Interview with Mike Faricy, author of Crime Fiction ‘Bombshell’

Mike Faricy is the award winning author of mystery suspense thrillers woven together with a rich strain of humor and even some romance. He and his wife live in Saint Paul, Minnesota and Dublin, Ireland.

His entertaining tales are populated with the sort of quirky, oddball characters we’d all like to know more about, but wisely prefer to keep at a distance. They serve not so much as examples as they do warnings to the rest of us. None of his characters will be saving the world from terrorism, international banking conspiracies or coups to topple the government. Rather, they’re individuals inhabiting a world just below the surface of polite society. The difficulties they find themselves in are usually due to their own bad decisions, but then, bad decisions make for interesting tales.

All of his books are stand alone, read them in any order you wish. Russian Roulette introduces the bizarrely devilish Devlin Haskell as a PI with a foot on both sides of the law. Dev’s adventures continue in Mr. Softee and the soon to be released Bite Me. Mike is currently working on his latest top secret project. He graduated High School from St. Thomas Academy and earned a BA in history from St. Norbert College.

His latest book is the crime fiction, Bombshell.

Q: Can you tell us why you wrote your book?

I wrote Bombshell simply because I had to, I always have to be writing something. Bombshell is the fourth book in my Dev Haskell, Private Investigator series and my twelfth book over all. I really enjoy writing the Dev Haskell series, it’s a lot of fun for me. This book is set within the world of roller derby. A while back I was chatting with some women who skate for our local roller derby team and the more I listened and learned the more interested I became. I loved their roller derby names, the uniforms, the whole scene is just a lot of fun. It seemed like just the sort of world that my main character, Dev Haskell would be involved. I actually registered all my derby character names on the roller derby website.

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

To tell the truth it wasn’t hard to write in the sense of writer’s block or anything of that nature. I’m a very disciplined writer. I have a very strict routine I adhere to (yeah I know, boring) and I stick with it. I begin every day reading and editing what I wrote the previous day. That process takes about two and a half hours and by the end of it I’m back in the flow and I begin writing more pages. I try and write twenty-five-hundred to three thousand words per day. I don’t take phone calls. I don’t take a break other than about thirty minutes for lunch. I don’t run errands or go for a walk, I just write. With Bombshell I was able to sit down and the various characters just seemed to come alive and dictate the action. I just sat there and kept my fingers on the keyboard, the characters did all the rest.

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

Not in some strong social sense. At base it is a tale of rivalry and petty jealousy that gets out of hand, way out of hand. All my books are of no redeeming social value. The only message I really wish to impart is that within the pages there is a bit of escapism from the world and when you reemerge you hopefully have the sense that your world is nowhere near as screwed up as you thought one hundred pages earlier. I want people to enjoy and look forward to reading all my books. I want them eager to turn the page and find out what happens.

Q: Do you remember when the writing bug hit?

Yes, I was actually a little boy. Two of my favorite books were Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel and George the Pig. My parents read to me quite a bit and I was always impressed with the fact that George refused to share his pink frosted birthday cake with his friends. On the very last page of the book George explodes because he’s eaten the entire cake all by himself. I think I began drawing stories shortly after that, then, due solely to the dedication of very patient teachers I learned to read and write. I would write stories and eventually a newspaper, perhaps at no surprise all the tales were about me. From there writing became a labor of love, capitol ‘L’ on both those words.

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

Bombshell is my twelfth book. I also write for some publications, most notably The Irish Gazette. A number of my Irish Gazette articles are on my website and they’ve been picked up by other publications here in the US and elsewhere. I just had someone email me who picked up my article on Irish emigration and uses it in a class they teach. I consider that some of the highest praise, well unless it’s used as an example of what not to do.

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

The only real tip I have is a broader lesson I learned in high school from an English teacher, Mr. James Keane. At some point you have to sit down on your chair and get the job done. Don’t put it off, attack it and do your absolute best. Then, once that’s accomplished go back and make it better.

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

My home life is a little unusual, I live in St. Paul six months of the year and in Dublin, Ireland the other six months of the year. My wife is Irish, we have a long distance relationship. She comes over for our Midwestern heat and humidity in the summer and I’m in Dublin for four moths of damp cold and drizzle in the winter. But coming from winter in Minnesota there is rarely ice in Dublin and you never have to shovel. Their idea of snow wouldn’t even register on our scale. A cold day might be about 32-35 degrees on the Fahrenheit scale. It’s not uncommon in Minnesota to have a couple of months below zero, it’s all relative I guess. I was fortunate enough to meet and marry a woman who is good to me and good for me. Did I mention patient?

Q:  Can you tell us a little about your childhood?

I’m originally from St. Paul, Minnesota, born and raised. I was the oldest of five children and when I tell my wife, who is not American, about growing up she thinks it’s out of a movie. I grew up in one of those neighborhoods that came about after the Second World War. Like I said we had five kids and we were one of the smaller families in the neighborhood. Any time we opened the door there were literally twenty kids doing something, we were never at a loss for playmates. We played tag, kick the can, hide and go seek, all in the street. Every family knew one another and everyone’s parents had no problem telling you to knock off whatever idiot stunt you were doing. If you got in trouble in our family there was a good chance a wooden spoon would be bounced off the back of your head. Life was very black and white and frankly a lot easier than it is for kids today. I had a wonderful childhood.

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

At my desk in my office. I’m really boring, I usually do not have any music on. I don’t take phone calls, run errands or go for a walk. I break about thirty minutes for lunch and that’s it. I have a set routine and I stick with it. That said, it gets the job done, I’m very serious about my writing. I pass up quite a few social events, dinners and parties because I’m in the midst of a project. If I do attend something I may be drinking root beer or cranberry juice because I’m going home and working until midnight or one in the morning. Yeah I know, like I said, boring.

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

I like to go for walks with my wife. I play in a bagpipe band so there just might be a pint or two after our weekly practice or a gig. I have a very large social pool so I’m really never at a loss for options if I’m not working. It’s more a case of having to turn a number of opportunities down because I’m writing or in the midst of a re-edit.

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

I’ve learned that book promotion is or should be a very long and planned out affair. The first thing I do is a prerelease to a number of reviewers at different publications and blogs. I may have just described two months. All those folks have very long ‘to be read’ lists. I have an ever growing list of individuals who would like to preview and review my books. I never ask for a ‘good’ review. I simply ask that they review my book in a timely manner. I have a growing group of avid fans who are very helpful. I do not clutter the social sites like twitter or face book promoting my books fifteen times a day. There may have been a time that sort of thing was effective, it certainly isn’t now. I hope for and I’m fortunate enough to receive great word of mouth from fans and readers all around the world. I receive great reviews in the US, UK, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand. One of my books was number one in Germany for a while. All that didn’t just happen, it’s been years of building a fan base, one important reader at a time.

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

Yes I’m aware and I actively participate, but not by promoting whatever my latest work is. All my fans are friends and I communicate on everything from babies being born to a photo of dinner or a birthday party. I receive an awful lot of feedback from my readers either through face book or as an email (mikefaricyauthor@gmail.com). I may not agree with their specific point of view but I always listen. I had two women write me about the same book. One wrote she wasn’t too sure with all the sex at page 140 and the other wrote “135 pages and this is all the sex I get…” That told me I was just about where I should be. I’ve gotten great feedback from fans along the way.

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

If you go back just in the past six years it has changed drastically. Six years ago the internet and e-books were just fluttering around out there on the edge. Now its totally changed, first of all a guy like me can get published. I’m not famous, not a sports figure, I haven’t committed some sort of heinous crime. I led the league for years in rejections from publishers. I would send out query letters along with a self addressed stamped envelope so I could pay to receive the rejection. One day I had one of my query letters returned. It had been sent to one of the big six publishing house in New York and was stamped on the front in purple ink, ‘Return to Sender’. Handwritten on the back of my unopened envelope was a note that read “This does not fit our needs at this time.” A light went on in my thick skull that Mike Faricy, from St. Paul, Minnesota doesn’t have a snowballs chance with these guys. That said traditional publishing is no longer the only game in town and the other game, e-publishing and indie publishing can be much more lucrative and rewarding. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a lot of hard work and long hours, but at least I’ve got a shot. Traditional publishing wouldn’t even let me into the ballpark let alone onto the playing field. They wouldn’t even open up my envelope.

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

Man, I wish I didn’t have to sleep every night. There is so much to do, so many ways to go. There are thousands of things I want to write, but there are only so many hours in the day. I hear about people watching three, four or even more hours of TV per night, I don’t get it. I’m usually drifting off in front of a keyboard every night. All of a sudden I look up and there’s a long line of commas or some letter running across the screen and that’s the sign it’s time to close up shop for the night.

Q: What is the most rewarding?

I love the feeling of finishing a story and seeing the cover shot for my latest title on line. All of a sudden I looked up and I’ve got twelve books out there, who knew? I also love hearing from readers, it’s really great. One fan from Georgia posted on face book she had “just had a hot lavender bubble bath and now I’m going to bed with Mike Faricy.” She meant one of my books. I got a blistering email from my wife the next day demanding to know how close Marietta, Georgia was to St. Paul, like I said my wife is in Ireland, it’s one third the size of Minnesota, American geography isn’t high on her list. It was pretty funny.

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

I think it has changed drastically and continues to do so. The e-marketing that helped make someone like Amanda Hocking or Joe Konrath successful has evolved into something else and continues to change hourly. As I mentioned earlier, suddenly people like me have a shot at publishing and an equal shot at being successful. I came out of two different industries that technology either eliminated or changed drastically. One was the lithographic trade, any ten year old can do on a computer using Photoshop what we used to charge thousands of dollars to do. The very same thing is happening to traditional publishing. Sign a contract that gives away all rights for fifty years after your death, pays you fifteen percent and by the way you do all the promoting at your cost. Oh yeah, and the book will be released two years from now. Are you kidding? Let me know when we get to the good part. I think the traditional publishers will recover and some will survive in one form or another but nothing like it was. And then the retail area, Boarders is gone, Barnes and Noble is hustling I hope it works but it seems the business model of full returns on books might be outdated when I can download a book at night while lounging in bed at a fraction of the cost. No fuel, no travel, on my time frame. People tell me they love book stores, hey, so do I but more and more folks browse the retail shelves then go home and download an e-version. Things are still in a great state of flux and will be for quite some time.

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

My wife, family and the teachers over the years who remained dedicated and patient despite my dunderheaded behavior, then all my fans and readers without whom no one would have ever heard of me.

Q: Thank you so much for this interview, Mike Faricy.  Do you have any final words?

First, Thanks again for having me, please ask me back, I’ve really enjoyed this. I hope everyone will rush over to Amazon and pick up a copy of Bombshell (http://amzn.to/Uyc5eY) and don’t miss my other books. I always love to hear from readers, you can contact me on face book at Mike Faricy or Mike Faricy Books, also take a moment to check out Dev Haskell’s face book page, there’s usually something fun going on there. You can check out my website; www.mikefaricy.com, follow me on twitter @mikefaricybooks or just email me, mikefaricyauthor@gmail.com .

---