Bill Noel - Author of the Folly Beach Mystery Series!

Thanks for doing an interview!

Right out of the gate, tell us about your new book!

Tipping Point is the nineteenth novel in the Folly Beach Mystery series. Chris Landrum, the main character in the series, and his friend Charles Fowler are taking a peaceful kayak trip through the marsh near Folly Beach when a single-engine airplane plummets toward their watercraft. They survive—barely—but two of the plane’s four passengers are killed. After learning the pilot had been poisoned, Charles, a self-proclaimed private detective, decides it’s up to the two retirees to catch the killer.

Once again, Chris, Charles and their cast of quirky characters are challenged to solve a crime the police are unable to unravel before lives are lost, possibly their own.

The series has been described as light, humorous, and the perfect beach read in the contemporary cozy mystery genre.

TIPPING POINT Front Cover for Stuart Thaman Blog.jpg

**You’ve written a lot. Most authors never even put out half the content you’ve written. What gives you the drive to keep writing more and more?**

I’d just turned sixty when my first novel, Folly, was published in 2007. You don’t have to do the math, I’m a fossil. I’d been a longtime reader of mysteries and wondered if I could write one. I had been a university administrator for many years, so knew I could write nonfiction, but the transition to fiction was something I finally summoned the nerve to try. To make a long story much shorter, I wrote Folly to see if I could. The fantastic response I received from readers was the inspiration to continue writing the series. I once heard an interview with a woman who purportedly was the oldest person alive. The interviewer asked her the secret of a long life. She said, “Guess I just forgot to die.” I’ve been blessed with an incredible home life that’s allowed me to follow my writing passion. After the first book, I simply forgot to stop.

I haven’t personally read everything you’ve written, but my favorite has been The Pier. Tell us a bit about the inspiration for The Pier and the iconic Lost Dog Café.

Folly Beach is a real place. It’s located in the shadows of Charleston, South Carolina, and is as different from historic, stately Charleston as a penguin is to a porta potty. Folly is small, less than a half-mile wide, six-mile long. The Charleston Visitors Guide describes Folly as a “charming bohemian enclave perched on the self-anointed edge of America.” To me, it has an aging hippy, beer-for-breakfast, shared with your Doberman feel. The Folly Pier is a thousand-plus-foot long fishing pier and an iconic feature of the small island. Over the years, several people have committed suicide on Folly Beach. In The Pier a death is ruled suicide by the authorities, but, of course, since Chris and Charles get involved it had to be anything but suicide.

The Lost Dog Cafe is the favorite breakfast and lunch restaurant on Folly Beach. In the series, it’s the place where Chris and his cadre of quirky characters often gather to discuss whatever crime they’re in the middle of solving. As an author, it’s also a fantastic location to do book signings—especially if the books are in the Folly Beach Mystery series!

Being a writer is hard work. What aspects of the author life have you enjoyed the most and what’s been a pain?

I suspect I’m like most writers. The most enjoyable part of the experience is writing the book: creating characters and a setting, devising a plot, stringing approximately 80,000 words together well enough to entertain the reader.

Unfortunately, I believe most successful novelists are schizophrenic, not in the clinical sense, but close. For example, in writing a book I have murder, mayhem, conflict, and strange voices bouncing around in my head. Schizophrenic? To compound the problem, writing is a solitary pursuit. I work in a world of my imagination. Real people are problems for me. They interrupt, they question, they distract. I work best in isolation.

And that brings me to the part that’s a pain: selling the books, aka marketing. Don’t get me wrong, I love doing book signings where I can talk to the people who are reading or may wish to read the series. That’s the fun part, but a successful writer can’t limit the marketing effort to book signings. Blogs, promotional websites, the author’s website, podcasts, other social media platforms all are part of a successful marketing effort. I’ll be the first to admit, those are far from the fun parts of being an author.

What’s next on the horizon for your writing career?

I’m often asked when I will stop writing books in the series. My answer is simple and honest. I’ll stop when it ceases to be fun. Fortunately, I don’t have to live off the money I make from the books. If I did, I’ll probably be writing answers these questions in the dirt under an overpass somewhere. I was fortunate to be able to retire from a real job eight years ago. If writing can’t be fun, I have no business doing it. And I’ve been told many times over the last fourteen years how much enjoyment readers get from the books. I sincerely, believe they would be able to tell if writing them was no longer fun for me. At this point, I’m fairly certain there will be at least four more books in the series. After that, who knows? I don’t.

Thanks for doing the interview! Where can readers go to find more?

My website is: www.billnoel.com. I can also be found on Facebook under Bill Noel, or Folly Beach Mystery Series, and even the Bill Noel Official Fan Club started by two fantastic fans of the series.

You can buy TIPPING POINT here: click me!

You can buy THE PIER, my personal favorite, here: click me!

Ethan Fox

Firstly, thanks for doing an interview! Tell us a little about yourself and your book, The Scissors and the Sword.

The Scissors and the Sword arose from my own experiences living in both Japan and the UK - both island nations, with proud histories, superstitions and quirks. I've always felt that the two nations have much more in common than most people realise.

The story is an urban fantasy. The main character, a scene-of-crime officer, investigates a murder that provides her an "in" to a world of the supernatural that she would never have previously believed existed. I don't want to say too much more for fear of spoiling the plot, but I hope people will enjoy reading the book as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Your bio states that you're into anime and gaming. What makes your favorite anime series so good? Do any of those elements find their way into your writing?

The book draws on a series I've always loved, Rurouni Kenshin. Kenshin isn't particularly supernatural, but it has a main character who lives almost to spite the expectations placed upon him (he's an assassin who now refuses to kill people).

In many stories, samurai characters follow a stereotype. They are honorable, strong and fearless. This often extends to how foreigners perceive the Japanese people in real life (stoic, unfeeling, driven by loyalty and familial honor) - naturally this is an outdated stereotype. Beneath that exterior, they're a people who are as kind, emotional and passionate as anyone else.

I wanted a samurai character who was impetuous, and driven by his feelings - and this would not be his "downfall". Instead, it's part of who he is. It's part of what makes him strong.

Do you play any games with a dark atmosphere of mystery similar to your book?

Strangely enough, for a novelist, I'm a peculiar sort of gamer. I prefer games with an arcadey feel, with short play-durations. I'm a big fan of fighting games, for instance, or Nintendo's recent Splatoon for WiiU.

I occasionally get into an RPG, or the latest Resident Evil or Silent Hill, but I always come back to bright, colourful experiences with fast gameplay.

There can be huge disconnects between writing a mystery movie script and writing a mystery book. How do you capture suspense without the aid of background music, lighting, and other theatrical elements?

I'm a big believer in the scene>sequel approach for novel writing; namely that you divide all of your plot threads into scenes that represent either an action or reaction.

Action scenes tend to involve a very pro-active movement on parts of the characters, and usually end with a discovery or a disaster.

Reaction scenes tend to involve the characters reflecting on a prior experience, and using their new knowledge to form a decision.

When you have three plot threads, you can quite easily go "Action A > Reaction B > Action C > Reaction A > Action B" etc., jostling back and forth. This means the reader is always waiting to hear the result of another thread.

This is only a small part of the picture, but I think it's a good example.

What do you have planned next in terms of writing? Any sequel?

The Scissors and the Sword is intended to be part of a series. I intend to write & publish book 2 before the end of 2016, and make a start on book 3.

Which famous writer, if any, compares best to your writing style? Is there any particular style of voice you try to showcase?

Readers have, in the past, compared my work to Ben Aaronovitch and Jim Butcher. That being said, I don't think this is necessarily about my writing style or "voice", but rather because they are giants in the Urban Fantasy field.

One reader compared my work to Rumiko Takahashi, particularly Inuyasha, which was interesting to hear.

I don't consciously try to emulate any particular author, though naturally, like all writers, I'm a product of what I personally have read.

As a self-published author, is there anything you would do differently if you could? What is the best advice you could give to an aspiring author?

The best advice I could give is to make mistakes - at least, don't be hesitant. Writing and publishing are both complex and you're going to make many mis-steps on the way. It's difficult, but you need to strive through those or you're never going to get anywhere. I spent several years worrying about this, when really I should've got started in 2011.

Lastly, where can we find your work?

My work can be found in many places:

Details about The Scissors and the Sword:

http://by-ethan-fox.com/TheScissorsAndTheSword

Amazon: http://getbook.at/TSATS

Twitter: https://twitter.com/By_Ethan_Fox

Tumblr and blog: http://by-ethan-fox.com

Mailing List: http://by-ethan-fox.com/mailinglist

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ByEthanFox/