John Reinhard Dizonhjre

1. How do you work through self-doubts and fear?

You have to believe in your product, and reinforce that belief with validation. From there you have to aggressively market your product. If you fail, you have to let go and let God.

2. Why do you write?

It’s what I’m good at, and it’s the one thing at which I remain competent as all the other doors begin to close at this advanced age.

3. What writing are you most proud of? (Add a link if you like)

That’d be a tie between Tiara and Nightcrawler. Here’s the Tiara link:

http://www.amazon.com/Tiara-Anniversary-John-Reinhard-Dizon/dp/1494366878/

4. What are you most proud of in your personal life?

In order of achievement: having been a ‘founding father’ of punk rock in Brooklyn during the 70’s, wrestled professionally during the 80’s, earned degrees in Korean martial arts and my BA at UTSA in the 90’s, resurrected The Spoiler heavy metal band in the 00’s, and published fifteen books (and counting) in the 10’s.

5. What books did you love growing up?

I owned the entire James Bond collection as a teen and the entire Conan the Barbarian anthology in my twenties. Ian Fleming and Robert E. Howard have had a great influence on my writing style.

6. Who is your favorite author?

I’d have to go with William Shakespeare as the master of brevity and conciseness. I’d also have to mention Franz Kafka in having influenced me as a postmodernist author.

7. What book should everybody read at least once?

The Bible. It’s a matter of life and death.


8. Location and life experiences can really influence writing, tell us where you grew up and where you now live?

I grew up in Brooklyn NY, did eighteen years in San Antonio TX, and will die here in Missouri. Most of my novels are centered around NYC, though a few feature backdrops in Texas. I also write novels with a Missouri background as well. I recognize it as God’s plan for my life, allowing me to experience three of the most disparate yet essential areas of the USA to draw upon for my writing.

9. Where do you get your inspiration from?

Half of the time I’m looking for new worlds to conquer, so if I see a genre previously unexplored I’ll give it a whirl, as I did with steampunk in writing Stxeamtown. The other half of the time I come across a current topic or event that I can weigh in on. Women’s issues are also important to me, and I feature strong female characters in all my novels.


10. What marketing works for you?

Your best chance is word-of-mouth promotion and having the reviews to back it up. My major focus is on social media, hoping that the work will eventually fall into the right hands with time remaining.

11. Do you find it hard to share your work?

Not at all. I’m at the 20/80 point right now (20% writing, 80% promo) throughout my workday.


12. Do you plan to publish more books?

I’ve got Transplant coming out on Assent Publishing in May 2014, it’s a suspense/thriller novel. I’ve also got Superstition, a supernatural Western, getting ready to self-pub. Stay tuned!