Author in the Spotlight: Interview with Joe Prentis

Hello readers and writers. My current interview is with fellow author Joe Prentis. Joe is the author of over 70 short stories and fifteen novels.

Question: What is the title and genre of your most recent novel? Why did you select them?

Answer: The book I am promoting right now is ‘FORGOTTEN,’ a Young Adult Romance novel that also contains an element of mystery. I am a multi-genre writer who writes Mysteries, Westerns, Romance, and Suspense novels. I often deviate from the traditional concept of what the reader expects in each of these genres, but I think it makes a more vibrant, exciting story.

Question: What inspired this novel? How did it come about?

Answer: The company where I worked hired seventy college students during the summer months. Most of the ones I worked with were young women, and there was a commonality between them. They wanted to be understood, to succeed, and they wanted to be loved. A surprising number of them didn’t feel as if they were loved, even the ones from supportive, loving families. From talking with them, I learned that love is an elusive thing, hard to grasp, even harder to understand. I wanted to write a novel that involved the hopes, fears, and the uncertainty of coming of age in our society.

Question: Could you tell us a little bit about the heroine of your novel.

Answer: People often ask me, “Am I in your novel?” Or they might say, “That guy in your book that worked at the service station reminds me of a man I once dated. You know the one I’m talking about.” I have never put any person I know in a book because there are too many characters nagging for me to let them tell their story. Amber, the heroine of Forgotten, is like so many people I know. She is ambitious, talented, but lonely at times, and wants her father and friends to love her. At times she feels slighted and will flee from a relationship before she gets hurt more than she already has. I think there is a truth that many authors miss in writing a novel. Everyone loves something or someone. Even a villain has some redeeming qualities. It can make them seem more real, or as in Silence of the Lambs, it can scare the living daylights out of the reader.

Question: Can you tell us something about you other published novels or work?

Answer: My most successful novel is Abraham’s Bones and the sequel, The Relic. These novels allowed me to combine several areas of interest into these two novels. I also like to write Westerns. I don’t write the traditional Western where the main focus is people shooting at each other. I like stories that reflect real life and all of the emotions involved. My Western novels are more like John Jakes or Bernard Cornwell. 

Question: What are you working on now?

Answer: Actually, I am working on two different books. I wrote Abraham’s Bones several years ago. It was a huge success for an e-book. It was on the bestseller list in England for nine and one-half weeks, moving back and forth from the number two spot to the number five position. I sold from thirty to sixty copies of it each day. The sequel, The Relic, did rather well and I sold thousands of copies of the two books during the next few years. I am working on a third book in the series. It will be several months before I complete it. The setting of both books is Israel and Washington. The story line involves the clash of the three great religions in the Middle East. They are not religious books, but are about religion. I am also working on another book in my Western series. I enjoy Westerns so much that it is hard to stay away from them.

Question: What made you start writing?

Answer: An older sister taught me to read when I was three years old. She read my storybooks to me so many times that I had them memorized. At first, I was following along with my finger from line to line and eventually began to recognize individual words. Some of the books had terrible endings. Someone got killed, or a wicked witch had kids in a cage fattening them up so she could eat them. The Three Blind Mice was awful. I crossed out the endings of some of them and scribbled my version in the space between the lines. I still have the first novel I wrote, and I take it out and look at it from time to time. It was a James Bond type thriller. I never contacted a publisher because it was awful and I didn’t know how to make it any better. To say that I was obsessed with literature is an understatement. I had a lot of encouragement along the way, but also some contact with people who seemed to know nothing about the real world. I learned that you have to be your own critic. You have to listen to others if they seem to know what they are talking about and keep on writing.

Question: What advice would you give to those who are currently writing novels?

Answer: There are two kinds of writers, those who want to be a writer and those who want to write. Some beginning writers don’t understand the difficult task of becoming published and what is required to promote a book. This is okay because you don’t have to be number one on the New York Times Bestseller list to be successful. Be realistic and decide what an obtainable goal for you is. Some assume that fame and fortune will come from writing. I know a man who had a successful small business. When he retired, he wanted to pursue writing full time. He would write a story each week, go to Rapid Print, and have a hundred copies made. On his way home, he would place one copy in each mailbox. He loved doing this, and his villagers liked reading his stories. His ambition did not go beyond this. He had no desire to be published or to be known beyond his village. He was happy with what he was doing. The average e-book on Kindle sells only about 40 copies. To anyone who wants to be a writer, I would suggest that they carefully examine why they want to do it. If they are seeking fame and fortune that extends to the far corners of the earth, it isn’t likely to happen. Many others don’t realize how long it takes to write a novel. Abraham’s Bones took about two thousand hours, which is roughly one year of eight hour days. I once raced a friend trying to write a book in one month. We did so, but it was challenging. I would also tell any would-be writer not to become fixated on being published by the big five in New York unless there is an obsession to do so. I write because I love every minute of it. If you have to force yourself to the keyboard, you are only adding to your store of difficult things you probably don’t want to do. Find your niche in the writing world so you can enjoy every minute of what you are doing. It might be a personal essay of interest only to your extended family, or it might be a book you will write and rewrite until you find a publisher. Above all, remember that writing is one of the noblest callings on earth. Enjoy yourself and others will want to read what you have written.     

Here is the link to my Young Adult novel, Forgotten, on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Joe-Prentis/dp/1549665766/

Joe welcomes your comments.