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

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

Keith Lee Morris | The Dart League King

April 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Interview with Keith Lee Morris | The Dart League King [16:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

What a great title, and an amazing book! I loved talking about Keith’s childhood in Idaho, and the backstory to his book. More about Keith Lee Morris from the Tin House Books website:

An intriguing tale of darts, drugs, and death.

Russell Harmon is the self-proclaimed king of his small-town Idaho dart league, but all is not well in his kingdom. In the midst of the league championship match, the intertwining stories of those gathered at the 411 club reveal Russell’s dangerous debt to a local drug dealer, his teammate Tristan Mackey’s involvement in the disappearance of a college student, and a love triangle with a former classmate.

The characters in Keith Lee Morris’s second novel struggle to find the balance between accepting and controlling their destinies, but their fates are threaded together more closely than they realize.

Keith Lee Morris is an associate professor of English and creative writing at Clemson University. His short stories have been published in A Public Space, Southern Review, Ninth Letter, StoryQuarterly, New England Review, The Sun, and the Georgia Review, among other publications. The University of Nevada published his first two books: The Greyhound Gods (2003) and The Best Seats in the House (2004). He lives in Clemson, South Carolina.

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Donald Greco | Youngstown Immigrant Tale

March 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Interview with David Greco | Author of Abramo's Gift [9:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In the spirit of another great favorite of mine, Knockemstiff, Abramo’s Gift is a story of a certain time and a certain place. It was a pleasure interviewing Donald Greco. More from Amazon.com:

Product Description
It’s 1918, and Youngstown, Ohio, is brewing with social unrest as Italian and Irish immigrants vie for living space and low-paying jobs in the local steel mills. Amidst the discord, Abramo Cardone arrives from Italy hoping to escape the pain of his wife and child’s deaths. His uncle secures him a job at the steel mill, where he tries to bury his loneliness in work. Instead, he attracts the attention of two Irish men, one who wants to give him a leg up and one who wants to tear him down. In the thick of the violent power struggle that develops, Abramo is offered a wonderful gift-but he’ll have to fight to claim it.

About the Author
Donald Greco, an Irish-Italian, grew up in Youngstown and has lived in Ohio all his life. His novels are about ordinary people with extraordinary stories. The rich history and culture surrounding Ohio’s steel valley inspired Abramo’s Gift.

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

Donald Greco | Author of Abramo’s Gift, Youngstown, Ohio

March 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Dr. Kent: Welcome back to Sound Authors! My next guest on the show is the author of a book called Abramo’s Gift. His name is Donald Greco and welcome to the show!

Donald Greco: Thank you; I’m glad to be here.

Dr. Kent: Tell me a little about this book. Its 1918 and you’re in Youngstown, Ohio. Tell us about the setting of this book.

Donald Greco: All right. Well, an Italian immigrant, the young man, and all the turmoil that was going on at that time; he lost his wife and child in one of the skirmishes that happened over there. So he came to Youngstown Ohio where his uncle lived and his uncle got him a job in one of the steel mills. The whole story is about his adapting to American life and to work life and a city that was at the time against the Italians.

Dr. Kent: What inspired you to turn this into a novel? It’s done quite well.

Donald Greco: Well thank you. My mother was Irish and my father was Italian and that was a big ethnic rivalry in the early part of the 20th century because the Irish had gotten here many years before the Italians and when the Italians came in, many of the mills used to make the Italians underbid the Irish people who were working in the mills. So if an Irishman was working in a mill for $3.00 a day lets say, they’d tell an Italian he could have the job if he could work for $2.00 a day. Then they would fire the Irish guy and hire the Italian guy.

Needless to say, that caused a great deal of animosity and hostility because all those people were trying to feed their families and just make a go of it in this country. My mom and dad when they got married in 1940 it was quite a scandal that an Irishman was marrying an Italian. In fact, my mother, one of her uncles told my mother that she would forever be the black sheep of the family for marrying an Italian. Of course, they’re both gone now, they both died within the last five years. They lived a very happy married life for all that time.

Dr. Kent: Things have changed a whole lot since then. We’re going through a similar economic crisis that we saw in the late 20s and early 30s but times have really changed since then. Paint that picture of the way the world was for these characters you created.

Donald Greco: Okay; when they were living at that time around 1920, first of all there were no social agencies for these people. If you didn’t work, you didn’t eat and you could starve. Things were desperate and also people didn’t live as long in those days as they do today and so it was a tough life that they had because they worked hard in the mills. The mills were dangerous, dirty places but yet, having said all that, today when an Irishman would marry an Italian, if they’re you know how they put brides pictures in the papers; no one cares, it probably doesn’t raise anybody’s interest that an Irishman and Italian are getting married. Same thing would go for say a Lebanese and a German or a Slovak and a Jew. Its one of the great success stories of the 20th century that starting with the very difficult lives that all those people, all those European immigrants had in this country, they found a way to live together and not only did they live together but they intermarried, raise families together and really put a wonderful imprint on this country.

Dr. Kent: You’re background is very interesting. You have a PhD and you were a mathematics professor for many years. What brought you around to Abramo’s Gift?

Donald Greco: Well, all my life I was interested in good stories and when I was a little boy my father and I, the one thing we used to do together more than anything else. My dad used to go up to the local social club on Saturday and they’d play cards and so on and then he’d come home, he’d make it home around 3:00 every Saturday and he and I would drive up to a local library branch that we had. We’d go in there and he’d get his books from the adult side and I’d get my books from the child side and we would talk about the kinds of stories. He would ask me as I was reading the books did I like the story? What kind of story was it?

He was always interested in good stories. He himself loved a great story and he read most of the great classic novels that have been written and I kind of grew up with that. I’ve always liked to write but I have to learn a living and was pretty good at math so I started at a math teacher many years ago and I stayed with it. I earned my living as a mathematics professor but the great love of my life was writing. So I would do that on the side very quietly without anybody knowing it and I produced this novel here is the fourth one that I have written. I’m working on another one now but the other three have not been published. This is the first one to be published.

Dr. Kent: What do you hope people can take away from this book? It’s about some deep culture that we don’t really have around anymore. People like to escape from the world when they read a novel.

Donald Greco: I would like the think when they read my story anyhow; they realize that there are some important things in life besides possessions and besides wealth and so on. I think the most important thing is the existence of a family and the love that exists within that family and how that love sustains everybody that it touches. I think that’s the story that I would like people to remember; that even in difficult times, under difficult circumstances, if people really were part of a loving family it would help get them through. Also that there were people in the story are very what you would call great people but they are very ordinary people. You could be great and yet be ordinary.

Dr. Kent: Wow; well we’ve been speaking with Donald Greco the author of Abramo’s Gift. It’s a beautiful novel from the cover on through. It brings you into another world and I really appreciate you chatting with me today and we can find out more on the web I’m sure. Where can we go to see more?

Donald Greco: I’m in the process right now of developing a website. I naively thought all I had to do is write a book and a good story and everything would take care of itself but I have been interviewed by gracious people like yourself and I realize now that I need a website. So I talked to some young genius and he’s going to put one together for me. Right now I don’t have one. The book is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble but as far as a website, I don’t have it yet.

Dr. Kent: We’ll check you out on Amazon; Abramo’s Gift. Thank you so much for chatting with us about this great novel.

Donald Greco: You’re welcome, thanks Kent.

Dr. Kent: My next guest is going to be Alphie McCourt. He is the author of A Long Stones Throw. He’s the younger brother of the famous McCourt Brothers Frank and Maliki. This is a beautiful memoir to add to his family’s legacy. So we’re going to talk to him in just a minute. Come on back for that.

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