Roxanne Rhoads: Interview-Onyx Webb Book One by Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz

Do you have a specific writing style?

We do – it’s short on description for sure. We have experience in writing screenplays and in writing short business fables so in the Onyx Webb series, people will find that it moves quickly, there is a lot that happens in a short period of time, and in general, people and places while briefly described are not overdone. We let the readers create most people and places in their imagination.

Do you write in different genres?

We have thrown a variety of genres into the Onyx Webb series. We looked at what people love to read, what we love to read and wanted to write. The answer was many genres: crime, thiller, paranormal, suspense, romance, mystery, so Onyx has it all.

If yes which is your favorite genre to write?

Richard loves the crime/fbi part and as for me (Andrea) I like all the stuff with ghosts.

How did you come up with the title for your latest book?

We brainstormed about our main character, Onyx Webb’s quite a lot. When we came up with the character, we knew immediately her name was Onyx. (A name we love.) She was Onyx Dupree for a while but we wanted a short, one syllable name, so we poured over lists of names and concluded it needed to be four letters. We hit on Webb. And that was the other epiphany because that is exactly the story we are creating – a web. We also knew that we didn’t want a series with ten different titles, we wanted to brand the series in a simple way kinds of like Harry Potter. We wanted people to ask, “Are you reading Onyx Webb?” And so right then we knew, the entire series had to be called, Onyx Webb.

Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?

The underlying, deep message in Onyx Webb was actually printed on the front cover before we changed it and that is, If You Think Life is Precious Now, Just Wait Until You’re Dead.

Can you share a little of your current work with us?

We are currently working on Book Five in the series. It’s hard to believe we have actually crested the half way point. We like to say are creating a web – our characters, all in various places and times are connected in small ways like a spider web. What has been fun is that in Book Five we were brainstorming and found a crazy connection in the web to make between two characters that we never thought of. So that’s a lot of fun for us and readers will love it too.

Do you have to travel much to do research for your books?

We have traveled quite a bit to do research. We have parts of the first two books take place in the spiritualist community known as Lily Dale. It’s home to psychic mediums and a t.v. special was done about the place called, No One Dies in Lily Dale. After watching that special years ago, we knew it had to make an appearance in our book and it was a great reason to go there and spend a few days. There’s a scene when Dane walks to the pet cemetery on the property and that is a walk we took, so it’s so fun to recreate those scenes.

Do you have any advice for other writers?

If you love to write, it’s a joyful process but it’s also a lot of time and work. If you are writing to ‘hit the jackpot’ we highly recommend you do something else. Write because you want to or have to out of desire because only from that type of motivation can you make it through the difficult times and there are plenty of difficult times.

Do you have a song or playlist (book soundtrack) that you think represents this book?

We have a playlist of songs for every Episode in all of our books. However, it’s not so much that these songs represent the book – although in the case of 30 Seconds to Mars we would say for Book One, absolutely, but actually these were the songs we played over and over during the writing process. For Book One, we wrote mostly to 30 Seconds to Mars (Closer to the Edge), the band Fun, and My Chemical Romance (Welcome to the Black Parade). MCR can be dark and that is helpful for writing this series!

Onyx Webb

Book One

Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz

Genre: Paranormal Suspense

Publisher: Lust for Living Press

imprint, Courage Crafters Inc

Date of Publication: April 2015

ISBN: 0990751813

ASIN: B00VIP8KLC

Number of pages: 216

Word Count: 47,000

Book Description:

A multi-genre mash-up that combines elements of supernatural suspense, crime, horror, romance, and more. The Onyx Webb series follows the unusual life of Onyx Webb along with a central group of characters in various locations and times. The billionaire Mulvaney family, piano prodigy Juniper Cole and her brother Quinn, paranormal show hosts Cryer and Fudge, and a few others make up the core of the series.

Written like a book version of a supernatural soap opera, each character’s story moves forward with most every episode. It may appear that the characters are entirely unrelated and yet episode by episode, the connections will become clearer. Like being an inch away from a spider web, with each book, the web will move further and further away revealing the full story of every character and most importantly, the stunning conclusion for Onyx Webb herself.

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Onyx Webb: Book One

Why didn’t you bring Koda with you?” Ingrid Luckner asked from across the kitchen, removing the remaining strips of bacon from a well-worn black-iron skillet.

Dane had been home for less than twelve hours and was already regretting the decision. Then again, where else was he going to go?

Growing up behind the picturesque gates of the tiny village, established in 1879 on the eastern shore of Cassadaga Lake, had been both a blessing and a curse.

On Dane’s fifth birthday, his parents had taken him to the lake for a picnic. They’d just sat down at a table in the gazebo when Dane excitedly asked, “Can we go on the Ferris wheel?”

“Ferris wheel?” his father said, looking expectantly to Dane’s mother.

“Are there people on the Ferris wheel?” his mother asked.

“Sure, lots of them,” Dane replied.

“Can you tell us what the people look like?” his father asked.

“They’re wearing hats and holding umbrellas,” Dane had replied.

Paul and Ingrid Luckner shared a knowing look, then hugged Dane tightly. Yes, he shared their gift.
The Ferris wheel had been torn down a hundred years earlier.

Dane had no idea what all the fuss was about. But his parents seemed happy, and that was a good thing.

But the curse of living in Lily Dale was how Dane was treated in school—taunted and bullied—called everything from creep-boy to freak-fest, and other things too vile to repeat.

In particular, Dane remembered the day in fifth grade when a classmate said, “Hey, Houdini, wanna read my palm?” Dane wittily responded: “Houdini wasn’t a psychic, he was a magician … ass-wipe.”

At which point Dane had the crap beat out of him.

About the Authors:

Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz are best known as the authors of Go for No! (which hit #1 on Amazon’s Sales and Selling list and has remained in the Top 10 for the last five years.) They are also professional speakers who speak internationally to audiences on how to overcome fear of failure and rejection.

Although all of their business books are fables, the Onyx Webb series is their first serious dive into fiction.

But Richard and Andrea have been in love with creating stories together since they met almost twenty years ago and even spent some time in Hollywood writing screenplays, being represented by the producer of Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

www.OnyxWebb.com

www.twitter.com/OnyxWebb

www.facebook.com/OnyxWebbSeries

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25414725-onyx-webb

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