Daniel Springer lives near Tampa, Florida with his wife of twenty-two years and their two children. His story ideas draw heavily from his extensive background and expertise in technology, having worked in the computer and telecommunications industries for the past twenty-five years. He enjoys golf, skiing/snowboarding, music and playing video games with his kids.

Hi, Dan. Welcome to my blog. How long have you been writing?

The short answer is my whole life. For as long as I can remember I loved to read and felt that, just as almost everyone on the planet, one day I would pen “the great American novel. In high school I found I possessed some ability to effectively communicate by writing just in the course of completing the typical essays and term papers. I remember scratching out a few pages of a novel with a Bic ballpoint on notebook paper in the summer before my senior year of high school but not completing more than a few chapters. In college I wrote for the school newspaper and took a creative writing class and other book-length fiction ideas began percolating, but nothing beyond a couple of chapters ever made it on paper. Building a career, marriage,  and then children made it difficult to find the dedication and time needed to complete a novel. Sure I wrote plenty of “stuff” for work but, despite still having the desire to write a novel, I didn’t pursue writing fiction. Then, about ten years ago something happened that made my food taste better, my family more precious, and most importantly made me realize the majority of people out there, including myself, never really know when our time on earth will end. While riding my bicycle on a solitary, country road one morning, a speeding car hit me and left me for dead. Because I wore a helmet, I sustained only minor injuries, but the certainty of my own mortality, and my lack of control over its timing, slapped me in the face.  So, when the idea for The WILCO Project surfaced in the summer of 2004, I immediately started writing and did not stop until I completed the first draft on the manuscript in late November of that year.

Congratulations on the publication of your debut novel, The WILCO Project? How was the road to publication?

Thank you for the kind words. For me, the road to traditional publication was treacherous and frustrating to say the least!  I have a collection of some eighty-five rejection letters from agents and publishers gathered over the six years it took for me to get published. The couple of years before I signed my contract, I had all but given up on getting the book published. Since my plans did not include self-publishing, I had accepted the fact that The WILCO Project might never see the light of day. That realization broke my heart because, as you know, our books are so special to us and involve so much effort that I ultimately wanted people to read and hopefully enjoy them. So, I feel extremely fortunate that Solstice Publishing gave me a chance and offered me a contract.

I love the premise of your book: A game gone wrong.  How did you come up with this idea?

I get asked that question a bunch and I am not sure I have a good answer! I have always been a video game lover and I was that guy back in the mid-eighties while in college that bought all the laser tag stuff from Sharper Image. Once I saw where smart phones were headed with mobile apps, I created a fictional game that I wished existed—a game I would play. Now throw in a dead body and the premise emerged.

Congratulations on making the #10 Bestseller Overall on Fictionwise.com. I also noticed you received four cups from the Coffee Time Romance review. Is there romance in your novel?

I am so pleased the book not only to hit the #10 spot overall on Fictionwise.com with some 51,000 titles, but I also held the #1 spot in my category, Suspense/Thriller, as well. Regarding the CTR review, I didn’t even know my publisher had submitted my book for them to review given it is a thriller.  LOL, I would not categorize this novel as a romance, but it turns out there are a couple of steamy scenes in the book. There is nothing I would call gratuitous as I leave much to the reader’s imagination, but I did have a female reader approach me at a party with a wicked grin as she announced to the other women gathered around that they simply had to read page 177! Must be some romance in there ;’).

Does a reader have to be technically savvy to understand all the nuances in The Wilco Project?

I don’t believe so. In the same way that Clancy colors his stories with technical details of submarines, I am hoping my use of technology makes The WILCO Project story interesting. The technology in the book is timely as devices like the Droid and iPhone and their use of location-based services are indeed capable of potentially supporting an actual game like The WILCO Project today. Technology aside, the crux of the story revolves around the characters, how they resolve their conflicts, and, of coarse, solving the case.

Are you working on any new projects at this time?

Yes! The team of Professor Steven Archer, reporter Bobbi Cline, and Detective Frank Diaz are back together again working to solve another mystery that involves another, much different, game. I also have another top secret project related to The WILCO Project that is in its early stages. You might be able to guess what I am hinting at based on some comments above, but at this stage I can neither confirm nor deny any rumors–stay tuned to my web site for details ;’).