MEET MYSTERY WRITER DARRELL JAMES

It was June 2005, at the No Crime Unpublished mystery writers conference in Hollywood. The Los Angeles chapter of Sisters in Crime organizes the event, and although I was aware Darrell and I were in the chapter, I can't say I knew him until then. It was at that point he, and the other winners, came into focus for me.

Darrell's short story, Trust a Dead Man to Keep a Secret has just won Deadly Ink's 2007 short story competition! His first book, Body Count: A Killer Collection, presenting fifteen of his mystery/suspense short stories, is out, and it's my pleasure to interview him.

DARRELL: Thanks, Dee Ann. I appreciate the opportunity to talk about my writing and my book.

DEE ANN: Before we touch on writing, I think readers would like to know about your "day job." Most writers need them.

DARRELL: I have a technical degree in mechanical engineering, and later I returned to the classroom to earn a degree in business administration. I worked in electronics on early drone guidance systems in the Air Force, but I've spent most of my career as a sales engineer in nearly every industry from mining, to construction, to manufacturing. Does this sound like a guy in search of a true passion?

DEE ANN: Apparently you found that true passion in writing. How did it begin?

DARRELL: Diana and I took a course in acting at Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona. It was non-credit, and it was fun. At the end of the eight week program, when we all started thinking about what to do with these fantastic acting skills we'd acquired, we founded the Desert Players Community Theater. Since we had no seed money, we wrote our first play and took it on the road. It was a series of monologues of old southwest characters--miners, mid-wives, gunslingers, and the like. I wound up writing the through-story, which became The Legend of Last Hope, where characters in the fictional ghost town of Last Hope, Arizona, emerge from the graveyard to tell their stories.

DEE ANN: What a great start. Obviously, you continued to write. Why?

DARRELL: Words are so provocative. I was an avid reader who thrilled to the stories of others. One day, I found myself saying,"How great would it be to write one of these things?" That single question led to trying. Trying led to discovery. It's more of an obsession these days.

DEE ANN: Why murder?

DARRELL: I felt silly writing horror. I mean, a grown man and all. I think I started thinking about crime fiction when I began to read Elmore Leonard. At one point, I tried my best to write like him. He got me through the learning curve, but, in time, I settled into my own voice and style.

DEE ANN: How does your work differ from Leonard's?

DARRELL: I think my stories have a more serious tone, but I may have retained some of the quirky irony found in his writing. I can only hope. Stephen King has been a big influence. Maybe from him is where the macabre aspect of my writing comes. As for Leonard, my work has morphed somewhat to become more psychological in nature, which tends to land my stories more in the thriller/suspense subgenres. I've been asked what my obsession is with murder, but I'm more intrigued with the idea of premeditation than the act itself. I like to challenge my characters to discover at what point, in the course of their conflict, murder becomes the solution of choice.

DEE ANN: Once you became serious about your writing, did you take classes, attend conferences, listen to lectures to further your understanding of the craft or what?

DARRELL: Honestly, I didn't have a clue when I first began to write. It was just this wild, crazy dream. I've done all of the above, and my shelves are filled with books on writing. (Yes, I've read them.) In the end, however, I would say the greatest learning comes from the writing itself. It's a discovery process, and it takes most writers years to evolve into being decent at it.

DEE ANN: I agree, but I think some new writers think talent alone is enough.

DARRELL: If it is, it's rare. I suppose you could say I'm a slow learner because it was nine years from the time I began writing in 1995, to my first publication in the Fall 2004 issue of Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine (FMAM). That year I also placed third in the Fire To Fly competition, and the following spring I won it. Since then, I've had more than twenty stories published in magazines and book anthologies.

DEE ANN: And now you have your own anthology. Why did you decide to do a book?

DARRELL: I cut my teeth on short stories, but the thrill of having your story in a magazine is short lived. I believed a book collection of my stories would give me more exposure and be my training wheels, so to speak, in the market place. iUniverse afforded me the opportunity to have this. My book has succeeded far beyond my dreams. A couple of the stories have been award winners. And, recently, Body Count was chosen as a finalist in the 2006 Reader Views-Reviewers Choice Awards. I've been thrilled by the reception it's received.

DEE ANN: Having read your book, I'd say your success is well deserved. Making it with Gammy, in LAndmarked for Murder, features a man named Fremont. Fremont and Lougie appears in Body Count. I absolutely love these two men, but I have to ask: How does a nice guy like Darrell James end up writing about such quirky people? Are they ever based on people you've known?

DARRELL: Only one of my characters has been based on a real person. (By the way, is there a statute of limitations on murder?) No, mostly my characters are derived purely from imagination. I write first and foremost to thrill ME, and I look for characters that are different, maybe a little quirky. To prevent them from appearing "cartoonish," I work hard to build realism around them so my readers will buy into their behavior. Almost any character becomes believable when faced with the classic human conflicts of love, betrayal and greed.

As a beginning writer, I believed I had to have a "unique story idea." Later, I learned it's the characters that drive a good story.

DEE ANN: I'm convinced they also drive the plot. I assume, from what you've just said, that your writing process begins with a character.

DARRELL: Yes. I don't outline. I do make notes to myself throughout the process, but, mostly, I start with a character or characters who interest me. I ask myself, "What does this character want?"

I imagined Fremont to be a wannabe criminal. I imagined him to be ambitious in his pursuits. I imagined him to be somehwat inventive, maybe even ingenious in his pursuits. But without the basic experience to pull things off. What does Fremont want? He wants to be better than he is. He wants life to be simpler. In his misguided nature, he wants one big score to make it that way. All of the Fremont stories are built on this premise. The stories come out of "life" getting in the way of Fremont getting what he wants.

DEE ANN: It's always interesting to know how writers come up with their ideas. The stories in LAndmarked for Murder had to be connected in some way to an L.A. landmark. I used my experience in staying in the Biltmore Hotel and running several L. A. Marathons. You chose Will Rogers State Park Beach for your story. Please tell us why.

DARRELL: California has long been regarded as the "land of opportunity." Fremont's nature is to be constantly on the hunt for the next possible score. It was only natural that, when things weren't going well for him in Arizona, he would venture west seeking his dream. I chose the beach as the setting because the ocean is the first place dreamers seek.

DEE ANN: I was raised on California beaches, and the sea is a fabulous place to dream. You've told me one of your favorite stories in your book is "A Miracle for Father Vega."

DARRELL: As I've said, I like to go for the unusual. I begin by looking for characters or ideas that intrigue me. I conceived the idea of a humble priest who believes he's discovered the miracle of The Virgin in the sap of the Palo Verde tree. Before he can bring the townspeople to witness the miracle, however, he must fill the dangerous holes left by wildcat miners.

There's little money to hire the work done, and this is further complicated by a hard man who wants to extort the church for half its collections. Fraught with concern, and with few answers coming from God, Father Vega must ponder the question: "Can murder sometimes be a blessing?"

I liked the idea of the priest, the miracle, the holes, and a man so bad he'd take money from a poor little church. The idea of a priest who would consider murder as a solution...Well, you can see why it's one of my favorite stories.

DEE ANN: I do! You live in southern California. Are you a native?

DARRELL: No, I grew up in the town of Crescent Springs, Kentucky, two-thousand miles and a light year away from L. A. It was nothing more than a string town along the Southern Railroad, where the rails lead south out of Cincinnati. Population? A few hundred, I suppose, at the time. I'd probably still be turning a wrench or bagging groceries at the local market if the military hadn't taken me away in 1968.

It opened my eyes to the world. I've since traveled extensively both in the U.S. and abroad. Diana and I came to California in 1999, after a ten year stopover in Tucson. My story settings tend to be varied as a result.

DEE ANN: Body Count is dedicated in part to Diana's father, Tom Ogle, "for trusting in me enough to marry his daughter those many years ago."

DARRELL: Everyone should have a rock. I highly recommend it. Diana is mine. While she would insist she's not a writer, I've found her to have incredible instincts for what's good and what isn't. As such, she's always my "first read." She reads chapter to chapter, story to story, as I write. I look to her throughout the process to help keep my work grounded.

She's not shy. She's quick to let me know when I've gone too far, or not far enough. Beyond that, she's my manager. She's a whirlwind at setting up signings, promotions, submitting for reviews, producing all the marketing collateral such as bookmarks, ads, et cetera.

She gets more done than anyone I know. And because of that, Body Count has gained a tremendous amount of recognition. Is it okay to say, "I really love this lady"?

DEE ANN: It certainly is. Now that you're heavily involved with writing, do you belong to any writers organizations other than Sisters in Crime?

DARRELL: I'm a member of Mystery Writers of America (MWA) and Independent Writers of Southern California (IWOSC), but I contribute a great deal of time to SinC/LA as a board member and membership director. I'm a believer in authors being active in organizations. The visibility I've acquired through my participation in these organizations has been incredible.

DEE ANN: What's coming down the track next?

DARRELL: I'm looking for a good agent for The Evangelist, a mystery/thriller introducing Arizona skip-tracer Del Shannon. Her quest to find her mother leads her back to her birthplace deep in the Kentucky hills, and into conflict with the venomous religious leader Silas Rule. Secrets obscure the past, but as Del peels back the layers of a town hell bent on salvation, she uncovers a dark connection between her mother and a sinister plot ticking down toward disaster.

I'd characterize it as a bittersweet tale of love, loss, and justice - as only a tough, young female bounty hunter would have it.

Many authors I've talked to say they believe it's more difficult to write a short story than a novel. I don't know if this is necessarily true, but writing compelling stories in the short form does have its challenges. I like short stories and will continue to write them. The Art of Avarice is scheduled to appear next year in Politics Noir, an anthology edited by Gary Phillips.

My personal story on how I first became published will appear in How I Got Published, a collection of personal accounts scheduled for publication by Writer's Digest Books this fall. The editors are Duane Lindsay and Ray White.

DEE ANN: Word has just come in that Trust a Dead Man to Keep a Secret has been a winner in Deadly Ink's short story contest. It will appear in their anthology this fall. Congratulations! The awards just keep coming in, don't they?

The Evangelist sounds like something I'd want to read. Congratulations also on your upcoming article in the Writer's Digest book and your short story in Politics Noir. We'll look for them. Thank you so much for your time. It's been enjoyable learning more about you and your writing. We wish you continued success.

Click on the following links to purchase Body Count:

For print - Amazon.com.

Electronic format - eBookMall http://www.ebookmall.com/ebooks-authors/darrell-james-ebooks.htm