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Q1. Hello Sir, can you please introduce yourself? Readers would love to know more about you.

I am the author of the short story collection Snapshots, which won the 2020 PenCraft Literary Award for Short Story Anthology. I am also the author of four novels, most recently A Knife’s Edge, which was an Honorable Mention in Thriller Writing at the London Book Festival, and is the sequel to the award-winning novel Fragile Brilliance. I am a recipient of the West Virginia Literary Merit Award and Fragile Brilliance was a finalist for the Southern Book Prize in Thriller Writing. I recently received with the Thriller Writing Award by the National Association of Book Editors (NABE) for his novels.
I also host the podcast program Now, Appalachia, which profiles authors and publishers living and writing in the Appalachian region and is heard on the Authors on the Air Global Radio Network. I am a graduate of the Bluegrass Writers Studio at Eastern Kentucky University with an MFA in Creative Writing and Murray State University with a Doctorate in English, and I teach English at the University of Mississippi and live in Oxford, Mississippi and Chesapeake, Ohio.

Q2. What were the key challenges you faced while writing ‘Breakdown at Clear River’ book?

The key challenges I faced is trying to make the book more than a sports mystery. Football is an important component of the book because Dane Antonelli, the victim, is a member of the Clear River Cougars football team. However, I realized that every reader might not like or understand football, so I had to balance those game chapters with more traditional narrative. I also had to make sure that many of the characters in the book talked and acted like college students and not adults, which was challenging when I had them talking to adults. Despite those challenges, the book was fun to write.

Q3. What books or authors have most influenced your own writing?

John Steinbeck and Pat Conroy are two writers that have influenced my work. Steinbeck was wonderful at describing settings and his lush, ebullient prose about the Salinas Valley in California was a great inspiration to me. Steinbeck also had the ability to create villains in his fiction that you loved to hate as a reader. Pat Conroy wrote some of the most beautiful prose of any reader I’ve ever read. His command of language and tone could have you fawning over a place on one page and then mad at the behavior of another character on another page. Conroy was a master of language—he never wasted one word of prose in his fiction. My favorite thriller writer is C.J. Box for many of the same reasons I like Steinbeck and Conroy.

Q4. What’s your favourite spot to visit in your own country? And what makes it so special to you?

I like to visit lakes and rivers. For some reason, the calm of hearing water burbling down a lake or river is a soothing, calming sound. The sound of the trickling water makes you stop and just listen and be silent for a while. That’s a good thing, I think. Silence and stillness is okay. The United States is blessed with many great lakes and rivers, so there are plenty of ones to go visit.

Q5. Is there lots to do before you drive in and start writing a book?

I don’t begin writing a book until the idea of the book has been percolating in my mind for weeks or months. As a writer, I have lots of ideas for stories and books, but I’ve found that my best books and stories come from those ideas that are permeating my subconscious and, for some reason, won’t leave me alone. Then, I begin to outline. I write a loose outline of the story and I try to follow it, but I give myself the freedom to deviate from it if the characters or the plot takes me in a new direction. Then, I write and re-write and re-write some more before I am satisfied with the manuscript.

Q6. How long did it take you to write ‘Fragile Brilliance’ book?

I took me almost two years. That book was complex because it dealt with a dangerous drug called desomorphine. The street name of it is Krok. I had to spend a lot of time researching that story, so I researched the drug, how it is made, how it made its way to the United States from Russia, etc. Krok is also a drug addiction that impacts the user’s bloodstream, so I spoke to a couple of haematologists to find out what a drug like Krok could actually do to a person. In addition, I spoke to a number of law enforcement officers and asked them about what happens when an illegal drug creates a pandemic of users and crime and how the police would try and stop it. Writing that book was an intense experience for me. I was thrilled when it was a finalist for the Southern Book Prize in Thriller Writing. I shared a finalist list with writers like John Grisham and Greg Illes that year. It was an awesome experience that I’ll never forget!

Q7. On what all platforms readers can find your books to buy?

You can find my books at any local or chain bookstore in the United States and on Amazon. If you are interested in getting one of the books, please check out your locally independent book store first.

Q8. Tell us about the process of coming up with the book cover and the title ‘A Knife’s Edge’ & ‘Code For Murder’?

I didn’t have much input on the covers of either book. The publishers (Black Rose Press and Headline Books, respectively) designed the covers and they shared them with me. They basically sent me the computer files of the covers and said “this will be the cover of your book.” I was fine with it. Both covers look great and each cover has important elements of both stories featured on the front.

Q9. When writing a book how do you keep things fresh, for both your readers and also yourself?

I try to tell a story that hasn’t been told before. In my thriller novels, I want the plot to be something that could happen in real life. However, I try to find ways to tell a fast-paced thriller story in a new, refreshing way. Sometimes, that means bringing a strong element of science to the story, as I did in Fragile Brilliance and A Knife’s Edge. Sometimes, that means creating a police detective like Stacy Tavitt in Code for Murder who has a debilitating illness that is caused by her own carelessness. That illness constantly impacts her ability to be the best cop she can be. These are techniques that are not always featured in other thriller novels. Readers of thriller novels are smart and as a writer, you have to constantly give them a fresh, new angle to a story so they don’t roll their eyes because they have read your specific story a thousand times before.

Q10. Are there any secrets from the book (that aren’t in the blurb), you can share with your readers?

I would say that Ronan McCullough, my lead character in Fragile Brilliance and A Knife’s Edge has a secret that impacts everything he does as a cop and as a person. It’s a secret her frantically strives to protect, for good reason.

Author’s Profile

Books Are Available On Amazon

Snapshots

A Knife’s Edge

Book: Animal Council and the Disappearing Sea Ice

Q1. Hello Ma’am, can you please introduce yourself? Readers would love to know more about you.

I was born in Westchester county, New York to a mother from Brazil and a father from England. They met at an international party and decided to settle in New York. I moved to Baltimore at the age of 18 and began higher education study at Johns Hopkins University.
The dream to be an author and write books has been with me since childhood. My economic situation was such that being an author would have to be a hobby, with moments to write stolen from the evenings after the kids were in bed, some hours on the weekends or while on holiday. One has to make time and prioritise, or the dreams will vaporise.
Personal life challenges brought me and my three boys to Iceland and then further east to Norway. I am now living in southern Norway and work as a protected areas manager. One can rarely control the inevitable bombs of life’s unforeseen destiny, but even so, I never gave up on my dream to be an author.

Q2. What were the key challenges you faced while writing ‘Animal Council and the Disappearing Sea Ice ’ book?

Finding time and being clear-headed enough to write in complete sentences were the key challenges. I was a single mother of three young boys at the time I conceived the outline of this book. Not long after, I began a PhD in northern Norway. There wasn’t much left in my brain at the end of the day after helping with homework, and I often fell asleep from pure exhaustion while writing. Then I would discover typos left over from sleeping fingers. This continued throughout the 15 years, but I never gave up on the dream. I remember being so very exhausted all the time. There was never enough time or energy to write without falling asleep.

Q3. What books or authors have most influenced your own writing?

A. A. Milne (Winnie-the-Pooh; the House at Pooh Corner), Rudyard Kipling (The Jungle Book), Agatha Christie, J. K. Rowling.

Q4. What’s your favourite spot to visit in your own country? And what makes it so special to you?

I have lived in three countries – the US, Iceland and Norway, and I have also travelled a good bit around the world (though not nearly enough). My favourite spot is always the ocean. No matter where I am, or the time of day, I seek out the sounds, smells and serenity of the ocean. For some reason, when I am near the ocean, whatever writer’s block might be in place dissipates into the sea air and I begin to write. It’s magical.

Q5. Is there lots to do before you drive in and start writing a book?

For me, the answer is no. When the words begin to flow, I begin to write. The key is to start writing, allowing the words to move from my imagination and take form on the page. The rest will come over time, as the images and characters become real.

Q6. How long did it take you to write ‘Animal Council and the Disappearing Sea Ice’ book?

I worked on this book for 15 years. I was a single mother of three young boys when I first began the idea for this book and was living in northern Iceland. My boys are now grown men. Originally, I had targeted a much younger audience – more at the level of Winnie-the-Pooh, but my vision didn’t flow correctly at that level of writing. This book was my first, and in many ways an experiment, in creative writing. I published an earlier draft and sent it around for feedback to check on my direction, and over time the book evolved into its current form, though the title and concept has been consistent from the beginning.

Q7. On what platforms can readers find ‘Animal Council and the Disappearing Sea Ice’ book to buy?

The book was published by In-House Publishing, Brisbane, Australia. For residents in Australia and New Zealand it is recommended to buy directly from In-House Publishing. The book is also available on Amazon US and Amazon UK. All links are available through my website: http://www.mvsolstrand.com

Q8. Tell us about the process of coming up with the book cover and the title ‘Animal Council and the Disappearing Sea Ice’?

The title has been there since the beginning, 15 years ago. I was working for the Arctic Council at the time and one of our most challenging projects focused on how biodiversity of the Arctic was being affected by disappearing sea ice.
The book cover is a rather lovely story, actually. It was my son, Kristian, who recommended an above-and-below ocean scene. There is a website called Reedsy (www.reedsy.com) which offers services to authors. I was scanning for an illustrator and found Madli Silm (www.madli.eu). She took the time to read the book first and we discovered that we shared a synergy of thought and vision. We started with the colour pallet and worked on the design from there. Madli and I worked through every detail together, down to the crumbling ice, George’s facial expression and even Bubo’s wing tips. Finally, came the choice of font. It was quite a special journey to see the book cover evolve and the reviews have been outstanding. It is a book cover to be proud of. Madli Silm is a truly gifted artist and there is no doubt she will be my first choice for all future illustrations.

Q9. When writing a book how do you keep things fresh, for both your readers and also yourself?

For the last 15 years, I have not read a children’s book or seen a Disney movie or any other children’s film in order to avoid being influenced. I have waited, almost as an eager bystander, while my own imaginings took form on paper.

Q10. Are there any secrets from the book (that aren’t in the blurb), you can share with your readers?

The names all have special meanings. If readers are interested, please join me in creating the sequel – book 2! I will begin research in 2021 and the book will feature the bleaching of coral reefs, illegal wildlife trade, deforestation and more on the theme of marine garbage. Send your ideas for plots and species! A few of the delegates to the Animal Council will have deputies with them in book 2, and I warmly welcome recommendations for highly unusual species who will attend the 13,998th meeting of the C7!

Author’s Profile

Book Is Available On Amazon

Animal Council and the Disappearing Sea Ice