A warm welcome to my guest author today, all the way from Victoria, British Columbia, Grant McKenzie. A writer of thrillers, Grant's work has been described as 'fast, thrilling, gripping, scary' and he has been called 'Harlan Coben on Speed'. I will let Grant introduce himself and tell you all about his early life, starting over the border (from me) in Scotland.
"Since being born in a puddle in Scotland, I've always been a storyteller. Even before I knew how to take the words out of my head and put them on the page, I created huge and wonderful adventures with my toys, especially my favourite, Action Man. And if there were no toys around, I invented stories using sticks, stones, discarded fag ends and beer can pull-tabs. This was really only a problem when I was supposed to be doing something else at the same time, such as playing on a football team or going to school. So, naturally, I was known as "that strange wee lad with the ginger hair". Once they let me attend regular school (not a given since the teachers told my mum that I should probably be sent to "special school" because I wrote my words backwards - this was before dyslexia was given a name and recognized), I began turning my imagination into the written word (mostly forwards, too). At around age 11 in East Kilbride, I wrote, directed, produced and co-starred in my first trilogy of mystery plays based on the Hong Kong Phooey cartoon show that I was fond of, although the dryly humorous dialogue definitely had Top Cat influences, and the action scenes were straight out of Tom & Jerry. The first play was such a hit that I was allowed to craft its two sequels. 
"From there, it wasn't difficult to keep the "strange wee lad" label going strong as my family emigrated to Canada and my Glaswegian brogue may as well have been Swahili. In high school, I became editor of the student newspaper and began sharing both my journalism and my poetry with the school. As most people can guess, a high school lad who publishes poetry is definitely not going to be a target for illiterate bullies. Fortunately, I was a likable lad and had a great group of creative misfits around to keep the naysayers at bay. During those years,  I also wrote my first "practice" novel. 
"From there, it was on to college during the day (where, again, I became editor of the student newspaper) while getting my first real job in journalism on the dead body beat for the daily tabloid at night. Fiction was forgotten for a while (although I did manage to publish some poetry in Canadian literary magazines) as I moved forward in my journalist career. Until, at the age of 26, I made a decision to get back on track and write my first "official" novel. Following the completion of that novel, the avalanche of rejection slips began. Hundreds of rejections, twenty years and six manuscripts later, I sold my debut novel, "SWITCH", to Bantam UK. It was then picked up by Penguin Canada, Heyne Germany, Russia and Taiwan. The year it came out, my biggest supporter, Borders UK, went bankrupt and threw a wrench in the whole works. My second novel, "No Cry For Help", was published in the UK and Germany. And my third novel, "K.A.R.M.A.", is an eBook exclusive on Amazon.
"Interestingly, I reworked that first "official" novel recently and sold it to the wonderful folks at Midnight Ink in the US. "Angel With A Bullet" will be released in the US, UK and Canada on September 8th under the pen name, m.c. grant. I went with a pen name for this one because Angel is a mystery written in first-person-female perspective. I am currently writing the sequel, "Devil With A Gun". "
I asked Grant who was his favourite author.
"Picking a favourite author is always difficult as I have learned, and continue to learn, so much from so many masters. From Mickey Spillane and Enid Blyton to John Sandford, James Rollins, Andrew Vachss and Stephen Hunter, James P. Hogan and Issac Asimov, Neil Gaiman, Dean Koontz and Joe Hill. But if I was being weatherboarded and forced to pick only one, it would be Robert McCammon."
What would be your favourite book read?
"The book "Boy's Life" by Robert McCammon is probably the one I most wish that I had written, and I hope one day to write something that resonates with someone else as much as that book resonates with me."
Who is your favourite band, group or artist?
"When I'm writing, I listen to a lot of Mozart Piano Concertos, Pink Floyd, Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Joe Pass and Van Morrison. When I'm  not writing, it's Joe Jackson, Billy Bragg, Mumford & Sons, The Who, The Clash, The Monks, Ryan Adams, Lissie, Kate Nash, Spirit of the West, Great Big Sea, etc."
What would be your favourite album?
"The Who's 'Quadrophenia' is my all-time, still listening to it, fave."
What would be your favourite gig/concert ever attended?
"The Who was a dream come true, The Police were awesome, Elton John and Joe Jackson are always brilliant, but for get-up-and-dance from first song to last was Prince's last tour. Amazing."
What would be your favourite gig venue?
"A small, smokey club with Pete Townshend and Tom Waits on stage - maybe accompanied by Stephen Fearing on acoustic guitar and Sinead O'Connor or Kate Bush on backing vocals."
What is your favourite food?
"I like variety, so a plate of assorted appetizers is wonderful."
What is your favourite holiday destination?
"I've heard of those, they're supposed to be fun. Been meaning to try one."
How many autographs have you signed in one session?
"Too embarrassing to say :-)"
Have you ever been mistaken for someone else?
"Only on Crime Watch."


How often do you get recognized?
"As the editor of a popular alternative weekly news magazine in Victoria (and a redhead), I get recognized a lot. I haven't reached that same level of recognition as an author yet."
My thanks to Grant for being my guest today.
As ever, many thanks for reading......