CentreStage on Nicky’s Blog: Gary Kassay

Welcome to CentreStage! CentreStage is a new feature on my blog that will showcase fantastic authors from around the world, introducing in particular my fellow authors in the Sapphire Star Publishing family, as well as fellow featured authors at loveahappyending.com. In this new, exciting feature, these authors might write for you about their lives, or their writing journey, or anything else that matters to them. Every feature will be different in format and flavour, so watch out for a variety of stories and tales.

Today, it is my tremendous pleasure to welcome Gary Kassay to this first edition of CentreStage!

CentreStage: Please give it up for…. Gary Kassay!

GARY KASSAY WRITES: “HOW DID I GET HERE?”

Before I let you in on my words of wisdom (well, maybe there is some wisdom here), I want to say a big thank you to Nicky Wells for asking me to be a guest on her blog. Nicky is a wonderful author and a member of Sapphire Star Publishing.
Nicky says: Thanks, Gary! I am delighted to give you centre stage on my blog today! 🙂

Okay, on to the words of wisdom. My name is Gary Kassay, and I am the author of the Duke Becker Series, signed by Sapphire Star Publishing. When I was growing up (many, many, many years ago), the thought of being an author never, ever crossed my mind. For one thing, I was terrible in English (I was thrown out of my seventh grade class), and for another, I wanted to be a cop. Well, the world works in mysterious ways.

Back in 1982, when I was a Police Officer in NYC in the K-9 unit, a thought was put into my head, a tiny little seed of a thought. I let that seed germinate now and then for over 22 years! Life sometimes throws us curveballs, hard times, tragedies. It did that to me in 2003 and for some reason, one of the things it did was to take that little seed, which was now a full-grown tree in my head, and bring it back into my thoughts.

I started to write down the story that I had let grow, (after 22 years it really was fully grown!) and began to put it to paper. That’s right; I started to write it down in longhand, a mistake that I never made again! The story flowed easily and after only six weeks I had about 450 pages of what was to be my first novel, “Murder in Silence”.

I never thought about publishing the story; in fact I was never going to write another book. Of course, I gave copies to my family and close friends (after getting it typed up!). They all said it was good, that I had written a real suspense-filled murder mystery, that it needed to be published, and so on. (What else were they going to say?—I have a gun!) I didn’t really believe them, at first, but soon there were about 200 people who had read it and raved. They also wanted a sequel!

So, I began to write another Duke Becker book, then another, and another. I also tried for almost eight years to find a publisher, and I am happy to say that the wait was well worth it!

Well, that is how I got to be where I am, writing the fifth book in the Duke Becker Series, having the first one released on July 5, 2012,with the sequel due out in January 2012. It has been an exciting ride and I know it will only get better thanks to my fans, fellow authors, and Amy and Katie over at Sapphire Star Publishing.

Oh, if you were still waiting for the words of wisdom. I guess these will have to do. “Never close the door on your dreams, let them lead you where they may, you never know what you might have been destined for.”

About “Murder in Silence” by Gary Kassay, to be published by Sapphire Star Publishing on July 5, 2012

Two New York Police Officers have been murdered, their throats torn out. With only two clues to follow, both which make no sense, Inspector Duke Becker may be facing his first failure.   Becker is in charge of Special Investigations, Homicide…a unit that investigates high profile murder cases. Will Becker and his squad stop the brutal killer or will more Police Officers die?

About Gary Kassay

Gary Kassay, author of the Duke Becker Series, is a former member of the NYPD Transit K-9 Unit. Besides a career as a Police Officer, he has been the owner of a commercial photo company, an X-ray tech for humans and animals and a TSA employee. He now resides in Casper Wyoming with his wife Raella, three dogs and one black cat.

You can follow Gary on Twitter and on Facebook, visit his website or blog. Gary also has an author page at Sapphire Star Publishing and a Murder in Silence fan page on Facebook.