I had a funny conversation with a colleague recently. I was mentioning that with a busy job, a large family and finding time to write it was occurring to me that I don’t have much of a social life. I made a joke that the people I probably spend the most time with on a “friend” level were, sadly, the characters in the novel I’m currently writing. I generally spend from 10 p.m. – midnight with them each day.
I haven’t yet decided if that’s a good or bad thing. Imaginary friends were okay when we were four years old, right?
After publishing a slew of articles over the years and completing eight novel-length manuscripts, I have finally achieved my goal of becoming a published author, as my time travel trilogy, WILTON’S GOLD (Amazon Kindle), was released in January, 2015. With a diary full of ideas, have no intention of stopping. While seeing my name on the cover of a best-seller at Barnes & Noble is certainly the goal, it’s the creation that keeps me motivated. I enjoy building characters from scratch and then throwing things at them (sometimes literally!) to see how they react.
I am always thankful for my “test” readers who have been great about offering feedback on novel excerpts or short stories. The most useful input I get is when one of my test readers tells me how they felt about what I’d written. Not just if they liked the book or the characters, but how they squirmed at certain parts, or were genuinely happy when my hero made the right decision. One of my proudest moments in writing was when one of my readers told me that she wanted to punch one of my characters in the face. That’s inspiring.
For my day job, I do marketing, public relations and politics in Western New York, and am involved with a number of big initiatives in the region. My work gives me access to lots of people, and I am fascinated every day about how people think and engage others and jockey for position. Politics is a great field if you like people and enjoy learning what makes them tick.
I live in Wheatfield, NY, which is about a ten-minute drive from Niagara Falls, with my wonderful and supportive wife, Nadine, and our four children, Karissa, Joel, Sarafina and Mariella.
When they’re all tucked in for the night, I hang out with my “friends.”
Thanks for visiting my site. If you have a moment, let me know where you would time travel if you had the opportunity!
