Featured Suspense Author – Steven Nedelton

I’d like to introduce you to the next featured suspense author, Steven Nedelton. It was Mark Twain who lured him into reading, but it was the challenge of his friends that started him writing.  

Steven was introduced to reading Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn by one of his aunts, otherwise known as a Twain fanatic. Initially, there was a fairly weak bond between him and anything bookish at best - partly because his Aunt was not his favorite one and, most probably, because of his loathing for anything ‘grammatical’.  It wasn’t until he was around thirteen and his friends were starting to write that it became a matter of personal pride, so he joined in. These few facts nailed ‘the old lid to his coffin’—Steven became addicted to books and writing.

He started his first serious writing with the Crossroads novel, while employed in Arizona. There was a thought-provoking article in a major newspaper about the use of psychics in international espionage and Steven saw his first green light. Nowadays, he writes novels with crime, mystery, paranormal and noir. His published titles are, Crossroads, The Raven Affair, Fear!, and Coma Sins/The Madness of Ben Bluman co-authored with Joe Parente. Three of these novels were evaluated by the Midwest Book Review, The U.S. Review of Books and Apex Reviews and were rated 'Five Stars.’. His current book, Tunnel/The Lost Diary is available now.

The Tunnel/The Lost Diary Synopsis

It all began in an abandoned coal mine tunnel at the end of World War II... Bendiks (Ben) Kalninsh, a teenage boy, spends his summer afternoons spying on soldiers who gather at the old coal mine tunnel entrance.  His persistence is finally rewarded one afternoon when he sees an officer and two soldiers carry two suitcases into the tunnel.  When the three men depart, he enters the cold and musty darkness hoping to find stolen guns the soldiers left in there. But– he is not alone in the tunnel. What happens next will change the life of his family – though not yet and not in the country of his birth.

Many years later, two older men are viciously murdered in the small community of Forks, Minnesota. The boy, now a man and an up and coming sports star, discovers his life is at risk and his father one of the murder victims. What was in those suitcases that would suddenly put so many lives at risk? And then, all of a sudden, those investigating these incidents are told to cease their activities, even threatened and blackmailed with lies. Or, they simply disappear.  Is one of Hoover's top men in the FBI involved? War, stolen gold, a secret diary, murder! Did it really happen?

The Start of Tunnel/The Lost Diary

Tunnel/The Lost Diary is a fiction novel. Steven wanted to write suspense with a lot of action and espionage. He used a friend’s recollections and the various characters were mostly composites of individuals he had met in his life or read about. He assumes the idea about starting the novel with a young boy came from Tom Sawyer. The main theme in the book evolved as he wrote the novel. 

Why Self-Publish?

It took him a while to get published with his first book, Crossroads. He got in with Publish America, and a year later, Steven was able to get the same book republished by Asylett Press, Inc. When Asylett Press went out of business, he decided to go on his own. It was then that the self-publishing became doable in e-books and in print.

When did you get the writing bug?

Steven started writing fairly early—in his high school days. It was mostly short stories. The serious desire to write a novel came much later, sometime in 2000. A lot of it had to do with his work. Being an engineer, Steven didn’t have the time to write.

Links for purchasing Tunnel/The Lost Diary:

http://amzn.to/QOC3pd (Paperback and Kindle)

http://bit.ly/QOCgIT

Author Website:

http://www.snedelton.com

Tunnel/The Lost Diary Book Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_pP6fMyEvA

I want to thank Steven Nedelton for taking the time to share his story with us and participating in Pay It Forward. Much luck and success with your book and writing. Please spread the word about Steven Nedelton – http://bit.ly/UqWJEc.

Mark Twain and Writing,

Bea

Now I Know!

Back in the day when learning words and telling time were all I needed to do, I remember my grandmother teaching me how to read from the Dick and Jane books. They were vintage books used to teach children to read from the ‘30s into the ‘70s, and are still sold today. There was a lot of repetition in them, such as “Look. Look Up. Look Up at the sky”, so it was easy for children to learn words and sentences. I also remember the colorful illustrations in these books.

Then many, many years passed before I had any desire to read again. When I started back, I went through a phase where I would only read Sidney Sheldon books. At the time, I had no idea how much this man accomplished with international praise for his scripts, movies, plays and novels, let alone that he was from Chicago. He thought of his writing success as a miracle. “I was born in Chicago during the Depression and both my parents were third grade drop-outs," he recalled. "My father never read a book in his life and I was the only one in the family to complete high school." His books were mostly crime fiction and thrillers. He was the only author I’d read, and that was the last time I ever stuck to only one writer. Unfortunately, Mr. Sheldon passed away in 2007, but left behind a legacy of words.

I then ventured out and started reading Mary Higgins Clark and Victoria Holt, and both of these women wrote suspense with a romantic flare. I’ll admit that I didn’t know what genre any of these writers wrote until now. I always thought they were romance novels with an ingredient of suspense. After these female authors, I started reading Sandra Brown, who also writes suspense.

I find all of this interesting because for a few years I didn’t read many women authors (this in no way suggests that women authors aren’t great writers). Since my early favorites, I’ve gone on to read many authors of both gender and all different genres. After finding out that all of my favorite writers, who got me back into reading, were suspense and thriller writers, it now makes sense that I have written a psychological suspense thriller. 

Genres are and will always be foreign to me. Each category has its definition, but some of these definitions blend in with others, such as thrillers and suspense. I believe they both go hand in hand. How can you have a thriller without suspense, and how can suspense not be thrilling? Since I’m not one who has done extensive research in genre categorization, I’ll have to leave it up to the experts.

What’s your favorite genre, or who is your favorite author? Has it changed since your earlier days of reading?

Revisions and Tea,

Bea

Bear with Me

I have finally finished my third revision and what a relief. After going through my fabulous beta’s comments, and taking in my editor’s suggestions, I dug deep on this revision. This edit added 24 more pages, thickening the suspense, and I can’t thank my beta reader and editor enough for their hard work and thoroughness. Along with the additional chapters, I created a character list (as they appear) and another document for dates, notes and additional chapters.

It felt like I was working on this revision for a long time, but I want to make it the best it can be. In my experience as a reader, I think thrillers are more plot driven than character driven, but mine has to balance the two. It’s important I keep the two a high priority. As a whole, my characters and plot need to bring the reader in and keep them interested, and I think I’m really close to the finish line.

Thank you for following along with my writing. Hope you have a nice week.