Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Chatting with Mark "Hawkeye" Rybczyk - The Travis Club Tour & Giveaway


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:

BrandiKae said...

Thank you so much for chatting today Mark :)

Teddy Rose said...

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!