Interview Kenneth E. Baker

by

Angela Verdenius

1) Kenneth, you’ve written two other books for Wings ePress, both romances--a paranormal romance and a romantic suspense. Now your new release is called Strike Three Armageddon. What genre does this release fall under, and why did you choose this genre after writing romance?

 I believe the novel is a Thriller so would fall under that genre. As to why I’d write a thriller instead of another romance. I have written romance for many years and a few years ago I decided to try another genre. Of all genre’s. I chose Horror. I chose it because it is what is called a nich market and doesn’t have the following of readers that Romance has. Somewhat to my surprise the three Horror novels I have written were very well received and as a matter of fact are out selling my Romance novels.

2) The title is so intriguing. How did you come up with it, and what is it supposed to represent?

 The title is self explanatory if you read the book. First strike Panic. Second strike, Chaos. Third strike Armageddon.

 3) Has it been hard to put yourself from romance to another genre?

For me it hasn’t been hard to change genre’s because I am of the old school that says, Read what you write and write what you read.

4) In your reading time, what genres do you yourself gravitate towards? And do you find it influences you with what you write?

What do I read. Now that is a tough one. I guess it depends on my mood at the time I finish one book and move on to the next. Right now I am reading a Fantasy Trilogy by R. A. Salvatore. After that I plan on reading a series of books by Harry Turtledove who writes Alternate History novels. Do the novels I read influence what I write, of course they do. The key is to develop your own characters and situations which you use to gather the reader into a novel for the time it takes to read it. Keep them spellbound and they will be eager for the next one.

5) In Strike Three Armageddon, were there any characters in particular that you had a hard time writing about? Any characters that didn’t conform to how you wanted them to behave? <g>

Surprisingly all the characters fell into there chosen personas except for the Reverend Bishop. Being the son of a preacher, it was hard for me to make a supposedly man of God a bad guy. Bishop kept trying to do good which I didn’t want him to do. But in the end he became as bad as I wanted him to be.

6) What was the most interesting thing about writing this book?

I found it exciting to keep the book fast paced and action oriented. To have several things going on at once and keep them in the proper order was a labor of love for me.

7) What is the moral in this book, and why?

I believe the moral is that the more chaotic things become, good will always prevail over evil.

8) What other projects have you got up your sleeve in the book writing department? Is there a genre you haven’t tackled that you’d like to, and why?

I have just finished another thriller and the fifth book in the horror series. A romance is on the horizon and will be finished in a few months. Another genre I would like to tackle, not at the present since I already write in several genre’s.

9) I noticed in your biography that you live in an isolated place. Do you like the peace and quiet, and do you find this helps you with your writing? That there are not so many distractions?

After working with the public for 30 years, I do enjoy the solitude of living off by myself. As to if it helps with my writing I can say that it doesn’t hurt.

10) It states in your biography that you “try to write as you see the world”. Is there anything in particular about society or the world that you don’t like at the moment, that you would change if you could, and why?

What a charged question. There are many answers and I guess the best way to answer is to say that the world as we see it is a matter of age and perception. As you age, your perceptions of what matters changes. If you are lucky you reach the stage that you only worry about things you can change not the things you have no control over. Would I change society to fit my beliefs, not a chance, because then I would live in a world with everyone acting like me. What an awful thought. ( A lot of mini-me’s) LOL