Faculty Interview: Mike Befeler

Compiled by Jason Henry

Are you excited? We certainly are! Why shouldn't we be? The 2015 Pikes Peak Writers Conference is just around the corner! It has been an absolute pleasure recruiting the incredible faculty that we have lined up for you this year and the workshops they will be teaching are proving to be just as amazing.

Pikes Peak Writers Conference is known as one of the best and friendliest conferences for many reasons. One of those reasons is that we provide as many opportunities as possible to not only learn from our faculty, but to get to know them. Keeping in the spirit of that very statement, we interviewed all of our faculty members to get inside their heads just a little. Really, we don't see the point in waiting until April. Do you?

Over the weeks to come, we will be posting those interviews along with the responses right here on the PPW Blog. Be sure to check in on Facebook and Twitter as well! We hope you enjoy reading these brief Q&As as much as we have!

Mike Befeler (Author, Colorado)

1. What are the most compelling elements you feel are necessary for a good read? 

Characters that grab your interest. I like putting ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances and see how they handle it.

2. What do you see as the pleasures and difficulties of being a writer/artist in today's world? Pleasures: meeting interesting people, the thrill of completing a manuscript and the joy of seeing it in print, researching a new subject. Difficulties: agents, editors, etc. who don't respond, the time to get something published

3. What is the best career/writing advice someone has given you? 

Keep writing. When one manuscript is completed, start the next one.

4. Would you pass that same advice on or alter it?

 I would pass it on. Build a portfolio of manuscripts. Then you can decide which to publish traditionally or self-publish.

5. What do you love most about your career? 

I'm fortunate that I was able to retire into writing. I can writer whatever I want and pursue any subject that interests me. As an example, I'm a fiction writer but I'm writing a biography now of a 96-year-old WWII infantryman who was captured by the Germans and liberated by the Russians. I wasn't planning to write this, but when I was introduced to Ed, I couldn't resist telling his story.

6. What is something you wish everyone knew (or didn't know) about you? 

I wish others recognized my work ethic and ability to make and keep commitments

7. Which fictional character do you relate to the most, and why? What character would your friends/family pick for you? Interesting questions that I've never considered.

Quick Qs:

Pen or Keyboard? Keyboard

Plotter or Pantser? plotter- basic not detailed

Book or E-Book? Book

Spicy or Mild? Mild

Sunrise or Sunset? Sunrise

Mister Rogers or Sesame Street? Sesame Street

Facebook or Twitter? Facebook

   

Mike Befeler writes the Paul Jacobson Geezer-lit Mystery Series including Nursing Homes Are Murder, Care Homes Are Murder; Cruising in Your Eighties Is Murder, a finalist for The Lefty Award for best humorous mystery of 2012; Senior Moments Are Murder; Living with Your Kids Is Murder; and Retirement Homes Are Murder. He has two published paranormal mysteries, The V V Agency and The Back Wing and another novel titled Mystery of the Dinner Playhouse. After thirty-nine years in the high tech world, he retired into fiction writing. He grew up in Hawaii and lives in Boulder, Colorado with his wife Wendy. http://www.mikebefeler.com