Pat Bertram is an author, publisher, blogger, and friend to all e-authors.

One of the most fascinating people I have met online is Mike Pettit. His nightly “Goodnight America” is worth waiting for. His books covers are wonderfully nostalgic, reminding us of an earlier age of publishing. His comments are a bit too amusing to be truthful (except for his political comments, which are a bit too truthful to be amusing.) I’ve wanted to interview Mike for a long time, and now he has finally agreed to answer some of my questions.

PB. Mike, Thanks for meeting with me here in Key West today. This is a lovely venue and the Cuba Libra’s are delicious. I know you like to pose as a shy reclusive author hiding from the world coming out only as various characters in your books, but I suspect there is more to the real Mike Pettit that I’m talking with today.

MP. The truth is, I have always been shy and felt inferior around others. I am from a large Irish family of seven children, five girls, and two boys. With five sisters life was not easy, (especially when it came to hand-me-downs). Rather than take the brunt of blame and abuse for real or imagined dirty tricks, I would hide where I couldn’t be found and read…and dream.

PB. So you started reading at an early age?

MP. By the time I was twelve I had absorbed The Yearling, Huck Finn, Red Badge of Courage, and Treasure Island. From there I jumped to Edgar Rice Burroughs’s, Captain Carter Of Mars, and Tarzan, Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Robinson Crusoe…I would read anything I could get my hands on .

PB. Were these stories the basis for your writing today?

MP. At the time I didn’t realize how much these stories would influence my life. They gave me a sense of adventure, a worldly awareness that you don’t find in a textbook. I developed a boldness from many of the characters that helped me grow out of my shyness and go forth with confidence.

PB. Has your adult life’s experiences helped with your writing?

MP. I have been very fortunate in my life. I spent most of my working life outside of the U.S. working in developing countries like China, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia…and a hundred little backwater ports across the region. I look back now and shudder at some of the things I did to make a buck.

PB. Then your early years of reading what many consider the American Classics and your lifetime of foreign adventure is the basis of your writing.

MP. Yes and no. The key ingredient to my writing is that I am a good storyteller. Sitting in closets and under shade trees as a boy reading gave me an unusually hyper imagination that has stayed with me all these years.

PB. That gave you all the tools to move forward as a writer. How and when did you start writing?

MP. I was on a flight to Hong Kong to finish up a project several years ago and had a heart attack somewhere over the Sea of Japan. The plane landed in Tokyo, I spent two days in a Japanese hospital, and then flew home. I knew if I continued at the pace I had been keeping I wouldn’t last long. I sold my business to my Chinese partners and retired and haven’t been back since.

PB. Is that when you started writing?

MP. Within two months I was ready to cut my wrists out of boredom. One afternoon I sat down at the computer and started writing, that was the summer of 2008. I wrote my first John Locke Suspense Thriller, Honorable Revenge in ninety days, I wrote five more in that series within the next year. By then my main character, John Locke, was so beat-up shot up, scarred, burned, and tortured that I retired him, he couldn’t have survived another thrill. I took a couple of weeks off then jumped into my Sam Nash Hard Boiled Mysteries series. Then I rolled out the Jack Marsh character in my Key West Action series.

PB. That is quite a feat, eleven novels in four years.

MP. Writing comes easy for me, as I said I am a good storyteller. My weakness is not in the plot or character development, or dialogue, not even narrative. My Achilles heel is basic grammar and punctuation, I mean, when over the course of working and making a living was I able to do any sentence diagramming? To help I bought an eighth grade scholastic primer on grammar and punctuation that helped as a quick refresher.

BP. What about publishing? Are your books available?

MP. I went through the same hoop jumping that thousands of other writers have gone through with agents and publishers. It’s like banging your head against a brick wall. I have a perpetual glue taste in my mouth from all the stamps I have licked sending out query letters. After months of dealing with these people I felt soiled and used and decided to take my new career into my own hands. Amazon had just started pumping up their publishing arm and I jumped on and haven’t let go yet. I love Amazon; I can’t say enough good things about them. I would encourage all writers that are tired of the bums rush to come over to Kindle

PB. Do you ever feel like you are lost among the thousands of other Kindle authors?

MP. Absolutely not. I treat my writing as a business. Here are my steps to selling books. I call it the Three P Plan (I should publish this and make a fortune…oh wait, that’s been done).

PRODUCT: Write the best book you can, edit the best you can, have the best cover you can.

I consider myself a good storyteller, but I am not a five star writer. If stars were grade averages I would be a C+ or B- writer, and that‘s OK. So, be realistic with your expectations. Average authors sell books, trust me.

I use the Flisch-Kinkaid comprehension scoring method to determine my writing / reader comprehension. I write to a reading audience at the 8th to 10th grade level of comprehension. This by the way is what the F-K scoring states as the reading level of most fiction-reading adults in America today. As a comparison, Obama’s State of the Union address was written to the 7th grade level of comprehension, The Wall Street Journal just dropped their Comprehension level from 12th grade to 10th grade level.

It might make you feel better knowing this the next time someone writes a bad review on your baby and gives it a two-star D rating. This does not mean you did badly. It means the reader should have read something on a higher comprehension level. That’s why I say you must know your audience …and write to them.

PRICING: To thine own self be true. You must price your book at a reasonable price. The big guys that work for the Big Six publishing houses command $25.00 and up per pop. That’s nuts, but they get it.

E publishing is growing with more and more readers coming over to the light, soon the big publishing houses and agents will be begging for us little guys to sign up with them.

My strategy is that I write and price my books to fit my audience. I am not greedy nor am I swollen headed. I know that I am a C+ writer and what I have to offer is a damn good quick read for a couple of bucks. The reader is happy with the read and the price and he’ll come back for more. You’ll make your money on volume sales

PUBLIC RELATIONS / MARKETING: Never stop pushing your book. I sell on Kindle and Nook. I use every social network platform I can find. I have Face Book, Twitter, Google +, a large FB and Twitter friend base. Look for “Friends that fit your target audience and talk to them…constantly.

This is just me, but I don’t spend a lot of time talking with other authors. If you aren’t talking to your customers, someone else is.

PB. Uh Mike, can we wrap this up. I know you’re a lonely guy and don’t get out much, but I think we can cut this off about here…

MP. But…but Pat, I was just getting warmed up. Let me tell you about my plan to ….

PB. Thank you Mike, goodbye…sheesh, glad that’s over. 

***

THE BODY BROKER
AN ACTION SUSPENSE THRILLER
The devastating news that a human organ is needed urgently can be a terrifying experience. What does one do? Where does one go? Do you add your name to a national wait-list, and hope you don’t die in the year or so of waiting? Whom do you call for help? Where do you go when every minute counts?
Don’t worry, help may be closer than you think.. Under the shadows of darkness, and hidden from sight, is the Body Broker, from whom anything can be purchased, if the money is right: A heart here, a kidney there, a young woman, a child, twins perhaps? All are available for the asking. Business is good, demand is high, and it’s a seller’s market. The risk is only to those unsuspecting donors, or those stolen and sold for their body parts. The Broker deals his wares across the globe: Hawking organs like a faceless crone in ancient bazaars, hunting his victims in the night like a primal carrion eater, closing deals as professionally as any junk bond king, reveling in the wealth from others …donations.
When John Locke agrees to find his ex-wife’s missing stepson, he plunges into a world of danger and murder that his legal training never prepared him for. His only way to survive such evil is to come out shooting. He quickly discovers himself immersed in the unbelievable world of black market organ trading and human trafficking. When the hunt throws him on the trail of the man known on the street as The Organ Player, it leads him on a bloody chase through L.A.’s underbelly, to huge wealth stashed in the Cayman Islands, to Macau’s brothels and organ markets, then back to L.A. for a showdown never imagined. The Body Broker’s world includes harvesting clinics, hidden offshore bank accounts, political pay-offs, power players, Hollywood’s elite, unwitting organ recipients. His victims are the homeless, runaways, prisoners, veterans, the unwary, the poor, the unsuspecting. John’s hit and run tactics expose an international network of murder and death that sets off seismic shock waves through the halls of power, and leaves sane men questioning the selfishness of our fellow man, and the lengths he will go for just a little more time to live.
The Body Broker leaves you breathless.

The Archangel ChroniclesAmazon link

 Mysteries within mysteries, unknowns hidden by time and distance, of rumors, and lies, ancient lore, forgotten names and places: all as current as today. Tales of murders and kidnappings, duplicity, betrayals, and deaths that have never been explained. Are the Chronicles true or just old stories told around ancient fires and smoky caves, later to be only partially written about?

The Nails of Golgotha brings to life the mysteries surrounding that fateful afternoon on the hill known as the place of skulls. Did events on the mount just stop that day; did the Romans on crucifixion duty just go back to their barracks? Did the thunderous winds and storm just quiet and blow away?

The truth is that man was suddenly face to face with something unimaginable, something that would change their lives forever. The power struggle between good and evil erupted before their eyes sending ripples of things to come out across millennia.

http://www.amazon.com/Nails-Golgotha-Angel-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B007ZS0UZK/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336142155&sr=1-1http://www.amazon.com/Nails-Golgotha-Angel-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B007ZS0UZK/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336142155&sr=1-1

MURDER 1 A SAM NASH HARD BOILED MYSTERY

Private Investigator, Sam Nash is in mortal danger and running for his life when he is set up as the fall guy for the murder of a Software Billionaire and his partner. Nothing makes sense as Sam shoots his way through dead-ends, traps, and cut-outs. As Nash eliminates one suspect at a time he becomes the hunter rather than the hunted. The action is up close and deadly, from Malibu to Hollywood to Santa Monica, from rich powerful men behind the scenes calling the shots to hired hit men doing the shooting. Nash is no stranger to danger or death and moves from suspect to suspect until he has the murderer in his sights. The climax is stunning in its intensity and finality.

DEATH ON L.A.'s SKID ROW

Sam Nash, P.I. Hard Boiled Mysteries are reminiscent of the Pulp Fiction era of fifty years ago when tough, street smart Private Eyes survived on cigarettes, booze and stakeouts. A time when the good guys weren’t always good and the bad guys were really bad, and each new case brought the two toe to toe in suspense and danger. Mike Pettit has taken that same genre and fast forwarded to current day Los Angeles and has his man, Sam Nash down on the street, fighting today’s gun mutts in the never ending battle against crime. Nash wins some, and loses some, but never gives up until his man is down and bleeding.

The Skid Row Murders drops down quickly into L.A.’s underbelly where young men are being stalked and murdered by a tortured predator. Mega rich movie stars are living in a wonderland of Hollywood dreams by day and secret lives of decadence and destruction once the sun drops down over the Pacific. Sam Nash, P.I. walks the fine line of social respectability and street level tough guy that knows all the tricks, scams, and pressure points, and isn’t afraid to go the distance…if the money’s right.

LITTLE TOKYO….BEHIND THE SCENES AND SETS OF THE PORN INDUSTRY LURKS DEATH AND MURDER.

John Locke takes an assignment for a friend whose daughter was brutally killed in a snuff film and accidently stumbles onto the Japanese Yakuza’s plan to seize the International Porn Industry’s hundred billion dollar annual business. As Locke fights his way through the film sets and studios looking for the master mind behind the snuff films he is also hunted by the Yakuza who want him dead. Locke is one jump away from uncovering the Yakuza’s ambitious plans to launder drug money disguised as porn film profits. Locke is outnumbered and outmaneuvered at every turn, someone within the LAPD, ATF or the FBI is giving his movements away to the Yakuza hit squads. Among his enemies is a ruthless studio executive who finds herself the target of both Locke and the Yakuza as she tries to hide a double cross.

The action builds at a relentless pace: ritual seppuku killings, missing Hollywood starlets, deception, murder, torture, and mortal combat…John Locke at his best.

E-PULP, ELECTRONIC PULP FICTION

COPYWRITE NOTCE

E-PULP, e-pulp, EPULP.  epulp …are  copywrite properties belonging to Mike Pettit. The term is an inclusive description of a category of electronically published genre works which includes  written genre fiction of any length ( mystery, suspense , thriller, western, political, espionage) identifying the work as an electronic pulp work  ( as opposed to, say, a paper-printed pulp work) The term E-Pulp in all its forms may be used freely without permission in perpetuity.

SAM NASH, P.I. E-PULP

The Sam Nash. P.I. Action Mysteries continue....THE CASE OF THE TWICE SHOT COP.
"'That's him, he says.' He didn't need to tell me, I would know that face any where. I watched him shoot that cop in cold blood, made me lose my stomach, then he bends over and shoots him again. Why? Why shoot the cop again? Anybody could see he was down for the count. Well, Sweet Cheeks, you're about to feel payback..."

#10 TOP WRITING SECRETS BY KAREN TYRRELL

How to Write a Successful Story using my #10 TOP WRITING Secrets

Do you want a story that connects with the reader? Leaving them begging for more? A story that is publishable and in big demand? … Then follow my #10 Secrets for a successful story.

Image Danilo Rizzuti/FreeDigitalPhotosnet

My #10 Top Writing Secrets
√ Create a captivating story and let the reader know from the beginning what the premise is
√ Start your story at a dramatic pivotal entry point into the plot
√ Compel your reader to care deeply about the main character from the very start
√ Express your main characters hopes and motivations early on in your story. What does your main character really want? What do they fear?
√ Connect the reader emotionally to the main POV character using sharp dialogue, personal thoughts and emotive body language
√ Orientate and anchor each new scene with SHOWING detail so the reader knows exactly where and when they are. Illustrate your scenes in the most cinematic way possible … Utilize the five senses
√ Include only scenes and characters which push the story forward
√ Amp your nouns and verbs to the max. Create strong vocabulary and images that project your story forward
√ Challenge your character to a series conflicts and a brick wall trials which they fail to achieve, until the final climax
√ Share your story with your writing buddies, let them critique it and follow the advice that resonates within you
Where did I learn the craft of story making?
In my beginner days, award-winning authors Anita Bell and Katherine Howell revealed their secrets in one-to-one private consultations. Then I completed two six month writing courses with the Queensland Writers Centre … the Year of the Edit with Kim Wilkins and the Short Story Development series with Kate Eltham. Editors Selena Hanet-Hutchins and Sally Odgers shared their editing and writing expertise with me.
Last year I won a mentorship with the Society of Editors QLD. Generous publishers have offered personalized detailed feedback … I have much to be grateful for

Why reveal my secrets today?
This week I critiqued two writing buddies stories, sharing my writing knowledge with them. We all need a critique buddy or two. We cannot see flaws in our own writing as we’re much too close.
This Saturday, I in turn will hear from members of one of my writing groups as they deliver critiques on my first two chapters. My only desire is to remain open-minded, so I can reap the benefits of their constructive feedback.
I’m on a HUGE learning curve with my writing … I’ll continue to learn, fine tune and expand my writing skills and ONLY my Writing Colleagues can HELP ME !!
How has a writing course, an editor or critique buddy helped to improve your writing?
What VIP writing lessons have you learned along the way as a writer?

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THE WRITERS CREED

THE WRITERS CREED

This is my keyboard. There are many like it, but this one is mine. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me my keyboard is useless. Without my keyboard, I am useless.          I must tap my keyboard true. I must tap straighter than my peers who are trying to out-tap me. I must out-write him before he out-writes me. I will. My keyboard and I know that what counts in war is not the taps we fire, the noise of our burst, or the smoke we make. We know that it is the hits that count. We will hit.

      My keyboard is human, even as I am human, because it is my life. Thus, I will learn it as a brother. I will learn its weaknesses, its strengths, its parts, its accessories, its length and its width. I will keep my keyboard clean and ready, even as I am clean and ready. We will become part of each other.

      Before God I swear this creed. My keyboard and I are the defenders of my thoughts. We are the masters of our words. We are the saviors of my life.

      So be it, until victory is America's and there is no enemy.