What inspired you to transition from a career in firefighting and rescue to becoming an author?
I did some short story submissions back in the 1990’s to various publications had one of them published in an off the beaten path magazine. That was great, but in that same time I was just moving through the various certifications and such necessary to my then new career in the Fire, Rescue, EMS service. I Shoved my ongoing and completed outline to the side for later, I needed to spend time concentrating on my career.
After I retired I decided to pull out a couple of my old book outlines and put some time in on them to pursue writing. I had used the poor man’s copyright method of sealing my works in progress in a package and sending it to myself via registered mail. Went to work on the first book in a series I had outlined.
How have your adventures and experiences influenced the stories you write?
I get a lot of gut and heartfelt inspiration from some of the many things I have experienced in a career as a professional firefighter, rescue tech, NREMT-P (Paramedic) and later part time preceptor. I did a lot of time on the transporting rescues, ALS provider Engines and other rescue work. I worked my career (3 years volunteer and 27 years career) in Marion County and Indianapolis Indiana. The Fire Houses I worked in were busy. I worked through and responded to a variety of calls. Enough about that here, but that life experience for thirty years drags you through and shows you things. Experiences that you shelve.
I grew up and adventuresome youth, all sorts of adventure, and different types of work. It has left me with a plethora of knowledge and working skills.
Which sci-fi authors or books had the most significant impact on your decision to pursue writing?
A lot of short stories and novellas, I used to get a copy of the different yearly collections of science fiction genre, and authors. “Best Science Fiction stories of the year” The Nebula Awards. I can’t remember the various annual publications of story collections I used to get. My more favored authors were the likes of Issac Asimov, Andre Norton, Robert Heinlein, Read the entire series from Tolkien. Micheal Crichton, Philip K. Dick, even the first Star Wars book, all before they hit the ‘Big Screen.’ And many, many others. Not Sci Fi, but also any avid reader of military and world history. Many books of Astronomy and the sciences associated with it.
What themes or messages do you aim to convey through your work, given your varied and adventurous life?
Stop trudging along just following the beat. Stop, slow down and look, truly look at the world around you. Stop living in fear of failure. Start thinking for yourself, critically. And most of all Stop letting others direct your life, your thinking, and how you should feel. Shed the psychological chains and the opinions of others holding you back. Establish your independence, stop depending on others to take care of you, and take care of yourself.
Once you begin to learn this, practice it, learn to roll with the punches and get back up you will set yourself free. Will you still encounter obstacles? Yes, but you’ll know better how to sidestep them and keep moving forward to you goals and contentment. Life’s an adventure, sometimes it hurts. Learn to cope with the hard times and keep moving…forward and away from those who would try to hold you down. As we used to say in my circles, Keep on Truckin!’
How did your career as a firefighter/paramedic shape your perspective on humanity and storytelling?
It showed me the frailties of life, and that there is no such thing as fair. It taught me to appreciate the people in my life who I have held close and realize there are no guarantees you will see them tomorrow. Try to be kind and have a little understanding of the plight of others. You have no more right to be here than they do. No good decision was ever made in a rage, anger or out of control display of emotions. Maintain your composure, even in the worst of circumstances. Panic is the mind killer and can kill you or forever change your life just As quickly as a lighting bolt.
This has had some influence in my storytelling. Relaying just how quickly a situation can change, and how quickly things happen in a fast moving conflict. How quickly life can change or end. The lasting effects such things can leave with you, and the lessons they can teach you.
Are there specific events from your career that have made their way into your writing, either directly or as inspiration?
No, not really as a specific or individual event or incident. It has been more the long term compounding of a career of challenging, tense, and at times heart rending events and such one responds to. I’m no different the hundreds of thousands of brothers and sisters who work and live the same job(s)
I have been ask by people about such things before my standard answer is … and I’m sure a good portion of my brother and sister responders can relate— Hours and hours of routine, training (on and off duty) less engaging runs capitulated by occasions of extreme body and mind testing intensity. Situations where you bring what you’ve learned and trained for into rule. Kind of like being how I try to portray in some the scenes I write. Fighting for your life in an interstellar fur ball, an intense ground battle, or individual melee, and falling back on your battle buddies, training and experience to survive.
How has your appreciation for the sanctity and frailty of life influenced your narrative style or character development?
It comes out more in the way Mason and those around him experience a growth of character Doing their duty and what is needed to accomplish their goals Not continuing a senseless destruction of loss of life when their goals have been achieved. Placing the life of another of a higher value than your own to protect or keep them safe when such a thing becomes necessary.
How do your hobbies, like spelunking, rock climbing, and whitewater kayaking, inform the action and world-building in your book, “The Life and Times of Gunnery Sergeant Jackson Mason”?
These things help to form and shape the environments, challenges, and character of the actual world I may be laying out in the story lines. As well as looking back on some of my personal studies of the history of the formation of our own mother Earth. All the way down to then intense pressures within the different layers that form a world. Continental drift, mineral formations and such under those internal pressures of a planet. I am an astronomy nerd as well. It make for some fun world and star system building!
What is the most memorable adventure from your youth, and does it ever appear in your creative work?
Whoa! That’s a loaded question Mady. I’ve had a plethora of all kinds of events and happenings in my adventures and such. Climbing to the ‘crow’s nest” platform board up the mainmast of the Liberty Clipper as we approached the New York, New York harbor under full sail. That was awesome. Dragging one of my spelunking buddies almost the entire quarter mile long crawlway in Wayne’s Cave in Monroe County, IN. Because he slipped and cracked his head coming out of the crawlway getting ready to make our way back out. Mike, you know who you are. Cracking a couple of ribs in a class four rapid, after the canoe in front of us lost it and they capsized ours while we tried to tow them out of harm’s way. Yup they capsized ours and I got crunched between our canoe and a big rock. I think I was seventeen at the time. There’s a long list of the good, the bad, and the ugly! Yup there are some influences throughout this first episode and the next three episodes
You worked part-time in various industries as a youth. Did those experiences inspire any specific characters or settings in your writing?
Not so much. Welding fabricating, Heavy hydraulics maintenance, diesel tractor and trailer maintenance. Heavy equipment operation, Building & construction. I kind of instill some of the tradesmanship in the New Terran’s in that sort of thing. Building a world requires a lot of varying skill sets and knowledge you know.
Which sci-fi subgenre do you find most compelling, and why?
That’s a good question, I really enjoyed the earlier seasons of “The Expanse.” As mentioned earlier I read all sorts of subgenre Sci Fi in those annual collections of short stories and novellas I used to read. Can’t really pin anyone of them as the most compelling.
How do you approach blending realism from your life experiences with the imaginative elements of science fiction?
Life never really changes much from it’s most basic forms and this can serve as a king of an artist’s palette when bringing forth new characters and such. The goals and desires of the basic self aware people usually run fairly parallel to others, I bend and blend that in as well.
If you could co-author a book with any of the sci-fi greats you've read, who would it be, and what kind of story would you tell?
I have no idea. I have no clue what lies underneath with even some of the more prominent Authors whose works I have read. If I had to choose I’d likely choose Phili K. Dick if he were still drawing breath, but he’s not. There are some aspects of his writing with in mine, or at least that’s my opinion.
How has writing allowed you to reflect on your adventures, career, and personal growth?
It is somewhat of a creative vent. Allowing a little off loading of some of the reflections on such things.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers who want to blend their passions into their storytelling?
Don’t be in a rush of feel the need to conform to one type of path or another. Free yourself of the mental confines of trying to appease people and tell them an original story created from original thoughts and thinking. Free your mind of conformity. Also maybe do a little research into some of the concepts you intend to write about. Oh and don’t quit your day job too hastily.
