Today we're talking to Robert B. Lowe on his tour with Goddess Fish Promotions for the mystery/thriller novel, "Divine Fury".
Robert will be awarding a $25 Amazonn GC to one randomly drawn commenter, so comment today AND follow this tour (if you click on the banner above, it'll take you to a list of tour stops)! The more you read and comment, the better your odds of winning. You could be introduced to a great new author AND win a really cool prize!
Thanks to Robert for answering all my prying questions!
Why do you write in your genre? What draws you to it?
Since my Hardy Boy days, the mystery-thriller genre has always been my ‘comfort’ leisure reading. When I started my first book (that was Project Moses and Divine Fury is the second), I wasn’t sure how great I’d be at all the facets of novel writing but I thought I could piece together a mystery-thriller plot that had some nice twists and turns and didn’t collapse on itself. I also thought I could keep the pace and action going. To me, that meant mystery-thriller. Since then, I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback on the characters. In fact, I hadn’t planned on a series with the same main characters and a couple of the same secondary ones as well. But, people made it clear they wanted/expected that so, I figured, what the hey. So, the Enzo Lee series is two and counting!
What research is required?
I try as much as possible to keep the locations to places where I’ve been. So, generally I’ve been to all those places – whether a farming area or restaurant. But, I may try to refresh it or spur some my descriptive side by looking up the location on the Internet or looking at people’s photos. One of the characters in Divine Fury is an army vet who was injured in the Black Hawk Down incident in Somalia. I read a lot about that, and also ready about U.S. Army snipers. Some of the injuries I described are pretty close to technical reports I read that discussed what happened there. They were written, I think, as part of a study to better understand the types of casualties that can be expected based on the type of actions in modern warfare.
My main character is a newspaper reporter and I’ve had lawyers in the plot at places. I worked in both of these professions and have a pretty good general sense of the general corporate world so for those aspects I can rely on my own background. Beyond that, I’ll often try to talk to people in other professions or with expertise in certain areas. For example, I’m working on a plot now that involves medical research and drug development so I’m developing some lunch-and-coffee contacts for that. My journalism interviewing/research skills have come in handy.
Name one thing you learned from your hero
Enzo Lee, the main character, is a former investigative reporter who has remade himself into a fluff feature writer who, of course, gets sucked into situation where his prior expertise is required. He writes much more clever stories than I ever did when I was a journalist.
Any odd or interesting writing quirks, habits or superstitions?
I’m always trying to figure out what to do when I get stuck. I figured out that if I just start describing something – hopefully the place where the next chapter will take place or the food on the table, etc., it gets me started and pretty soon I’m into the scene.
I’ve also started to jump ahead to places or scenes I’m thinking about, even if they occur much later in the book. I may or may not use it. More likely, I’ll revise it a lot or cannibalize it somehow. But, it keeps me writing when I’m having trouble just walking through the book chapter by chapter. It helps to go with your energy and enthusiasm when it’s there for a character or scene. If the book is somewhat like a painting, you’ve got to fill that part of the canvas at some point anyway. Often, it helps with a lot of other parts as well.
Plotter or pantser?
I think of it as ‘explorer.’ I know generally what it looks like on the other side of the forest but I’m pretty unsure exactly how I’ll get there. I know there will be dead ends and obstacles. Some I can overcome. Others I just have to run into, realize I can’t got that way and find a different way.
Look to your right – what’s sitting there?
I’m in a guest studio over my garage where I often go to write. Just a sink with a high window but with lots of leaves and sunlight hinting at my neighbor’s garden. There is also a nice ipod speaker dock l’ve got Pandora playing the Neon Trees channel.
Anything new coming up from you? What?
I’m up to about Chapter 9 of my third books, also an Enzo Lee mystery thriller. There will be at least 50 more chapters so there still is a long way to go. I’m hoping I’ll be finished by the end of the summer. I think I may take a break from Enzo for the next book. I may center it on another popular character or perhaps go off in another direction altogether. I expect to stay in the mystery-thriller genre but there are a ton of different types of books you can do within that.
Do you have a question for our readers?
If you read a lot of budget and free indie ebooks, what percentage would you say are:
-give up before 40 pages
-get through it but see serious flaws
-worth my time
-wow!
Do you have any way – lists, reviews, recommendations, etc. – you use to screen the dogs?
Candidate Andrew Harper was a college basketball star, a crusading prosecutor and a beloved Congressman. He is also openly gay. When the San Francisco politician gets the inside track to become California’s next governor, it sends shockwaves through the political and religious establishment.
Reporter Enzo Lee is cajoled into leaving his comfortable niche covering fluffy features for the San Francisco News to cover the historic campaign. A series of campaign events are mysteriously and dangerously disrupted. A key endorsement is scuttled at the last minute. An earlier murder takes on new significance when it is linked to a Watergate-style break-in involving computer spying.
But, finding the culprits behind political sabotage and high-tech hacking take a back seat when it’s discovered that a troubled war veteran armed with guns and explosives has begun a violent journey from small-town Montana to the City by the Bay.
When Lee becomes a target himself he must dodge attempts on his own life while trying to expose the conspiracy and, with the help of police allies, foil an assassination plot.
Divine Fury is the newly released second book in the Enzo Lee series from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert B. Lowe. The series was kicked off by the best-selling Project Moses, the bioterroism thriller that made the Amazon Top 20 Mysteries list and was a finalist in the Best Indie Books of 2012 competition.
Divine Fury is a page-turning thriller with suspense, action, romance and enough twists to keep the reader guessing. It also focuses on a timely theme as the issues of same-sex marriage and gay rights become a major cultural battleground in America.
“Gripping…with an adrenaline-filled climax combined with compelling characters.” – Kirkus Reviews
“A fascinating and fast-paced mystery/thriller. It is a thought provoking and extremely captivating story." – Kindle Book Review
When he saw the red Ford in the distance heading toward him, he knew he was right. It took another two minutes before they were where he wanted them – right in front of his position completely exposed on the mountain side.
The first shot took out the left front tire and brought the Ford to a halt. The second shattered the windshield. When he took out the rear left window, they finally realized someone was shooting at them and they ducked down. Two more shots took out all the glass on the left side.
Walberg saw the doors on the right side – away from him – open and then close. He could hear them shouting and screaming hysterically.
“Stop! Stop! Stop shooting at us! Help! Somebody help!”
He pulled off three more shots, hitting the side of the truck. Maybe they couldn’t hear the rifle with the suppressor on but they’d certainly hear and perhaps feel the impact of the bullets.
Then the driver’s side door opened. The big one. He must have been too bulky to drag himself over the console with the gear shift in the way and get out the other side. As he stepped hurriedly to the pavement beneath the truck, he immediately slipped and went sprawling on this face beneath the open door.
Through the scope, Walberg could see his face clearly as he pulled his head up and, still sprawled on the ground, searched the hillside. He seemed so close, Walberg felt that he could pick which side of his face to shoot if he wanted.
“Bang,” he said softly. “Bang. Bang.”
Robert B. Lowe is a Pulitzer-prize winning author whose fiction is based in San Francisco, his adopted home. His past experiences – a 12-year career in investigative journalism and a Harvard Law School degree – enable him to write gripping mystery thrillers in both the legal and journalistic fields. Lowe draws his inspiration from John Grisham, Dick Francis and Lee Child and adds his own San Francisco twist. Readers will enjoy his references to the city’s landmarks such as Chinatown, North Beach and Pacific Heights and the Bay area’s foodie culture.
Divine Fury is Lowe’s second novel. His first was the best-selling Project Moses which reached the Amazon Top 20 Mysteries list and was a finalist in the Best Indie Books of 2012 competition hosted by the Kindle Book Review.
Divine Fury continues the adventures of Enzo Lee, a jaded journalist rehabilitating his career as a feature writer in San Francisco who stumbles into scandals and criminal conspiracies that require his investigative expertise to unravel.
When Lowe isn’t writing he enjoys a day at the golf course and spending time with his wife and daughters.
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/W1rVMC
Website: www.robertblowe.com
Twitter: @authorRobBLowe
http://www.amazon.com/Divine-Fury-Mystery-Thriller-ebook/dp/B00A42ADKG
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/divine-fury-enzo-lee-mystery-thriller-series-robert-b-lowe/1113780048?ean=2940015869545
