Straight From the Mouth of Mystery Horror Author Thomas White

Thomas White began his career as an actor. Several years later he found himself as an Artistic Director for a theatre in Southern California and the winner of several Drama-Logue and Critics awards for directing. As Tom’s career grew, he directed and co-produced the world tour of “The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Coming Out Of Their Shells”. The show toured for over two years, was translated into seven different languages and seen by over a million children. Tom served as President and Creative Director for Maiden Lane Entertainment for 24 years and worked on many large-scale corporate event productions that included Harley Davidson, Microsoft, Medtronic Diabetes, and dozens of others. The Siren’s Scream is Tom’s second novel that follows up Justice Rules which was nominated as a finalist in the Pacific Northwest Writers Association 2010 Literary contest.

Tom’s latest book is the mystery/horror, The Siren’s Scream.

Visit his website at www.thomas-white-author.com or connect with him at Facebook.

 

INTERVIEW

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

   I don't know that I ever "wanted" to be an author, it just happened. Being so intricately involved in the theatre for most of my life, it was my job to tell stories. As a director that is the crux of your responsibility, tell the audience a story using actors and sets. A writer uses words and description to tell

the story. Story idea's pop into my head at the most random times and when I sit down to flesh them out the process carries me away. It can be a curse and it can be a blessing. But it usually starts with me saying to myself, "Oh crap... that could work!"

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?

   At this point of my writing career, I have had little recognizable success. My first novel, Justice Rules, was picked as a finalist in the Pacific Northwest Writers Association Literary contest, 2800 submissions and 8 finalists. It was tremendously satisfying. However, for the amount of work that goes into writing a novel, and I will admit without hesitation it is the hardest thing I have ever done, the perks are small and the demands are great. At the end of the day, I write for myself. Consequently, I have to rely on that sense of satisfaction I get when I can say, 'Yes, I have two published novels. Here are the links.' It would be awesome to have my work recognized, appear on a best seller list, turned into a movie, but the chances of being self-published and having that occur are slim. End of the day, the accomplishment has to be enough motivation for you to keep going. 

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 am self-published. The publishing world is inundated with content and they only take on a very few projects each year.  I tried for many years to find a publisher to accept my work. I have had three different agents, each of whom believed in my and my writing but each of them eventually left the business, which speaks volumes about the industry itself and hopefully not about my writing. lol! Even with the moderate success I had with 'Justice Rules' I could not attract the attention of a publisher. So be it.  My work is out there. I accomplished these two feats. No one can ever deny that.

What’s the snarkiest thing you can say about the publishing industry?

   I had finished my first novel. It had been edited, re-written and tweaked a million times and was ready. I set about to conquer the publishing industry with my brilliant work. After months of submissions I had a plethora of rejection letters, some form rejections others more personal. I tried for months, got three agents along the way, nothing seemed to work to break through the impenetrable wall that is the publishing industry. So I self published. My first novel had moderate success for a first time, unknown author. I sold almost 4,000 copies and got some excellent feedback. It still holds a 5 star on Amazon.  With this ammunition I went back to the many publishers who had originally rejected me and this time around the rejections were different. My favorite rejection response was, "Well, if you had sold 10,000 we might take a look." I remember thinking, "If I had sold 10,000 copies I wouldn't need you dipshit!"  

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?

   I started writing with the advent of the laptop. I was traveling a lot and discovered there was nothing more satisfying than getting my upgrade, free glass of wine and writing on an airplane. As I became more serious, I approached it as my job. In my career there are periods of down time between projects. I found this the perfect time to write. The kids were at school, my wife was at work and I could spend several hours each day concentrating on the work. We each have our own lives, work and responsibilities in our house so how I spend my time while everyone else is fulfilling their responsibilities has never been an issue. 

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

   Easy. My newest novel, The Siren's Scream, was at the editors. I was due to get the finished edit back the next day. That night I was watching TV and one character from the show I was watching said, "The devil has no friends." I laughed and said out loud, "That's not true, fire is the devil's only friend." Suddenly I thought, "fire....evil... oh shit! I have to burn the mansion!!!" I then set about re-writing the last 6 chapters of the book and had to go back to the editor and tell them we had to re-edit the last 6 chapters. You see, you never finish a novel, you just stop working on it. This last minute inspiration however was more than worth it. Changed the entire ending and made it ten times more effective. 

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

   I use FaceBook a lot. I am not on twitter, or TicTok or Instagram. I suppose I should be but I just hate them all. 

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

  I have a few loyal followers and have been generating sales through Facebook and word of mouth. Not going as strong as I wanted so consequently, I am participating in wonderful sites such as Straight From The Author's Mouth to help get noticed. I am actually enjoying this process quite a bit and thank you for having me. 

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

   Throughout my career I have always been one step shy of huge success. Why can't people see what I see and let me create what I want to create? I promise, you'll be very happy with the result.

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 love the response I get when I say, "Yeah, I just published my second novel. It's on Amazon." I am not one that talks a lot about this part of my life and when people find out they seem genuinely amazed. I'm not sure if it's because they never thought I had it in me to write or that they were just unaware that I did. In any event, being able to go online and see my work, available to anyone and everyone, is such a rush. I have a picture of "Justice Rules" on a bookshelf in a bookstore. I remember thinking as I took the picture, "This was my goal. To see this book sitting on this shelf." I was at my high school reunion last weekend. Knowing that it was coming up and knowing that the book was about to hit the shelves I made a concerted effort to market it to my fellow classmates. It turned out that for a portion of the evening it became a book signing for me. How cool! A book signing at my high school reunion! "What have you guys done, suckers?" The sense of accomplishment is immense and I hold on to that with all I have because at the end of the day, I will probably lose money on this project but I don't care. I know how good the work is, I know how good I feel about it when people read it and have stellar things to say and that satisfaction brings me all the happiness I need to feel fulfilled. Now, a best seller or movie deal would make me feel even better...just saying!

 

 The Siren's Scream is available at: