A Conversation with Author Bobby Nash

We are delighted to welcome author Bobby Nash to Omnimystery News today.

Bobby writes in a number of genres, and his recent new series of action thriller ebooks opens with Snow Falls (Stark Raving Group; March 2014 ebook format). We recently had the opportunity to spend some time with him talking about his work.

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Omnimystery News: Tell us a little more about your new series.

Photo provided courtesy of
Bobby Nash

Bobby Nash: Abraham Snow is the title character in my new series of action thriller ebooks. The first is called Snow Falls and is available now. Snow Storm is coming up this summer and I believe Snow Drift will be story number three, but don't hold me to that. It could change.

OMN: When starting a new project, how do you decide if it will be one of a series or not?

BN: In the case of the Snow series, each story is stand-alone, but there are threads and an ongoing mystery running through each. For Evil Ways and the upcoming Evil Intent, each novel is also a stand-alone, but features the same cast of characters. Deadly Games! and the Alexandra Holzer's Ghost Gal series follow that same formula. Then, there are times when I have a stand-alone with no intention of making it a series as with my Earthstrike Agenda novel.

OMN: You've written books featuring both male and female leads. How do you go about finding the right voice for your characters?

BN: In Snow Falls, Snow and I are both men, although he's much more action-oriented than I am. I am probably closer to Harold Palmer in Evil Ways and Evil Intent although he starts getting into the action too. I wrote two novels with female leads, Alexandra Holzer's Ghost Gal: The Wild Hunt and Domino Lady "Money Shot". In these cases, the characters were pre-determined. Alexandra Holzer is a real person and is involved with the creation of this fictionalized version of herself. Domino Lady has been around since 1936 so she too was pretty well established.

OMN: Suppose some of your characters were to interview you. What would their first question be?

BN: Snow would want to know what's taking so long between his first and second story being released. I'd tell him that the publisher has assured me it will be out soon.

Domino Lady would ask me out for drinks then trick me into revealing something secret she could use against me later. I'd probably tell her anything she wanted to know.

Harold palmer is an FBI profiler. He would want to know why I decided to become a writer. I would tell him how much I love telling stories. I'd probably end up on an FBI watch list afterward, if I'm not already on one.

OMN: How would you categorize your work?

BN: I write in multiple genres. Snow Falls and Deadly Games! are action/thrillers. Evil Ways and Domino Lady "Money Shot" are mystery/suspense/thrillers. Alexandra Holzer's Ghost Gal: The Wild Hunt is YA/paranormal/thriller. A lot of my work is definitely pulpy.

OMN: How would you tweet a summary of one or two of your books?

BN: Snow Falls: Abraham Snow retires after his cover is blown. An assassin's bullet pulls him back into the family business. Business is booming.

Alexandra Holzer's Ghost Gal: The Wild Hunt: Alexandra Holzer is just your average 20-something trying to make it in business. She just happens to fights ghosts and ghouls for a living.

OMN: When starting a new book, what comes first: the characters or the storyline?

BN: Characters are always at the heart of any story so most of the time character comes first. There are times where a plot pops into my head and I have to determine which character best fits that plot.

OMN: How much of your own personal or professional experience have you included in your books?

BN: There's a little bit of me in everything I write. Each main character has at least one things that's genuinely an extension of me in them. Sometimes it's something simple like a character's previous job was a job I had or they visited the same cities, things like that. Some have my personality, others my dislike of certain foods or my love of certain types of music. Stuff like that.

OMN: Tell us a little more about your writing process.

BN: My plots are loose. I am no good with tight outlines because it feels like writing the story twice to me and I lose that spontaneity that I find when I have a loose roadmap to follow than tightly plotted step by step directions. I like to get to know the characters and let them breathe. Once I do that, I can follow the characters through the plot and see how each of them handles a particular situation. Sometimes characters pop into or out of a story as it develops. I'm not fully a plotter or pantser, more like somewhere in the middle. I like to refer to myself as Captain Plottypants!

OMN: How do you go about researching the plot points of your stories?

BN: I do book and internet research. If I can, I walk the locations, or locations similar to the ones I plan to use in my story. I talk to experts. As part of my research for the upcoming Evil Intent novel, I spent a day with the FBI, which was an amazing experience.

With the pulp stories, many of them are written as period pieces so there is a challenge to learn how much a cab ride in New York cost in 1952 or what year were seaplanes invented. Both of those were real questions that came up in writing sessions.

OMN: How true are you to the settings in your books?

BN: In Evil Ways, I created the fictional town of Sommersville, Georgia. It is very much based on the town of Winder, near where I live, but I wanted things in the town and the surrounding county that did not truly exist there so I created my own county and was able to add in what I needed to make it work. I have a map of the town as well as other bits of biography on the place for future reference. That came in handy when I wrote Deadly Games! Because I needed a Georgia town for part of the story and Sommersville fit perfectly. It also allowed me to bring back some characters from Evil Ways who live in that town. I will no doubt revisit Sommersville again.

OMN: If we could send you anywhere in the world to research the setting for a story, where would it be?

BN: London. I would love to visit and set a story or two there.

OMN: What are some of your outside interests?

BN: Writing used to be a hobby, but no longer. I seek out and purchase books, comic books, and moves, plus the odd collectible. I am a huge Fantastic Four fan so I have a number of FF related pieces of merchandise.

OMN: What is the best advice — and harshest criticism — you've received as an author?

BN: Best advice: If you want writing to be your career, then you have to treat it like a job.

Harshest criticism: One reader left a review of an anthology I worked on and called out something that happens in my story as unbelievable, which made her not enjoy the story as much as she would have liked. The unbelievable thing was something I not only researched, but had proof that it worked exactly as I wrote it. Of course, I did not tell her any of this because nothing good ever comes from arguing against a bad review.

OMN: Complete this sentence for us: "I am a thriller writer and thus I am also …".

BN: I am a thriller writer and thus I am also a little bit nuts. I mean, there are all of these characters in my head talking all at once.

OMN: Have you ever written under a pen name?

BN: I've never used a pen name. I did come up with a couple so, who knows, maybe one day down the road …

OMN: How do you come up with your titles?

BN: Evil Ways, for example, was titled based on the song. In the story, one of the characters is a musician. He sings a few classic rock songs with the house band in a bar. One of those was "Evil Ways" and I thought it was a good placeholder title. I stuck and I kept it.

OMN: How involved are you with cover design?

BN: The second printing of Evil Ways was designed by me. An artist pal of mine, Mark Maddox, did the graphic I used on the cover and I handled the layout. I think it came out great and I like it much better than the original cover.

OMN: What kind of feedback have you received from readers?

BN: Most of my feedback has been positive. I run a regular column on my website called "Sometimes I Get Asked Stuff …" so I get questions submitted to me regularly for that.

OMN: What kinds of books did you read when you were young?

BN: I read adventures, sci-fi, mysteries, and comic books as a kid. As a writer, I have written all of these and I think the books I read as a kid helped inspire my creativity.

OMN: And what do you read today for pleasure?

BN: There are certain authors I follow regularly. I also look for the types of stories that appeal to me in a variety of genres.

OMN: What about television? What series do you enjoy watching?

BN: As with my reading pleasures, I'm all over the place with what I watch on TV. I like action, adventure, comedy, sci-fi, you name it. Some current favorites are Supergirl, The Flash, the NCIS shows, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Person of Interest, Elementary, and more. I think I might watch too much TV.

OMN: Create a Top 5 list for us on any topic.

BN: Top 5 favorite films (at least as of today):

• JAWS;
• Tombstone;
• Captain America: Winter Soldier;
• Star Wars; and
• Raiders of the Lost Ark.

OMN: What's next for you?

BN: There's always another book, another project in the pipeline. I have plenty of work to keep me busy. At some point this Spring I would like to take a vacation too, somewhere with a beach.

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Bobby Nash writes novels, comic books, short stories, novellas, graphic novels, and the occasional screenplay for a number of publishers and production companies. He was named Best Author in the 2013 Pulp Ark Awards. Rick Ruby, a character co-created by Bobby and author Sean Taylor, also snagged a Pulp Ark Award for Best New Pulp Character of 2013. Bobby's novel Alexandra Holzer's Ghost Gal: The Wild Hunt won a Paranormal Literary Award in the 2015 Paranormal Awards.

For more information about the author, please visit his website at BobbyNash.com and his author page on Goodreads, or find him on Facebook and Twitter.

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Snow Falls by Bobby Nash

An Abraham Snow Thriller

Publisher: Stark Raving Group

Abraham Snow's career ended with a bullet. Left for dead, the undercover operative barely survived an assassin's bullet. After a long and painful recovery, Snow retires and returns home.

After thwarting an assassination attempt on a diplomat that endangers his sister, Snow leaps into action to keep his family out of a killer's crosshairs.

— Snow Falls by Bobby Nash. Click here to take a Look Inside the book.