Book Talk / Author Q&A

1. Do you think there is a stigma associated with books dealing with the mob? How is Red Money different?

"I don’t believe there’s a stigma, since there have been several books, movies and TV series that deal with the mob, including some released during the past few years. The Italian Mafia may be a bit overworked, which is why I decided to focus on the Russian Mob.

Red Money is, I believe, unique in that it is centered on ordinary and innocent people who are violently and traumatically impacted by the Red Mafia – through a series of killings that take away loved ones – and decide to creatively do something about it and get back at the those who have caused them so much pain and suffering. The mobsters are made out to be what they are – ruthless profiteers and killers. Thus, a classic good versus evil scenario is crafted, but one in which the good are not afraid to resort to some evil in pursuit of their desire for revenge."

2. What advice do you have for writers just starting out in the business? What was the best piece of advice you received when you began writing?

"The answer is different, depending on whether we’re talking about non-fiction or fiction. I started out in non-fiction, and my advice here is to be thoroughly knowledgeable in what you are writing about, work through the fine points of your subject matter by yourself, and compose your message clearly without too much clutter. With regard to fiction, my advice is to take the time to learn what it takes to write a blockbuster novel (including but not limited to, character development and focus, point of view, big scenes and a strong ending) and work on these key elements. I read a book on this subject to implant the major ingredients in my writing. Finally, for either genre, my advice is to outline before writing."

3. What is the future of Red Money? Is there a sequel in the works?

"Hopefully, the future of this novel is a movie – on the big screen, DVD or television – due to reactions from some readers that the story should make for a good film. We’re starting to work on that.

At this time, there is no sequel planned. My next two novels (one is completed/ scheduled for release in 2009 and another is almost done) are mysteries. The central character is a retired New York City detective who desires peace and tranquility, but can not seem to avoid situations that draw him into crime related investigations."

4. What books have most influenced your life?

"First and foremost is the Bible, which apart from its spiritual impact, is a collection of writings of different styles and substance; thus, providing a small library within its covers. Another source of influence, due to my business background, has been Fortune Magazine, the reason being its ability to uncover and report on relevant topics and events in the business world, cutting across many segments. As far as fiction is concerned, my favorite authors have been Grisham and Ludlum, with no particular favorites regarding individual books."

5. Red Money has many great, well-rounded characters. Who is your favorite?

"The statement is appreciated, which implies that I internalized the point made in question #2 about character development. My favorite in this novel is Sophie, the heroine, who exemplifies the Teddy Roosevelt admonition of “speak softly, but carry a big stick”. Her mate, Andrei, is a close second. Together, they are a protagonist team."

John Morganelli is the author of the book The D-Day Bank Massacre, published by SterlingHouse Publisher. Mr. Morganelli is running for Attorney General in the state of Pennsylvania, and is currently District Attorney in Northampton County, PA.

1. What came first? Politics or writing?

Well, I was elected DA in 1991, so that came first. My book, The D-Day Bank Massacre, was the result of my work as DA prosecuting murder cases.

2. How do the two careers help each other?

Writing is fun. It is a diversion from what I do every day as a prosecutor. I don't think they are interrelated except to the extent that the DA job is where I get the material to write.

3. Do you plan on writing any more books in the future?
Maybe. It is hard work!

4. As a candidate for Attorney General, what are some of the issues you think voters are most concerned about, and what is your stance on them?

I am a big believer that it is our job to protect communities from violent criminals. We need to be tough on the career, violent criminals.

1. Is this event going to be the first time you have met with the patients, parents and staff of the hospital since writing House of Miracles?

As a member of the Family-Centered Care Committee at the hospital, I have stayed in contact with a number of people on the staff as well as some of the parents of patients of the hospital. It is the ongoing dedication of staff members and the unwavering support of the parents that inspired me to write the story. I am still in awe of the dedication and the love that goes along with the day-to-day life of a children’s hospital.

2. What would you like people to know about the hospital that they may not already know?

Personally, before my son was sick, I had respect for the work of the staff at WCHOB, but that respect is greatly enhanced when your own child is in a life or death situation. Parents in the community, most likely, won’t ever face such a powerful problem, but I wrote House of Miracles for them also. I want them to know about the jewel of the medical community that is right there in downtown Buffalo.

3. How has writing House of Miracles changed your life?

Every single time I write something, I am truly searching for a life-changing experience. During the writing of House of Miracles, I was completely taken by the dedication of the staff at the hospital. Normal people complain if the coffee isn’t perfect – the staff at the hospital toils day-in and day-out in real human conditions where a mistake might mean the end of someone’s life. To see the light that went on in the staff member’s eyes when they talked of true compassion – My God, it was certainly life changing! I certainly do a lot less complaining about the little things that go wrong on any given day.

4. Do you feel that the people you write about in your stories have become a part of your family? What type of relationship do you see having w/the hospital in the future?

The staff members and the patient families that I have met through the years have grown to be important members of my life – yes, almost family-like. I am genuinely pleased to see them on a monthly basis. I have written things down so that I will never forget the happiness in my heart, or to thank those dear to my family and me.

5. Your son’s miraculous recovery is chronicled in your book, Counting on a Miracle. How is he doing today? What is his involvement with the hospital like?

Jake is doing great. He is a happy, healthy boy who loves sports, video games and playing with his brothers, Matt and Sam. He doesn’t recall much about his surgery, but he realizes that the people at WCHOB saved his life and our family. His favorite thing to do is to sign copies of Counting on a Miracle alongside of me. Perhaps we can get him out for this leg of the tour!

After his son's miraculous recovery at Women and Children's Hospital of Buffalo, NY, Mr. Fazzolari set about writing a book that would reveal and explain the medical miracles performed at the hospital every day. This book of true stories about staff, patients and their parents is an engrossing look at the way a hospital functions to save young lives. Readers will shed a tear or two and come away moved and enthralled at the courage and determination of the extraordinary people so beautifully chronicled in these pages.

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1. How does it feel to be an author? Is it everything you expected?
It’s everything I expected it to be. It feels good. There are some challenges that go along with it, but other then that I think it’s what I expected.

2. You were invited to the Publishers Weekly party. How did it feel, and how was the event?
I got to see some great authors speak and it was awesome. To see how they handle themselves and what they’ve done throughout the years; it makes you want to accomplish something like that one day.

3. There is a lot of press on serial killers. Did you have to do a lot of research for the book?
The research that I did was two part: Find out what they were thinking and what they were doing, then find out their motive and how they kill. During the writing process, you learn how to make an exciting novel without being too gory. Usually, serial killers are quiet people, which benefited me in my novel writing.

4. To your knowledge, have you ever met a serial killer?
NO!

5. How do you envision the future of the Twisted Killer series?
All the novels are written already; I did four of them, so the writing aspect of my vision is complete. Ultimately, I think it would be great if the series was made into a movie. I would love to have Frank and Vinny go into these different killings. I want to combine them into a movie. I think it would make a fantastic movie. You would see Frank and Vinny rise, fail and rise again. I would like to see Vinny being Andy Garcia and Frank maybe Clint Eastwood, someone older.

1. Did the Muslim Writers Project cite a reason for not accepting the book? Is there any particular part of the novel that is questionable in their eyes?

The Muslim Writers Association (MWA) did accept the book and it did get shortlisted; in fact, I was told that it was one of the best submissions the MWA had ever received, and would probably have won in view of the fact that I had won the overall Creative Writer of the Year prize in 2007. The problem is that the book was not sent to the judges. There was obviously a difference of opinion somewhere in MWA and someone censored it. I think the objections are due in part to characters in The Butterfly Hunter being portrayed as suicide bombers from within the Muslim community, and the fact that indigenous British people such as Jessica, a blonde haired blue eyed woman who gets involved in a terror cell could be involved in the potential destruction of their own cities in the impending 'Clash of Civilisations' in the book. Also, the morally and sexually corrupt Imam who uses rent boys and sexual abuse of boys in a mosque could have been seen as offensive. However good or bad a character may be has no barring on religion; it is a fact that reflects true life.

2. A number of books have been censored or banned because certain organizations find them to be offensive to Muslims. How do you see the future of books that pushes the envelope in the Muslim community?

I think mostly it’s a lack of understanding on part of the Muslim community as well as a reciprocal lack of understanding of the sensitivities of the Muslim communities by some writers. I think the Muslim community needs to accept the fact that there simply is good and bad in all communities; and that in fact there have been and indeed are potential suicide bombers from within the Muslim community, as unpalatable as it may be to accept.

3. What is the message you hope to get across in “The Butterfly Hunter”?

It’s a story that came to me when I was in a coma on a life support machine in intensive care and the doctors told my family I would not survive. I had dreams and visions which I eventually found the courage in me to write down. The universality of the human experience, the frailty, contradictions and paradoxes common to all human beings and to get away from stereotypes are all key parts of my novel. Is it a case of one civilization destroying another? Is it really a case of 'you're either with us or against us?' The Butterfly Hunter for the first time, based on many true life as well as dream-vision experiences, lays open the hearts and minds of suicide bombers from the point of view of a second generation Pakistani inner-city teenage drug dealer, a successful middle class white woman, and a violent Islamic extremist who is part of an international organization bent on destruction of the western world and causing revolution to establish a Khilafa, a worldwide Muslim state, as part of the final showdown in the last battle to achieve the victory of Islam over the Kuffar (“the infidels”).

4. What advice do you have for writers who may find their book censored or banned by a community?

If you find yourself banned or censored, don't worry. Be brave and tell the truth as you see it. Someone once said about writers, 'liars prosper but not for very long!' The Butterfly Hunter is my truth as I see it. If one section of the community views me as anti-Muslim and the other side sees me as a silent Jihadi, then that really is their opinion of my work.

5. Do you plan on writing more books in the future, and will they be as controversial as “The Butterfly Hunter”?

Writing for me is a necessary intrinsic process; I feel the need to write, so I write. If the next story happens to grow organically as The Butterfly Hunter did into something explosive and controversial, then I certainly will not shy away from that. I could have had a comfortable life as a simple doctor, but I have sacrificed that so I can tell the truth about the single most important issue of our generation in the form of stories that came to me in my dream-visions!

Junaid Abbas Bhatti
The Baron of Ballencrieff

Ballencrieff House, London WC1N 3XX, United Kingdom
Mob: +44 (0) 7980 586 243 - Tel: +44 (0) 207 193 5766
Email: junaid@ballencrieff.net - Web: www.ballencrieff.net

Click here to read more about "The Jewel of Medina"

Click here to read more about "The Satanic Verses"

Agree? Disagree? Tell us at editor@writersnewsweekly.com

Brian Patrick Burke is the author of Globalization: Attack on the American Dream.

1. What inspired you to write Globalization, and how long did it take for you to write the book?

The inspiration for my book came from working with the general public first-hand and seeing the profound changes in the characteristics of the American middle class and the economy that created and fostered them. I started writing my book in 1997 and finished it in 2003.

2. Globalization deals with some hot-topic issues that everyone has an opinion on, yet sticks to the facts. How do you deliver an informative book and keep your personal opinion at bay?

Like everyone else, I tended to believe the opinions that have been circulating for years, such as the idea that trade unions have been killing our economy. I decided to base my research on facts; not opinions. The facts proved, for example, that unions were barely able to keep wages up with the rate of inflation; inflation fueled by excessive growth in government taxation, spending and out of control business growth. I learned the truth behind our nation’s economy, and that global economics in general are often covered in a smoke screen of politics and misinformation.

3. What is your view of the economy today?

I believe the current economic downturn is the "tip of the iceberg" in terms of our long range economic future. The Greenspan inspired interest rate (debt controlled) economy and "free-trade" has placed the average American citizen on the brink of bankruptcy. We expect the average American to spend our country (and the world) out of recession, but offer them nothing in return, except an unmanageable level of debt and dead-end service oriented jobs. Until we learn that it is the average middle class American's stability that is the true source of our economic strength, we will not overcome our current economic crisis.

4. Any more books in the future? If yes, will they deal with the economy?

My next book will deal with the trade deficit crisis. It will discuss the massive flow and transfer of wealth ownership throughout the world.

The American Dream is rooted in the process of economic democracy, which allows all Americans the opportunity to succeed and to share in the nation's prosperity. The author shows how globalization is opening the floodgates of economic and social upheaval in the United States, eroding our economic stability and our framework of democracy. The book also includes an argument for the development of a process of fair trade to protect ordinary American citizens from outsourcing and other potentially disastrous effects of free trade.
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Dr. Arthur Janov

by Lisa Burns

Arthur Janov, author of The Janov Solution: Lifting Depression through Primal Therapy

Q: Since The Primal Scream was released in the 1970’s, your books have revolutionized psychotherapy and changed lives. Have you gotten used to people telling you that your books have changed their lives?

A: For years, I was getting hundreds of letters a month applying for, or claiming help through my therapy. I tried to answer every one of them, and even today in Europe I run across people who kept the letters I sent them. I am flattered by all this. Glory is not my thing, but helping people out of anxiety and depression and is my calling. Their numbers are in the tens of thousands now, and there is no doubt in my mind that primal therapy will be the therapy of the future; it is the first real science of psychotherapy. We have had success in areas I never thought possible--migraine, epilepsy, high blood pressure, etc.

Q: The Janov Solution explains how patients can safely access the deepest levels of the brain, relive primal experiences and conquer depression. Does a patient have to be open to reliving these experiences in order for it to happen, or does it happen involuntarily when you practice Primal Therapy?

A: It is never a matter of will power, even wanting to get well. It all happens automatically in our therapy. We are able to rid deep depressions because the origins lie deep in the brain. We are the only therapy that has access to those originating imprints that end up in depression. The reason that depression has been implacable is because no other therapy has found a way to go deep into the unconscious and root out depression’s causes.

Q: Can children practice Primal Therapy? Is there a certain age it works best?

A: Rarely do we have children in therapy, but those who did undergo (and we have filmed it) satanic rituals as kids have made real progress in our therapy.

Some people come to us because they want to feel better. I have seen a number of homosexuals who had no desire to change but did so after three years of the therapy. The best age for the therapy is in the early twenties, although we have had a number of elderly patients, including a sixty-five year old doctor who wet the bed all of her life. The therapy stopped it. We understand the neurology of it, and therefore know what to do about it.

Q: Do you think that if more people understood Primal Therapy, depression would be eradicated?

A: I have treated hundreds of depressives, from someone who put a bullet right next to his heart, to another who kept dynamite next to his bed. We have helped them because we can go back to the earliest critical period when infancy needs must be fulfilled and we have accessed the child and his feelings, the subtext of depression.

Q: How did you develop Primal Therapy? How does one develop such a revolutionary idea?

A: I taped the original primal in my regular practice forty years ago, and listened to it for clues. It took me twenty years to figure it out and then discover what happens to the brain during all this.
We have done four separate brain-wave studies of our depressive patients, plus some neurochemistry (serotonin levels) and vital signs. It has taken working on the theory for decades and then meshing it with new physiologic research to develop what is now a very precise therapy. I think anyone who wants to develop or understand our feeling therapy must have access to feelings; otherwise, what happens to a patient remains a mystery.

Q: What does the future hold for the Primal Center? What else do you want to accomplish in terms of psychotherapeutic techniques?

A: We are now training therapists from all over the world in a two-year internship program. Judging from our results, I think it is inevitable that it will be the therapy of our century. What other therapy can alter epilepsy? What we do is the exact opposite of the current, well-publicized cognitive/insight therapies. I have been trying to set up an fMRI study, but cannot get nuclear medicine gurus interested.

Click here to read a review of The Janov Solution: Lifting Depression through Primal Therapy by Dr. Arthur Janov.

Interview mit Dr. Arthur Janov (Übersetzung aus dem Amerikanischen)