Today I’d like to welcome Peter A. Brandt to Fallen Angel Reviews. Thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions for us today Peter.

To start, will you please tell us a little bit about your current release, The Secrets of Harden Long?

The Secrets of Harden Long was written at a writer’s marathon to raise money for Herizon House, a home for battered women. I decided I wanted to write a comedy and to make the female character strong. This book is about Harden Long, a bit of a slobby Canadian man’s man who likes to write romance novels and one of them, “The Orphaned Prince” has just been published. When the made for TV movie is shown in Texas, a young man is convinced the story is about him and sets out with his girlfriend to Canada to claim his birthright as the crown prince of Canada.

What is your favorite part of a book to write?

I love the ending. It’s such a release to get the book finished, but more importantly it gives me the chance to leave the reader with something quite unique to make them sigh and say “ahh, now that was entertaining.”

Where would you say that you get your most creative ideas?

Two places. I go for walks almost every day downtown Toronto and I watch people and begin to visualize them in my books. The second place is in my car as I commute back and forth to work. Every novel I have written (published or not) the ideas has been generated from one of those two places.

Who would you like to pen a book with, living or dead?

I would have to say Stephen King.

I went through a period of time when I lost confidence in my writing. I ended up buying a copy of “On Writing,” a memoir about Stephen King’s writing. By the time I got done reading his book I realized that almost everything I did when I wrote was pretty close to his way of writing. Suddenly the process of writing wasn’t scary anymore. I learned that a huge megastar like Stephen King had to do all of the same things every other writer has to do, write. This gave me the jump I needed. I went on to write and haven’t stopped since. That truly changed me.

I love how his mind works. Like Stephen King, I have a strange bizarre side to me as well, but I like to channel it into comedy. The Secrets of Harden Long is a bizarre, although hilarious comedy that many people who have read it have asked me “where the heck do you come up with this stuff!”

It says on your website that you performed in a band, what kind of band was it and what did you play?

Soft Rock and top 40. I was extremely active all through high school and into my military career playing in bands. I teamed up with my best friend and we performed ballads at coffee houses and school assemblies. We were also part of a band that performed at every school function.

When I joined the army I hooked up with a group of guys and we played rock. I was the keyboard player (piano, organ) and the lead singer. We were contacted by an agent who wanted to start touring us, but we were in the military and therefore had to decline. I ended up leaving the band a couple of years later. I have a nice voice and love to sing, but I realized I didn’t have a voice that would be considered good enough to make it a career. Deep down I think I always knew that writing was what I was born to do.

What is the wackiest job you can think of that you would like to do?

I was a Vibration Analysis expert with helicopters and prop driven aircraft and I used to say that I could provide vibration service of other kinds as well, but let’s not go there haha!.
I learned to rappel (from ropes) from helicopters and down mountain faces, but here in Toronto there are people who rappel down the side of 60 story buildings cleaning the windows. Now that would be cool, sitting on a little swing washing windows 60 stories up!! They push themselves from side to side washing the windows and then move down to the next set. Now that’s an adventure.

Is there any obstacles you can think of that you face as a man writing romantic stories that a female author would not or vice versa?

Unfortunately I think like a man. I have written woman as the lead character before and I have to get my wife and women friends to read it. Men and women talk and think much differently. What I think the female character would say or do is not necessarily what a woman would actually say or do. It has been educational for me, that’s for sure.

What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?

How much I love to write and hate to write at the same time. I love being an author, my fingers dancing across the keyboard creating books I want people to read and enjoy, but I don’t like writing alone (which you pretty well have to do). I am not a loner, so isolating myself in a room and writing quietly is not for me. It actually got so bad that for awhile, until I figured out what was going on, I couldn’t write. I think that is why I thrive on writer’s marathons. 20 or 30 authors, stuffed into a room sitting side by side for three days writing a novel. I love it! It actually got so bad at home in my office that I had to replace my solid door with a glass door so I could look down the hall at my wife, kids and pets running around the house and not feel like I am missing their company.

Can you tell us something about you that makes you unique?

I have a mind that looks at things differently than most. For example, I see the irony that no one else seems to see when a penniless, homeless man is seen sleeping on a subway grate in front of one of the wealthiest banks in Canada, a bank worth billions! I wrote a story with a homeless man as the lead character because of it.

I am also a tireless self promoter. I love what I write and I want everyone to read my work. I pitched The Secrets of Harden Long to film and production company executives as part of the Toronto Film Festival. I have contacted Wal-Mart and Borders to have it placed in their stores. I have business cards which I pass out to everyone and I even put an ad in the “Everything to do with Sex Show” here in Toronto. Every day I try to do something else to sell myself and my writing to readers around the world. I have a press release set to be sent out shortly. I figure no one can buy The Secrets of Harden Long if they don’t know it’s out there to buy.

How did you celebrate selling The Secrets of Harden Long?

I bought a 19 inch LG flat screen monitor so I didn’t have to stare at my little laptop screen anymore. Now I can sit back and look at one inch letters as I write. It’s great!

Could you tell us what you’re currently working on?

I am writing a novel called The Maple Express. It is a psychological thriller. It’s the story of a 16 year-old rich girl that skips school and during a tremendous thunder and lightning storm has an encounter with a train. She ends up on the train with a small group of people. It is a bizarre journey on a train that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. Sarah soon tires of the train and the group and bands them together to ultimately find their way off. It has a very exciting ending that will surprise you as well as send chills down your spine.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

I have a couple of sides to my writing. I love to write action thriller type books as well as the romantic comedies like The Secrets of Harden Long. I am scheduled to release another romantic comedy in June 2007 with Linden Bay Romance. This one will be more in line with the romance readers that Linden Bay Romance sells to. My characters in Harden Long are a little out there—great for this book but I don’t think necessarily something I can repeat.

Thank you for taking time to speak with me today Peter. Readers, be sure to check out Peter’s website

Thanks Tammy it’s been a pleasure and I look forward to hearing from your readers.

All the best.

Interviewed by: Tammy