Good Morning, Booklovers!
‘Tis the season to be jolly, and what better way to hit the right mood than welcoming another author to the Coffee Chat? Join me in saying hello to Robert McCaw, author of mystery/thriller, Death of a Messenger.
So nice to meet you, Robert. How do you take your coffee?
RMcC: Black, ground and brewed in a DeLonghi machine. I am fond of saying I like it black and bitter. I’ve always liked it black, and the Army taught me to take it bitter.
Ally: I can’t say I prefer it bitter, but my magic pot can make it any way you like. While I pour, please tell readers something of your background.
‘Tis the season to be jolly, and what better way to hit the right mood than welcoming another author to the Coffee Chat? Join me in saying hello to Robert McCaw, author of mystery/thriller, Death of a Messenger.
So nice to meet you, Robert. How do you take your coffee?
RMcC: Black, ground and brewed in a DeLonghi machine. I am fond of saying I like it black and bitter. I’ve always liked it black, and the Army taught me to take it bitter.
Ally: I can’t say I prefer it bitter, but my magic pot can make it any way you like. While I pour, please tell readers something of your background.
Bio:
Robert McCaw grew up in a military family, traveling the world. He is a graduate of Georgetown University, served as a US Army Lieutenant, and earned his law degree from the University of Virginia. He was a partner in a major international law firm in Washington, DC, and New York City, representing major Wall Street clients in complex civil and criminal cases. Having lived on the Big Island of Hawaii, McCaw imbues his writing of the Islands with his more than a 20-year love affair with this Pacific paradise. He now lives in New York City and La Jolla, California, with his wife, Calli.
Something unusual about you that isn’t in your regular bio: “During my training at the US Army Airborne School, my main parachute failed to open on my third jump. I came down safely on my reserve parachute, but it was a memorable experience.” (Ally comment: Wow! I bet!)
Website:
www.robertbmccaw.com
Social media:
https://www.facebook.com/Robert-B-McCaw-923924024346405/timeline/
https://twitter.com/RobertBMcCaw
Robert McCaw grew up in a military family, traveling the world. He is a graduate of Georgetown University, served as a US Army Lieutenant, and earned his law degree from the University of Virginia. He was a partner in a major international law firm in Washington, DC, and New York City, representing major Wall Street clients in complex civil and criminal cases. Having lived on the Big Island of Hawaii, McCaw imbues his writing of the Islands with his more than a 20-year love affair with this Pacific paradise. He now lives in New York City and La Jolla, California, with his wife, Calli.
Something unusual about you that isn’t in your regular bio: “During my training at the US Army Airborne School, my main parachute failed to open on my third jump. I came down safely on my reserve parachute, but it was a memorable experience.” (Ally comment: Wow! I bet!)
Website:
www.robertbmccaw.com
Social media:
https://www.facebook.com/Robert-B-McCaw-923924024346405/timeline/
https://twitter.com/RobertBMcCaw
INTERVIEW:
Ally: Where do you do most of your writing - desktop, laptop or on paper? Does it make a difference whether it’s a first or last draft?
RMcC: Over time, I’ve used paper, a desktop computer, and a laptop. Now I write exclusively on a laptop whether I’m planning a new novel or making the last pre-production edits to a manuscript. A laptop is both portable and convenient enabling me to work anywhere—home, library, airplane, or hotel room. As long as I have an Internet connection, I can also create instant backups on the Dropbox cloud, so even if my computer should die, I won’t lose work. A laptop with Internet access also facilitates research and fact-checking and makes it easy to preserve research, including cellphone pictures I take and email to myself to assist in describing some settings.
I typically begin my novels on Scrivener software because it allows for easy reorganization, and then later transition to Word as the manuscript comes together. The search function, spelling, and grammar functions of Word, combined with Grammarly, provide powerful proofreading capabilities.
Ally: Everyone seems to be on social media or talking about it. Do you have a favorite?
RMcC: Besides providing me opportunities to advertise my work and connect with those who read my novels, I’m not a huge fan of social media. In many ways, the social media platforms seem to trivialize life and often serve as a conduit for spreading misinformation.
People also think of social media as “free,” but nothing could be farther from the truth. These platforms are commercial enterprises whose users pay handsomely by relinquishing rights to their personal data, as well as subjecting themselves to targeted commercial and political messaging. While some platforms offer various opt-out provisions, many have not lived up to their advertised promises to protect the data they obtain from their users.
Ally: What’s the best writing/marketing advice you can pass on to other writers?
RMcC: I have three pieces of advice.
My first advice to fiction writers is always to write what you know. Own your material. In the most general terms, that means choosing settings you’ve visited, picking characters shaped by experiences similar to yours, and dealing with plots and themes with which you have a personal connection. I am not suggesting that your writing be biographical, but unless you are writing fantasy or science fiction, your story will have greater appeal if it’s authentic and believable. I find that the further I venture from my own experiences, the harder it is to depict the details in the setting, dialog, action, and characters’ mindsets that make for a gripping story.
Second, swallow your pride of authorship and find a good editor. Most writers I know (including me) get too close to their own words to see the gaps, inconsistencies, and other flaws in their work. A good editor sees these anomalies and does not tell you what to write but offers a new and different perspective on what you have written, hopefully enabling you to improve. My wife Calli reads all my books, typically more than once, and her input is invaluable. My characters are more compelling, my scenes more realistic, and leaps of logic closed because of her insights. And I also encourage and welcome suggestions from my agent and my publisher.
Lastly, follow your instincts and don’t try to jump on the latest trend. It takes most authors well more than a year to go from a completed manuscript to a published book. What’s trendy today is unlikely to be au courant tomorrow. You have a greater chance of setting the trend than getting ahead by following what’s hot today.
Ally: What is your next writing project? Anticipated release date?
RMcC: There’s little good to say about the Coronavirus pandemic, but the isolation it’s imposed has created more time for writing. Thus, I have three projects in reasonably advanced stages. First, Oceanview Publishing has contracted to republish the third book in my Hawaiian Mystery series. That book, Death of a Messenger, with some updates and changes, will be published in January 2021. Its advanced readers’ copies will soon be available to reviewers.
Second, Oceanview Publishing has also agreed to publish the fourth book in the series, Treachery Times Two, in January 2022. I’m now working on final changes to that manuscript.
Lastly, I have another somewhat different novel in the works, but it’s too soon to say more about that.
Ally: We’ll look forward to all of them. Now it’s time for trivia. Which of the questions did you choose?
RMcC:
Ally: Where do you do most of your writing - desktop, laptop or on paper? Does it make a difference whether it’s a first or last draft?
RMcC: Over time, I’ve used paper, a desktop computer, and a laptop. Now I write exclusively on a laptop whether I’m planning a new novel or making the last pre-production edits to a manuscript. A laptop is both portable and convenient enabling me to work anywhere—home, library, airplane, or hotel room. As long as I have an Internet connection, I can also create instant backups on the Dropbox cloud, so even if my computer should die, I won’t lose work. A laptop with Internet access also facilitates research and fact-checking and makes it easy to preserve research, including cellphone pictures I take and email to myself to assist in describing some settings.
I typically begin my novels on Scrivener software because it allows for easy reorganization, and then later transition to Word as the manuscript comes together. The search function, spelling, and grammar functions of Word, combined with Grammarly, provide powerful proofreading capabilities.
Ally: Everyone seems to be on social media or talking about it. Do you have a favorite?
RMcC: Besides providing me opportunities to advertise my work and connect with those who read my novels, I’m not a huge fan of social media. In many ways, the social media platforms seem to trivialize life and often serve as a conduit for spreading misinformation.
People also think of social media as “free,” but nothing could be farther from the truth. These platforms are commercial enterprises whose users pay handsomely by relinquishing rights to their personal data, as well as subjecting themselves to targeted commercial and political messaging. While some platforms offer various opt-out provisions, many have not lived up to their advertised promises to protect the data they obtain from their users.
Ally: What’s the best writing/marketing advice you can pass on to other writers?
RMcC: I have three pieces of advice.
My first advice to fiction writers is always to write what you know. Own your material. In the most general terms, that means choosing settings you’ve visited, picking characters shaped by experiences similar to yours, and dealing with plots and themes with which you have a personal connection. I am not suggesting that your writing be biographical, but unless you are writing fantasy or science fiction, your story will have greater appeal if it’s authentic and believable. I find that the further I venture from my own experiences, the harder it is to depict the details in the setting, dialog, action, and characters’ mindsets that make for a gripping story.
Second, swallow your pride of authorship and find a good editor. Most writers I know (including me) get too close to their own words to see the gaps, inconsistencies, and other flaws in their work. A good editor sees these anomalies and does not tell you what to write but offers a new and different perspective on what you have written, hopefully enabling you to improve. My wife Calli reads all my books, typically more than once, and her input is invaluable. My characters are more compelling, my scenes more realistic, and leaps of logic closed because of her insights. And I also encourage and welcome suggestions from my agent and my publisher.
Lastly, follow your instincts and don’t try to jump on the latest trend. It takes most authors well more than a year to go from a completed manuscript to a published book. What’s trendy today is unlikely to be au courant tomorrow. You have a greater chance of setting the trend than getting ahead by following what’s hot today.
Ally: What is your next writing project? Anticipated release date?
RMcC: There’s little good to say about the Coronavirus pandemic, but the isolation it’s imposed has created more time for writing. Thus, I have three projects in reasonably advanced stages. First, Oceanview Publishing has contracted to republish the third book in my Hawaiian Mystery series. That book, Death of a Messenger, with some updates and changes, will be published in January 2021. Its advanced readers’ copies will soon be available to reviewers.
Second, Oceanview Publishing has also agreed to publish the fourth book in the series, Treachery Times Two, in January 2022. I’m now working on final changes to that manuscript.
Lastly, I have another somewhat different novel in the works, but it’s too soon to say more about that.
Ally: We’ll look forward to all of them. Now it’s time for trivia. Which of the questions did you choose?
RMcC:
- memorable book you’ve read – Endurance by Alfred Lansing, the story of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s incredible journey to rescue the crew of his ill-fated ship crushed in the Antarctic ice.
- last time you rode a train (not subway) – My wife and I took the train with my son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren from Amsterdam, where they live, to Utrecht in the Netherlands.
- pie or cake? What kind? – Definitely cherry pie. My son and daughter-in-law send me one every year for my birthday, which falls on the day before Christmas.
- best place you’ve ever visited – I wouldn’t describe it as the best place, but the most fascinating place I’ve been was South Georgia Island, a British Overseas Territory, in the Antarctic zone. Home to tens of thousands of King and Macaroni penguins, fur seals, elephant seals, albatross, and other unique birds, it played a significant role in Sir Ernest Shackleton’s successful efforts to save the crew of his ill-fated Antarctic adventure on the S.S. Endurance.
- If you couldn’t write anymore, what would you want to do? – I’d love to be an astronomer, especially at this moment in history, when we have incredible tools like the W. M. Keck telescopes atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii and LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, to tease out the secrets of our universe.
Death of a Messenger (Koa Kane Hawaiian Mystery Book 3)
Genre: Mystery Thriller
Release date: January 5, 2021
Rating: G
Journey deep into the exotic locales of Hawaii’s Big Island to discover its language, culture—and crime
On Hawaii Island, an anonymous 911 caller reports a body at Pohakuloa, the Army’s live-fire training area. Hilo Chief Detective Koa Kane, a cop with his own secret criminal past, finds a mutilated corpse—bearing all the hallmarks of ancient ritual sacrifice.
He encounters a host of obstacles as he pursues the murderer—an incompetent local medical examiner, hostility from both haoles (Westerners) and sovereignty advocates, and a myriad of lies. Koa races to discover whether the victim stumbled upon a gang of high-tech archaeological thieves, or learned a secret so shocking it cost him his life and put others in mortal danger.
Will Hilo’s most respected detective stop this sadistic fiend—or will the Pohakuloa killer strike again, with even deadlier consequences?
Perfect for fans of Michael Connelly and James Lee Burke
While all of the novels in the Koa Kane Hawaiian Mystery Series stand on their own and can be read in any order, the publication sequence is:
Off the Grid
Fire and Vengeance
Death of a Messenger
Treachery Times Two (coming January 2022)
Pre-order/purchase links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1608094030/
BN: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/death-of-a-messenger-robert-mccaw/1136876259?ean=9781608094035
Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/books/death-of-a-messenger-volume-3/9781608094035
Genre: Mystery Thriller
Release date: January 5, 2021
Rating: G
Journey deep into the exotic locales of Hawaii’s Big Island to discover its language, culture—and crime
On Hawaii Island, an anonymous 911 caller reports a body at Pohakuloa, the Army’s live-fire training area. Hilo Chief Detective Koa Kane, a cop with his own secret criminal past, finds a mutilated corpse—bearing all the hallmarks of ancient ritual sacrifice.
He encounters a host of obstacles as he pursues the murderer—an incompetent local medical examiner, hostility from both haoles (Westerners) and sovereignty advocates, and a myriad of lies. Koa races to discover whether the victim stumbled upon a gang of high-tech archaeological thieves, or learned a secret so shocking it cost him his life and put others in mortal danger.
Will Hilo’s most respected detective stop this sadistic fiend—or will the Pohakuloa killer strike again, with even deadlier consequences?
Perfect for fans of Michael Connelly and James Lee Burke
While all of the novels in the Koa Kane Hawaiian Mystery Series stand on their own and can be read in any order, the publication sequence is:
Off the Grid
Fire and Vengeance
Death of a Messenger
Treachery Times Two (coming January 2022)
Pre-order/purchase links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1608094030/
BN: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/death-of-a-messenger-robert-mccaw/1136876259?ean=9781608094035
Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/books/death-of-a-messenger-volume-3/9781608094035
RSS Feed
