Meet Tom Drennan: An Interview & Giveaway

I'm pleased to welcome Tom Drennan to Cozy Up With Kathy today. Tom writes the Thor McGraw Mystery series. Thor McGraw and the Ice Man Murder, the first book in the series, was released this past week.

Kathy: Thor McGraw has a “gift”. What made you decide to add a supernatural touch to your mystery?

TD: I started off in the SF and Fantasy genre and walked happily and with arms wide open into the mystery genre where I belong. The supernatural touch is the magic shamrock that stuck to my shoe along the way down the path.


Kathy: In Thor McGraw and the Ice Man Murder Thor has to deal with “the two things he dislikes most in life -- his annoying neighbor and a cats”. Cats are a staple in many cozy mysteries and are generally regarded quite favorably. In reality are you a cat person? Or would you prefer to keep your distance?

TD: I share a few things with Thor -- one being a FURocious allergy to cats. So I keep my distance. Though, I do enjoy writing about the little furballs!


Kathy: Have you ever had a truly annoying neighbor? Did that experience give fodder to writing Thor’s relationship with his neighbor?

TD: No one, including myself, has ever had a neighbor like Mrs. Charlotte Plum (from Thor McGraw and the Ice Man Murder). She is nosey, pushy, presumptuous, and in-your-face annoying. She’s such fun to write and makes me (and hopefully my readers) laugh!


Kathy: What first drew you to mysteries?

TD: Mysteries are what I enjoy the most. What better genre is there to deliver a clever puzzle and a good laugh?


Kathy: Do you write in any other genres?

TD: I’ve done some science fiction in the past.


Kathy: Tell us about your series

TD: I could not hope to describe the series better than the incomparable Sharon Shinn, author of the Elemental Blessings series, does for my back cover blurb… “A dad, a cat, an unsolved case, and a fresh murder all combine in a charming froth of a mystery by Tom Drennan. Add in a tenacious cop, a beautiful blonde, and a supernatural family gift for crime-solving -- or is it a curse? -- and you have this fun and fast-paced debut novel.” The series promises to explore Thor’s relationship with his young daughter, his ex-wife, and, of course, Cheops, the cat -- all the while honing Thor’s crime solving skills. There will be mysteries to solve, a tiny zap of the supernatural, and lots of laughs along the way!


Kathy: Do you have a favorite character? If so, who and why?

TD: Sabrina (Bree) McGraw. She’s Thor’s daughter and she steals most of the scenes where she appears. When writing, if I think things are slowing down all I have to do is put Sabrina on stage and things happen. Much of what Thor does is motivated by his love for his daughter and his need to protect her. Plus, she’s loosely based on my fifth child so how could she not be my favorite character?


Kathy: Did you have a specific inspiration for the series?

TD: I first started writing Thor McGraw a long ways back, when I was a younger man. “Write what you know” was the familiar adage of the day. I had spent a few years getting a post graduate degree from Boston College and had loved my days at the college and in the city. Fast forward ten or fifteen years and I was back in my hometown, the father of five children whom I absolutely adored. “Write what you know.” And so Thor McGraw was born. As I write Thor, I draw inspiration from Jimmy Stewart in It’s a Wonderful Life, with a touch of Tom Hanks in Sleepless in Seattle, and there’s a dash of Zachary Levi from the TV series Chuck. But, there’s a little bit of me in Thor–celebrating my children, embracing a good laugh, bumbling about enough to make my wife and friends slap their heads in disbelief, and sneezing when I am anywhere near a cat!


Kathy: What made you decide to publish your work?

TD: Apart from being a pretty good mystery this book has a lot of fun and laughter. As an Irishman I know fun and a good laugh are meant to be shared.


Kathy: If you could have a dinner party and invite 4 authors, living or dead, in any genre, who would you invite?

TD: Homer - How many tales could he tell us that have been otherwise lost forever?

A. A. Milne - what a wonderful mind, so clever and enchanting!

Louise Penny -- if I could invite fictitious characters Inspector Gamache would be at the top of the list!

J. K. Rowling -- what imagination!


Kathy: What are currently reading?

TD: I usually read several things at the same time. Currently..

Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

East of Eden by John Steinbeck


Kathy: Will you share any of your hobbies or interests with us?

TD: I enjoy mysteries, superheroes, baseball, and a good laugh


Kathy: Name 4 items you always have in your fridge or pantry.

TD: Licorice Pipes for celebrating special events

Caffeine Free Diet Coke (I do not drink and I do not smoke, but open a vein and pour in the soda!)

Popcorn for watching MidSomer Murders or Foyle’s War or Agatha Christie

Small candies, hidden and then doled out sparsely, but with great love to my grandchild


Kathy: Do you have plans for future books either in your current series of a new series?

TD: Yes, there is a second Thor McGraw book in the works. You’ll see it in 2016!


Kathy: What’s your favorite think about being an author?

TD: The people! I love my writing group, the Alternate Historians -- Rett MacPherson, Laurell K. Hamilton, Deborah Millitello, Marella Sands, Sharon Shinn, and Mark Sumner. Such accomplished writers! And I enjoy working with such talented artists as my cover designer, Scarlett Rugers! And best of all I love my readers!

******************************************************************************

Tom has generously offered a $25 Amazon gift certificate to one lucky reader. To be eligible simply leave a comment on this blog post telling us if you'd like to have a supernatural gift. Leave your comment and e-mail address no later than 11:59 pm EDT Wednesday, September 2 in order to qualify.

Introducing Word Posse

Take a talented group of writers working together with the goal of publishing their work and you have Word Posse. This band of seven authors is a critique group that just entered the world of self publishing. Word Posse consists of members Thomas Drennan, Laurell K. Hamilton, Marella Sands, Sharon Shinn, Mark Sumner, Rett MacPherson, and Deborah Millitello, authors who write in a variety of styles and genres.

I asked them how they came up with name "Word Posse". Marella said, "I was making a list of possible names, and thought, well, we work with words, and we’re friends, but of course Words With Friends is already taken. So I looked in the thesaurus under the “friends” entry and found posse. Then I checked to see if wordposse.com and @WordPosse and facebook.com/WordPosse were available and they were. Everyone liked the name, so we grabbed the domain, the Twitter handle, and the Facebook page and that was that."

Members of  Word Posse have worked together as a critique group for some time. It started when Laurell K. Hamilton and Debbie Millitello met at the NameThatCon writers workshop in 1988. Mark Sumner then ran into Laurell at Archon, but accidentally handed her another person's business card that he had just received instead of his own. Somehow they managed to make contact and Mark joined the group. Marella Sands got into the group after sending a story to Mark, who was editing the magazine Fresh Ink, while Sharon Shinn was a published author with Ace and had the same editor as Laurell. Laurell and Mark were doing a book signing at Walden Books where Rett MacPherson was working. Laurell, who frequented the store, knew that Rett wanted to be a writer and told her there was an opening in the group. In order to join, potential members had to submit two pieces of work, not to find out how good they were, but, "mostly to see if they could finish something...and see how they reacted when people commented on their stuff." No one was quite sure how Tom Drennan became a member. "I think I met some of you folks at Archon one year." (Archon is a Science Fiction convention in St. Louis.)

Just recently, the group decided to form their own self publishing venture. Mark had been thinking of it for some time; wanting to do something with a backlist of out of print books and also get new books out there. Debbie had also been thinking about it for over two years. Rett was wondering how to get her books up on Amazon and asked the group if they knew how. After seeing article after article about self publishing, the group decided it was something they could do together. As Marella said, "Print on demand has changed lots of things because you don’t have to be sitting on thousands of copies in your basement." "And digital too, has changed everything," Sharon added, "because it can be in print forever." Doing it together is less daunting as members can pool their knowledge and figure things out together. As Sharon said, "Whatever you need to know, somebody will know."

I asked the group if they will solely self publish or continue to seek out contracts with traditional publishers. Rett replied that she will continue to seek out traditional publishers. Sharon, in her readings, has found that writers today actually need to have several fronts-traditional, self publishing, and online. "Because the more places you are, the more people you'll pick up." Members of  Word Posse have a distinct advantage. They have all been published and have books and short stories out there. Some even have a fan base already.

As for whose novels they'll publish...according to Sharon, for the most part they'll be the books they love best that didn't sell. "The ones that we really believe deserved a shot and didn't get it."

Word Posse is publishing three books this month. The Naturalist by Mark Sumner is science fiction. It takes place in the 19th century and follow the exploits of explorers in Central America who find some interesting insects that they weren’t quite counting on. Mark has a lot of details on the botany and the animals of Central America. Mark did a lot of research on people like Darwin who were out exploring in the 19th century. Sleeping the Churchyard Sleep by Rett MacPherson is a historical mystery that takes place in 1950s West Virginia. Pandora’s Mirror is a paranormal by Marella Sands. She did copious amounts of research and is apparently scaring her cover model who is reading a proof of the book!
 
Word Posse has plans for the future. According to Marella, "Next year, we’re hoping to put out four or five books. They’ll come out in February, May, August, and November. Sometimes we’ll have one book, but maybe sometimes two at one launch. That’s our goal. We’ll have one – or possibly two – from Tom next year, with his protagonist Thor McGraw." According to Tom, Thor McGraw is "a new private investigator, a guy who suddenly finds himself in a situation where he has to solve a mystery. A lot of it is Thor McGraw and his relationship with his daughter, a six-year-old child. And there will always be something a little magical in the books, with some twists and changes along the way."


For more information on Word Posse be sure to check out the following links:

Word Posse Website: http://www.wordposse.com/ 
Word Posse Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/wordposse
Word Posse on Twitter: https://twitter.com/wordposse

You can find information and links for the specific members on their individual page on the Word Posse website.