 INTERVIEW WITH PAUL RUSSELL PARKER III  Welcome to Roxana’s blog! Q: Tell us a little about yourself and your background. I’m a husband and a father. I work a full-time day job, and write at night. Hopefully I’ll transition to writing full-time for my livelihood. I live on the North Carolina, Crystal Coast but I was born in San Diego, California. I am a Veteran of the United States Marine Corps and the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. My background is varied. I worked odd jobs in high school. Upon graduation, I joined the Marine Corps at 17. I got out when I was 21, and went to college. I worked a series of odd jobs while I went to school and was lucky to secure an internship with the US Department of State at the US Embassy in Manila, Philippines. After that, I got a job in Iraq as a contractor to the Department of Defense. Then I transferred to Masirah Island, Oman so I could bring my family with me. I was on another contract to the DoD, and lived on a Royal Air Force of Oman air base. Then I transferred to Doha, Qatar so my family could enjoy living in a city compared to that little island in Oman. I worked at a US Air Base just outside of Doha. In total, I spent 7 years as a contractor in the Middle East and received my Bachelor’s degree during that time. After I left the contracting world, I decided to come back to North Carolina. This is where my dad retired from the Marine Corps, and my immediate family lived here. I wanted to put down roots and live a normal life so the kids could experience a regular childhood in the US. Q: Do you think that your school years have had an impact in your writing career? If so, what were you like at school? I don’t think my school years had an impact on my writing career. Typing class probably had the biggest impact. I took typing for three years, so I type really fast now. That has helped immensely. Writing books was the last thing on my mind back in those days. I just wanted to have fun with my friends, and do the typical teenage boy things. I was a great student academically, but I was a handful for my teachers. Q: Were you good at English or like Einstein you excel now in a field that was a nightmare for you as a student? I did well in all of my classes. This is the US, so I was an A-B honor roll student. I wrote the occasional 500 word or 1000 word paper. Two page papers at the most… I didn’t take any creative writing courses though. Nothing prepared me for writing a 200+ page, 109,000 word fiction! Q: What are your future ambitions for your writing career? My future ambition for my writing career is to become a full-time Author. I want my books to be well known. I want to produce a large body of work. I don’t want fame or fortune. I want to make a living off of writing though. I want to be a recognized Author. Q: So, would you mind telling us what you have written so far? I have written three novels and a novella in a series. The books in my Warden Series are: All In: The Globe Trot Shuffle, Cash Me Out: Life and Death in Paradise, The Buildup to Operation Intense Freedom: A Warden Series Novella, and Run The Table: Operation Intense Freedom. I also run my own blog where I post things about my books, my random thoughts, and reviews of books I read. Q: Where can we buy or see them? All of my eBooks are .99 cents and available through Kindle Unlimited. My paperbacks are $13.99 each, and my novellas are $6.99 each. Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Paul-Russell-Parker-III/e/B01CW2TBEO Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Parker-III-Paul-Russell/e/B01CW2TBEO Amazon FR: https://www.amazon.fr/Parker-III-Paul-Russell/e/B01CW2TBEO Amazon DE: https://www.amazon.de/Parker-III-Paul-Russell/e/B01CW2TBEO Amazon JP: https://www.amazon.co.jp/Parker-III-Paul-Russell/e/B01CW2TBEO Amazon NL: https://www.amazon.nl/All-Globe-Shuffle-Warden-English-ebook/dp/B01CVHVHRE Amazon BR: https://www.amazon.com.br/All-Globe-Shuffle-Warden-English-ebook/dp/B01CVHVHRE Amazon IN: https://www.amazon.in/Parker-III-Paul-Russell/e/B01CW2TBEO Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/All-Globe-Trot-Shuffle-Warden-ebook/dp/B01CVHVHRE Amazon IT: https://www.amazon.it/Parker-III-Paul-Russell/e/B01CW2TBEO Amazon MX: https://www.amazon.com.mx/All-Globe-Shuffle-Warden-English-ebook/dp/B01CVHVHRE Q: What are you working on at the minute? What’s it about? Right now, I’m working on another novella in my Warden Series. It takes place where my 3rd novel, Run The Table: Life and Death in Paradise ends. It is about what happens to my characters after the war ends. The shooting stops, so what’s next? How do they go from combat to normal life again? Q: What genre are your books and what draws you to this genre? My books are Thrillers. The subgenres are military, financial crime, vigilante justice, organized crime, noir, heist, and war. I like thrillers. With this genre, you don’t know what to expect. What problem is going to arise, and how will they deal with it? What lines will be crossed? Who’s bad and who’s good? Q: What was the name of your last book? Give us an insight into your main character. What does he/she do that is so special? What’s it about? The last book I published was Run The Table: Operation Intense Freedom. My protagonist is Lance Corporal John Gabriel Warden. He’s a United States Marine and feels an obligation to bring his friends home safe from the war. He’s the brooding type. He’s excited to be doing what Marines are supposed to do, but also feels bad for the people caught in the middle. He likes to break the rules and bucks against the system as often as he can although on paper, he’s a great Marine. The book is about a group of Marines experiences during the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. Q: Which actor/actress would you like to see playing the lead character from your most recent book? That’s a good question! My character is in his early 20’s, so I can’t choose Tom Hardy. Maybe Chris Pratt? Zac Efron? Shia Lebeouf wouldn’t be a bad pick. He’s playing a Marine in a movie right now, and I heard he gave a good performance. Q: How much research do you do for your books? I research as much as I can. I consult maps online, I look up laws. I looked up the weight of a $100 dollar bill, and the dimensions of it so I could accurately display the size of the container it should be held in. I look up names to make sure I’m being original, like for businesses. I look up bio’s and history. I look up military spec’s. I wanted the series I wrote to be as realistic as possible. Q: Have you written any other novels/novellas in collaboration with other writers? Why did you do decide to collaborate and did that affect your sales? I haven’t collaborated with anyone yet, but I am open to it. Hopefully no one would be disappointed with my contribution! Q: When did you decide to become a writer and why? What was the principal reason for taking up a pen (metaphorical speaking) and write that first sentence? I tried to write a book in 2003 after I got back from Iraq, but it was a halfhearted attempt. I wanted to tell our story during the Invasion of Iraq. I put the pen down and returned to it 13 years later or so. I was sitting around and for some reason, I thought about that book I tried to write way back when. I went to the computer and wrote a short story. I let my wife read it, and she was surprised. It came out of no where. I told her I’d like to write a fiction and base it off of my experiences. She said go for it, and less than a year later, I have three novels and novella published. Q: Do you write full-time or part-time? Do you have a special time to write or do you write every day, 5 days a week or as and when? I write part-time because I have a day job. I like to write late a night when my wife and kids are asleep. I find that it’s easier to write when we’re home and I have no interruptions. I try to write every day, but I write at least twice a week. I have a young family and we have a lot of after school activities, so I’m often busy. Q: Where do your ideas come from? Or is it just the spur of the moment, a special feeling you experience or a specific conjuncture that offers you inspiration? My ideas come from spur of the moment. I write them all down. Then I try to plot it out chapter by chapter. I know what I want a chapter to be about, but I don’t know what I’m going to write until I start typing. I have a bunch of ideas for future novels written down and tons of notes in notepads on my computer (backed up on hard drives of course!) Q: How do you think you’ve evolved creatively? I think I’ve come along way from book 1 to where I’m at now, and it’s been less than a year. I’m still evolving. My work is developing and I’m interested how the next novel will be when I branch out in another genre. Q: Do you work to an outline or plot or do you prefer just see where an idea takes you? For the first book, I just wrote. No plot and no outline. I wrote the whole book that way. That was great, but I spent a lot of time going back to format. Now, I just keep a general outline that I tend to follow. It’s not unusual for me to strike something from a list of ideas I had planned for a chapter and to put something else in entirely. I found that if I have an idea of what I’m going to write, I don’t go over or under the word count. Q: In your opinion, what is the hardest thing about writing? For me, the hardest thing about writing is finding time to write. I work full-time, and we have a young family. There’s recreational league sports that the kids are in, and other after school activities. I’m busy Monday through Sunday. So I sacrifice a few hours of sleep at night to write. Not only that, I have to promote and advertise or no one will find my books. I also have to upkeep and maintain my Author social media pages. I also read books for my book reviews on my blogs… I find that I never have enough time to write. Q: Now, what about the easiest thing about writing? The easiest thing about writing is writing. It flows for me. When I start typing, its nonstop. I just type and type and type. As soon as the idea comes to head, it’s written down and the story unfolds right before my eyes. Q: Do you ever get writer’s Block and if so do you have any tips on how to get through the dreaded writer’s block? The only time I have writer’s block is writing the first line of the book. The rest follows. That first line dictates the rest of the story that follows, so I have to think long and hard about the first line. Q: Do you read much and if so who are your favorite authors? For your own reading, do you prefer eBooks or traditional paper/hard back books? I read a lot. Right now, I’m trying to read Indie Authors because I’m an Indie Author. I haven’t ran into horrible stories or badly formatted books yet. Growing up, my favorite Authors were Stephen King, Tom Clancy, and Kurt Vonnegut. I prefer eBooks now because I like having thousands of books in my device at any given time. I do like to read paperbacks every now and then. I’m nostalgic about the smell of the pages and the feel of a book in your hand. Q: What book/s are you reading at present? I’m looking for my next read at this moment. My only problem is that there are so many Indie Books available. I’ve downloaded so many free ones that it’s hard to decide which one is next. I need another book review for my blog! Q: Do you proofread/edit all your own books or do you get someone to do that for you? I’m Indie with no budget, so I proof and edit on my own right now. Q: Do you let the book stew – leave it for a month and then come back to it to edit? I edit a chapter right after I finish righting it. I’ll let it stew for a day or two before I come back to do the first edit though. A week at the latest. Q: Tell us about the covers of your books. How did it/they come about? The covers for my first two novels came from a service that offered stock covers. I picked the covers that I felt were the best fit. I believe they fit, and couldn’t imagine a different cover. The cover for my 3rd novel and my novellas are taken from pictures I took during the Iraq War. Q: Do you think that the cover plays an important part in the buying process? Covers play the most important role. The cover is what catches your eye. If a cover doesn’t look good? You won’t check out the blurb. It has to be eye catching, and be related to your story. Q: What would you say are the main advantages and disadvantages of self-publishing against being published or the other way around? The main advantage to being self-published is that I have total creative control. From start to finish, I control all aspects. The disadvantage of not being traditionally published is that you have to do everything or pay for everything. Editing, proofing, cover, marketing, promoting, advertising, social media work… It’s tiresome! Q: How do you market your books, if you do the marketing yourself? I sign up at websites to put my book in their mailers during my Amazon free days. I post to groups and Tweet about it. I join group promotions and help others promote while they help promote me. I blog about the books. I used to do giveaways on Amazon, but that never led to sales. Q: Would you or do you use a PR agency? I would in the future if it was possible. I’m sure it’d be helpful. Q: Do you have any advice for other authors on how to market their books? My advice is have more than one book when you start to advertise heavily. It’s nice if two thousand people download your book, but if there’s no other book for them to read afterwards? You only get a review or two out of it. If you give away two thousand eBooks after you have another book or two written? Then you have a thousand or so people who will pay for the next book or books. It’s free promotion for the other books. So, write! Write a lot. Get other books published before you start spending a lot of money on promoting. Also, free promoting websites are great, but the best promotions I’ve had are from paid promotions. Q: What part of your writing time do you devote to marketing your book? I market the books a few hours out of the week. I don’t market as much as I should. I’m trying to publish the next book. Q: What do you do to get book reviews? Some reviews came from hundreds of free books given away. Other reviews came from genuine readers who bought the book. I don’t ask others for reviews, and I don’t review swap. So, I have few reviews. I’m hoping more will come organically as I publish more books. Q: How successful has your quest for reviews been so far? I have not been successful at all. I put call to actions in my books, and have given away a few thousand copies. The reviews just aren’t coming in. I didn’t review books before I became an Author so I can’t blame people. I suspect that military/financial crime fans don’t review books that often? Q: Do you have a strategy for finding reviewers? Not yet. I should offer my books to reviewers for reviews, but I’m not excited about that prospect. I had a bad review from someone who didn’t like the genre once. They said the story was well written, they just weren’t interested in it. They left a low star rating and that’s the only rating I have on that book. I’d rather let people who are genuine fans of the genre and who actually like my book to leave an organic review. Q: What are your thoughts on good/bad reviews? Who doesn’t want good reviews? I want good reviews, but I don’t want fake ones. If the story was bad, let me know. Let me know if something was horrible. Bad reviews are important, if they’re genuine. I’ll happily correct a mistake. People might not believe in the reviews if they’re all good either. Q: Any amusing story about marketing books that happened to you? During my first free day giveaway, I was scared when I hit 100 free downloads. I thought that was too many. Those could have been paid purchases! So I cut the promotion off and found out later that was bad. The more you giveaway, the better. One of those downloaders could be the person who puts your book over the edge. At the least, it could lead to a review or two. Q: What are your views on social media for marketing? Which social network worked best for you? Any tips on what to do and what not to do? Social media is good for marketing. That’s how I found a lot of books that I read now. It’s led to a few sales for me, but not much. A lot of groups I post to are groups of Authors trying to sell their books. It’s usually other Authors looking at your promotion hash tag tweets. You have to do it though. The more lines you put out, the better chance you have of someone discovering your book. I try not to spam groups or my Twitter followers. I try to retweet other Authors. I found that most of my followers are other authors and when they retweet me, it goes to their followers who are other authors. Q: Did you do a press release, Goodreads book launch or anything else to promote your work and did it work? I did not, but want to do so when I start a new trilogy in another genre. Q: Did you get interviewed by local press/radio for your book launch? I did not. I just paid for advertisements in the local papers. Q: Is there any marketing technique you used that had an immediate impact on your sales figures? The only thing that worked was giving the first book in my series away for free. That led to sales and downloads of my other books. Q: Did you make any marketing mistakes or is there anything you would avoid in future? The only mistake I made was paying a lot for marketing. It led to tons of free downloads and a few reviews. But not much else. I plan to use a mixture of free and paid advertising in the future. Q: Why do you think that other well written books just don’t sell? The market is flooded with self-published titles. Readers have so much to choose from, they may skip over great books just because there are so many to choose from. Q: What do you think of “trailers” for books? I want to do a trailer in the near future. It’s another way to promote the books and can get the books into the hands of readers. Q: Do you have a trailer or do you intend to create one for your own book/s? (* please provide a link to trailer if you have one) I’ll try to make one soon. Q: Do you think that giving books away free works and why? It works for the most part. People want free books. Do they read them? Probably not. Do they review them? Mostly no. Some do though. Others will read your other titles. Its something that you have to do because everyone else is doing. Readers are expecting free or cheap books now, so I feel like giving books away for free is making some readers only want free books. Q: How do you relax? I watch a movie with my family. Q: What is your favorite motivational phrase? What is your favorite positive saying? Don’t give up. Don’t stop writing. Q: What is your favorite book and why? My favorite book is The Stand by Stephen King. I read it when I was a young. It horrified me, and I read it over and over. Q: What is your favorite quote? Semper Fi til I die. It’s based on the Marine Corps latin moto, Semper Fidelis. It means Always Faithful. It’s a Marine thing. Q: Where can you see yourself in 5 years-time? Writing full-time! Q: What advice would you give to your younger self? Write that book! If I didn’t stop in 2003… I would have tons of books published by now. Q: What advice would you give to aspiring writers? Write as much as you can. Don’t worry about anything else. Just write. Q: Where do you see publishing going in the future? I see prices dropping and self-publishing taking over the market. Q: How can readers discover more about you and you work? : Blog: https://prp3theauthor.wordpress.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prp3theauthor/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/prp3theauthor Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Paul-Russell-Parker-III/e/B01CW2TBEO Book Links: Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Paul-Russell-Parker-III/e/B01CW2TBEO Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Parker-III-Paul-Russell/e/B01CW2TBEO Amazon FR: https://www.amazon.fr/Parker-III-Paul-Russell/e/B01CW2TBEO Amazon DE: https://www.amazon.de/Parker-III-Paul-Russell/e/B01CW2TBEO Amazon JP: https://www.amazon.co.jp/Parker-III-Paul-Russell/e/B01CW2TBEO Amazon NL: https://www.amazon.nl/All-Globe-Shuffle-Warden-English-ebook/dp/B01CVHVHRE Amazon BR: https://www.amazon.com.br/All-Globe-Shuffle-Warden-English-ebook/dp/B01CVHVHRE Amazon IN: https://www.amazon.in/Parker-III-Paul-Russell/e/B01CW2TBEO Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/All-Globe-Trot-Shuffle-Warden-ebook/dp/B01CVHVHRE Amazon IT: https://www.amazon.it/Parker-III-Paul-Russell/e/B01CW2TBEO Amazon MX: https://www.amazon.com.mx/All-Globe-Shuffle-Warden-English-ebook/dp/B01CVHVHRE Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15078491.Paul_Russell_Parker_III Thank you very much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to take part in this interview. Character Interview
All In: The Globe Trot Shuffle (Warden Series Book 1) by Paul Russell Parker III 5 stars – A narrative full of twists This is a story full of surprises and there are moments when you simply cling to the edge of the seat, metaphorically speaking. The writer depicts the journey of four men belonging to the 2nd Marine Division out of Camp Lejeune North Carolina, journey that starts in Iraq, in the middle of a war zone and continues almost all over the world. The journey is multidimensional – in space and in spirit. The four characters, Warden, Madson, Diaz and Marcs, evolve gradually and gather experience until they become full-fleshed people. If Warden appears relatively complex from the beginning, the others reach part of their potential only at the end of the novel. The author has the gift of bringing a war zone before the reader’s eyes. He succeeds in translating into words the futility of war and the destruction it brings with it, not only spatially and culturally, for the party who fights the war on their own land but also for the soldier brought into this war from the other side of the world. The disintegration of a culture as well as the disintegration of the soldiers’ souls jumps off each page. People are seen as pawns in the claws of a government driven by economic gains with disregard for the human beings pushed into fight only to die. Everything is reduced to looting and taxing. People have value only if they bring money and they are expendable. Many more can come from where the fallen came. In my opinion, this book is a dispassionate cry against solving disputes with violence and a stand against reducing people to monetary value. The characters’ actions are somewhat questionable but considering the stakes for their survival, they become understandable. I recommend this book – good narrative with various twists, characters that evolve all the time and enticing dialogue. 
0 Comments
|
ROXANA NASTASEBorn sometime in the past century, living in the 21st century. 
https://www.ebookstage.com/welcome/NTYyNzY=/
Categories
All
JOIN ME!
Sometimes I have good ideas... (what do you think?) Sometimes fascinating guests! (that for sure!) Sometimes I have to share some of my frustrations,.. (not too tempting, huh!) 
 Archives
January 2022
https://bookraid.com?aff_id=1477
|
RSS Feed