Today we are happy to have Author F.E Feeley Jr. with us. Today is a very special day, it’s release day for his book, Still Waters. We are honored he took the time to answer some questions for us about his awesome book. Hello!  Thank you so much for visiting Writing in True Colors with me today! 

Q) How did you come up with the characters for your book?

The characters developed around the story, so to speak. There were certain dynamics I wanted at work. And each character showed, what I believe, is the modern American life.

Q) Can you tell me little about your characters? Personality, looks, etc.

The characters vary in this book, like I mentioned about. How they look? I am going to leave that up to the reader’s imagination, because what I see in my head, is not necessarily what the reader will see. There are multiple personalities, many different world views. Some are narrow and some are broad and some are accepting because their lives have been touched by an LGBT individual. 

Q) Do you have any habits that get you in the writing frame of mind?

No. Some people can close the world off and get themselves in some kind of mindset. It doesn’t work that way for me so far. I can’t spit out a novel every other month. If I try and force myself to do it, I get frustrated because whatever I write comes off phony to me.  My heart and my mind have to link up with my fingers across the keyboard. It’s sort of like making love, I guess. I want to be there for each word, I want to believe I believe in each word and can stand behind it.

Q) Is this part of a series?  If so, tell us about it! It is a part of a series.

The title of the series is Memoirs of the Human Wraiths. They are all stand-alone novels that are all interconnected by one main character. The idea came from DSP editors who all noticed that these novels existed in this ‘world’ and I ran with the idea.  My dear friend Richard came up with the title and it was appropriate for what I was trying to do.

Q) How much real life do you put into or influences your books?

I put a lot of the world in my books. Nina Simone said it is an artist’s responsibility to reflect the world around them. The reason I add a paranormal element, is to actually make the subject matter easier to handle. Truth is far stranger than fiction can be. It’s a really weird thing to have to water life down for people to be able to consume it. 

I really wanted to confront certain things that are going on in the world. In our world. And that is homophobia and this obsession with image.  I think America has entered a new Gilded Age and I am hoping to be one of the ones that aids in tearing that aspect down. It was bad enough the first time.

Q) Are you a morning person or night person? How does this affect your writing? 

I am a morning person now, because I’m married. When I was single, I was a night person because I didn’t have anyone to look after me. *laughs*  I didn’t have anyone who put me in line, I was a mess. But now, I’m a respectable person. *Does his best Eliza Doolittle* I’m a good girl, I am!

Q) What are your upcoming projects?

I have a short novella releasing with Cool Dudes publishing on April 25th called Indigent.  The work is part of an anthology dedicated to getting homeless LGBTQ kids off the streets and into safe shelters in The U.S., The UK, Australia, and South Africa.

Still Waters Blurb:

Memoirs of the Human Wraiths

Promise, Michigan is very much like every other small town across the state. Built on the edge of a lake, the homes sit in neat little rows in cute little neighborhoods. During the summer Promise bustles with tourists who come to spend their vacation dollars and enjoy the lake’s refreshingly cold water. But Promise holds a terrible secret. In the center of the lake is an abandoned island where a curse is rumored to wait for victims, unabated and deadly. Most think it’s just a story, something used to keep kids out of trouble. Still, everyone gives it a wide berth. Everyone except Bret and Adam. They dare to venture out the night of Bret’s birthday. When they declared their love and promise to get married, they believe no one else heard their whispered words—but they are wrong.

Five years after Adam dies, Bret returns to his family to heal. But someone is killing the people of Promise in random acts of violence. Bret, with the help of FBI agent Jeff McAllister, must discover the identity of a murderer with death on his mind and revenge in his heart.

Excerpt:

SUMMERTIME HAD come to the Great Lake State of Michigan and to the little town of Promise. A quaint little burg down I-96, where those considered low-income still earned triple digits, far from the hustle and slums of Detroit, Promise boasted magnificent shops and stretches of beautiful homes with deep yards and nice cars. The high school, home of the Indians, was state of the art, modern, the curriculum tough, and the teachers’ salaries kept them happy. The town was truly the land of milk and honey for those wealthy enough to afford it. A picture of the modern Gilded Age, where everything in town was connected by telephone wires and gossip like spindly threads of a spider’s web.

When a new family moved in, the lines hummed, and before the family could finish unpacking, several neighbors would show up at their door with baskets, pies, or fresh flowers from their gardens to welcome them to the neighborhood. Which, on the outside, looked pleasant enough, but these little visits were less a welcome wagon and more of an interview, and the people who came, less like neighbors and more like spies.

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