Michael Webb's "Infernal Gates" interview and book giveaway

Hello Everyone! Please join me in welcoming Michael Webb to my blog. He's going to share with us a little about himself and his book "Infernal Gates."

Congratulations goes to ... LINDA KISH

Tell us a little about yourself.
I’m a storyteller at heart.  I love making people gasp, cry, laugh, scratch their heads, and think about the world they live in--and the world they’re not quite certain is real.  I’m an eclectic reader, both fiction and non-fiction, and I’m fascinated by the intersection of the Biblical and scientific perspectives, especially as they relate to the study of Light.  I’m a history buff, including ancient, modern, and forbidden.  I love the mountains and enjoy the water.  I live in North Carolina with my wife, a Sun Conure, and our 120 gallon salt water reef tank.  My favorite food is Mexican, I never met a soft chocolate chip cookie I didn’t like, and my favorite music these days is either praise and worship songs or “oldies” from the ’50’s-’70’s.  My all-time favorite movie is a toss-up between Ben Hur and Jeremiah Johnson.  The one thing I fantasize most about is where I’d go first if Time Travel was real.                                                                                

Why do you write the kind of books you do?
 write what I like to read—great stories that leave me craving for more with fascinating, flawed characters, exotic locations around the world, lots of action and adventure, a sense of mystery and intrigue,  all woven together with a thread of interesting, sometimes little-known historical information topped off with a dash of romance.
 also want to engage my readers in ways they might not have been engaged in before by getting them to think about the world they live in from a very different perspective.  We are immersed in an unseen realm, the realm of the spirit, and it impacts our lives dramatically every minute of every hour of every day.  There is war going on in that realm, and it spills over into the physical world we occupy in ways that few people truly understand.  People perish every day because they lack knowledge about this ancient battle for the souls of men and women, children and adults, indeed, all of humanity.  I hope in some small way to get my readers thinking about “What if---” 

Besides writing, what are some of your favorite hobbies?

My wife and I love to travel and we have quite a “bucket list” of places we’d like to visit including Iceland, Chile, and Alaska.  Our favorite place to escape and unwind is St. Johns in the U.S. Virgin Islands.   We love hiking, snorkeling, horseback riding, and visiting museums.  We are also “foodies.”  We love trying new, different, and interesting places to eat and partaking of an eclectic variety of mouth-watering cuisines. 

Have you always wanted to be a writer?
I wrote poetry through high school and the first couple of years of college then tried my hand at short stories.  I realized that the stories I wanted to tell wouldn’t fit into either of those molds.  I started thinking about writing novels as a career in my late twenties, but didn’t begin working at the craft regularly until 1984.  I spent the next six years researching and writing a novel that was longer than Moby Dick, War and Peace, or Atlas Shrugged.  When I finished it, I proudly sent it off to an agent and received an eight page, single-spaced, typed rejection letter.  I had to pay this NY Agent a fee to read the darn thing, so the rejection letter cost me a little less than $100/page.  Anyway, that attempt at “The Great American Novel” eventually became a trilogy.  I recently re-issued the entire trilogy as E-books

 Oh, by the way, I still have the rejection letter, and no, I didn’t frame it.

 Too long—just like my first attempt at a novel!

What advice would you give to a beginning writer?

Writers write. We can’t help ourselves.  We have to write or we’ll explode.  If you have a story burning in you, put it down on paper.  If you decide it’s something others would enjoy, make certain you’ve done your very best to make it excellent.  Don’t be afraid to fail, and don’t wonder if you’ll ever become famous.  Just write--and repeat the process. 
Be clear about why you write and who your audience is.  Become knowledgeable about your craft and the market.  Be passionate about your writing.  Seek out those who can help you succeed whenever and wherever possible (writing is ultimately a very solitary habit).  Last, but not least, “Never, never, never, ever give up” (courtesy of Winston Churchill).

The rest is up to God.

What book are you currently working on?
’m finishing a follow-up story to Infernal Gates, titled Devils’ Cauldron.  It’s not really a sequel, however.  I fell in love with the characters while writing Infernal Gates and they kept clamoring inside my head to tell the world more about them.  So, I’m writing the story they’re dictating to me.  Much of the action is set in Antarctica, another place I’ve put on my “bucket list” to visit.  I’ve also started thriller #7 that I’m really excited about, tentatively titled Ghost Hunter.

Please tell us a little about your book.
Ethan Freeman wakes up one morning and discovers that he is the sole survivor of a commercial airline plane crash that killed everyone on board, including his wife and two teenage children.  He becomes the FBI’s number one suspect in what is believed to be an act of domestic terrorism and must find a way to prove his innocence.  The problem is, he was on the plane, sitting next to his wife, across the aisle from his children and blacked out the instant of the fiery crash.

As Ethan struggles to find out what happened to him and the others on the plane and wrestles with his guilt and torment over the death of his entire family, he is drawn into an ever-deepening, epic, and millennia-old conspiracy.  An ancient evil has been released-- from the prison it was sealed into during the time of the pharaohs--by a mysterious and powerful cult of demonic monks known as The Nine.  The Nine have summoned the ancient evil with the intent of prematurely opening the angelic prison spoken about in the Book of Revelation and referred to as The Abyss.  They seek to steal the Key to the Abyss from The Guardians and use it to unleash a holocaust upon an unsuspecting world.

Ethan is thrown together with an eclectic mix of individuals, including the woman heading up the crash investigation for the NTSB, a Black FBI agent who is a descendant of Thomas Jefferson, a British astrophysicist, an orthodox rabbi who survived Auschwitz, a Hmong warrior who wields a mysterious and unusual weapon, and a South African wilderness guide who is a tenth generation shaman.  Together, the seven companions must stop The Nine and prevent the ancient evil from opening The Abyss, unleashing unimaginable evil and enslaving humanity.

How can readers find you on the Internet?
Connect with Michael J. Webb: Website: http://www.michaeljwebbfiction.com/, Amazon Author Page: http://amzn.to/P2CLn1, Facebook http://www.facebook.com/MichaelJWebbBooks

                                                                      Fiction

Infernal Gates:     Kindle
The Oldest Enemy:  Book Video Trailer http://bit.ly/WkK5dL, Kindle http://amzn.to/RWyv4c, Nook http://bit.ly/ZJhymL, Paperback http://amzn.to/Rolsf1
The Master’s Quilt:   Kindle http://amzn.to/Z2SJQS       Nook http://bit.ly/17K2Qx4
The Nephilim Parchments: Kindle http://amzn.to/10fON1N   Nook http://bit.ly/15qcOnZ
The Song of the Seraphim:    Kindle http://amzn.to/11gUNTD   Nook http://bit.ly/11mLqS8

                                                                  Non-fiction
In the Cleft of the Rock: Insights into the Blood of Jesus, Resurrection Power, and Saving the Soul             Kindle  http://amzn.to/17S6Aze   Paperback http://amzn.to/19V7CLM

 

Thanks so much, Michael, for visiting with us!

Drawing will be held Oct. 5