The Interview aound the Globe with R. Breuer Stearns

Let welcome to our latest and newest member to our list of authors. Let welcome R. Breuer Stearns to Nighttime Reading Center. He here on a book tour. He is stopping by here on November 10. I work with +Laura Fabiani iRead Book Tours and I happy learn about him books and giveaway.

I got the chance to read his book "The Question". It was different. I would suggest that you read my review for "The Question". You got a chance to win a  - Win 1 of 10 copies of The Question (USA & Canada). Enter his giveaway The Question Giveaway

Let read his Bio and then go to her interview. #Interviews, #Interviewsaroundtheglobe, #NRC, #Giveaways,  #bookreview, #adventure, #thriller, #adultfiction and @iReadBookTours

R. Breuer Stearns is an investor and author.

Mr. Stearns graduated from Phillips Academy, Andover (1970), Harvard University (AB, 1974), University of Chicago (MBA, 1977), and DePaul University College of Law (JD, 1979). He rapidly ascended on Wall Street in the 1980’s, serving as Managing Director, Mergers & Acquisitions at Lehman Brothers and Head of Investment Banking (North America) at UBS Securities. While living in New York, he founded “Terrific Teachers, Inc.,” a foundation dedicated to identifying and rewarding the best of the best of the city’s public high school teachers.


Shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Mr. Stearns launched a private investment bank in the former Soviet Union. He spent the early 1990’s seeking to marry emerging science, primarily emanating from Russia’s Defense sector, with Western capital. During this period, Mr. Stearns made a small fortune, albeit from a larger one. The venture provided a remarkable lesson in hubris, a tremendous reservoir of internal strength, and first-hand source material for Mr. Stearns’ first book, Winning Smart After Losing Big (Encounter Books, Beijing University Press).


Subsequently, Mr. Stearns served as Chief Financial Officer of The Dial Corporation, Chief Financial Officer of Columbia/HCA Corporation, Chief Financial Officer of PacifiCare, Inc., President and Chief Operating Officer of Vascular Genetics, Inc., and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Quepasa Corporation (QPSA:Amex).


Mr. Stearns is a Founder of VestaPoint Capital LLC, a family of investment funds focused on real estate development. He lives in Arizona with his wife, two dogs, two cats, and a horse. He travels extensively and is intensely curious.

Connect with the author: Website

Describe your book in 20 words or less.

THE QUESTION is a thought-provoking thriller, inviting the reader’s emotional and cerebral participation.
Where or how did you come up with the idea for your story?

I was taking a walk with my wife, ruminating on a non-literary problem.  During our discussion, I began to think about how her ideas sometimes challenged, sometimes reinforced my thinking.  That conversation caused me to think about how rare moments of solitary genius occur.  Rather, most really, really tough problems are resolved by questioning and building upon the thoughts of others.

How important are names to you in your book(s)? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning? Do you use any resources in assisting you to choose the names?

Names are important, perhaps more from my perspective than the reader’s.  I try to select names which connote an aura or an intangible feeling about the character.  The process is unquestionably imprecise.

Which of your characters (in this book) is your favorite and Why?

I like them all . . . but, for very different reasons.  I try to make my characters believable and textured, yet unformed and imperfect enough so that the reader can impute traits and motives.  When I finish a book, I actually miss my characters and the universe that I have created for them.  I suppose that many authors use the same characters in subsequent books because the authors and their readers have developed a familiarity and emotional bond with the characters.  Part of me wants to continue the lives of my characters in a subsequent story . . . and part me of me believes that the characters in THE QUESTION have served their singular purpose.  Perhaps I will allow my readers to help me decide.

What was your favorite part to write and why?

I enjoyed bringing all of the strands of the story to a satisfying ending.  I really wanted my readers to be rewarded for investing their emotional and intellectual effort. From the beginning, I knew where I wanted the THE QUESTION to end.  Getting there . . . weaving all of the story lines into a single, satisfying moment . . . was enormously satisfying for me.

What writing advice do you have for other aspiring authors?

Write.  And, recognize that writing and being a commercially successful author are two different things.  Writing is a creative process, time-consuming, difficult, a low-odds business with no guarantee of applause from anyone other than yourself.  So, if your aspiration is to become rich-and-famous, writing is probably not your easiest or fastest route.  Authors . . . similar to painters, composers, and actors . . .  create because they genuinely enjoy the process of creating.  “Enjoy the process” is the key concept. 

Do you read your reviews? Do you respond to them, good or bad? Do you have any advice on how to deal with the bad?

Yes, I read my reviews.  I do not respond to them, although I am guilty of mentally rebutting the negative ones.  That said, I try to learn from my reviews.  After all, I am writing with the intent of providing readers with a certain (defined by me) emotional and cerebral experience.  If readers “get” that experience, I am very gratified and appreciative.  If readers do not “get” it, I wonder if I have failed in some way.  I understand that I cannot please everyone all of the time . . . but, I genuinely prefer readers to understand and enjoy my work.  Some authors write entirely for their own satisfaction.  For me, audience approval is important . . . the ultimate proof of my talent is whether or not readers “get” what I am trying to convey.


Thank you for stopping by Nighttime Reading Center, R. Breuer Stearns. I hope to see you around here. I hope you stop by once in awhile. I was having a decent time reading your book/

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