Magic Forgotten: Jack Hillman
Please welcome Jack Hillman author of Magic Forgotten
Jack Hillman will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
Magic Forgotten
by Jack Hillman
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GENRE: Urban Fantasy
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INTERVIEW:
- What or who inspired you to start writing?
I was probably inspired to start writing by reading a voluminous number of books as a child. I often went through as many as a dozen books a week, even through high school. I started thinking about what I would do different in some of the stories and that lead to writing them.
- How did you come up with ideas for your books?
Any good writer gets ideas from the world around them. If you look listen and read more, you get ideas. The trick is to turn the idea into a story someone else will want to read.
- What expertise did you bring to your writing?
I am, by training, a clinical psychologist. I was a journalist/investigative reporter on local newspapers for over a dozen years, as well as a contributing editor to an insurance journal for eleven years. I also worked on a wire service covering the insurance industry for three years. So I have a fair amount of formal experience. While I was doing all that I also published several stage plays, and over fifty short stories.
- What would you want your readers to know about you that might not be in your bio?
If I told you THAT, I’d have to kill you.
- As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans?
To keep writing, finish this series and work on several more projects currently in preparation.
- If you could be one of the characters from any of your books, who would it be and why?
All writers put themselves into their work in some fashion or another. I am probably most like Uncle Raymond Johnson in my Giants War Trilogy. Part of me is also like Dan Braden in the Magic Series.
- If you were the casting director for the film version of your novel, who would play your leading roles?
Pass
- Do you belong to a critique group? If so how does this help or hinder your writing?
I do belong to one. It helps considerably since all writers have tunnel vision and having someone else read your work makes certain what you think you wrote down on the page is what made it to the page. Plus, good critique consultants can have ideas you might not have thought of when you wrote that chapter.
- When did you first decide to submit your work? Please tell us what or who encouraged you to take this big step?
I started formally submitting work in 1991 after my wife got tired of me complaining I could write better than some of the stuff I was reading. Since then, I’ve published four stage plays, over fifty short stories, six novels (including Magic Forgotten), and over 2500 non-fiction articles on a wide variety of subjects. I plan to keep writing until they shoot me or I’m abducted by aliens.
- What is the best and worst advice you ever received? (regarding writing or publishing)
Best Advice: Keep writing- the more you write the better you get.
Worst Advice- Why don’t you get a real job and quit playing with this stuff?
- Do you outline your books or just start writing?
A little of both. I usually start with an idea and begin writing but soon reach a point where I have to begin to outline so I keep things in order. It tends to go faster after I do the outline so I’m trying to start that sooner in the process these days.
- Do you have any hobbies and does the knowledge you’ve gained from these carry over into your characters or the plot of your books?
Absolutely. I’ve been studying the sword for over forty years and martial arts for fifty years so all that comes in handy for writing fight scenes and planning action sequences. Also I’m by training a clinical psychologist so it’s easier to define characters and their quirks. I’m also a wood carver and a jeweler and those skills make an appearance on occasion.
- Do you have an all time favorite book?
Probably The Sword of Morningstar by Richard Meade. A story about a young boy, the bastard son of a king who has to grow up fast to reclaim his father’s kingdom from an evil usurper. I read it when I was very young and it really resounded with me.
- Have you started your next project? If so, can you share a little bit about your book?
My next project (not surprisingly) is the second book in the Magic Series. The story of Dan and Thook continues as she learns more about how the world works these days and Dan comes out of his shell even more.
- Who is your favorite actor and actress?
Pass
- Can you tell us a little about the black moment in your book?
Probably the most black moment is when Thook is captured by the Sidhe and taken back to Albion. As she gets back to Albion, she thinks Dan has been killed by her kidnappers and she is heartbroken. Dan, in the meantime, has managed to be drawn into Albion, but not near where Thook is and he now has to find her and rescue her, a good trick for a guy in a wheelchair in a land with no ADA Laws.
- What is your favorite reality show?
Where I come from we call that Life. It’s an ongoing process.
- Can you tell us a little bit about what it was like to write a series.
This is the second series I’ve written so on one hand it’s easier and on the other it’s still a lot of work. Keeping the continuity straight and making sure you don’t contradict yourself is probably the biggest job. I’ve started keeping lists of characters, events and other stuff to keep things straight.
BLURB:
Magic Forgotten is an Adult Urban Fantasy set in Eastern PA. It is the story of a paraplegic, freelance writer who has withdrawn from the world only to be dragged back out by the appearance of two strangers in his back yard. They are a Sidhe, the old elves of England, and a human wizardess, a captive of the elf, and they are here to take over the world. The writer and the wizardess have to stop the elf from achieving his plans.
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EXCERPT:
Dan awoke with a splitting headache.
This was not surprising considering he was seated at his desk with his head resting on the computer keyboard. The corner of the escape key pressed into his forehead hard enough to leave an impression.
“At least they left the computer.” He mused as he tried to look around at the room. Everything seemed to spin as he moved. He lifted a hand to his forehead as he groaned in pain. His groan stopped as he felt something imbedded in the skin just above his nose, between his eyebrows. He probed with his fingers, trying to judge what it was. Smooth and oval, was all he could tell by touch. As he lowered his hand to look at his fingers for any residue, he noted something on the back of his wrist. Both wrists, he soon saw, had oval green gems the size of a nickel imbedded in the skin, just above the joint where it did not impair movement. As far as he could tell by touch, they matched the stone in his forehead. The sickly green color did little to help Dan’s queasy stomach.
His computer screen caught his attention as he examined his wrist. On the screen was a logo Dan did not immediately recognize, a sign-on for a database he had never entered before, to his knowledge. Looking from his hands to the screen, Dan wondered: had he had been typing under someone else’s control and accessed something he wasn’t supposed to see?
“Oh, shit. Steven King strikes again.”
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
A lifelong Pennsylvania resident, Jack began a love of books sitting amid the mystery of hospitals and medical paraphernalia. Mythology of all cultures and a fascination with martial philosophies led to King Arthur, the knights of the round table and an array of science fiction and fantasy authors that had a strong impact on his life.
Real life got in the way of a writing career to start, but thirty years in the life and medical insurance field led Jack to a job as a stringer for local newspapers and writing for medical and insurance journals. In addition to years in the insurance field Jack also has fifteen years experience as a journalist and freelance writer, and has even won a Keystone Press Award (1998) for his journalistic efforts. Jack has written on a wide variety of subjects and keeps his hand in medical and insurance matters on a daily basis.
In addition to newspaper reporting and magazine articles, Jack has written articles for a variety websites–some under his own name and some as a behind-the-scenes contributor. Jack’s first short fiction piece, a novella, was serialized in an old BBS site in 1992, with the first hard copy magazine story arriving in 1993. Four dinner theater plays written by Jack have been produced and performed for local theater in Eastern Pennsylvania. His novels are now coming to light with the release of There Are Giants In This Valley published by Archebooks Publishing.
With experience as a journalist, short story writer, playwright and novelist, Jack often speaks at writer’s conferences, to writer’s groups and to school gatherings. If you are looking for a speaker on esoteric subjects, Jack probably has something tucked away in a folder for the occasion.
He lives in eastern Pennsylvania with his supportive wife, a squad of feline editors, and an array of edged weapons to inspire his works.
Updated on December 22, 2015 by Jack Hillman
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https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Forgotten-Jack-Hillman-ebook/dp/B074F9M39Z
The book is on sale for $0.99.
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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE:
Jack Hillman will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4345f2433
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