Cam King | Amplified

September 18, 2009 | Comments Off

Dr. Kent: Welcome back to Sound Authors. And we’re talking today to a great musician and a co-author of a book called Amplified, and it’s fiction from leading alt, country, indie rock, blues and folk musicians. Welcome to the show, Cam King.

Cam King: Thanks, Dr. Kent, it’s great to be here.

Dr. Kent: Tell me about this book. Did you know this many of your co-musicians had written fiction?

Cam King: No, I mean, the idea of being a fiction writer, it’s not that far fetched from song writing, and I had written in one form or another, either as a whim or a form of expression for a good portion of my life. I think a lot of people who are songwriters probably have that urge to express themselves in some form other than the three minute song or ballad or whatever. But it was, it was a great honor to be included in this collection.

Dr. Kent: Well, and I mean, your writing style is fantastic, you could write a whole novel, I love it. I mean, from the very beginning, you know, the first word of your essay is “Clump.”

Cam King: “Clump,” yes, well, that’s pretty much the sound an armadillo makes when it hits your oil pan.

Dr. Kent: Now, having lived in the south, I’ve seen many dead armadillos, but I’ve never heard that sound. Have you heard that sound?

Cam King: I’m afraid I have. I have never, I never hit an armadillo in my life until after the book was written, and I was traveling on a section of road, which I describe in the book, in the story. And I was just, it was late at night and I was just thinking to myself, this is where I wrote the part where, “clump,” and all of a sudden something went bam on my left tire, and I knew exactly what it was. First it broke my heart, because I don’t like hurting critters. And the second thing, it scared the hell out of me because I wrote that, and I know how the story ends, and, you know. Kind of gives you a pause there for a moment.

Dr. Kent: Well, yeah, and the story’s called Road Kill. You know, what is the difference between, you know, writing prose and writing a song?

Cam King: Well, for me, speaking for myself, they both come from a very similar place. And a lot of it takes place either behind the wheel on the motorcycle, or engaged in some activity that allows the mind to focus on a function and yet the higher functions allow you to escape the confines of the earth and draw from the ether, I would say. A lot of my songs have come to me behind the wheel when I’ve got other things on my mind, or when my mind is empty. But the connection between the music and the short story, I would say for me they both come from a similar place, and it usually takes some catalyst to push it in one direction or the other. This story, Road Kill, which I’ll be very brief, is just a story of a red neck who loves to run over armadillos, and in my world the critters always win. I tell people it’s sort of a Stephen Cam King hill country horror story, so that kind of throws it all together there. The idea actually came to me because I drive the very roads that I describe in the short story. I’m from Albuquerque, New Mexico. I live in the hill country of Central Texas in the little German town of Fredericksburg. It’s ten hours from Albuquerque, and I travel there every couple of months to take care of the boys with home and my mother. And during those long hours on the road, ideas come to me, either in the form of this story, or in the form of a song.

Dr. Kent: And how does this, you know, and you can speak for the others with this as well. How does writing this, actually it’s a gorgeous book called Amplified, and how does this affect your singing career and playing career?

Cam King: I haven’t really, I haven’t seen a direct correlation. Other than the fact that the, when the book came out we had a wonderful gathering in Nashville with myself, John Weinford, Mary Gothie, Roddy Folks, and Dave Olne. We were all roughly Nashville based players. I actually came in from Texas for the event. But we were able to have a book reading at a local book store just down the street from the world famous Bluebird Café where everybody showcases their music in Nashville, and the editors, and the people who’s idea was the book, which was Steven Horowitz and his wife Julie Shafer. They came in from St. Paul, and we had a wonderful gathering, and I was extremely impressed with the readings done by my fellow writers. And we retired to the Bluebird afterwards and had a wonderful night of music playing songs that in my case were connected to the story, and others. It was, so to answer your question, I don’t know career wise how this has affected any of my other writers. I know for me it’s been a wonderful adjunct to my writing, and as an experience in itself it’s been a wonderful thing, and it’s given me the impetus to continue my writing and also seek new avenues for the stories that I do write.

Dr. Kent: Absolutely. Well, and you do have the unique honor of, the cover of Amplified is beautifully designed, and right about the title, of course, is a cute little armadillo, a live one.

Cam King: Yeah, yeah. I was, I had nothing to do with that, that was an independent decision made over at Melville House Publishing, a wonderful publishing house. Boy, they have got an incredible catalog, but it was somebody in their graphics department that decided to put the armadillo on the front, and you know, all glory to the armadillo, I was just a catalyst to the story.

Dr. Kent: It must’ve tickled you to see it.

Cam King: It did, of course, but I love the little guys. Like I say, I live I the hill country of Texas, and we do have the armadillos, and they are just a gorgeous sight to watch snuffling around in the yard whenever they turn up, and it’s always a heartbreaker whenever they get hit on the road. But as I described in the first sentence of my book, of my story Road Kill, when they’re startled, and anybody who knows armadillos, they’ll do this, they jump straight up in the air. Very few armadillos are hit with the tire. They usually jump straight up in the air when they’re startled and that’s what gets them.

Dr. Kent: Wow. And you know, your whole career started with a horror movie. Did that have any influence on your story that’s just a little bit of a horror story?

Cam King: Oh, that’s an interesting, I haven’t really considered that, Dr. Kent. I moved to Austin, Texas from Albuquerque in 1975, and brought with me a body of songs that I had written while I was in Albuquerque. And I recorded several of those in a local recording studio to sort of jump start my musical career in Austin and get some people listening to my stuff. And it just so happened that the music director for Toby Hooper who had just finished the Texas Chainsaw Massacre was coming through Austin and visiting studios looking for music for the next movie. And the next Toby Hooper movie was a thing which ended up with several titles: Starlight Slaughter, Eaten Alive, it was a horror movie that really had an interesting cast of characters: Neville Brandt, Stewart Whitman, Carolyn Jones, and a young Robert England who played Freddy Krueger in Nightmare on Elm Street. It was a really weird movie, and they featured four of my songs in there. And that was my first, that was my first foray into the music business per se, with having my songs listened to by a wide audience, but as for its influence on my writing, I really can’t think of a direct correlation. Although being an American male I think I’ve had a love affair with horror movies for a good portion of my life.

Dr. Kent: And there’s a good portion of comedy in the book, and of course in your essay it’s, when it’s violent there’s a little bit of tongue in cheek and you know, what role does humor play in these kind of tall tales, fiction writing?

Cam King: Oh, I mean, you take stories like Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill, and other American classics, I would say my direct, my most direct influence is probably Mark Twain. Because Mark Twain was able to take Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn say very scathing and indicting things about America at the time. About our patriarchal racism, the injustice, the brutishness of the frontier mentality, and he was able to write that in such a funny way that everybody laughed and then they thought about it, you know.

Dr. Kent: Yep.

Cam King: And for me, it’s only one way of doing it, and for this story it served its purpose, to tell a story that without humor would have been somewhat of a study in macabre sadism, and of course that’s not where my heart is, I just wanted to tell a funny little story, and if you’re going to tell a story like a Grimm’s fairytale where horrible things happen to children and witches and stuff, what better leavening agent than humor. Otherwise it’s truly a grim tale.

Dr. Kent: Exactly. Well, and so the book is called Amplified, it’s fiction from all sorts of folks. What was the process like of editing? You know, there’s all these musicians with these great stories, and how did they choose you? Did they just call you up?

Cam King: Well, I can’t speak directly for the editors, but I can tell you my relation, which enabled this to happen. First of all, I think the author, the editors, Steven and Julie, make it very apparent in the book that they explain that the people that were included in the book were included at their invitation because of their fascination with their music. And Steven is, I think my relation to this election process was a little different. I happened to be an old friend of Steven’s, but it wasn’t strictly old buddy nepotism, the old buddy system that got me in the book. Steven called me and he asked me, he told me what he was doing for the project and asked me if I knew of any Texas writers. He wanted to get some Texas voices in on this thing. And I sat there for a second scratching my chin and I said, “Well, I know one,” and he said, “Who?” And I said, “Moi, tis I, old boy.” And he said, Well, if you’ve got something, send it to me. And he happened to call at a time when I had this story on the burner in my head, and it was partly written. And with the impetus of him suggesting that I submit something, I sat down one afternoon at my nephew’s computer and wrote one of maybe three drafts that I sent off, and Steven responded very favorably. He liked the tone of it, it contrasted very well with some of the other material that was with the book, and so for me it was the same thing as when I got my Garth Brooks cut. It was sort of like, I wrote this thing, can you believe I knocked this one reasonably out of the park. It was Steven’s idea, it was his idea to include it in the selection, and so I have nothing but gratitude for the whole process. I was selected, and I did the best I could with the story, and I’ve got other stories in the works. But this really is a valid, sort of a vindication and a validation of my efforts as a writer. And I’m very grateful to Steven and Julie for the opportunity to be included in the work.

Dr. Kent: So you’ve kind of done the trilogy of important things, you’ve been in a horror film, you’ve been in the Grand Ol’ Opry, and you had a song covered by Garth Brooks.

Cam King: Yeah, Garth Brooks and then Lone Star, can’t forget Lone Star. Those are some important friends of mind in Nashville. The guy who sang that song, my…go ahead. Go ahead, Dr. Kent.

Dr. Kent: Yeah, go ahead. The guy who sang your song?

Cam King: Oh, well, one of the guys who sang my song was Johnny Rich, who was the bass player with Lone Star, and he went ahead to form the duo Big & Rich.

Dr. Kent: Ah.

Cam King: Which is one of the more successful acts coming out of Nashville right now. So I decided to go ahead and include them as coming out of the CD player of my character’s story.

Dr. Kent: Great. Yeah, and so what does it feel like coming out of that very interesting and successful career as a musician, now you’re an official author?

Cam King: Oh, it’s a hoot. It’s wonderful. It’s part of living what I think is a very full and productive life. I am still a songwriter. I am still a musician. I have a podcast in the works called Second Set, which is sort of a highly subjective view of Texas music, which will be thrown out there at some point. I am an active member of my community here in Fredericksburg, Texas. I am an avid woodworker and vegetable grower. It’s so hot right now I’m growing stewed tomatoes and peppers, but being an author in addition to all of this is absolutely wonderful. It rounds the whole thing out and just, just really, a great reason to get up in the morning and think creative thoughts.

Dr. Kent: Well, where can we find out more about you.

Cam King: I have been, I tell people I have been blissfully absent from the Internet. I’m in the songwriter protection program, and I don’t know if you can find me on anonymous.com or what. But I have been somewhat lax in hanging up my web shingle. And I do play with a band called The Freddy Steady Five, and people who want to find out more about me can Google my name, Cam King. They can also find me through Steady Boy records, which is the label belonging to my good friend Freddy Steady Kirch, who’s been my partner in music for 30 some-odd years. We played in a band called The Explosives in 1978. We played with Rocky Erickson and recently did a world tour with him. You can find out through Steady Boy records, Freddy Steady Five, Cam King. It’s one of those spiral things, Dr. Kent, you just kind of fish out there and find little pieces. But maybe in a year or so there’ll be something with my name on it that actually has the whole www attached to it.

Dr. Kent: You never know, by then it might be a different, maybe it won’t be, maybe it’ll be zzz. Www will be gone.

Cam King: (laughter) It probably could be.

Dr. Kent: Well the book is called….

Cam King: You know, it’s interesting, it’s interesting getting to be the author on your show, because normally I’d be the musician, so this is really a…

Dr. Kent: And you are. You are a sound author.

Cam King: …an honor and a change for me.

Dr. Kent: A fine sound author.

Cam King: That’s pretty much it. And I understand you’re a bit of a bluegrass nut yourself. You wrote a book about Doc Watson?

Dr. Kent: I am, I’m actually in the process of that coming out, yeah. I’m a huge bluegrass nut and I love all kinds of music. I love all the musicians that are in this book with you. And I’m not a big fan of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but I’m a fan of the music.

Cam King: You don’t have to be a fan of that.

Dr. Kent: Yeah.

Cam King: Like I said, they came to me, I didn’t come to them. But you know, I’ll take the honors where they land on me. I’ll drop one name at you, I was very lucky in my youth to have met and got to hang with a man who has been a great influence in my life, and that was the late, great Clarence White.

Dr. Kent: Oh my goodness, wow.

Cam King: Yeah. So, I’ll just throw that one bluegrass name at you there.

Dr. Kent: How was that? You hung out with him?

Cam King: One day, when I was in high school.

Dr. Kent: Wow.

Cam King: He was playing with The Birds, they came to Albuquerque. I finagled a day long interview, hung out with Roger McWilliams, Gene Parsons, Clarence White, John York. Also Dwight Axton and the guys in Three Dog Night, and it was pretty much a kid’s dream come true. And Clarence has long been an influence in my life. I got to know his brother Roland in Nashville, and so that’s my…

Dr. Kent: I talked with Roland White about a week ago. Really nice fellow.

Cam King: What a small world, my friend. A small world, indeed.

Dr. Kent: Yeah, and Clarence White, man, that man can play the guitar.

Cam King: He made that Martin speak didn’t he? Of course, I inherited a lot of his telecaster playing, I’m an avid B string bender myself, and it has marked a lot of the work that I’ve done.

Dr. Kent: He just changed the world of music, there’s no question about it. And a fun thing is that Clarence White, of course, hung out with Doc in the early 60’s, it’s fun to think about that.

Cam King: Doc’s influence on Clarence is very evident, but boy, you couldn’t have influenced a better player, could you.

Dr. Kent: Exactly. Well, thank you so much for chatting, it’s been a blast. And the book is called Amplified, and it’s fiction from a whole bunch of folks, and it’s out there everywhere. And you should go to anonymous.org and find Cam King, or Google him at Cam King, that’s C-a-m King. And he’s got some great stuff out there. You can also find him on all sorts of records here and there, or rent Texas Chainsaw Massacre and try and find a circuit queen.

Cam King: Well, Texas Chainsaw Massacre was before me, I came after that, but you can usually find a connection there somewhere.

Dr. Kent: All right, well it’s been great chatting with you, and I hope, I wish you all the success with this book. And I can’t wait to see when your book comes out, it’s the full…

Cam King: Yeah, it’ll be happening. But thanks a lot for your time, Dr. Kent. I don’t know where, between all your music and your writing that you find the time to talk to people like me, but I appreciate you taking the time.

Dr. Kent: All right, we’ll talk to you later.

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

Joseph Flynn | The President’s Henchmen

September 11, 2009 | Comments Off

Interview with Joseph Flynn [14:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

From Joseph Flynn’s website:

I was born, raised, educated, praised, scorned, loved, and shunned in Chicago — and then I took my act on the road. Having endured more frigid winters than I care to think about, I made sure the road led somewhere warm. I’ve lived in Los Angeles, and Honolulu, and Los Angeles again. I loved the warm weather, the blue ocean, and the palm trees. But I didn’t like the isolation of living in the remote reaches of the Hawaiian Pacific. Nor did I like the congestion, smog, and cost of living in L.A. So when my daughter was born, my wife and I thought we could do worse than to raise her in the Midwest, despite the weather. Our decision proved to be correct. Our daughter has grown up to be a happy and brilliant young woman. The Midwest has been a productive place for me to write. And global warming has produced much more moderate winters than the ones I suffered through as a boy.

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

Larry Buttram | The Curtain Torn

September 10, 2009 | Comments Off

Dr. Kent: Welcome back to Sound Authors. It’s a beautiful day out here in New York. The sun is poking through the clouds, which is always nice. And I’ve got another author on the show today. His name is Larry Buttram, and he’s the author of three mystery novels and a book of short stories. And he’s the President of the North Virginia Writer’s Club, and this is his first historical fiction novel called The Curtain Torn. And I can’t wait to talk to him about it. Welcome to the show, Larry.

Larry Buttram: Well, thank you, Dr. Kent. I appreciate your letting me be on today.

Dr. Kent: So tell me about this. What a story, you know, just about this fellow, Robert Carter. Tell me about the story.

Larry Buttram: Well, I think it’s the greatest unknown story to American history. He was one of the richest men in America, this was a couple hundred years ago, and he owned 17 plantations, and he said God told him how evil slavery was and he had to do something about it. So he freed all of his slaves. He freed over 500 slaves, and yet he is virtually unknown to history. I don’t think one person in a thousand knows about him. So, have you ever heard of the guy yourself?

Dr. Kent: No, I hadn’t. And you said he freed 500 slaves. Tell us, how do you, first of all, find a character, and then how do you separate fact from fiction? So tell us the fact, and then how you started to create your historical fiction novel.

Larry Buttram: Well, actually there is information about him if you dig deep enough. His grandfather was King Carter, and he was the richest man in America, he was the first millionaire in America. He owned about 50 plantations, about 1200 slaves, and (inaudible) dealerships and brick yards and lumber yards, and when he died he had about half a million dollars in cash on him. So there has been a lot of things written about King Carter. Now, his grandson Robert, that I wrote about, he was not as well known, obviously, he was 4 years old when his grandfather and his father both died at the same time. So the empire, much of it was put in a trust for him. And when he became older, when he became of age, they turned over half of the empire to him, and he was quite different from his grandfather, because he never felt good about owning other human beings and tried to make life easier for them. But he still, it was later in his life that he, here to me’s the most amazing part, I found two references in my research that shows that he said that he thinks he died, he had a fever and he was delirious, and they thought he was near death, and then he came back and he made comments that he had talked to God. And God told him how evil slavery was, he had to do something about it. So he ended up freeing 50 slaves, and actually he was from Virginia, from Fredericksburg, Virginia, but after he freed his slaves he moved to Baltimore and he donated the land where the Baltimore Courthouse stands today.

Dr. Kent: Wow. And you know, what happens when you take a character that you find and say, man, this is a, like you said at the beginning of the show, this is an untold story, people don’t know about this guy. And then what do you do to put flesh on the bones of it and make it into a book?

Larry Buttram: Well, I’ve spent the last year and a half researching the guy, and there are a couple biographies. One was written in 1940 by a guy who’s name was Morton, and it’s Robert Carter of (inaudible) Hall. And to be honest, I mean, it’s a good book, it’s very informative, but it’s very dry reading. I mean, for somebody to read this book I think they would have to want to or be a descendent or something. So there’s not much emotion in it, and there’s another book written by somebody, it was called the First of (inaudible), two years ago, and I can’t remember the author’s name. But I read both of those books, and I actually went down to, his plantation is still there. I’ve actually been to the plantation. It’s in a little town in Virginia called Mantro, so it’s actually outside of town on the Potomac River on an inlet there. The original house burnt down, but the house that was built in 1850 is still standing, and the graveyard is there, and you can see the graves, and you can see the fields and everything. So you know, going there gives you a sense of what it was like then. So I just started creating the, you know, reading everything I could about the guy, and getting to know him in my own mind. I mean, I feel like I know the guy, but I had to make some changes too, I think this was about 70% accurate. But I had to simplify some things and change a few things here or there. You know, as a writer, to try to make the story flow a little better, does that make sense?

Dr. Kent: Absolutely. Well, and you have done, of course, fiction in the past. We talked I guess about a year ago about your book The Third Generation, and you’ve written fiction in the past. What’s the difference between trying to put a real character into a book that’s readable versus creating the whole story yourself?

Larry Buttram: Well, I think the main thing is the research. I’m sure there’s historians out there that I’m sure know a lot more about Robert Carter than I do, but I have spend the last three years, year and a half researching him now, which I had to do some research for fiction to make it believable, but not this amount. And I created outlines and sifted through tons of information. And then the other part was trying to figure out how to fill in the gaps. Because I mean, if I had to write a story about my own life there would be things that were missing. So you could imagine from somebody from 200 years ago there were parts that weren’t clear that I had to fill in, and then other things had to be sort of condensed, because my feeling, no matter how exciting a life somebody leads, 90% of somebody’s life is filled with the day to day tedious thins that we all have to endure. So I had to get rid of that and condense some things. Like for example, one of the things was he didn’t free his slaves until later in his life, and he had 17 children. And I thought wow, I really don’t want to cover all of his 17 children. To do that research and then to write about them, and mention them is going to distract from the story. So I moved the story, I condensed it a little bit and made it after he’d had one child and you know, you see him earlier in his life, and I think that the story, it flows better. But I have had some people tell me they didn’t like that because people that grew up near his plantation say well this is not 100% accurate.

Dr. Kent: So 500 slaves, the story goes that he freed, that’s a lot of people.

Larry Buttram: Yeah, it is.

Dr. Kent: That’s a whole village.

Larry Buttram: Yeah, yeah. I had somebody comment, “Well, Abraham Lincoln freed those slaves.” And actually, Abraham Lincoln technically didn’t free the slaves because in the emancipation proclamation it was directed toward the states that were in rebellion only, where he had no legal authority. So the war freed the slaves, but as far as one individual, you know, Robert Carter freed 500 slaves, and you know, more than anyone in history. And in my opinion, he should be in all the history books. And you’re familiar with Mount Vernon Plantation, right?

Dr. Kent: Yeah.

Larry Buttram: George Washington’s home, yeah. I was down there last month and I took them a copy of the book and the lady called me and she said, “I’m sorry, we can’t cover this because we just don’t have room for any more books.” And it really kind of irritated me, I mean not for me, but George Washington was a great guy, but he owned slaves, and here’s Robert Carter that he built his whole life, he did something for others to kind of make life better, and he gave up his way of life and all his empire to help people. But yet, she can’t find 6 inches of space in their gift shop to put a book about the guy.

Dr. Kent: I’m intrigued by, you know, this character, he sees Jesus. And you know, at that time in history when white folks went to church they didn’t necessarily think that the black folks had the same God or the same Jesus. You know, it wasn’t necessarily, why did this guy happen to see Jesus and then think about slavery? Talk about the difficult political issues tied up in all that. And religion.

Larry Buttram: Well, it’s a complicated issue, and that’s what I think makes him such an unusual guy. And I thought well, to start at the beginning, I found one reference that he was in a town when some slaves were hung, I think for stealing, something. So he saw some slaves being hung when he was young. And I think that had an impact on him. And also the fact that I think he was four years old when his father and grandfather died within 3 months of each other. No matter how rich you are, that made a real impact on him. I mean, this is my opinion, that it made him start thinking about life and what was there at an early age. And part of it I think is just, inheriting his personality to be considerate of others, so when he became older, he became an adult, he became a very religious man and started attending church and helped set up a church with a young minister in the area. And he went to church with a lot of the blacks and slaves, he attended church with them. And he freed, I mean, he sided with many of his servants, in disputes with the overseers and with the neighbors. I think it’s just a natural extension of all that to you want to do more and to question why God let this situation of slavery exist in the world. Does that make sense?

Dr. Kent: Yeah, and it seems like from our former conversation about your other book, race was also an issue there, and as someone who has lived for a time in the South, race is still an issue, of course.

Larry Buttram: Oh yeah.

Dr. Kent: And it seems like in your writing it plays a heavy role. Talk about race in your own life.

Larry Buttram: You know what’s funny, I’ve never experienced, I mean, I’m white, but when I grew up I lived in a community in East Tennessee that there were no blacks, there were no minorities at all. So I guess the way I look at it is I never saw racism in my life. So I was an adult, and I heard people make comments and so on, but I’d never saw a black person until I was an adult. And then I wondered why is this? You know, to get back to your other question, I don’t think, this is probably a strange statement, but I don’t think racism in this country anywhere is a black and white issue. I think it’s an issue of the human heart, and if you look throughout history, any group of people that have been in power have dominated the others, it doesn’t matter if they’re black or white, or if you talk about what the Egyptians did to the Jews, or what the Germans did to the Jews, or what the Japanese did to the Chinese, or in Canada the French and the English don’t get along sometimes, and I can’t even tell them apart. If you (inaudible), it’s like which is which? But I think it’s just a condition of the human heart that we all have to be aware of, that the ones that are in power think that their way is the best, and you know, and I know this is probably a radical statement, but if it’d been the blacks in power in this country and whites had been in Africa, I think the whites would have been enslaved, so obviously that didn’t happen, but again, I think it’s just a condition of the heart.

Dr. Kent: Yeah. Well, it’s such a pleasure to speak with you about this. I know that folks can find your book online. Do a little self-promotion here.

Larry Buttram: Well, they can go to larrybuttram.com and get it there, or the books can be ordered from Amazon or, I think that Borders and Barnes and Noble, all the books just came out, so they probably don’t have them there, it takes a while to get it through the distributor. Until then, the easiest way is to just go to my website and do it.

Dr. Kent: And the book is called The Curtain Torn.

Larry Buttram: The Curtain Torn.

Dr. Kent: A wonderful story, and Larry Buttram has also put out some wonderful other books, go check those out. I talked with him last time about The Third Generation, and check him out on his website, larrybuttram.com. Thank you so much for chatting with me today.

Larry Buttram: I sure appreciate you letting me be on here, Dr. Thanks a lot.

Dr. Kent: Yeah. My next guest on the show is the essay contest winner Dillon Drake, and he has won a contest out there in Iowa, he’s from Iowa. And I’m going to talk to him about his essay and about the whole project and about his life. So come on back for that, I look forward to it.

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

Jeremy Robinson | Kronos

September 9, 2009 | Comments Off

Interview with Jeremy Robinson [12:34m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Jeremy Robinson (born 1974) is the author of five novels, Pulse (2009), Kronos (2009), Antarktos Rising (2007), Raising the Past (2006) and The Didymus Contingency (2005). He is also the author of two non-fiction titles, POD People - Beating the Print-On-Demand Stigma (2006, Breakneck Books) and The Screenplay Workbook (2003, Lone Eagle Press).

Robinson cites James Rollins as a major inspiration for his writing. He has received praise from James Rollins three times for his novels, The Didymus Contingency, Raising the Past and Antarktos Rising.

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

Allison Sawyer Current | No Urn for the Ashes

September 4, 2009 | Comments Off

Interview with Allison Sawyer Current [11:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Alison Sawyer Current is a writer, a potter, and the operator of the unofficial humane society of Isla Mujeres, Mexico. In 2005, she received The Doris Day Animal Kindred Spirit Award, and in 2007 she was invited to Mexico City for the first Forum on Small Animal Overpopulation in Mexico.

She and her husband Jeff divide their time between Colorado, Canada, and Mexico. They have five grown children.

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

« Previous Page — Next Page »