1. What inspired you to write your first book?
Bored out of my gourd by my very mainstream job in the financial industry, I needed to create an alternate reality, thus the stockbroker in HABITS who is seduced by the dark side of sex and drugs.
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2. Writing can be a difficult job, what inspires you to keep going?
Just can’t stop….
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3. What are you working on now? What’s next?
Working on Sparafucile, or The Assassin, which combines a modern day down-and-out American expatriate in France with the story of a 19th century French gypsy assassin-for- hire. Next, maybe another dystopian future assignment, more like TWIST.
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4. What’s your writing process, schedule, or routine?
I go out to my studio (man cave) every day, usually early in the morning, and get in front of my computer. I have three screens. I type on the middle one, watch Netflix on the right-hand one, and use the left one in vertical mode for reading text, surfing websites and Googling background facts and data for my work. Mostly pretty flakey and unstructured. Oh, and the cat, or cats, lie next to the keyboard, to make sure I behave.
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5. Who is your favorite book character of all time? Why?
This is a tough one. Could it be Yossarian in Joseph Heller’s Catch 22? Or maybe Henry Chinaski, the first-person narrator of any one of Charles Bukowski’s novels? Or Myron, the first-person narrator of my own novel, Perfect Fingers? Smart alecks all, with more than a touch of cynicism.
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6. What advice would give to aspiring writers?
Just keep writing, write what turns you on, don’t try to write what you think others will like, and be careful about listening to advice.
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7. What’s your favorite quote?
“Time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like a banana.” Who said it first? I don’t know, maybe Groucho Marx. BTW, he’s not the Marx who wrote Das Kapital.
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8. Who would you most like to have a cup of coffee with? (Dead or alive). Explain…
Another tough one, even though I love coffee. Probably one of my favorite authors, Julian Barnes – who would find me incredibly tedious and uneducated – or Elmore Leonard who, even if he weren’t already dead, would probably think I was pond scum. Sigh. Why do we always want to dance with the girls who don’t want to dance with us?
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9. What is your biggest pet peeve?
The person in front of me in the grocery checkout who waits until all their stuff is rung up and in the sack, and then sloooowly draws a checkbook out of purse or pocket and begins slooowly writing a check.
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10. Tell us something quirky about you.
I’d rather spend time with my cats than with other humans. And I never want to get on an airplane again.
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11. Favorite comfort food?
1½” thick New York steak, grilled medium rare, but crispy on the outside.
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12. Star Wars or Star Trek?
Star Wars, absolutely. Trek is drek. Did you know there is an entire book entitled Meaning In Star Trek, employing Jungian psychology to analyze the show’s popularity – actually an engaging academic read, but the show itself was too cerebral and self-important for me. I’m glad to see Captain Kirk doing car rental commercials.
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13. Sunrises or Sunsets?
Rises. The cats get me up early.
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Follow Myron:
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