Phil Valentine

I started writing The God Players back in the '90s. It was the first book I'd ever finished. I think I completed it sometime in 1996 or '97. I was really excited about the concept and had several people read it to give me feedback. I took that feedback to heart and re-wrote portions of the book based on what I heard. We were living in Philadelphia at the time, and I sent the manuscript out to various literary agents and publishing houses. I have a stack of rejection letters t

Although I’ve had a fascination with Nostradamus for a long time, I don’t profess to be an expert. When embarking on a complicated plot like The First Face of Janus it’s essential that you do your research. I read all of Nostradamus’ quatrains. I even interpreted a few as they’d never been interpreted before. Take special note of when Benson Crow and Sidney Rosenfeld are talking in The Dubliner restaurant in Washington, DC. But it wasn’t just researching Nostradamus. It was s

November 1, 2014, I found myself in a freak snowstorm on my way from Nashville, TN to Raleigh, NC. I was stuck inside a tunnel in North Carolina for over six hours. After giving up hope that traffic would be moving anytime soon, I started looking around my car for ways to entertain myself. I pulled out my computer and began searching for any saved movies or television shows. I found one. It was a documentary on Nostradamus. I began watching and after a few minutes an idea hit

I actually started this book about 20 years ago. The storyline of The God Players always fascinated me. From the time I envisioned the alliance between the gay rights group and the fundamentalist Christians I longed to make the book a reality. I'm one of those people who works feverishly on something then moves on to the next project. Probably my ADD at work. I don't quite know why I put this particular book on the back burner. It wasn't the rejection letters. Every author ge