Interview with irreverent author Claude Bouchard

Tell me about your current work in progress.

 

My current work in progress, entitled Femme Fatale, is the seventh in my Vigilante series and features Leslie Robb, a character who made her debut in the fifth installment. Leslie, a brilliant, gorgeous lesbian and operative with the government’s Discreet Activities group, heads to Paris to vacation with her girlfriend of recent months. However, things go awry when her girlfriend and sister go missing, turning Leslie’s vacation into a clandestine search operation.

ASYLUM (released in 2011) is your first stand alone novel.  Do you plan to write additional solo-books?  

I’ve actually started writing another stand alone, The Last Party, which deals with natural disaster, greed, murder and the stupidity and egotism of mankind. It should be a lot of fun when it’s complete.

What is your favourite thing about writing the VIGILANTE series? 

 It allows me to accomplish things on paper which I could never accomplish in real life due to moral, legal and ethical reasons. It also allows my readers to participate in the fantasy. 

What is the most challenging thing about writing a series? 

The biggest challenge in writing a series is keeping it original and non-repetitious. I’ve done my best to do so by keeping my characters moving forward as well as introducing new ones. Based on reviews, my readers seem to agree that I’ve succeeded in doing so to date. 

Name two authors – living or dead – who influenced you. 

This is not an easy question to answer as I’ve read thousands of books by hundreds of authors and all have influenced me in some fashion. However, the late Alistair MacLean introduced me to thrillers with his amazing war and espionage novels and I loved his tight, to-the-point writing style. Since I only have one choice left, I would have to go with Lee Child and his Jack Reacher series. Though I started reading Child’s work well after having written my first three novels, his stories fall in a similar vein and have confirmed that there is a readership for the wastin’ the bad guys genre.

Voltaire said: “Originality is nothing but judicious imitation.  The most original writers borrowed from one another.”  What are your thoughts on this? 

I think Voltaire borrowed that from someone else. :)

How do you come up with your titles? 

To date, each of the titles for my novels popped into my head before I had written a word. The titles seem to be an attachment to the general idea for each story.

What are your thoughts on the revising and editing process? 

I know that many writers despise revising and editing but I actually enjoy it. I described editing as follows in a blog post I wrote last year: Personally, I enjoy editing. I see a finished first draft as a gem in the rough. It's there, tangible, with its own raw beauty but it needs to be refined to really shine. I examine it closely and chip away this or that unneeded chunk and make some fine cuts here or there. I notice rough spots which I buff and polish until they gleam to my satisfaction. I see a small crack and carefully smooth it over until it's gone. It's meticulous, painstaking but necessary work yet, in my mind, definitely still part of the creation process. Though impatient by nature, such work soothes me and fills me with a sense of satisfaction, for once I am done, the result is a finely crafted jewel.

Every writer has an old, abandoned manuscript tucked away in a drawer somewhere; a project they can’t just delete or throw out because someday... someday... someday they will finish it.  Tell me about yours.

Damn… I don’t have one of those. I didn’t know I was supposed to have one. Mom was right. I should have read the rules before playing this game. Now I’m depressed…

Question ten is a bit of a freebie: What is the one question you wish I had asked you, but didn’t?  Now go ahead and ask/answer that question.

 

Hmm… Okay, here’s the question: Describe the wildest sexual experience you have ever had. Here’s the answer: No. :)

For more on Claude, check out his website HERE.  

Follow Claude on Twitter @ceebee308

Get Claude's books on AMAZON.  

Guest Blogger: Travis Naught "Writing: A Stress Free Job?"

Guest Blogger: Travis Laurence Naught

Writing: A Stress Free Job?

It's morning.  A cup of coffee is sitting directly to my left.  I do not even have to pick it up to get a drink; someone else has placed it directly within reach of my lips, given a slight turn of the head.  The computer listens to me write these things.  Actually, it writes them for me as I use a dictation program to get my words to paper. 

Sounds pretty sweet, right? I am an author that commands my surroundings! Almost ...

I am a 29 year-old quadriplegic, diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy at age 16 months, and have adapted to the circumstance.  I thank God most days that he has given me talent as a writer and blessed me with somewhat of an audience.  Scenes of a fulfilling life are tough enough to find for all of the able-bodied persons with great work ethic who are out of a job right now, but all I have to do to feel accomplished for the day is flap my lips for a while.  He has said, "You're welcome, I have given you free-will and an avenue to explore all of which that means." 

Readers do not have to look very hard to find proof that I definitely explore my free-will! I have a book of memoir poetry on the market (The VirginJournals, ASD Publishing) that warns readers on page one not to venture any further if they're going to be offended by thoughts of an NC-17 nature.  Some people did not heed the warning and I have heard stories where the reader closed the book and said, "I didn't know people thought like that".  I take some pride in that.  :)  Eastern Washington University picked up The Virgin Journals as curriculum for a disability studies course in the spring quarter of 2012.  23 of the 26 student feedback responses I received were positive.  The other three had problems with my language and subject matter.  Free-will has been examined and rewarded. 

Having a book out is nice.  Wonderful.  A blessing.  But, it is also the past.  This ridiculous belief (I mean, my God, the book is out less than nine months already) keeps me driven to write more.  I have a couple of friends who each have of a pair of esteemed poetry volumes widely released with their names on them that I visit with weekly, Jonathan Johnson and Dennis Held.  They've been very supportive of my work, congratulatory towards my so-called accomplishments, but they've also continued pushing me.  As a writer, I appreciate that.  As a person, I need that. 

"Authors" seem to hold a unique identity in the eyes of every day writers.  We, if you'll allow me inclusion for getting lucky to have a book on the market, are the published.  We have achieved the be all and end all of words.  We are broke as shit.  Well, maybe that last one is just me again. 

What I am driving at, is that being an author can be a professional choice.  One grand piece of work does not mean that the individual who wrote it feels like they are done working.  For me, having The Virgin Journals get published did nothing but increase the pressures I have placed on myself for continued success.  I would like to have another book released.  I have a manuscript that is ready to be butchered by a new publisher or editor (ASD Publishing has been nothing but gracious to me and I appreciate them dearly).  I have received more rejections since being published than before. 

Literary magazines, online journals, blog websites, personal pages, newspapers, the backs of restaurant receipts ... I have published individual poems and stories in a lot of places.  It takes a lot of time and effort to keep my completed writing pool deep enough to continue submitting.  It takes a lot of faith to think that what I am writing might find an audience or even have a venue that will be willing to put it out there.  Workplace stress! My work place is at home.  Home stress!

Through all of that (the good, the bad), I continue writing because it's what I can do.  It's what I am good at.  My best guess is that if you have made it this far in the story, you are probably pretty good at writing as well ... or you know me ... or both.  In any scenario, thank you for reading. 

Please take the time and check out my author page on Facebook for daily updates, original poetry and other writings (www.facebook.com/TravisLaurenceNaught).  Please take your money and buy a copy of my book, The Virgin Journals, a poetry memoir from a unique perspective ... don't say I didn't warn you!

 Please have a good day!

-Travis Laurence Naught

Follow Travis on Twitter @NaughtaPoet

The Virgin Journals from ASD Publishing

Order The Virgin Journals on Amazon or at Barnes and Noble

Talking with The Bridge to Caracas author Stephen Douglass

 

In your synopsis for your debut novel The Bridge to Caracas, the main character Jim Servito is described as “brilliant, cynical, ruthless and contemptuous of the law.”  Now, writing a character as badass as that would either be a lot of fun, or rather daunting.  What was it like for you?

Developing Jim Servito’s character was a lot of fun for me. While I portrayed him as a fictional character, he, and what he did, are the reasons I wrote the Bridge to Caracas. In real life, he managed to steal $325,000,000 from the Canadian and U.S. Feds, via the mechanism of gasoline tax evasion.

In what ways do you think readers empathize with Karen Taylor?

Just as I did with Jim Servito, I portrayed Karen Taylor as a fictional character. In real life, she is now my wife. I have a passionate belief that readers would empathize with Karen because, like her, at one time or another in their lives, they found themselves married to the wrong person, while simultaneously being in love with someone else.

Did you know from the outset that The Bridge to Caracas would be the first book of a trilogy?

I didn’t know The Bridge to Caracas would be a trilogy until so many of my friends in Canada and the U.S. asked me if I was a one-trick pony. Their appreciation of the story and encouragement convinced me to continue into the abyss of uncertainty. Now I would have to write about something I hadn’t lived. I plodded on, however, and I’m glad I did. I’m having more fun than I ever imagined.

Tell me about your upcoming book The Tainted Trust.

There was $325,000,000 in an anstalt in Leichtenstein at the end of The Bridge to Caracas. Only four people knew about it: Mike King, Karen Taylor, Phillip Servito, Karen’s son, and Alfred Schnieder, the Caracas banker. The Tainted Trust is the incredible story of what happened to that money. Phillip, like his father, is very greedy.

Do you plan to write anything outside The King Trilogy?  Stand-alone thrillers?  Nonfiction?  Naughty limericks?

Yes. I thoroughly enjoy writing. I plan to do it until the day I die. Perhaps longer.

What’s more fun to write: dialogue or description?  Why?

Writing dialogue has always been easy for me. I put myself in the person’s position, subjected to the same circumstances. Then I ask myself, “What would that person say? How would that person react?” Finally, I sound it out. Sometimes it makes me laugh. Sometimes it makes me cry. Occasionally, it makes me swear.

Turn the calendar back about a hundred years: no computers, no internet, no social media... do you think you still would have written and published a book?  Why or why not?

I would definitely have written a book under those circumstances. I came very close to simulating those conditions when I wrote The Bridge to Caracas. The entire manuscript was completed in pen and ink, beside a fireplace. In the absence of a computer and internet, I would have taken the manuscript, jumped on my horse, and raced to a publisher. Then I would have crossed my fingers and hoped that he, or she could read my writing.

Peter De Vries once said: “I write when I’m inspired, and I see to it that I’m inspired at nine o’clock every morning.”  What about you – do you have a writing routine?

I have no routine. I spent my entire business career seeing to it that I’m inspired every morning. I don’t want to do that any more. In my mind, however, I’m always thinking about what to write next. Frequently I wake up in the middle of the night with an inspiration. Sometimes all that comes out is pee.

Name two authors who influenced you or whom you try to emulate.

John Grisham is my number one influence. The story of how he succeeded with his first two books: A Time To Kill and The Firm, is a legend in my mind. As to style, quality of writing, and research, Ken Follet is the king of fiction.

Imagine a hotshot Hollywood movie producer showed up at your door and handed you a contract to make a Big Budget Movie of The Bridge to Caracas.  Who would you cast as Jim Servito, Karen Taylor and Mike King?

Fame and fortune was not my motivation for writing The Bridge to Caracas. Instead, my fondest dream was to hang out at The Hotel California and interview starlets for the role of Karen, one by one. 

These actors, in the prime of their careers, would have been perfect for the time frame of The Bridge to Caracas:

Al Pacino to be Jim Servito,

Brad Pitt to be Mike King,

Demi Moore to be Karen King.

  

Check out The Bridge to Caracas on AMAZON

Have a look at Steve's website HERE 

Follow Steve on Twitter @douglasssteve