Interviewing the Muse - Salton Lee

Happy Tuesday fans!


I can't believe its August already. What happened to the year? o.0


With new months we always like to start new things. So, just in case you haven't heard, I'm switching up the schedule here at Michael's. Please refer to the left.


One of the many things I wanted to do was interview the muse, the characters from some of the authors books or in such a case as myself, the author's pseudonym.


Again, these would be the muses speaking, not the author. So don't be surprised by what you hear. 


Today, I begin my monthly journey into the muse belonging to author Salton Lee. I hope to do this at least twice a month. 


Please enjoy this first one...

Tell me your backstory.

I was born Michael Adam Ramsey on July 27th, 1949, and several minutes later my twin brother Dominic followed me into the world of the country club, Catholic Church, and Pasadena our parents had waiting for us.

From as early as I can remember, Dad deemed me the favored son and repudiated Nick whenever possible. I hated him for it.

As Dad demanded, I delivered a USC diploma, which threw in his face and went off to the seminary with both middle fingers raised because that was how I could disgrace him most.

Hiding out as a priest worked just fine and dandy until the roof of Our Lady of the Sea Catholic Church in Salton City, California crushed me to death.  Hurricane Doreen’s rampage in 1977 did me in and I came back as an angry vigilante.

In the story you are a part of, are you happy with the way it's progressing? the desired result without giving details?

Things would go a hell of a lot better if people would do what I tell them to do. I have such little patience for people who want to swirl with turds in a toilet. No, things are not going swimmingly.

 If you were an actual living breathing human, what things would you change about the world?

Just as I make people listen as they stare down the barrel of my Ruger Redhawk, I’d fight terrorism with overkill. If you slap me, I’ll put a .44 through your forehead.

Do you control your writer?

I have a lot to say and he lets me say it. I don’t have to control him because he lives vicariously through the badass I am.

Does your author try to take over the story at any time?

I always can exert control if need be. All I have to do is tell him it’s time for us to have Razorblade martinis—he makes them perfectly—and regale him with tales of my Shelby Mustang GT500KR and its snarling Cobra Jet V8 and he’s back in the fold. He’s such a car whore. Nick can tell him 427 Sting Ray stories and get undivided attention.

Do you have any habits or traits we would consider disturbing?

I can easily gain your confidence and use you and quite frankly. I really don’t care about anything other than justice. There is no gray area. It’s either right or wrong, and if you’re wrong, you have me as your worst nightmare.

I know I can use my looks to get anything I need. I can make women melt. Men of all stripes wish they were me, hell some probably even want me. Go figure.

Do you have any dark secrets?

There was this prostitute from Desert Shores named Dolores Morris who would always get her John to drop her off for mass on Sundays. She loved flashing me the promised land when she got out of a car. She’d confess her sins in detail and they made me feel so alive. Sometimes we’d get sloppy drunk together in the rectory. I should have left the priesthood and spent years doing her, but I was such a chicken.

I never once broke my vows.

During the story, will you discover anything that changes your life?

The revelation for me in the battle between good and evil is that God and Satan act like two, equally dirty, rival gang leaders challenging each other for power in a territorial pissing contest without rules. Angels are as dirty as demons and the unclaimed souls of the living are in play as both sides play a numbers game.

Welcome Salton Lee

Good Monday morning!


Welcome to another guest blog day here at Michael's. I'm happy to have on Salton Lee who actually interviewed me last week with some stirring questions my muse, Michael, really enjoyed. 


View Here

I'm returning the favor and allowing him to tell a little more about himself!


Enjoy our virtual sitdown.

Okay, I might start off kind of boring here but tell us a little about yourself as an author?

At 14, my folks got me a typewriter on which I wrote my first novel about what we’d today call “import tuner boys” and their exploits. The manuscript vanished 22 years ago when I moved into my current house.

In 27 years of teaching, I have written grants, accreditation reports (phonebook thick), and published two books in the field of educational research on writing-acquisition.

For a while I wrote the comedic, lounge zine Swizzle.

What made you decide to publish your work?

The response to my short stories encouraged me to develop them and now I have a trilogy. The Salton Sea Chronicles: Avenger will be first to publication.

I decided my writing is as good published authors. I say that not out of arrogance, but assuming I can be a credible, published author with some old-fashioned hard work.

I became discouraged by the “you need to know someone” nature of publishing. Getting in takes too long with entrenched publishers. Going Indie  makes perfect sense to me.

I notice from your page that you’ve interviewed a multitude of authors which is awesome. Who has been the most memorable that you have interviewed?

I enjoyed each of the interviews and that’s NOT a line. Rick R. Reed is good-natured. Faith Mortimer is a gracious lady. Not one author turned me down, nor been less than professional. All have been fascinating and could not be more different from each other if they tried.

Who are the authors that you look up to?

I like Steven King, Ray Bradbury, and Kurt Vonnegut. I like Marisa Silver’s work, especially The God of War. Someone suggested I read Boy Culture by Matthew Rettenmund and I liked the grittiness and confessional tone.

Do you have a guru or yoda?

For me, writing gurus are as loathsome as life coaches. Gurus often want to shape everyone into their likeness.

Seek instead “alpha” readers to test your piece for plot, pacing, and characterization while you tinker. Then after deep revision, find “beta” readers to be brutally frank about weaknesses in your piece. Then do deep revision and then get a final editor. Writing is a product and should be flawless in publication.

Tell us more about your books the Salton Sea Chronicles?

My series explores the dystopian world of the Salton Sea of California in the midst of a battle between good and evil wherein both sides prove to be equally back-stabbing in their motives. The writing is visceral. The common character, Michael Ramsey, unites all 3, first as a boy, then as a reborn angel, and finally as a haunting spirit to his twin brother, Nick. Psychologically, they explore how men go after being the alpha male at any cost, only to be blind-sided by a bigger dog.

As an editor, what is the most common mistake you find when doing a job?

The #1 sin is relying on passive voice, which drags down the Flesch-Kincaid grade-level score and makes a mind-numbing read. My peeves include the use of “that,” “just,” and “very” which do nothing. I despise coordinating conjunctions starting sentences and contractions in narration. I’m biased, sue me.

What is your favorite type of book to read?

I like stories revealing the seedy underbelly of a situation. Life affirming stories are Chicken Soup for the Played-Out Soul in my estimation.

As an author, do you feel the e-book will eventually replace the print book as CD’s or MP3’s replaced cassettes and records?

The ebook should make publishing companies afraid to an unfathomable depth. We buy music on iTunes so why not ebooks? Kindle and iPad will kill big publishing houses and it will not take long.

With the fall of Borders and the rise of the Mobi and Kindle, do you see this as a positive or negative to the publishing industry?

Borders did not think ahead and deserved to fall. This shift is resoundingly positive as books are as outmoded as CDs and I can read more novels if I don’t have to spend $20 each time.

Several months ago a writer sabotaged her career by answering a bad review on a blog. How would you have handled this and do you think authors should answer their reviews?

A vitriolic response is dumb. Thank the person for frankness. Listen to the critique. Take it like an adult.

For those of us not familiar, please share some information about the cause you heavily support: the Salton Sea.

The Salton Sea, California’s largest lake is threatened by SoCal’s thirst for water. If it dries up, epic dust storms will decimate 1/3 of California’s agriculture, pillage tourism, and sharply increase a deadly respiratory illness known as Desert/Valley Fever. The fix is simple, but politicians care more about the state’s 5 largest cities. The sea, an environmental time bomb, is drying up rapidly, revealing several more feet of exposed shore every year.

What projects are you working on right now and what new releases can we expect from you?

I’m editing several authors, reviewing a novel, and just got the idea for a new piece called The Union. Lord help me!

Thanks so much for the interview. Very eye opening answers!

Links

The Salton Sea Chronicles http://saltonseachronicles.blogspot.com/
"Cancer" a novel excerpt http://saltonseachronicles.blogspot.com/2011/07/cancer.html
"Axe" a novel excerpt http://saltonseachronicles.blogspot.com/2011/06/axe.html
"Whack" a novel excerpt http://saltonseachronicles.blogspot.com/2011/03/whack.html
Swizzle http://telstarlounge.blogspot.com/

* * * *

What a great one, definitely one of the best. I really enjoy having authors on that write from different subject matter than me. I hope you all enjoyed it as well.

Join me tomorrow as I'll jump back to my genre and have on Lisa Worrall.

Until then...