Meet Greg Didaleusky: Author of Frozen Death

What or who inspired you to start writing?
My wife, Holly, inspired me to write a novel. She got tired of me complaining, "I could have written a better ending than that."

How did you come up with your idea for Frozen Death?
My experience in medicine with patients freezing to death during Northern winter months.

What expertise did you bring to your writing?
My medical background and a college minor in English along with reading numerous novels over the years.

As far as writing goes. What are your future plans?
I'm presently writing another suspense novel about a twelve-year-old patient's FUO (fever of unknown origin) and its connection with a recently discovered ancient Mayan ruins with mysterious hieroglyphs.

Do you outline your books or just start writing?
I outline my books.

Eppies

It is time to think about entering the Eppies. For submission guidelines check out the epic sight sent to you via the roguephoenixauthors group. The Eppie contest is the most prestigious on line contest for published authors. The contest is a good way to promote your work and if you are a finalist or winner--even better. If you need help entering, please contact me.

MEET K.J.DAHLEN: AUTHOR THE DARKNESS WITHIN

What or who inspired you to start writing?
I’ve always loved to read. The best writers I read could always take me into their world and that’s what I wanted to do to my readers. I wanted to make them apart of the world I created.
How did you come up with your idea for Darkness Within?
A lot of my novels begin with a single sentence. Darkness began with a notion that a serial killer was coming after a law enforcement agent. The Agent- Sable Quinn would spent most of her time figuring out why. All the twists and turns I put in the book was to give it that end-of-the chair feeling. The kind of feeling that you have to keep turning the page to see what happens next.
What expertise did you bring to your writing?
Just what I’ve picked up from learning my craft from scratch. I know what I like to read and I went from there. I don’t have any formal education but life is a great teacher.
What would you want your readers to know about you that might not be in your bio?
I love to create situations for my characters. At some point in the book they take over my thought process and all I can do is hang on for the ride. I know my characters as well as they know me and sometimes they can get into trouble. I like to wait and see how they manage to get out of the situations they find themselves in.
As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans?
More books! The possibilities are endless. There are readers out there that don’t know about me yet and I plan to find them. I love to write and I’ve waited a long time to get where I am, so I’ll keep writing as long as the ideas keep coming.

Can you give us a sneak peak into this book?
Sable lay in bed later that night waiting for sleep to come. Her mind was busy replaying the events of the day and try as she might she couldn’t make it stop. She couldn’t help but wonder who he was or why he had picked her. What did he want? Was he going to try and murder her or did he really want her to find him?
She glanced at the bedside clock and was surprised to find it was only 11:30. It seemed to be much later than that. She closed her eyes and tried to clear her mind. She didn’t realize she had drifted off until the phone rang. Sable groaned at the intrusion and reached out to answer it. “Hello?” she whispered into the mouthpiece.
“Did I wake you Sabella?” a voice she didn’t recognize whispered back.
Sable frowned and sat up. Snapping on the bedside lamp she glanced at the alarm clock and noted the time. It was close to 3 a.m. “Who is this?” she murmured.
“I think you know who I am.” The voice told her.
“What do you want?” Sable asked as she gripped the phone. She could feel the fear and panic growing inside her, but she knew she couldn’t give into it or she would be lost.
She heard him hesitate before he announced, “I got tired of playing the same old game and I decided I needed a new and exciting challenge.”
“What game?” Sable wanted to know.
“I think you know very well which game I’m referring to.”
“Spell it out for me so there is no mistake.”
He chuckled softly. “Okay for the sake of clarification, let me make myself very clear as not only is my own life at stake, but now so is yours.”
“That sounds like a threat.”
He chuckled again. “No not a threat, more like a promise, if you will. But as I have an advantage…”
“What advantage?” Sable asked.
“I have to let you know that I’ve been watching you for the last few weeks and I’ll bet you didn’t know that I was even there did you?” He taunted her. “You didn’t notice me at all.”
“You sound like that’s something to be proud of. Is that part of your M.O., following your victims for awhile to learn what you can by learning their movements?” Sable asked trying to keep her mind on the task as she felt panic welling up inside her.
“Perhaps…” he told her quietly. “Do you know how hard it is to go undetected by someone you don’t want to know that you’re there? It’s harder than you think.”
“Why me? Why did you choose to come after me?” Sable wanted to know.
He hesitated then told her bluntly, “Why not you? What makes you think you’re special? You are just one of a million women I could have singled out.”
“What do you mean singled out?” Sable was curious.
“Most of my victims, if not all of them have left me wanting…” He began.
“Wanting? Wanting what?” She interrupted.
“I think I’m to the point of wanting more of a challenge. The element of risk behind the hunt has grown stale.”
“How many women have you killed over the years?” Sable asked quietly.
“Why does that matter to you?”
“I was just wondering if it ever bothered you. The act of killing another human being would bother most people.”
He snorted. “In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m not like most people. Oh, by the way, just so you know, the act of killing another human being doesn’t bother me at all. I don’t get a sexual thrill from the act of killing them either. I wouldn’t want you to get that impression.”
“Then why do you kill?”
“I wish I knew. I’ve always had this beast inside me and I didn’t know what to do about it. Then one day I cut myself and when I saw the blood running down my arm it sparked something deep inside and I knew how to quiet the lust growing inside my head. It doesn’t make any sense I know but that’s how it began for me.”
“That makes you one very sick individual.”
“Maybe, maybe not. Do you think I’m the only one that has these feelings? Do you think that I am the only one that kills for the sake of ending someone else’s life?” He paused. “Look around you lady, this whole world is sick. More and more people are giving into the basic urge, sometimes to just feel some emotion other than despair.”
“Don’t try to justify what you do. Most people are decent law abiding people.” She couldn’t stand the way this conversation was going or the man on the other end of the phone line. She wanted to hang up but there was one more thing she had to know. “Why did you leave the pages where you knew I would find them? Didn’t you realize that I work with the FBI?”
He chuckled. “Of course I knew. That’s all part of the game.”
Sable gripped the phone. “You mentioned this game before. What kind of game are you playing?”
“The game where you find me before I get bored and go on the hunt. You work with four other people. Anyone of you can be my next target. That means only I know which of you will die.” He paused and then told her, “The clock is ticking and you never know when it will stop. Tick tock, tick tock.”
When did you first decide to submit your work? Please tell us what or who encouraged you to take this big step?
I have been looking for a small press and this one was want I was looking for. You have to start any endeavor with small steps. Rogue Phoenix Press is giving my career a start by showcasing my books in print.
What is the best and worst advice you ever received? (regarding writing or publishing)

I think critiques are great. If there is something wrong with the book from an editor’s view I will try to make it better. They often if asked, will tell me what is wrong with the book. They know what’s marketable and what’s not. So I always ask.
Do you outline your books or just start writing?
I outline my books but in the end the outline may or may not have been used. Sometimes my characters stray from the outline and come up with something much better
Anything else you might want to add?

If you are just starting a writing career, be patient and learn to accept that not everyone will like what you write. If you can look at a critique and learn to make your story better from it then you may get where you want to be someday

MEET KEVIN VOGLINO: AUTHOR TIMES SQUARE KISS

What or who inspired you to start writing? Reading was my inspiration for writing.
As a child, my Grandmother would read stories to me about rhyming cats with hats, magical wardrobes that would transport characters to new worlds and holiday tales of European countries. I was so excited and engrossed to hear her read I started to write my own stories and plays. Words were power to me. They had to be to make me feel such strong emotions with just one sentence of a tale.

How did you come up with your idea for Times Square Kiss?
The idea stemmed from my thesis at Wilkes University, then it grew into a larger writing project. I was writing a short story on American icons and photographs and had always had a certain affinity to Victor Jorgenson’s kiss of the sailor kissing the nurse in Times Square. Then, the “what if?” question presented itself as it so often does in writing. I knew where the story would end, and my goal was to write the story and get my characters to it. It changed many times along the way but ended in a way I love.

What expertise did you bring to your writing?
I had many mentors in my writing life. My mentor in graduate school at Wilkes University and still is today is David Poyer—novelist of over thirty military books. I had to choose a mentor in my graduate program and I bemused the idea of writing gay literature from the discipline of a military writer. It sounds contradictory, but it was the best choice I made with the program. It worked out splendidly. David’s mentor was John Gardner—an expert in fiction writing. Not only did I learn from Poyer but I also was learning from Gardner as well. I learned from the best. Some of my expertise comes from reading. I have read hundreds of books on writing and novels that are specific to what I want to write, such as description or dialogue. I need to read certain books while I’m writing to keep with the style I’m after for my project. Other times, I just need to write.

What would you want your readers to know about you that might not be in your bio?
I love sushi and don’t watch television and secretly love French men. Most weekends, late at night, after a good day of writing, I go dancing at New York’s’ premier gay clubs.

As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans?
I write almost everyday. If I’m not working on a book project or magazine article, then I am researching and reading. I plan to have my next book, Tea Time Boys, out within a year and keep producing novels after that. I am a fan of the romance genre and it seems all my stories have a romantic theme.

If you could be one of the characters from this book, who would it be and why?
I usually get the question of, which character am I in the book? It turns out that I am none of the characters in the book. Now, certain emotions, perhaps some of my personal experience absolutely contributes to the personalities I create with my characters, but they can never be me. If my character tastes something awful, then I use my experiences of what tastes terrible and give it to my character. If I had to choose, I would want to be Christian. I am a big sap for romance and do desire those perfect kisses—and I get them too. Christian came from a smaller town in Maryland, then ran away to London. I never ran away, but as a kid I thought about running away with Brad Pitt or Ricky Martin dozens of times. Remember Brad’s debut in Thelma and Louise? I so wanted to be there in that convertible. Instead, at 18 I moved to Philadelphia, then eventually to New York. Race has certain endurance attributes that I can relate to as well.

What is the best and worst advice you ever received? (regarding writing or publishing)
Some of the greatest advice I’ve received in my writing life is to persevere. It is a tough business to spend hours writing and editing alone, then getting rejection slips or crazy reviews, but it is part of the business and I do write because it is part of me and my stories need to come out. If someone wants to write, then write. That one-step makes them a writer. Do not let anyone tell you differently. If that writing project becomes a publishable book, then send it out, edit, and send it out again. Repeat all steps hundreds of times. I cannot stress how important it is to research when writing. I spend fifty percent of my time researching. By research, I mean in libraries, online, magazines and on-site trips, newspapers, interviews, and phone calls. For Times Square Kiss I spent time with the Amish culture. I actually met someone with some of Samuel’s characteristics. He was quite hot too, but his Rumspringa had been over. I also found myself dancing in some drag shows—not in drag. I also cannot produce an accurate description of what an Amish meal tastes like until I eat it. I do find myself in such insane situations sometimes-stay away from Chitlins—oh my, but these life experiences add to my writing. Most importantly, find a partner who supports your writing or your writing and relationship will not make it. I am very lucky to have full support from my partner. I know I can be a cranky bitch at times or just so caught up in my writing that when dinner is ready and when I come to the table the meal is cold. My dear partner heats it up and then learns to call me a half an hour before the meal is actually served. He’s so brilliant.

Do you outline your books or just start writing?
I do outline my book projects. In fact, I have three others outlined and my next book; tentatively titled Tea Time Boys has been outlined with a first draft that should be completed by September. Now, outlines are not hieroglyphics, they can be altered. For instance, my first outline’s chapter one can end up in chapter ten or deleted. It gives me a place to start, then I can create my world.

Anything else you might want to add?
Writing is my life and you will see how important it is to me in my book with humor, sensitivity, descriptions, and research. Please email me, facebook me, follow me on TWITTER to get to know me even more.

Interview: Preston Sexton

Rogue: What inspired you to start writing? and why horror?

Preston: I started writing poetry or something that resembled poetry while I was in the Navy. I never knew before that time at sea that I even enjoyed writing. My inspiration was the solitude of the Pacific Ocean. You’d be surprised how alone you are when you’re surrounded by 350 people for six months. Horror has always been my favorite genre. I didn’t read a lot before. But I watched a lot of movies. My wife says I am morbid but I say I am creative. I love fear. A person can do amazing things when they learn to turn their fear into a motivator.

Rogue: How did you come up with the idea of the Vamptillians?

Preston: Vampires have been explored in a variety of ways. Some are day walkers but most aren’t. They never explain how the typical vampire can’t survive the sun while others can. I just thought I would explain away the day walking. It also gives me more options to explore in later books.

Rogue: What expertise did you bring to your writing?

Preston: I wish I could say there was a lot of expertise involved in writing Thirst of Youth. My wife is from Oregon and I have driven the roads Justin travelled. I was in the Navy and know how sailors can act when they are drinking. I have been to a rave or two but I left a lot of the real activity of a rave out of the story. I grew up in a neighborhood like the one Justin settled in when he moved to Long Beach. So some of the things are familiar but I am no expert.

Rogue: What would you like your readers to know about you that may not be in your bio?Preston: I will get better--not only as a writer but in all aspects of my life. I pride myself on getting better in everything I do. If it is going to represent me, then I want it to be the best. I am a bit morbid so future writings will probably be more gruesome and more scary. I will be a better writer, with every book. I have many more to come. Some of my other hobbies are drawing--hopefully I will get into comics in the near future. I love football. I mean really, really, love football.

Rouge: A little on the personal side but, how did you start out in the Navy and end up in the Army? Isn't that a bit unusual?

Preston: It isn’t as unusual as you might think. Many of the best soldiers were sailors or marines. What would be unusual is going in the opposite direction (from the Army to the Navy). I never thought I’d end up in the military. In fact, in high school, I was completely against the idea. That’s when life happened and before I was ready for it, I was a father. I made the choice to forgo other dreams and join the military. The Navy, for lack of a better word--SUCKED! Yet it taught me a lot about myself and what I really wanted from my life. I got out after my four years of service and realized I had no real skills that were transferable to a civilian career. And again before I was ready, I had another person come into the world dependant upon me to make a better way. I knew I was good at the military by that point and knew that the Army had jobs that could easily transfer into a civilian career. After a few years in the Army, I decided it would be more beneficial for me to make a career out of the military. So far I have been right. God willing (or whoever you believe to be the highest power), I will walk away in good health and proud of my time serving our great country.

Rogue: Anything else you would like to add?

Preston: I’d like to thank all the readers. I hope they enjoy the book and follow me as I progress in writing. I would also like to thank everyone at Rogue Phoenix Press for their words of advice and hard work. I would like to thank my family, friends, and fellow soldiers for inspiring me to continue to strive for my dreams. And finally, thank you for your time and interest in me.

Interview: Genene Valleau

Rogue: What inspired you to start writing?

Genene: I read a book I didn't particularly care for and thought, "I can write better than that!" Of course, once I actually sat down to write, I learned it's not quite as easy as saying, "I'm going to write a book."

Rogue: How did you come up with the idea for your trilogy, Songs of the Heart, Feathers on the Floor, and Stars in Your Eyes?

Genene: Like most females, I had a crush or two on rock stars when I was a teenager. However, the stereotypical rock star is not known for being faithful to one woman. But I played one of my favorite writing exercises--What If. What If a rock star loves one woman enough to be faithful? What If that woman has a secret that won't let her trust his love? What If their love is strong enough to overcome their fears and the interference of well-meaning friends and family? Though I rewrote SONGS OF THE HEART many times over the fourteen years it took for the idea to develop into a publishable story, Geoff and Shannon were two characters who stayed in my mind until I gave them their happily-ever-after.The idea for FEATHERS ON THE FLOOR developed as I was writing SONGS. A former bodyguard who handled physical confrontation every day and a studious psychiatrist who resolved conflict with calming words are pretty opposite personalities. However, as Julia faced a husband who turned abusive and Mitch's emotional trauma from the past surfaced, they were perfect to help each other heal.STARS IN YOUR EYES was also born as I wrote SONGS OF THE HEART. Zach and Lauren had been in love for years but were too busy convincing themselves that their separate lives were perfect to admit they really wanted each other. When Zach suffers a heart attack, he and Lauren realize they've wasted a lot of time they could have been sharing.

Rogue: What expertise did you bring to your writing and these three books?

Genene: All three books deal with deeply emotional issues--including losing a child, domestic violence, facing death--and finding the courage to heal and open your heart to loving again. In the years I worked for a social service agency and in my personal life, I've seen people do this. It still amazes me!

Rogue: What would you like your readers to know about you that may not be in your bio?Genene: I love dogs--all sizes and breeds and personalities. They are incredible teachers if only we pay attention to the lessons they offer.

Rogue: A little on the personal side, what can you tell us about your plans for your dog sanctuary?

Genene: I was just under a year old when a Collie came into my life. He was my pillow, my protector and my confidante. He started my life-long love affair with dogs. When I started working at the local animal shelter about three years ago, I realized many dogs who didn't do well in a shelter absolutely blossomed when they went home with a family. So my dream of a very special dog rescue and sanctuary took root. Animal communicators to greet new arrivals and explain what was happening. Healing hands to soothe and comfort. Soft beds to sleep on and people to cuddle with. Other dogs to play with and an ever-changing range of smells to explore. My goal is to sell my house in town and buy property where my current crew of dogs and I can settle in, then start welcoming new arrivals. You can read a bit about us at <http://www.quantumcanines.com/>.

Rogue: As far as writing goes, what are your future plans?

Genene: After three releases in less than twelve months, this year has slowed down as I focus on setting up a dog rescue and sanctuary. My next release will be a novella in an anthology from Rogue Phoenix Press in February 2010 with two authors I have known and respected for many years. After that novella is finished, I'll be working on a series of nine drama/action romance books that are impatiently waiting to be written.

Rogue: Anything else you might want to add.

Genene: I love to sponsor contests and give away prizes. We're running contests on the Rogue's Angels blog <http://www.roguesangels.blogspot.com/> and I'll also soon be announcing a new contest on my writing Web site at <genene@genenevalleau.com>. I hope you take the time to enter--and maybe win!Thank you so much: Genene/Amber Angel