With us today is Tom Beck. We’re glad he stopped by to share all his writing secrets with us. Enjoy!!

1. Tell us about yourself. May include links to Facebook, twitter, blogs, websites, Amazon author page)

Facebook under Tom Beck, Thomas Beck is my facebook published site. Thomas Beck’s Blog Covers hospital stories, flash fiction/, poetry, family tales, etc.

2. How do you choose names for your characters?

Names can come from anywhere. Church bulletins, family members.

3. Do you talk about your book/characters as though they are real?

I write mostly from first person, sharing what my brain thinks the character sees, hears, and feels. When I write the character, it is me seeing through their eyes

4. Do you listen to music when you write or edit? What kind?

Usually if I have the radio on, it’s a talk station.

5. How long have you been writing?

I have written as soon as I knew letters could make words. Only recently published. I have reams of poetry, folders of haiku, A play script, several children’s stories that I illustrate myself. (Unpublished)

6. Tell us about when you realized you were ‘meant to be’ a writer.

It was a slow evolution that I knew I wanted to write and be published. Working as a nurse and having a family didn’t allow for much time writing. I think it was writing compositions and the professors’ encouragement that finally sealed it.

7. Do you have a muse?

Three muses so far. For Tommy Two Shoes Minerd it is his finicky deceased uncle Aidan Leclerc. For Mary Alice (Brandi) the P.I. it’s Mae West, and for Luigi Garibaldi, it’s Margo, the Shadow’s assistant. Guido isn’t actually a detective, but is a gambler in hiding from a casino owner and has clues dumped in his lap.

8. How do you improve as a writer? (Workshops, conferences, reading)

I belong to three writer’s group, an organization to promote new writers (CAW), and I attend and read at salons.

9. Writing quirks or superstitions?

The only thing special is that I hand write my stories and do my first edit when I enter it into the computer. I can write faster than I can type and I don’t want to impede the flow of words and ideas.

10. Tell us about your current work-in-progress.

How many works do you want. I have probably 15 or more. Tommy is about to become a P.I. He figures if he’s solving mysteries, he needs paid. Brandi is investigating the spouse of a woman. She thinks that he is prostituting himself. I just entered a flash fiction contest where the entire story had to be 100 words or less.

11. What book are you reading now?

A book titled “What’s the Smallest Thing You Will Do Today.” By Dylene Cumraes.

12. What genre do you write in? What about PoV?Most of my writing is from the view of first person singular, but have been dabbling in third person for some.
13. Tell us about writing preparation. Character Profiles? Outlines? )

I don’t have a specific outline. Just a general idea of a plot. Sometimes it’s based on a single phrase or sentence. Everything spills out of a disorganized, creative mind. The characters will often write the story themselves. I am often surprised how an insignificant detail will show up later and become very important.

14. Do you know how your stories will end?

I will have a general idea of an ending, but there are times when the character steps in and changes things.

15. Do you books have a message or theme? Or are they purely for entertainment?

The kids books, a specific message, poetry, message, haiku to share beauty, the cozy mysteries, entertainment.

16. Do you have any favorite snacks or drinks that you eat/drink while writing?

Unsweetened iced tea or Diet orange Crush. I eat anything that isn’t nailed down.

17. Tell us about your other passions.

My deceased wife Cindy. Gone 12 years in March. Ovarian cancer. my three kids, and my three granddaughters. Also reading Louis L’Amour books. He has the most fabulous turns of phrases.

18. What’s something interesting about you?

The way I became published was unusual. I would have remained in obscurity if by happenstance I hadn’t met a woman at one of my writer’s groups. She liked some of the stories that I had written, had decided to edit and to start a publishing company. She asked me if I had anything to publish. The rest is history. As an aside we have about 8 to 15 members and out of that number, five of us has had our writing published in the year that we started the group. (No they aren’t all under the same publisher.)

19. Share a small sample(limit to one paragraph, please) of your writing… can be a WIP or already published.

Her Beauty
She stepped onto the bus. Her tresses cascaded over her shoulders in shimmering chestnut waves. Her smile immediately filled the bus with sunshine. That smile seemed directed at me. With amazing grace, she dropped her money into the change box and sauntered down the aisle. She stopped.

“Is this seat taken?” she asked.

I glanced around. The bus was nearly empty and yet she chose the seat beside me.

“N-n-n-o-o,” I managed to stammer.

She slid into the seat. Her delicate scent filled my nostrils.

“I’m on my way home,” she shared, glancing over at me.

I felt a lump in my throat and couldn’t speak. She was so beautiful.

“My husband isn’t home at present,” she murmured and placed her slender hand on my thigh.

My breath caught in my throat. My brain began to spin as her heady perfume captivated me and her suggestion sank in.

She slid her hand up and down my thigh, stirring a feeling in my loins.

The bus hissed to a stop. Taking my hand, she led me down the aisle and off the bus. I held my newspaper in front of me to avoid embarrassment.

She closed and locked the apartment door behind her. Pulling me close, she whispered in my ear, “What do you want for supper, dear?”

“Whatever you want, but it’s my turn to pick you up on the bus tomorrow.”

20. Anything you’d like to say to your current and future readers?

A word of encouragement to all readers and would-be writers: May all of your romances be real, your mysteries, solvable, and your adventures be pleasurable. Thanks for your interest. If you should need anything, I am quite a character myself.

Thanks Tom! Good luck to you!
E&M