Please welcome Desert Breeze author PI Barrington!
SS: Tell me a little about yourself. How long have you been writing? Have you always wanted to be a writer?
PIB: Like pretty much all writers, I’ve written since I figured out you could string letters together to make words and then words into sentences. And, like every writer, I was a voracious reader. I won awards for writing in elementary school. Unlike most writers, however, I didn’t want to write. I wanted to do other things. I wanted to work in the music industry, which I did (met Paul and Linda McCartney too!), I worked in radio (on-air talent after starting out as a News Director-what else?) but I should have known, because even my first “real” job before all of that was as a newspaper reporter at 20! But, writing for me is more like an urge—sometimes I just have to do it—just get it down on paper somehow either on a desktop or with an actual (gasp!) pen and paper. I still love writing longhand and I know a lot of other authors do too.
SS: What genre do you like to write best in and why?
PIB: I like to call it “near-future” rather than sci-fi. I don’t write hard sci-fi with a lot of serious tech stuff. I think it’s more relatable to have some technology that is a logical progression of what we have now though, again, I don’t get into too much technical correctness and I make a lot of stuff up that seems logical to me at least. Also, that way, the technology is there but it doesn’t intrude on the conflicts of my characters and plot. Again, I always seem to end up writing sci-fi whether I want to or not. So far, everything I’ve had published has been sci-fi type stuff. I do love other genres too. I love ancient historical, Tom Clancy type stuff, Michener, Colleen McCullough is a favorite. I’ve read everything from the Greek playwrights to Shakespeare to MAD Magazine. MAD is still my favorite.
SS: How do you find ideas for your books?
PIB: They can come from anything. Sometimes I’ll overhear part of a conversation in a restaurant or coffee shop. They can come from an issue I feel passionate about. It can be sparked from a past experience that hopefully other people have had too. Lately, I’ve been looking at pictures from magazines that really can help create if not a plot, then at least a setting or atmosphere or “world”; photos of people that I make up stories about; shots of gorgeous natural settings that help world building too.
SS: How difficult is it for you to get into “writer’s mode”?
PIB: It used to be agonizing to try to get into mode. I’m a night person but I can’t do that with family members who have day jobs. So in the last year I’ve kind of taught myself to just sit down and make myself write when I do have available time, usually in the morning when I’m by myself or when I really hit my stride between 4 and 7 p.m. It’s a tremendous help if you’re really excited about a book and love your characters. I’ve had stories that meandered about not really going anywhere and those are the creative killers for me. I have to love a book to easily get into mode schedule. Then, like everybody else, I have days and weeks where I can’t get a word onto a page. Not because of time but because I’m stuck or it just won’t come out right. Some people use music, but for me, just sitting down and writing it out is my method.
SS: Tell me a little about your new book.
PIB: Crucifying Angel, the first book in the Future Imperfect series, is my first published novel. It’s set in Las Vegas 32 years in the future amidst an ecological and economic breakdown. There’s a big romantic element to it as well, though it is a crime thriller.
SS: How did the inspiration for this work come to you?
PIB: Well, this is going to sound nuts, but after passing on another manuscript I sent her, DBP Editor Gail R. Delaney gave me the seminal premise and then said, “Now, go write it.” No kidding.
SS: Do you identify with the characters you write about?
PIB: Yes and no. I’ll see something I do, a habit, thought process, mannerism or reaction that is definitely me, but most of the time, the characters spring to life of their own accord. In Crucifying Angel, the hero and heroine have survived traumas that I’ve never even come close to and they have their own ways of dealing with things.
SS: You’ve recently signed with a new publisher. Can you tell me about that?
PIB: I’m extremely happy signing with Desert Breeze Publishing. I don’t think I could have asked for a better first publisher for my first novel. The support is incredible both from the staff and from other writers. And they’re all high caliber professionals. Every single one of them.
SS: You’re working on a new project. Is there a favorite among between the two books?
PIB: I’m working on Book Two of Future Imperfect now and I think this one will be the favorite. My hero, Gavin, is definitely showing some flaws and “bad judgments” and all the characters are interacting with each other with more depth and conflict and hopefully, a surprise or two. I like it when my characters screw up. It makes me love them even more.
SS: What do you love about your publisher/editor?
PIB: I love the fact that Gail, Jenifer and everyone else involved are such consummate professionals. I love that Gail also writes in the sci-fi romance genre’ as well. It really gives her the ability to communicate and understand the problems and solutions to that particular setting. Also, she is so supportive even though she’s so busy all the time. We have a stellar group of authors and she gives extreme care to each of us. It’s just a total win-win situation for an author.
SS: Do you have a “day” job? How do you balance both “worlds”?
PIB: Thank God, I’m able to concentrate on writing full time! I do help out my mother when she needs me but it all just kind of worked out. (See? I have no choice but to write!) I did write a film script during one year that I worked in entertainment, but really until the last few years I never wrote seriously. While I was writing Crucifying Angel, my mother nearly died from a sepsis infection and I had to deal with that for about two months. It put me behind in the writing, but I would take notebooks and any writing tools with me when I sat in the rehab hospital with her, for hours on end sometimes. It can be a struggle when you have to take care of someone so fully, but it also allowed me to learn to use my time better both to accomplish the writing and to attain some sort of release from all the pressure.
SS: What piece of advice do you have for aspiring writers that you wished someone told you when you started?
PIB: Two things: Be your own worst critic and jump on opportunities. Too many writers don’t look critically enough at their own work and then they wonder why they get passed on their submissions. If you’re honestly hard enough on yourself then you’ll create something that’s good. Don’t be insecure but don’t inflate your ego either.
And jump on opportunities. Writing is like learning any other instrument of creativity: practice makes perfect. You can’t understand how editing works and how to self-edit where you can, if you’ve never worked with an editor before. Most editors want to help you to be better—it’s good for both of you—and they’ll be extra supportive of you if you’re willing to learn and willing to be edited. The only way to learn that is to submit your work, your best work, when there’s a call for submissions. Join online groups that not only discuss writing but post submission calls. The opportunities are there, you just have to literally, sometimes, jump on them.
When I was a cub reporter, I did an interview with an author who had an ill child. She was so happy with the article, that she told me, “Any time you want to submit to my publisher (a biggie too!), just let me know and I’ll refer you.”
I was too stupid at the time to take her up on it. Now I look back and kick myself. Don’t just write something, submit it.
Oh, and one last thing: don’t use the word “Strode”.
SS: I’ll bear that in mind LOL What is your next project?
PIB: Besides finishing the next two Future Imperfect books, I have several novels brewing. I have one ‘cougar’ tale I’d like to work on seriously now, since I’ve taken a break from it, the plot changed and I see an even better ending for it; I have another science fiction/fantasy series that I started before FI, and one odd sci-fi story that’s just…strange. And then there’s that danged crime thriller that Gail passed on, I’ve been working on that for about 8 years off and on and I want to get it published before the technology in it becomes obsolete!
SS: One last question. If you had the opportunity to ask one question to one figure in literary history (either author or a character from a book), what would you ask and to whom?
PIB: Julius Caesar. I’d ask him how he did all that he did! I’ve been fascinated with him since I was a kid. Of course, any ancient history is a big love for me, but Caesar was just so…driven. I mean this guy cleaned up the calendar mankind had created, perfecting it so that we use the Julian calendar to this day! He created roads, shaped up the Roman military and made sure he took care of them, and most of all the people loved him. That was the whole tragedy of his assassination—that he was dangerous because he was beloved by the common people, and just about everyone else, except the politicians! Alexander the Great was like that too. And both of them accomplished astounding things before they were middle aged. It’s a pity we don’t have people who can do that today, especially since we have so much more technology than they did back then. They didn’t have cars; they rode horseback, camel litters, walked. And yet they covered more physical territory than most people who are alive today!
SS: Thank you so much for being here! I always learn so much about other authors.
Crucifying Angel blurb:
In the desolate remains of Las Vegas, Detective Payce Halligan and her new partner Gavin McAllister must stop a serial killer who may be hiding an even greater evil.
Buy link:
http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-44/%3Ci%3EFuture-Imperfect-Book-One-cln-%3C-fdsh-i%3E/Detail.bok
Reviewer links:
http://yvonnemason.wordpress.com/2009/10/12/p-i-barringtons-soon-to-be-released-crucifying-angel-is-a-five-star-read/
http://www.nightowlromance.com/nightowlromance/reviews/Review.aspx?daoid=4939
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Off The Moon
LF: Queen of the Ghost Drakon is the first in The Risen Series. The Risen are females who are born as drakon and either lycan, vampire, fae, or demon hybrids. Here is the blurb for Queen of the Ghost Drakon.
Blurb: Emma looks down at the crowd from a hanging platform. Her father was framed, and she took the blame for the crime to save him from execution. Where is her beloved husband, Nate? She looks around and sees her husband on a horse, guns blazing. In a whirlwind rescue, she hops on the back of his horse, and they’re off, realizing that they will spend the rest of their lives as outlaws.
Blurb for Ring Around the Sun
Hope you’re all having an awesome day! Here, it’s blustery and cold–the perfect day for haunting and mayhem.
Available now from The Wild Rose Press. Buy Link: http://www.thewildrosepress.com/the-haunting-of-amelia-pritchart-p-3684.html 
Be safe when you’re out tonight. There are ghosties and ghoulies on the prowl!
Sandra Sookoo