The Doctor's Dog
Excerpts from a May 2007 interview:
Q. Why was the decision made to first publish The Doctor’s Dog as opposed to Henry’s Wife or The Purgatory Fugitive?
A. Well, although I was fortunate enough to receive favorable responses on each, the people in the industry, for whatever reasons, seemed to think The Doctor’s Dog was the most marketable at this time.
Q. What subgenre would you list The Doctor’s Dog under? Is it a cozy mystery or is it of the hardboiled variety?
A. I guess I’d have to say it’s somewhere in between. I think the readers who’ll most enjoy it are those who have favored series like Lawrence Sanders’s McNally (Putnam) and William G. Tapply’s Brady Coyne (St. Martin’s).
Q. How would you describe Dean Cello?
A. Well, he’s certainly not the stereotypical older, bitter, alcoholic PI we’ve all become familiar with. In fact I suppose you could say he’s more like most other thirty-one-year-old men these days—he likes baseball, having an occasional drink with his best, and rather crazy, friend; he’s sensitive with his live-in girlfriend. He’s relaxed—smooth but down to earth. But although he carries himself confidently, he’s not beyond self-doubt. And he’s got a great sense of humor.
Q. Has the character grown any from his first adventure?
A. As a matter of fact he has. I think part of the fun in Henry’s Wife was Dean’s learning to accept his legitimacy as a PI. At the beginning, at least, he still felt more like the teacher he was for the past nine years. By contrast, in The Doctor’s Dog, although he has for the most part still been involved in relatively minor cases, you can sense that he’s more confident now. But he still maintains that wry sense of humor.
Q. Why did you choose to go in a different direction with your third novel—The Purgatory Fugitive?
A. Well, I had been toying with this idea I had, and I’d just come off of reading Dan Brown’s Deception Point (Atria), and I thought the third person omniscient mode—you know, a lot of short chapters with the action moving back and forth from one locale to the other—would be perfect for the type of story I wanted to tell. So I went with it. And to tell you the truth, I think it turned out even better than I expected it to.
Q. What’s it about?
A. Well if you remember the TV series and the movie The Fugitive, the basic premise is somewhat similar to that except that the protagonist doesn’t know why everyone is after him. Of course the reader knows that he’s a clone… Yeah, I know. I think when you hear that, it first strikes you as rather hokey, and I think that’s probably why the Dean Cello novels got a more favorable response initially, but I really don’t think the story reads that way. I think you really care about this guy; you’re running right along with him while he’s trying to sort it all out. And by the way, I wrote it before that damn Island movie came out.
Q. I’d like to talk about how you started writing. So what happened, you retired and woke up the next morning and just started writing?
A. Actually, no. I cheated. I started a bit before—as soon as my retirement was scheduled. I’d waited so long, I guess. And I had the Dean Cello character and his situation all mapped out in my head, so I was anxious to get started. But interestingly enough I found that you can even get tired of doing something you love if you do too much of it. So I ended up also taking a part-time job as a newspaper reporter.
Q. Oh. Well what happened with that?
It was fun for awhile. I did fifty-nine stories. To be honest with you, I think the novelty of having the byline just wore off.
Q. How much time do you spend writing?
A. Anywhere from zero to about five hours a day. It depends on what else I’ve got going. Sometimes a couple of weeks will go by and I won’t write at all, then all at once I’ll get these ideas I’ve got to get down. But the great thing about retirement is there’s still always time. I can mow the lawn, watch the ballgame, have breakfast with a friend, go out with my wife, and still have time to write when I need to.
Q. Is your wife retired also?
A. No, she’s still got a couple of years to go yet. But she loves her job anyway. She works in elementary school administration and she loves children.
Q. Speaking about children, do you have any?
A. I’ve got two daughters, both married now. The older one lives about an hour away. She just made me a grandpa this past December. She’s a Development Officer for the Audubon Society. And my other daughter is a doctor. She’s currently doing the last year of her residency out in Chicago.
Q. So as far as your writing goes, what are you working on right now?
A. I’m doing a collection of short stories. Yeah, I know, that’s usually where people start, but for whatever reason I went the novel route first. And I do see myself more as the novel-writing type, but a few months ago I got a bunch of independent ideas that all seemed to lend themselves more to the short story format, so I’m going with it. And then I’m sure I’ll go back to doing another novel.
Q. You sound like you already have something in mind. Do you?
A. Yeah, I do. But I’m not talking about it yet.
Interview Q&A
