all while explaining their reasoning to the other. Over the
course of the project the work is probably about the same.
Where did you get the idea for your book?
I have this inclination to latch on to extraneous information
I receive, sometimes a news article will grab my attention. I’ll
end up googling for more information, and then sometimes
take it a step further by taking books out of my local library.
Occasionally as I pursue a topic a story idea will unfold in my
mind, and I may spend months kicking around characters,
plot devices, and questioning others as to whether they think
a worthwhile story is there.
The idea for Crime of the
Century originated when I
stumbled across a dog-eared
paperback with a reprinted
article on the Lindbergh
kidnapping case. Olustee
germinated when a fellow
Civil War buff casually
mentioned the current Civil
War monument controversy
in Olustee, Florida.
There have been several
topics I kicked around in
my head for six months or
more—some even containing characters’ names—before
getting discarded for one reason or another. I’d say nine out of
every ten books I’ve written in my head never saw ink on paper.
What steps were involved in researching your book?
That depends on whether you’re talking about fiction or
non-fiction. Non-fiction is a whole different ball game. For
historical fiction you don’t have to do an incredible amount
of research, but what you absolutely can’t do is screw it up.
My opening scene in Olustee involves a meeting on January
21, 1864 in New York City, where one character enters
a room with snow on his coat. I checked old records to
confirm that it snowed in New York City on that day. For
any location on a day in the last couple of hundred years
the times of sunsets, moon rises, lunar stages, temperature,
precipitation levels, etc. can all be found in online almanacs.
If you don’t know don’t say, because if you get it wrong
someone somewhere is going to say “Aha!” If you need
it raining to drive your plot in an historical fiction novel,
then pick a day when it was.
The same with word expressions. Be careful with idioms.
There are several online dictionaries that will tell you the first
recorded use of a word or phrase.
Did your legal background help in your research?
Not in my research, no. My experience as a trial lawyer
did help in analyzing the Hauptmann trial for Crime of the
8 Southern Writers
Century. And as a trial lawyer I’ve learned how to present
stories in a concise, interesting and hopefully persuasive
fashion, although those stories are usually told orally to
a small select group of twelve at a time. Sometimes other
authors will reach out to me and ask if they can run
something past me they want to include in a scene. It might
be trial related, or even police procedural. I always take the
time to read what they send and give advice, and I enjoy
doing so.
With four distinctly different books I must ask did
you choose your genre, or did it choose you?
I once had an editor at a publishing house who accused me
of being a “genre jumper,” and suggested I stick with one
genre and perfect it. They ended up firing me.
I disagree with his characterization. I’ve always been a
history junkie—that and sports. If I had to spend eternity
watching one cable network repeatedly it would be The
History Channel, at least if it wasn’t Ice Road Truckers.
Although one might say that my books span multiple
genres, from true crime to alternative history, science fiction,
international thriller and military fiction, I would instead
argue that all of them are based on real historical events, and
so are consistent in that regard.
What advice would you like to give other authors
that would help them?
Writing is like pizza and ice cream. It’s all good, it’s just
that some is better than others. If you can have fun, learn
something about writing, and entertain others along the
way in a world where unfortunately we all read less and less,
then go for it. Don’t worry about making money, making a
living, or pleasing critics. Have fun. Take those golf shots.
Some may be good and, who knows, some day you may get
a hole-in-one. n
“As a writer
you should not
judge. You should
understand.”
Ernest Hemingway