Interview with Author Michael Poeltl

INTERVIEW

What type of stories do you write? I write stories that get in your head. Ones that will stay with you. I like lots of drama and raw emotion. I write in first person almost exclusively.

What drew you to that writing style? I prefer first person tellings because for me, it is the character that drives a story and not the situation. To read in first person allows the reader to really get inside the head of the main character and understand why her/she made the choices they did, right or wrong. You live the characters life and wonder if you'd make the same choices in their place. 

What are your current releases?   Currently I have two book in a series of three available entitled The Judas Syndrome. The first book takes on the name of the series, while the second is titled Rebirth. In December I hope to release the third in the trilogy entitled Revelation.

Who is your favorite author(s)? Dan Simmons has always told a facinating story, his Hyperion series is one of my all time favourite reads. I also enjoyed Justin Cronin's The Passage recently, a book that plays on the same themes as my own in that an Apocalypse of some design strikes the planet.

What book have read recently that you liked? I loved The Angels Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. A stunning story written beautifully with that hint of supernatural to make the skin crawl.

What will readers like about your book?

Readers of the genre will appreciate the descriptive telling of the Apocalypse that befalls the teens. They will be able to firmly plant themselves in the world of The Judas Syndrome, and through the main character Joel, live each moment as he experiences them.
The Judas Syndrome is about the human experence when faced with a nuclear armageddon, and all the inherent problems that come with it. No Zombies or Vampires find their footing here.

Anything else you would like our readers to know? I recently was voted author of the year in View magazine's Best of 2010 readers poll. This is an alternative arts & life magazine that reaches over 1 million potential voters/viewers.

The Judas Syndrome Excerpt

The days just seemed to blend into one another. I’d lost count at day seventeen. I hadn’t even realized that so many had passed until Gil showed me the calendar he’d fashioned from an old school notebook in the kitchen.

“The army isn’t picking us up, are they, Joel?” he asked. I’d been asking myself the same question, but Gil looked so worried that I couldn’t bring myself to distress him further.

“I’m not counting them out yet. Listen, Gil, we can’t give up on ourselves, not ever.” Even if doubts had crept like dark shadows into my head, there was no point in letting on. Some leader that would make.

He didn’t reply, just picked the M-16 up off the floor and walked to the sliding glass door. The view should have been serine. It should have shown the balcony, back deck, pool and woods beyond. We should have been contemplating a swim or a trip through the forest on the five-wheeler.

“Don’t know how much longer I can keep it together.” His voice was hollow. “I don’t know. The sadness, everyone’s sadness… I hear them, their cries in the night, the walls can’t contain it. I can’t listen to it anymore.” He began to jerk as emotion overwhelmed him and the tears came. “It can’t go on like this, Joel, I know I can’t.”

I joined him at the glass door and watched the darkness distort all that I loved, all that we were. It wasn’t easy to keep it together when somebody else was losing it, but I felt I had a responsibility to be strong. We stood there for God only knows how long. The sky was as the earth, muddied, wretched and dark. You could suffer a case of vertigo from staring for too long.

Standing there, remembering all that this view once offered- the beautiful vistas in the fall, the lush greens of the summer foliage, the crisp whites of winter snow- I realized that memory was all that remained of this place. In my mind’s eye I saw the sun come out and cleanly sweep over the trees and the lawn, the field and the pool; all that I knew were there, but could no longer see through the thick black rain falling hard from a bitter sky, just beyond the glass.

“Did you see it?” Never taking my eyes off the scene, I hoped the vision would return. It was so short lived. Was I shown a possible future? Or did I just fall back into memory to protect myself from the present?

“What? Did you say something, Joel?” Gil’s response was slow and hollow. He was only reacting to the sound of my voice, never relinquishing his stare into the abyss. 

 “Forget it,” I answered, knowing what I’d seen was nothing more than a memory.

“There’s a hole, you know?” Gil was starting to scare me. I listened as his voice took on a sobering new tone. “A huge hole...and I can’t fill it, not here, not now.” He stared at himself in the blackened glass as the rain snaked down its smooth surface. “No one can... such a hole, nothing to fill it.”  He paused, flexing his jaw muscles. “Only pain to feed it.” 

BUY LINKS:

Amazon.com (paperback)
Kindle (Amazon)
Smashwords (Multiple ebook formats.)
Kobo books (Chapters)
Nook book (Barnes & Noble) 




Mike Poeltl

Voted Best Writer/Author for 2010 by View Magazine:
A weekly alternative newspaper reaching over 1 million potential voters/viewers.

The Judas Syndrome

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