Thomas Muller interview

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

A little introduction:

Born and raised in rural Pennsylvania, I now live in upstate New York with my wife and our menagerie of critters. 

When did your love of books begin?

My love of reading started very young, as I went with my father every week to the newsstand and he would buy me comic books. From there, I drifted into books themselves - I was someone who actually checked books out of the school library as a kid just to read (the one I can remember from 6th grade was a mystery called The Strange Disappearance of Leon (I mean Noel)). When walking through a store in 1982, I saw a book on a rack that changed my life. I don't know what made me buy it with my own money but Different Seasons made me really appreciate storytelling.

When did you start to have the wish to become an author?

It was after reading Stephen King, and particularly, The Breathing Method. That one book made me want to be a writer. And so I wrote. I would craft short stories, not only for class assignments but for the love of the story.

How have you found the process for becoming an author?

It was brutal for so long. Traditional publishing houses wouldn't take unsolicited material, and finding a literary agent was next to impossible. Pay for play publishing houses wanted way too much up front that most authors would never catch up. Decades went by before I discovered CreateSpace (now KDP). It has been very rewarding. I can write at my own pace; I have wonderful support around me to keep my work honest; and when I am ready, I can publish a new book (spoiler alert!)...

Tell us about your book/books:

My first book, Four Corners, is a collection of shorts geographically linked but also stand-alone stories. They range from the dramatic to outright horror, all in a very Twilight Zone-esque style. My second book is No More Tales To Tell, what I call my near goth horror novel. Trying something different, I weave five short stories into one narrative. The book centers around a group of entitled rich men who gather to tell stories about death. On this particular night, they are joined by a new member.  My third book is Catherine, a mystery/drama about a small town Sheriff who exiled himself to this tiny little hamlet decades ago after a terrible accident. His life is hell, and the discovery of a dead body in town rejuvenates the lawman in him. My fourth book is another collection of shorts, The Prophecy of Nightmares. Three of the stories are outright horror; the fourth is what I would classify as dystopian. My fifth book is the thriller novel, Honor Among Thieves, a tight little piece about a murdered con man and the four criminals who descend upon his home right after his death to look for a stolen fortune. Standing in the way is his widow, who will have none of it. And my sixth book (and biggest to date) is the horror compilation, Nothing To Fear. From snakes to isolation to...well, just plain odd - this book is different.

My seventh book, the horror novel The Kelleher, will be out soon (target date 4/2/23). I'm very proud of this story: A couple is viciously murdered in the small town of Willow Grove, and the case quickly grows cold. The State Attorney General sends an investigator up to northern Pennsylvania to look into it, and he uncovers a series of murders over a 30 year span that are all connected. Can the agent solve the case before more bodies drop?

What do you love about the writing/reading community?

This is fantastic! I've always supported creatives long before I ever was on social media (I have helped two other authors publish their first books and it's a thrill!) and what I find - especially on Twitter - is that there is a ton of support out there. Creatives of all kinds can lift each other up, help promote, give instruction or just feedback. It has been tremendous!

If you could say anything to your readers what would it be?

Interesting, because I have talked to some of them one on one. On a singular level, they want to know more about the stories - and that humbles me. It makes me appreciate them even more. As a whole, I would say to everyone that reads one of my stories...thank you. Deeply, I do appreciate it.

Where can people connect with you?

My main social media page is on Twitter: @ThomasM_Author