Greg Stone always wanted to be a writer; it just took him a while to get around to it.
After he ended up in the intensive care unit with complications from his back surgery in 2019, it occurred to him that every time he put down the mystery novel he was reading at the time, he could see the next scene in his head.
“I thought that was pretty good, though, what I was thinking of,” Stone said. “And then when I came out of (the hospital), I said, ‘let me try my hand at it.”’
Stone spent many years as a journalist, first as a writer at Times Inc., New York, then as a TV reporter in Minneapolis, Boston, and at PBS. Turning down an offer to anchor at CNN in New York, he started his own business called Stone Communications, where he did video productions for hire, hoping to venture into making films.
Stone said he believes journalism taught him the importance of deadlines and the practice of sitting down and writing. However, “after a while (he) got tired of nonfiction.” The main character in his mystery book series, Ronan Mezini, was inspired partly by people and places that he knew best.
‘Dangerous Inspiration’
In June 2023, at the age of 70, Stone published the first book in the series, “Dangerous Inspiration.” The story follows detective-turned-novelist Mezini solving murders in rural Vermont. His new book, “Deadline on Arrival,” is a prequel to the first book, following Mezini when he was a detective in Boston. Mezini has a rare condition called synesthesia, which merges his senses, turning sounds into colors.
“I have what’s called a mathematical or arithmetic synesthesia,” Stone said. “I envision numbers as a horizontal ladder going backward and forward in space.”
Writing is a discipline and “you just have to sit down and write,” according to Stone. Inspiration is vastly overrated to him because he gets ideas as he writes. He said he always has a general idea of what the story will look like, but he allows room for improvisation.
He said the most challenging part of the entire process is getting the work published. Although he had written a few business books in the past, none of his agents represented fiction, so he turned to an online website called Authors Publish Magazine, which issues a guide to publishers that accept manuscripts. He started writing to a couple of them and a month later, he had an offer from Paper Angel Press.
Previously, he had published his first business book called “Artful Business” through Amazon, which was “not a bad experience.” Later, he had his other two business books traditionally published.
After years of working in journalism, he “developed a thick skin for criticism.” He has a few trusted readers who first read his manuscripts and provide their evaluation.
“If you want to start writing, you have to be prepared for criticism,” Stone said. “I’m always curious to hear from readers what they think.”
Positive reviews
Stone’s mystery series has an average of 4.2 stars on Amazon, with one reader, L. A Jacob, calling “Dangerous Inspiration” “a really well-written classic, with a tangled enough ending to seem believable enough.” Another reader, Gloria Wu MD, wrote, “It is like Agatha Christie and totally engrossing.”
A third book in the Ronan Mezini series is already in the works, he said. He is planning to release one new book every year. He still runs his communication business out of his house, so he writes books in his spare time.
“Deadline on Arrival” hit the bookshelves on June 26, 2024.
