Category: Interviews
A conversation between Toi Thomas and a guest to the ToiBox.
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Jim Musgrave Interview
The Eternal Curse Series Blog Presents an interview with author: Jim Musgrave.
So tell me, who is Jim Musgrave?
I am a retired college English professor living in San Diego with my wife, Ellen. We have two Siamese cats and a son, Ari, living with us. My wife is my editor and my son is my illustrator. I write all kinds of fiction and non-fiction, and I’ve been doing it for over 20 years in one form or another. I have been a finalist in a variety of fiction contests, including the Bram Stoker Awards for Horror. I currently enjoy writing a steampunk mystery and fantasy series called the Detective Pat O’Malley series.
I’m glad to have a chance to speak with you. I don’t know much about steampunk, but I do find it quite fascinating. I can’t wait to see what you have to share today.
So whacha got for me today?
In Forevermore, a Medal of Honor winner living in Poe’s Cottage in the Bronx following the Civil War, reads a strange note hidden on the bedframe and decides to prove that his former employer before the war, Edgar Allan Poe, was murdered in Baltimore, 1849, and while solving this mystery, this new sleuth must confront the most dangerous serial killer in 1865 New York City, and the detective must also learn why he can’t be intimate with women.
Here’s a review from the Portland Book Review of my first mystery in the O’Malley series, Forevermore.
It sounds to me like this new sleuth has his hands full of work and social problems. I hope he’s able to come out on top…I must say I am very interested in this story already.
So who’s starring is this 2 dimensional script read of Forevermore?
Patrick O’Malley: Irish born detective and decorated Civil War vet who is living in his late friend Edgar Allan Poe’s Bronx cottage in 1860s New York.
Madame Rebecca Charming, a beautiful, Vassar educated daughter of a United States congressman. Charming owns a reputable brothel with high standards both in business and the working conditions.
You’ll recognize a few other names in the story, such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Fennimore Cooper, Jane (Haskins) The Grabber.
This is sounds like a lovely blend of real and fictional characters. More and more I am intrigued by what’s going on in this story.
Past, present, future, is there a rhyme or reason to your writing?
I write on a computer, and I use the Internet extensively to recreate the authentic setting and language use of 1860s New York City. I listen to either Classical or Zen meditation music. I am now working on a completely fantastic volume 4 in the series. It’s called Steam City Pirates. Click here to read the first three chapters here.
Wow, you really do your homework don’t you? You are studying the settings and langue use of 1860s New York to be incorporated into your work; I’m impressed.
What author(s) has most influenced your writing? Why or how?
James Patterson has influenced my style because of his technique of writing short chapters. Here’s an article I wrote last Memorial Day on that topic.
I too like the way he writes. I tried to the short chapter thing, but it just doesn’t work for me consistently.
Whose brain are you just itching to scratch?
Jerome David Salinger. I like his attitude about keeping your ego out of your writing. The recent documentary “Salinger” about him is probably making him spin in his grave (although as a Vedantist, he has probably already been reborn on some cosmic plane or other).
Everyone has and opinion or an ideal set in their minds about J.D. Salinger, but I guess that’s what makes him so successful, in a way. People are always talking about him dead or alive…Wouldn’t it be cool to have that kind of legacy?
Who is so you and why?
Believe it or not, when I was a practicing alcoholic, my fiction was compared to the late author Charles Bukowski (“Buk as in puke”). I now relate to Detective Matthew Scudder in the Lawrence Block Mysteries. I think my character Patrick O’Malley can be compared to Matt Scudder in a few ways.
So you used to be a practicing alcoholic. Well, I guess a congratulations is in order for dropping or reducing the practice…I’m unfamiliar with the series you’ve mentioned, but this seems like a good opportunity to learn more about them.
What’s your ideal reading spot for your next highly anticipated read?
I am now reading Eric Schlosser’s excellent non-fiction expose, Command and Control. If you thought junk food was scary, you should read this book! The numbers of times we came within a hair’s length of nuking ourselves into the Stone Age are covered with a thriller’s intensity in this book. I read it on my tablet under the covers with my lovely wife at my side.
I’m a die-hard fiction lover, but I must admit that there is nothing scarier than reality. There are some works of non-fiction that make me wish they were fiction.
What was your favorite book or story, pre-teen years?
I really enjoyed reading Mark Twain as a kid. I was on the great show “Chatting with Sherri,” and you can hear me talk about these early influences (among other things).
I have found recently that people either love Twain or hate him, but I think this is a generational thing. I don’t think his work is taught in schools as much as it used to be so younger generations aren’t as familiar with him…
There is more fun and insights to this interview, visit the Eternal Curse Series Blog for the full experience. For more information about this author, Jim Musgrave, please visit the links below.
Website: The Detective Pat O’Malley Historical Steampunk
Blog: Let There Be Blog
GoodReads: Jim Musgrave
Facebook: Jim Musgrave
Twitter: @OMalley_Mystery
LinkedIn: Jim Musgrave
Purchase links for Forevermore: Amazon
Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords
Today is a very special treat. This is just one of many stops on the Bethlehem Tour so, let’s get right into things. The talented author, Sheila Deeth, is going to interview a shepherd boy and give a peek into his world.
Sheila: Thank you for the warm welcome Toi. I have a guest with me who’s been working on the hills near Bethlehem. I wondered if your readers would like to meet him.
Could you tell us your name, young man?
Boy: Eli, miss.
Sheila: And how old are you Eli?
Eli: Nearly twelve.
Sheila: And what do you do?
Eli: I’m a shepherd, miss. Like my dad. Like my dad’s dad.
Sheila: Your granddad, right? I remember you talking about him.
Eli: Yeah. Granddad’s a shepherd too, but he don’t get around too well these days. Sheep can chase him faster ‘an he chases them.
Sheila: Do you live with your granddad?
Eli: Not rightly, no. Mom and the kids live in a room over his house in Bethlehem. But me and the men, we stay out on the hills, looking after sheep.
Sheila: There are an awful lot of sheep out there. Are they all yours?
Eli: No. They’re everyone’s sheep. We all work together, looking after ‘em.
Sheila: Even when it’s cold?
Eli: Well, we’ve got tents and camp fires so we’re warm enough, unless it’s really bad. When it snows, we come down to town and put the sheep in the stables.
Sheila: Where are the stables?
Eli: Under the houses of course. We’ve nearly all got stables in the caves.
Sheila: So, I heard something rather special happened in a stable recently.
Eli: That’s right miss. That’s what you wanted me to talk about innit? ‘Course, I wasn’t there. But my Mom says it was cool.
Sheila: What happened?
Eli: Well, it was during the census thing. You heard about that?
Sheila: When people had to be registered in their home towns?
Eli: Those Roman overlords lording it over us, yeah. They had everyone travelling, roads all packed, and then the houses too. I mean, where you gonna put grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles, cousins three times removed plus their best friend’s sister in a one-room house?
Sheila: One room and a stable, right?
Eli: Yeah. So when this family arrives, a Mom and Dad, except she’s not properly a Mom yet, she has her baby in the stable.
Sheila: Was the baby all right?
Eli: He was perfect, they say, and half the town there looking at him.
Sheila: Why?
Eli: Well… shuffles awkwardly… that was our fault, sorta. ‘Cause these angels…
Sheila: Angels?
Eli: Yeah, angels—heavenly beings and all that. They were shining and singing out all over the sky. Then old Granddad—he’d been complaining all night about there being too much noise—well, just as he’s finally starting to snore and letting the rest of us sleep, these angels start up.
Sheila: Singing?
Eli: Yeah, but not like any singing you’ve ever heard. Just, wow, like sheep and birds and stars and trees and leaves… and harps and music… I dunno. Like heaven maybe?
Sheila: They just sang?
Eli: They told us about the baby too. Told us Bible stuff, all about the Messiah as well. Folks now, they think Messiah’s gonna be a soldier or king maybe, and he’ll kick the Romans out. But we used to know the Messiah was gonna be a baby—born, not chosen, you see.
Sheila: Like that baby in the stable?
Eli: The angels said he was the Son of David, which kinda means Messiah. They said we should go see him so we did; even Granddad—I held his arm so he could run. Then we get there and this star’s shining over the house, but we go round back to the stable and find the baby there. We must have made too much noise though, just like Granddad kept saying, ‘cause then all the village comes running around to see ‘im. Place was packed out.
Sheila: So, was the baby the Messiah?
Eli: Well, I guess he is; it’s what the angels said. And these king-type people came to see him too, so he must be special.
Sheila: Kings?
Eli: Well, whatever. Foreigners, and not Romans. Rich guys with camels. We saw them just a few weeks back, riding along the road from Jerusalem. Then they just carried on after they’d seen him, out toward Decapolis.
Sheila: Can you tell us what’s the baby like?
Eli: Um, just a kid. He’ll be walking soon, so not a baby any more. But he’s kinda cute. Like a sheep with no wool. Smiles.
Sheila: Well, thinking of sheep, perhaps I should let you get back to your flocks now.
Eli: Thank you. I guess I should go. Actually… He frowns.
Sheila: Is something wrong?
Eli: Well, there’s soldiers out there on the road. Can you see them? Herod’s soldiers marching down from t’Herodium. You don’t suppose the old king’s planning to kill the Messiah kid do you? Man, this looks bad. Runs out the door.
Sheila: I guess our little interview’s over then. You take care, Eli, and thank you for talking with us. ‘Bye. And thank you, too, Toi.
****
Book Title: Bethlehem’s Baby
Series: The Five Minute Bible StoryTM Series, #6
Author: Sheila Deeth
Publisher: Cape Arago Press
Reading Level: Mid-grade
Genre: Christian fiction, children’s fiction, Bible stories
Content Rating: G
Available Formats: ebook
Purchase links: Kindle | Nook | Kobo | Smashwords
Book Blurb
Meet the Emperor Augustus’s advisors, the quiet research student helping wise men study stars, the shepherd whose granddad keeps complaining, an Egyptian fisherboy, a Roman soldier, and more in this set of 40 5-minute read-aloud stories based around the events of the Christ Child’s birth in Bethlehem.
Author Bio
Sheila Deeth is an English American, Catholic Protestant, mathematician writer, with a deep love of the Bible, faith, science, history and writing… and dogs.
Sheila Deeth links: About Me | Facebook Profile |
Facebook Author Page | Twitter: @sheiladeeth
Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords