Thursday, September 29, 2011

Pete Klein interviewed on vampire books.

Learn about Pete Klein and his vampire books.

Check out this link to read and maybe make comments or ask questions.
The link is: http://www.brendawoodystevetindle.yolasite.com/author-interviews/au...
Below is the actual interview done by Brenda Woody and Steve Tindle.
Author Interview - Peter KleinPosted by Brenda Woody on Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Today and Thursday we welcome Peter Klein to our blog. Peter (Pete as he is called by friends) is a reporter by day and author by night. He is currently writing his third installment to the Valkyrie series. Vampires; his passion to write about. But his stories are very different and as you read on you'll see why.
I (Brenda) met Pete Klein through Freado.com. I won one of his books in a bid and Pete emailed me an ebook format. In return I gave him a review and posted where I could to help promo his book. My review is below. I found his email very friendly and quickly added him as a friend on Facebook, and of course asked if he would do an interview on our blog. He agreed and Wow what an interview this is. I know now why I'm drawn to him as a fellow author and glad he is an online friend.
So grab your favorite beverage, get comfy and enjoy our latest interview on our blog.
Brenda & Steve: Pete welcome to our blog! We are so excited you could join us. When did you first decide to submit your work to be published? Please, tell us what or who encouraged you to take this big step.Peter: I have a long-time friend dating back to when we were in our 20’s who eventually became the owner of a major NY literary agency. She has encouraged me for many years and has on several occasions tried to find a traditional publisher for me. A few years back, knowing I wasn’t getting any younger and knowing that it can take years to find a publisher and even more time before the publisher finally prints the book, I asked her if she would mind me going the self-publishing route. With her blessings and me not getting any younger, that is what I have done.Brenda & Steve: I (Brenda) had the pleasure of reading Confessions of an Online Male Prostitute and submitted a review. We viewed your new book trailer. Wow, it was good! You now have released two installments from your Vampire Valkyrie series. Please tell a little about the series and when the books were released.Peter: The first, “The Dancing Valkyrie” was first published by Lulu in 2005. The second, “The Vampire Valkyrie” was published by Lulu in 2008. In 2010, I switched both books to be published by CreateSpace for cost reasons and because Amazon has always accounted for most sales anyway.I have had a long time interest in vampires, going back to when I was in the seventh or eighth grade and saw the original Dracula movie. Since my grandparents were born in Romania, I asked my grandmother if there was any truth to the stories. “Foolish superstition,” was her answer. But my interest continued over the years, last renewed by the Rice stories.Along the way, in both books and movies, I found myself objecting to two ideas running through all of the various stories, both centered on the idea of vampires being evil.One question I dared ask was, “Why is it not okay for vampire to kill people while it’s perfectly alright for people to kill vampires?” The second was more of a decision than a question. I came to conclude that if there were vampires, they would be natural creatures that have eluded discovery and confirmation by humans.

Brenda & Steve: Do you plan all your characters out before you start a story or do they develop as you write?
Peter: I view much of my writing as reporting (my day and night job that pays most of my bills). By that I mean I start the action and report on what my imagination sees as scenes unfold. There is an inevitability to life. One domino falls, then another and another. Characters are interesting. Sometimes they do the damnedest things but I let them go ahead and do it as long as it makes sense for them.
Brenda & Steve: How much research do you do for your books? Have you found any cool tidbits in your research?
Peter: Since most of my stories take place in locations I know, that isn’t a problem. If going out of the area, I use the Internet to get the feel of a place. The Internet saves on trips to the library.
Brenda & Steve: True with the price of gas these days. What is your writing process? Do you outline, write by the seat of your pants (Pantser) or a combination of both?
Peter: Seat of the pants and then it’s time to rewrite, review and edit. I’m guessing here but I think most writers wish they did more editing after the book comes out and you see mistakes you shouldn’t have made. I shrug and figure the same is true for any art form. You always think you could have done better. But as the old saying goes, “You either fish or cut bait.”
Brenda & Steve: Do you write full time? What did you do before you became a writer or still do?
Peter: As I alluded, I am a full time writer because I am a reporter for a weekly newspaper. That I have been doing for about 10 years now. Before that I have been a blacksmith, manager, cleaner and repairman at a small summer resort, an automotive parts salesman, have worked in a bank and did a short stint as a stock clerk on Wall Street. The oddest job I ever had was building church bulletin boards in a small shop in lower Manhattan. I also served as a corpsman in the Navy.
Brenda & Steve: Do you have a ritual when it comes to writing? Example….get coffee, blanket, paper, pen, laptop and a comfy place.Peter: Writing always begins with a blank page. It’s you against nothing. Coffee and cigarettes are my vices. The coffee goes cold and the cigarettes go out until I light them again and again. My cigarettes go out because I roll my own and the tobacco doesn’t have the chemicals in it that makes manufactured cigarettes burn without any help from you.I like the blank page, paper or computer screen, because it is so much like the real world in that you don’t know what will happen next until it happens. Life is more about reacting than it is about acting with any forethought.Brenda & Steve: Describe a typical writing day for you.Peter: Again, my typical day is mostly about going to meetings and then writing about the meetings I attend. Most meetings are at night, sometimes both day and night. On the days when I don’t have a meeting, I write the story about the meetings I have attended. My writing, the writing we are talking about here, is sandwiched in whenever I get the chance and am not too tired from doing the newspaper thing.I think I am like most writers who haven’t hit it big and wish that day would happen so I could quit my day job and just write what I want to write.Having said that, I do believe I am fortunate in the sense that I do make a living from writing and the newspaper writing has provided me with some training in how best to use words to make a point.
Brenda & Steve: Please give us a sneak peek at any of your future books.
Peter: I hope to finish and publish my third vampire novel before the end of the year. I’ll give away the title. Don’t anyone dare try to steal it or I’ll send my vampires after you. The drop dead title is – “And God Created Vampires”.I believe this title gets at what I have been trying to get at from the start. If there were vampires, they would be like all of the other major predators we fear in that they have the ability to kill us without regard. They will kill if attacked and they will kill if they happen to need our blood.I haven’t decided on what to write next. I have toyed with the idea of writing something more “realistic,” such as my view of what the 60’s in New York was really like. How could I not look back on a time when I was younger and could rent an apartment for only $40 per month.
Brenda & Steve: Now for the fun question! For the last three months, you have worked as a volunteer on NASA’s ongoing mission exploring other solar systems. You found a new planet which is habitable! How exciting! What would you name the planet? And give us a little description of the planet as seen through the telescope.Peter: Interesting! Just for fun, you say. How about Eden? How about a second chance to not screw up the second time around? How about if we insisted on screwing up by eating the forbidden fruit again, the next time we choose to eat the fruit from the Tree of Life instead of from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.As far as the planet goes, I imagine it would be much like Earth in its general appearance. Of course there would be some variations. Just look at all the variations of plants and animals on Earth. The experience could be compared to the variations one will see right here going from North America to Africa. Just look at the variations you see just going from San Diego to Yosemite – all in the state of California!
Brenda & Steve: Great answer! Tree of Life - *pondering if we would want to live forever* Probably. LOL Is there anything else you would like to tell the readers we have not touched on?
Peter: Yes. Never give up the ship of writing. Do it because you love it, not because you expect it will provide you with fame and fortune. Realize you are competing with millions of writer and even more millions of books. You are a needle in the haystack but so is everyone else.In addition to being a writer, I also review some books. Most of the books I have read by unknown authors are good and some of them I have liked better than those on the best seller lists. There is something known as the fickle finger of fate. It is real. Personally, I prefer writing to reading. But we writers do do both. For me it’s the words that get me. Words have a power. Were it not for words, we would not be able to think. Think about it! Without words you would be nothing more than a mass of emotions, only reacting to pain and pleasure. It is the spoken and written word that makes it possible for us to think. Once you accept the power of words and come to understand how they can trick and deceive you, you will realize all words have pain and pleasure as their foundation.This was fun. Thank you for the opportunity to play with words.
Pete, thank you again for visiting with us and the awesome answers. It's been fun!
Readers, Pete has graciously agreed to give away signed copies of both of his Valkyrie books to one lucky commenter. Yuppers! So please, please be sure to leave your email address in your comment to make it easier for us to contact the winner. Pete will then email the winner for your snail mail address.

Blog - Pete Klein's Vampire Fiction

Blog - Pete Klein's Vampire Fiction
Pete Klein interviewed at Pete Klein's Vampires

Author Interview - Peter Klein

Author Interview - Peter Klein
Author Pete Klein interviewed by Brenda Woody and Steve Tindle.
Stop by a comment or ask a question.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Turn off. Tune out. Drop in to reality.

If you are not too young, you might have heard of Timothy Leary who was semi famous back in the 60's and said, "Turn on. Tune in. Drop out."
That was before + 200 channels on the TV, the Internet, cell phones, Twitter, etc, etc.
Today the slogan might better be, "Turn off. Tune out. Drop in to reality."
As we become more and more connected and interconnected, it can be difficult to have any time for ourselves and those we say we love. Awash in a turbulent sea of "information" it can get to feeling like we are drowning in sea of words with out any real meaning.
When asked what he was reading, Hamlet said, "Words." There are times when I a lover of words feel words are all I am reading and hearing. They may be as different as snowflakes but who notices the difference in snowflakes when caught in a blizzard?
Dropping into reality? How is that possible?
I would like to suggest the following as a way to possibly answer the question.
We live on the Earth but live in many different worlds. Think of the Earth as the bottom line reality. The Earth, you might say, is the reality of flesh and blood, skin and bone. It is the physical reality that has its causes and effects no one can escape.
The reality of the World, on the other hand, is a total fantasy we ourselves construct or allow ourselves to endorse to varying degrees. Think of it this way. If you were up on a space craft orbiting the Earth, we would not be able to see religions,political parties, governments or any of the inventions of our minds. They exist only because we say they exist. This is not to say they do not have real consequences upon our physical reality. But it is to say they do so only because we collectively allow them to do so.
Of course it is impossible to totally dismiss these fantasy worlds we have created or have been created for us. But we do have the ability to see them for what they are. We should be able to notice the emperor is not wearing any clothes and thus, hopefully, step to the side and smile, and maybe get out of the way before our true identity is crushed under the weight of fantasy.