📚 A Bookish Chat with 'To Catch The Setting Sun' Author Richard I. Levine | Author Interview | #AuthorInterview #BlogTour #Interview

Today we welcome Richard I. Levine to The Writer's Life e-Magazine! Richard is the author of the novel, To Catch the Setting Sun. This interview is part of his To Catch the Setting Sun Blog Tour by Pump Up Your Book. Enjoy!

Richard I Levine is a native New Yorker raised in the shadows of Yankee Stadium. After dabbling in several occupations and a one-year coast to coast wanderlust trip, this one-time volunteer fireman, bartender, and store manager returned to school to become a chiropractor. A twenty-three-year cancer survivor, he’s a strong advocate for the natural healing arts. Levine has four Indy-published novels and his fifth work, To Catch The Setting Sun, is published by The Wild Rose Press and was released in August 2022. In 2006 he wrote, produced and was on-air personality of the Dr. Rich Levine show on Seattle’s KKNW 1150AM and after a twenty-five year practice in Bellevue, Washington, he closed up shop in 2017 and moved to Oahu to pursue a dream of acting and being on Hawaii 5-O. While briefly working as a ghostwriter/community liaison for a local Honolulu City Councilmember, he appeared as a background actor in over twenty-five 5-Os and Magnum P.Is. Richard can be seen in his first co-star role in the Magnum P.I. third season episode “Easy Money”. He presently resides in Hawaii.

Visit Richard’s Amazon Page or connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Goodreads.

Welcome to The Writer's Life! Now that your book has been published, we’d love to find out more about the process. Can we begin by having you take us at the beginning? When did you come up with the idea to write your book?

It was a confluence of several separate, yet simultaneous, sensory experiences that
triggered images which ignited the creative foundation for this story. Please allow me to
explain. I’ve been involved with acting since my move to Hawaii. In 2018 I was on my
way to the set of a Hawaii 5-O episode where, as a background actor, I had been cast as
an NCIS agent. On the way to set I began utilizing a technique from acting class;
mentally becoming this agent—giving him a name, a history, habits etc. I then imagined
myself being uncomfortably hot while driving to an investigation because the car air-
conditioner didn’t work properly. So, to make this a real experience I shut mine off,
rolled down the windows which then caused a blast of hot air to rush in along with the
smell of trash left in piles beside homeless tents along the roadside (the image of paradise
that tourists typically don’t see). Then I began to play some instrumental music which
happened to be from the John Dumas CD Kohola Dreamtime. It was at that moment
when my protagonist, HPD detective Hank Benjamin, came to life. Playing the right
background music has always helped to stimulate my imagination. Over the next several
weeks I had repeated this whenever I drove to my day job, or to a production set. As I did
so, a story began to develop in my mind. That’s when I knew I had my next novel.

Who is your publisher and how did you find them or did you self-publish?

To Catch The Setting Sun is published by The Wild Rose Press. I must admit,
contacting them directly was a last-ditch attempt after I had received about twenty
rejections out of the sixty literary agents I had queried. The other forty must have simply
round-filed my letters because I never heard a word from them. I was all set to indy-
publish one more time when I decided to consult with a friend, romance author Lelani
Black, to seek advice. She had read and loved all four of my previous novels, so I asked
if she would read my latest work. She agreed, and soon after sending her the unedited
manuscript she emailed: “Rich, you have a good strong novel that stands to be your best
work ever.” Knowing the frustration I was experiencing in trying to find an agent, she
recommended that I contact her publisher directly. “Given that most publishers no longer
accept direct submissions, you may not get anywhere, but it’s worth taking a chance,” she
said. I did just that! I sent a query along with the first chapter (and I mentioned her
name), and a request for the manuscript came a month later. It wasn’t long before I
received an email from my soon-to-be editor with praise—saying in part: “As you must
know, you have a masterpiece with To Catch The Setting Sun. It was amazing and I liked
how you ended it…”. The rest, as they say, is history.

Do you believe a book cover plays an important role in the selling process?

The popularity of the author notwithstanding, yes! And while “you can’t judge a book
by its cover”, I believe it is the cover as well as the title that first grabs the attention of the
person searching for that next adventure be it a mystery, a romance, or far-off destination.
The cover is still the initial stimulus that catches a person’s eye that triggers an innate
reflex to reach out to pick up the book, to read the back cover, or to skim a page or two.
But I’m recalling the days of mom and pop bookstores where four of the five senses of
sight, sound, touch, and smell—co-conspirators all—that added to the overall experience
of a purchase. I suppose today’s version of book shopping, sans the smell of print on
paper, the weight of the book in your hand or the feel of the pages at your fingertips, the
sound of the little metal bell tingling every time another patron opens the door as they
wandered into the shop, or the ringing of another sale on the cash register as the
proprietor assures the customer they’re in for a special treat, would be the “look inside”
and review features that can be found on the pages of online retailers. For the casual
browser looking for the next suspense thriller or love story, the cover and the title now
carry the responsibility of getting one to stop scrolling.

How hard was it to write a book like this and do you have any tips that you could pass on which would make the journey easier for other writers?

The biggest issue or difficulty for me has always been environment: noisy neighbors,
local construction projects, a loud all-night party coming from a street or two over,
continuous phone calls. It always seems to be something that interrupts the flow.
I suppose the ease or the difficulty of doing any task is based on many factors and how
a person responds or adapts to it. I’ve often heard many artists, be they authors, actors,
painters, dancers, complain how they suffer for their art. They chain themselves to the
computer or to the canvas until they are able to produce something, anything, and then
expect to receive praise for their hard work or for the finished product. I’ve heard many
writers tell stories how they’ve suffered through writer’s block and the harder they tried, the harder it became—only to storm off in frustration. And then there are those whose
dreams had been derailed because they put too much importance on the opinions of
others. For my fellow authors my approach and my advice is—if the inspiration isn’t
there, for whatever reason, then don’t force it. I believe that this shuts down the innate
flow of creativity and the moment is lost. Inspiration after all is to be inspired. Inspire:
adjective—1) of such surpassing brilliance or excellence as to suggest divine inspiration.
2) moved or animated by, or as by, a supernatural influence; affected by divine
inspiration. If the flow is not there, don’t try to force it. Go do something else, change
your focus and your environment and then come back to it later. If there’s too much
environmental noise, get yourself a pair of noise canceling headphones; I did, and paired
mine to some beautiful instrumental music that not only makes the outside world goes
away, but also heightens my creative flow.

Most important, write to entertain yourself and nobody else, and definitely do not
write for the approval of others. There are too many critics in this world (friends, family,
co-workers etc.) who, while supposedly well-meaning, can easily hijack your project,
along with your hopes and dreams when all you wanted was a simple affirmation. Keep
your work to yourself. Never tell anyone what your current project is—just let them see
the finished product at one of your book signings or via a link to the retailer’s website. I
think a mistake a lot of writers make is they think of the process as work (I’m working on
my next novel. I’ve been trying to work on this next chapter). I would say don’t look at
your novel, short story, or collection of poems as work. It is, and should be your
entertainment. It is your creative outlet, so have fun with it and let your imagination take
you to places you never get to go to. You’re the creator so you be your own critic, and
you always have the power to edit. The only one you need to please is yourself. If the end
result of your adventure happens to be a short story or a novel, then celebrate it. You
created people and a world that never existed until it developed within, and moved out
from, the deep recesses of your brain. And while positive feedback of the finished
product is the icing on the cake, I would still enjoy eating the cake whether it had icing or
not. At the end of the day, it really is only your opinion that truly matters.

What other books are you working on and when will they be published?

I’ve recently begun creating my next novel. I can tell you that it is a complete
departure from the suspense thriller genre of my first five books. That’s all I can say for
now. I’ll have a better idea of a publication date after the last word is written and the
manuscript is in the hands of an editor.

What’s one fact about your book that would surprise people?

I’ve lived in Hawaii for the past six years and as someone who has gotten to know
many local politicians, community leaders, and local residents, I’ve been privy to a world
that the tourism board doesn’t want visitors to see. Although fiction, To Catch The
Setting Sun, takes the reader far beyond the travel brochures to see that there’s more than
luaus, Mai Tais, and hula dancing here in paradise.

Finally, what message are you trying to get across with your book?

All of my novels have an underlying foundation that deals with family, honesty,
integrity, and having a conscience and/or moral compass. I explore what it is for the
ordinary person to step up to perform a heroic act when the situation requires it; An act of
self-sacrifice which can be based upon her/his personal values which have been
influenced through past experience. While it is possible, and to a degree acceptable, for a
person to bend the rules to right what is wrong and/or to bring bad people to account,
good guys are not without flaws and not every hero is a good guy.

Thank you again for this interview! Do you have any final words?

I hope people enjoy To Catch The Setting Sun as much as I did creating it. I look forward
to all of your reviews—good, bad, or indifferent, I love them all.

There’s a killer loose on the island of Oahu. His targets? Young, native-Hawaiian women. But it also appears that he’s targeting and taunting Honolulu police detective Henry Benjamin who knew each victim and whose wife, Maya, had been the first name on that list. In addition to battling his personal demons, this New York transplant’s aggressive style didn’t sit well with his laid-back colleagues who viewed Henry’s uncharacteristic lack of progress in the investigation as evidence that fueled ongoing rumors that he could be the killer. Was he, or could it have been someone within the municipal hierarchy with a vendetta? As it was, after thirteen years on the job Henry had been disillusioned with paradise. His career choice long killed any fantasy of living in a grass hut on a wind-swept beach, being serenaded by the lazy sounds of the ocean and a slack key guitar. Instead, it had opened his eyes to a Hawaii that tourists will never see.