with Cliff Roberts
We are delighted to welcome novelist Cliff Roberts to Omnimystery News today.
Cliff's new thriller introduces disabled would-be-detective Nate Nevwas is Nevwas's Gold (Keys Publishing; August 2013 trade paperback and ebook formats) and we recently had the opportunity to talk to the author about the book.
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Omnimystery News: You've written both series books and stand-alones. How do you decide whether or not the book you're writing will be one or the other?
Photo provided courtesy of
Cliff Roberts
Cliff Roberts: I not sure I have a particular criteria for deciding which is which I simply pick a plot and then think about the characters in the series I write. If the story idea fits with the character I use the character. If not it's a standalone.
Typically if it's a crime story it'll fit one of the three series I'm working on. I have the Nate Nevwas Series in which the main character is flamboyant, in the second series the main character John Carpelli is more practical and in the Trevor Hunt Series, the main character is a little bit more, hard boiled.
The Nate Nevwas Series began with Nevwas's Gold — currently on the market, then will move on to The Good Samaritan — this holiday season and then to Deadly Deceit in the spring. Nate Nevwas is an older gentleman, using the term loosely, who is disabled due to medical issues. He's single and to occupy his time he writes crime novels as an Indie Author, that is when he's not busy getting into trouble and having to fight his way out of it.
The John Carpelli Series consists of Fatal Mistake and the next book which is tentatively titled Silver Linings. This series I started with the character of John Carpelli being just another character in the book, Fatal Mistake. But I found myself building him up into the main character in the second half of the book. So I decided to start a series around him because I liked his style. John's a tough guy ex-cop who should have gone to jail, but he's shrewd so he managed to avoid jail and was able to spin what could have been something very bad into something well not quite so bad. There is a whole lot more to Carpelli than what was revealed in Fatal Mistake.
The Trevor Hunt series will begin with the story Damage Control and then move on to the Sport of Kings. Trevor Hunt is a police detective who happens to be a really nice guy. He's a bit of a ladies man and although divorced, he still cares deeply about his family. He's not a brilliant detective, but a plodder. He just keeps digging until he finds the truth.
OMN: We introduced Nevwas's Gold as a thriller. Would you agree with that characterization?
CR: It's really hard to categorize my books, they each have the character of several genre. Nevwas's Gold isn't exactly a mystery and it isn't exactly a thriller. It has the overall element of the detective genre except Nate isn't a detective he's a medically retired construction worker turned writer. See? It's complicated. I ended up choosing Mystery/thriller because that is what the books printer limited me to. It was the closest I could get based on the limited list genre they provided. Now Kindle they provide a huge list and on that site I'm listed as a mystery/ thriller/suspense/crime/private investigator. Go figure!
OMN: Tell us something about the book that isn't mentioned in the synopsis.
CR: Well, Nate isn't that bad of writer. He's actual had a couple of bestsellers and he was even reviewed once by the New York Times which said he was "the best bad writer ever."
OMN: What is the best advice you've received as an author?
CR: The best advice I've received was from an author who lives in the Northwest they had read one of my early attempts at writing a novel. They said, "There are shades of greatness there among the twisted sentences and good editor will help you straighten them out. So don't quit, I see a bestselling author struggling to be free." I just love the way they phrased it.
OMN: And what advice would you offer prospective writers?
CR: The best piece of advice I can give is best said in this quote of mine: "The greatest strength a writer can have is Perseverance!"
The second best piece of advice: "The most important part of any book isn't the cover, or the writer's style, or the grammar or punctuation. It's the story! If the story doesn't knock the socks off the readers, it doesn't matter where the commas go!"
And third best piece of advice: "Writing is like everything else. You need to practice, practice, practice, and just when you're sure you can't practice anymore practice again."
OMN: Complete this sentence: "I am a mystery author and thus I am also …".
CR: … a bit of a voyeur. I watch people constantly. I want to know what people are really like. What they say to each other while having lunch at an outdoor café, a drink in a pub, or in a high powered business meeting when discussing the hostile takeover of their rival. I want to be the fly on the wall of a judge's chambers or the executive wash room. I want to know, not guess at the arguments that go on behind closed doors at the Pentagon, The Capital and the White House.
If you're going to be a writer, you cannot afford the luxury of ignorance.
OMN: Describe your writing process for us.
CR: I have simple writing process. I write by the seat of my pants. I tried writing with outlines and found I didn't follow them, and my characters didn't like the restraint the outline placed on them. I tend to stew on the story a while. There's no set time limit. It could be an hour, a day, a week, a month once it was a five years. While I stew on it, I'll try to arrange the story into a series of scenes (chapters) in my mind. So I can see what the characters are doing and saying. It's almost like when you were a kid and played make believe. I rarely am able to decide on an ending until have I spent time with each character and learned their secrets. I need to discover who is greedy or vicious or weak or nasty or hateful or kind or gentle or maybe have an inner strength that they were unaware of. Until I know them I can't say what they'll do as the story flows. That's how I write.
OMN: How do you go about fact checking the plot points of your books?
CR: Fact checking is difficult if you try to develop facts and then build your story around them. You're stuck looking and looking for the right answer. I build the story around facts I've discovered. I have a small file cabinet and several thousand megabytes of computer space saved on thumb drivers to use in developing the story. I collect tidbits everywhere I go and just hang on to the information to incorporate in my stories. I have maps that show roadways, railroads, topographical, ocean depths and of course I use Google Earth and Google Maps continuously. The internet is a marvelous tool for a writer. There are an untold number of reference sites that can help you see right into people's homes and businesses in the area where you're setting your story. I learn all I can about what I'm going to write about before I sit down at the computer to write. Then while writing only have to occasionally review something to make sure I remembered it right.
OMN: How true are you to the settings in your books?
CR: I write stories that take place in real locations and not so real locations, In Nevwas's Gold, I took minor liberties with the different buildings their locations and their function. But for the most part the geography of the story is accurate. Otherwise when someone from that area were to read the story they'd be less than satisfied and that the kiss of death when your readers can't relate to the story.
OMN: Where did the design for the striking cover come from?
CR: The book cover really was a culmination of several ideas that were tossed about by me and my PR man Nick Wale. He's just kid compared to me, but he knows the net and his stuff. He had lobbied hard some artsy smartsy type cover something the kids would like really and I argued that we were selling to that audience of middle aged adults. Of course he tried very hard to convince me that the youth market was where it was at, but in the end I prevailed and we went with a cover which is the one that's on my paperback edition. After the first month when nothing really moved we compromised again and went with golden cover with the two gold masks on it. Lots of symbolism there but we'll leave it to the reader to decide what symbolism. To my surprise the book just took off with the cover change. After the second month we changed out the paperback cover and again it started selling finally. He does know his stuff.
OMN: What kinds of books do you read for pleasure?
CR: My top five favorite authors are Tom Clancy, James Patterson when he is actually writing the books, Elmore Leonard, Clive Cussler and David Baldacci, but I read about fifty other authors as well. Like Harlan Coben, John Grisham, John Lescroart, Stephen Coonts, Dean Koontz, Randy Wayne White, Stephen J. Cannell, Joel C. Rosenberg, James Grippando. Dan Brown, Vince Flynn, Jonathan Kellerman, Lee Childs, and a hot new guy RJ Smith, who has written a great mystery thriller titled The Santa Claus Killer; it's due for release shortly. I was asked to be a beta reader and I was glad I accepted, really great book. Plus Scott Turow, Sue Grafton, John Le Carré, Robert Ludlum, Sandra Brown, Robert B. Parker and Dale Brown to name a few. Or maybe two dozen. The point is you have to read, read, read, if you're going to be writer. Oh yeah I forgot Stephen King and Michael Crichton. Of course I fully expect to make the list of favorite authors for other people soon.
OMN: What's next for you?
CR: What's next? The better question for me is just how crazy is it going to get for you? I have more than twenty novels nearly ready to release. It's a real toss up as to what will be released next. I have a handful of series going and all of them have second or third books in the series ready to publish just sitting there waiting. I believe the next two will new mysteries. Stand alones, figures huh? I have all these series and I'm going with stand alones. I guess the next question is how did I get so many? That's easy to explain. Traditional publishers frown on an author sending manuscripts to multiple publishers at once so while I waited I wrote and wrote and wrote some more. I had three publishers make me offers and I've been unable to sign with them due to one clause or another. I hate the idea of giving up a huge percentage of the royalty to someone who isn't very nice to me and isn't doing anything to help sell the book.
And here are a few of my favorite quotes for you:
"Write what you know, write it with passion and set the world on fire with your dreams!"
"Books — What God Intended to fill the space between your ears!"
"Success is the river of life; Perseverance is the boat you sail upon the river!"
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Cliff Roberts grew up outside Detroit, MI then moved around the country a lot, got married, had a family, worked, got elected, worked and was forced to retire. Once retired, he found he had time to kill, began writing in earnest, and the rest, as they say, is the rest.
For more information about the author, visit his Facebook page.
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Nevwas's Gold
Cliff Roberts
A Nate Nevwas Adventure
With a knack for sticking his nose where it doesn't belong, amateur crime fighter and disabled writer, Nate Nevwas finds himself once again embroiled in crimes which he has to solve in order to save himself.
While trying to help two women in apparent dire straits, Nate Nevwas has his life threatened, is attacked by hired killers, attacked by a gang of punks who beat him within an inch of his life, he has to fake his own death and foil a mega millions treasure heist.
The adventure takes Nate from Key West to the Everglades, to the high seas and back again, leaving a trail of dead bodies and ending at a pot full of Gold.
Click on the Amazon button to see also the special Whispersync offer associated with this title.
