Tell us your name and then a bit about yourself.

R.K. Gleason – I’m married to one of the coolest people I’ve ever met and she is the one who encouraged me to write. I published my firs book in 2015 and at the time of writing this, I have 12 books in my library. I never intended or aspired to be an author and I always just thought everyone had an imagination as vivid (or corrupt) as mine. It wasn’t until I was 53 years old I realized that wasn’t the case and not everyone had their own movies playing in their heads all day. I rationalized it was what made me a consummate liar but never equated it to being an author. That was 12 or more books ago and just take a look at the twisted nonsense I’ve put out since then. I never started any this for the money and on the extremely rare occasions when someone recognizes me, it always makes me nervous. Mostly because the first thing that pops into my head is the person is with law enforcement.

When you are writing a book, which is harder? The first book in the series or the others after it?

I guess it the first one, or maybe the ones that follow. Hell! I have no idea. They’re all fucking hard. What I can say is writing the follow ups are usually more familiar but that doesn’t always make it easier. Some of my returning characters are assholes and unpleasant to be around. Sort of like family members and accepting the good with the bad. I seldom like the things my characters say or do but I still love them all. Perhaps I enjoy spending time with the villains the most and especially when they didn’t start out that way. Heroes are easy but villains, those fuckers are complex! For me, the best part of starting new books, is it’s like meeting a whole new group of people you haven’t learned to distrust yet.

What comes first? The plot or characters

This is like the age old chicken or egg question, so settle back and let this one sink in. The egg had to come first and here’s why. You have to have an egg to hatch a chicken. Meaning, the chicken had to come from an egg, because it’s the truth and you know it. Hatching from an egg is part of what makes it a chicken! But that fucking egg could have come from anywhere. A penguin could have laid the thing! Or an ostrich. Hell, the egg could have come from an alligator or a snake. But where ever it squeezed its way out of, there was a chicken inside. As far as plot or character goes, it depends on how the movie starts.

What author would you love to meet (Who is your unicorn author)?

David Wong, but meeting your idols doesn’t always work out as you’d hope. I learned that lesson with Tom Savini.

If you could ask that author three questions about their writing, writing process, or books, what would they be?

What are your feelings on the movie version of John Dies at the End? Have you aver seen a shadow man? Who really wrote the lyrics to Camel Holocaust?

What is harder? The blurb writing, naming the book, or naming the series.

The blurb, because it’s the longest out of the three choices.

What is your favorite memory so far as an author?

Traveling to Belfast with my wife for a book signing at the Titanic museum. We spent my birthday walking around the city and ended up miles away at a museum we had never heard of or planned on visiting.

What is your definition of success?

I think success is to be utterly happy and I think I’ve already made it. This pandemic has understandably been very difficult for people. We’ve been fortunate enough to have jobs that allowed us to work from home since this all began. This means I’ve been able to spend every day with my best friend and we never seem to get tired of each other’s company. If that’s not the true meaning of success, I’m not sure what else there could be. Sure, I’d like to be wealthy, but only so we could do more things together. Fame has its appeal for some, but I’m a little socially awkward and have a gift for saying or doing the exactly wrong thing at the worst time, and being a celebrity drives people to be on the watch for those things. Nope, No thanks. Although, maybe sleeping in might be nice.

What are your social links?

Goodreads: https://tinyurl.com/y5kyqxwk
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GleasonRk
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/r.k.gleason/
Website: https://www.rkgleason.net/

What are your buy links?

Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/yb6fgdy2
Audible: https://tinyurl.com/y8dojb8d