Randomize ME

The Silk Code weaves together Neanderthals, Amish, DNA, NYPD, subatomic physics, and silk.

When our kids were little, we used to travel to Lancaster, PA every summer, where I realized that the Amish had much more profound knowledge than we give them credit for.

Also, I’ve realized for years that there must have been all sorts of knowledge in prehistoric, preliterate times that has been lost to us.

Dr. Phil D’Amato: He’s an NYPD forensic detective, and I’m an author and professor, but Phil thinks and reacts the same way I would in extreme, fantastic situations.

And, for that matter, in everyday life situations, too. Or, at least, I think so …

I’m a Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University. I love teaching, and I find it very conducive to my writing.

Not working a 9-5 job gives me much control over my time, and therefore much more opportunity to write.

I was in the process of converting The Plot to Save Socrates into an ebook [now also available on Kindle).

I never believed that Socrates refused to escape Athens when he had the chance, and drank the hemlock. This time travel novel tells what really happened back then, and why …

The authors that most influenced me were Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein – I can only hope that if you like their work, you’d like mine.

‘Helmort‘ is the story that inspired Bram Stoker to write ‘Dracula’.

Two things happened in close succession. One, I was taking medical classes in school. Two, I started becoming interested in my family’s history. Specifically, my mother’s name.

Imagine you’re a young woman, holding your first-born in your arms, a perfect little girl. Why would you name her ‘Helgard’?

(Yes, it means the same in both German and English – ‘guard of hell’ – though ‘hel’ in German translates more into ‘land of the dead’ rather than the ‘pit of flames’ more usual in English.)

Helmort is closest to my heart because I like exploring different mindsets.

For example, he does not view killing humans as being any different from humans killing cows. (If anything, he feels his killing humans is more justified because he does it to survive while humans kill animals simply because they like the taste.)

I was a Licensed Practical Nurse who recently finished school to become a Registered Nurse.

It was during my studies that I realized vampires could be real. Not the supernatural, shape-shifting, killed-by-sunlight version popularized by movies but the realistic, needs-to-drink-human-blood-to-survive creature described in Eastern European folktales.

In ‘Helmort‘, vampirism is passed similarly to hemophilia (aka the ‘bleeding disease’). Therefore female vampires would be exceedingly rare and important because they are the key to creating more vampires.

I am currently working on the sequel to ‘Helmort’.

(The females are coming…)

Hmm. Interesting question.

The obvious answer would be ‘Dracula’ (if it were written in a more modern style) but several people have told me that ‘Helmort’ reminds them of Edgar Allan Poe’s works.

There are really only two ways to live your life.

I’ve been writing about life design, and the power each of us has to create our own life experience, for a little over two years. To a great degree I follow the interests and feedback from my readers, and this book was no exception.

I heard loud and clear from my readers that they liked the idea of living with greater intention; the problem was where to begin when their lives where already full of commitments, relationships and personal baggage. That feedback, and providing the roadmap to create meaningful life change, was the basis for creating the new book.

I especially enjoyed writing the section on successful life changes.

So many people are aware they want more in life, maybe even know what they need to do to get it, but get stuck when it comes to dealing with change.

Understanding how to push through the fear and manage life transitions is powerful stuff and mastering this skill alone can help to put all the pieces of the puzzle together.

Actually, I’ve worked too hard to become a full-time author to think about doing anything else at this point.

My early career was in sales and marketing for the travel industry, and then I spent nearly a decade as a life and small business coach. But I’ve always been a writer. When I wasn’t writing for myself, my employer of the moment made sure I was writing for them. I’ve written everything from sales brochures, to press releases, scripts for travel industry promo films, to a book on nutritional programs for a local Hawaiian nonprofit … and eventually I launched my blog, and that lead to publishing my first book early last year.

I was compelled to finally make the leap to full time author as a result of the feedback and encouragement from my readers and fellow bloggers.

My next book is due out at the end of November and is about the power of self-belief.

We were born into this world with no sense of what we could or could not do. Then, bit by bit life started to teach us limits. But self-belief is learnable, and we can overcome those limitations – it’s about having the courage to become the hero of your own life story.

Just do it.

Seriously, I’m in a lot of writer/author groups and when I hear someone keep talking about how they want to be a writer, or they intend to write a book, I can’t help but reflect on advice a seasoned author gave me at the first writer’s conferences I ever attended. I’d just uttered those infamous words – I want to be a writer – and she looked at me and said, “You are already a writer, now you have to do the work to let the world know what you have to say.”