Updated as of May 2023
Q: Do you plan to keep writing the Kill Crime series?
A: Yes, as of this writing There is the prequel and three novels in the series.
Q: Why did you write a short story and will you write more?
A: I wrote Life Changing Money as a prequel and to entice people to sign up and get involved in Jeff Case’s world. I plan to finish and write a number of short stories and make them available to people who sign up and follow the series.
Some of them are:
– Case, Becky, and their best friend from West Point through their military combat tours.
– Some stories about the mobsters in Kill Crime.
– Some stories about the serial killers in Kill Crime II
– And More.
Q: Do you plan to write other novels?
A: Spike, 35 Kills and Smiling is finished. This is a breakout character from the Kill Crime series. Spike is introduced in a big way in Primed to Kill, Kill Crime 2, and has a significant role in Wrong Kill, Kill Crime 3. I plan to seek a publisher and agent for Spike which will be a trilogy, but I will self-publish in no more than six months if no one wants it.
Southern Death (working title)- this is about half done and may be out in about 3-4 months. This novel will center around a female homicide detective in the New Orleans area. It will involve a serial killer, a hit man, a child with leukemia, and lots of action.
Others: And as many as I can, probably a couple of novels a year. I want to explore other series too with different characters, but keep my established series going.
Q: Have you ever written another book?
A: Yes, I have written a business self-help book, One Million in the Bank: How To Make $1,000,000 With Your Own Business, Even If You Have No Money Or Experience. The book is under my full name Michael L. F. Slavin. It has won 7 awards and is a best seller. It has my story in it as a backdrop, but has 12 other stories of everyday people becoming millionaires in 3-7 years and how to do it.
Q: Have you ever written another book?
A: Yes, I have written a business self-help book, One Million in the Bank: How To Make $1,000,000 With Your Own Business, Even If You Have No Money Or Experience. The book is under my full name Michael L. F. Slavin. It has won 7 awards and is a best seller. It has my story in it as a backdrop, but has 12 other stories of everyday people becoming millionaires in 3-7 years and how to do it.
Q: How do you get your ideas to write a novel? Do you plan it all out in advance?
A: I currently have four novels and a short story done. For Kill Crime, I got the idea of a book Kill Crime that moved people and was a best seller. That became a book in a book. I wrote the best action scene I could think of to open the book, and then I just keep writing 1000-2,000 words a day. I just let the story pull me. It took me about 60-70 days to write my first draft of my first novel. My other novels have taken less time, but at least six months right now to get a novel completed.
Q: What do you do about writers block?
A: I never get writer’s block. If I find I am sitting there staring at the wall too long, then I just jump ahead or to some place where I can write. I’ll even write about nothing just to keep going, but somehow it mostly winds up fitting. Sometimes it’ll get edited out, but it keeps me moving.
Q: Is Jeff Case based on anyone in particular? How much of him is based on you?
A: It’s me mostly as a foundation, but of course I haven’t had to kill anyone for revenge. Yet! And the more I write the more the character takes on his own life.
Q: What books do you like to read?
A: I like to read everything, but I have gone through phases. In high school it was all science fiction. Then at West Point and as an Army Officer my reading broadened out to all kinds of fiction, mostly action-adventure type stuff. I started reading a lot more about military history. When I became the CEO of my own Oil Company I read very little fiction for 25 years. It was all about business. Now for the last few years, since I have sold my oil company and am writing full time, and it’s all fiction within my own genera, Crime/Thriller and few others sprinkled in, unless I need some background for a book.
Check out what I have read and am reading on Goodreads. I do review every book I read too.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/36506848?ref=nav_mybooks
Q: What are your favorite and least favorite things about being a writer?
A: My favorite thing is the excitement of creating a scene or watching a part of the story come together. Plus, I was really surprised how positively people react to me when they know I have written a book. It always gives you something to talk about. My least favorite thing is editing. But, it always makes my writing much better.
Q: I have a great story idea for you. How can I get it to you?
A: Sorry, but for legal reasons, I do not read or accept story ideas.
Q: I have written a book. Will you read it and tell me what you think?
A:Once again, I can’t. I just get too many requests like this to keep up with them and get my own work done.
Q: What is the best advice you would give another writer?
A: Get a draft done! Leave mistakes, plot holes, don’t fret over anything, keep writing until you get some kind of a draft done. No draft…no book.
Then go back and edit it. There is lots of reasonable help too, developmental edits, beat reader, and line editors on Fiverr.com
Don’t sit around and try to think things out too much. Do most of your thinking through your writing. Write every day even if it is just a paragraph, if you can. If you can’t forgive yourself and get back into it when you can.
Ask me a question at mikeslavinauthor@gmail.com