This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. John C. Waite will be awarding a $50 Gift Certificate to Nuts.com to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
What is your favorite book from your childhood?
A favorite book from my childhood relates to the book I am currently promoting.
Children of the Sea by W.S.Bronson is the story of a boy saved from drowning by a dolphin, an animal that becomes his best friend and companion. The Tursiops Syndrome features dolphins as friends and companions as well, but in a much more complex and multi-dimensional plot. Both relate to an early segment of my life when one summer as I approached adulthood I worked at the Gulfarium (Ft. Walton Beach, Florida) for a summer and got to know dolphins up close and personal. I swam with them, fed them, watched them learn and communicate.
What is your favorite book today?
There are a couple of candidates for that honor, but my favorite currently is the one I am just completing, Middlesex. It’s an amazingly constructed piece of fiction that follows a recessive gene through several family cycles before it manifests, creating considerable difficulty for the hero or heroine, which in this case happen to be one and the same. Jeffrey Eugenides is a masterful word artist who has an innate understanding of language color, pace, and description.
At least I assume it’s innate.
Tell us about your book in ten words.
Heroine and dolphin save Washington DC from a nuclear disaster.
Do you have any bad book habits?
My worst book habit is starting to write one, then overthinking it. It will never get finished that way. Part of that stems from picking a really tough one. I want to write a fictionalized biography of my best friend’s life. I have several chapters completed but don't know if I can ever finish the story. We grew up together in suburban New Orleans and shared many adventures. At one point he announced his ambition was to become the President of the United States. But he joined the marine corp, became a first lieutenant and died in Vietnam in 1965. I really want to finish that book, but. . . ..
E-reader or print? And why?
Both have their virtues. I have 100 plus books stored on my e-reader, and that makes it easy to go back and re-read them, in whole or in bits and pieces. But I seldom sit around and contemplate any of those books. Books that energize my thought processes I find I want to hold in my hands, feel the paper slipping through my fingers, smell the pulp and ink, and caress the cover texture. Some of my library is in both formats and I move from one to the other depending on the emotional context of my day.
One book at a time or multiples?
That depends on the book and why I am reading it. Books that I read for knowledge have to be consumed one at a time and re-read several times. Books that I read strictly for entertainment are just one at a time. If I particularly like the subject or the plot, I’ll go back and re-read in bits and pieces, and they often become multiples stacked alongside the reading chair.
Dog ear or bookmark?
I will dog-ear books that I own, but never one that comes from a friend or a library. That’s just rude.
What was the least favorite book that you read this year?
Don’t remember the title but it was a book about marketing via social media. Each chapter seemed to answer the same question in ten or fifteen similar ways. I think there was some good advice in the book, but it became so boring . . ..
What was the favorite book you’ve read this year?
The same one I mentioned earlier, Middlesex. Maybe in another month or so it won’t seem so interesting, but right now it has captured my imagination. Terrific book.
When do you do most of your reading?
In the evenings, often in bed, sometimes with the television droning on in the background.
Favorite genre?
I grew up reading science fiction and adventure stories and still favor those. But over the years I have read every genre in existence and can find virtue in any venue.
What would make you not finish a book?
Lack of action, and really terrible use of the language.
Keep books or give them away?
Give them away. Help someone else enjoy them.
A newspaper review described Tursiops thus: "The writing is, well, wonderful. Waite has a gift for dialogue and story-telling, and his plot is adventurous and perfectly paced."
A scrabbling behind him took Red’s attention from the house. He turned to see a young man wearing medic bars leaning over Jessie’s prone body. He watched as the medic fingered Jessie’s throat, looking for a pulse.
“Got it,” he muttered. “She’s alive. Gotta keep her that way.”
He reached into a small canvas bag and pulled out a red-lensed flashlight, a plastic bag and tubing. Squatting next to Jesse, he shoved her sleeve up her arm and inserted a needle into a vein.
He looked up at Red.
“Saline,” he said.
“You a doc?” Red asked.
“Close as you’re gonna get out here.”
“I’m going for a medevac,” he said and vanished into the darkness.
Red watched Jessie. She didn’t move. He couldn’t tell if she was breathing. But the medic had said she was alive.
“Well…fuck me,” she groaned.
“God damn. Jessie.” Red said.
“Red?” Her voice trembled. “Is that you? Am I dead?”
“Medic.” Red yelled. “Jessie, don’t move. Just don’t move. You’ve been hit. The medic says you’re alive and he went for a medevac.”
Headlights flipped on, and an engine cranked several vehicles back in the convoy. Other lights were coming on around him now, and he could see Jessie, her face masked by the blood-soaked bandanna stuffed into the bullet furrow.
“God, it hurts. How bad?” she asked, not moving.
“Jess, I don’t know. Just don’t move…please. The medic will be right back.”
“I screwed up, huh. Anybody else hurt?”
As if on cue, a jeep crunched to a halt at Jessie’s feet, and the young medic jumped out.
“Bird’s on its way,” he said as he knelt beside her.
Jessie grabbed his arm.
“Am I gonna die?”
The medic took her hand.
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The book will be on sale for $0.99 during the tour.
https://www.amazon.com/Tursiops-Syndrome-John-Waite-ebook/dp/B01MQVDUF1/ref=sr_1_1
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Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the interview.
ReplyDeleteAn unexpected complication kept me away from the tour today. My apologies if I missed anyone. And thanks for hosting. If anyone wishes to comment they can reach me at johngllgskns@gmail.com.
ReplyDelete