Tag: Assassination Thrillers

Tell us about your protagonist.

Kinney is a Black Ops agent who has a near death experience and is no longer willing to kill anyone. He considers himself to be a benign sociopath, using his skill set in the interests of national security. When he is recruited by a shadowy organization to help them assassinate a foreign leader, he goes undercover, gets caught up in a conspiracy, and with his partner Reed, solves a series of mysteries to stay alive. Throughout the book, he finds a way to see the humor in what he encounters, even as he’s kicking butt.

In your book you make a reference to creating a new state. How did you come up with this idea? 

Years ago, I read about the quite real movement to create a new state from the northeastern region of California and parts of Oregon and Idaho. Once I tried to incorporate a similar notion in an abortive thriller about Texas (I was young. It was awful.) The new Western state, promoted since the 1800s, was to be called Jefferson—as I mention in my book.

Your book is set in the Silicon Valley area. Have you ever been there?

Most of Kinney’s Quarry is set in the Silicon Valley area—about forty-five minutes south of San Francisco. I live just over a mountain from there, and worked in the valley for quite a while. I did have to research another part of California I’d never been to, relying on stock photos, for the most part.

Who was the hardest character to write? The easiest?

I struggle with female characters and regret choices I made about them early in my writing career. I was happy with the ones in Kinney’s Quarry. This time, the hardest character to write was the head of the unnamed government agency that Kinney works for since even I wasn’t sure if he was a good guy or a bad guy until the end.

How did you do research for your book?

I’m very much a seat of the pants writer. I start with one idea, one character, and one setting. Then I see where it goes, inventing any details that come along. Afterwards, I check to see what I came up with that doesn’t match reality, and I change things.

Do you have another profession besides writing?

Yes, I’m a psychotherapist. I’ve also been a professional volleyball player, a singer/songwriter, a newspaper columnist, a storeowner, a short order cook, a factory worker, a taxi driver, a university instructor, a tech recruiter, a carpenter, and an NCAA coach. The first half of my life was continuity-challenged.

How has your work as a psychotherapist influenced your writing and the books that you write?

In therapy, clients work toward change and I do my best to facilitate this process. I offer wisdom, practical suggestions, compassion, and humor. Some people need psychic glue to keep from falling apart. Some need solvent to loosen up concretized points of view. Others need to reframe the stories they’ve created about what’s happened to them. Some need to release their feelings. It’s the same with characters in a book. If they don’t go through changes, I’m not engaged as a reader for long. I know how and why people change, and my work is infused with realistic portrayals of these, even as fantastic things happen to my characters.

Is there one particular job or career that stands out to you as the most rewarding or exciting?

Being a therapist has proven to be the most rewarding career/job I’ve ever had. Playing professional volleyball in Italy was certainly the most exciting. As a therapist, I utilize all my hard-earned life experience, insight, professional skills, emotional and spiritual development, and whatever else gets pulled out of me in sessions in service to others. As I’ve aged, a lot of things that used to be important to me have dropped away, leaving helping whoever I can as the remaining worthy activity. After all, we’re truly all in this together.

What is your next project?

I’ve finished a mystery set in a spiritual community, narrated by the leader, who tries to help solve two murders. I concocted what I think is a catchy title, which may be vetoed up the line—Warning: Characters In This Mystery Are Closer Than They Appear. This one is idea-laden since I served a similar role years ago before graduating myself and everyone else out of the organization.

What philosophy can you share to help fellow writers ?

Don’t fight reality. It’s bigger than you are and it will win. Be realistic and work within the realm in which you have ownership. Let go of the rest—the outcomes that are beyond your illusion of control. Focus on a good faith process and find a way to cooperate with the way things need to be down the line. As Stephen Batchelor wrote: Anguish emerges from craving for life to be other than it is. I think this especially applies to writers, given the state of our industry.