Tell
us a bit about yourself.
I’m
a paramedic and volunteer firefighter. I have a BA in English and a
BS in Computer Science which helped me formalize my skills in my two
loves, computers and writing. My hobbies include competitive shooting
in several different disciplines including long distance rifle and
combat handgunning. I am also a SCUBA Rescue Diver and free diver and
spend as much time as possible playing under water as I can despite
crummy winters around where I live.
I’ve
always wanted to be an author and only in the last several years have
had the chance to be published. I pounded my head against the
conventional publishing world without success for many years. I wrote
and published my first novel, Kill Code several years ago
after fifteen plus years trying to figure out the best way to pull it
off. When it finally came to me, it only took a year to write and
publish.
What
are your books about?
Kill
Code is about a piece of software
that directs a group of assassins to kill those government officials
who have violated their oath to the US Constitution. I was trying to
answer the question of what the world would be like if those in
government were held accountable for their actions.
My
current books are about the group of assassins in Kill
Code—The
Black Hand. Each specializes in a
certain way of killing. How each got to the point where they could
commit murder for hire are interesting stories and I’m having a
blast writing about them.
What
is your writing process?
My
work schedule is such that I have eight days off in a row so I write
during the day just like if I worked a conventional job except that I
get to figure out what to do and when. And, I’ve gotten to the
point where I can write reasonably quickly—The
Black Hand: Sniper was written in
3-1/2 weeks. The other books in the series took longer to write given
the extensive amount of research required. My goal is to publish six
books in 2015 and so far, I’m reasonably on track to do that.
What
inspires you to write?
My
goal is to make a decent living as a writer and tell interesting
stories about complex characters put into horrible circumstances. I’m
often surprised at the stories turn out considering that my writing
process consists of writing the first scene and then the last scene
and fill in between them.
How do you choose titles for your
books?
The Black Hand
series is easy to figure out—just their specialties, Sniper,
Poisoner,
Arsonist
to be followed by Bomber,
Marksman
and Saboteur.
The Kill Code
series is based on various computer terminologies. The second book in
the series, Abnormal End
is an old mainframe computer term for a software crash. The third
book, which is being written now is titled Ghost
Net and is based on that there is
more than one Internet with what you usually see only being part of a
smaller, darker subset.
Can you tell me more about the world
you created in the Kill Code series?
Originally written to be a thriller in which
two reasonably normal people are thrown into world changing events,
it instead became more about the characters. With my libertarian
political bent, I do feel that there are significant violations of
our rights each day so I wondered what would happen if someone
started murdering the government officials responsible. The bad news
is that no matter how many die, life goes on. But, that doesn’t
mean that my characters won’t be fighting for their lives.
Tentatively, there will be three books in the
Kill Code
series. I’ve lived with the series for a long time and while
there is a lot of material to be mined, I feel that it’s time to
finish it. I’m not ruling out further stories in those worlds, but
I have other projects planned.
Can you tell me more about the world
you created in The Black Hand series?
It’s a rather conventional world except that there is an
organization that recruits, trains and supports murder/mayhem for
hire. I spend my time exploring how each of the characters transforms
from being reasonably ordinary people to professional killers.
I love the research aspect of writing these books. Sniper was
easy to write as I have been shooting rifles at long distances for
almost all of my adult life. Every other book requires extensive
research and working with experts in the field.
There will be six books in The Black Hand series and I hope to
have that series wrapped up this year. I’m doing research on Bomber
leaning on a retired EOD technician and I’m starting on thinking
about Marksman which shouldn’t be that difficult as it
involves shooting.
What do you like to do when you aren't
writing?
I love my job as a paramedic and being a
volunteer firefighter. When someone calls for help it is generally
the worst day of their life and any skills, experience and training I
can bring to help them makes the low pay, crummy working conditions
and lack of respect almost worth it. Otherwise, I read, shoot, and
dive. It’s not a complex life but I do my best to make it as full
as I possibly can.
What are you working on right now?
I’m
currently writing a book titled Machine Guns and Magic. It’s
the story of my grandfather who was drafted from the Scottish coal
mines to fight in WWI. He was a Lewis Machine Gunner and served in
the Royal Irish Regiment. After the war, he became a professional
magician in London. When he immigrated to the US after the death of
his partner, he never practiced magic professionally again. I have
read over a hundred books on the subject of WWI, Britain after the
war and where he practiced magic. Included in my research were many
hours of videos and asking strange questions on various forums. It is
an extraordinarily difficult book to write as they wrote and spoke
completely differently back then and my grandfather read the
dictionary for fun so he had a heck of a vocabulary. It will be
released on Armistice Day this year and I will be celebrating with a
group of friends by shooting WWI rifles and handguns in remembrance
of those brave souls that fought in The Great War.
What are your future projects?
In
the strange mix for later this year and next will be a SF military
book, a soft romance or two and a hard SF book. Some urban fantasy
might be mixed in. I’ve spent a lot of time dealing with half a
dozen characters and I feel it’s time to get away from them. I
haven’t had a great deal of sales with what I’m writing now so
it’s time to try something else to see if I can write books that
will sell decently well. As long as it pays and I think I can write
it, I’ll try it.
