VISION AND VERSE DISCLAIMER
Note:
Vision and Verse does not store any personal information like email addresses, home addresses, etc. We do not give any information to third parties. And cookies? We eat cookies.
VISION AND VERSE DISCLAIMER
Note:
Vision and Verse does not store any personal information like email addresses, home addresses, etc. We do not give any information to third parties. And cookies? We eat cookies.
VISION AND VERSE DISCLAIMER
Note:
Vision and Verse does not store any personal information like email addresses, home addresses, etc. We do not give any information to third parties. And cookies? We eat cookies.
VISION AND VERSE DISCLAIMER
Note:
Vision and Verse does not store any personal information like email addresses, home addresses, etc. We do not give any information to third parties. And cookies? We eat cookies.
VISION AND VERSE DISCLAIMER
Note:
Vision and Verse does not store any personal information like email addresses, home addresses, etc. We do not give any information to third parties. And cookies? We eat cookies.
S. J. Wilkie
The Shore of Lake Michigan
Wisconsin, USA
Good morning, S. J., and welcome to Vision and Verse. What have you written?
I have written 19 books to date.
Mysteries/Thrillers: A String Of Murder; Seroje: The Seeing Eye; The Banter With Murder Series
Young adult fantasy: The Spotted Tail series
Adult Fantasy: The Bitten Series; Tempering A Dragon, Alpha Yin and Yang; Crossing In A Heartbeat
Romance: Sleeping On The Glass Ceiling
What is your favorite genre to write?
Fantasy fiction is my favorite genre because there are no rules. If you need animals to talk, they do. If I need to break the laws of physics – no problem. Everything I’d like to see in real life is created. Magic exists. Dragons are lovely. And trolls can be nice people.
Favorite food.
Umami is my favorite type of taste. Umami trumps sweet any day for me, although I do like a square of dark chocolate on occasion.
Tea or coffee?
Black tea with cream and sugar, please.
Pizza or ice cream?
Pizza, extra cheese. Pepperoni. Ok. ok. Meat lovers. I don’t mind a bit of pineapple either.
Wine or beer or soda or what?
I never thought that I would see the day that people actually think my favorite drink is a sin. I love soda. Sugar bad. Me want that sugar in my soda.
Where would you like to visit?
I would like to visit Madagascar with all the amazing animals. It sounds like a very interesting place. But I’d have to stay a few months and follow a researcher around to get fully immersed with the animal cultures. Although North European countries sound interesting, too.
Favorite musical artist.
I love the sounds of Imagine Dragons and The Piano Guys.
Their music stirs my creativity. I even have a book idea on the
back burner that was inspired by one Imagine Dragons’s song, Demons.
Do you listen to music when you write?
I prefer silence when I write. I’m sensitive to stimuli. I want to live and taste the book I’m writing and I can’t do that will other
sounds. Even if one of my cats is making noise, I have to stop
writing until it’s quiet. Might be the reason I stay up late because everyone is in bed. No one bothers me.
What makes you laugh?
I have a newer kitten (1.5 years old). She has such exuberance when she plays. I love her energy. Her name is Stiletto.
Favorite work of art or sculpture.
There are too many to mention. If I was locked in the Louvre, I’d never want to come out. However, I am absolutely amazed at the work of Matt Bernhardt, who is my cover designer. All my covers are his original work done specifically for my books. Some of his work looks like a photograph when, in actuality, they are paintings.
I think I’ve always been writing. Since I was a quiet girl, too scared to go out, I created a world to live in through writing. I still have one of my original books written when I was between nine and ten. Some day I need to go back to that book and rewrite it. Even now, if I go back to read it, I see the same story telling ability that I have now, except maybe a little more imaginative now.
Do you plan out your book with outlines and notecards? Or just write?
I am a Just Write person. I start with an idea of how I want it to start and how I want it to end. Then I fill in the middle.
Describe your perfect evening.
A good meal, good conversation with a friend, then a quiet evening writing, where the wind is quiet, the cats are sleeping, and the police are busy running around town with their sirens on.
Where do you get your inspiration?
Life. Conversations with friends. Music. Youtube videos – the forensic programs help me with the murder mysteries. I know where to bury the bodies.
What do you do when you get a writer's block?
Do something else, usually something I don’t like to do. Many times just the thought of cleaning the house clears my writer’s block and I’m back at it.
Who is your favorite author?
Me. Because I am sensitive to stimuli, even the reading of someone else’s book can influence me. I want my work to be original. However, when I was younger, the rage was J.R.R. Tolkien. Although Anne McCaffrey with the dragon books is up there.
Best book you ever read.
I don’t have a best. I enjoyed many.
Last book you read.
Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows.
What would you do for a living if you weren’t a writer?
I was an IT Professional, and retired early from that to do whatever I wanted. But before I retired from that profession, I was already writing. It was a hobby. It is still a hobby. I’d be living in a tent on the beach if I relied on that income to live on.
Who is the one person who has influenced your personal life the most and why?
My dad taught me how to do things. Everyone else taught me that if you wanted it done at all, you had to do it yourself.
If you could sit down and have a conversation with ONE person, living or dead, real or fictional, who would it be and why?
I’m an introvert. I wouldn’t know what to say. The one person I should speak to is a psychiatrist.
What advice would you give someone who aspired to be a writer?
Always questions things. Research places and people. The current book I’m writing, The Smell Of Death, has an Asian/Indian taste to it. While researching cities to model for the city my character lives in I thought of Bombay. That’s when I learned, Bombay doesn’t exist anymore. It was renamed to Mumbai. My history is changing. It opens your eyes at times.
Do you have some links for us to follow you?
www.iamsara.com
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100049725112992
https://www.amazon.com/author/sjwilke
VISION AND VERSE DISCLAIMER
Note:
Vision and Verse does not store any personal information like email addresses, home addresses, etc. We do not give any information to third parties. And cookies? We eat cookies.
A Mystery Before Christmas, An Italian Village Mystery, by Adriana Licio was a nice change of pace from my usual read.
The story is set in a small village in Italy, a young widow and her child are passing through and stop for a few days because the little girl gets a fever.
The pace is gentle. The Italian customs at Christmas remind me of my grandparents long, long ago. The situations are definitely Italian-flavored!
This mystery does not throw dead bodies on the floor at Christmastime. It is more of an identity mystery and plays out to a satisfying conclusion.
VISION AND VERSE DISCLAIMER
Note:
Vision and Verse does not store any personal information like email addresses, home addresses, etc. We do not give any information to third parties. And cookies? We eat cookies.
VISION AND VERSE DISCLAIMER
Note:
Vision and Verse does not store any personal information like email addresses, home addresses, etc. We do not give any information to third parties. And cookies? We eat cookies.
When the city’s rich and most influential lawyer, Detrick Bittmor, summons her to his penthouse apartment, she can’t say no.
Cat, as she’s better known, has a soft spot for the old lawyer with a nasty reputation. There’s something about this man she finds charming.
Detrick entrusts her with a puzzling personal matter, he wants to find out who the mysterious young man is who sits on a park bench every day at noon and stares up at his apartment windows.
The man resembles a young version of himself, and Detrick suspects that he could be his son from an affair he had many years ago.
He wants to find out the truth because this man could be his only heir.
Somewhat reluctantly, Cat takes on the challenge. She befriends the young man, but will it be love at first sight or will she stumble upon a secret that could put both their lives in danger?
Amazon link:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01AH8EOVA
Oh, this was a fun one to write! A small-town girl with a degree in early childhood education is writing obituaries in the basement of the local newspaper office while she waits for a position in a local school system to open up.
But what she really wants to do is open her own online investigation service.
Come along with Mary Catherine, "Cat" Collier as she moves from small hometown newspaper obituary writer to big city detective and beyond in this monthly episodic series.
January Black Ice
February White Lies
March Blues
April Yellow Moon
Lavender Mist of May
June Green Leaves od Deceit
July Fireworks Sky
August Red Dawn
September Solitude
October Masquerade
I am working on November Chill right now!
Kindle books are $.99. These are also available in paperback.
VISION AND VERSE DISCLAIMER
Note:
Vision and Verse does not store any personal information like email addresses, home addresses, etc. We do not give any information to third parties. And cookies? We eat cookies.
I’ve published two novels, Mischief Maker and Odin’s Escape. Book three of the Loki Redeemed series is due out in March 2023. Prior to that, I was the lead designer for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim video game, and was a senior designer for Daggerfall, Oblivion, Fallout 3, Fallout 4, and Starfiedl. Before entering the video game industry, I wrote D&D games for TSR, most notably the Ravenloft campaign setting.
What is your favorite genre to write?
Favorite food.
I have a weakness for anything sweet and baked. I love to grill and like to think my ribs are pretty good.
Tea or coffee?
Diet Dr. Pepper. I never picked up either the tea or coffee habits.
Pizza or ice cream?
Why choose? But if I had to, ice cream.
Wine or beer or soda or what?
Soda. My kids say if you cut me, I’d bleed Diet Dr. Pepper.
Where would you like to visit?
Krak des Chevaliers. It’s an amazing crusader castle located in Syria that has always fascinated me. Unfortunately, Syria is a war zone and likely will be for years to come.
Favorite musical artist.
Led Zeppelin, One Republic,
Fleetwood Mac
Do you listen to music when you write?
Music would distract me. I’m able to tune out background noise, so I don’t need total silence, but I end up paying too much attention to music if it’s on.
What makes you laugh?
Babies laughing, silly pet stunts, my wife’s improvised songs.
Favorite work of art or sculpture.
There is a bust of John F. Kennedy in the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. Viewed from one side he is a young man, from in front more mature, and from the other side, older. I’ve always admired that.
How old were you when you started writing?
I wrote my first published work at twenty-five, an adventure for the Marvel Super-heroes role-playing game. I’ve only started writing novels much later in life.
Do you plan out your book with outlines and notecards?
Or just write?
I write an outline and character descriptions. Sometimes neither survive to the end of the book, but I can’t write without having some idea of where I’m going. I admire those who can write without a plan, but I’m not one of them.
Describe your perfect evening.
Steak dinner, a great stand-up comedian, Netflix and chill, then soak in the hot tub.
Where do you get your inspiration?
I read voraciously and watch all kinds of fantasy and science fiction movies and TV.
Combined with my long career in gaming, and I no problems with inspiration. It’s all around me. I like to take accepted ideas and twist them whenever possible.
What do you do when you get a writer's block?
Move on. I got blocked about three quarters through my first book. I skipped over the section I couldn’t figure out and wrote the ending. By then I knew what had to fill the missing piece and wrote it.
Who is your favorite author?
Roger Zelazny, James Butcher, Iain Banks, Holly Black, Alastair Reynolds, Seanan McGuire, Adrian Tchiakovsky
Best book you ever read.
Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light
Last book you read.
Upgrade by Blake Crouch
What would you do for a living if you weren’t a writer?
I was fortunate enough to already do my dream job. I wrote role-playing games and video games.
Who is the one person who has influenced your personal life the most and why?
My wife, Laurie. She took an awkward nerd and turned him into a well-rounded person.
If you could sit down and have a conversation with ONE person, living or dead, real or fictional, who would it be and why?
Robin Williams. I’ve never laughed so hard as I have at most of his appearances.
What advice would you give someone who aspired to be a writer?
Write because you like doing it. Fame and fortune may not follow, so do it for fun. It also happens to be a good path to turning it into a career.
Do you have some links for us to follow you?
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100065304827763
Thank you, Bruce, for taking time out of your busy video game development and your writing schedule to interview with Vision and Verse.
VISION AND VERSE DISCLAIMER
Note:
Vision and Verse does not store any personal information like email addresses, home addresses, etc. We do not give any information to third parties. And cookies? We eat cookies.