Fan Q&A

Seriously, the majority of what you read in my stories it is not a one-for-one lifting out of my life. Instead it’s an extension or adjustment of my experiences with people I’ve met or places I’ve seen, molding them into the plot, scenes, emotions, and characters that I bring on stage for readers to enjoy.

One rule of writing I’ve heard is “write what you know.” I express that rule a bit differently. Leverage what you know. What I leverage into my stories includes living in a foster family, serving 25 years in the Army, traveling in Asia, the South Pacific, Latin America, and Europe; as well as observing, like you have, current political, economic, and terrorist events. Additional spice comes from marrying, divorcing, being in car crashes, burying pets, having mentally ill family members, and losing loved ones to cancer and heart problems. Other insights came from working as a community activist against corrupt or biased government officials.

I believe my thrillers are realistic and believable because I make it easy for the reader to connect with events in the story similar to those in their life. Often, I’ve been told: “You’re stories are scary because they could happen.”

Second, my mother fueled my drive to tell stories when she taught me to read while sitting at her side. She instilled in me the love of reading, of being transported into different lands with exotic people doing incredible deeds. Over the years, like many people, I came to appreciate the magic authors use to create stories that touch peoples souls and stay with them for decades. Reading was the footpath that led me to the point where I decided to attempt to create the magic that I enjoyed so much.

Third, my birth mother was mentally ill most of my life slipping in and out of mental hospitals. I wondered as I grew up if that insanity had been passed on to me, simmering to emerge some day in my life. When I was thirty I concluded that sanity exists in a person when they are creative in positive ways— not in destructive ways. Being a published author keeps a lid on my simmering pot.

Fourth, I enjoy writing. I enjoy the challenge to communicate in as few words as possible the feelings bubbling in my characters, in painting the scent and feeling of a location, as well as in portraying action. I enjoy creating the magic in the hope it works for the reader.

My publisher doesn’t like me to say this, but it’s true. My Gold series of thrillers is a saga of a family. It has a strong romance genre component. Soldiers or FBI agents in my stories are not portrayed just in the action they are involved with. They have parents, spouses, children, and pets (just like you and me) that enhance and complicate their lives.

After class one day I was at the beach thinking how useless it was for a terrorist to blow himself up in a cafe and kill five or six people. It dawned on me that if we ever faced a terrorist general who had the strategic, logistic, and tactical skills trained into our military, that America would experience a terrible day. I had this idea decades prior to the 9/11 attack in New York City.

That day I realized that a story about such a mastermind turning on sleeper cells in American would be informative and interesting. That’s when I began the Gold series of thrillers.

As adjunct to the outline, I create the critical intelligence sequence (or clue sequence) listing what critical information the protagonist and hero/heroine sequentially generate or have access to and in what scene or chapter that information occurs. In parallel to the plot/story outline, I create a character list summarizing the attributes, motivations, and names of the primary and secondary characters.

Next, I write each chapter trying to avoid getting bogged down editing and re-writing a chapter over and over. I do edit as I go along but steer clear of getting sucked into the tar pit of trying to create the perfect chapter before I’ve written an integrated story of at least 28 chapters in length (370 pages).

Why you ask? Because the integrated story may take me in an unexpected direction beyond my outline. When that happens, and it routinely does, the time spent on polishing the early chapter may turn into wasted effort on material that will be tossed out.

However, in my first book I killed off the best of the best. Talk about stupid. So someday I’ll release a revised Gold Lust, because I figured out how to avoid killing the dog, named Pal.

Launching my first thriller at the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas was unique. As was participating in the California State sesquicentennial on the Capital steps holding a quarter million dollar gold nugget, teaching school children why pioneers rushed to California. Or using a rubber snake to teach fourth grade students in Fairbanks, Alaska that writing a story is easy. Or having fruit flies fly up my nose while doing a reading at the Maui Writers Conference.

The variety of author events and how they turn out are a constant surprise to me.

I was right. Time after time I’ve had readers tell me how enjoyable the newsletter is. Some have been reading since 1999 when I post the first newsletter on the Internet.

Secondly, enjoy the journey whether you ever get published or not, whether you sell one book or millions. And while you’re on that journey appreciate your spouse or significant other. Be kind to them and thank them for all the support they give you, especially when you receive rejection letters or run out of gas in the desert on the way to an important event. Mainly though, because they may disappear some day and leave you alone.

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