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Monday, July 9, 2012

KINDLE BOOK REVIEWS SEMI-FINALIST AND TALENTED AUTHOR R.S. GUTHRIE ANNOUNCES RELEASE OF HIS NEWEST BOOK!



R.S. Guthrie lives in Colorado with his beautiful wife, three Australian Shepherds, and a Chihuahua who believes she’s a 40-lb Aussie. The Guthrie dogs are their children and there is no disputing the fact that the canines rule the household.

The author’s next planned book is the third in the Detective Bobby Mac series, but somewhere in the near future, there is a dog book digging to get out, and it will pay homage to the kindest, most loyal animals on the planet.
author’s next planned book is the third in the Detective Bobby Mac series, but somewhere in the near future, there is a dog book digging to get out, and it will pay homage to the kindest, most loyal animals on the planet.

 
Today I have the privilege to be interviewing R.S. Guthrie, Author of ‘Black Beast’ and ‘Lost’; about his newest book ‘Dark Prairies’. “Black Beast’ has recently been named a semi-finalist in The Kindle Book Reviews Best Indie Books of 2012 Contest.
       
        Please tell us how you felt when you found out that Black Beast had been selected as a semi-finalist? 


        Gotta say, I felt really honored. I mean, to have a respectable site like The Kindle Book Review give your first book a nod like that? WOOT. I'll take it. :)

And rightfully so.  I wasn’t surprised to see it listed there.  Please tell us about your newest novel Dark Prairies and when it will be available.

        Dark Prairies is the book I have been working on for years. It is really a book that has lived inside of me ever since I moved to Wyoming. The people there, the things that happen, the way of life--you'd have to live there to understand but it's a special place. Dark Prairies is a book about murder and loss and imperfect people and redemption, and I promise you if you read it you'll pull Wyoming into your heart as I did so many years ago. Oh, and I am pulling a Joe Namath on this book and guaranteeing a win. For the price, you will NOT believe this is an indie book and will LOVE IT. I'm putting myself on the limb.
       
       

When a terrible murder rocks a small town—when Sheriff James Pruett himself loses his beloved---the prairies, they bleed. Dark Prairies carves into the raw, twenty-first century West at both its worst and its finest hours and does so in the depths of an ocean of both loyalty and greed.
 
So when did you decide you wanted to publish your writing?

        Just after I read my first Stephen King novel. Truthfully it was more like my twentieth SK novel, I was in college, and they invented the Personal Computer (I had been typing manuscripts on an actual typewriter with correct-ribbon and white-out and when I started writing on that orange-text Zenith where I could save my work on a giant floppy disk I thought I might just truly want to be published one day. I'd have quit on the typewriter.
       
     
   Yes.  Those floppy discs were so huge back in the day, right along with the word processors.  I remember that feeling myself.  What other creative outlets do you have?

        I write songs. My dad was a musician and played the guitar. I was too much of a wuss to learn (the pain on the ends of you finger is really intense until you earn your calluses and I was like 10, so I just quit---so as punishment he made me join the band and play the trombone. I love jazz, but you need to be a guitar and/or piano player to truly write music. So I write lyrics only. It's fun, but I know nothing about it. One day maybe I will pick up the guitar again.
       
        Who is your greatest fan?
        I refuse to answer on the grounds it might incriminate me. Honestly, my wife. She's been there for ten years of me moaning about needing to write but having the life sucked out of me hourly by my day job. Anyone who listens to that for ten years but sees you produce bupkus and still cheers for you has got to get the credit due. But I have some very, very devoted fans who really keep me going when it feels like it ain't going to happen.
       
        It seems things can sometimes change quickly for Indie Authors, because the industry is constantly growing and changing as well. What’s been your biggest surprise in the past six months?
       The first KDP free promotion I ran on LOST (my second book): the first day of a three-day promotion, about five or six hours into the promotion, sales on Black Beast started really going crazy. I mean it was selling like hot cakes. I rose to #24 on Amazon's Horror Bestseller list -- Stephen King was two places behind me for a few glorious hours. And then I dropped into oblivion again. If there's a better example of what you're referring to in this wacky market, I've not heard it. But I have to tell you, for those few hours, I was LIVING THE DREAM. It was glorious.
       
        Can you share with us a rewarding experience you’ve had that occurred because of your writing?
        Every time a reader appreciates my writing---I mean really appreciates me as a writer---it affects me to my bones. Every single time. I could die happy.
       
        As a kid attending school, what things stand out in your mind about your classes, teachers that have influenced you in following your dream of writing?
        Barb Wise, my high school English teacher. She was the first one to look at my writing and say "you've got a God-given talent here, Rob. We're still friends on Facebook and she's read all my stuff and beams with pride. She's also the only teacher to ever give me a grade lower than an A (and at first it was an F, until we worked out a special deal and I earned a B with some extra credit and an A on the Final Exam---it wasn't English, it was some elective class I didn't take seriously. Barb, if you are reading this, you better be laughing because you almost gave ME a heart attack.
       
        Ah, the great impact teachers can have on our lives.  I have to add a thanks to Barb Wise myself.  If she hadn’t encouraged you, perhaps none of us would be reading your books right now. 

On the average how many hours in a day do you write?

        I write it seems almost constantly, but that's because I am finally writing full-time. It's not always adding to a piece of work. I blog, I tweet, I text, I email, I edit---my Aussies think I throw the ball for them full-time and write during breaks.

        What’s your favorite vacation spot?

        Anyplace warm. I'm looking forward to going to Hawaii someday for the first time. I want to visit Scotland.

        What’s your favorite color?

        Used to be blue. Now it's more of an earthy tan color. I looked up paint swatches at Behr and the first one I was drawn to was "Pinedale Shores". The town I grew up in was Pinedale, Wyoming. How crazy is that? It's a kind of earthy green tone. I also like the earthy brown near it called "Belgian Sweet". Wow, I am still freaking about that color name. There were like a million little dots to click on to bring up a swatch and I bring up Pinedale Shores? I used to LIVE at the lake...start the Twilight Zone music.

        Which do you prefer:
        Woods, or Beach? Beach
        Jet ski, Snow mobile, or Motorcycle? Jet Ski
        Piloting a plane, or Skydiving? Piloting
        Mountain Climbing or Deep Sea Diving? Deep Sea Diving
        Coffee or Tea? Coffee. Darker the better. With cream. I know, I can be contrarian.
        Cool truck or Compact car? Cool truck
        Beer, Liquor, Wine? None any longer. I am a Mountain Dew FREAK. The old-time kind made with real sugar.
        Cats or Dogs? Dogs
           
        What other projects do you have in the works? I'm a chapter or two into my third Detective Bobby Mac Novel, as yet officially unnamed.
       
        Where can readers stalk you?
        Parker, Colorado. Way south. But just remember this: I'm a better stalker than most. Just sayin'.

On Amazon:

3 comments:

  1. Michael, I can't thank you enough. I am blogging it right now, I set up tweets a few minutes ago, I swear I have never enjoyed an interview as much. YOU ROCK!!!!! Rob

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    1. Sure thing, R.S. It was good having you on the blog. I was glad to see your book is getting the recognition it deserves, and Congrats again on the new book!

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