” as an author.

Mark David Gerson:  Sure.  Well, the book, both my books, the other book is a novel called the Moonquest, both books (inaudible) to me, I didn’t sit down one morning and say I’m going to write a book on writing, or I’m going to a fantasy novel.  They both just kind of snuck up on me, hit me over the head and dragged me to the computer, or the blank page, because part it was in longhand. I’ve been teaching writing, giving writing workshops, coaching writers for 15 years now, and out of all the wisdom I guess I had accumulated, which was mostly wisdom from me, because you know we do teach what we need to learn, and I think that is certainly true for me.  It found itself onto the page, and before I knew it I had a book that I’m very grateful to say (inaudible).

Dr. Kent:  And you are also a sound author in two ways, and I find it interesting on your website you have a title on the left side that says sound healing.  And that’s very similar to sound authors, I like that punk.  You’ve put out a lot of audio CD’s as well.  Talk about your work, and what you do every day.

Mark David Gerson:  Sure.  Well, just briefly, the sound healing is something I have not, I don’t do a whole lot anymore, but I did regularly for a couple of years. It’s a form of energy healing, like reiki is, where I use the sound of my voice instead of my hands.  I used to do a lot of teleconferences and live events and recordables, and those are a combination of kind of sound healing and guided meditation, and I do have a lot of CD’s, and they’re on my website.  But my kind of daily routine right now is working on a sequel to my novel, The Moonquest, and my daily routine really is a writing routine.  I write almost every day.  My goal is to write every day, but I cut myself some slack, so as long as I’m writing 4 or 5 or 6 days a week, I’m satisfied.  I tend to write in the mornings for a number of reasons.  One is, it’s nice to have it done. Not that it’s a horrible thing to do, but writers tend to be very distractible, writers can be really amazing procrastinators, writers can find really all kinds of awful things to do that somehow seem much more interesting in the moment than writing.  I find that if I get the writing done early in the day I don’t waste my time looking for things to do to avoid writing.  That’s part of it.  The other reason is that I find that writing does something to me, does something for me, it really shifts my mood and my energy in the morning, and I generally have a better day because I had written, not because I’ve done, I’ve gotten it over with, but because I’ve had the experience of writing, of connecting with that deep part of myself to let the story out. So I always start my day writing if I can.  And the rest of the day is whatever it is.

Dr. Kent:  It’s such an interesting thing, because different writers have different processes, and I’ve heard from many writers that they like to get up at dawn and do their few minutes of writing.  What’s your process?

Mark David Gerson:  I’m sorry, what was the question?

Dr. Kent:  What’s your process?  Do you get up at dawn and write a few minutes? Do you sometimes write all day long? What’s your process for writing?

Mark David Gerson:  Right, well, I don’t like getting up, period. So getting up at dawn is never fun, but I do do it sometimes.  I try to get up, and I have the advantage, most of the time I’m living on my own, I mean, it’s bad in some respects, but not in others, so that I can get up when I want and write when I want.  I have a 9 year old daughter who’s with me sometimes, and that changes the routine when she’s here, but for the most part I get up about 6 or 7 in the morning, and sometimes I will actually write in bed.  I have a laptop in the bedroom and I’ll just plop it on my lap and just get going.  But the days that I’m going to write all morning, I usually get up and do my stuff, and have my breakfast, and then sit down and just go at it for 1, 2, 3 or 4 hours.  I don’t usually write all day.  I think that would be really awesome to be able to, I’ve got other things going on in my life that sometimes makes it difficult to do.  But (inaudible).  I don’t write at night for the most part.  I know a lot of writers do. I’m just too fried at the end of the day to really be in a place where I can write, although I have.  It’s just not my preference.

Dr. Kent:  And we’re having just a little bit of technical difficulty, I think we lost you there for one second, but we got you back, so that makes me happy.

Mark David Gerson:  Good.

Dr. Kent:  Now, you’ve also written The Moonquest, and you won an “IPPY”, which is an Independent Publisher Book Award, a great honor, and a number of other awards. Tell us about that book, and are you doing a follow up to that, tell us about what you’re working on.

Mark David Gerson:  Sure.  Well, I’m very pleased and proud to (inaudible) award, won an “IPPY” gold medal last year, and it also won a New Mexico book award.  (inaudible) …really gratifying.  When I wrote the book I didn’t know I even had it in me.  The story is a fantasy, obviously, that takes place in a time and a place in a land where stories have been banned.  Storytellers have been banished or put to death, and the land, you may have no visions, songs, creativity, anything like that.  The legend in this land is that the moon was so saddened by the silence that she cried tears that extinguished her life, so the moon has not been seen for many generations. So The Moonquest is a quest story to restore the light of the moon and bring stories back to land.  It’s (inaudible) because I don’t think I could have done it that way, I think it really is a wonderful metaphor for a creative block and breaking through our creative blocks, it truly was for me in writing this story was a breakthrough of a creative block for me.  And right now I’m working on a sequel, which is tentatively titled The Star Quest. It seems to me as though it’s going to be a trilogy. Not a conventional trilogy because the second book is really about the daughter of the main character of the first book, who is already dead by the time the second book begins, so it’s more of a generational thing than a trilogy.  But that’s what I’m working on right now, and that’s what I’m working on every morning when I’m writing, for the most part, if I’m not working on a couple blogs. Some mornings I’m actually working on those.

Dr. Kent:  Tell us where we can find your books and CD’s.

Mark David Gerson:  Absolutely. The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write, and there’s also a companion 2-CD set, a recorded guided meditation called The Voice of the Muse Companion, and The Moonquest, all available through Amazon.  They’re also available through the publisher at www.lightlinesmedia.com, and the two books, not the CD, are available through other online retailers, and in some bookstores across the US (inaudible). And people can find me on the website at markdavidgerson.com.

Dr. Kent:  So at markdavidgerson.com we can find out everything, including all the stuff he just said, and information about The Voice of the Muse, and The Moonquest. Thank you so much for chatting with me, and for always tweeting with me online.

Mark David Gerson:  A pleasure Kent, thank you.

Dr. Kent:  Now my next guest on the show is a author and a musician.  We’re going to talk to her in just a minute.  Her name is Janet Paschal.  Come on back.

Posted by admin | Filed Under Publishing, TRANSCRIPTS, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST 

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