Welcome to BK Walker Books Etc. I'm so happy I could join you today at your home in Dallas.
BK: It's a beautiful city. Looking out the nearest window, describe the scene you see.
My very wooded yard. My house is seventy years old and sits on a very wooded lot in Dallas, which is unusual in this hot, flat city.
BK: Tell us about your office. Is it a mess like mine, or is everything in its place?
My office is more virtual these days. I work mainly on my computer and take it with me almost everywhere I go. I get work done whenever I have free time
BK: What is a must-have, such as coffee or a favorite pen, that you need to write?
My laptop and my outline
BK: Do you like to write in silence, or do you need music or background noise?
Silence is best. I really enjoy working late at night but I rarely have the time at night to do that. I host a morning radio show and must get up at 3:30am
BK: Tell us a bit about your hero/heroine, and their development.
A lot of people have accused me of basing the main character on my early life. I can not deny that there are some similarities, but we differ in our approach to life.
BK: As a writer myself, I'm always curious how other writers get through stumble blocks. When you find a story not flowing, or a character trying to fight you, how do you correct it?
The hardest part for me is getting the outline for the story. I can't write until I've got the whole plot figured out. To me, it's kind of like a giant puzzle. I find it best to take really long walks or a jog and work thru the plot in my mind. I make so many changes before I write the first chapter
My outline can look rather messy when I am finally get ready to write the first chapter
BK: Using the letters of your first name as an acronym, describe your book…
M Mystery A Architectural Relevance R Romantically Challenged K Kind of Quirky
BK: How did your writing journey begin?
One Sunday morning when I was young, poor and bored, I took a early bike ride around San Antonio. I'm prone to pause and read every historical marker on the side of the road and the bike was even more conducive to stopping.
By the end of the morning, I was so inspired by the amount that I had learned that I decided to research and write about San Antonio's quirky history. I love the pieces of history that fall thru the cracks (did you know that Dwight Eisenhower was a college football coach in San Antonio?) The collected stories became my first book (San Antonio Uncovered) and the inspiration for The Travis Club.
BK: Using the letters from the word, Summer, how would friends and family describe you?
S Silly U Understanding M Methodical M Merry E Energetic R Realistic
BK: What is the craziest thing you've ever written about, whether it got published or not?
In my first book San Antonio Uncovered, I wrote about a giant piece of modern art about the size of 4 Volkswagons that disappeared after San Antonio's World's Fair. Nobody could figure out what happened to it.
They later discovered that the city workers in charge of dismantling the World's Fair site didn't realize it was art and cut the work into pieces and used it to make tool boxes.
BK: Tell us one thing you've done in life, that readers would be most surprised to know.
I once went to Cuba to play baseball on a goodwill trip.
BK: What can we expect from you in the future?
I am working on a sequel to The Travis Club
This or That...
Coke or Pepsi?
Coke
Night Owl or Early Bird?
Early Bird but not by choice
Fantasy or Mystery?
Mystery
Pen/Paper or Computer?
Computer
Pizza or Burger?
Pizza
Rock or Country?
Country
Chocolate or Vanilla?
Chocolate
Beach or Mountains?
I spent my summer vacation in the Andes in Chile, so I guess it's mountains
Radio
listeners in Dallas/Fort Worth may know Mark Louis Rybczyk better as
'Hawkeye,' the long time morning host on heritage country station,
96.3 FM KSCS. An award-winning disc jockey, Mark, along with his
partner Terry Dorsey, have the longest-running morning show in
Dallas. Mark is an avid skier, windsurfer and traveler. He is also
the host of 'Travel With Hawkeye' a radio and television adventure
feature that airs across the country. The Travis Club is the third
book from Mark Louis Rybczyk.
Publisher:
Self Published
Genre:
Mystery
Release
Date: June 17, 2013
In
a cathedral in downtown San Antonio, just a few blocks from the
Alamo, sits the tomb of Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie and the other Alamo
Defenders. Or so we have been led to believe. What secrets really lie
inside the tomb and what has a group of misguided activists known as
The Travis Club stumbled upon? How far will the city's power brokers
go to protect those secrets?
What would happen if a group of slackers discovered San Antonio's DaVinci Code? Find out in the new book by Mark Louis Rybczyk, The Travis Club.
Excerpt
One Short:
Chapter
1
Noel
Black sharpened a pencil and placed it neatly back in the top drawer
of his glass-topped
desk,
right next to the other sharpened pencils. He glanced at the clock
then straightened a few
paper
clips and a calculator on the stark, polished surface.
11:08
p.m.
He
knew he’d be leaving soon. So important to stay on schedule.
Especially on a night like
tonight,
when a life would come to an end.
Among
the abstract paintings of his office was one unframed black and white
print. A picture
of
her. Not a picture of sentiment, but simply of record. A photo that
would soon belong in a file.
Black
fingered the yellowed photograph and could not help but think of
childhood visits to
his
mother’s father, his abuelo.
He remembered spending the hot San Antonio summers at a
rickety
west-side duplex much different than his parents’ ranch house in
Dallas. Abuelo’s home
was
filled with people, music, food and love.
As
a child, Black would spend summer afternoons within earshot of the
front window,
waiting
for the rumble of his grandfather’s old diesel engine. Then the
home would fill with
other
workers, workers who were grateful to the old lady. All immigrants,
they had left Mexico
hoping
for a better life. The old lady offered them higher wages than the
pecan shellers received.
With
the promise of steady income came the chance to move into a house
with plumbing, to send money
home, and to send for other relatives. His grandfather loved the old
lady and he did too.
More
recently, Noel Black’s feelings about her had changed. She was a
relic, an icon of a
past
era. Now in her final years of the 20th century, the old lady had
outlived her usefulness and
had
no place in the modern San Antonio that he envisioned. She was in his
way. She needed to be
eliminated.
Of
course, this kind of work had to be contracted out. He usually relied
on a local contact
who
understood the procedures. Anytime a life was extinguished, it must
be done with precision in
Noel Black’s world.
2 comments:
Thank you so much for chatting today Mark :)
Great interview. Yikes, up at 3:30! I usually go to bed between 1:30 and 2 am. I am a true night owl. Although working my way through college, I had a job that required me to get up at 4am, never again!
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