John holt

Hello my little chickadees
What a wonderful day and the sun is shinning. Fledgling magpies are dive bombing my windows on a regular basis. It's driving me nuts. Sheesh! There is a lovely odour of barbecue food cooking outside and I'm stuck here in my cave awaiting my latest victim. I let him out for some fresh air. I'm surprised he hasn't legged it to be honest.
All I hear is, "can't you hear that noise?" Ah here he comes now and believe it or not he has gone straight over to the wall and put his arms up ready to be manacled. Oh well, I can do that. Right then that's him safely hooked up.

Right then John, introduce yourself to my friends,

      

The name’s John, and thank you for inviting me here to this ….. er …..you know I’ve been thrown out of better places than this. But I understand that some people are dying to get here.

Tee: Some people actually come here and are never seen again. So make the most of it!

Where do you live John? 

I live just 40 miles north of London, in the beautiful County of Essex. 

John's Garden

Have you any pets and what would be your favourite pet from time immemorial?

Over the years we have had three dogs, and three cats. What is that noise? Sounds like someone screaming. Anyway, the three cats actually felt sorry for us, and adopted us. There it is again, don’t you hear it. Sounds like someone being murdered. Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, I remember, our dog Saskia. She is a cross breed, with a bit of husky, and probably Alsatian. She is a rescue from Romania. She is 10 months old, and we have had her since she was 4 months. She is slowly getting used to things, but its a long slog. She is quite intelligent, but gets easily side tracked. She has had some training, but we will soon be taking her to another class. We have never had pets though; they have always been family members. As for picking a favourite, sorry no can do. They were all great, with their own quite different personality.

Saskia

Tee: Never mind the screaming. Just pay attention to the questions

What sort of food/drink do you enjoy?

I like all types of food, except I’m not into Indian food. I don’t really like spicy dishes. I suppose I prefer simple cooking. I do like my vegetables, and roast potatoes. As for drink, mainly coffee. I’m not one for alcohol, but I do like the occasional whiskey and American.

What inspired you to start writing?

That noise again. Sorry what, oh, yes. I don’t know. I guess like a lot of people, I had always wanted to write a novel. But I could never thing of a decent plot. Then in 2005 we had a holiday in the Austrian lake district. About a mile from our chalet was Lake Toplitz. During the war the lake had been used by the German Navy, to test rockets and torpedoes. As the war ended there were rumours of gold bullion being hidden in the lake. Sadly no gold was ever found in the lake, but the story gave me an idea for a novel, and 12 months later “The Kammersee Affair” was published.

Tee: Will you stop going on about the noises. It’s just the wild animals gnawing on bits of body parts I’ve discarded.

I know you’re self published but what persuades you NOT to go for a publishing house?

I think they were called Rejection Slips. Seriously, I thought it would be so easy to get published, but I soon realised that the traditional publishers were only interested in celebrity memoirs. But I did get some offers. Dorrance Publishing in New York wanted my book, and in return all they wanted was $10000.  Yes they were a vanity publisher. Eventually I went with another vanity publisher, also in New York, they only wanted $400. Then in about 2010 along came Night Publishing, (remember them). They were different, and required no money upfront. In 2012 they published my novel “A Killing In The City”. Sadly the whole exercise was not very successful, so towards the end of 2012 I went down the self publishing route. I now have 9 novels, and 3 novellas, all self published.

What do you feel are the pro’s and con’s of self publishing

Self publishing is easy, and cost nothing, if you do everything yourself, including cover design, editing and formatting. With self publishing you have full control. But of course because self publishing is easy and free, everyone is doing it, and competition is high. Much of the material published is rubbish, but it is out there. Being in complete control does, of course, mean that marketing is down to you, and that is getting harder and harder.

If money was no object where would you travel to in the world and who would you take? 

What a question. There are so many places I would like to see, and many of them aren’t that far away. There are also many places that don’t interest me particularly. I suppose if pressed, and money was no object, I would say Australia. Who would I take? My wife and daughter, naturally.

How do you like the ambience of my interview cave? Has it got the right odours or do I need more blood and sawdust on the floor?

Well I’m not too sure about the colour scheme. I mean blood red is OK I guess, but you can have too much I think. And it doesn’t really go with that greenish yellow slime. Did you have an interior decorator do it for you, or is it your own work? The chains hanging on the wall are OK, and the bones scattered around is a nice touch, but I really think adding the rack is stretching things a bit too far.

Tee: It was all my own work actually and I haven’t tried out the rack yet. Can you just remember that I do the jokes, not the victim otherwise you could be a contender.

How many books have you written now and have you got a WIP at the moment? 

To date there have been nine novels, and three novellas. I do have a WIP, but its very early days, and a lot of plotting needs to be thought out. OK, I’ll be honest, I’m having great problems coming up with a plot. I’m also busy getting translations done on Babelcube, and audiobooks on ACX. Which prompts me to say that if anyone is interested in audiobooks, I have a number of free promo codes for my books. Just let me know.

Do you find promotion hard and if so how do you get round it?

As I said previously, marketing is getting harder and harder, and I’m running out of ideas, so any thoughts would be welcomed.

Tee: I’m just the keeper of the blog and victim cave, but maybe someone has some ideas. Contact me at the cave if you have. Just follow the screams.

Which outlet do you favour for your book sales. Are there drawbacks and if so what are they?

At the present time my books are available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iTunes, Kobo, and several other outlets throughout the world. I have books available through Lulu and Createspace. I have books available in several languages including Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Greek. Of all the outlets despite its drawbacks, Amazon is by far the best outlet.

Well, I have to say thank you for bringing me here, but I want it known that you didn’t need to drag me here, screaming and kicking, being chained up was sufficient. Anyway, it’s been a pain. I mean that, a real pain, my arms will never be the same again. How I’ll be able to explain why one arm is so much longer than the other, I don’t know. In conclusion you should be aware that I have been tortured before, but this place does have a bit of style, a bit of class. There’s that wretched noise again …

Tee: I go to all this effort to get a decent interview from someone. Put them in the spotlight and I just get pure abuse. Life sucks sometimes, it really does.

Laters potaters

******

Links:

https://www.amazon.com/John-Holt/e/B003ERI7SI/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_ebooks_1

https://www.draft2digital.com/book/https://www.draft2digital.com/book/

https://www.audible.com/author/John-Holt/B003ERI7SI?ref=a_pd_Myster_c1_author_1&pf_rd_p=a2b4fbf4-be6b-4626-a4a8-a4ef876f050c&pf_rd_r=78TG17SAF8WR5FAJGGWK&

https://www.facebook.com/John-Holt-Author-553064201380567/