Saturday 21 December 2013

PROMOTIONAL SPOTLIGHT - THE END, MY FRIEND: PRELUDE TO THE APOCALYPSE BY KIRBY WRIGHT

ISBN: 978-0974106793
ASIN:  B00EK7QJ0E
Publisher: Lemon Shark Press
Pages/File Size: 284pages/392KB
Formats Available: Paperback, E-Book

BLURB supplied by the Author
Paris Hilton and Lady Gaga are dead. So is the President. Psytrance parties rage as Palm Springs burns. Police and fire departments are gone. Martial law is imposed to deal with the riots but the military is overwhelmed when Mexicans storm the border to fly their flag over Imperial Beach. Warlords battle private security forces for control of coastal towns. Power, gas, and water are luxuries. Hummers and motor coaches are obsolete. The internet and cells are inoperative. Wi-Fi is history. Stores have been ransacked. The black market thrives. Teenage gangs go door-to-door looting and killing. Suburbanites must either leave or risk getting slaughtered. Tent cities sprout like mushrooms from the beach into the desert. Welcome to the Prelude to the Apocalypse. Journey with Tony and Evo into the heart of the American Nightmare as they search for safe haven in a world that knows no rules.

PURCHASE LINKS


AUTHOR INTERVIEW


What is your name, where were you born and where do you live now?
Kirby Wright.  I was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii.  I currently live in Vista, California.  My roots are in Cork, Ireland and Nelson, England.

Did you always want to be a writer? If not what did you want to be?
No.  I wanted to be a priest and then a scientist.  I also thought I wanted to be a lawyer. I even went to law school for a full year.  I knew something was wrong in law school when I found myself scribbling poems down in Civil Procedure class instead of listening to the professor. 
         
When did you first consider yourself as a "writer?"
 Getting a call from a Chinese university inviting me for an all-expense paid residency in Hong Kong and chance to lecture with a Pulitzer Prize winner.
         
Did it take a long time to get your first book published?
Five years for my first poetry collection, although most of the poems were published in literary journals and magazines along the way. 

Do you work another job as well as your writing work?
Yes, I am a part-time travel agent and accountant.  Before that, I taught creative writing in adult school.

What is the name of your latest book, and if you had to summarize it in less than 20 words what would you say?
        The End, My Friend: Prelude to the Apocalypse
        This is a futuristic thriller and a sort of prequel to The Hunger Games.

Who is your publisher?
Lemon Shark Press.

What can we expect from you in the future? More books of the same genre? Books of a different genre?
Different genre—creative nonfiction.  It will be a childhood memoir of Hawaii, one about a dysfunctional family that bounces back and forth between the islands of Oahu and Moloka’i.

If you had to choose to be one of your characters in your book/books which would you be? and why?
 I would choose to be Tony Pernicano in The End, My Friend.  He is courageous, vulnerable, and sometimes a bit foolhardy.  When you enter his interior world you will discover bits and pieces of myself.  The only way I could write this book was to go first person, with heavy journeys into Tony’s psyche, an inner space that is really an exploration of my own hopes, desires, and fears.  

How long have you been writing, and who or what inspired you to write?
I’ve been writing off and on for 20 years, but I’d have to subtract about 5 years when I was in sales and focused solely on making money.  My girlfriend encouraged me to return to school for a master’s degree in creative writing and that has made all the difference. 

What was the best review you have ever had?
My best review was for Moloka’i Nui Ahina, Summers on the Lonely Isle.  The review was in the Maui Weekly and the book critic placed me in the ranks of Dorothy Allison and Frank McCourt.

How do you come up with characters names and place names in your books?
I stockpile names and places in my head and then summon them when they are needed.  In The End, My Friend, I relied heavily on the internet for photos of the corridor cities and towns the protagonists enter and leave for ideas. The flee path of Evo and Tony dictated the ever-changing surroundings, from coast to desert and then to Crater Lake, Oregon.  It helped tremendously that I had the starting point as well as the final destination of the protagonists’ journey fixed.  

Do you basic plot/plan for your book, before you actually begin writing it out? Or do you let the writing flow and see where it takes the story?
I let the book take it’s own direction and never work on it chronologically.  I write what excites me first, then build forwards and backwards.  Sometimes I rely on dreams to fill in difficult scenarios.  There’s a lot to be said for the unconscious mind working on problems while you sleep or about to drift off.  The playwright Edward Albee taught me that trick.

Have you ever suffered from a "writer's block?" What did you do to get past the "block?"
Yes.  But as strange as this seems, I’ve written some of my best poetry when I’m low.  Writers should use their shifting moods to write different material, maybe experiment a bit in different genres or even try painting. Good things can come from depression, I kid you not.   

What do you do to unwind and relax? Do you have a hobby?
I race turtles in the backyard.  Once a hawk swooped down and scooped up a turtle.  My kitten found that turtle later alive near the fence.  I also take my turtles down to the beach and let them run around.  You should see the crowds I attract.

Have you ever based characters on people you know or based events on things that have happened to you?
Yes.  My companion novels set in Hawaii are really memoirs in disguise!  I am primarily a creative nonfiction writer.  The End, My Friend is the one exception, although aspects of the character Tony Pernicano are really yours truly.

Is there a certain Author that influenced you in writing?
James Joyce and F. Scott Fitzgerald were my big influences for prose.  T.S. Eliot and Sylvia Plath influenced my poetry.
         
Do you think children at schools these days are encouraged enough to read? and/or do imaginative writing?
 No.  And we must do something about that.  I centered The End, My Friend around RBV High School in the hopes the kids would pick up my book and read.  I think all high schools and prep academies should offer creative writing classes and publish literary reviews featuring student work. 
         
What piece of advice would you give to a new writer?
 Experiment constantly and never give up.  Try every genre of writing because they are all connected and trying one you’re not as proficient at will make you stronger.  It’s similar to cross training in the field of athletics.
         
If you could invite three favourite writers to dinner, whom would you invite and enjoy chatting with?
If we could resurrect Joyce, Fitzgerald, Eliot, and Plath, it would be a blast sharing barbecued ribs with them.  I’m a master on the Weber kettle.  I would also like to resurrect Hemingway so that I could box him. 
         
Where can readers follow you?

Interviews:

EPUB LINKS:

Formats I can send for review:
MOBI, EPUB, PDF

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