Louis Bertrand Shalako on Come In, Sit Down, Tell Us About...

For you that are new, please read our intro now printed in Blue - for our returning guest feel free to jump to the text in black:

This blog is a meeting place for authors and others in the arts .... each week as others are directed to our door or just stumble on by, they come and leave information about themselves - telling about their new books or drawings or photos or to tell us about their new blogs. ****PLEASE be sure your comments are appearing on the latest most timely blog insuring your inclusion in the sending off to Google plus land at the end of the week.*****


Here is the link to Gwen’s site: http://indieauthornetwork.weebly.com/ , a site which I am closely affiliated.


As I am wont to say {as does Facebook}, our site is free to comment and share and always will be free. This is a great site to join and to become interactive with guest blogging. It gives you a chance to step out of your box and be whatever you wish.


Another blog that I have a close tie is CRYPTO and CO. Please pop over and check out all their pages.


I have been off doing business and my blogging, unfortunately, falls by the wayside. There is so much news to tell and swamping tends to cross eyes and brain fog off... so only a few links on today's news.

If we thought last month was busy, this month got off to a plunge into new adventures of editing, writing, publishing, promoting, and social interaction.


The Rain Cloud's Gift written for Children's Charities by our group The Peacock Writers' is on it's way to the NYC BOOK FAIR at the JACOB JAVIT'S CONVENTION CENTER. No mass books or signing, just books displayed for industry professionals, stars, editors, publicists, publishers, and acquisition teams for the movie industry. Gwenna D'Young has an Angel who was so impressed with the book, and has given us the money and backing to have the book appear in the line up. We are also in the process of releasing a full, pictures included, limited edition.


Our next book in this series will celebrate the fall season and we are recruiting writers {1 each} from India, Japan, and Philippines - America has Halloween and Thanksgiving, Great Britain has Guy Fawkes - we would like stories that reflect fall traditions or holidays for these other cultures as well. The stories would remain the sole property of the author and their use as a donation would only occur for the book collection for Children's Charities. The story is to be written on a level where a child could either read it or have it read to them - our age goal for readers is 0 through 12. Please contact me at https://www.facebook.com/paula.shene if interested in being considered.


Today, Wednesday June 6 2012 we have, as our guest, Louis Bertrand Shalako. I met Louis on Facebook and his interaction we our fellow authors led me to ask him for an interview.

What inspired you to write?

I always liked reading, and if you like something, sooner or later you want to do it yourself. As a kid, sports heroes weren’t my thing, although I wanted to drive Formula One and knew the names of all the drivers! But I liked it, so I wanted to do it. This holds true for a lot of people. Kids that love baseball want to grow up and become baseball players. Some would say that this is a kid who never grew up. That is not the way it is. When you meet someone like that later in life, no matter what field they’re in, this is a kid who grew up. I say that because they made a million sacrifices to do what they love—what they feel to be worthwhile and important. When I hit fifty
years old, I decided that now was the time. I’ve earned the right.

Do you have anyone you show manuscripts to and get advice from or are you a loner doing it all yourself?

No, but I don’t let it bother me too much. Beta readers take a lot of time. There is a turnaround time between sending something to them, and then they have to read it, more or less carefully, and then send it back. I’ve done it for another author, and three of us drove him a little bit batty. He was overwhelmed with all kinds of suggestions, criticisms and ideas. I always took a week to read a section and send it back.

What genre do you normally write in? Also, is there a genre you've always wanted to write in, but don't feel you could pull it off?

If I had my choice, I would be known as a science fiction author, but I have written historical fiction, fantasy, mystery, humour, and non-fiction. My latest is a weird western which is a sub-genre of science fiction. That one was just plain fun. My dad said he ‘laughed for a hundred pages,’ and that made me feel pretty good. It took a long time for my family to start reading my stuff.

That’s what the POD, (print on demand) paperbacks are good for, as well as providing an alternate product format for the old-school types. I like them myself, as a kind of self-awarded trophy. As for a genre I would not write, a good biography can take five years to write, and I’m just not interested.

Do you ever base your characters on people you know?

There must be some true-to-life element in any character. The protagonist in ‘Heaven Is Too Far Away’ is a parody of a couple of Canadian fighter aces from World War One. Major William Barker and Colonel Billy Bishop were some of the top-scoring aces of the war. They must have
had a certain personality type. I can relate to these aggressive lone-wolves pretty well.

What advice would you give to someone who was just starting off in writing?

Love your job. Don’t listen to other writers all the time. It’ll drive you crazy. But if you feel that you have certain weaknesses, or problem areas, or questions about what you are doing, there are all kinds of resources on the internet. Learn the craft and go for it. Try not to look back too much.

Do your stories tend to have morals, or special messages, included within them?

A story or book without some kind of moral point would be a waste of everybody’s time, including the author’s. The question is how well have you hidden it? It’s better when it works on the subconscious mind rather than bashing readers on the top of the skull. A tendency to preach is unfortunate, but the ability to teach is special. As Steve Martin told John Candy in Planes, Trains and Automobiles, “A story should have a point, it makes it so much more interesting for the listener.”

This question was posed by a fellow author and I loved it so much I decided to throw it into the mix ~

Oh no! One of your characters has escaped. Luckily, I have caught them! I will interrogate them with the help of a lie detector.

Welcome! Take a seat, make yourself comfortable. You will be returning to your book once this is over. What's your name, where are you from and what is your role in the book?

My name is Mick. I used to live in Canada. I’m twenty-three years old. I’m a mechanical engineering technologist, and I work on Althea, a planet with two suns. Louis is just editing ‘Time-Storm on A-5,’ so I’ve only got a minute. He’d better not cut any of my lines.

We mine piezo-temporal crystals, which are important in the interstellar space-flight industry. That’s because they distort time and space and make possible journeys which were previously beyond the range of the human lifespan. We have a bit of a problem here as people are being killed by mysterious alien beings with strange powers. Rather than be next, we escaped and now we are going to save our friends who are still at risk.

I’d better get back to Althea, as the natives, previously unknown, have captured Melissa and myself—she’s an older woman about 35, and very beautiful. Honestly, I think I have the natives in the palm of my hand, but you never know for sure, do you?

Tell us why we would enjoy reading your books?

For one thing, I have a reckless, ruthless sense of humour. I don’t hold anything back. You would like my books and the people in them, if you like surprises, cliffhangers, new twists on old tales, new ideas, and reading about good people dealing with unique challenges in a bold and entertaining way. The books are just a whole lot of fun. More than anything, I have fun writing them, and that comes through.
Links for books and/or sites

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/louis-bertrand-shalako  

http://www.amazon.com/Louis-Bertrand-Shalako/e/B005GHIF86/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/louis-bertrand-shalako/id412091968?mt=11