Getting to Know Fellow Indie Andrew Watts

It's been a bit since we've had time together, oh patient readers.  While I'm busy plugging away on my next release, I thought it would be a good time to share another author interview with you.  He's a former Navy pilot with his first novella release, so he's got an interesting story to tell on both the reality side and the creative side.

But enough from me.  Let's open the door for Andrew Watts to weave the threads together about his intricate CIA thriller.  Welcome, Andrew!

DAB:   Was there a point in your life that prompted your desire to write or have you always wanted to be an author? 

AW:     I have always liked telling stories.  When I was a kid in the 80s, I used to use my dad’s super technology – the VHS video camera – to make movies with my cousins or other kids in the neighborhood.  I loved reading as I got older and when I was on my last deployment, on board an aircraft carrier deployed to the Middle East, I decided to start writing fiction as a hobby.  I’m out of the military now, and a few people encouraged me to try self-publishing.

DAB:   I remember those old cameras!  How did your ten-year stint in the Navy influence the writing of your novella?

 

AW:     I am writing with the knowledge and experience of my ten year career in the Navy.  I have seen a lot of interesting situations.  For instance, I flew missions supporting the rescue of Captain Philips when he was taken hostage by Somali pirates in 2009.  Flying on night vision goggles while Seal Team Six is below you on high-speed inflatable boats is pretty exciting.  I am hoping to bring some of that excitement to my stories.

DAB:   Heck, yeah!  Where did you come up with the idea for The War Planners?

AW:     I loved Red Storm Rising, by Tom Clancy.  I also loved the movie Red Dawn (the original, not the remake!)  The USSR was a great empire-villain for stories.  Today, I think there is only one country that has the capability to serve that role in a military thriller, and that is China.  You always read stories about the Chinese conducting cyber attacks on our military and building up their own military.  It’s a bit strange, considering the huge economic ties our two countries have.  But for fiction, they make the perfect stand-in villain.  (Even though I’ve been to China, and have nothing but nice things to say about the actual people there!)  I had written several chapters for different stories about how China could attack the United States.  Then I decided to play around with the some fun ideas on how it would all begin, if it ever did happen…

DAB:   Sounds like something I'd love to read...when I can find the time.  Tell us about the moment you received your first real fan correspondence.

 

AW:     Well, as a new author, I have yet to receive fan mail from someone that I don’t know.  But I have had a few total strangers sign up for my email list.  It was the same day that I ran a FKBT promo.  I sold 50 books that day, by far my best sales day.  I was thrilled.  But I can honestly say that I was even more excited when I got an email telling me that someone had signed up for my email list.  I looked at the name and didn’t recognize them.  That meant that they had read my book and liked it enough to want to hear about my next one! 

DAB:   That's always a great feeling.  When I write, I have particular composers and music that gets me in the mood for certain scenes and characters.  Have you ever written to music?

AW:     I almost always listen to music when I write.  I often listen to Pandora channels of movie soundtrack composers that I like.  My favorite right now: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ music.  They did the soundtracks for The Social Network and Gone Girl.  Great stuff.

DAB:   There's the eternal debate whether to outline or not.  What is your preference?

AW:     I wrote a detailed outline for The War Planners.  I have also outlined my next work, but it is less detailed.

DAB:   Panster here!  Usually authors are also avid readers - what are you currently reading?

 

AW:     I am reading Swag, by Elmore Leonard. 

DAB:   What’s the best thing about being an author?  The most difficult?

 

AW:     The best thing about being a self-published author is the freedom to choose every detail of your work.  The most difficult thing for me is time management.  I have a full time job and three kids under six years old.  So I try to write at night and on weekends when I get chance.  It forces you to maximize the time that you do have. 

DAB:   And then some, huh?  What are some things you’ve done to get the word out about your novel(s)?

AW:     I have tried a little of everything (at least everything that I’ve heard of).  Facebook posts, Facebook ads, Google Display Network, Goodreads ads, joining and posting on Goodreads groups, posting on Kboards, running ads on FKBT and a few other email lists.  I have requested reviews and author interviews from bloggers.  Oh and I have run Amazon’s KDP select promos and ads.  I am learning what works and what does not, and keeping a careful list to track ROI.  Next time I will be much more focused.

DAB:   Well when you get that next novel published try BookBub too.  Care to tell us what is next on your writing horizon?

 

AW:     I am working on the sequel to The War Planners.  Title TBD.  But I’m hoping to launch it in April.

DAB:   Now’s your chance – give us the final plug for your novel.

AW:     David is kidnapped by the CIA and thrown on a jet.  The CIA operatives tell him about a Chinese plot to attack the United States.  They need his help to figure out how the Chinese are going to do it.  But when he gets to the remote island base where they will plan the attacks, he learns that all is not as it seems…   

Thank you again, Andrew, for stopping by and sharing with us about your exciting-sounding novella.  I hope to have a chance to read it later this year...someday.  In the meantime, dear readers, check out the book blurb and pick up a copy of your own by clicking on AMAZON.

Book Blurb:

The Chinese economy is faltering. Civil unrest threatens the Communist leadership’s grip on power. But

where some see a crisis, others see an opportunity…

A CIA operative in Shanghai transmits two earth-shattering revelations to his contacts in Langley, and then goes missing. First, the U.S. government has been infiltrated with Chinese spies. Second, an inner circle of Chinese leaders have set in motion plans to do the unthinkable – to invade the United States of America.

Lena Chou is one of the few U.S. officials who knows the truth. She must put together a top-secret task force to help America’s government prepare for what will come. Now, in order to covertly plan the defense of the United States, Lena has gathered a Red Cell, a group of experts that will plan how China could best attack it.

David Manning is one of those experts. After he is abruptly taken to the covert island base where the Red Cell is being held, Lena presents the group with evidence of China’s imminent attack. But while the Red Cell plans for war, David suspects that something about this gathering of minds is terribly wrong…

Author Bio:

Andrew Watts graduated from the US Naval Academy in 2003 and served as a naval officer and helicopter pilot until 2013. During that time, he flew counter-narcotic missions in the Eastern Pacific and counter-piracy missions off the Horn of Africa. He was a flight instructor in Pensacola, FL, and helped to run ship and flight operations while embarked on a nuclear aircraft carrier deployed to the Middle East.  Today, he lives with his family in Ohio.  Check out his website for contact information and more.

A Walk Down Memory Lane With Molly Best Tinsley

I promised, so I'm delivering. 

Today I have the pleasure of taking you back to the Naval Academy and introducing you to to our next guest via Tribute Books and Fuze Publishing.  She is not only an author of fiction, but a playwright, and brings to us today a memoir that is very near and dear to her heart and mine - walking a loved one through the unwinding of a life via Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.  Please welcome to the blog, a guest post by Molly Best Tinsley!

"After fifteen years of writing fiction, I was enticed into trying my hand at playwriting when I heard about a contest for one-act plays.  I wound up crafting a dramatic piece based on the strange language that was taking over my mother's mind - the product of dementia, it was bizarre and nonsensical, yet poetic, and like a poem, it hummed with hints of hidden meaning.  The play, "The Hummingbird's Nest," was produced as part of the Source Summer Festival of New Plays, and the woman cast in the role of my mother was truly awesome.  In fact when the awards for the festival were doled out, she won for best actress.  The experience was enough to hook me on the collaborative play-making process.

Sometimes, though, your creative spirit just wants to withdraw and work alone.  You want to have a narrator to bridge the gaps and plumb the depths of a story; you want to be able to design your own scenes, costumes, and atmosphere, without regard to a production budget.  The appeal of the theatre's extroverted world dims; the dependency on producers, directors, and actors feels, well, too dependent.  Thus during the recent years of making plays almost exclusively, I've gone back several times to writing narrative.  Notably, the first time was to tell the whole story of which "The Hummingbird's Nest" had been only a part.

Entering the Blue Stone (Fuze Publishing, 2012) takes you into the vortex of organic brain disease.  Our father was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease at the same time that our mother began manifesting Alzheimer's symptoms, and my siblings and I had to act fast in order to prevent them from totally going down the tubes.  Our solution was a continuing care facility.  Soon after they were admitted, we became convinced we had stepped through the looking glass - the administrators had lost their minds while those with diagnosed dementia exemplified grace and a certain common sense.

In Entering the Blue Stone, my aim was to stick as close as I could to real events.  What kept me writing was the desire to document my family's experience with an end-of-life institution and question its assumptions about old age.  Diminished cognition must not equate with diminished humanity.

I'm currently at work on the first draft of an entirely different sort of narrative, a spy thriller, "Hotel Limbo," sequel to Satan's Chamber (Fuze Publishing 2009), of the same genre, which I co-wrote with Karetta Hubbard.  Instead of bringing coherence to my own life, I've plunged into issues and settings I knew virtually nothing about when I began.  Karetta and I knew only that we wanted to foreground the global issue of human trafficking.  Although the facts of the book come from research, in a plot-driven story they don't just speak for themselves; they must be deployed in ways that create mystery, suspense, surprise.  Unlike my memoir, I don't know yet exactly how this story will end.  That's what keeps me writing - I'm curious to find out."

Thanks so much to Molly for visiting the blog and writing about such an important topic.  My own dear grandfather suffered from Alzheimer's, and I watched with agony as my grandmother, mother, and her siblings had to deal with the emotional turmoil it brought as they grieved the mental loss of a loved one while still caring for the remaining physical needs.  A dear older friend of mine cared for his beloved wife, suffering for twenty-three years through Alzheimer's.  He meticulously applied her make-up and fixed her hair every day because he knew how important looking nice had been to her.  The grace with which he treated her lingers with me still today, even though they are both now gone.

So to end, I raise a glass to all of the caregivers - both family and friends - who give so much of themselves to see loved ones through the end of this life.  Thank you for the memories, Molly Best Tinsley!

Entering the Blue Stone Summary:
What happens when one's larger-than-life military parents - disciplined, distinguished, exacting - begin sliding out of control?  The General struggles to maintain his invulnerable facade against Parkinson's disease; his lovely wife manifests a bizarre dementia.  Their three grown children, desperate to save the situation, convince themselves of the perfect solution:  an upscale retirement community.  But as soon as their parents have been resettled within its walls, the many imperfections of its system of care begin to appear.

Charting the line between comedy and pathos, Molly Best Tinsley's memoir, Entering the Blue Stone dissects the chaos at the end of life and discovers what shines beneath:  family bonds, the dignity of even an unsound mind, and the endurance of the heart.

Purchase her books at:

Amazon paperback:
http://www.amazon.com/Entering-Blue-Stone-Molly-tinsley/dp/098499081X?tag=tributebooks-20

Fuze Publishing paperback:
http://fuzepublishing.com/books?fpcat=non-fiction-book

Amazon Kindle:
http://www.amazon.com/Entering-Blue-Stone-ebook/dp/B007ZI429K?tag=tributecooks-20

Barnes&Noble.com Nook:
http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=dcSBhG3Rj8w&subid=&offerid=239662.1&type=10&tmpid=8432&RD_PARM1=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.barnesandnoble.com%252Fw%252Fentering-the-blue-stone-molly-best-tinsley%252F1110598899%253Fean%253D2940014469494

Molly Best Tinsley's Bio:
Air Force brat Molly Best Tinsley taught on the civilian faculty at the United States Naval Academy for twenty years and is the institution's first professor emerita.  Author of My Life with Darwin (Houghton Mifflin) and Throwing Knives (Ohio State University Press), she also co-authored Satan's Chamber (Fuze Publishing) and the textbook, The Creative Process (St. Martin's).  Her fiction has earned two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Sandstone Prize, and the Oregon Book Award.  Her plays have been read and produced nationwide.  She lives in Oregon, where she divides her time between Ashland and Portland.

Connect with her through Fuze Publishing at:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fuze-Pbulishing-LLC/297440248596
https://twitter.com/#!/fuzepublishing
http://www.fuzepublishing.com/
http://fuzepublishing.wordpress.com/

http://enteringthebluestone.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tribute-Books-Blog-Tours/242431245775186

Visit the Naval Academy with Kathleen Toomey Jabs

Okay readers - time to polish those brass buttons and spit shine those shoes until we can see our reflections.  We're going to be celebrating Navy week here at the blog (cue marching band).  Yes, this week I have the pleasure of hosting not one but two Naval officers!

And of course, they're also talented writers.  Celebrating the recent release of her first novel, BLACK WINGS, please welcome to the blog Kathleen Toomey Jabs!

DAB:  Tell us about the time when you first realized you wanted to be a published author.

KTJ:   In the late 1980's, I was enrolled in a Naval Academy creative writing course taught by Molly Tinsley (co-founder of FuzePublishing, http://www.fuzepublishing.com/ ).  I absolutely loved the course, and one of the short stories I wrote in that class, "Lifeguard" won a contest and was published in a literary journal.  I was ecstatic and I was hooked.  When I graduated from the Naval Academy in 1988, I owed the Navy five years of service so I put my dream on hold for a while, but I never lost it.

DAB:  What prompted BLACK WINGS' premise?

KTJ:   I entered the Naval Academy in 1984, the eighth class to accept women.  I had no idea what I was getting into or what military life entailed.  For a long time, I didn't write about the military or set my stories in military settings, but once I started, I kept going.  I loved exploring the world of girl/women trying to navigate their way through the military training as they chased different dreams.

I worked on a series of short stories centered on women at the US Naval Academy for almost two years before I started on BLACK WINGS.  After so many drafts, I'd finally found the voice for Bridget Donovan, the main character in BLACK WINGS, but I didn't have the whole conflict.  One day I had a vision of a female pilot crashing into the sea.  I also had the line, "Audrey Richards always wanted to fly," come to me.  I needed to understand what had happened to Audrey and why she had crashed and it kept going back to her time at the Academy.  I was also fascinated by the whole aviation world.

The title, BLACK WINGS is both a reference to a physical object and a metaphor.  In the Navy, people who are warfare qualified, such as aviators, wear a device on the pockets of their uniforms.  In shorthand, the aviator device is referred to as "wings."  Throughout the novel Audrey is confronted with sets of black wings, which are meant to scare her away from flying.

DAB:  How long did it take to craft BLACK WINGS?  Describe that experience for our audience.

KTJ:   The entire process of writing, rewriting, sending out, revising, and finally, publication took 10 years!  I started with a short story and a character, Bridget Donovan.  After about two years, I enrolled at George Mason University in the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program because I wanted deadlines, structure and feedback.  BLACK WINGS was my thesis (although it wasn't called BLACK WINGS back then and that early version is structured much differently).  I revised my thesis for another two years then sent it off to an agent who had contacted me after a short story had been published.  The agent was encouraging, suggested I rename it BLACK WINGS and asked for a few more revisions.  I felt like I was flying!

I made some edits, he sent it off and it was quickly rejected by five publishers.  The agent suggested more tightening, which I did, then he lost interest.  I was devastated.  I started shopping around for another agent.  I made more revisions, but I couldn't get any serious or sustained interest.

After a year or so of rejection as well as outright silence, I put the novel (literally) in a drawer.  It stayed there for 2 years.  I felt like Edgar Allen Poe's character in "The Telltale Heart" - instead of a beating heart, I had a failed dream, knocking at my conscience.

One day I reconnected with Molly Tinsley, my former Naval Academy professor, on Facebook.  She had a new book out, which I quickly ordered.  As we were catching up, I mentioned my failed novel and she offered to read it and give me an honest assessment.  She loved the characters and wanted to publish it with Fuze.  The stipulation was:  more edits, a tightening of prose.  I signed up for it all.  I was working full-time so I had to do most of my editing and revising on weekends.  That took about two years.  The Fuze team was incredibly helpful throughout the process.  BLACK WINGS was published in December 2011, almost ten years to the day I started.

DAB:  You've probably heard the saying "write what you know".  Besides writing mysteries, do you read a lot of the mystery genre as well, or is there another genre you prefer?

KTJ:   I do love mysteries and read a lot of them, but I also love literary fiction, particularly layered stories and historical fiction.  I'm fascinated by time and the influence of the past on the present.

DAB:  Do you have a daily writing regimen, and if so, please tell us about it.

KTJ:   When I was working on BLACK WINGS, I set a limit of 1000 words a day.  I didn't do anything else until I hit my limit.

DAB:  There's the eternal debate whether to outline or not.  What typically works best for you?

KTJ:   I outlined AFTER I had completed my first draft so I could see what subplots were where and how they might need to be tightened or deleted in future versions.  I also used it to figure out where I needed more attention.  I hate writing the first draft, but I've learned I just need to start writing because I will end up revising everything anyway.

DAB:  Is there a character in BLACK WINGS with whom you closely identify?

KTJ:   I'm closest to Bridget and some of Bridget's early adventures or mishaps during plebe summer at the Naval Academy are drawn from my real life experiences.  Bridget is not a particularly squared away plebe when she arrives at the Academy and neither was I, but Bridget is also different from me.  I'm not as brave or as mouthy as she is!  Through her experiences I was able to do and say things I wished I had.  It was incredibly freeing.

DAB:  What is it like for you when you receive fan correspondence?

KTJ:   Fan correspondence is really gratifying - after so many years working on BLACK WINGS it's a true joy to know it's out in the world.

DAB:  What's next on your writing horizon?

KTJ:   I am jotting notes and thinking up ideas for another adventure for Bridget!

DAB:  Thank you so much for stopping by the blog.  Please take a moment and give us a blurb on BLACK WINGS.

KTJ:   Thank you for having me on the blog!  It's an honor to be here.

"We'll start with the easy questions first," Wilkinson said.  He knelt beside her and taped a red wire probe to her right forearm.  "We have to establish a base line."  He placed green wires on her left arm and looped them into a pad on her fingertip attached to the lie detector machine.  She avoided looking at the wires and studied the faint blue-green streaks of her veins.  A trickle of sweat leaked down her back.  She tapped the armrest with her right finger, and the wires began to shake.

And there you have it, dear readers - straight from the Captain's mouth.  BLACK WINGS sounds like my kind of story, and I look forward to reading it this weekend.  Pick up a copy at the links below:

Amazon paperback
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0984141278?tag=tributebooks-20

Fuze Publishing paperback
http://fuzepublishing.com/books?fpcat=fiction-book

Amazon Kindle
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006KJ198W?tag=tributebooks-20

Barnes&Noble Nook
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/black-wings-kathleen-toomey-jabs/1107953608

BLACK WINGS Summary:
LT Bridget Donovan suspects the worst when her former Naval Academy roommate, Audrey Richards, perishes in a botched take-off from an aircraft carrier.  The Navy says it's an accident, but facts don't add up.  Could it be suicide, or murder?  Donovan's unofficial investigation into what really happened, both during their past Academy days and in Richards' final hours, forces her to examine the concepts of honor, justice and the role of loyalty in pursuit of those ideals.

Kathleen Toomey Jabs' Bio:
Kathleen Toomey Jabs is a 1988 graduate of the United States Naval Academy.  She served on active duty for six years and is currently a Captain in the Navy Reserve.  She holds an MA from the University of New Hampshire and an MFA in Creative Writing from George Mason University.  Her stories have been published in a number of literary journals and received several prizes, including selection in the National Public Radio Selected Shorts program.  She lives with her husband and two children in Virginia.

Contact Kathleen via:
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/KathleenToomeyJabs
Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13577208-black-wings

Follow her blog tour with Tribute Books

http://black-wings-mystery.blogspot.com/