Tell us a little about yourself and your background? 

 

I’m the grandfather of three rambunctious little ones, two of which manage to keep me on my toes most of the time.

When time allows, you can find me with my laptop plugging away at the next story.

I’ve had short crime, horror and westerns published in both the U.S. and England for a couple of years now and have been included in some really cool anthologies.

A pair of 1930’s, prohibition era crime stories Meet Me in Tulsa and Going Back to Dallas have been signed and are in the final stages of editing with my publisher, Solstice Publishing.

 

Recently—while feeling out what was planned as a crime novella—I wrote a very accidental erotic short story, An Innocent Act. A much longer erotic/crime novella will be released this summer Pandora’s Box as a follow up.

 

I also have a short psychological thriller type of thing A Murder of Crows included in an upcoming anthology Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep. The anthology will be released just before Halloween and published by Solstice also.

 

The crime stories are what I like to call my white-trash style of gritty crime story. The westerns are straight forward and the horror is more like the old Twilight Zone and Nightstalker shows I remember being on the television when I waited for my mom to pick me up at the sitter after she got off work.

That reference may have dated me somewhat?

 

 

Which writers inspire you?

 

That’s a tough one for me, really. I spent an evening visiting with a vacationing British writer pal a few weeks back and he just about fell out of his chair when I admitted that I haven’t read a lot of fiction or what most would call, the classics.

My kid did get me into reading Stephen King short stories a few years back which turned in reading the Dark Tower series and I am reading Dean Koontz Odd Thomas at the moment, but I enjoy reading history and always have.

 

I do read a ton of the great indie writers on the scene at the moment though, and all of these guys should be read, Aidan Thorn and Chris Derrick (England), David Jaggers and Bill Baber and too many others to mention.

Have you written any other novels in collaboration with other writers?

 

No. Other than anthologies, I’ve never worked with another writer.

 

When did you decide to become a writer?

 

It was 1999 or 2000 when I first sat down with the intention of writing a story. I can’t say what prompted it. I think it was my wife who suggested it?

I spent twelve years as a closet writer before gathering up the courage to submit a story and then I waited patiently for 18 months before submitting a second.

2014 saw my first acceptance of both a western short story and a flash crime story, so it was probably that summer when I decided that I’d keep at it?

 

 

 

Do you write full-time or part-time?

 

It’s strictly a hobby for me, but I probably put in as much time as I do on my day job. There’s a lot more work to this than I would have ever suspected.

 

Do you work to an outline or plot or do you prefer just see where an idea takes you? 

 

Like everything in life, I tend to wing it. I’ve never liked the idea of outlining much. I’ve done it in classes and I feel too constrained by having the outline staring at me. I prefer to start into it and see where the story goes.

It’s funny really; at times I read back over something and have a hard time believing that I wrote it?

In fact, that’s how my very accidental erotic story came about. As I was feeling out my characters, I let the young man telling the story meet one of his neighbors and well…

 

Do you have a strategy for finding reviewers? 

 

No. Have any tips?

Most of my work has been in anthologies. So yeah…I’m pushing to get the stories read, but have had the luxury of a dozen or so others to help spread the word.

I’ve just gotten my first stand-alone stories signed with a bigger publisher and am finding that I’m spending more time trying to get the word out, than writing these days.

 

What are your thoughts on good/bad reviews?

 

A bad review—although no one wants one—means that someone has read the story. I’ll read every word of what a reader has said to glean info as to whether this part or that part of the story worked.

 

How can readers discover more about you and you work?

 

Under my name for crime, western and horror www.christopherdaviswrites.com

 

My pen name / pseudonym for erotica www.tjadamsfiction.weebly.com

 

TJ will have to earn his keep before I buy another domain name.

 

Any Comments for the Blog readers?

 

If you read a story, please leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads and talk it up in your social channels. A review doesn’t have to be more than one sentence, I liked it or I didn’t?

Most of us don’t make enough from what we do to write home about. So a review is like winning the lottery for an indie writer. It’s really the only way we have of knowing if doing this right.

 

Any feedback for me or the blog?

 

Again Joselyn, thanks so much for having me and helping indie writers get the word out.