This image is the cover for the book Crazy from the Heat

Crazy from the Heat

What makes Dave Barry funny? Stephen King scary? Tami Hoag heartbreaking?


All readily admit that where they live greatly influences what they write.


Indeed, for both writers and readers, geography may well be destiny when it comes to fiction. Novelists often borrow from their surroundings, consciously or subconsciously, to create their imaginative worlds, just as we readers are drawn to those works that transport us to more exciting and inspiring locales, be it Hemingway’s Havana, Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County or McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove.

Jay L. MacDonald

Jay MacDonald is an international award-winning professional journalist, author and songwriter who brings human interest, humor and clarity to a broad range of topics. His work has been widely honored with awards from the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), Forbes Best of Web, the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) and the Music City News Songwriting Competition.


His Crazy collection of author interviews herein represents but a treasured few of the hundreds he wrote as Sunday Books editor for the Fort Myers (Fla.) News-Press daily newspaper. They appear here courtesy of The News Press.


Jay and his wife, Kate, make their home in Florida.


Austin Macauley Publishers