As Good as Can Be by William Glass

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. William A. Glass will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Welcome to It's Raining Books. Who is your intended audience and why should they read your book?

Initially, my intended audience for As Good As Can Be was family members. But as the work progressed, I realized that my novel would have to be vastly entertaining for anyone to read it. So, my intent became to make it a gripping narrative that any book lover would find hard to put down. If you enjoy becoming immersed in a story with characters you won’t easily forget, then read As Good As Can Be!

How did you come up with the title of your book?

The title is from a scene where the main character is visiting his terminally ill mother. He asks how she feels, and her answer is: “Oh, about as good as can be.”

Tell us a little bit about your cover art. Who designed it? Why did you go with that particular image/artwork?

AS GOOD AS CAN BE is about a military family that moves from one army base to the next during the 1950s and 60s. I looked up some station wagon ads from that era and pictures of old wooden army barracks. I gave those images to my publisher, Timber Hawkeye. He did the rest.

Who is your favorite character from your book and why?

Dave Knight is my favorite character. He’s the protagonist and a complex person with many faults who is not always easy to love. Still, the reader comes to admire Dave’s perseverance and good humor.

How about your least favorite character? What makes them less appealing to you?

Most characters in my novel have both good and bad sides but not Captain Kinsey. He’s thoroughly evil and may be a sociopath.

If you could change ONE thing about your novel, what would it be? Why?

As Good As Can Be is 410 pages long, and if I could shorten it without sacrificing anything important, I would. Despite its length, I’ve had many readers say that they were sad when they got to the end and wished there was more.

Give us an interesting fun fact or a few about your book or series.

I’m a college soccer coach and most of As Good As Can Be was written on our team bus while traveling for away soccer matches.

What other books are similar to your own? What makes them alike?

The Great Santini is similar to As Good As Can Be in that they are both autobiographical novels about dysfunctional military families. The main difference is that Pat Conroy was a great writer while I would consider myself to be merely a competent storyteller.

What's the strangest thing you have ever had to research online for your book?

The strangest thing I had to research online was for the episode in which Dave turns a box full of frogs loose in the high school library. I looked up synonyms for frogs and found vertebrates and amphibians.

Do you have any unique talents or hobbies?

I am a soccer nut. After volunteer coaching for several years and attending numerous coaching courses and seminars, I quit a perfectly good corporate VP job to coach soccer at a small college. Our team wins its share of games so I must have some talent for the job!

What can we expect from you in the future?

A sequel to As Good As Can Be will be coming out in the spring. It’s called: Knight’s Plutonian Shore.

What can readers who enjoy your book do to help make it successful?

Great question! Many people have read As Good As Can Be and contacted me to rave about it, then never post a review anywhere. Because of the virus, I can’t do any in-person book tours, making online reviews even more important. The best places to post are Goodreads, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble. Reviews are the best way to help get the book noticed. Another way to help is to gift copies of the book to friends and family members! Please ask them to post a review.

Do you have any tips for readers or advice for other writers trying to get published?

A tip for readers is to notice odd scenes in a book that seem superfluous. Authors don’t want their books to be any longer than necessary, so much of editing involves cutting. If a seemingly unnecessary scene is left in a book, it may be a clue to the subtext or a hidden theme.

For aspiring writers, my advice is to follow your passion!

Is there anything else you’d like to say?

Thank you for featuring As Good As Can Be on It's Raining Books! I thoroughly enjoyed our interview.

Dave Knight is a wayward child growing up in a military family during the 1950s. His older sister wants to kill him but settles for regularly beating him up. Other siblings join in the mayhem while their alcoholic father contributes to the chaos with his unique approach to parenting.

As the Knight family moves from one army base to the next, Dave develops a give-a-damn attitude that often leads to trouble. In high school, he joins other delinquents in a series of escapades, some dangerous, others funny, and a few that would be worthy of jail time should they ever be caught.

After barely graduating, Dave is drafted into the army and sent to guard a nuclear weapons depot in Korea. There, he gets into trouble with his sergeant and tries to avoid dishonorable discharge.

Read an Excerpt

The side door gang rushes up the stairs to the top floor then down the hall to where a crowd has gathered outside the library. Inside, girls are standing on tables screaming like it’s a Beatles concert. Several boys are chasing frogs. “There goes one,” someone yells.

“Coming through! Move! Get out of my way!” Mr. Danforth calls, rudely elbowing his way past. As the vice principal rushes into the library, a kid corners a frog and brings his heel down. There’s an explosion of blood and guts. “Stop that,” Danforth shouts, grabbing the misguided youth by the elbow. The disciplinarian searches his mind for another approach but is distracted by higher-pitched screaming. It seems that an unmentionable part of the squashed frog landed on the leg of one of the girls. Now she, and her friends, have redoubled their vocal efforts. They’re jumping up and down.

Danforth gazes toward heaven for a solution and through the open library window sees nothing but clear blue sky. Inspiration strikes. He looks down just as one of the little fellows hops by. Danforth grabs it, then hurls the vertebrate out of the window and into the pitiless void of oblivion.

Now that he has the hang of it, Danforth scampers around the library chasing frogs down and throwing them out. He’s like a man possessed, and soon the entrance stairs and pavement below bear gruesome testimony to his murderous efficiency. After the last vestiges of the amphibian menace have been ejected, the library begins to calm down, and the spectators disperse.

About the Author:

Bill is a retired business executive now living in South Carolina with his wife, Bettina. She teaches high school German while Bill coaches soccer at a small college. Their three sons, Alex, Robert, and Gordon, have all graduated from college and moved away to pursue careers.

For recreation, Bettina and Bill enjoy hiking and camping out. Usually, they take their dog, Scout, along. When the weather permits, Bill commutes to work on his motorcycle.

Website: https://williamaglass.com/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20170818.William_A_Glass

Buy Link:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/As-Good-Can-Be-ebook/dp/B086MB11FZ/
Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/as-good-as-can-be-william-a-glass/1136649728

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