Author Interview: Joseph Gattuso

Joseph Gattuso is twenty years old and wrote EGGNOG during the Fall semester of his sophomore year at Robert Morris University.
All pictures supplied by author.

Blurb:
Seventeen-year-old Jobe has an unorthodox relationship with God based on intellect and art more so than salvation, and with the help of God he can reach a heightened perspective of humanity and life. However the closer and closer he gets to that higher understanding the more his mind slips away.


Do you plan everything or just let the story flow?

Well, my first book I wrote about 25 short stories, and an ending. I then weaved together all the short stories like a quilt. The book I’m writing now I’m letting flow, but I have vague ideas of things I want to happen.

Do your characters ever want to take over the story?

I knew beforehand that the main character of my first book was going to devour the story. It works though because he is the protagonist, antagonist, and even lots of his romance is with remnants of his mind.

What is your favourite food?

This is an impossible question. I’ll say a Primanti Sandwich. Not from Primanti brothers, but Front Side Deli - a little place where I live.

Are you a morning person or a night owl?

I’m a pretty extreme night owl.

Where do you dream of travelling to and why?

Italy. I’m Italian but have never been there before. For the same reason, I’m starting to learn to speak Italian now.

Do distant places feature in your books?

Yes, the book I’m writing now is in Chicago and Japan.

Do you listen to music while writing?

Always. I listen to David Bowie, The Velvet Underground, Lou Reed, The Beatles, and MGMT mostly.

Could you tell us a bit about your latest release?

My book “Eggnog” is on amazon, kindle, and smashwords. I’ve just started my first blog and am trying to get into the writing/reading community.

What have you learned about writing and publishing since you first started?

I learned that writing query letters is a task from hell. I wrote my first book in about 5 weeks. That was seven months ago and I still don’t have a query letter that I’m comfortable with sending out to agents.

Is there anything you would do differently?

I would have written the query letter before I finished the book.

Who, or what, if anything has influenced your writing?

Ernest Hemingway, and all the wonderful music I’ve listened to and brilliant movies I’ve watched. Interviews of people like David Bowie and Brian Eno and Marlon Brando and other geniuses help a lot. I think that art all connects so acting isn’t that much different than writing, or cooking, or martial arts. I’m just kidding about martial arts.

Anything you would say to those just starting out in the craft?

If you complain about not being able to sit down and write a story from start to finish then I’d recommend my quilt technique that I used for my first book. I think it can make the daunting task easier to tackle.

What's your favourite book or who is your favourite writer?

Fahrenheit 451 is my favorite book and Ernest Hemingway is my favorite writer. I read his autobiography “A Moveable Feast” and his first novel “The Sun Also Rises” while writing “Eggnog.”

Any websites/places readers can find you on the web.

http://refreshingonion.wordpress.com/

Thank you, Joseph. Good luck with your books!

Book Review: The Unseen by T.C. McMullen

The Unseen
Book One in the Manipulated Evil Series
by T.C. McMullen
SF/Thriller/Paranormal
Review copy from author

5 Stars
Available from Amazon





Kyle D'Arcy is a spoilt young man attending college, where he is more interested in studying the women there, rather than his classes. But after his father's murder brings him home, he is dumped straight into the middle of a war that has been raging unseen for decades.

His father, Carter D'Arcy, was a renowned geneticist and leaves Kyle with an envelope full of scientific papers and a key. But someone else knows about it and a few days later, Kyle's mother, Beverly, is murdered too and the killers wait in ambush for Kyle.

Kyle is saved by a strange woman, Ravyn, the most beautiful woman Kyle has ever seen. And what was a picture of her doing in Carter's wallet? Was Carter having an affair with her?

At first Kyle thinks she is insane with her talk of other worlds and portals, there is only one reality, right? But gradually Kyle comes to believe and finds out things about his heritage that he wasn't sure he wanted to know. For Kyle's whole life has been constructed on a lie, a lie to keep him alive.

And what was Carter's involvement in this war? A war fought not with guns and tanks, but diseases that have no cure...

Oh, this book was difficult to put down, it twists and turns every which way and just when you thought you had it figured out, another piece of the puzzle is revealed.

The reader finds out things at the same time as Kyle, so that you are almost in his shoes, feeling everything he is going through. The book ends on a cliffhanger, ready to dive into book two and I almost screamed with frustration. Ms McMullen has certainly left the readers wanting more!

Although the story itself is on a grand scale, the author has delved deep into the heart of the characters and you have to read on to know what is going to happen to them. It is a story of love, sacrifice and ethics. Is it just to do wrong things for the right reasons? Can the end ever justify the means? Is evil a force of nature or nurture?

The book makes you think long after the last page has been read.

Reviewed by Annette Gisby, author of The Chosen.

Book Review: Dead Scared by S. J. Bolton

Dead Scared
by S. J. Bolton
Macmillan/St. Martin's Press
Thriller
5 Stars
Review copy from amazon vine courtesy of the publisher.


Cambridge University has been suffering a spate of suicides, more than would be statistcally be expected. Most of the victims have been very attractive young women, again a statistical anomaly. Psychiatrist Dr. Evi Oliver, new head of the student counselling service is worried that something else might be going on. Detective Lacey Flint is sent in deep undercover to post as a depression-prone, potential suicidal student. Dr. Oliver and her boss, Mark Joesbury are the only two who know who Lacey really is and soon she doesn't just feel alone on the campus, she is. Some of the young women reported bad dreams before they died, that they felt like someone was watching them all the time and they wake up sometimes with no memory of where they've been or what they've done.


Lacey soon starts investigating on her own, even though her brief was to stay low-profile and not rock the boat. All the victims had one thing in common, before they died they all reported being scared. They each had different phobias, different fears and they killed themselves by different methods. Is there some sort of cyber-bullying going on at Cambridge targeting the vulnerable or is something else going on? Lacey is determined to get to the bottom of it, but before she does she starts having weird dreams, just like all the others.

Dead Scared was a fast-paced thriller that kept me gripped from the very first page. I just couldn't seem to turn them fast enough to find out what was going to happen next. We've met Evi Oliver before in Blood Harvest and I was glad to see her back again, I love her as a character. Lacey and Joesbury first appeared in Now You See Me and I have a feeling they will back for more criminal adventures soon.

I've read quite a few thrillers and a lot of the time I can guess who the bad guy or bad guys were, but in this one I didn't figure it out until quite near the end, which was a treat for me.

This is more of a personal preference, but the Lacey parts were written from a first-person perspective, which is not my favourite. But it's testament to the strength of the writing that after a while I didn't notice and just got engrossed in the story.

An excellent thriller.

Reviewed by Annette Gisby, author of The Chosen

Author Interview: Brynna Curry

To celebrate the release of the fifth and final book in the Elemental Magic series this week, we have an interview with Brynna Curry today. All pictures supplied by author.

Paranormal romance and romantic suspense author Brynna Curry is a lifelong believer in the importance of reading. She enjoys the writing process, helping others hone their craft by lending her time to review books, critique manuscripts and serving as a contest judge. She loves hearing from her readers.

When she isn’t writing, she’s often found haunting the library for new books to read, at the park with her children, or just spending an quiet evening at home with her husband Jackie watching old westerns on TV. She makes her home in North Alabama where the history is rich with music and culture, forests and lakes are abundant and beautiful, and every day is another adventure.


Interview after the jump