Im posting this weeks member interview early beacuse its been storming here and more storms are coming tomorrow and my internet may be out. So here is some info about Rich Zahradnik. Thanks so much for sharing with us. 1. Are you a reader/writer? I first deeply connected with reading in fifth or sixth grade. Books like the Hardy Boys and Tom Corbett Space Cadet series. I’ve been a lover of books since. I wrote my first short story in seventh grade to impress a girl. It didn’t. I switched to journalism and had a long career as a reporter and editor, returning to fiction part-time in my thirties and full-time in my fifties. 2. Why don’t you tell us a little about yourself? Are you married? Any kids? Where do you live? I was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, and received my B.A. in journalism and political science from George Washington University. I live with my wife, Sheri, and son, Patrick, in Pelham, New York, where I teach elementary school kids how to publish online and print newspapers 3. What are your fondest memories of reading? The way reading takes me to another world, that I’m immersed in that world in a way not matched by any other medium, whether TV, film or theater. My brothers and sisters used to joke you could not get my attention—and pretty much do anything in my vicinity without me noticing—when I was reading. 4. What are some of your favorite authors and books? Charles Dickens, particularly Great Expectations, David Copperfield and Bleak House; Mark Twain; Kurt Vonnegut particularly for Slaughterhouse Five; Ray Bradbury for being wonderful and specifically for Fahrenheit 451. All of Raymond Chandler, Michael Connelly and Tony Hillerman. 5. If you could describe what writing/reading means to you, how would you do so? The escape into the fictive dream. To be transported while waking to other places, times, worlds and into the minds of other people. 6. What is your favorite snack & drink while reading/writing? Cookies and ice tea. 7. Which book do you think was best adapted into a movie? Why? “Bladerunner” defined a whole genre of science fiction while making good use of Philip K. Dick’s material. “Slaughterhouse Five” and “Catch 22” were excellent too. 8. Which book was the least successful adaptation into a movie? Why? Wow, so many went so wrong. If I had to pick one, I’d say “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.” The book and the BBC mini-series with Alex Guinness were just so good that the film with Gary Oldman really disappointed. 9. Why do you like to read/write historical novels? I read because I like to be transported to alien places and times. For that reason, historical novels attract me in the same way as science fiction, since the past is quite alien, to me at least. Writing one was a bit of an accident. I wanted to write a detective story using old school methods and none of the modern (and fake) crutches—CSI instant DNA typing, closed circuit cameras everywhere, pinhole camera satellite tracking. I went back in time to when those technologies weren’t in use, and for various reasons settled specifically on 1975. 10. Write your favorite quote and explain why you picked it? “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.” It defines a certain sort of hard-bitten journalism from days now long past. 11. Any other things you’d like to share? This would be a good place for authors to mention their books. My debut crime novel LAST WORDS will be published Oct. 1 by Camel Press. It’s the first in the Coleridge Taylor Mystery series. Here’s the blurb: In March of 1975, as New York City hurtles toward bankruptcy and the Bronx burns, newsman Coleridge Taylor roams police precincts and ERs. He is looking for the story that will deliver him from obits, his place of exile at the Messenger-Telegram. Ever since he was demoted from the police beat for inventing sources, the 34-year-old has been a lost soul. A break comes at Bellevue, where Taylor views the body of a homeless teen picked up in the Meatpacking District. Taylor smells a rat: the dead boy looks too clean, and he’s wearing a distinctive Army field jacket. A little digging reveals that the jacket belonged to a hobo named Mark Voichek and that the teen was a spoiled society kid up to no good, the son of a city official. Taylor’s efforts to protect Voichek put him on the hit list of three goons who are willing to kill any number of street people to cover tracks that just might lead to City Hall. Taylor has only one ally in the newsroom, young and lovely reporter Laura Wheeler. Time is not on his side. If he doesn’t wrap this story up soon, he’ll be back on the obits page–as a headline, not a byline. Last Words is the first book in the Coleridge Taylor mystery series. Here’s early reaction from one writer who happens to be a best selling author of popular history books: I didnt realize how much I missed seedy gritty corrupt crime-ridden New York City of the 1970s till I read Zahradniks debut thriller. LAST WORDS captures the palms-out politicians, the bully cops, the not-so-hapless homeless, the back-stabbing reporters of a city on the brink. The pace speeds up; the whispers and clues and leads all come togther for a big empty-the-revolver and fling-the-vodka bottle finale. Well worth the trip back in time. —Richard Zacks, author of Island of Vice and Pirate Hunter.
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 03:12:37 +0000
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