Q&A with D.M. Pulley

  

Photo by Gary Adams

 

 

D.M. Pulley is the author of the new novel Stone Mad. Her other books include The Dead Key. She lives in Ohio. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Stone Mad, and how did you create your character Mannie?

 

A: I've always wanted to write a story inspired by the rumors and lore surrounding Cleveland's most notorious haunted house, Franklin Castle, and this particular moment just felt right.

 

The extreme wealth inequality we're experiencing today combined with rampant moral corruption and the rollback of human rights all scream for a classic Gothic thriller.

 

The oldest haunted house stories were all about the rich and powerful doing terrible things to hold onto their crumbling fortunes, and I wanted to tell a version of that story set in the Rust Belt today. 

 

My main character, Mannie Wallace, came out of my own experiences working as a forensic engineer and historic preservationist. I've been an insurance investigator and a building inspector, and I've had to manage being a woman in construction for over 25 years.

 

Mannie and I are quite different people, but we both share a passion for old buildings and we'd both jump at the chance to investigate a Gilded Age ruin like Stone Mad. 

 

Q: Readers have compared the novel to the work of Shirley Jackson--what do you think of that comparison?

 

A: I think I must be dreaming to be mentioned in the same sentence as Shirley Jackson. Her novels The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle were great inspirations to me throughout my career and for this novel in particular. She is and will always be the queen. 

 

Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

 

A: I never know exactly how a story will end until I finish writing it. I used to write exclusively by the seat of my pants, but these last seven years working to publish a new novel have taught me the value of planning a simple three-point arc for each character.

 

I need a vague concept of their beginning, middle, and end to build a rough map of the journey so I don't get lost along the way with them. I knew I wanted Mannie to start out troubled and to go through hell. You'll have to read story to see if she makes it out again. 

 

Q: The novel is set in an abandoned castle--how important is setting to you in your writing?

 

A: My writing process usually begins with an abandoned building or haunted house. I've spent my engineering career crawling around attics, creeping through basements, and hanging from the rooftops of old buildings, and each one has so many stories it could tell.

 

I fall in love and become obsessed with a certain place and time and start reading everything I can find--books, journals, articles--going down rabbit hole after rabbit hole about it until a story starts to emerge.

 

In the case of Stone Mad, I became fixated on Franklin Castle near downtown Cleveland and the lost mansions of Millionaire's Row. In my historical research, I got pulled deep into the connections between the German Nazis and the occult. 

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am finishing up a psychological thriller due out in 2027 about suburban isolation and inner demons where the haunted house is a woman's mind.

 

In this story, a middle-aged mom's "perfect" life shatters when a party guest lands in the hospital and she's left searching for the terrifying truth behind the mysterious woman's fall, a neighbor's murder, and her own faltering memory of what happened that night.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Gothic thrillers like Stone Mad combine all the mystery of a crime novel with the spiritual intrigue of the unknown and even supernatural. This story is for anyone that's ever walked through an old house or building and felt the walls listening and history whispering over their shoulder.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Mike Lawson

  

Photo by Tara Gimmer

 

 

 

Mike Lawson is the author of the new novel McKenna's Guy. His many other books include the Joe DeMarco series. He lives in the Pacific Northwest. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write McKenna’s Guy, and how did you create your characters Roger and Grace? 

 

A: The inspiration was one of those silly things. I had to look at my passport one day to see when it expired because I was planning to take a trip to Canada, and when I looked at it, I had the stupid thought: I’ll bet this would really be hard to forge. Duh. 

 

My next thought was: What if a guy who makes passports decides to sell a few to criminals who needed fake IDs? No forging required. And that’s how I ended up with Roger Smith, an employee of the Government Publishing Office, and his accomplice, McKenna.  

 

I knew from the beginning that I didn’t want Roger to come off as a slick character like Pierce Brosnan in The Thomas Crown Affair. I wanted him to be a mild-mannered civil servant, an older person, one close to retirement—not your typical protagonist—and I wanted him to be perceived as a good guy—or as good as he could be perceived considering that he’s a criminal.  

 

The McKenna character was necessary because a man like Roger wouldn’t know any criminals who needed fake passports, but being the old rogue that he is, McKenna knows many.  

 

As for Grace Lillinthal . . . Well, I needed someone whose job it was to catch Roger and McKenna, someone as smart and relentless as Grace. Which makes it even more fun when Roger beats her in the end.  

 

Q: The Kirkus Review of the novel says, “Lawson’s stand-alone strips plot, characters, and prose down to exceptional efficiency, producing maximum thrills without a wasted word.” What do you think of that assessment?

 

A: Twenty-plus years ago, when I was trying to find an agent, one of the many agents who rejected my first novel said: A lot of what you’ve written doesn't advance the plot. 

 

Another piece of advice came from Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing, which says don’t write things that readers tend to skip over, like long-winded descriptions of characters and settings. 

 

And in my novels, I’ve always tried my best to continually advance the plot, to keep the reader engaged, and not to get sidetracked by philosophical musings or elaborate commentary on things that don’t really matter to the plot. So, I wouldn’t say that I’m consciously trying to be efficient because I’m not. I’m just trying to keep the book moving.  

 

As for my revision process, I probably read my books 30 or 40 times before I send them to my agent and mostly what I’m doing when I’m editing is trying to make sure the story holds together and to make it “sound” better—and then when I hear the audio version of the book, unfortunately I often hear that I could have done better. 

 

Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

 

A: McKenna’s Guy was one of the few books I’ve written where I knew the ending before I started.

 

This is extremely rare for me. I always know how I’m going to start a novel—hopefully in a manner that immediately engages the reader—but I don’t usually have a clue as to how I’m going to end it. Which results, as you’ve indicated, in a lot of rewriting, going down one dead-end after another and having to backtrack until I’ve figure it out.  

 

But like I said, McKenna was a rare exception.

 

Q: How would you describe the dynamic between Roger and Grace?

 

A: Cat and mouse, with Roger definitely being the mouse. Roger knows, right from the get-go, that Grace is coming after him and that she won’t stop until she gets him. But then Grace is almost the least of his problems because people are trying to kill him.  

 

So most of Roger’s energy is devoted to finding out who’s trying to kill him and why, while knowing that it’s almost inevitable that Grace will arrest him—which is why he decides to flee the country. And when that plan fails—that is, fleeing—and Grace does arrests him, he falls back on what I called Plan B in the book.  

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m currently working on Books 21 and 22 of my long-running Joe DeMarco series. DeMarco’s a fixer for a vaguely corrupt politician named John Mahoney, and one book involves Mahoney being framed for murder. The other one is about some seemingly small-time thieves ripping off the government.  

 

I’ll do that sometimes: work on one book for a while, then set it aside, then come back to it later hoping for some fresh insight on how to improve it. 

 

I also have another standalone in my laptop, one that was sort of inspired by the Harvey Weinstein saga. I made a good start on that one, but then, and as noted above, ran into a brick wall and haven’t figured out how to end it.  

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: About the only other thing I can think of to tell your readers is that I enjoy writing. I used to have a real job—I worked as an engineer on the reactors in navy submarines and aircraft carriers—and writing novels has never felt like a job.

 

It’s a pleasure and I hope that the enjoyment I get out of writing comes across in my books. My only objective is to entertain, and not to preach or push a particular view. And I think a book like McKenna’s Guy met that objective: It’s a quick, fun read—definitely, a beach read—and I hope some of your readers will take a chance on it.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Tammar Stein

  

 

 

Tammar Stein is the author of the new children's board book Cats in Jerusalem. Her other books include The Treasure of Tel Maresha. She is a former school librarian. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Cats in Jerusalem?

 

A: If you’ve ever been to Jerusalem, then you know…there are cats everywhere. I was on an incredible trip sponsored by the Harold Grinspoon Foundation for authors and illustrators to discover a deeper connection to Israel. 

 

The guide took us through some of the old neighborhoods and I saw bowls of cat food left out for visiting felines. I loved that casual hospitality. It’s like the residents were saying, “Hungry? Nu, eat already.”

 

And then I thought, these cats must know all the best spots in the city. Why don’t we see Jerusalem through a cat tour guide? 

 

Q: What do you think Menahem Halberstadt’s illustrations add to the book?

 

A: I love that there’s an Israeli author illustrating a book set in Israel. The bright, zany energy is perfect for the story. The art is confident because he’s a great illustrator, but also because he’s drawing something he’s really familiar with.

 

Q: How did you choose the locations for the story?

 

A: I wanted to write a guidebook for tiny kids. I thought it would be fun to hit major sights in an accessible, tot-centered way. I would love hearing from a reader that they brought the book with them on their visit to Israel to help their young child connect with the landmarks. 

 

Q: What do you hope kids take away from the book?

 

A: I hope the book makes them giggle. I hope they search for the fun details scattered through the story and that this joyful exposure to Jerusalem helps lay the foundations for a sense of connection.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m thrilled to say that we are working on more books in this series! Dogs of Tel Aviv will be up next and more cities with furry guides are in the pipeline. 

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Joyful Jewish children’s books can’t fix everything, but they help inoculate our kids (and adults!) from a lot of the doom and gloom that floats around us. There is so much to celebrate and be proud of as Jewish families, and I’m really glad to be a small part of that. Thanks so much!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Tammar Stein. 

Oct. 29

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Oct. 29, 1925: Dominick Dunne born.

Q&A with Zalika Reid-Benta

  

Photo by Rogene Reid

 

 

Zalika Reid-Benta is the author of the new children's picture book The Twelve Days of Jamaican Christmas. Her other books include the story collection Frying Plantain. She lives in Toronto.

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Twelve Days of Jamaican Christmas?

 

A: Twelve Days came to me the way a lot of my stories come to me. It seems to be my process now where I try to write something else and then in the middle of that, like literally mid-sentence, I get an epiphany and I stop what I'm doing and start writing what's going to be the actual story.

 

So, I had been trying to write my first picture book for a while and nothing I was outputting was quite working, and I kept trying to edit and reframe what I had written and then at 1 p.m. on a Wednesday in March three years ago, I was on my couch rearranging the words of my first idea and it just clicked: what if I did The Twelve Days of Christmas but with Jamaican food?

 

I got really excited about that idea and I opened a new document and wrote it all out in about an hour -- it's the fastest I've ever written anything -- and then I sent it off to my agent who emailed back 15 minutes later like, Yes! This is the idea! 

 

Q: What do you think Mariyah Rahman’s illustrations add to the book?

 

A: Definitely a sense of warmth and family and that cozy Christmas feeling.

 

I think that this book could go many different ways because if you look up some picture books for The Twelve Days of Christmas there's a focus on the gifts the true love gave and it can be very wondrous and fantastical and Mariyah kept the whimsical, wondrous feeling but grounded it in the relationships between the family members.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?

 

A: Hopefully a strong sense of holiday spirit that also makes them hungry!

 

Q: The Kirkus Review of the book calls it a “loving ode to cultural traditions, family, holidays, and food that hits the spot.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I think that's a fantastic description. I'm very happy with it because all of my work explores human nature or universal themes and experiences through the specific lens of Jamaican Canadian characters or Jamaican culture as experienced in the diaspora, and I think Kirkus describing Twelve Days as an ode to all of those things really showcases that. 

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I just finished my second adult novel, The Seacliff Hotel, which will be published in February of next year. 

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Pronounced: Plan-tin not Plant-ain (winky face). 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Marie Arnold

   

 

 

 

 

Marie Arnold is the author of the new middle grade novel They Will Not Save Us. Her other books include A Place to Shine. She was born in Haiti, grew up in New York, and lives on the West Coast.

 

Q: What inspired you to write They Will Not Save Us, and how did you create your character Lena?

 

A: I wanted to write something creepy and scary in all the fun ways but also ground it in actual historical events. I’ve always thought zombies make wonderfully terrifying villains, so I did some research and found a way to connect the supernatural elements with real history.

 

Lena is an amalgamation of several relatives who grew up in Haiti, along with bits and pieces of my own childhood memories of being there. I drew from those experiences to create a character who felt authentic to me.

 

Q: How was the novel’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: The title was chosen to reflect two important themes.

 

First, I’ve always loved stories where kids get to be the heroes. There’s something empowering about young readers seeing characters their own age take charge and save the day instead of waiting for adults to rescue them.

 

The title also reflects Haiti’s history. Haiti’s enslaved people organized and fought for their own freedom rather than waiting for someone else to save them. That spirit of courage, resilience, and taking control of your own destiny is at the heart of the book.

 

Q: The Publishers Weekly review of the book says, “Paranormal thrills and striking portrayals of emotional turbulence combine in an intense and dynamic adventure.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I was so happy to read that description because it’s exactly what I was hoping to achieve! I wanted to create a fun, spine-tingling adventure that keeps readers on the edge of their seats, nervous, excited, a little scared, but always eager to turn the next page.

 

It’s nice to know that came through, and I hope readers have just as much fun reading it as I did writing it!

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?

 

A: I hope readers walk away with a new appreciation for friendship because, ultimately, that’s what saves the characters. It’s not so much the supernatural forces at work, but the strength of their friendship.

 

And I’d love it if readers finished the book feeling just a little braver than they did when they started.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m currently working on ShadowSync, a middle-grade tech horror series that’s scheduled to debut next year!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I’d just like to thank Deborah Kalb and her blog, Q&A with Deborah Kalb, for having me! It’s been a pleasure answering these questions, and I wish all your readers happy reading!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Dimitri Moraitis

  

 

 

Dimitri Moraitis is the author of the new middle grade novel Martin & the Light Beams of Amalius. His other books include Change Your Aura, Change Your Life. He is the cofounder of Spiritual Arts Institute, and he lives in Encinitas, California. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Martin & the Light Beams of Amalius?

 

A: The idea came shortly after having a personal spiritual awakening. At the time, I was pursuing a career in motion pictures.

 

I thought of a story of beams of light on a distant planet, Amalius, who fell in love with what they were illuminating. After ages of lighting oceans, flowers and mountains, they wanted to experience those things for themselves.

 

So they become the inhabitants of Amalius, but in the process they forgot they were light beams and lose their way. It's a spiritual parable about finding the true light within.

 

Q: How did you create your characters Martin and Amalius?

 

A: Amalius is the leader of the light beams and did not become an inhabitant. He’s trying to wake up his fellow light beams to who they really are, but with no success.

 

I was  trying out different approaches to telling the story when I started to hear the voice of what would become the character of Martin, a boy who is unhappy at home because his parents fight all the time and thinks of light beams as his friends. Then the two story lines flowed together and the book started to write itself.

 

The story is told in first person from the point of view of Martin. He plans to run away, when Amalius stops him and convinces Martin to help him save the light beams. To do this, Martin is temporarily turned into a beam of light. Amalius takes him on the adventure of his life. In the process, they become best friends. 

 

Q: Did you know how the story would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

 

A: I knew that the story was about finding the true light in yourself. But the story sort of revealed itself through the different scenes and I let it flow. I had a message to say, but didn’t want the story to feel contrived. 

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?

 

A: There are several messages the book is hoping to get across to young readers: That life is wondrous even when things are difficult, to have hope that everyone has a unique contribution to make, that love and compassion truly can overcome anger and division, and most important that we all have an inner light that we must all tend to which will guide us through life’s challenges and opportunities.

 

I hope that young readers are inspired to use their imagination, as well as their intellect, and recognize how important creativity is. I’m happy to see that adults enjoy the story as much as children.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Right now, I’m finishing up a book for adults on the spiritual dimensions of consciousness.

 

In a time when science is trying to discover the roots of consciousness, and artificial intelligence is asking so many questions about the nature of the mind, the goal of the book is to show how consciousness and the mind are first spiritual manifestations. The book is a call to action to live the inspired life and realize your creative potential.

 

I wrote the book with the co-founder of our nonprofit, Barbara Y. Martin. She recently passed on and I’m completing the book in the spirit and tone with which it was started.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: The book was a labor of love to write. I run a nonprofit that teaches meditation and spiritual principles. It is so important to have some type of spiritual foundation and to acknowledge that there is great mystery and wonder to life.

 

I hope to encourage children who are feeling anxious because of the overstimulation today how important it is to trust in themselves, how important family and friends are, and that life is a great adventure to face with humor, courage, and confidence. 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb