Danita Minnis

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Brian Paone will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

 

 

Author Interview

1. Woohoo! You are a published author. Describe a strong character trait you possess, good or bad, and how it helped you become a published author. Constant motivation. This might be a good or bad trait. As soon as I get an idea in my head, and I make the internal decision to do something about it, I will not stop until its finished. I have “started” writing 3 different novels, and I have published 3 novels. I do not have a single “shelved” project. I am also a musician, and have released 7 albums, and that goes for my albums, as well as my novels. Once I commit, I’m in it for the long haul.

2. Sometimes an author begins writing a story before they are aware of its genre. Did you choose your genre, or did it choose you? Well, I think that’s different for each of my 3 books. My first book, “Dreams Are Unfinished Thoughts” (2007) is a true story about my friendship with someone who was a drug addict and in the music business. My second novel, “Welcome to Parkview” (2010), the genre chose me. I started writing, I knew where I wanted it to go, I knew how I wanted to get there, but I never ever imagined that book to become so dark, until it became dark. The book took its own turn somewhere halfway through and became almost evil within itself. My new book, “Yours Truly, 2095,” was going to be a time travel romance novel right from the start, and I made sure that it stayed within those parameters.

3. The plot thickens, or does it? Which one are you, a pantser or a plotter? I feel like I write the same was we drive to somewhere we’ve never been, but with GPS on. When you drive somewhere far away, and you are using GPS for each turn, you understand what and when the next “turn” will be, but you have no idea what you are going to be seeing out of your window while you are driving to the next turn. I feel that’s how both of my fictional novels were written. I knew what had to happen, and when, but I even surprised myself at some of the things that I saw out the window while I wrote.

4. Fear 101: As writers it is our duty to make our characters face their fears. Have you ever included one of your own fears in a storyline? My biggest fear is death. Dying scares me. However I am not scared of actual dead people, since I was raised in a funeral home and was surrounded by dead people my whole life. I tend to have no problem killing off a main character or an important character, and I think that’s my subconscious way of dealing with my own mortality.

5. Fear 102: Yes, deadlines are terrifying. Have you conquered the juggling act between writing and the rest of your life? What do you do when it feels like the balls are dropping all around you? When I feel the deadline looming, or real life getting in the way, I do what I call “extend the day to 28 hours long.” I forfeit sleep to make up the time with writing. When I was writing “Yours Truly, 2095,” there were many nights when my wife would kiss me goodnight at 10pm, and I would stumble to bed around 3am. Normally I would have gone to bed with her, but when the balls are dropping all around, I extend my day by giving up sleep to get caught up.

6. Switch positions with one of your main characters in a scene. What is the outcome, disaster or divine intervention? I would have had accepted the advances of the cute girl in the club, gone home with her, and possibly have never been seen again… or found dead on the moon. (I’m not going to go into further detail, I want to leave an air of mystery of what actually happens.)

7. Where is your favorite place to write? Add that one comfort food that you can’t do without. My favorite place to write, when I was writing “Yours Truly, 2095,” was my dining room table in Japan. I lived in Japan the entire time, from the incarnation of the idea, all the way down to its release date in print. Now that we have moved back to America, I have my own office, so when its time to tackle the 4^th book, I’ll be doing it from the comfort of my first legitimate office.

Instead of comfort food, can we do a comfort drink? During the writing of “Yours Truly, 2095,” I couldn’t write unless I had a Chu-hi next to me. That is a Japanese drink that comes in almost every single fruit flavor that you can think of… with 9% Sochu alcohol mixed in.

8. Writing inspirations? I think that is a dual answer. It would have been a handful of teachers starting as early as 7^th grade up through senior year in high school who encouraged me to write short stories. But it wasn’t until I read my first Stephen King novel, The Dark Half, when I started thinking about long form writing. I tried to write a novel in high school in 1991, which even though I finished at 350 pages, it was terrible, and I went back to strictly short stories again. (I mentioned earlier than I have never shelved a project. This novel was actually finished. When I was writing “Welcome to Parkview,” I revisited that first novel, and stripped about 30 pages from it, rewrote them, and added them into Parkview.) That’s where I’d stay until 2006, when I wrote what would actually be my first published novel.

9. You are introduced to your favorite author. Who is it, and what is that one burning question you must ask them? Well, I did make the drive from Boston to Bangor, Maine, back in 1998 hoping to meet Stephen King. I found his home address, rented a hotel room in Bangor, and visited the house. Typing this out, makes me sound like a stalker, but really I just wanted pictures of me in front of his house. And if he was there and came out, added bonus.

10. I’ve gone mad – why don’t you come with me? Some people just don’t understand us writers. Name a quirky, writer-thing you do that friends wish you didn’t. Listen to Milli Vanilli on a regular basis. I don’t care if they were lip-synching. Those songs are catchy!

 

Yours Truly, 2095

by Brian Paone

 

Blurb:

Jeff Blue-the victim of a time-travel conspiracy-wakes up trapped in the year 2095. The only familiar face is J0; a robotic copy of the wife he left behind in 1981. But can she be trusted?

J0 could be the only key to unlock Jeff’s journey home, but it will require her to do something against her programming-something human.

During Jeff’s perilous journey through the future, he will have to discover the truth about J0’s origins, and solve the mystery behind how he wound up in 2095, in order to uncover the reality of his own destiny.

Armed with a one-way ticket to the moon, Jeff must race against the clock to seize what might be his last chance to return home to his time. A time without hover cars, Justice Computers, or TeleSkins-a time over one hundred years ago.

 

Excerpt:

The Xanadu moonliner taxied to the launch pad. I didn’t realize how terrified I was until that moment. This was really happening. I was gripping the arm-rests so tightly that my knuckles had gone ghost-white. I tried to loosen my grip, but my palms would not let go.

“How long is takeoff?” I asked in a whisper.

“About eight minutes.”

“All right. I think I can handle eight minutes.”

The Xanadu moonliner propelled us heavenward toward a frontier I could have never, in my wildest dreams, imagined I would be visiting. Takeoff was smooth and effortless. I had experienced worse turbulence when I would let Julie drive the Thunderbird back in 1981 than I did from blasting through the Earth’s atmosphere in the moonliner. During the time it took for us to get from the ground to outer space, passengers were going about their normal business just like any other commute. I slowly allowed my knuckles to regain some of their natural color.

As smooth as liftoff was, I could still tell when we broke through the exosphere. Outer space! Even though I was strapped in by my five-point harness, I immediately felt the weightlessness of my body hover slightly in my seat. Bruce made eye contact with me just long enough for him to smile. This was it. We were really going to the moon.

 

Author Bio and Links:

Brian Paone was born and raised in the Salem, Massachusetts area. An award winning author, his love of writing began through the medium of short stories at the young age of twelve. After almost 20 years of consistently writing short stories for only his friends and family to read, Brian’s first full-length novel, a personal memoir about his friendship with a rock-star drug addict entitled, “Dreams Are Unfinished Thoughts,” was published in 2007. Brian’s second novel, “Welcome to Parkview,” was published in 2010 and is a macabre journey through a cerebral-horror landscape. Brian’s latest novel, “Yours Truly, 2095,” was published in 2015 and follows a man who wakes up one morning, trapped in the future, to discover he’s been the victim of a time-travel conspiracy. Brian is married and has 3 children. Brian’s wife is an Officer in the US Navy. He is also a self-proclaimed roller coaster junkie, and his favorite color is burnt-orange.

 

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