My gratitude to fellow author E.A. Aymar for inviting me to participate.\u00a0 You can click the following link to learn more about E.A. and his work:\u00a0 http:\/\/www.eaymar.com<\/a><\/p>\n In this blog hop, I and my fellow authors, in their respective blogs, have answered questions about our book or work-in–progress (giving you a sneak peek).\u00a0 We’ve also included some behind-the-scenes information about how and why we write what we write–the characters, inspirations, plotting and other choices we make. I hope you enjoy it!<\/p>\n Please feel free to comment and share your thoughts and questions. Here is my Next Big Thing! Titles are tricky.\u00a0 At first I wanted to call my new work \u201cStandard Oil of New Jersey,\u201d but found out that\u2019s already in use. So the title is \u201cERASED and Other Stories.\u201d As you might guess, it\u2019s a collection of short stories of mystery and suspense.<\/strong><\/p>\n 2: Where did the idea come from for the book?<\/strong><\/p>\n I wanted to write a short story about my private eye, Willis Gidney, who graciously consented to appear in DRINK THE TEA, which won the PWA Competition for Best First Novel, and STEAL THE SHOW.\u00a0 I enjoyed writing the Gidney short story, and continued with more.<\/strong><\/p>\n 3. What genre does your book come under? <\/strong><\/p>\n While Willis is part of the private eye genre, ERASED covers a wider territory.\u00a0 All the stories combine mystery and suspense, but I try to make the people in the stories a bit unusual, and their jobs even more so.<\/strong><\/p>\n 4: Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? <\/strong><\/p>\n That\u2019s a question I get asked a lot. There is<\/em> an actor in Hollywood who would be terrific as Willis Gidney. I mean, he\u2019d be absolutely perfect.\u00a0 But I\u2019m not going to tell you his name.\u00a0 In the Gidney novels DRINK THE TEA and STEAL THE SHOW, I give the reader clues as to what Gidney looks like, but the readers have to create their own mental image of the guy.\u00a0 If I were to name an actor, then the readers will think of Gidney looking a particular way.<\/strong><\/p>\n By the way, I think I would make a terrific Gidney.\u00a0 In fact, if I were younger, better looking, and had faster reflexes, we could be twins.<\/strong><\/p>\n 5: What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?<\/strong><\/p>\n ERASED is a collection of stories about twisted people doing twisted things.<\/strong><\/p>\n 6: Is your book self-published, published by an independent publisher, or represented by an agency?<\/strong><\/p>\n My agent, Doug Grad, created Antenna Books as an epublishing venture.\u00a0 So ERASED is the first time I\u2019ve written a book specifically for that market.\u00a0\u00a0 Doug sent me a contract, 15 pages long. I\u2019ll need to look it over with my agent before I sign.<\/strong><\/p>\n 7: How long did it take you to write the first draft of these stories? <\/strong><\/p>\n Is that a trick question?\u00a0 I wrote most of these stories over four months, but went back and revised each one a few times.\u00a0 But I\u2019m not counting the time that goes into thinking about and planning each story.<\/strong><\/p>\n 8: What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? <\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWhere\u2019s Waldo?\u201d comes to mind.<\/strong><\/p>\n 9: Who or what inspired you to write this book?<\/strong><\/p>\n I work as a cinematographer and shoot a lot of documentaries.\u00a0 The lead story, ERASED, came from my experiences interviewing survivors of Nazi concentration camps.\u00a0 One of these survivors told me about a certain day: the Nazis rounded up all the adult Jews of a small Polish town, put them in trucks, and drove them miles away to work in the fields. When they returned, exhausted, they found that the Nazis had taken all of their children away, never to be seen again.\u00a0 My daughter had just been born and this story affected me like no other.<\/strong><\/p>\n Also, as a novelist, I sometimes have ideas for stories that don\u2019t quite justify a novel\u2019s length. So rather than try to inflate a story to novel size, I let each story dictate its own length. You know, once upon a time the short story market was huge in the US. I wonder if epublishing will help bring the short story back?<\/strong><\/p>\n 10: What else about your book might pique the reader\u2019s interest? <\/strong><\/p>\n I think readers will find that the stories in ERASED cover a lot of ground \u2013 mystery, suspense, humor, tragedy.\u00a0 I\u2019m writing the kind of stories I like to read, and hope others will like them too.<\/strong><\/p>\n 11: Why are you so much better-looking in person than in your photo?<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s the team of make-up and hair people who follow me around all day. I\u2019m not sure what happens to them at night.<\/strong><\/p>\n Who\u2019s next on the NEXT BIG THING BLOG HOP?<\/p>\n So glad you asked!<\/p>\n Below you will find authors who will be joining me by blog, next Wednesday. Do be sure to bookmark and add them to your calendars for updates on WIPs and New Releases:<\/p>\n Keith Gilman\u2019s blog: http:\/\/keithgilman.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n John Dedakis\u2019s blog: http:\/\/www.johndedakis.com\/blog\/<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thomaskaufman.com\/author\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/erased12-198x300.jpg\" "\\"ERASED")
<\/a>1: How do you come up with the title of a book?\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n