New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Vincent Zandri’s new novel Everything Burns will be officially released on February 1. The story made huge jump in Amazon rankings and is currently residing on the 3rd place among Kindle most popular books. Our next guest worked for many years as freelance journalist covering events around the world. It’s a great honor to welcome for the following interview Mr. Vincent Zandri.

– Vincent, what is your next release Everything Burns about?
– It’s about a writer, a novelist, who is also a pyromaniac. He gets back together with his ex-wife whom he never stopped loving. Problem is, his wife’s ex-boyfriend never stopped loving her either, even after she broke up with him. Now the ex-boyfriend is about to seek out a deadly revenge that includes fire.

– How did you decide to write the story?
– The story somewhat mimics the real-life situation between my ex-wife and myself. We started dating again three years ago. At that time, her ex-boyfriend, who was also a writer, was not very happy about the situation.
– What was the biggest challenge during the write up process?
– This is fiction. And thriller fiction at that. Which meant even though I was basing the story on some true events, I had to allow my imagination to develop a killer plot that would keep readers on the edge of their seat. I think I succeeded.
– Tell us something more about your main character Reece Johnston? Is he close to someone from your real life?
– I suppose there’s some Vincent Zandri in Reece, in that he’s a die-hard novelist, and that he would do anything to get his ex back. He’ll also do anything to protect his family even if it means fighting fire with fire.
– How much time did you need to finish the story and to publish it?
– It took me about six months to write and another few months of rewrites. Thomas & Mercer acquired it in May of 2014 in a “very nice” deal and it will be officially released on February 1, 2015.
– The Remains is your most popular novel. What the readers will find inside?
– The novel follows the same kind of organic arc as “Burns.” It’s an edge of your seat suspense thriller about a woman who is hunted down by the same man who brutally attacked she and her twin sister back in the 1970s.
– P.L. Jack Marconi Series are very well received. Give us some insight about them?
– I wrote the first Marconi book while still in writing school back in 1997. It was then called, As Catch Can. When I graduated from the program, I took a year and rewrote it, and then in ’99 sold it to Delacorte in mid-six-figure deal. The book is based on the true story of warden who goes on the hunt for escaped cop killer after he’s accused by the state police of aiding and abetting the breakout. I did a lot of research in prisons for the novel. In later editions I changed the title back to The Innocent, the title I originally intended.
– Who are you?
– Vincent Zandri, writer, photojournalist, novelist, blogger, traveler, drummer, weight lifter, drinker, eater, lover, family guy…I try to live a full life, never standing in one place for too long.
– What are your writing habits?
– I’m a working class hero. I write 7-5 on weekdays, and 8-2 on Saturdays. I take Sunday off unless I have a deadline.
– Are you satisfied by the sales of the book?
– This far pre-sales for Everything Burns have been fantastic since it’s included in the Kindle First program. It’s been in the Top Ten for 9 days as of this writing. Can’t ask for more than that.
– What are you doing to promote your book by the best possible way?
– I allow the good folks at Thomas & Mercer to do their job without getting in the way. Some authors feel the need to be in constant touch with their editor, marketing pros, and agent. I was like that when I was younger, but now I’m the total opposite. I find it’s better to take a step back and concentrate on the writing.
– When we will see your next novel?
– I have new editions of several older novels being re-released, including Moonlight Falls and The Guilty. A new stand-alone, Aziz, and the second in the Albany Trilogy which includes Everything Burns, will be out this summer or next Fall. It’s called Orchard Grove.
– You are a freelance photo-journalist. Would you compare from your own point of view writing a newspaper article versus writing a book?
– Writing a newspaper piece is something I can almost do in my sleep. It’s conveying action exactly as it happened. For my fiction, I must mine a deeper, more difficult to access rock quarry.
– What is the most remarkable event or story that you covered as a reporter?
– I was in Florence, Italy writing for RT when news broke about New York State going broke in a matter of ten days or so. I pitched the piece to the editors in Moscow and they approved it within the half hour. I had to drop everything at seven in the evening and write the two thousand word piece ASAP. It became the lead story in Eastern Europe. The irony was that here I was writing a story in Florence for a Moscow-based news agency about news emerging from my hometown, Albany, New York.
– As a freelancer you’ve got a chance to travel a lot around the world. Give your top three must see places on the planet.
– Machu Picchu in the dawn. The stilt village in Benin, West Africa. The bottom-most crypt in the third pyramid in Giza. Facing down a charging rhino in Nepal’s Chitwan National Forest…That’s four but who’s counting.
– If you may ask yourself one question in the interview what it will be? (Don’t forget to answer)
– Do you ever get writer’s block? Not a chance. I’ll die an old man before I write everything I plan on writing…

To learn more about Vincent Zandri check out his Web page
Twitter

Take a look at his books:

Everything Burns
The Remains
The Innocent (P.I. Jack Marconi)
Murder by Moonlight (Dick Moonlight)
Godchild (P.I. Jack Marconi Series)
The Shroud Key (A Chase Baker Thriller)
Murder by Moonlight (Dick Moonlight)