I think President Trump is doing a great job thus far, given he’s only been in office a number of weeks. He is laying the groundwork to do exactly what he promised to do on the campaign trail. He has rolled back a number of Obama’s executive orders. He has selected a great candidate for the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of Justice Scalia. He has put together an impressive cabinet comprised of individuals with political, military and most importantly real-world business experience. These people aren’t just more bureaucrats. These are people who have built and run successful businesses. They’ve led men and women in the military. So, overall I think the cabinet is going to prove very successful in helping forward the agenda that the President laid out. I am still very pleased to see him taking on the media. In fact, I would almost prefer that he not have press conference but instead get his message out to the people via on-going campaign rallies. I think it’s great that he has been meeting with business leaders to hear their concerns and get their input and ideas. This is what great leaders do. They surround themselves with good people and get the input from various stakeholders. He’s making progress on tax reform proposals, border security, trade, job creation, and immigration reform. These are all things that were totally neglected over the last eight years that have resulted in the mess we have here in America—low growth, high unemployment (if you look at the real numbers), unsafe borders, high taxes and the list goes on. Time will tell if he will be able to make a huge difference, but at least he’s continuing to talk about the issues and making an effort to address them. I think we’ll see good things happening in the future.
Category Archives: Interviews
2017 Q & A: You were a regular participant in the Thinking Outside The Boxe Symposium until this year. Why is that?
I was invited to participate in Thinking Outside the Boxe’s annual symposium and their champagne summits over the holidays, and I did attend the event. In fact, I did participate in the panels on a limited basis this year but the transcripts of my comments will not be released per an agreement made between my counsel and counsel for Thinking Outside the Boxe. This may change in the future.
2017 Q & A: Since you are WWE’s best dressed fan do you have any predictions for WrestleMania?
I think WrestleMania 33 in Orlando is going to be a phenomenal event. There really is nothing quite like WrestleMania…the energy, the excitement, the drama, and incredible wrestling. With what has been happening on Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live, I think we are starting to see the general direction of where things are heading in terms of the card.
I think we’ll see Goldberg defeat Kevin Owens at the Fastlane PPV and go into WrestleMania as the WWE Universal Champion. I predict that Brock Lesnar will then defeat Goldberg for the belt. I think we’ll see Jericho versus Kevin Owens with a Jericho win at WrestleMania.
I have to go with The Undertaker over Roman Reigns, but I think this will be a really great match and perhaps the best match at WrestleMania 33.
It sort of looks like we may see Bray Wyatt versus Luke Harper for the WWE Championship, but we could end up with Cena and AJ Styles in the mix somehow. I’m not too enthusiastic about that scenario, but it’s possible. I’ll go with the Eater of Worlds Bray Wyatt for the win regardless of who he faces, and that will also be a damn good match. I don’t know where any of this leaves Randy Orton.
For the Raw Women’s Championship, I would really like to see Sasha Banks reclaim the belt, but I’m not sure that will happen. I’m not a fan of Charlotte, but I suspect that she’ll somehow be involved in the match.
It’s not apparent at this point if Triple H is going to be involved in any way. The logical match was Seth Rollins versus Triple H, but it appears that Rollins is injured once again. I will put emphasis on the term “appears.”
Then we have a whole bunch of talent that is just sort of drifting along with no apparent roles to fill…Dean Ambrose, Baron Corbin, Dolph Ziggler, Braun Strowman, Sheamus and Cesaro. I suspect they may get put on the card, but the matches aren’t apparent at this point.
Q & A 2017: What are your general thoughts on Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live?
I’m actually liking SmackDown Live a bit more than Monday Night Raw at the moment. I’m not a fan of the cruiserweight division at this point, and it seems Raw is spending a disproportionate amount of time on these matches. I don’t like that the announcers aren’t ringside anymore on Raw. I think it takes something away from the show. There also seems to be a lot more talking and recapping of prior matches on Raw. And I certainly don’t care much for Kevin Owens…he can’t wrestle, he can’t talk and he has absolutely no stage presence or charisma. Yet, Raw has made him their posterboy. Big mistake in my opinion. When he comes on, I go get a drink or something. I have no interest in his same old rhetoric. As far as I’m concerned, WWE can ship him back to Quebec. In all, Raw’s matches are of less quality, the talent seems lower quality in general, and the show less desirable at this point. Having said that, I still watch it. I think SmackDown Live is doing great. They have the better talent, and the matches seem better as a result of the better talent. I think Raw will eventually come around, but it may take Vince McMahon to sort things out.
What is your outlook for President Trump’s agenda?
I’m very optimistic about President Trump and his agenda, just as I was very optimistic about his candidacy when everyone else said he didn’t have a chance. I think President Trump has a great opportunity to bring Republicans together after the divisive primary and unite the party and equally as important, to work with Democrats to address the great challenges facing our country. I’ve spoken at length about those challenges in the past: the national debt, the economy and jobs, tax reform, immigration reform, and healthcare. President Trump won an election which was the voters’ repudiation of the liberal Obama agenda. He was given a mandate for the agenda he espoused on the campaign trail, and since he has been in office he has been working towards fulfilling his campaign promises.
There is no doubt that our country is deeply divided. President Trump’s address to the joint session of the Congress was a great speech. He clearly wants to put aside partisan politics that have plagued Washington for decades and work with Republicans and Democrats to fix the problems facing our country. He’s a great businessman. In business, he surrounded himself with good people and negotiated with various stakeholders to make deals work. I think he’s going to use that same approach now that he’s President. He’ll get leading Republicans and Democrats together at the White House and see where they can find common ground on these issue. Then, let the negotiations begin.
I think infrastructure will be the easiest bill to get through. This is an area that Democrats have typically supported. Remember Obama’s “shovel ready projects”? I think tax reform and repealing and replacing or reforming Obamacare are related issues. I’m hopeful this is going to get accomplished sooner rather than later. Immigration reform is going to be much tougher but not impossible.
In other areas, President Trump is already taking steps to ease burdensome regulations imposed by the prior administration. These regulations made it unnecessarily difficult for companies to conduct business.
I’m most pleased with the fact that President Trump continues to be of the position that he’s representing the American people and that America comes first. He’s not representing the world; he’s representing “We the People.”
2017 Q&A: How did you come up with the idea for your upcoming book?
I always loved shows like Falcon Crest, Dynasty, Dallas, and The Colbys, and I think that inspired me to write Gems & Jewels. Since the shows that I watched during the 1980s were either about oil or wine, I thought it would be good to explore a new industry that operates all over the world, in some pretty dark places too, and that does have some glitz to it. Everyone loves diamonds and jewels, right? What’s not to like about beautiful jewelry?
A little known fact is that this was originally a script that I wrote as a television mini-series, and I decided to go back and convert this to a novel. The original script’s draft was written in the mid-1990s, so a lot needed to be changed with the original storyline to bring it up to date and to make it a better novel. I’ve changed a lot about the plot, added a lot of characters, and given it a lot more depth than the draft script ever anticipated. I guess some things do get better with time!
2017 Q&A: What is the title of your next book? What is the setting?
I’m currently working Gems & Jewels Book II: The Restoration. It’s about a powerful family in the mining industry and retail jewelry industry. It has all the elements of a family drama—power, sex, money, wheeling and dealing. It’s actually set primarily in Orlando, Florida at the family estate and the business’s headquarters. Part of the story also takes place in Congo Free State, a fictional country in central Africa. It’s taking me a bit longer than anticipated to finish this one. Life sort of gets in the way, and time is always at a premium. Nonetheless, I’m making progress even if it is slow progress. When it’s done, it will be epic, and it may be the longest book I’ve written thus far.
Interview with This Lady Writes part 11
What advice would you give an aspiring author?
Work hard. Stay focused. Be committed. Don’t think that you’re going to hit it rich, and don’t write for the money. Write because you love to write, not because you think you’re going to get rich. Give each book you write all that you’ve got in you and more. Put out a quality product. There’s too much competition out there. If you don’t put out a good quality novel, if your novel is just marginal, you’re not going to make it. You may have to take some writing classes or workshops to fine tune your skills or pick up some new ones, but if you’re serious you’ll do it. Don’t get discouraged. It’s not easy. There are a lot of rejections and a lot of challenges of being an author, more so if you’re an indie author. So, give it your best, keep working hard, dedicate yourself to it, but have a back-up plan so you don’t end up a starving artist. And most importantly, don’t give up. It may take a while to get established, so keep working at it, stay dedicated, and don’t give up.
Interview with This Lady Writes part 10
How can readers connect with you?
I’ve got a pretty extensive online and social media presence. Readers can follow me on Twitter at @MysteryDigger or on Facebook. They can keep up with me on my website, DiggerCartwright.com, and on my blog,MysteryDigger.com. I’m also on Pinterest. Readers can keep up with where I’ve been, some of my favorite restaurants or wine or recipes, what I’m reading, and what I find interesting. Join me on LinkedIn too. And I’ve also got a daily news briefing that readers can subscribe to at MysteryWriterNews.com. It’s a daily paper with articles on topics that I find of interest and about things I care about. We’ve tried to set up a diversified range of articles on everything from indie authors, golf, economics, animal welfare and care, charities, the WWE, a bit of sports, recipes and fashion, and of course some articles that I’ve written.
Interview with This Lady Writes Part 9
Are there any authors out there that inspire you?
I don’t do nearly as much reading as I’d like these days, so I can’t speak about today’s authors too much. I do like the work of Anne Perry, particularly her Charlotte and Thomas Pitt mysteries. They’re period pieces, and she weaves good stories. I can’t say that her work inspires me. I just enjoy what she writes when I do have time to read someone else’s work. I’ve always been a fan of Agatha Christie, and I suppose her work really inspired me. I read all of her novels at an early age, and I’d probably credit her work with inspiring me to write mysteries. I’d also put Ngaio Marsh and Erle Stanley Gardner in that category too.
Digger Cartwright 