The Writer's View: Joseph Spencer

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Joseph will be awarding a $25 Starbucks gift certificate to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

The View Inside My Writing Space

Although there are great deal of personal touches unique to my writing space, I can’t take credit for a majority of them. I wanted to take some time to show my readers just how hard my wife, Amy, has worked to create an ideal environment for me to compose my stories which I hope you enjoy. If anything, I can only take credit for what I assume is a common sight in the homes of most writers.

My wife is a full-time veterinary doctor at Tender Care Animal Hospital in central Illinois. In her spare time, she’s also become certified in pet acupuncture and herbal therapy. As you can imagine, we are both animal lovers. In particular, Amy loves cats. She brought a 16-year-old child, Murphy, an orange tabby, to our relationship. I’d become more partial to dogs because I was around them more as I grew up, but I’ve grown to love Murphy. I’m sure our house is similar to the houses of cat lovers everywhere – it’s filled with cats whether they’re living, wooden, ceramic or otherwise. I’ve included a picture of Murphy and some Amy’s favorite cat decorations.

Scrapbooking is another one of my wife’s favorite past times. She doesn’t get to spend nearly as much time as she’d like doing it with her busy work schedule, but she still accomplishes astounding works when she gets the rare spare moments to work on them. Last Christmas, she gifted me with a collage celebrating some of the highlights of my debut novel Grim. She pieced together clippings from local newspapers with some pictures of signings I held at local libraries to make one of the most thoughtful gifts I’ve ever received. Recently, she put together some of our favorite photographs from our honeymoon trip to Paris. She’s also done a great job commemorating trips we’ve taken to New York and Phoenix. I’ve also included pictures of her work for you to enjoy.

One of the passions Amy and I share is reading. We constantly battle finding enough room for storage of our books. Like most writers, I’m an avid reader and books are among the few items for which I can take credit in my writing space. I had the fortune of meeting James Rollins in the spring of 2012 at the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention in Chicago. Though my wife and I attended that event with the main purpose of getting our collection of Charlaine Harris books autographed, I considered myself lucky to be able to make a small connection with Rollins that day, and I’ve become a big fan of his Sigma Series of action thrillers. I spent a lot of the past year writing and editing, but now I’m taking some time to enjoy some books and I am catching up on some of Rollins’ past work. I’ve included a picture of what I’m reading now. I also loved the recent Jack Reacher movie starring Tom Cruise, and I’ve got some of Lee Childs’ books on the backburner. I’d suggest both series for anyone who loves action and thrillers.

About the Author:

As a boy, Joseph Spencer immersed himself in the deductive logic of Sherlock Holmes, the heroic crime fighting of Batman and Spider-Man, and a taste for the tragic with dramas from poets like Shakespeare and Homer.

Before Joseph took to spinning his own tales, he pursued a career in print sports journalism, graduating summa cum laude from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. He covered such events as NASCAR’s Subway 500 race in Martinsville, the NBA Draft Camp in Chicago, the Junior College World Series, and Minor League Baseball’s Midwest League All-Star Game during a ten-year career throughout the Midwest. Now, he works as an emergency telecommunications specialist with an Illinois police department. The combination of years of writing experience with a background working with law enforcement professionals gave rise to his writing aspirations.

Joseph was married to Dr. Amy (Waggoner) Spencer, an accomplished veterinary doctor, on March 14, 2012. He received word his debut novel was accepted by his publisher, Damnation Books, the next day. Joseph is hard at work on the rest of the series. Book 2 – Wrage – was released June 1, 2013. The Spencer family enjoys reading Charlaine Harris, George R.R. Martin, Mary Janice Davidson, and most paranormal stories. The Spencers also enjoy quoting movie lines from “The Princess Bride”, “Rain Man”, “Bridesmaids”, and “Office Space.”

Website Link: www.josephbspencer.com
Blog Link: www.josephbspencer.com/blog
Twitter Link: https://twitter.com/josephspencer00
Facebook Link: https://www.facebook.com/joe.spencer3
Google+ Link: https://plus.google.com/u/0/
Goodreads Link: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/7881659-joe-spencer
LinkedIn Link: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=193078929&snapshotID=&authType=name&authToken=MmuR&ref=NUS&goback=%2Enmp_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1&trk=NUS-body-member-name Buy the book at Damnation Books
Watch the book videos: Grim and Wrage

Sometimes the toughest fight lies within yourself.

As more dark secrets come to light, the battle for souls pushes Prairieville to the brink of war in the living and supernatural realms.

Jeff Wrage swears a blood oath to Abaddon, the supernatural avenger of murder victims, to hunt the crooked cop who butchered his wife. Jeff wonders whether he can be the executioner Abaddon requires. Their pact throws the supernatural realm in chaos and threatens to trigger an apocalyptic fight for control of the afterlife between the Sons of Darkness and Sons of Light foretold in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Orlando Marino sees the death of Cyrus Black as his opportunity to restore the Marino family's stronghold in Prairieville’s organized crime scene and become a mob kingpin. He unleashes a plague, turning its victims into mindless followers. Cyrus' heir is busy rooting out a traitor and is unable to stop the coming turf war in the realm of man.

The fate of all rests with Homicide Detective Anna Duke, who steps into the shoes of her mentor while coming to terms with unrequited love. As she tries to clear the fallen hero's name, she takes on a case where corpses go missing. Her new partner is reported dead. She learns the truth about her true identity and uncovers a trail of secrets questioning her tragic past. She journeys to avert the destruction of all creation.