Manuscripts Burn


MANUSCRIPTS BURN

"Manuscripts don't burn"
- Mikhail Bulgakov

Hi, I'm horror and science fiction author Steve Kozeniewski (pronounced: "causin' ooze key.") Welcome to my blog! You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and Amazon. You can e-mail me here, join my mailing list here, or request an e-autograph here. Free on this site you can listen to me recite one of my own short works, "The Thing Under the Bed."

Friday, November 14, 2014

Non-Sister Sister Lovin' Mister (Dis or Dat With Pete Barber, author of LOVE POISON)

'Ello, guv'nahs!  I've got the right proud pleasure of 'aving met today's guest.  And 'e talks in no wise like the way I'm pretending wot to now.  'Owever, 'e is from Liverpool, and I almost never get to use the adjective "Liverpudlian" outside of they-who-will-not-be-named, so I'm proud to introduce Liverpudlian author and close personal friend (well, okay, we met once) Pete Barber!  Pete's graciously agreed to put up with my stunted Cockney bullshit and to engage in a dis or dat regarding his newest work, LOVE POISON!  Let's meet the man and then jump right in.  Oh, and, as always, stick around to the end for a giveaway from our mutual publisher, Red Adept.

About Pete Barber:



Pete Barber was born into a blue-collar family in Liverpool, England. Fortunately, a knack for building computer software enabled an early life switch from hard hat and overalls to suit and tie.

After immigrating to the US in the early ’90s, Pete became a citizen and started living the American dream.

Burned out from twenty years in the corporate world, he and his wife, Joyce, bought a run-down, dog-friendly motel in Carolina Beach, NC. A close friend still refers to this as a brain fart.

Eight crazy years later, they sold the business and moved to Lake Lure, North Carolina, where Pete and Joyce currently live with a dozen llamas, two spoiled dogs, a brace of cookie-eating goats, numerous chickens, and one ferocious cat.

Dis or Dat?



SK:  Barber or Berber?

PB:  Well, my family name is Barber, although no one in my family actually cuts hair. It seems likely, though, that my ancestors practiced the art of bloodletting, symbolized by the red and white striped “Barber’s Pole.” That does make it hard to swell with ancestral pride, so perhaps I should buy a vowel and become a carpet maker.

SK:  New Zealand or New Jersey?

PB:  Much of the action in LOVE POISON takes place in New Zealand. That is an expensive taxi ride from New Jersey, and a far more exotic place for my main characters to fall in love. So, despite Camden’s obvious attraction for my Maori gangsters, I’ll stay with the Kiwi angle.

SK:  Mushrooms or "mushrooms?"

PB:  The mushrooms featured in LOVE POISON are a powerful aphrodisiac that make a man fall hopelessly in love with the nearest woman. They are definitely “mushrooms.”


SK:  Maoris or the Mowry sisters?

PB:  I had to Google the Mowry sisters :), so obviously not them. However, when I learned that Tamera broke down on Oprah and confessed that she’d been the victim of racial abuse, I did question my choice of Maori gangsters for my bad guys. Maybe the sista’s husband would have been scarier?


SK:  Love Boat or LOVE POISON?

PB:  A large white ship that carries hundreds of women to an island escape where they’ll be ravaged by love-crazed GQ models does feature heavily in the plot. So, either will work, methinks. 



About LOVE POISON:



Love is a dangerous drug.

Lab assistant and avid climber Amber Wilson is no stranger to risk. But she feels invisible around her handsome boss, Mark, until she accidentally doses him with an irresistible aphrodisiac that leaves him with a suicidal hangover. Abruptly fired, Amber and Mark partner up to research the source of the drug—a rare New Zealand mushroom—in hopes of refining it for safe use.

On their way to New Zealand to collect fungi samples, Amber is blindsided by a deep and intense romantic connection with Mark. Their new business plan is endangered by ruthless Maori mobsters who control a mushroom scheme they’re killing to protect. As the body count rises, Amber struggles to salvage her and Mark’s dreams, but when she risks her heart and acts alone, both of them could end up paying the ultimate price.

Pick up a copy through Amazon, Kobo, Google Play, iBookstore, or Barnes and Noble and be sure to tell your friends about it on Goodreads.

Read an excerpt



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