RANT received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author M.K. Hoffman.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
RANT published Sept 2021.
What’s the book’s first line?
Hurricane Katrina crossed southern Florida on the morning of Thursday, August 25, 2005.
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
The book is about my adventures, as a layman, in trying to stop major investment banks from manipulating oil prices, and other commodity prices, which caused the “great recession”. The recession caused the mortgage collapse. The mortgage collapse did not cause the recession.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
I had a screaming match with the Dept. of Justice over their unwillingness to act. I hung up the phone and started typing.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
Someone should read this book to understand what really happened. It is not a technical book. It is an easy read that anyone can enjoy.
When did you first decide to become an author?
As my adventures evolved, people kept telling me “You should write a book.” I kept thinking about it until I had a screaming match with the Dept. of Justice. I hung up and started typing.
Is this the first book you’ve written?
This is the first book I have written. Before this the biggest thing I ever wrote was a two-page business letter.
What do you do for work when you’re not writing?
My career has been commercial real estate for most of my life and in later years I started selling automotive and mechanical lubricants.
How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
I do not write for a living so I do not dedicate a specific amount of time to write. While I was writing this book, I would write as ideas popped into my head. This could happen at any time day or night. I have popped out of bed at two in the morning and on more than one occasion, I have fallen asleep while typing.
What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
The hardest part of being an indie is getting published by a legitimate publisher who will help you. Then next hardest part is getting your book recognized and marketed.
What’s a great piece of advice that you can share with fellow indie authors?
Be careful. There are many scams out there who have no interest except to run up a lot of fees. Don’t give up. I ran into more than one “publisher” who would give me a price for one part of their service. They would not tell me all the fees involved until I paid them for service one then I could go to service two. Just hang up and move on.
Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
The traditional publishers wouldn’t answer my phone calls. They are besieged by too many authors. But if someone came calling I would listen.
Is there something in particular that motivates you (fame? fortune?)
I was motivated to get my true story out to the public. Everything I state in the book is true. Many aspects were confirmed to me by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, New York State Attorney General’s office, a former managing director of a major bank and a trader from one the banks.
Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?
My reading interests gravitate to historical fiction. Some of the authors who I have enjoyed most are: Leon Uris, James Michener, Ken Follett, Jane Auel, Tom Clancy and Nelson DeMille.
Which book do you wish you could have written?
The amount of research that these authors have put into a book leaves me in awe. I wish I could have written any one of their books.