Today my guest author is Joe Pranaitis. Please give Joe a big round of applause (clap – clap, woo hoo !)  Thanks everyone for stopping by my blog. As you know, now and again I have been hosting guest authors, as I wanted to bring various authors and genres to my followers. With every interview – I ask authors to do a giveaway.  Joe has graciously said he will be giving away four of his books and (1) $25 Amazon gift card to commenters. I’m thrilled with his generous offer. Please enjoy the interview, and stop by Joe’s social media sites now and again to give him a shout-out.  Don’t forget to comment at the end of this interview for your chance of winning one of Joe’s gifts he is giving away.

-Virginia Wright

I was born in East Chicago Indiana, I graduated from Calumet College of St. Joseph with a degree in business management, which helps since I am a co-founder of Shareef Entertainment LLC a company which will produce movies and TV shows. And all of this is because I began writing the concepts for my first book in 1996 when my art teacher at EC Central gave me the assignment to create a comic book but during the summer between the time that I graduated high school and started college I adapted those stories into a trilogy and now that first story is the first chapter of my first book.

How long have you been writing? I’ve been writing since I was a kid but everything did’t come together until my junior and senior years in high school when my art teacher assigned me to create my own comic book, I ended up writing and drawing two comic books the first was a sequel to a story that I had yet to write and the second was the last in a trilogy that when I adapted both stories into a full blown short story trilogy in summer of 1996 everything began to spark brighter than it had with the other stories that had I written.

Where does the inspiration come from for your stories? My inspiration for most of my stories come from ideas that I would like to try or settings that I can’t stop thinking about.

Are you a fiction or non-fiction writer? I am a fiction writer, and now I can include screenwriter into that as well since I just co-wrote my first screenplay.

Could you tell us about your latest writing project? My latest writing project was a screenplay that I co-wrote but I can’t give out any details yet because a couple of studio’s are currently looking at it.

When writing do you prefer silence or do you like listening to music? I like listening to music because it keeps me focused on the project whether it’s a short story or a chapter or a screenplay I have to have music to focus my thoughts.

Viewers can find me on facebook, twitter,  goodreads, and I am posting new short stories on figment.com. To purchase books go to Amazon.com.