ARCHIVED FEATURE: The Widower

How and why did you start writing fiction?

At a family Christmas party in 1992, I overheard my mother talking with her sister (my aunt) about her garage sale exploits, which were the stuff of family legend. I butted into the conversation and basically did a stand-up comedy routine with my mother as the butt of my jokes. I went on and on about how I’d seen my mother plow through fences, knock over live oaks, grind fifty miles of use off of a set of tires and slaughter helpless chickens in her hyper-dedicated and unnerving quest to get to a garage sale when she chanced upon it. You know the bootlegger 180-turn used on “The Dukes of Hazzard”? My mother invented it! Not really, but stuff like that was the subject of my routine. By the time I had run out of steam and things to say, everybody was laughing it up at Mom’s expense. She took it like a trooper since it was all in good clean fun. A moment later, Mom wagged her finger at me and said, “you know, the way you can spout bullshit off the top of your head like that, you oughta write a book!” Well, I laughed along with everyone else, thinking that comment was her verbal revenge for dissing her like that.

But two weeks later, in January 1993, she showed up unannounced at my door one day with an even-then ancient Amstrad PC-1212-DD personal computer. “You laughed off what I said, but I was serious,” she said of her gift. “You’ve got a good gift for telling stories and it would be a shame to waste it. So use this computer and think of something to write. It doesn’t matter what you write, just write.” So I took her advice and haven’t looked back.

Why romances?

I was quite overweight in school and I couldn’t get a girl’s attention or a date even under threat of blackmail—although I would never resort to that! So while I was goofing around with the computer as I was learning to run it, I wrote romances as a way of being successful—in my mind, anyway—with women. The male leads of all my books are basically based on myself and how I’d react to a given situation, and it’s a good way of coming to grips with my angst-riddled past while having fun spinning an interesting story.

Are all your books romances?

No. I have written seven books to date and The Widower is the fifth book written, even though it’s the second one published. The Guilty Ones, my third book written and third book published—due to debut in the fall of 2006—is a comedy looking at the car guy’s Ford vs. Chevy debate. Two Roads to Reunion is a historical drama and is currently being considered by my publisher. If accepted, it’ll debut in the fall of 2007.

Your books seemed to be spaced to come out one year after the other. Are you doing this deliberately, and if so, is it for a specific reason?

Yes and yes. I hope to become a nationally known fiction author on par with Stephen King, Anne Rice or the late John Steinbeck. One book’s sales should be tapering off just in time for the next one to debut. This keeps my name in front of fiction readers without over-saturating the market or the people who buy fiction novels. I hope to give up my 9-to-5 job and make a comfortable living as a fiction author, living solely on my royalty checks.

What, if anything, inspired you to write The Widower? Are you widowed?

No. I’m not widowed, but my father is; my mother died in 1999 and never saw any of the books she urged to me write get published. The inspiration for writing The Widower came from watching the news. I saw a report of a man that died in a private airplane crash, just minutes after accepting his plane back from a mechanic that had just finished the airplane’s legally required annual inspection. I changed some of the specifics in my mind, going from a mechanic and his customer to a husband working on his wife’s vehicle for her. Then I added a protagonist in the form of a scheming brother-in-law that falsely accused his sister’s husband of murdering her for her estate and insurance payout. This laid out the book’s basic plot and I fleshed out the characters from there.

How long did it take you to write this book?

About four months of after work and weekend time. Although I’m college educated, I work in an unskilled blue-collar factory position and I occupy my mind with composing book text and dialogue while my hands drone about their tasks on autopilot. When I get off work for the day, I go home and transcribe that shift’s thoughts and text into my computer.

If The Widower should happen to be selected to become a major Hollywood motion picture, which actors would you want to star in which major roles?

For the male lead Jake Ambrose, I’d like to see either George Clooney, from the movie “Intolerable Cruelty” and TV’s “ER”, or David Ducovney, from the movie “Evolution” and TV’s “The X-Files.” For the female lead Melissa Saunders, I could only accept Alicia Witt, from the movie “Two Weeks Notice” and TV’s “Cybill.” She’s a natural redhead that has the talent, complexion, attractiveness and big brown eyes the role requires to match the text of the book, and she is in the proper age range when compared to Clooney and Ducovney. For the role of Melissa’s mother Catherine Saunders, I’d like Julianna Moore from the movie “Evolution,” or Marg Hershberger from TV’s “CSI.” Both are beautiful and talented natural redheads to match the text in the book. For Melissa’s brother Larry Saunders, I would request the red-haired man that played the ditzy brother of Christopher Titus on the short-lived TV show “Titus.” (Sorry, but I don’t remember the man’s name.) Jake and Melissa’s boss Doria Weston would be played by any one of the four female stars of the BET series “Girlfriends.” Doria’s business partner Nancy Heileman would be played by Poppy Montgomery of TV’s “Without a Trace.”

Let’s say you just received a huge royalty check. What would your plans be?

Please list all your completed books to date, in the order they were written.

The Path of Healing was first, followed by Wishes and Revenge. Next is The Guilty Ones and Better Late Than Never is the sexually charged romance I mentioned earlier. My fifth book written is my second book published and the one we’ve been discussing here, entitled The Widower. My sixth book is another sexually charged romance entitled Old Flame, Rekindled. Lastly, Two Roads to Reunion is book number seven. Book two will be submitted to my primary publisher in the future, and books four and six will most likely be self-published and offered through my website (and advertised on Wickedly Yours.com) as funds permit. I already have a signed contract in hand for book three, and my publisher is currently has book seven under consideration.

I presume you intend to write more books. Can you tell us about them?

Sure. I have pretty firm concepts rattling around in my head for at least three more fiction novels. One is entitled Around The Circle Again, another is called The Cougar Convertible. A third book idea currently doesn’t have a working title yet, but that’s not a problem since I’m going to write the previous two books first. I also have a nebulous and unformed idea for a fiction novel that I might call Acts of Kindness. I just struck on that book concept while driving home from grocery shopping and thinking of the unobtainable girl of my dreams from high school.