Interview: Greg Messel, Author of Deadly Plunge - Page 2

“What do we need to do in here?” one of the men asked.

“We need to print some posters for the rally tonight. You and I are supposed to hand them out at the Cow Palace as the union people go into their conference.”

“Says who?”

“Lt. Colonel Stephen McKinnon, that’s who,” the one man said mockingly.
“McKinnon thinks we’re all in the Marines and he’s our commander. Who put him in charge?”

“No one, but since Arthur’s plunge off of the bridge, McKinnon’s the boss,” the man said.

The second man walked towards the nightstand and picked up Maggie’s picture. “How did an old geezer like Arthur get a beautiful dame like this?” he said admiring the picture.

“Rich boys can afford nice toys,” his partner said sarcastically.

Amelia could no longer hold her breathe and tried to gently take in some air. It only made the sneeze she was fighting off grow more urgent.

“What do you think really happened to Arthur? Do you think he really killed himself?”

Just then there was a noise under the bed. Amelia could no longer stop it. She did the best she could to suppress the sneeze. The two men stopped talking and looked at one another.

Amelia was really frightened now. The men were completely silent and listening intently. Amelia again tried holding her breath and closed her eyes. Suddenly she felt a hand around each of her ankles and with a whoosh, she was pulled out from under the bed across the hardwood floor.

What are five important things that you take into consideration while writing your story?

I want an interesting story and characters that the reader will care about. It really pleases me when readers tell me that they really like a certain character.
I try very hard to make the dialogue interesting and realistic. I probably work harder on that than any other aspect of my writing. It is difficult to write good dialogue.

I use historical information as a backdrop to my story. I want to make sure that my books are accurate. I spend a considerable amount of time researching these items for my book.

Since my two latest books are mysteries I want to be honest in the clues I leave along the way. I also want the answers to the mysteries to be revealed slowly.

I want my book to be well-edited. That is very difficult with hundreds and hundreds of pages but that is very important to me. I think it’s my newspaper training. I was the news editor of a newspaper for several years and I would get very upset when there were mistakes. I never put out out perfect newspaper and I have yet to produce a perfect book.

Article Author: April Pohren

April lives in Iowa and is the stay-at-home mom of two young children. An avid book lover since she was able to hold a book, she has fallen in love with blogging and book reviewing. Her own little piece of the world is at Cafe of Dreams where she …

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