WHAT IT TAKES FOR THIS GUY TO BE A WRITER
I did a pair of personal appearances last week, one for a friend, Jim L’Etoile, at the library in Lincoln, California, and another for the Delta Kappa Gamma organization of retired teachers in San Ramon, CA. It is fun to toot your own horn occasionally. We discussed mysteries, detectives, and the writer’s greatest helper: criminals. Jim is an incredible writer of police procedurals (he is a retired law enforcement official). Check out his latest: Rivers of Lies and Illusion of Truth. I love his covers.
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The presentation to the retired teachers focused on my writing, the process, and how the publishing industry is changing. A great evening, even sold a few books.
A few weeks back, I attended a “Writer’s Faire” for the Alamo California Women’s Club and sat next to Todd Severin. Todd is a writer, ophthalmologist, and musician who has just published a medical thriller that has received widespread praise, including kind words from best-selling author Robert Dugoni. Todd’s novel, Deadly Vision, was published earlier this year and has earned significant acclaim.
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He is also the co-founder of Ripple Music, which specializes in heavy psych, stoner, and heavy rock music (go figure for an eye doctor). Todd asked if I would like to do an interview for his blog. “Absolutely.” Self-promotion is my middle name. (Click Here)
Check it out.
Here is the interview:
How do you get inspired to write?
Inspiration is never the problem; finding the time to put my butt in a chair for the approximately 400 hours it takes to write a book, including editing, is. Inspiration comes from the word, line, and page. Sometimes, when it happens, it amazes me.
I self-publish my novels exclusively through Amazon.com. I’ve worked with major publishers and distributors, but they’ve never offered the marketing support I expected when I signed on. This gives me the freedom to write and publish what I want, on my schedule and under my terms. After thirty novels, I find satisfaction in sharing my work with readers; I let them decide if they enjoy my novels or not (and, luckily, the reviews usually favor me).
Inspiration, almost as if sent by the muse, never fails to astonish me when it strikes. I possess a fertile, amusing, satirical, and rich imagination, and I’ve honed the skills to develop a story; it just takes time to write it down. Writing has now become more of an obsession than a need to find inspiration. When I’m not writing, I feel restless, bored, and impatient. Still, there are examples of inspiration everywhere; people can be a funny lot (sometimes monstrously so), and they constantly surprise me with their actions and reactions. The sources for stories are endless.
How do you deal with writer’s block?
I don’t get it. I have never experienced “writer’s block.” It’s something mythical to those outside the profession. To me, when someone admits to writer’s block, it’s because they are bored and working on the wrong thing. They won’t admit it; it’s easier than trying to work through the problem. Me? I work on something else. The “blocked” work is still there, and eventually I’ll figure out the problem, return to the manuscript, and finish it.
As a self-published author of my books, I take pride in handling most aspects of their production. I finish the manuscript, have it professionally edited, create the cover art, produce the eBook from the manuscript, develop the PDF of the final work used to print the paperback and hardcover versions, and in a few cases, produce the audiobook. The most challenging part is the marketing, but in for a penny, in for a pound.
What mystery in your own life could be a plot for a book?
My father, an orphan, never knew his biological parents. My grandmother took him in as a baby and raised him. The story behind this is fascinating (and still unknown). If I could discover the truth and connections through DNA, I would write that story.
What are you currently working on?
I work on many stories at the same time, or more specifically, I jump from one story to another until one grabs my attention long enough for me to finish. I am currently developing and writing seven novels across six series; some are about 10% finished, while others are at the 50% mark (I assess my progress by word count; some are 60K words, others 75K words, and the standalone novels are close to 100K words). This method definitely helps me avoid so-called writer’s block. If I get stuck or bored, I switch to another story. I also keep a large file filled with notes on storylines and novel ideas.
However, my current WIP is the second Marigold Gang mystery. It is titled: The Mystery of the Missing Monte Carlo. It features rock and roll, classic cars, the discovery of four dead musicians at the bottom of a lake, and a group of five old guys (The Marigold Gang) trying to solve the mystery.
Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?
The Ghosts of Buffalo Crossing is the sixth book in my surprisingly popular series featuring Sheriff Jordan Tynes of Park County, Montana. It will be released on February 17, 2026 (pre-order now). Since it's the sixth book, I had already developed a cast of characters and set all of southern Montana as my stage. I needed a conflict for them to solve. The idea came as an inspiration: two miners are found dead in a remote cabin in the Absaroka Mountains; they have been dead for fourteen years. My sheriff needs to find out why they were murdered.
The idea for the story originated from a news article about a camper's remains in the Rockies who had been missing for years and was discovered after an accident. From that, I developed a plot about a powerful criminal family in Montana, two of whom are found dead. In trying to solve the crime, Jordan Tynes encounters this family, which doesn’t want the case solved (read the novel). This family creates numerous problems for my main character.
What kind of research did you do for this novel?
The research was simple and visual. I used aerial imagery, photos of cabins, stories about both modern and old-time mining, and, surprisingly, YouTube videos posted by campers and hikers in the Montana mountains. I also spent time in Montana fly fishing and exploring the land – it is truly extraordinary. There are Crow Indian characters whose heritage and culture are important to the story, and thorough research into these tribal rights was essential.
In general, what emotions do you usually wish to elicit with your writing?
Sympathy (the character’s pain is your pain), commiseration (we are all in this together), wonderment (the world is a big place), surprise (a simple twist of fate can change a life), and anxiety (often we do not control what is happening to us).
Best advice on writing you've ever received?
There have been many moments like this. Robert Dugoni, during a writing class he taught, responded to my question about a story of mine with five main characters. He said to kill off four of them. I did, and the story became so much better.
Another simple rule is: don't jump around with your character’s points of view (called head-hopping), because it confuses the reader. While many great writers surprisingly do this, it's best not to. Stick to one character’s point of view (POV) at a time.
What is the weirdest/wildest topic or fact that you’ve had to research or uncovered in your research?
There have been many, and most have become part of the story or the primary plot line.
1. Benito Mussolini, a dictator and fascist, sent his second-in-command, Italo Balbo, to Chicago with a fleet of seaplanes from Italy in 1933 to celebrate the Chicago Century of Progress World’s Fair. The city named a street after Balbo Drive in his honor, and it has remained unchanged, even after the devastating impacts of their fascist dictatorship and World War II. My book Chicago Jazz uses this story as the plot.
2. Shipping containers sometimes fall off container ships and are salvaged by locals. This is the story concept used in Containers for Death.
3. There is a professional baseball tournament in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, every other year, that invites international baseball teams to compete. I used this in Diamonds for Death.
4. Nazi Germany hid all their national art, paper money, and gold in salt caverns hundreds of feet underground in the central part of Germany; it was worth billions. The Americans found it and stole it all—a plot line in Toulouse for Death.
Can you tell us a two-sentence horror story?
A minister, a priest, and a rabbi walk into a bar. The bartender poisons them.
What else would you want readers to know about you?
I was a licensed landscape architect for fifty years, designing over 1,000 residential and commercial projects across California and the West. My wife and I owned and operated our own land planning and landscape architecture firm in Walnut Creek, California, for 25 years. I took up fiction writing later in life and self-published my first novel in 2010.
My first book was America’s Original GI Town, Park Forest, Illinois. It was first published in 2000 by Johns Hopkins University Press. I regained my rights and updated and republished the non-fiction work in 2010. To celebrate the Village’s anniversary, I recently released the 75th Anniversary edition, now available on Amazon.com.
I am originally from Michigan and Chicago and now reside in the San Francisco Bay Area. Many scenes in my books are set in the Midwest, especially Chicago. I have been living in California since Richard Nixon was president.
A Final Note:
In February 2026, the fifth in the Sheriff Jordan Tynes modern western series will be published. The Ghost of Buffalo Crossing will take you deep into the Absaroka Mountains to find the killer of two miners who were left to rot for fourteen years before their discovery. Pre-order now: https://tinyurl.com/4zm84z7c.
