Pump Up Your Book Chats with Thriller Author Allan Leverone

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Allan Leverone is a three-time Derringer Award Finalist whose short fiction has been featured in Needle: A Magazine of Noir, Shroud Magazine, Twisted Dreams, Mysterical-E and many other venues, both print and online. His debut thriller, titled FINAL VECTOR, is available February 2011 from Medallion Press. For details, please visit www.allanleverone.com or his blog at www.allanleverone.blogspot.com.

Q: Thank you for this interview, Allan. Can you tell us why you wrote your book?

I’ve been an air traffic controller for the past twenty-nine years, getting hired by the FAA at the age of 22 after graduating college with a business degree I’ve still never used. Given the reality of air travel in the 21^st century and its awful appeal to violent factions the world over, it seems almost inevitable that I would combine my nearly three decades of aviation experience with my love for thrillers when it came time to write my first book.

Q: Which part of the book was the hardest to write?

All the members of the terrorist faction I write about in Final Vector are disaffected United States citizens with the exception of the leader, a Middle Eastern man with a shadowy past named Tony Andretti. My biggest challenge was to portray this character as a man capable of the vilest kind of political assassination without turning him into a caricature; a cartoon villain.

Q: Does your book have an underlying message that readers should know about?

I’m not trying to “educate” anyone, or proselytize about any point along the political spectrum, with Final Vector. Thrillers are meant to be entertainment, plain and simple, and if I can take a reader’s mind off his or her daily grind for a little while, I’ve accomplished my goal as an author.

Q: What was one of your favorite books as a child?

I didn’t have one single favorite book as a child, but I absolutely devoured the Hardy Boys series from probably about age eight until maybe age twelve. Then, in my teens, I discovered some twisted soul writing in Maine named Stephen King and I’ve never been the same since.

Q: What is your favorite book as an adult?

Again, it’s tough to pick out one single favorite book because there are so many I love. If you put a gun to my head, I would probably say Stephen King’s The Stand, just because of its epic scope and the whole good vs. evil thing running through the book. Lately, though, I’ve really taken to Tom Piccirilli’s work. There is a lot of pretty cool stuff being written by him and plenty of other noir authors that deserves greater recognition.

Q: What are you reading now?

Dave Zeltserman’s Vampire Crimes. No sparkly, emo vampires there.

Q: Do you remember when the writing bug hit?

About five minutes after I scribbled my first sentence down on paper, probably with a big, fat crayon. I was fascinated as a kid by the idea that I could create characters having the most incredible adventures out of nothing but my own mind. Needless to say, I was considered rather an . . . odd child.

Q: Besides books, what else do you write? Do you write for publications?

I love to write short stories as well as novels, and have had a little success doing so, with short fiction featured in various cool print and online magazines, including Needle: A Magazine of Noir, Shroud Magazine, Twisted Dreams, Dark Valentine, Mysterical-E and lots of others.

Q: Do you have a writing tip you’d like to share?

Writing is such a personal process that it’s hard to pass along anything of real value. What works well for me might not work at all for you, and vice-versa. But it’s no different than anything else—if you want to get good at it, you have to do it over and over. A lot.

Beyond that piece of advice, which is something everyone probably already knows anyway, I would say to keep an open mind when your work is rejected or critiqued. It can be difficult not to react defensively when someone is picking apart your creation, but if you really listen to what is being said you can learn a lot.

Q: Would you like to tell us about your home life? Where you live? Family? Pets?

I live in Londonderry, New Hampshire, which is a small town about an hour north of Boston. I’ve been married for 28 years to the best chick ever, and I have two daughters in college as well as a son who will graduate high school in a couple of months and a beautiful little four year old granddaughter. We have a pet cat named Midnight, who has lived through some serious adventures, but he’s pretty tight-lipped; it’s hard to get him to open up about himself at all.

Q: Where’s your favorite place to write at home?

Wherever I can carve out a little space. I do all my writing on my trusty laptop, so my office is wherever I happen to sit down. It might be on my bed while the rest of the family is watching television downstairs, it might be in my daughter’s room while she’s off at college. A few years ago, while my wife was still working, I wrote several chapters of a manuscript holding a sleeping baby on my shoulder, typing one-handed with my laptop perched on top of our kitchen stove. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

Q: What do you do to get away from it all?

Writing is how I get away from it all. When I get lost in a story the time flies by, and if the words are really flowing, hours can pass and I don’t even notice. When I put my laptop down, though, I really just want to be with my family. Sitting with my wife and watching “Chuck” or “Castle” or “V” works for me. I don’t have expensive tastes. My wife might say I don’t have any taste at all.

Q: What was the first thing you did as far as promoting your book?

Within days of signing my contract with Medallion for Final Vector, I had applied for membership in the International Thriller Writers. It’s an incredible organization, with some truly accomplished novelists who are very willing to share what they’ve learned about the business of being a professional author. I’m not the brightest guy in the world, but I was at least smart enough to realize I didn’t know anything, so I figured it would be extremely beneficial to take advantage of that support network.

I also began concentrating hard on social networking sites and blogging, as well as upgrading my website, www.allanleverone.com. I knew that as an unknown quantity, I would be facing an uphill battle getting people to sample my work, so I wanted to begin establishing my brand as early in the process as possible.

Q: Are you familiar with the social networks and do you actively participate?

I’m a very active participant on Facebook. Maybe too active, sometimes. It’s really easy to waste hours “networking” that could be better put to use writing. I also participate, although to a lesser degree, on Goodreads, Scribd and Wattpad, as well as the Kindle Boards, where I’m just starting to get my feet wet.

Q: How do you think book promotion has changed over the years?

I wasn’t an author in the “olden days,” before the Internet explosion, but it seems obvious to me that the advent of instant electronic communication has leveled the playing field for book promotion in a way that would never have been possible just a few years ago.

Unless you are a superstar, a Stephen King or a Dan Brown or a Stephenie Meyer, you WILL be expected to do much, if not all, of your own promotion as an author. Whereas before, that mostly meant holding book-signings, where even on a good day you might only have the chance to interact with a couple of dozen readers, now you can use social networking, blog tours, etc, to reach hundreds or even thousands of readers every single day. It’s nothing short of revolutionary.

Q: What is the most frustrating part of being an author?

I know this is going to sound phony, but I swear it’s true: I can’t think of anything. Keep in mind that my journey as an author is just beginning, so everything is shiny and new, and I haven’t yet had to deal with savage reviews or angry letters from readers who didn’t like my book. But I consider myself fortunate beyond all measure that Medallion believed in my book enough to give me this chance, so any difficulties I may encounter along the way, I consider minor.

Q: What is the most rewarding?

The knowledge that my work is entertaining people. The thought that someone in Topeka, Kansas or Dayton, Ohio or Oklahoma City might be enjoying something I created sends a chill down my spine. It’s both rewarding and humbling at the same time.

Q: How do you think book publishing has changed over the years?

As writers and readers, we are seeing a revolution take place before our very eyes. Since the invention of the Gutenberg Press five hundred or so years ago, book publishing has changed very little. But over just the last two or three years technology has changed everything, and there’s no going back. Anyone willing to invest enough time and effort can become an author/publisher, and while that raises certain obvious concerns about quality, it opens up possibilities that Johannes Gutenberg would never have dared imagine. And the revolution is just beginning.

Q: If you had one wish, what would that be?

Well, as noble as it would be to wish for world peace, that’s kind of a cliché, and besides, if everyone got along, what would crime writers have to write about?

So if I only had one wish, it would be:

1A – For everyone to go about their business with good intentions. That would stop ninety percent of the problems in this world right in their tracks.

1B – For everyone to try a book written by this debut author by the name of Allan Leverone. It’s called Final Vector, and I have it on good authority that it’s a pretty good read.

Q: If you could be anywhere in the world other than where you are right now, where would that place be?

Sitting on a beach somewhere warm and sunny with a frozen drink topped by a silly-looking umbrella in my hand. It’s twenty degrees here in New Hampshire as I write this, and we’re forecasted to get up to ten inches of snow tonight. Ugh.

Q: Your book has just been awarded a Pulitzer. Who would you thank?

You know those annoying Academy Award recipients who bore everyone with their long-winded speeches after winning the Oscar for Best Changing Room Decoration in a Small Budget Documentary? That would be me.

First and foremost, I would thank my wife for believing in my dream and supporting me emotionally. I couldn’t ask for a more enthusiastic cheerleader. Then I would move to my children, who have all along never doubted I would become a published author, even when I KNEW it would never happen.

I would thank Medallion Press and especially Editorial Manager Lorie Popp, who used good humor and relentless editing skills to help turn what I THOUGHT was a good book into what actually IS a good book.

I would thank my dad, gone thirteen years now, who taught me more about hard work and how to live my life than I ever bothered to thank him for until it was too late.

Then I would really hit my stride. But that’s probably enough detail until, you know, I actually win the Pulitzer.

You’re Invited to join Allan at our Facebook Party!

Pump Up Your Book would like to extend an open invitation to everyone as they host the February 2011 Authors on Tour at a Facebook party on Friday evening, February 25, 2011, at 9 to 11 p.m. (adjust to your time zone)! Not only will this give you the chance to talk to these authors, you could win some wonderful prizes, too! Here are the details:

WHO: February 2011 Authors on Tour & YOU!

WHAT: Facebook Party

WHEN: Friday, February 25, 2011, starting at 9 p.m. and ending at 11 p.m.

WHERE: Pump Up Your Book’s Fan Page (click here for more details!)

Hope to see you there!

If you would like to book your next virtual book tour with us, click here!

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Question of the Day

How do you make sales happen for you?

A lot of hard work! I sponsor a lot of on line parties, festivals and contests. Book sales don’t magically happen, believe me. An author has to work hard to earn her readers. And then she has to work hard to keep them by giving them something they’ll enjoy reading. I try hard to make my books worth a reader’s time.

-- Sheila Roberts, Author of Winter at the Beach