The Writer’s Café’ is a fantastic cyber-space to frequent if you are a writer. Thanks to my daily lurking there, I came to know about Stella Wilkinson’s charity project, Something to Read on the Ride. Thanks to participating to the collective, I am getting to know awesome people.  I am also reading the anthology and the shorts are great reading material. Today, to start the week in style, author J David Core is visiting my blog.

Let’s meet David:

With a profound interest in religion, liberal politics and humor, Dave began writing in High School and has not given up on it since. His first professional writing jobs came while attending the Art Institute of Pittsburgh when he was hired to create political cartoons for the Pitt News & to write humor pieces for Smile Magazine. Dave has worked in the newspaper industry as a photographer, in the online publishing industry as a weekly contributor to Streetmail.com, and was a contributing writer to the Buzz On series of informational books and to the Western online anthology, Elbow Creek. Dave’s science fiction novel, Synthetic Blood and Mixed Emotions, is available from writewordsinc.com.

Dave currently resides in his childhood home in Toronto, OH with his beautiful girlfriend and his teenage daughter. He enjoys participating in local community events & visiting with his two adult children and his grandson. His writing blog is available at http://tinyurl.com/lupalanding/

Let’s interrogate David:

When you were a kid you wanted to be…?

I wanted to be a scientist, but I had no idea what that really meant. I wanted to understand the origins of life and the mechanics of the universe. I did not want to do math or spend days developing and repeating mundane experiments. Fiction only ever shows us the result of the work, not the drudgery. So I decided to become a guy who “invents” the end result.

The first book you read was…?

I think it was Alice in Wonderland. The story has a unique voice and is incredibly imaginative and – yes – inventive. It still ranks as one of my all-time favorites. Plus the illustrations by Tenniel were incredible.

You discovered you were quite good at writing when…?

I was always a loner as a kid. I spent most of my youth inside my own head creating fanciful experiences for myself. Then when I entered high school I suddenly found a group of creative people to hang out with. They were all musicians and I can’t carry a tune, so I tried my hand at writing lyrics. Turns out that time I spent conditioning my brain to invent entertainment for myself had set the groundwork for a creative platform.

As a reader, your favorite genre is…?

I love mysteries, thrillers and sci-fi. I don’t think I have a favorite though. I have some least favorites though. I don’t care for chick lit (Nickolas Sparks, RJ Waller) nor am I a fan of introspective fiction (Eat, Pray, Love or The Life of Pi.) I appreciate them, but I’m just not a fan.

No, really, what’s that title you’re hiding in your kindle…?

I don’t even have a Kindle. I read eBooks on my phone or PC, and I also blog and do reviews so all of the titles in my “to read” list are books I intend to review. However, if you’re asking what my secret vice reading material is, I already told you I love Alice in Wonderland.

You write…?

I write in several genres, but all of my writing has a noir feel to it. My published novellas include humor, sci-fi, mysteries and straight-up noir all with a crime element and a hard-boiled undertone to the writing.

The praise about your writing you like the most is…?

People say my stories are readable. In fact, the main criticism I get is that my stories are not descriptive and flowery enough for some readers’ tastes. To me, that criticism is high praise. One critic complained that my first novel begins with a descriptive and elaborate description of coming into Pittsburgh at night through the Ft. Pitt tunnel. The reviewer loved that paragraph – which I had included as a gimmick – and felt cheated when the rest of the book told a good story but never lived up to the haute fiction promise of that opening paragraph. To me – the reviewer may as well have said, “Core can write like James Joyce when he wants, but he prefers to channel Hemingway.”

What’s next…?

I’m currently re-writing the second novel in my mystery novel series for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month.) When I finish that, I have an idea for a novelette about two boys who put an unconscious friend on a bouncing Betty landmine one of their parents owns in an illegal collection of live munitions. They want to see if the three of them can figure out a way to diffuse the mine under those circumstances. After that, I may try my hand at a non-fiction series of essays about religious belief. We shall see.

To read J David Core’s short and donate to a great cause, the Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Appeal, A Children’s Hopital Charity, buy Something to Read on the Ride. It’s only $2.99 and all the proceeds go to the charity.