'Red Hot Sky' Gordon Gumpertz: 'Keep writing and never give up'

Gordon Gumpertz brings fiction readers another exciting action/adventure experience in his new novel RED HOT SKY. This is the author’s second book, following his highly acclaimed novel TSUNAMI.

In addition to writing novels, Gordon has won gold and silver awards in national and regional short story competitions. He is a member of the Authors Guild, the Palm Springs Writers Guild, a UCLA graduate, and an instrument-rated private pilot. He keeps his website current by blogging on natural disasters and natural phenomena.

Gordon and his wife Jenny live not far from the San Andreas fault, where the Pacific Plate thrusts into the North American Plate, building increasingly high levels of faultline stress which, the seismologists say, may soon produce the Big One.

Visit his website at www.tsunaminaturaldisaster.com.

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About Red Hot Sky

CO2 buildup in earth’s atmosphere reaches a tipping point. Global weather destabilizes, turns chaotic. Ice storms, dust storms, floods, blizzards, hurricanes, tornadoes pummel the earth nonstop. A secret computer model reveals that the frantic weather will peak out, and transform world climate into an alien environment devastating to human survival.

Scientists Ben Mason, Claudine Manet, and Bertrand Short are developers of the computer model. Ben and Claudine are lovers as well as lab partners. While they work frantically to head off the approaching catastrophe, a disgraced Russian general hacks into their model and sees earth’s bleak future as his opportunity for ultimate world power.

Ben, who had left the CIA to develop the computer model at the national lab, is reactivated by the Agency and sent on a perilous mission to block the rogue general’s plot. Claudine, not realizing that Ben is on a secret mission, misunderstands his absence, putting their relationship on thin ice.

Claudine is placed in charge of a massive NASA project that, if completed on time, could stop the approaching doomsday climate change. But her project is stalled by bureaucracy. Ben is on the run in hostile territory. The climate change calamity steadily approaches.

Q: Welcome to The Writer's Life, Gordon. Can you tell us how long you’ve been writing and how your journey led to writing your latest book, Red Hot Sky?

I started creative writing after retiring from business 15 years ago. The first five years were devoted to learning the craft of writing. In the last ten, I've published two novels, am wrapping up a third, and have a fourth in early draft form. The idea for Red Hot Sky was sparked by a report that CO2 in our atmosphere has increased more in the last 50 years than in the preceding 150, since the start of the industrial revolution. I wondered what would happen if the galloping CO2 increase reached a tipping point and kicked earth's climate into a phase that threatened human survival.

Q: How did you choose your title and was it your first choice?

The novel started life as The Jupiter Effect because earth's climate would soon look like that of the Great Red Spot on Jupiter. I changed it to Red Hot Sky because there were many other novels with "Effect" in the title at the time.

Q: We all know that publishers can’t do all of the publicity and that some lies on the author. What has your publisher done so far to publicize the book and what have you done?

I self published Red Hot Sky with CreateSpace. I'm the publisher and all the promotion is up to me. I'm featuring Red Hot Sky on my website, www.tsunaminaturaldisaster.com. I blog on natural disasters and have built up a fairly large and consistent following. Sales of my first novel Tsunami have been excellent, mainly the ebook version on Kindle, and I hope the website will produce well for Red Hot Sky. I'm using Dorothy Thompson's Pump Up Your Book program to increase awareness of Red Hot Sky and pump up traffic to my website.

Q: Open to a random page in your book. Can you tell us what is happening?

On page 7, We find geophysicists Ben Mason and his lab partner, Shorty, a 6' 5" Oklahoman, staring with fascination at a computer screen, trying to absorb the results of their first trial run of a top secret computer model they've developed at the national lab to forecast long-range climate change.

Shorty hitched his chair up close. They stared at the screen a long time, bodies tense, thrust forward.

Finally, Ben sagged back and looked at Shorty. "As bad as it looks?"

Shorty tucked his red western shirt into boot-cut jeans. He stretched to his full six foot five and bent down to look again. "All I can say is, this's weirder than a cow with twelve tits." He put his finger on the spot, then the projected date. "Is that what the simulation is telling us? This is the way things'll be seven years from now?"

"Exactly. That's what the model says."

Shorty's voice was uneasy. "I know this can happen on someplace like Jupiter? But here on our own planet?"

Q: Do you plan subsequent books?

I have my third novel almost ready to go. I hope to publish it sometime this year.

Q: What is the one thing you learned about your book AFTER it was published?

The reviewers like it.

Q: What is your most favorite time of the day or night to write?

I start writing around 9:00 in the morning, but seem to hit my stride after lunch, from 2:00 to 5:00.

Q: What is usually better – the book or the movie?

The movie usually has to be a condensed version of the book. For the full flavor of the story as the author intended, I favor the book. However, my scenes are all very visual and if a Hollywood producer calls, I will gladly listen.

Q: You’re about to write your next book. What did you learn from your previous book to help you write your next book?

Important to end every chapter with a hook, to keep the reader turning the pages.

Q: Finally, what’s your best tip you can give to writers who want to be published?

Keep writing, and never give up.

Q: Thank you for your interview, Gordon. Do you have any final words?

I hope every new writer will take the time to learn his or her craft before trying for publication. No matter how much natural talent a writer has, it takes time to get it right. Try hard to get it get it right before submitting.