The Questions
1. You’re marooned on a small island
with one person and one item of your choice—who is that person and what item do
you have?
That's a good question. I'd have to say Lara Croft from the Tomb
Raider video game series. She's a born survivor, a master strategist, and a
bonafide engine of destruction. She's also drop dead gorgeous. For the most
part, I'd be relegated to the role of Lara's personal cheering section,
and I'm perfectly fine with that. As far as items go, I'd have to say a hatchet.
You can chop wood, hack through dense vegetation, and julienne various
root vegetables. How could you go wrong?
2. Which musical would you say
best exemplifies your life – and which character in that musical are you?
Definitely the Phantom of the Opera.
Since becoming a writer, I've been spending more and
3. Take these three words and give
me a 100 word or less scenario using them: insurance, owed,
talk
Ah, this sounds fun! Let's
see...Batman lost his entire fortune due to a failed perpetual energy project
and owed the government enough money to fill Scrooge McDuck's coffers. With few
job options available to him, poor Bruce became an insurance salesman and tried
to talk Aquaman into getting flood insurance.
4. What is your idea of how to spend
romantic time with your significant other?
That's easy! A two-player co-op game
of Halo while eating all manner of junk food. Or maybe watching a
so-bad-it's-good movie while scarfing down the aforementioned junk food.
Karaoke is also a fine choice. Earth, Wind and Fire all day!
5. When you start a new story, do
you begin with a character, or a plot?
I usually start with a basic
concept. Then I consider how the world I plan to create operates. What
kind of government does it have? What's the overall culture? What are the
subcultures and countercultures? Does the story take place during a time of war
or a time of peace? There are many more examples, but those are some of the
most important ones. Once those questions have been answered, I start crafting
the character. I want the character to be a product of his/her environment, so
that's why I start with the latter.
6. If they were to make the story of
your life into a movie, who should play you?
Denzel Washington of course. He and I are virtually
twins...Yeah, I'm really reaching with that one.
7. Who’s your favorite horror
villain and why?
Jerry Dandridge from the original Fright Night. He wasn't just a
cool vampire. He was the cool vampire--a sharp dresser and a
quintessential lady's man. I could compare him to a great white shark. One
minute he's gliding around, smooth as you like. The next, he's sprouting fangs
and eating half the neighborhood.
8. Do
you have an historical crush and if so, who is it?
Nefertiti. The first time I saw the bust of her, I thought,
"Good googly-moogly! Look at that neck! Look those cheekbones!" Or
something to that extent. Everything about her screams strength and elegance.
The perfect historical crush.
9. Is
there a story that you’d like to tell but you think the world isn’t ready to
receive it?
Not at all. The world
is a big place full of diverse people. No matter what an author writes, there's
always at least one person who's ready and willing to receive it.
OLYMPUS CONFIDENTIAL
by Robert B. Warren
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
Wisecracking private
investigator Plato Jones is used to cleaning up the gods' messes. But this
might be his most dangerous case yet, placing him deep behind enemy lines, in
Tartarus Maximum Security Penitentiary. After infiltrating the enemy's
organization, Plato inches closer to the truth. But he learns a hard lesson
along the way: to defeat a villain, he might have to become one himself.
Olympus Confidential
skillfully weaves humor and Greek mythology into this fast-paced fantasy.
Whether new or returning to the Plato Jones series, fans of thrillers,
contemporary fantasy, and Greek mythology will have a tough time putting this
one down.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPT:
Herc and I were meeting up for drinks. Our pal Geno had
planned to join us, but got sidelined by a sudden case of worms—a common health
problem among satyrs. I decided to make up for his absence by drinking twice as
much.
The sacrifices I make in the name of friendship.
No less than a dozen paparazzi loitered near the bar’s
entrance, a sign that Herc had already arrived.
As always, Napoleon, the minotaur bouncer, kept the
parasites at bay. He had been allowed to keep his job after the change in
ownership. I was glad. The place wouldn’t have been the same without him.
As I neared the entrance, a paparazzo began snapping
pictures of me.
“Plato, over here!” one of them exclaimed. “Think you and
Aphrodite will ever get back together?”
At the mention of the Love Goddess’s name, the other
photographers turned their cameras on me. They bombarded me with questions
about her and me.
“Are you still in love with her?”
“Is she as kinky as they say?”
“Is it true you two have a secret love child?”
I ignored them and stepped up to the door. Napoleon nodded.
“Evening, Plato,” he said. “How’s it going?”
“Ask me in an hour.”
Napoleon returned the minotaur equivalent of a grin. It
looked more like a grimace. He opened the door for me. None of the so-called
journalists attempted to follow me inside. They were a lot of things—pushy,
obnoxious, disrespectful—but stupid was not one of them.
The bar was filled to capacity—a fifty-fifty mix of humans
and nonhumans. “I’ll See You in My Dreams” by Giant poured from unseen
speakers, barely rising above the rich hum of many conversations going on at
once.
All the usual suspects were present. Most greeted me with
waves or hellos. One of the longtime regulars, a steelworker named Mitch, gave
me a hearty slap on the back and called me an asshole.
Yep. We were one big, happy bar family.
Hercules, the half-human son of Zeus, was having a beer at
the bar. One of the most powerful beings in existence, he had performed
countless acts of heroism over a life that spanned several millennia. His
ferocity, honor, and cunning were the stuff of legend. Most people regarded him
as the world’s first superhero.
To me, he was just Herc, my best friend and a cheapskate
extraordinaire.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
A fan of
thrillers, fantasy, and science fiction, Robert B. Warren has been writing
stories ever since he could hold a pencil. In 2009, he received a Bachelor of
Arts degree in English and creative writing from the University of Alabama. He
currently lives in the south.
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ReplyDeleteSounds like a good read.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the interview. I love the addition of pictures and you are way cuter than Denzel anyway!
ReplyDeleteThe blurb and excerpt sound great!
ReplyDeletevitajex(at)Aol(Dot)com