Hello everyone! This is Linda Hays Gibbs and I have a
treat for you today. Let us welcome outstanding, bestselling author, Richard
Burns…Hello Richard, I am thrilled to have you here today .
And I’m thrilled to be here too! Before I
forget, my webpages are below:
Email: Richard_Burns325@yahoo.ca
Website: http//www.RichardBurnsBooks.com
Thank you so very much for having me!
You are welcome…now let's get down to basics. Richard’s
book, SWEET CHOCOLATE’S FIRST TASTE is available
on Amazon. Tell me something interesting about your life that few
people know.
Personally, I guess it’s all rather
mundane. I
grew up in the Chicago area, went to Catholic school, up until I was paroled
into the Public High School system. I
left high school early and joined the US Army when I was 17 years old. Some of those days are explained in much more
explicit detail in my short story, “Sweet Chocolate’s First Taste.”
I left active duty in January 1986, and
became a Chicago Police Officer on the South side. I did that for eight years before becoming a
Federal Agent for the Defense Department.
I was the “Last of the Mohicans,” so to speak, when we closed our
Chicago Field Office, which won me a transfer to Detroit, where I now live.
I re-enlisted in the US Army Reserve
(USAR), in December 1986 and moved back & forth from the USAR & the National
Guard, reserve status to active duty and all over.
It’s probably not a big secret, but I’m
retired from the Army after 30 years as a Paratrooper and SCUBA Diver, with
over 23 years in Special Forces. I have
3 major overseas deployments, one to the Middle East in 1984, just after the
bombing of the US Marine Barracks in Lebanon, and two deployments to
Afghanistan. My latest book, “Say Good
Night,” is a fictionalized account of my last Afghanistan tour in 2009. This story was mostly written contemporaneously
to the events as they occurred on the ground.
Wow, that is some resume. I find all of that so interesting and I for
one appreciate all the wonderful servicemen that serve our great country. So thanks for that now! Tell me about your
interests?
I try to stay in shape so I love Long
Distance Running, Orienteering, Cross Country Running, Photography (35mm, still
not too accustom to Digitals), and we can’t forget writing. Because at this time, that’s really all it is…a
hobby. I’d love to say that I’m writing
my way through retirement, but I’m making so little money from my books, I
think that’s all it’s going to be.
Of course, my latest interest has become
writing. Especially erotic writing. I love the affect that a good writer can have
on his reader. Naturally, this goes for
all genres, but in particular erotica. The way that it quicken the readers pulse, makes their breathing quicken
slightly, makes them wetten, or makes them hard enough to drive railroad
spikes, so that when you look to your wife or your husband, you give her/him
the look. The look that says, “Hey,
let’s go enjoy each other’s company, just a little more…”
Books are great fun, aren't they now...What is your
favorite book?
As far as contemporary authors, my good
friend, Steve Hartov is an outstanding author.
He has uncanny powers of description that I try to emulate. He can paint a picture before the reader’s
eyes that make you believe he is looking at it as he is writing it.
As for the timeless classics, Mark Twain, I
think that he is on par with William Shakespeare! There are so many kids I hear these days
talking about how irrelevant those authors are because “they are so old, the
stuff they wrote about in their day can’t possibly have any bearing on what’s
going on today…” What these Simpletons
don’t realize is what these authors wrote will ALWAYS be timeless classics,
because they didn’t write about the current issues of their day, so much. What they wrote about was the one thing that
will remain consistent throughout the ages:
Human Nature.
That is so true. What made you start writing? What made you write this story?
An old friend of mine used to rave about
the letters I used to write. Always
pushed me to be a writer. My cousin
Nancy writes a weekly journal on each of her deployments, she calls “The
Chronicles of Nancy.” So, on my last
deployment I started writing my own version of my adventures. When I returned home, everybody who read them
just could not say enough about them. I
sent them out weekly, and I made every week a serious cliff hanging event. I wanted everybody sitting on the edge of
their seats until the next edition came out.
Everybody said I should send them to a publisher, so I did. I made every week’s edition a separate chapter. Naturally, for security reason, there was not
a lot I could write about in reality.
Everybody is going to wonder, where the line is between fiction and
reality. But I’m going to leave it at
that.
What time period is this story? What genre?
2009, current day in Afghanistan. Although I have an idea for a series of
Historical period pieces. In particular
a sort of Western Series, post Civil War, with the Railroad and our country’s
expansion west. Naturally, I want it to
be very heavy in eroticism! I want both
women & men to read my books. The
women who have read “Say Good Night,” have all loved the intense, underlying
sexual energy that is brought out by one character, and in reality, is always a
very real, Omni-present factor in all relationships during long deployments or
extended periods away from family. While
“Say Good Night,” is a Military/Espionage, Suspense/Thriller, women will enjoy
it too! I promise!
Are you interested in other genre?
Like I just said, my latest book, is a Military/Espionage,
Suspense/Thriller, my first book, SWEET CHOCOLATE’S FIRST TASTE is an
Erotic-Romance. I call it a book because
it stands and sells alone, but it is actually a short story that I wrote for
Simon & Schuster that now appears in their latest anthology of erotica for
Black women, called Chocolate Flava, which launched on August 28, 2012. This story, while a short one, will leave the
reader totally and completely satisfied.
This is so much more than just an erotic story. This is certainly not a
“wham-bam-thankyou-ma'am.” This is a
story of a true but short lived romance.
By the way, this story sells on my webpage for just 1.99. Once again, I promise! You’ll love it! And yes!
The sex is very HOT!
Give me an Excerpt and brief Synopsis of this book.
Of course!
In fact, if you’ll allow me, I’ll give you an excerpt of both SAY GOOD NIGHT and SWEET CHOCOLATE’S FIRST TASTE.
From SAY
GOOD NIGHT:
I assumed a position above the quarry, which afforded me an excellent view of the road leading from the top, all the way to the bottom. The road was perhaps 900 meters away, and the farthest portion of the quarry floor approximately 700 meters. Not a soul was in sight. I noticed my breathing was much faster and it wasn’t all from the crawl. I began my series of exercises to slow my breathing and heart rate.19:08 HoursA gray Toyota Hilux pickup truck was seen driving down the road from the top of the quarry with three passengers in addition to the driver. Once they were at the quarry floor, I could identify the third man from the bazaar that I had seen earlier with ‘Stretch’ and ‘Stumbles.’ He was waving his arms wildly and speaking in loud tones which I could still hear faintly, despite the distance. He appeared to be the instructor in the crowd, perhaps fifty to fifty-five years old. Everybody else was at least between twenty-five and forty years old.Ten minutes later, another Hilux was seen driving down the road towards the bottom with a driver and two passengers. I slowly and quietly unfolded the bipod legs of my M-21 sniper system (yeah, it’s old, but it still works). Now, I was bathed in sweat. The pressure was always intense.…There was a crane and a bulldozer at the bottom of the quarry. Old Russian pieces of shit. But nobody made any moves to start any machinery, or equipment. Not the crane, not the dozer, not a dump truck. Nobody was there to do any quarry work. This was a bomb making class about to be in session.19:21 HoursI was losing light fast.The driver of the second vehicle broke from the group and started the generator near the shack at the base of the quarry. Within a minute, the entire quarry was bathed in glowing bright light. I could feel the sweat flowing freely from me now.As if to make some kind of point, the instructor raised his arms to shoulder height and turned 360 degrees to show everybody how bright it was, or how vast his power was, or some other such crap.
Now came the stingingly cold blooded aspect of this job. It’s cold blooded, because at that precise moment, before action commences, you’re shooting a man who is no real imminent threat to you, specifically. Furthermore, I positioned myself a good 200-300 meters beyond the maximum effective range of their rifles, provided they didn’t have anything bigger than your garden variety Russian AK. You have to be able to accept the solace that comes with the knowledge that he would kill Americans on another day. All of them would. They would all happily march us down to the train stations and load us all on to cattle cars haul us away, then march us right up to delousing. You, me, all of our children and grandchildren. Well, not today. I made a note of the time, 19:21; Start of action. Either way, I had decided that it was time for them to die.The pressure completely enveloped me now. It was stifling and oppressive, breathing was difficult as my chest was so tight. I felt the old familiar tension headache, come on instantly. It always felt as if my head were clamped in a vice. Despite the relatively pleasant 80 degrees, I was now soaking wet with sweat.I raised the weapon, took a second to dry my sweaty hands on my sleeves, deep breaths, then I took a reading of my winds. They were very light, maybe 2-4 knots, and they were at my back, no value … … … I couldn’t see any dust flying anywhere in the kill zone. A straight on simple shot. How often does that happen, I asked myself. Not much. Never mind that, they’re targets, nothing more, and it’s just another day on the range, I coached myself. Breathe deep, steady, in… out… line ‘em up. Come on, Sweet Cheeks. Let me see your smile. Turn a little more. Steady hand, smooooooooth squeeeeeeze… Now…
***
From SWEET
CHOCOLATE’S FIRST TASTE.
By
way of introduction, this story was written in response to a call for
submissions for Erotic Stories of people’s first sexual experiences. It was selected by Simon & Schuster to
appear in their anthology for Black women, Chocolate Flava 3. And, Yes!
It is the story of MY first experience.
The story is available all on its own for just 1.99. Once you get past the fact that the heroine
in is a prostitute, you are going to love this story!
Instantly, I was captivated, and a little intimidated by both her age, almost 30, and her luscious beauty. The woman, and she was a real woman, not a kid, had a pleasant round face with high cheek bones that gave it depth. She was tall, perhaps 5’7”, but I was struck by her very dark, coffee brown complexion, which seemed at odds with the flowing, shiny curls of gorgeous shoulder length hair. My palms were sweaty at the thought of getting them on her beautiful, perfectly proportioned breasts. Those breasts seemed to call to me, with each sway and bounce. Her soft white cotton dress fit her form sensationally, hugging her upper body alluringly, accentuating the breadth of her torso before tapering down to her narrow waist, then loosely flowing over the graceful, but sweeping curve of her hips. My arms wanted to circle that narrow waist, to lay my hand atop that scrumptious, perfectly developed ass, and then just pull her body to mine. To press our chests and hips together, to meld into a single being; to feel her softness pressed against my hardness. To feel the slope and curve of her back as those glorious breasts pressed against my chest. She was perhaps the most beautiful black woman I had ever met. All of these thoughts vanished quickly with my growing anxiety at my impending moment.Juan was still frantically undressing, “Hey guys, I need the room for a while.”“Hey ya’ll,” she gave us a wave of her hand; “He and I have an... arrangement. If you guys want to make a similar arrangement…we’re talking about forty dollars. A piece.” Until that moment, I had no idea she was a hooker. I was seventeen, remember, and a virgin.
***
Who is the Hero or Heroine? Can we interview them?
There is no Heroine, so to speak, in SAY GOOD NIGHT and SWEET CHOCOLATE’S FIRST TASTE, the Heroine, or more accurately,
Love Interest, is a woman named Trisha, actually Patricia who is unavailable
for comment or criticism. If you read
the story, you’ll understand why.
Have them describe themselves to us. What motivates
your hero? What do they want? Is the hero having a hard time?
That’s easy, both of those two stories are
written from my point of view. So, if
there IS a hero, it would be me! Now the
motivation is another easy answer, I’ve been a professional soldier since I was
17, and while it may sound corny or cheesy, I really do have an intense love of
country and a fierce dedication to mission accomplishment. You think that’s hokey? I don’t much care. That’s just the way that is.
Now, in SWEET CHOCOLATE’S FIRST TASTE my motivation was much easier to
explain: I was a horny teenager, so
curious, so thrilled at the thought of actually get to do what everybody else
so raved about. I was finally going to
find out for myself, what all of the excitement and fever was about.
Who would you get to star in a movie to be them?
Now
that I’m retired, I’m not a young man anymore, so George Clooney would be my
pick to play me. I think he did an
outstanding job in The Peacemaker, another story, very similar to mine.
What is next for you?
Hopefully, I’ll soon get a chance to get
started on that Erotic Western Series. I
also have an idea for a fiction series set in Detroit (where I now live), not
too far into the distant future, where it becomes a sort of 21st Century no
man’s land. I don’t want to give
anything away here, so I hesitate to say anything more. This series would be strictly an
Action/Suspense line with absolutely NO eroticism. I just don’t see a way to work it in without
diluting the story.
Do you have another book you are writing?
Actually, I have a fictional series in
mind, set in Detroit. I really hesitate
to say anymore on the book because I really don’t even have it outlined at this
point.
But, who knows how I’ll do for time in the
future. Perhaps I’ll find myself with a
plethora of time, means & opportunity.
We can hope anyways!
Tell us about it. What is the book you wish you had
written?
Henry V; as a former Military man, this is
the quintessential book on Leadership & Perseverance.
Where can we buy your book?
Where can we find you?
My website address is: http://www.RichardBurnsBooks.com
Well, I live in the Detroit area now, but
don’t have any signings planned. Keep
your eyes on my webpage for that.
Thanks!
Do you have a blog?
Do you have a page?
Afraid not, but I really am anxious to read
any comments that anybody cares to post in the comments section of the webpage.
Thank you for the interview, Richard Burns. Good luck!
