Straight From the Mouth of 'Search for the Lost Realm' Kraig Dafoe

Kraig Dafoe was born in Potsdam, New York and grew up in Canton. He played high school football and joined the United States Army Reserves at the age of seventeen.

Kraig married at the age of nineteen and moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia where he worked as a Private Security officer for The Christian Broadcasting Network and also attended the Tidewater Community College for business.

After five years as a security officer, he became a Deputy Sheriff for the city of Chesapeake Virginia.
Kraig left the Sheriff’s office after nine years of service and pursued a couple of different business opportunities before he went on to publishing his debut novel.

Kraig is the father of five children and he currently resides in Kansas, raising his youngest son.

His latest book is the fantasy/adventure, Search for the Lost Realm.

Visit his website at www.kraigdafoebooks.com

Thanks for letting us interrogate interview you!  Can you give us a go-for-the-gut answer as to why you wanted to be an author?

I wanted to be an Author in order to give back. I have been entertained for years and felt it was time for me to do some entertaining.

Tell us (we won’t tell promise!) is it all it’s cracked up to be?  I mean what are the perks and what are the demands?

I’m not sure that it’s cracked up to be anything. The work is tedious and the rewards are yet to be seen but that doesn’t mean I’ll stop any time soon. The creation process is fun and it allows me to escape reality and who doesn’t want to do that from time to time.

Which route did you take – traditional or self-published – and can you give us the nitty gritty low down on what’s that like?

I self published after years of trying the traditional route. Publishers don’t want you unless you have already made a name for your-self. I don’t want to talk bad about them because I still have a desire to work with them but, they need to step up and start taking chances on new blood because denying us will put them out of business. Eventually, all book sales will be online and publishing your-self, although time consuming and costly, is not really difficult.

Tell us for real what your family feels about you spending so much time getting your book written, polished, edited, formatted, published, what have you?

My family doesn’t really comprehend the work involved. To most of them, I’m out of work and sit around all day, “Playing” on my computer.

This is for pet lovers.  If you don’t own a pet, skip this question, but do your pets actually get their food on time or do they have to wait until you type just one more word?

I don’t have a pet but I’m a single dad. My eleven year old sometimes has to make his own dinner if I’m on a roll.

This is for plant lovers.  If you don’t own a plant, skip this question, but if you do, are they actually still alive?

I have many plants in the garden, not inside. I do try to see the outside for at least an hour a day.

In writing your book, how did you deal with the phone ringing, your family needing dinner or your boss calling you saying you’re late?

I turn the phone off, my kids at school when I write and my only boss is me.

What was the craziest or insane thing that happened to you in the book publishing process?

Nothing crazy happened as far as I know but I’ve only published one so far. I have a feeling the crazy is yet to come.

How about the social networks?  Which ones do you believe help and which ones do you wish you could avoid?

Obviously I’m on facebook. I don’t spend much time there and if they all went away, my life wouldn’t change a bit.

Book sales.  Don’t you just love them (or lack of?)?  How are you making the sales happen for you?

I’m trying everything I can but it doesn’t matter. People want a good book or they don’t. I just want to take every opportunity to get it out there so people can decide if they want to read it.

What is one thing you’d like to jump on the rooftop and scream about?

The fact that sudo celebrities get book deals worth millions and I can’t. I bet if Honey Boo Boo’s mom wrote a book, publishers would be trying to knock her door down to get it. I have great stories and characters and I end up in the slush pile. It’s ridiculous. 

Okay, too much sugar for you today!  Here’s a nice cup of Chamomile tea and come on over and sit under the cabana and watch the waves roll in.  Now…can you tell us what you love about being a published author and how all those things above doesn’t matter because it’s all part of the whole scheme of things and you wouldn’t have it any other way?

I’ve done something no one else in my family has done and no-body I ever went to school with would have suspected. The amount of sales only matters when it comes to getting by but in my opinion, I’m a success.