New Blog Appearance and Interview

Author A.B. Funhauser has been kind enough to host me as a guest blogger on her site.  She is posting excerpts from my book as well as my biography and my answers to the questions we both responded to.  To see her responses revisit my Sunday, April, 19^th blog.  Here is the link to my blog appearance today.  http://abfunkhauser.com/2015/04/22/realizing-a-dream-author-rival-gates/  I hope you enjoy it.

Time To Edit

Sales of “Quest for the Red Sapphire” have been huge during this .99 sale.  It has moved up over 700,000 places on the best seller’s list at Amazon.com!  If you’re on the fence about ordering, the sale ends soon so order your copy today at  http://amzn.to/1npYd0S .   I’ve been doing so much publicity lately that I nearly forgot that I had the edits for “Sapphire Crucible” waiting to be finished.  I will be going into a two week stretch at work when I will be basically unavailable to my writing L.  So I have till tomorrow to finish my edits.  On top of that, the first edits for book 3, “Mandrean Revenge” just came through.  It will have to wait until after my work bombardment to attack those.  When all that is done and that book is ready to publish, I can finally get back to finishing book 4, “Repercussions Abound.”  It was so long ago that I first thought up a half-elf named Linvin Grithinshield.  He has come so far and has so far to go.

Interview Swap

Author A.B. Funkhauser and I each answered a series of questions to be posted on the other’s blog.  Today I am posting my colleague’s answers.  A. B. will be posting mine on Wednesday.  Enjoy!

 Author Questionnaire

What are your thoughts on muses and do you have one?

Muses are mythical, compelling creatures credited with facilitating masterworks that otherwise would have never been.  Alma Mahler and Helga Testorf come to mind along with that whole thing George Sand and Chopin had going on. I have to say that the Heuer character is richer because of a couple of guy buddies who endured my pestering to look over scenes and dialogue for male “authenticity”. They had plenty to say: “guys don’t think like that” “guys don’t care about that” etc. I took about half of their suggestions; the rest is creative license. Heuer is complicated, so the reactions he got from my muses told me that I had something very interesting.

Your characters have a great capacity to love, yet they’re starved. Why do you think this happens in fiction and in real life?

Hmmm. Heuer is a child of the Cold War and a baby boomer, which means his views are very out of step with the current times. In the Eighties, he obsessively reads Ayn Rand, votes Republican and walks around wearing a button that says “Cruise On” in support of cruise missile testing. He does this not out of any enduring belief, but out of a need to enrage. He is rocking his own version of what a “bad guy” is. And it works: women are curious about him, but don’t venture near very often, and he’s fine with that. He sees ‘love’ as a commodity that can be traded up or down. And he can leave relationships behind as long as he has a photo trophy or two to mull over. It’s baggage, I guess. That’s what empties the glass.

Without giving spoilers, would you say you’re a “happy ending” writer?

I certainly like definitive conclusions. Cliff hangers and Whaaa Happened? doesn’t really do it for me and so I wouldn’t want to do that to anyone good enough to read my stuff. So I’m in the business of delivering endings that hopefully make the reader happy, even if, by pure definition, the plot circumstance is not.

What would you like to be remembered for?

Epithets? Wow. I want to be remembered for being kind. It’s a quality that doesn’t always come easily, but I consciously work at it and am getting better for it.

If you could dine with any historical figure living or dead, who would it be and why?

The Actor

The Real Thing

This changes year to year. Currently, I’d have to go with John Graves Simcoe*, first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, and scourge of Long Island during the Revolutionary War. I love AMC and their current historical drama TURN: Washington’s Spies. It’s a potboiler. Simcoe is not only bad, he’s vile; yet he’s staunchly committed. A Royalist defending his country against republican marauders, he puts everything second to that first. He’s a bad, bad guy, and I can’t take my eyes off of him. I’d love to know how he lives with himself and then probably give him a good kick in the a**.

Past, present or future? Where does your mind dwell?

When I was young, I fell victim to the romantic past. I came of age in the Eighties, so naturally I believed that the Sixties had to be the be all and end all. Like Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris protagonist, I believed that satisfaction rested in what had already passed. Now at the half century (gawd that sounds old) I have fully come to my senses. The Eighties hold a lot of fond memories for me, but I have no desire to revisit them. The best time of my life is NOW and the next thing coming...whatever that is.

What informs your writing most?

Music! Music affects me a lot. I have the radio going morning till night and I’ll listen to anything from alt to classical to jazz to rock to pop to hip hop. I’ll actually pick my music depending on where I am in the story. If it’s an angry point, I might put on Slipknot or Rammstein.

Growing up in the Seventies, school kids were encouraged to think globally and act locally. Have you ever flirted with this philosophy?

Sure. I try to keep current and it amazes me how major issues disappear when someone in Hollywood gets married or divorced. But that’s always been a condition of pop culture. I mull things. I try to be thoughtful. Some of it actually makes it into the mouths of my characters which is great. If there’s to be controversy, let it come from them.

Guilty pleasures: we all have them. What is yours?

Frat boy comedies. DUDE, WHERE’S MY CAR is a favorite along with ANIMAL HOUSE and anything coming from camp Apatow.

Your greatest victory?

Going back to school at age 39 and graduating third in the class. *yah!*

Tell us about the one that got away. Person, place or thing.

It was a car. A real beauty and a classic. But I didn’t have the money to buy her, so I made her a character instead. (smiles)

What are some of the overriding themes in your work? Do you have a favorite?

I’m always rocking nostalgia, but not in the way some might expect. I like memories as much as anyone else, but I don’t live in them, so a number one theme in Heuer is that nostalgia hurts more than it helps. Another one, and this really is a pet peeve, is that prying into someone’s business really is a lousy thing to do. The business of suspicious spouses cum private eyes appears routinely in advice columns where they ask permission from the columnist to break into their loved ones email. I can’t abide that. As far as I know it’s still a punishable offense to read someone’s snail mail, so why should electronic communications be any different? The mortician character Enid wrestles with this in HEUER LOST AND FOUND. She doesn’t break into his computer, but she does go through his things, and she feels terrible about it. Which brings me to my final theme: some questions don’t need answers. Enid is committed to finding out what happened to him, but does she really need to know in order to love him? That one has to be my all time fave.

Who do you admire and why?

Anyone who can take on a task and finish it. That’s commitment. That’s saying something about what a person is and what they can be.

Are writers fully formed works of art or works in progress?

Hee hee.

 

 

 

Interview of Charli Fountain

Today on my blog I have the honor of interviewing Charli Fountain, the head illustrator for Cheshire Grin Publishing.  Welcome to “My Thoughts”.  Thanks for sitting down to answer some questions.

I just finished “Dog Without a Shadow” and was particularly taken with the artwork.  What attracted you to art in the first place?

I’d like to say that I was drawn to expressing myself when I could not make up the words to come out of me. I was painfully shy and often I can picture in my head what I want or thought but I can’t explain it well. So really I draw so I can have my voice heard.

How did that lead to illustrating a book like this one?

In middle school, I felt it was my time to get out and adventure things, but I was still limited in what I could do or find out. I spent a lot of time in the library, and I found couple of unique comic books and I had already known I enjoyed writing stories and I enjoyed drawing, but I decided I suddenly found my way to do both. I had known about comic books all my life but I had never seen one bigger than the Sunday newspaper comics until middle school.

How would you describe your style?

I am still finding my own style but I grew up loving beautiful elegant works and designs. I also had a cartoony humor and that translated to my art very clearly. I feel my style will never stop evolving because I am always learning something new. I have simplified realism in my works, and an air of pure fantasy.

Did you have any mentors or role models who spurred you in this direction?

I actually have lots, and I know one person who started it all, my Mom. She gave me a book of Fairy Paintings by Amy Brown and I still have it with some pages falling out from looking at it day after day. I carried it to school, I kept it under my teenage pillow, and I learned from it. Amy Brown became a major model for my art. It followed with some music muses like Avril Lavigne and Amy Lee, and more artistic heroes like Stan Lee, J. Scott Campbell, and Rumiko Takahashi. Those are actually the people I have on my list that I dream to meet with one day.

I was intrigued by your use of color in the book.  Is that part of your style or was it specific to the story?

That was a bit of both I like vibrant bold colors and I also know Amadogus himself is a big black dog, I felt having the brighter colors would help the audience draw their attention towards him as well as I hoped it would help lead a flow of direction to the pages.

Do you see the pictures in your head before you draw them or do they come to you as you work?

I most of the time see them in my mind before I draw them. I have woken up at 3am with an image and I could not go to sleep until it was on paper. There are those special cases where I have an idea but I don’t know how to execute it so those come as I work but it is very seldom they do.

Have you ever wanted to branch out and do other types of art?

All the time, I actually have a lot of hobbies between making costumes, I want to learn cosmetology, special effects make up, Air brushing, and water transfer. I can go on and on with the different things I’d like to do. I can watch a video and say, “that looks like so much fun.” And I will add it to my list.

I hear talk about a children’s museum.  Can you shed some light on that for me?

Angel and I are planning on taking some of my original work for ‘The Dog without a Shadow’ and possibly more to put on display at a children’s museum. There were lots of drawings I illustrated for this book and a couple of them never made it to the story so I had hoped, because one of them was my favorite, that I can still show it to kids and they enjoy it as well.

Is this the only children’s book you have illustrated or are there others?

‘The Dog without a Shadow’ was my first, but we have also started using other works of mine in other children’s books like ‘Ikto’s Umbrella’. That is a new one Angel wrote and it just became available for children.

What can we expect from you and Cheshire Grin in the future?   

We have two other children’s books besides ‘The Dog without a Shadow’, one is called Ikto’s Umbrella and the other is ‘Adelise’. I also have started a couple of novellas, I will have illustrations in those as well, and you will see more on those the closer they are to being complete. I have worked on one for almost ten years I am really excited to finally get it to the point where everyone can read it.

Your dedication to your work certainly is evident in its fine quality.  Thank you for being on the blog and I wish you the best of success in the future.

Rival

New Interview

The .99 book sale is going strong.  Get a copy of "Quest for the Red Sapphire" at http://amzn.to/1npYd0S  Here is my new interview on Marie Lavender's Books.  http://marielavenderbooks.blogspot.com/2015/04/spotlight-rival-gates-visits-to-talk.html  Enjoy!

Anothert Guest Appearance

A great writer and friend picked up my article for her blog and posted it.  Thanks to Angel Dunworth and her Cheshire Grin Publications.  Here's the link http://streetlighthalo.blogspot.com/2015/04/guest-epic-fantasy-from-epic-writer.html#gpluscomments

The Common Cold

The .99 sale on “Quest for the Red Sapphire” is going great!  Make sure you get yours at http://amzn.to/1npYd0S before it’s over!  Today I have a bad cold.  I just want to get in bed and stay there forever.  As I was in bed blowing my nose I thought to myself, why can’t they cure this thing?  My only advice has been to wait it out.  That could take 7-10 days.  We can put a man on the moon.  We can cure Ebola.  We can make Nano computers.  We split the atom.  We can inoculate against chicken pox and a host of other diseases and ailments.  We can overthrow countries.  We can make frozen pizzas that taste nearly as good as take out.  We could feed the world if politics didn’t get in the way.  So why oh why can’t we cure the common cold?  Is anyone even trying?  All I see are treatments for the symptoms.  It’s nice to have cough medicine or nasal mists or cough drops or Tylenol but all these medicines treat symptoms.  The root problem remains and all I can do is fall back on Mom’s recommendations of clear fluids and rest.  It seems like there should be something more that can be done.  There is certainly a market for this as people come down with colds all the time.  A cure would sell at whatever price you set.  This is a horrible feeling and I want it gone.  Still, the only treatments that come out are for the symptoms.  Is it that hard to pin down?  Or is there more money treating it than curing it.  In the end it always comes down to money.  What will make the pharmaceutical company richer.  Curing an illness takes away a customer.  Why would a company want to do that?  Maybe someone has come up with the cure already but is sitting on it so their parent company can continue to profit from their treatments?  If that were true then someone would be playing with fire.  If it ever came out that they had an antidote and kept it a secret, there would be uproar.  Realistically the chances of that are slim.  If they had the cure, who is to say another company wouldn’t come up with the same cure and patent it.  Then you would be the loser.  No, I think if there was a cure, it would be released.  I just don’t think they’re looking very hard for one.  Until society comes forward and says, “This is important” the attempt to cure the illness will sit on the back burner with a host of other things waiting for someone to stumble over the cure