The Interview
What can we learn from your main character?
What has been your greatest compliment as an author, your worst criticism?
What part of the story was the hardest to write, the beginning, the middle, the climax?
I literally rewrote the beginning over 50 times, maybe one hundred. Starting with the ER scene didn’t come until late in the process. But I wanted to start with a bang, and a statement.
Is your main character based on anyone in particular? Did you have a muse for this book?
Austin MacLean is based on a conglomeration of people. But all of them are people that I have admired. As for his flaws, most of those came from me.
Favorite ice cream, color, book, and television show
The Power
Tell us the story behind that cover!
I wanted a hand! I must have looked at a thousand pictures of hands, and the one I chose seemed the most eye-catching—plus it captured the mix between medical and metaphysical that I was searching for.
What can we learn from your main character?
That when things go wrong we need to first look within ourselves for the power to overcome. That we all have a little of God, and the Devil within us, and though the two are often intermingled, it is ours to proffer which one.
What has been your greatest compliment as an author, your worst criticism?
Best: when people tell me that they couldn’t put the book down, that they were late for work or stayed up in bed in order to finish THE POWER. Also those readers who actually “get” what the book is truly about.
Worst: I had someone write a scathing criticism for including sex scenes and dirty words. And they were right, if you don’t want to see sex or dirty words in in your book, this book is not for you.
What part of the story was the hardest to write, the beginning, the middle, the climax?
Is your main character based on anyone in particular? Did you have a muse for this book?
Fast Round
Names of your pets: Buster (Cocker Spaniel)
Favorite ice cream, color, book, and television show
Ice cream: Chocolate Chip
Color: Green
Book: Sophie’s Choice
Television Show: The Office or Sopranos
Fame: First Eagles Quarterback to win the Superbowl
Grapes or Raisins: Grapes, naturally
The Power
Blurb
What would you do if you had the power to heal
but it only brought you personal destruction and ruin? Would you still use it?
When a street shaman meets a horrific demise on
Dr. Austin MacLean’s ER table, Austin soon discovers a raw and irrepressible
power. But when this power inflicts traumatic effects on three chronically ill
children, families rush to accuse him, his colleagues condemn him, and the
police begin to investigate in this affluent New Jersey beach town....and so do
others when the children begin to show inconceivable progress.
Dara Kleows, a local reporter, is the first to
connect the children’s gradual healings back to Austin. The two develop a deep
bond but Austin remains uncertain as to what this beautiful woman wants. Is she
just after a story, or more? There are those who covet Austin’s “power” and at
any cost, while Dara is more concerned by Austin’s headlong march toward his
own perdition.
Excerpt
When Austin looked up, he thought he saw a faint corona
flicker around DJ. It started growing ever-brighter, and he tried to step back
but was pulled closer by some indelible force—an atmospheric hollow drawing his
humming body into the eye of an invisible storm. An ear-popping decompression was
followed by an overpowering energy surge, his brain and muscle masses engorging
with a metamorphic euphoria. Experiencing that spine-chilling “conduit”
feeling, he swore as if he were about to be struck by some unseen force. And
when DJ looked up, Austin
sensed the imminent electrical surge was meant for the boy.
Author Bio
Jeff Hennelly now lives in Chester Springs, Philadelphia,
PA. He’s been in the medical device business for over 20 years and has worked
with hospitals, clinics, and alternate care facilities from Palo Alto to
Prague. His articles and short stories have appeared in numerous trade
magazines and journals. He is represented by Eric Myers of the Spielman Agency
in New York. His novel, THE POWER was published on Amazon in June, 2013. Look
for his new novel, THE 95 PERCENT in 2014.
BUY LINK
Giveaway
In order to enter to win one of two $5.00
giftcards or a copy of The Power put in the blog comments what you would want
your super power to be if you could have one. If you tweet the Amazon link you
get an extra entry. Make sure you post your Twitter username in your comment if
you do!
