Please welcome today’s guest, James Hartley. Find out more about James and his books in his interview below. Though I will be out of state today, please feel free to leave comments for James and I will approve them as soon as I return. Thank you!
~Kate
What are your favorite genres to read and write?
All my life, my reading has been heavily into Science Fiction and Fantasy. When I was little I had an incredible collection of Oz books. Later, when others were reading things like the Hardy Boys, I got hooked on a series called “Rick Brant’s Science Adventures.” A Christmas or birthday didn’t seem right if there weren’t some books by Heinlein, Asimov, or E. E. “Doc” Smith among the presents. I’m the kind of person who likes to go back and re-read old favorites, so the chances are equal that I’ll be reading Jim Butcher’s latest Harry Dresden or Lord of the Rings. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that just about all my writing is SF or Fantasy … and let me say, I don’t try too hard to keep the two apart, sometimes I end up with a spaceship full of witches!
But lately I’ve been branching out a little. My wife reads mysteries so I get her a bunch of those from the library, and some of those have managed to hook me. In this area, I go for cozies, or for humorous books like Stephanie Plum or the Maggody stories. And I keep thinking maybe I ought to try writing this sort of thing, too. Maybe one of these days …
To you what type of hero/heroine is most exciting?
I guess I prefer a hero or heroine who stands out from the crowd some way or another. As well as the books I mentioned above, I grew up on comic books, and Superman or Captain Marvel were a great influence. I have a couple of space opera stories I have written which feature Lt. Beverley Bronte, who reads like a cross between Wonder Woman and Tom Corbett, Space Cadet (incidentally, Tom Corbett was one of my favorites back when that was on TV). Ken Parker, the main character of my new book, “The Ghost of Grover’s Ridge,” is a college professor, but he finds out he is a witch, learns to do magic, and also buys and does great things with an enchanted sword.
Share one of your favorite lines from your latest book.
Not exactly one line, but a fun exchange when Ken is buying the Black Sword from the store clerk:
Ken got out his credit card. He handed the card to the clerk who ran it through the machine, then stopped to stare at it. “Hey,” he said, “is this here a Platinum card, or is this one of them there Titanium cards that’s better nor Platinum?”
The card was the one Ken’s lawyer had given him, and he had no clue about its metallic designation. But he was getting annoyed at the clerk, and said, “No, this is brand new. It’s a Plutonium card. If somebody steals it or even hangs on to it for too long, they get radiation burns. I have to keep it in a lead compartment of my wallet.” He smiled at the sudden speed with which the clerk completed the transaction and returned the card to him.
Speaking as one of your characters, describe yourself in a sentence or two.
Hi, I’m Professor Ken Parker, of the Department of Paranormal Studies at Montcalm College. I’ve done a lot of investigations into the paranormal and supernatural, and I was never sure if what I was looking for existed or not. But then I started getting “psychic itches,” hunches, that led me places. And an old dying man told me he was giving the power to detect magic. Wouldn’t have been so bad, but I got to Groverton and started going with a cute redhead named Jinny, and everything seemed to indicate she was a witch …
Please tell us about your latest release?
“The Ghost of Grover’s Ridge,” due out October 1 from MuseItUp Publishing, is a fantasy novel. It is what I would call “Contemporary Fantasy,” set in the present or recent past, but incorporating Magic. The main theme is a battle between the good witches and the bad warlocks. Ken Parker, a college professor who specializes in Paranormal Research but is not quite sure if Magic is real, gradually gets pulled in, especially when he discovers that his girlfriend Jinny is a witch.
Future books scheduled for publication from MuseItUp are “Magic Is Faster Than Light,” an “SF-flavored Fantasy” featuring a spaceship full of witches, “A Fork in the Road” about a fantasy author who gets pulled into her own stories, and “Ten Years,” an SF time-travel story. More information on these can be found on my website at http://teenangel.netfirms.com.
Thank you, James!
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Great interview, Jim. I especially liked the line about the credit card.
Fun interview! I love the ‘psychic itches’ concept!
Kate,
I like the way you do your interviews. You give your guest the chance to show a personal side.
Jim,
I thought your answers were great. Congratulations.
fun interview! liked the exchange about the credit card. Good luck with the book!
Great interview. Can’t wait to meet Ken Parker. Sounds like a great character.
Jim has a wicked sense of humor and we’re glad to have him as one of our authors.
Thanks for all the kind comments. And, hey, just another month now and you can read all about Ken Parker, his girl friend Jinny, and the others. Well, maybe not ALL about them, since I’m working on another book, “This Wand for Hire,” with the further adventures of Ken, Jinny, and the rest in it …