Richard Schiver

Category: Author Interviews

  • Friday’ 5 with Graham Masterton

    Friday’ 5 with Graham Masterton

    1 When did you first consider yourself a writer?

    A When I came back from watching Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea when I was about nine and wrote my own book about a harpoonist like Kirk Douglas fighting a giant squid. I bound my story in cardboard, illustrated the cover, and sold it to my best friend for a penny. That was my first royalty!

    2 What is the hardest part of writing?

    A Continuously thinking about plot developments night and day. The world inside a writer’s head is just as real as the world outside it.

    3 How did you feel upon publication of your first completed project?

    A I was a newspaper reporter before my first book was published and so loads of articles and features had been published with my byline every week for years, so not particularly thrilled.

    4 In addition to writing, what else are you passionate about?

    A Poland. I didn’t find out until I was married to a Polish woman that my great-great-grandfather was Polish, and when we first travelled there (before the end of Communism) I felt an affinity with the country that I feel even more strongly now. I have travelled all over Poland and five years ago I started to organise an annual short story writing contest for Polish prisoners, in order to help their rehabilitation.

    5 If you could ask any author, living or dead, one question, what would it be?

    A James Herbert: Why did you hate my dining-room wallpaper so much?

    GRAHAM MASTERTON was born in Edinburgh in 1946, and at the age of 17 he joined his local newspaper as a junior reporter. He was appointed deputy editor of Mayfair at the age of 21, and at 24 he became executive editor of Penthouse. After leaving Penthouse, he wrote The Manitou, a horror novel that became his first bestseller and was adapted into a film starring Tony Curtis.

    Graham spent twenty-five years as one of the world’s bestselling horror authors before he turned his talent to crimewriting. Inspired by the five years in which he and his late wife lived in Cork, he created a series of novels featuring Katie Maguire, the first female superintendent in the Irish police force. The first book in the Katie Maguire series, White Bones, was published by Head of Zeus in 2012 and became a top-ten bestseller. Graham continues to write thrillers and horror novels alongside the Katie Maguire crime series, which has now sold over a million copies worldwide.

  • Fridays 5 with Tina S Transformation

    Fridays 5 with Tina S Transformation

    1: When did you first consider yourself a writer?

    A: I considered myself a writer the moment I realized my words had the power to connect with others on a deep, emotional level. That was long before publication, I was 12 when storytelling became not just an outlet, but a calling.

    2. What is the hardest part of writing?

    A: The hardest part is balancing vulnerability with strength, digging into the darkest places of the mind and heart while still shaping those emotions into stories that empower readers rather than weigh them down.

    3: How did you feel upon publication of your first completed project?

    A: It was a mixture of pride, disbelief, and gratitude. Holding my book in my hands for the first time was proof that pain could be transformed into something meaningful, that my words could reach others and perhaps even save them. More than that, I felt a deep sense of legacy, knowing my words would be forever immortalized on pages for my children, grandchildren, and generations to come.

    4: In addition to writing, what else are you passionate about?

    A: I am deeply passionate about forensic psychology, victim advocacy, and raising awareness around mental health and trauma. Beyond that, I dedicate time to community causes, especially anti-bullying efforts and supporting survivors through storytelling, my passion is fitness and nutrition and adventures.

    Q: If you could ask any author, living or dead, one question, what would it be?

    A: I would ask: How did you stay true to your authentic voice when the world tried to change your story? Because staying true to who you are as a storyteller is the greatest challenge and the greatest triumph. I love Nicholas Sparks he has been a inspiration of mine since I was a child.

    Tina S. Transformation is a compelling voice in psychological thrillers and suspense, known for crafting dark, haunting stories that explore the fragile line between trauma and resilience. With a background in the criminal justice field and forensic psychology, she brings raw authenticity to her work, using fiction to shine light on the hidden corners of the human mind.

    Tina’s Amazon Authors page is here:

    https://www.amazon.com/author/tinastransformation

    If you’re an author working in the speculative fiction field and would like to participate in my weekly Friday’s 5, answer the five questions above and send them to me at rschiver@gmail.com along with an author photo approximately 200px by 200px.

  • Fridays 5 with Kat Yares

    Fridays 5 with Kat Yares

    Continuing Fridays 5 with another author we lost too soon.

    1.) When did you first consider yourself a writer?

    A.)  I think I’ve always considered myself a writer – or at least since I could write a legible sentence. Have always written stuff, even poetry, and have earned a living from my words at times. But I didn’t consider myself an author until I had a short story accepted into a magazine and actually got paid for it.

    2.) What is the hardest part of writing?

    A.)  Putting butt in chair and just doing it. Next to that, is the absolute necessary rewriting/revision process.

    3.) How did you feel upon publication of your first completed project?

    A.)  You could have heard me whooping and hollering all the way to the next town, I think. I still have that first dollar made taped to my desktop.

    4.) In addition to writing, what else are you passionate about?

    A.)  Movie making. Can’t call it film making because no film is involved. But I love the creativeness that you can achieve looking through the lens of a camera and then putting the scenes and segments together to tell a story.

    5.) If you could ask any author, living or dead, one question, what would it be?

    A.)  I would love to converse with John Steinbeck. And if I could only ask him one question it would be, Can I borrow the characters from Grapes of Wrath to interact briefly with my characters in the story I’m working on now?

    Kat Yares has been writing fiction her entire adult life. She is an author, screenwriter and indie movie maker. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous print publications and online. She passed due to heart failure in 2015.

    Her fiction is primarily in the horror/thriller genres. Unlike many, she writes horror not to gross out or startle her readers, but to make them think. Most of her stories are mind games and deal with mans (or woman’s) inhumanity to man (or woman). She is currently working on a two book series – set 2000 years apart. Part fantasy, part thriller – the two stories that comprise The Descendants are reminiscent of both Marian Zimmer Bradley’s Mists of Avalon series and Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.

    Her work is available on Amazon

    http://www.amazon.com/Kat-Yares/e/B002O6QCGE

    If you’re a writer working in the horror, sci-fi, or fantasy genres and would like to participate. Answer the questions above and send them to rschiver@gmail.com along with a brief bio and an author photo 200px by 200px in size Thanks.

  • Fridays 5 with Rick Hautala

    1. When did you first consider yourself a writer?

    A.  That’s a tough one because while I always had what I’d call an “artistic sensibility” (i.e. I didn’t fit very well into normal life). At first, I wanted to be a painter–an artist–an illustrator. Then I realized I could do with words what I struggled to do with paints. I think by the time my tenth novel was published, I figured I was a real writer and it wasn’t a fluke.

    2. What is the hardest part of writing?

    A.  Ideas are easy for me. And writing is a struggle, but a fun one. Revision is always fun. And editing is tedious but necessary. But the absolute hardest part of writing for me is developing the ideas once I get them. That’s where you have to fill in the blanks and piece the story together to get an outline or, at least, a clear idea of where you’re going. That is the worst and hardest. After that, it’s easier … but never easy.

    3. How did you feel upon publication of your first completed project?

    A.  I was thrilled, of course, but I was also nervous. I felt like I was an imposter. It was like standing in the middle of a shopping mall with no clothes on. I was insecure enough about my work (and still am) to not allow myself to enjoy … to savor the moment.

    4. In addition to writing, what else are you passionate about?

    A.  Reading, of course. You can’t be a writer and not read–good books, bad books, indifferent books … every kind of book to see and learn what the craft is all about. Other than reading and writing–my family and politics. My friend Tom Monteleone calls me a “leftie, liberal, tree-hugging, granola-crunching, long-haired hippie.” That works for me … and my politics reflect that.

    5. If you could ask any author, living or dead, one question, what would it be?

    A.  I’d ask Shakespeare not where he got his ideas, but how he developed them … or I’d ask Hawthorne why he seemed to be depressed all the time.

    About the author.

    Rick arrived on the horror scene in 1980 with many of his early novels published by Zebra books. He wrote and published over 90 novels and short stories from the early 1980s on. In 2011 the Horror Writers Association awarded Rick and Joe R. Lansdale the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement. Sadly, on March 21 of 2013 we lost Rick to a heart attack. For me personally he was a writer who was always willing to help those of us starting out, and though I never met him personally I counted him among my friends.

    Rick’s work is still available at Amazon, stop by and check it out by clicking on Rick’s photo on the right.

    If you write in any of the speculative fiction genres and would like to participate, answer the five questions above and send them, along with a brief author bio and an author photo no larger than 200px by 200px to rschiver@gmail.com.

  • Fridays 5 with William F. Nolan

    When I decided to bring back Fridays 5, I knew for the first few weeks I would share responses I received in the past from those who are no longer with us. First up is William F. Nolan, who we lost in 2021.

    1.) When did you first consider yourself a writer?

    A.)  When I sold my first story to Playboy. At that point, I knew I was a professional. That was in 1956.

    2.) What is the hardest part of writing?

    A.)  Sitting down in front of a sheet of blank paper (or a blank screen nowadays) and filling it with good words is the hardest part.

    3.) How did you feel upon publication of your first completed project?

    A.)  Seeing my name in professional print gave me a tremendous lift, and seeing my name in print still gives me much of the same feeling today.

    4.) In addition to writing, what else are you passionate about?

    A.)  I love cartooning and sports car racing, and the work of Max Brand.

    5.) If you could ask any author, living or dead, one question, what would it be?

    A.)  Bradbury said that he wanted to be buried on Mars in a Campbell soup can in the “Bradbury Abyss”. I’d ask Ray Bradbury if he found his way home to Mars.

    Website: https://williamfnolan.com/

    Wlliam F. Nolan (1928-2021) wrote mostly in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres. Though best known for co-authoring the classic dystopian science fiction novel Logan’s Run with George Clayton Johnson, Nolan authored more than 2000 pieces (fiction, nonfiction, articles and books), and edited 26 anthologies in his 60+ year career.

    An artist, Nolan was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and worked at Hallmark Cards, Inc. and in comic books before becoming an author. In the 1950s, Nolan was an integral part of the writing ensemble known as “The Group,” which included many well-known genre writers, such as Ray Bradbury, Charles Beaumont, John Tomerlin, Richard Matheson, Johnson and others, many of whom wrote for Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. Nolan is considered a leading expert on Dashiell Hammett, pulps such as Black Mask and Western Story, and was the world authority on the works of prolific scribe Max Brand.

    Among his many awards, he was voted a Living Legend in Dark Fantasy by the International Horror Guild in 2002. During 2006, he was bestowed the honorary title of Author Emeritus by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. In 2010, he received the Lifetime Achievement award from the Horror Writers Association.

    On a personal note I knew William only as the person on the other end of the emails he and I exchanged when I was starting to get serious about writing. Sadly I never got the chance to meet him in person. He never hesitated to respond and always had time for my sometimes stupid questions. His book How To Write Horror Fiction will always sit on my desk, within easy reach.

    If you write in the genres of horror, sci-fi, or fantasy, and would like to participate in Fridays 5 drop me a line at rschiver@gmail.com