Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Zach Neal: Just some guy with a day job.

In real life I work at an agency of the provincial government.
A small group of us were putting together a 350-page report on some obscure subject, of interest only to forestry management professionals, when someone mentioned, prophetically enough, that if we could do that in three or four weekends then there was no reason why we couldn’t write the next Great Canadian Novel. I don’t know if any of the others ever did anything about it.
It got me thinking, as I’d always enjoyed books and stories. In fact I worked on the high school paper.
Also at one time wanted to get into law enforcement. I’m not a really big guy or anything like that and it seemed a bit far fetched, and my life took a different turn. I suppose the attraction with the mysteries and thrillers is easy enough to understand, it looks fun to write and everyone seems to be doing it. But that's mostly what's on my own bookshelves.
Now, a couple of years later, I’m just some IT guy who writes, the more so since I am one of the younger widowers out there. That's a painful and personal story and I'll tell it some other time.
The Painted Killer arose out of my fascination for my Uncle Earl’s stories about the Hippie Era and some of the escapades which he claims to have witnessed or been involved in.
Inspiration is a fickle thing, even in hindsight, but with the recent decease of my wife I threw myself into the story more as an escape than anything. It allowed me to work a few things out, maybe.
I have a full-length novel coming out soon, and thanks to the freedom offered by digital publishing, I don’t have to go through the whole rigmarole of looking for agents, publishers or the like.
As stated clearly above, I have a day job, and I like it okay. It pays the bills.
My novel Master of Darkness will be available by April 1 or thereabouts.

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