I’ve met several authors in my short lifetime from all walks of life but none as straightforward as Stephen B. King. I guess with a name similar to the king of horror, you’d have to be upfront in both your writing and your personality. I asked Mr. King if he’d like to sit down for an interview and he agreed. It was a bit tricky considering he lives a world away in Perth, Australia but we made it work, thanks to the digital world. I think you’ll find this interview as much fun as we did making it happen. Take it away Stephen:
What is your writing process?
I write linearly. By that I mean from the point I am inspired I write forwards. So, an idea will ‘hit’ me and for me to explore it I write from that point on. Sometimes in edits when I have finished, I will go back and write things that occurred before that starting point. I never plan an ending; I write my way towards it and I find that helps me because I want to know what happens next. I know some authors would be horrified with that approach, but it works for me.
Do you read your reviews? Do you respond to them, good or bad? Do you have any advice on how to deal with the bad?
Hmmm, I’d like to say bad reviews don’t bother me, but of course I’d be lying. For me if I didn’t enjoy a story, I wouldn’t post a bad review, but that’s me. Sadly, there are people who have probably no intention of writing themselves that think it’s fine to insult a writer who spent months writing, re-writing, editing, and promoting a book. Yes, it hurts, fortunately, I haven’t had too many bad ones – the good ones far outweigh the poor, but it hurts none the less.
Is there a certain type of scene that’s harder for you to write than others? Love? Action? Racy?
This is a really good question, and anyone who has read any of my mine will probably laugh at this answer. I hate writing sex, or love scenes. For some reason, the stories I write demand they be included, and for me it’s all about character and the story, so if it has to be there…….. But, I promise you I get embarrassed when readers talk to me about how sexy they found a scene, and of course, my grown up children read too………
Is this your first book? How many books have you written prior (if any?)
Thirty-Three Days is the sixth book I wrote, I now have ten (one under a pseudonym and that one is top secret – scroll down for the reason why).
What are you working on now? What is your next project?
Well…….that’s also an interesting question. My major WIP is a romantic thriller set in 1952 called Winter at the Light. It’s stuck around 70,000 words, but not because of writer’s block – far from it. I recently finished a trilogy called The Deadly Glimpses, and I think book 3 is fantastic and I am very, very happy with it. But, my editor, and narrator along with three or four people that have read it ahead of publication have all asked what happens next. They tell me I cannot leave it like that even though I told the story I wanted to tell. The pressure increased to the point I began to think about it quite seriously. The problem I had was I would need a fourth serial killer, and then one night I was out with my wife and she came back to the table and said to me: “You’ll never guess what’s written on the back of the ladies toilet door.” When I said no, I will probably never guess what’s written there, she told me. What she said was like a bolt of lightning streaking down and hitting me. I had my serial murderer, and the words are pouring out of me at a rate of knots. So my trilogy could well the first one ever that is made up of four books, and Winter at the Light is shelved, for now.
What is the biggest fib you’ve ever told?
When I was researching for a book of mine called Domin8 I spent several hours in internet chat rooms, in particular ones that specialised in D/s relationships (this WAS research, I swear). I needed to find how D men talked to s women, so on a couple of occasions I posed as a woman in an internet chat room. I don’t believe I caused anyone any angst, and to be honest I think I acted the part pretty well. I am so glad I did it. I learnt so much about that shadowy world that I never would have if I hadn’t done it.
Have you ever been in trouble with the law?
Yes. I grew up on the back streets of Portsmouth in the UK which was a very rough part of town. Breaking the law was a way of life and I only escaped it through rock music as a guitarist. While I’m not proud of some of the things I did growing up, it has helped me as an author, and helped me appreciate life now. I sometimes think I was lucky to have survived, and as Nietzsche said: “what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger”.
Do you drink? Smoke? What’s your vice?
I used to smoke like a chimney but gave it up thirty years ago when my wife was pregnant with my son. I’ve never smoked since. I drink alcohol, white wine is my preference, or a very good bourbon, I only drink to excess.
What is your biggest fear?
Failure. I am driven to succeed, because I hate the thought of failing.
What do you want your tombstone to say?
He told a good story.
Title Thirty-Three Days
Author Stephen B King
Genre Romantic/Thriller/Suspense/Time Travel
Publisher The Wild Rose Press
Book Blurb
2019 RONE Award Finalist
Jenny is a lonely university lecturer who's consciousness has traveled back in time to her younger body to try to save the future of the world. A young microbiologist is going to release a genetically modified wheat that will mutate and ultimately destroy all plant life, leaving nothing but barren windswept dust bowls.
In the past, Jenny finds a love that has been missing from her life; the kind that comes just once in a lifetime. But Jenny can only stay in that time period for thirty-three days.
Meanwhile, in the future, fearful Jenny will fail, plans are made to send another back in time--an assassin. How can she choose between saving the man she loves or saving the future?
Excerpt
Jenny looked at Simon’s kindly, but sun weathered face. “That’s so sad, they are going to die? Brad is going to make a discovery of such epic proportions and then die in a vehicle accident? Can’t I stop it when I go back, warn them somehow?”
“Jenny, any change we make in the past will affect what has already happened in the future, because, as we now know, time is a continuum. If you save someone’s life who otherwise would have died, who can say what will occur. One alteration now could cause fifty others down the line and have some sort of huge domino effect. Maybe they will be good changes, maybe they won’t. The whole reason for ASX, and us taking it, is to save humankind from the Yellow Spot Blight. Anything else? Well that’s up to you and your conscience in your allotted thirty-three days.”
“So, are you saying I shouldn’t save their lives?”
“I’m saying it will be your call when you are there. People will not, and cannot, judge you because whatever changes you make will become their new reality. No-one would know any differently. Just remember this though, Jenny.” He paused to gather his thoughts. “When your thirty-three days are up, the young you won’t remember what the older you did. It will be as if you’ve been asleep, and, as you know, your dreams disappear sometime after waking. Similarly, when you wake up, back in your future, within hours you won’t remember what happened in the past. If you are successful, you alone will have saved the future of every person, animal and plant on earth, but you won’t know it. So, you do whatever feels right to you in the past, and damn the consequences.”
Buy Links
99 cents for a very limited time!
Amazon US https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DHKSF7C
Amazon CA https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07DHKSF7C
Amazon UK https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07DHKSF7C
Giveaway:
I’m one of the authors participating in the Beach Blanket Book Giveaway and you can win an e-copy of winner’s choice of any Stephen B. King’s books.
Runs June 1 - 30 and is open internationally.
Winner will be drawn July 2, 2019.
Author Biography
I left Perth, Australia to go East and find fame and fortune in the music business as a long-haired rock guitarist. I wrote poems and music, and my band used to open for some pretty big groups in my wild days. I gave it all up for love and got married (as you do when the right one comes along). Then, real life took over, children came along, and I threatened to write a book for so many years my long-suffering wife eventually pushed me into it by buying me a laptop and said: "No more excuses, do it." And so began this amazing journey. My first book, Forever Night, was contracted and published by now defunct Totally Entwined Group 's Evidence Press. It features a returned veteran soldier who has suffered horrifically, physically and mentally to become a serial killer while hunting for his runaway wife. As an SAS soldier he is far more highly trained to kill and survive, than the cops are trained to stop him. If you enjoy dark, Scandinavian type crime thrillers, you will love this story. That was followed by a trilogy, about the rise of a cop through the ranks from Detective to Detective Inspector, when his world falls apart. Domin8, is about a married man who is drawn into the dark world of online dating, until someone starts murdering his lovers. The Vigilante Taxi features a man who knows tragedy, his life has been full of it and with nothing to live for he becomes a vigilante during the night shift while driving his cab. When he falls in love, and wants to stop, it's too late; the cops and an underworld figure are closing in. Burial Ground, is about newly appointed Detective Inspector Sam Collins, who is handed the job of finding a serial killer who has been killing and burying his victims in an old disused gravel pit for seventeen years. He is a close to a pure psychotic evil as you will find, worse than Hannibal Lecter, or anything from the mind of the great Stephen King. Repo saw me return to two characters from Forever Night. New private investigator husband and wife sleuths trying to save a man from jail for a murder he did not commit. He returns home from working in a mine to find his wife gone, bank accounts empty, and fully restored classic muscle car repossessed. When his wife's body is found, he is arrested for murder. Dillon and Jayne enter a world of illegal poker games, protected by the underworld, to find the real killer and free their first client. Next, I wrote a beautiful love story/thriller about Jenny, who travels in time to come back to save the world from an all-consuming blight that was genetically modified. She falls in love in the past but can only stay for thirty-three days. This was picked up by my new publisher: The Wild Rose Press of NY. They have also contracted a trilogy, called The Deadly Glimpses. Book 1 is called Glimpse, Memoir of a Serial Killer,. Book 2, Glimpse, The Beautiful Deaths and book 3, Glimpse, The Tender Killer will be released in three months. The trilogy follows the fortunes of two married colleges who are attracted to each other while working together to track down three murderers. What will the effect be on their marriages, and their relationship if they act on the desires they have? Thrillers and crime genres have always fascinated me, and in particular, the dark world of serial killers. I love a good, unputdownable, thriller. You know, the kind you just want to read one more chapter of at three in the morning before bed, but you have to be up at six to go to work. Have I succeeded in creating stories that can take people to that place? Boy I hope so.
Social Media Links
www.stephen-b-king.com email: stephenk8@me.com Twitter: @StephenBKing1 Facebook: @stephenbkingauthor