Interview of Dennis Roth

PTB: Your book, Greed and Deceit,  is set in the 1970s, why did you choose that time period?
I frequently write about the mid-twentieth century, a coming of age time for me, but more importantly because even by the late 70’ computers/iphones/internet had not so completely invaded our lives and society. It’s the end of the age when life moved more slowly with less complexity. The electronic age grew so quickly, that it can be difficult to have the appropriate devices available for a particular date. That problem is resolved by starting and ending my stories before the ‘80s.

PTB: How did you come up with this book idea? and How did you come up with your characters?
I like character-driven stories. Here I wanted to have conflict baked into the story and what better source of automatic conflict is sibling rivalry. Then I decided that the children were only half-brothers and sisters allowing the story to become more complex and interesting. Their biological relationship would heighten the rivalry and add to the opportunities for the growth of the story. Then I made the father keep the illegitimacy a secret from the family which added even more complexity to the story. From there on I give a lot of credit to my characters who “told me” what would happen next as I explored their personalities.

PTB: How did you come up with the area the book was set in and did you base the book on any real life locations?
I grew up about 30 miles from the town upon which fictitious Parkerton, Pennsylvania was modeled. I knew the area very well. That familiarity gave me the material to name places, events, and weather realistically.

PTB: What is the first line in your novel?
“Henry Molnar and Murray Applebaum shared a secret so strong and powerful that neither ever dared to consider revealing the truth it contained.”

PTB: What is your writing process? 
I’m an early bird. I wake about 4 am and begin writing while the world is still asleep. It allows me to get three or four hours of writing before the distractions of the day begin.

PTB: How long did it take you to write this book/the whole trilogy?
From my initial idea of sibling rivalry until I typed “The End” through starts and stops, the process lasted from mid-2017 until 2020. In the first six months of the Covid-19 pandemic most of the work happened in a locked-down house and a lock-in room. So, in total about 3 years. The next book in the trilogy is currently well underway with completion scheduled for 2022. The third I hope to release in the fall of 2023.

PTB: What is your preferred reading style?
By reading style, if you mean genre, I generally read literary fiction. If you mean by device, though I do use Kindle, I actually prefer a paperback or a hard-cover book.

PTB: If you could give any advice to any new authors, what would you say?
Read, read and then read. In between, write and write. Avoid television and your iphone, they are viscious time sinks. This is definitely a hard row. Try not to self-edit until your first draft is complete. That also is another time sink. Get your ideas on paper and then, as Stephen King has said, edit your shitty first draft. No matter what, don’t give up.