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Jeff Posey

Goodreads Author

Born

in The United States

Website

http://jeffposey.net/

Twitter

Jeff_Posey

Genre

Mystery & Thrillers, Historical Fiction, Literature & Fiction

Influences

I'm a voracious reader of both fiction and non-fiction. Stylistically, ...more

Member Since

August 2011

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/jeff_posey

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Jeff Posey has a geology degree and worked as a petroleum geologist before he discovered the world of words.

Since then, he's been city editor of a metropolitan magazine, fiction editor for a national magazine, and then stumbled on his own ignorance: about business. So he earned an MBA, thinking that would solve everything. Ha! But it did give him the ability to see things that had been invisible before, such as how business and money truly work.

Now he writes short stories and novels, most of them inspired by his nearly two decades of research and fascination with ancient Southwest cultures (mainly the good ol’ Anasazi) and tied to his favorite area in and around Pagosa Springs, Colorado.

You’ll see allusions to the ancient ones in all of h ...more

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How do you get inspired to write?

Jeff Posey I don’t rely on inspiration. It’s fine when it comes, but writing feels more like a daily practice to me than patiently sitting and waiting for lightn…moreI don’t rely on inspiration. It’s fine when it comes, but writing feels more like a daily practice to me than patiently sitting and waiting for lightning to strike. It’s more akin to taking daily vitamins or doing my daily workout. It’s just something I do with the regularity of clockwork. It’s a product of habit, not inspiration.

But it is hard to get started some days. I have all sorts of tricks I use to get my imagination into the place it needs to begin composing. Here are my top three:

1. I stop in the middle of a scene, paragraph, sentence, and even a word. When I pick up the next day, my inner black box of creativity has been screaming to complete the thought, and it makes my fingers start typing before my conscious brain catches up. That usually leads easily to the next word, sentence, paragraph, and scene.

2. I keep a card with me with the five senses listed: See, Hear, Smell, Touch, Taste, plus Feel for inner feelings and emotions. I close my eyes and force myself to imagine a specific detail in each of those six senses for each character in the scene I’m writing. In usually less than five minutes, my fingers are typing at high speed.

3. I imagine a foot taking a step. Yes, this is my weirdest one. But I imagine being my main character and looking down at my foot taking the next step. I think about what it feels like, how certain I (as my character) am of my direction, how fast I’m going, even the grit I feel with the sole of my foot. For some reason I can’t explain, that tends to light up my creative imagination, and I’m off.

When inspiration does strike, it’s usually in the form of a minor epiphany: The story could do this! Something new I hadn’t thought of it before. That tends to happen when my mind and body are busy doing other things, such as gardening, reading, or cleaning the house. I keep a fat, well-used journal handy and write my thoughts in it, and then continue gardening, reading, or cleaning. If I still like the idea later, then you can be sure I incorporate it into the story.
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Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Jeff Posey My wife helped, as usual.

Each November, as part of National Novel Writing Month, I challenge myself to write a fast novel based on this simple formula…moreMy wife helped, as usual.

Each November, as part of National Novel Writing Month, I challenge myself to write a fast novel based on this simple formula: Three characters, one who wants something very much.

“What’s it going to be this time?” my wife asked.

“I’m thinking about a Nobel Prize-winning economist who is really angry that rich corporate interests are warping government to make themselves richer. And his brother is a former CIA assassin. And, of course, there’s a girl.”

Wife stares blankly at me. “Sounds really boring.”

“Boring! Our whole mechanism of free enterprise is at risk from over-manipulation by capitalists and corrupt politicians, and that’s boring?”

“Yes.”

“Even with a little CIA-style assassination thrown in?”

Wife stares with exasperation. “What’s the girl for?”

“Romance. I think maybe she’s an investigative reporter, also angry about the corporate takeover of our government.”

Wife shakes her head.

“I’ll show you. I’ll write it anyway.”

“You’re a grown up. You can do whatever you want.”

So I did. I wrote the first word November 1, 2013, and the last word of the first draft on February 8, 2014. With lots of research thrown into the mix of writing. And then several rounds of revisions after my editor and “Red Pen Brigade” of readers went through it. It’s finished the final proofreading stage as of September 17, 2014, is live for ebook pre-orders on Amazon, Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and txtr.com. Publication date is U.S. election day, November 4, 2014, in ebook and paperback.

My wife’s verdict after reading it? “I didn’t think you could do it. But you did. It’s a really good story.”

Ha! I showed her!(less)

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Jeff Posey’s books

Average rating: 4.1 · 87 ratings · 24 reviews · 26 distinct works

	Price on Their Heads: A Novel of Income Inequality and Mayhem 4.38 avg rating — 21 ratings — published 2014 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Next Skywatcher: Prequel to The Last Skywatcher Triple Trilogy Series (The Last Skywatcher, Anasazi Historical Thrillers with a Hint of Romance Book 1) 3.95 avg rating — 21 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Anasazi Runner 3.94 avg rating — 17 ratings — published 2011 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Witchery of Flutes: Forty-seven short dramas of Anasazi daily life 4.40 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 2011 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Thirteen Spiral Stars: Book 2 of the Last Skywatcher Series 4.50 avg rating — 4 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Girl on a Rock: a short story really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 2011 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Next Skywatcher 3.25 avg rating — 4 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The G.O.D. Journal: a search for gold really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2012 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Less Than Nothing: A novel of Anasazi strife it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2011	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Less Than Nothing: a novel of Anasazi strife 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2012 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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What I Learned About Animal Time Solo Hiking 3,000 Miles

Animal Time vs. Human Time

On the third day, seconds and minutes and hours are meaningless.

On the fifth day, now is the only moment, and time is marked by a soft droning hum like the subliminal base notes of a wide and deep river.

This is animal time, as distinct from human time as jet airliners are from the flight of birds, as lines of automobile traffic are from the march of ants, as the flicker o