Ed Gorman has featured me on his blog with a ripping tale about writing my first novel, Citadel Run (a.k.a. Hot Pursuit in the current e-book version). With the pending publication of my latest cop novel, Lie Cathers, it was a little strange to go back and think about the process of beginning my writing career, but also somewhat cathartic...I've tipped in a little taste of the extensive blog post below with a link to the full article...
MY FIRST NOVEL
Technically,
my first novel was a title in the Diamondback series of adult westerns. Written under the house pseudonym Pike Bishop, the
series of paperback originals was created by Raymond Obstfeld and published by
Pinnacle. My entry was Diamondback #6:
Shroud of Vengeance. It featured plenty of six-gun and sagebrush action
built around the two required explicit sex scenes – the raison d’etre for the very
existence of the successful adult western
genre.
I
would never disparage the genre or disavow my connection to it, but despite my
gratitude to Ray Obstfeld for taking a chance on a novice, and the coolness of
the Pike Bishop pseudonym echoing my name, I actually consider Citadel Run to be my first novel – I created the characters, the plot was uniquely
mine, there were no required sex scenes to wedge in, and my real name was right
there on the covers of both the hardback and the paperback.
To
understand how Citadel Run evolved, I
need to digress. In 1977, I joined the Los Angeles Police Department. As I
moved from uniformed patrol to the detective squad, I still pursued my writing aspirations on the
side. For most writers, life necessitates another career – one that pays the
bills, provides health insurance, and has all the other perks of a real job.
Still,
I’ve always considered myself a very lucky guy being able juggle two careers
and doing the work I enjoy – putting villains in jail and putting words on
paper. One career is a lot more dangerous, but it is also a lot more financially
secure. I spent thirty-five years with the LAPD. For thirty of those years, I
also worked as a professional writer, completing twelve published novels, multiple
hours of episodic television, and a produced feature film.
Police and detective work often fed my creative
muse, but there were also many times the creativity I honed as a writer led to
a breakthrough in a case.
FOR THE FULL ARTICLE CLICK HERE
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