Interview with Author Steven Clark Bradley

My guest today is Steven Clark Bradley. Steve, it’s nice to have you here. Fill us in on who you are and what you’ve been writing.
My work and life in 34 countries include some of the most dangerous places in the world: the Middle East as a journalist in Pakistan, Iraq, Israel, Palestine and West Africa where I interviewed former Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in Ramallah Palestine, Muammar Qaddafi of Libya, and former Turkish President Turgut Ozel. Additionally, my involvement in American politics, gives me a profound, first-hand knowledge of the political winds of change that constantly sway the American republic to the left and the right. Since I have been able to travel so widely, I write about things I have seen firsthand, which gives me a very vivid ability to tell a story that is both riveting and realistic. As a published author with four fast-action novels already on the market and as an educator, I have developed an active marketing ability as well as an extensive fan-based presence on the Internet.

Yes, you have a huge Internet presence and your background is incredible.
Steven, when did the writing bug bite, and in what genre(s)?
I have always been a storyteller. I was writing my dreams and my ideas when I was as young as ten. I have a need to express the things I believe and want to tell in a manner that uses real-life issues to tell a story that can wake people up. I have always had a fear of one day dying and no one would know I had been here. I realized that the best way to be remembered is to do something memorable. A book, a story, fiction or otherwise leaves eternal footprints in the sands of time and that drove me to write. I think about the homeless and those incarcerated. Many of them will live, die and be used for science and I wanted it to be said I left behind me something to make men and women ponder.

When you started writing, what goals did you want to accomplish? Is there a message you want readers to grasp?
I have always said that my works are like treatises on the life and potential destruction of America. I look at my work perhaps the way Josephus, the great Hebrew historian’s work. Though my work is fiction, the basis of my books is set in stone and is being lived at this very time. I believe we are losing our freedom; freedoms that were never granted by any government, but by God. There are forces at work today that place all of us in the crosshairs of totalitarian treatment. One of the biggest mistakes we are making today in our seeming delight in playing the part of the Ostrich. We have our heads in the sand and think our enemies cannot see our hinder parts. My stories go a long way in showing that going softly and politically with nations like Iran and North Korea, letting the fundamental transformation of America go unwarned will only embolden them and give our enemies the idea that we will not react to their behavior that endangers the peace of the world. Unfortunately, they may be right. I try to show what will happen if left unchecked.

Briefly tell us about your latest book. Series or stand-alone?
My newest work is a series that originated from my first book in the trilogy, Patriot Acts. In this series, I have created a world that is sinister and ruthless where it is nearly impossible to tell your friends from your enemies. Sound familiar to the day in which we live? My newst book, which is just about ready to come out in the e-book edition is a contuinuation to show what lurks below the political world that we all see on the news. It is about a deadly, biologically manufactured virus that threatens the whole world.
In The Second Republic, the President of the United States is confronted with a radical underground secret cabal that has targeted America with a domestic bio-terror attack that dwarfs the assault unleashed on September 11, 2001. Set in 2011, this character-driven 67,000 word suspense/thriller weaves a tale that is as plausible as it is exciting. This second book in a trilogy takes the reader inside the White House where treachery and terrorism boils below its underbelly, and a former Special Ops, now the President of the United States, races to stop a deadly virus, which has killed thousands of innocent Americans, without invoking emergency powers that could destroy American constitutional freedoms.

What’s the hook for that expressed e book?
The hook is how these stories immediately take the reader out of the realm of fiction and directly into the world in which we actually live. I am currently writing Patriot Acts part 3 titled, Executive Order. It takes off right where Part Two finishes. It takes the reader even more deeply into the financial master’s plots to control the money supply and to use their unlimited wealth to control the nation. When the president threatens to reveal their plots, the nation is taken to new depths of woe. All three books are so real and riveting that the hook is a natural captivating effect that captures the reader and instills a real fear of how much it is like the day in which we live. The emergency powers referenced in this novel are real and could be invoked in the event of a massive terrorist attack upon the American homeland. Research sources from the Center for Disease Control, Homeland Security, and the Defense Department validate that the threats described in The Second Republic are ripped from today’s headlines and too frighteningly conceivable for comfort.

How do you develop characters? Setting?
There is nothing greater than writing & creating something from nothing. It's the closest thing to the divine! I have lived in many cultures and it has given me a love for the differences amongst us. I am a student of American culture and write about the changes in our society. God created us with free will. He wants us to obey from our hearts. A Writer is a book's world's creator, and you are your characters' creator as well. Give your characters free will as well. Let them guide you and don't force them to do anything. It's an amazing phenomenon when, as I am fond of saying, the book begins to write itself.

Do you have specific techniques you use to develop the plot and stay on track?
I think actually, I try to stay on track too much. I started Part Three of Patriot Acts and had three chapters written and it felt flat, more like part two. Then I got my literary epiphany and I redid the whole thing and what has happened, because I let the story guide me, is a story that is the most powerful tale I have ever woven, and it serves as an excellent finale to the series and wraps up the loose ends so well. I do not outline my stuff and I start with a quite general theme and main idea. I leave a lot of open ground to plant my seeds of excitement, stress, love, mercy, revenge and plausible scenarios. I find it quite easy to stay on track simply because I am in the world of the story so richly and deeply that my biggest problem is coming out of it after I finish for the day. My wife often tells me, “come home Steven.” And, I know what she means precisely.

How does your environment/upbringing color your writing?
It is true that I have and played a great part in had a very diverse career, politics, journalism and world travel, but I do feel that my upbringing in rural Indiana did have a powerful effect on the views I hold as dear, such as family and faith. All of those activities in my life have given me a real understanding of what is out there and the dangers we face. I write stories that are only scary because they are so very plausible. I can say that the scenario of Patriot Acts and Patriot Acts Two, which is now in publishing, are both very real and related to the things and issues and dangers we now face in a world gone mad and gone weak. That is why I have striven so hard to make what I write so real and something that serves as a warning of the future that we face without realizing that freedom is not free.

What are your current projects?
My newest works are very different from each other. As I mentioned earlier, Part Tree of the Patriot Acts series, Executive Order is going really well, and I am very excited about that book. During the civil war, President Abraham Lincoln wrote, "The money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than a monarch, more insolent than autocracy and more selfish than a bureaucracy. It denounces, as public enemies, all who question its methods or throw light upon its crimes. I have two great enemies, the southern army in front of me and the financial institutions, in the rear. Of the two, the one in the rear is the greatest enemy..... I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country.” It is obvious he was right.
In September of 2008, The Secretary of the treasury and the Federal Reserve Chairman came to President George W. Bush and told him, if he did not release $800 billion dollars to them, that in two hours, five trillion dollars would be siphoned from the American economy and cause the collapse of the US economy and our standard of life forever. They further stated that in twenty-four hours the whole world monetary system would fall, which has been widely called a suicide threat. George Bush capitulated and said yes. Executive Order asks the question, what if the President had said no?

I and my daughter are also writing an older children’s story called, Four Lessons for Willow Morgan. There is nothing more important than imparting strong values into the lives of our children. It is getting tougher and tougher today, with parents giving up more and more of their authority and responsibility to the schools and the government, to be faithful to the call of bringing up our children with examples of mercy, confession, fairness and conviction. Yet, nothing can do more for a child's future than teaching them about honesty, good choices and hard work when they are still young. That is why I have started this little book called Four lessons For Willow Morgan.
This is a story a story about decisions, wise judgment and strong convictions, about that which is right and that which is wrong.
I am writing this a bit differently than I have in the past. This time, I am writing it together with my 9-year-old daughter, Selin Alicia Bradley. She is a bright, sweet and very smart young lady and loves to read. So, this is a two-fold project that gives my little girl lessons in creativity and this story can stimulate lots of children to seek more than their own self-interests, if they venture to read it.
Willow is a little girl who is growing up and who feels urges of rebellion, disobedience and disrespect starting to take hold in her life. Her mother and father recognize it and want to instill some true life lessons in her young heart.

Where can folks learn more about your books and events?
If anyone wants to learn more about my books or about my writing in general:
Stories That Read You:
http://stevenbradley.blogspot.com/2008/12/and-so-it-all-begins-by-steven-clark.html
Underground Controversy:
http://undergroundcontroversy.blogspot.com/
Steven Clark Bradley’s Patriot Acts:
http://stevenclarkbradleyspatriotacts.blogspot.com/
Steven Clark Bradley’s Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/Steven-Clark-Bradley/e/B002BLJKI4/ref=sr_tc_img_2
Steven Clark Bradley Facebook Profile Page:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/StevenClarkBradley?ref=profile
Steven Clark Bradley Facebook Fan Page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Steven-Clark-Bradley/58795732010?ref=ts

Steven Clark Bradley @ Twitter
http://twitter.com/StevenBradley
Steven Clark Bradley’s Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/Steven-Clark-Bradley/e/B002BLJKI4/ref=sr_tc_img_2
Steven Clark Bradley @ Barnes and Noble:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?ATH=Steven+Clark+Bradley
Steven Clark Bradley @ Fictionwise:
http://www.fictionwise.com/servlet/mwsearch
Steven Clark Bradley @ Mobipocket:
http://www.mobipocket.com/en/eBooks/searchebooks.asp?Language=EN&searchType=All&lang=EN&searchStr=Steven+Clark+Bradley
I hope readers will take a look at my writing and see the depth and research that I have put into each story. I am sure they will find some stories that read them!

Thanks for the interview, Steven. Continued success!

Donald James Parker Discusses Homeless Like Me

Donald James Parker

Synopsis of book:

Brian has a dream of writing the great American novel. He knows that without a gimmick to set him apart from the rest of the pack, he'll never succeed. From reading Black Like Me, he gets the idea to masquerade as a homeless man to get the material to write the saga of those suffering from poverty. During his first visit to the local homeless shelter to gather facts, he is accosted by Zeke, one of the subjects of his research. In order to save his skin, Brian spills his guts to the huge black man. After hearing the story, Zeke sees value in the project for his homeless brethren, and pledges to help the wannabe paperback writer. Also on his first visit, a vision of loveliness, aptly named Angel, takes away Brian’s breath and subsequently his heart. She turns out to be a fanatical Christian who is waiting for God to reveal the identity of her future husband. Brian decides to write a novel and make Angel the heroine. With the recent popularity of atheist books, he figures he can market a story where the Christian heartthrob is sweet-talked out of her irrational faith by a smooth talking protagonist. He hopes his plotline will somehow become a reality, and he will be able to sweep Angel off her feet and her religion under the carpet. Things get complicated when Angel becomes involved in protesting same-sex marriage and ends up mentoring the former homosexual partner of a member of the Rainbow Warriors, an anarchist organization trying to usher in gay power while ushering out the government. When a Native American patron of the rescue mission introduces Brian and Zeke to the supernatural power of God, they both are faced with a decision that could rock their world.

Donald James Parker is tha author of Homeless Like Me.  Donald, thanks for stopping by. Please give us a brief bio.
There is nothing exciting in my life to spice up a bio. I went straight from high school to college (thus avoiding the Vietnam War and some potential excitement). I obtained my degree in four years and then my life became unpredictable. I taught school for a few years before giving the classroom up to program computers. I discovered the computers listened to directions much better than teenagers. My heart is still with the young adults though. It was hard finding my way when I was a kid. Our world has become much darker and more dangerous since then, making the coming of age process a very precarious one. My goal is to help teens find their way toward a productive, healthy, and happy life.

When did the writing bug bite, and in what genre(s)?
I dabbled with writing back in 1980. The real journey to publish began in 2006. I'm not sure the bug has bitten yet, because I'm not compelled to write out of love for the publishing jungle. I hate having to classify something as a certain genre. I think I cross genre lines with my work. My books are about life and man's relationship with God. Life doesn't stay within genre lines. If you have to pigeonhole my work, Christian fiction will perhaps be the most meaningful classification.

When you started writing, what goals did you want to accomplish? Is there a message you want readers to grasp?
I started out wanting to write about sports and love to teach people to love each other and to live life to its fullest by taking on challenging projects which stretched them as a person. Now after maturing, I find my message is similar but incorporates God into the equation as a main ingredient rather than just as a catalyst.

Briefly tell us about your latest book. Series or stand-alone?
My latest book, a stand alone titled Homeless Like Me, came out about a month ago. It should be interesting to the writing community because the protagonist is a wannabe novelist. He decides to write a story about the homeless and disguises himself as a transient. His disguise doesn't fool one of the regulars, a 300 pound angry black man. The two become an odd couple and work together to produce the book. A twist of fate occurs when the hero falls with one of the volunteers at the rescue shelter. Due to her influence, the hero has to entertain the notion that God might really exist, bringing about some agony of the soul in deciding what to do with his book.

Who’s the most unusual/most likeable character?
Zeke is a huge black man who hangs out at the shelter. He is unemployed as a result of a former drinking and anger problem (mostly directed at his father) that earned him some jail time. He takes the wannabe novelist under his protective wing to help him with his project. His journey to learn to forgive his father is one of the main themes in the book, even though he is only a sidekick and not the hero.

How do you develop characters? Setting?
To be perfectly honest, I don't develop anything. I just sit at the computer and type. When I get done, people ask me how I did that. I can only say it is a God thing. I don't analyze what I've written and contrive to add a dash more romance or make a character a tad meaner or more loveable. I sometimes wonder what kind of monster I could create by applying my computer analysis skills to my writing. I don't plan on finding out anytime soon.

Do you have specific techniques to help you maintain the course of the plot?
See the answer to question above. Mark Twain said that anyone attempting to find a plot in Huckleberry Finn would be shot. I might suggest that trying to find a plot in my work is a daunting challenge. I like to duck out of this one and say that my novels are character driven instead of plot driven. I usually don't know what's going to happen myself until I write it. Some people call that writing by the seat of your pants. Others might call it creative genius.

Do you have a specific writing style? Preferred POV?
I have a distinct (I think) writing style. I don't follow rules very much. I'm trying to tell an engaging but edifying tale, not conform to someone's arbitrary regulations for writing a good novel. I couldn't care less about setting and description. The interaction of my characters, their conversations, and their thoughts are the things I focus on. My characters carry on intense and humorous (I hope) conversations that I refuse to interrupt with meaningless literary fluff. My POV is usually third person omniscient. I like to get into my POV's head and reveal his or her thoughts about what happens to them.

How does your environment/upbringing color your writing?
I was raised in a rural area. My hometown, in which I am living again, had 5400 residents when I grew up. I spent a lot of time on my uncle's farm. I learned the facts of life and death on the farm. The importance of character and reliability were hammered home in that crucible (or maybe it was only an incubator). My heroes are usually people grounded in such character with emphasis on honesty, hard word, and the golden rule. They might have their moments of wavering, but they always find their way back to the straight and narrow.

Share the best review (or a portion) that you’ve ever had.
Hard to choose. I'll use this one from Apex Reviews:
“Homeless Like Me courageously exposes the reader to one of the more often ignored aspects of the human experience….Parker's insightful tale chronicles a…journey through the good, bad, and ugly experiences of a particular subset of the greater population. Without falling into hyperbole or exaggeration, Homeless Like Me provides the reader with invaluable insight into how devastating homelessness can be - as well as just how easily it can happen to anyone, regardless of the stability of your current situation. Despite the heaviness of the subject, though, Parker's trademark humor adds just the right touch of levity, providing an effective counterbalance to what could be a decidedly difficult subject to explore. A compelling read from beginning to end, Homeless Like Me is recommended reading for anyone unfamiliar with the specific trials and tribulations that accompany life as a homeless person. Sure to inspire an increased appreciation for the plights of people from all walks of life."

What are your current projects?
I am working on perhaps my most ambitious novel yet – a story of an American Indian reservation and a clash of traditional native religious practices and Christianity.

Donald has written many other books as well:  Reforming the Potter's Clay, Love Waits, Angels of Interstate 29, Against the Twilight, and the Masterson Family series including The Bulldog Compact, More Than Dust in the Wind, All the Voices of the Wind, All the Stillness of the Wind, and All the Fury of the Wind
Learn more about Don at:
http://donaldjamesparker.com/