13 Questions with JD Barker

1. Name one thing you miss about being a child.

I think it’s the wonder of not knowing. As children, we can look out over a large body of water and wonder what is on the other side, we wonder what is under it, we wonder what it’s like to swim above and below it. As an adult, we know all these answers. There is a magic in learning but I think the greater magic can be found in not knowing and allowing your imagination to fill in the blanks.

2. You're hosting a dinner party. What is the menu? Do you cater or make it yourself?

My wife is a vegetarian and I am not, however, she has gotten really good at tricking me. Last night we had tacos made from something called “crumbles” which tastes just like real beef. When people visit, she tends to roll out these culinary delights. She has done the same with pizza and meatloaf. So, catering is out and healthy, home-cooking is in.

3. Are you a collector of anything and if so, what?

I love old timepieces. I have a large collection of old watches, clocks, and hourglasses.

4. You're at a carnival. Favorite attraction and why?

Roller-coasters. I love a good adrenaline filled scare. I occasionally go skydiving, a good roller-coaster is the closest thrill I’ve found on the ground. Sometimes, they’re even better. If you’re ever in Ohio, check out the Millennium Force at Cedar Point.

5. Physical book VS. an E- reader. Your preference and why?

Oh boy, this is a question of much debate at our house. My wife firmly believes in only reading printed editions and I tend to lean toward e-readers. In my defense, I read a lot, on average 3-5 books per week both fiction and non-fiction. While we both like the smell and feel of a real book (I’ve been known to walk into a bookstore just to get a whiff of that scent), I’ve been spoiled by the convenience of e-readers. I can pull out my iPhone and read books from Kindle, Kobo, or Nook anywhere, anytime. And I do read anywhere, even if just waiting in the checkout line at the store. I’m also a huge fan of audiobooks. I listen to them whenever in the car or out exercising.
6. What are you currently reading?

Not sure if you heard the news, but the Stoker family has asked me to co-author a prequel to Dracula (http://jdbarker.com/j-d-barker-signs-on-to-co-author-prequel-to-dracula-with-dacre-stoker-draculabegins/), so lately I have been reading all things vampire both past and present. I recently just finished The Vampyre by John Polidori and the original Dracula. I’m currently reading The Historian by Elizabeth Kosova and Stoker’s Manuscript by Royce Prouty. I’m also digging through a substantial pile of material from Bram Stoker, both published and private.

7. What musical artist are you currently into?

I don’t listen to as much music as I probably should, particularly since I discovered audiobooks. If I listen to music at all, it’s usually a movie soundtrack. Lately I’ve been listening to the soundtracks for Interview With a Vampire and Mockingjay.

8. Do you have a hidden talent?

I love to build things and renovate old houses.

9. What is your favorite word?

Fiction. It allows you to visit places you’ve never been, meet new people, and experience thrills that reach far beyond our day-to-day lives.
10. What is your current desktop wall paper?

I typically don’t change my wallpaper, I have a boring black background. I do have a note taped to my monitor with the tagline for the new Dracula book: “Beneath Every Penned Fiction Lies a Truth”.

11. You're at a Chinese buffet. What goes on your plate?

Everything. Then I get another plate. I never seem to get full on Chinese food but I enjoy trying.

12. What kinds of books make up your personal library?

At this point, I have over a thousand books made up of nearly every genre. We tend to get hardcovers for everything we read (including the ones I read on my e-reader) and sign/date the back when we finish them. We ask borrowers to do the same. It’s fun to pick up a book and see everyone who has read it over the years. I’ve been doing this since I was a kid so the library has grown tremendously over the years.

13. What advice would you give an aspiring author?

I know you’ve probably heard this numerous times but you need to write daily. It really is necessary to succeed at the craft. In addition, your heart must be in it. If you take on a writing project and you’re not dedicated 100% to the topic, the reader will know. Here are two tips I tend to live by:

• I outline my next book while I’m writing the current one. This way, I don’t have any downtime between projects.
• I never leave my desk unless I know the next sentence I plan to write. Then, when I sit back down, I hit the ground running. If I stop writing for the day because the characters have nothing else to say, I’ll find myself staring at a blank screen the next day waiting for inspiration to hit.

On a related note, listen to those characters, even if it causes you to stray from your outline – they know what they’re talking about.

Author JD Barker to write prequel to Dracula with Dacre Stoker

Bram Stoker’s Dracula is without a doubt one of the greatest horror novels of all time. It has gained new audiences since it was written, been translated into over 40 languages, sold millions of copies across the world, and has been responsible for over 300 films.

But, what if the book we know and love was not the book Bram Stoker turned in to his publisher in 1897?

Official representative of the Stoker family Dacre Stoker has spent the last ten years researching his family’s legacy. He has examined documents public and private trying to piece together information on the man, his great-granduncle who wrote this epic work, and the events that inspired it. In doing so, he has come across a disturbing fact: Bram Stoker may have intended his novel Dracula as a warning, a glimpse of a very real entity of evil.

With Bram Stoket award winning author JD Barker, Dacre plans to explore materials including journals and other personal papers to delve into the idea that Stoker did not intend his novel as a
fictional entertainment, but a warning about a real menace.

For more information, go to Dracula Begins

Review: Midnight Rain

Midnight Rain
by
James Newman
Available in trade paperback and

Kindle format from Amazon.

Hello kids, miss me?

If a coming of age story set in the woods of North Carolina with murder and mayhem thrown in is your cup of tea, then this book is for you.

Midnight Rain starts off by introducing us to 12 year old Kyle Mackey. His favorite past time is riding his bike, Burner, in the woods and spending time in a deserted cabin, perfect for alone time.

But that all comes to a screeching halt one month after he witnesses the death of Cassandra Belle Rourke in his cabin. It's violent and bloody. Kyle puts two and two together and knows who did it...but who will believe him? He struggles with what to do and when to do it, and ends up taking matters into his own hands.
Newman has you firmly perched in Kyle's pocket every step of the way as he wrestles with what he's seen. The rain is almost a secondary character in the story and I swear I felt a little water logged by the ending.

If the trade edition or Kindle edition are not to your liking, you may find Midnight Rain in a used bookstore in a mass market edition as Leisure, the original publisher, is no more.
James Newman however, goes on. He's been writing for a while and deserves a wider audience. I've got one of his short story collections, People Are Strange... oh yes...you bet they are.
Go check Mr. Newman out, as he keeps getting better with each book.

Review: Forsaken (Shadow Cove Saga #1)

Forsaken
by
JD Barker
Available in Kindle format
and in paperback
on Amazon.

Forsaken is a Bram Stoker Award nominee for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. The award are currently being voted on and will be presented on May 9, 2015.
Will Forsaken win? Possibly. I've not read any of the other 4 nominees, but I'd say this has a fair chance at taking the prize.

Meet author Thad McAlister, who has just penned what he believes to be his best, biggest seller, "Rise of the Witch". Written in journal style, we're taken back to 1692, in the town of Shadow Cove where a witch trial has begun. Thad details the trial, and introduces us to a young woman who may or may not be guilty of witchcraft.

In present day, his wife, Rachel, is pregnant with their second child. Thad goes to New York to meet with his agent and Rachel and daughter Ashley are left at home alone, where odd things start to occur. Their yard is taken over by little piles of dirt. Then the dirt starts showing up in the house...along with...no, I won't tell you that part.

The chapters are short and lead up to a rattling conclusion. My first thought about a third of the way in was, "Man, this is giving me the creeping tinglies." And that is a good thing.

I hope Forsaken wins. And I hope JD Barker keeps writing.

Oh, and by the way, the last chapter is an homage to Stephen King in the best way ever. Not going to spoil it by telling you here. Read it for yourself.

Merry Christmas to all I've reviewed and all who follow my reviews

Merry Christmas Constant Reader.

I don't have a new book for review, (yet), but I wanted to take this time to tell you what I'm doing for all the authors I've favorably reviewed here. It's a small gesture for Christmas. I'm going to post the review I posted here on their author page on Goodreads.
Big deal, you may be saying.
Well. Yes, as a matter of fact it is.
Authors live and die with reviews, and if I've given them a good one, I need to post it where it will do some good.
Goodreads prides itself on the reviews posted there, so mine are about to join.
My TWU reviews are already posted on Amazon. Posting on Goodreads is just one more way for folks to find a good read. Pun intended. ; )

Review: Strange Roads by Steven Lloyd

Strange Roads
by
Steven Lloyd
Available in Kindle format
and in paperback
on Amazon

If you decide to come along on a journey with Mr. Lloyd, rest assured the roads he travels in his short stories are strange.

Steven Lloyd submitted his most excellent short story "The Wooden Box" to me last year and it was absolutely excellent (you can find my review of it here in the entry dated August 23, 2013. The story is part of this collection, or available by itself through Amazon.)

So imagine my delight when I was presented with Strange Roads, a small collection of more of Lloyd's short stories.

All of them will get under your skin. Some will horrify in a subtle way that lingers. Others will hit you over the head.

Among my favorites were "The Wooden Box", and like a juggernaut put into motion, it drags you down the road with you in it's wake..
"The Wallet"- just how much will one man go through to get his property back?
"Where There Be Dragons" - a wonderful short fantasy that is charming as hell.
"Dogwood Summer"(an excerpt), which I've been told by Lloyd will be fleshed out at some point as I wanted way more than the story delivered. Not that it came up short. It was so good I wanted more. Now!

This is a worthy addition to any horror lovers library. The horror is subtle in some cases...splatterpunk this is not, but that's OK.  The best kind of horror short story is one that doesn't bludgeon you to death. It lingers in your mind's eye long after you've read the last sentence.

Lloyd crafts his stories as if he's mining precious gems.
I can't wait for him to continue mining in this vein.

Not Gone and Never Forgotten

Bet you thought I'd disappeared.
Nope, no such luck.

Moved twice and about to move again (same apartment complex, larger apartment).

My mother passed away in May, peacefully in her sleep, which was how I hoped it would be.

I've been writing more cook books - 19 available now, under T. L. Sheppeard on Amazon, for the Kindle for $2.99 (go check 'em out).

Been doing a lot of for pleasure reading. I've discovered the brilliant writings of Cory Doctorow. Though intended for a young adult audience, the subject matter is relevant to any and all and is presented beautifully. If you like science fiction that's science fact and relevant to the times (cyber stuff, hacking, spying, how much privacy do we really have?), then you'll eat his stuff up - Homeland and Little Brother are the two I've read.

I liked the Anita Blake novels by Laurell K Hamilton and have read a great deal of them. But, I've found a series that I think is head and shoulders over Hamilton's books - The Black Dagger Brotherhood by J.R. Ward. I've read the first two and am on the third and have the rest on my Kindle to read. Full of sex, violence, blood, interesting vampires, this series is better written than the Anita Blake books. Too often Hamilton will come up with a nifty premise, only to drown it to death in sex, and then wrap it up nice neat in one chapter, telling us how things were resolved rather than writing it and showing us how. Lazy writing is what that is.

Got some interesting books coming up in the following weeks for review...
So stay tuned.