Today I’m hosting Vincent Zandri, Mystery and Thriller author, to discuss his journey to publication and his current release. An adventurer, foreign correspondent, and freelance photo-journalist for RT, Globalspec, IBTimes and more, Zandri divides his time between New York and Florence, Italy. He’s the No. 1 International Bestselling Amazon Kindle author of THE INNOCENT, GODCHILD, THE REMAINS, MOONLIGHT FALLS, CONCRETE PEARL and the forthcoming MOONLIGHT RISES, plus the bestselling digital shorts, PATHOLOGICAL and MOONLIGHT MAFIA. Harlan Coben has described his novels as “…gritty, fast-paced, lyrical and haunting.” Zandri has sold more than 100,000 Kindle E-Books editions of his novels, and is rapidly closing in on the 200K mark.
Meg: Welcome to Time Discovers Truth! How did you first get published?
Zandri: I wrote and wrote and wrote, and then when I wasn’t writing I wrote some more. I started small by publishing in the local freebie giveaway rags that you find at the coffee shops and bars, and then turned “pro” by becoming a sports stringer and general freelancer for the local paper, The Times Union. From there I branched out into the magazine trade like Game and Fish Magazine, New York Newsday, and Hudson Valley Magazine.
At the same time, I was writing my first short stories that were published in some of the leading literary journals like Fugue, Negative Capability, Old Hickory Review, and Rosebud. The success (and far, far, far more rejection…) led me to apply to Vermont College’s MFA program in Writing. I attended the two year, low-residency program along with Les Edgerton. Upon graduating, I wrote a novel called The Innocent which Dell bought in a two-book deal. However, a corporate merger forced the publisher to downsize and lay off a bunch of writers, so I found myself writing furiously without a publisher for more than five years.
While getting dovorced for the second time and traveling the globe as a foreign correspondent for RTout of Moscow, my agent hooked me up with StoneHouse Ink/StoneGate Ink, an indie publisher from out of Boise. I sold hundreds of thousands of e-book editions of my books, including The Innocent. That led to a major 7-book deal with Amazon’s new Thomas & Mercer imprint.
Meg: Congratulations! Sounds like you’re not one to give up easily, so tell us about your new book, Scream Catcher.
Zandri: Here’s a description of what it’s about.
This is how your life ends: Not with a whimper, but a scream!
Jude Parish is afraid. The former violent crimes cop turned bestselling true crime author has a fear-filled demon lodged inside of him. A demon so real he can only imagine a slimy reptilian beast with scaly skin, black eyes, and razor-sharp fangs having taken up residence inside the place where his once confident and fearless soul resided.
Now, in the wake of his literary success, the ever anxious Jude is hoping to lead a quiet, peaceful life in the idyllic Adirondack vacation town of Lake George, New York with his new pregnant wife, Rosie, and Jack, his young son from a previous marriage. But when Jude becomes the accidental witness to a bizarre “kill game” in which the killer, video game designer and master of disguise, Hector “the Black Dragon” Lennox, insists on recording the screams of his victims prior to shooting them dead, the ex-cop’s life is turned upside down.
When Lennox is arrested by the L.G.P.D. and Jude is asked to act as the state’s “star witness,” he has no choice but to fight his demon-fear and take on the role. But what he doesn’t realize at the time, is that the killer’s arrest is actually the first level in what is a carefully designed and scripted first-person video kill game that will involve his entire family as “players” and “victims.”
How will the kill game end?
Like all violent video games, it will end in death. But it won’t be “Game Over” until Hector Lennox catches the screams of his tortured victims.
To buy Scream Catcher, click here.
Meg: Sounds intriguing! What inspires you to keep writing?
Zandri: What inspires you to breathe? Same thing…
Purchase:Amazon|BarnesAndNoble
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