Interview with Charlie Kenmore

Ana Hart: Here with us today on XOXO we have with us Charlie Kenmore who has a new release out - Earth Angel. Thanks for stopping in, Charlie! Why don't you go on ahead and tell us a little bit about yourself?

Charlie Kenmore: I am a 52 year old professional from St. Louis, Missouri with one very significant other (A.K.A. "Alexx Momcat"), two grown kids, and two cats. I enjoy collecting books, art and cooking. But with my double and triple stacked bookshelves sagging, I look forward to the new era of e-publishing. An avid garage sale hunter, I am still searching for an oil painting by Edouard Leon Cortes (or anything from the Drip and Drool School like Pollack or Rothko that can be sold so I can buy my Cortes).

AH: So, what made you want to be a writer? Did any particular event occur in your life that made you realize this was your calling?

CK: I still don't know what I want to do when I grow up. So it's a little premature to call writing my calling. I've written on and off since I was a kid. After college, I didn't start writing again for ten years while I raised my family and began a career. Alexx Momcat likes my writing, so I write a lot of my stories for her.

AH: What are some authors that have positively influenced your writing over the years?

CK: There are many. For fantasy and science fiction—Robert Heinlein, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert Howard. For action and intrigue-Eric Van Luftsbader, John Sandford (Camp), James Patterson. For style—Anton Chekhov.

AH: What is your all-time favorite book?

CK: That's a tough one. It's hard to compare books in different genres. If you measure favorite by the number of times I've read a book, then it's a close race between Kenny and the Little Kickers and The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

AH: Where do you draw your inspiration from for your writing? Is there anything in particular that inspires you?

CK: Inspiration comes from all over. Sometimes a strange news story or photo will spark a story line. Sometimes, Alexx Momcat makes a request for a type of story. Arch Enemies is the fifth Seven Realms Tale, and the third novel. Alexx said she wanted a St. Louis based Seven Realms Tale. I pointed out that in Earth Angel, much of the action is in and around St. Louis. She said that didn't count. She wanted another St. Louis based tale. So I came up with Arch Enemies. In Arch Enemies, the Fomori (ew!) are trying to use the Gateway Arch as a portal to bring something very large and nasty Earthside.

AH: If you could trade lives with anyone in the world (either currently living or a historical figure) for just one day who would it be and why?

CK: Probably William Shakespeare. I'd want to know once and for all whether he penned all of his own works.

AH: What are some of the projects you're currently working on? Care to give us a little teaser of any of your favorite WIPs (Works in Progress)?

CK: I've currently got a couple of WIPs in the mix. As Charlie Kenmore, I'm working on an off-world detective story about a human female detective who finds the head of her non-human prospective client in an alley behind a strip joint. She immediately becomes a target. She has to get off-world and find out the identity of her prospective client, and why she would have been hired before she gets killed for it.

Excerpt from Aabharika:

I slipped out of the back of the Tush Majal around 4:00 p.a.t. (primary alpha time), just as the cops came pouring in the front. It’s not what you think.. Okay, it’s exactly what you think. But the prospective client had set the time and place for the meeting. Unfortunately, the prospect was a no show. I had a sinking feeling that the unwelcome arrival of the cops was related to the no show. Billy Crudup, who runs the TM for the Slinking Tiger Clan, keeps everyone who matters pretty well greased. 

I took two quick steps from the door into the dark alley before my feet flew out from under me. I landed on my ass in the same slick that caused me to lose my normal nimble sure-footedness. It hurt both my pride and my ass. It was also pretty disgusting.
I moved my right hand behind me looking for a dry spot to get some leverage to push myself back up. Unfortunately, instead I found a face. I did not need to turn around to know with a reasonable degree of certainty that it belonged to my no show. I turned around anyway. 

I was right. It was a face, or at least most of one. The left side was pretty much caved in, and one eye was missing. The light orange complexion coupled with the dual rows of razor sharp teeth confirmed that this was an Inwhean, one of the desert folk of Enchil 7. The odds of finding more than one Inwhean on Bidhi Pallien 4 outside of the diplomatic zone at New Greater Chennai were pretty slim at best. The odds of finding one anywhere near the Tush Majal in the specialized entertainment district at 4:00 p.a.t. were astronomical. This was definitely my no show. And I had just left my DNA all over its face. Yes, I understand that “its” is pretty impersonal. But I am not particularly familiar with Inwhean physiology. So determining the victim’s sex in a pitch black alley was beyond me, particularly since all I had to work with was the victim’s smashed in face. The rest of the victim’s body, and the back of its skull were missing. Okay, I could probably determine the sex from the color of the victim’s blood, either dark blue for male, or light green for female. I was certainly covered with enough of it. But to make that determination I would need more light. And light was the last thing I wanted at the moment.

My alter ego, Ken Charles, is working on an untitled work about a young man who comes into a monstrous inheritance. He now has the time and resources to explore the kinkier side of his sexuality. Ken donated a short story adaptation from that work for safe sex and AIDS awareness.

AH: I read that story Ken donated! It was very sexy. What advice would you give to an up-and-coming writer?

CK: Keep on writing. Pay attention to the basics (spelling and grammar), but don't get hung up on them, particularly in the first draft. Get the story down. You can always go back and revise. Remember to blame errors on your word processor.

AH: Yes, that last piece of advice is key! Thanks for taking the time to be here today, Charlie! The best of luck in all your endeavors and I hope you stop in again soon!

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EARTH ANGEL

By CHARLIE KENMORE  

Blurb:

There are seven parallel worlds known as the Seven Realms which are separated by a Veil. Six are inhabited by all manner of entities, some natural, some not. That may not be the case for much longer. The first portion of the High Sidhe Prophecy of the Sevens has been fulfilled. The Anarch, who is one with the Veil, has escaped. If she chooses, she can part or drop the Veil or she can lift the Veil in its entirety. The Seven Realms will converge. The laws of physics and magic will collide head on. Unless she is stopped, there will be nothing left.

Queen Amura has called for an assembly of the signatories to the High Sidhe's Second Accords, a multi-realm peace treaty to consider how to deal with the threat of the Anarch. An Earthside TechnoWitch and other dark forces also are seeking to control the Anarch. Prince Dzhok (Jack) , High Sidhe Ambassador Salash (Jack's oldest friend and lover), and Valkyrie Brunhilde set out to find and befriend the Anarch before all is lost. 

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