Next Big Book Thing: Author Interview

What inspired you to write your first book? After I returned from Saudi Arabia, where I had been a university professor, I was determined to write a mystery set in that mysteriously exotic locale, and COVERT DREAMS was born.

Were the characters in COVERT DREAMS created around people in your life? The characters in COVERT DREAMS all come from my imagination, but bits and pieces of people I have known have found a home in the book. As a student in Germany, I got to know Munich like the back of my hand. As a professor in Saudi Arabia, I got to know the country well. The names of the characters are all my creation, but the locales in both Munich and Saudi Arabia are true to life.

Who or what influenced your writing once you began? My parents, both teachers and both avid readers, had a real influence on me. Their encouragement of this hobby of mine that I enjoyed so thoroughly really gave me the boost I needed to fill my study with manuscripts.

What’s your favorite place in the entire world? I love Europe. I try to go there at least once a year. I love the historic old towns, the rivers surrounded by castles, the snow-peaked Alps. I love the old buildings, and the cobble-stone streets, and I simply adore the great food, wine, and beer found in the Old World.

What is one thing that no one would usually know about you? I am a very sensitive guy. I can cry easily, but always behind closed doors, and only in front of my wife or a close relative. My sister-in-law told my wife that I am a real man’s man, and she meant it as a real compliment, and I probably am, but I also have a soft side that really comes out in private when I am emotionally sad about something. A movie, for instance, can sometimes bring tears to my eyes.

What do you do to unwind and relax? I am an avid world traveller. I have lived in Finland, Germany, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. I have travelled extensively, many times, throughout the Caribbean, Asia, the Middle East, and both Western and Eastern Europe. I love being a part of different cultures, learning things that I would never have known if I had stayed only in my native California. My wife and I travel internationally at least once a year.