Writerly Wednesday Welcomes Joseph Spencer

This is an updated post and we are re-welcoming Joseph Spencer, the author of Grim!  

Joseph and I must have crossed our wires so I am putting together information I have about him and his new release that I lifted from the Damnation Books Website.

I see he went to SIU, I went to college at nearby McKendree in Lebanon where I also did work as a police, fire and ambulance dispatcher.  Who knew we were almost neighbors?

Joseph Spencer

Biography
Joseph Spencer graduated from Southern Illinois University summa cum laude in Communications. He had a ten-year career as a newspaper journalist in Peoria, Illinois, Burlington, Iowa, and Grand Junction, Colorado. Now he works as an emergency communications 9-1-1 dispatcher in Peoria, Illinois.

Visit him online at https://www.facebook.com/#!/joe.spencer3

Webpage
http://www.josephbspencer.com

Blog 
https://www.facebook.com/#!/joe.spencer3

Grim

by Joseph Spencer
eBook ISBN: 9781615727520

Price: $ 5.95
Genre: Horror
Sub Genre: Thriller
Novel of 93000 words
Sex rating: 1
Violence rating: 5
Edited by Avril Dannenbaum
Cover Artwork by Dawné Dominique
Print ISBN: 9781615727537

About the book:
When everything is taken from him, Detective Adam White must choose what’s most important. Does he stick to the heroic ideals which made him a famed paragon of justice and take down a murderous madman? Or does he give in to his vigilante impulses, avenge his wife’s murder, and become the type of killer he’s hunted for so many years?

Buy Link 

Excerpt:
Adam heard a few sounds of Velcro peeling off its straps. Suddenly, Black Mask shed the mystery and ambiguity of his headgear. He became another mystery altogether. What happened to this guy? He looked like he’d seen Hell, escaped, and doctored his face to give everyone else on Earth a preview.

Black Mask obviously suffered from rosacea because his skin was inflamed, swollen, and the angriest shade of red Adam had ever seen. A jagged circular scar similar to a clock face ran from Black Mask’s forehead down his cheeks to his chin. A vertical scar ran straight down the middle of his forehead and along the bridge of his nose. Two horizontal scars extended from the side of his nose and curved upward to his temples. Two additional scars extended outward at angles from just under his nose, across his lips and ended on either side of his chin. All of the scars connected like spokes to the inside of the circular scar in a design resembling a starfish. He also had a solid black teardrop falling from the corner of his left eye. Adam struggled not to have any reaction, but failed to keep the corner of his mouth from inching up into a grimace.

Black Mask smirked and put his right hand up to his face. He pretended to be admiring himself in a mirror. “It’s okay, Detective. Your reaction is fairly common and a lot more subdued than most. Of course, I bet you’ve seen a lot of horrors in your line of work.

“So, you want to know the tale of Heath Grim, huh?”

Buy Link for Grim

Interview

Sally,

I am so sorry that I didnt get the answers to you. I filled them out. My wife and I went on a belated honeymoon in paris, France. I have been out of the country for the past 10 days with limited access to my email. Here are answers. I am sorry if they are too late.

1. My survival kit would include pens, paper, Yankee sugar cookie scented candles, my collection of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, and my Batman graphic novels.

2. Grim’s main character is inspired by the late Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker in Dark Knight. In my mind, he’s forever set the bar for fictional villians. His ability to engineer the fall of Harvey Dent was brilliant. I could easily imagine seeing a Joker type madman in a real world setting.

3. I like to read a wide variety. Recently, the HBO series opened my eyes to George R R Martin’s Song of Fire and Ice series. I read them all back to back. I like his observations on human nature. My wife, Amy, and I love vampire stories. We’ve read Charlaine Harris from Sookie Stackhouse to Aurora Teagarden to Harper Connelly. We also like YA stuff like Beautiful Creatures, Mortal Instruments series, and the Hunger Games books. I also met James Rollins in Chicago and I love his Sigma series.

4. I am just concluding my belated honeymoon with my wife in Paris. We’ve walked 700 plus steps on the Eiffel Tower, cruised at night on a boat tour of the Seine, been educated in French history at Napolean’s tomb at Invalides, walked amongst the gargoyles in the towers at Notre Dame, witnessed the beautiful stained glass at Saint Chapelle, seen the works of Rodin, Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, Manet, Da Vinci, and other master artists at museums, walked amongst vast piles of bones in the city crypts underground, and visited Jim Morrison’s grave at Pere Lachaise Cemetary. The sculpture and architecture throughout the city takes your breathe away.

5. At work, we answer over 360 9-1-1 calls per day at the emergency call center and many more non-emergency lines. These calls range from people getting shot at or stabbed to people complaining about dogs barking and their fast food being too cold.

6. Psychological horror such as possession scares me a lot more than gory scenes. I’ve always feared death because of the unknown. Nothing is promised so I try to do any thing I set my mind to doing.

7. I will always hold March of 2012 as a special time in my heart. My wife and I married on the 14th and Damnation Books accepted my manuscript the very next day.

I am sorry if this is too late. I will make it up to you anyway I can. Thanks for helping me. I appreciate everything.

Because of our crossed wires, I have updated this post with the Interview.

Thank you Joseph and a honeymoon trumps a blog interview every time!

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