Michael Black is the author of 36 books and over 100 short stories and articles. He has a BA in English from Northern Illinois University and a MFA in fiction writing from Columbia College Chicago. A retired police officer in the south suburbs of Chicago, he worked for over thirty years in various capacities including patrol supervisor, SWAT team leader, investigations and tactical operations. In 2010 he was awarded the Cook County Medal of Merit by Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart. His Ron Shade series featuring the Chicago-based kickboxing private eye, has won several awards, as has his police procedural series featuring Frank Leal and Olivia Hart. He has written two novels with television star Richard Belzer and is writing The Executioner series under the name Don Pendleton. He also writes westerns under the name A.W. Hart (Gunslinger: Killer’s Choice, Gunslinger: Killer’s Brand, and Gunslinger: Killer’s Ghost) His current books are an Executioner novel (Cold Fury), the two aforementioned Gunslinger westerns, and Legends of the West under his own name. His novel Fatal Prescription won the Best Original Novel Scribe award in 2108. His hobbies include martial arts, weightlifting, and animal rescue. E-mail: DocAtlas108@aol.com.
BMH: How many times do you redo the opening of your stories before you are satisfied with it?
MB: I’ll draw upon my old army days for a saying to answer that one: How long? As long as it takes. I can’t begin to say how important that first line, that opening passage is. It’s got to hook the reader to keep them reading. As Mickey Spillane once said, Your first line sells your book. Your last line sells your next one.
BMH: How do you choose the names for your characters?
MB: This is a tough one. I have a tendency to repeat names a lot, especially the name Jim. Interestingly enough, when I was a kid I had a job delivering packages to dental offices. One dentist, Dr. Hoover, had an office in Hyde Park on the South Side of Chicago, and for some reason always called me Jim. He called my cousin Roger, who also was a delivery boy, Ira. But on to your question, I maintain an extensive character log listing all the names I use in the particular project I’m writing. This helps me avoid duplication. I’d advise writers not to use names that sound alike or begin with the same letter. Having been a cop, I’ve been exposed to all kinds of different names. Sometimes I draw upon my past associates, or even some arrestees, but many of those were false monikers. I used one name a guy gave in one of my books because I thought it was a classic. Check out bad guy Cleveland Gunn in my second Leal and Hart book, Hostile Takeovers. Ain’t that a good name?
BMH: What do you do to prepare yourself to write?
MB: I use a timer, which I set at 30-minute intervals. I sit in the chair and start the timer. During that time, I do nothing but concentrate on the task at hand: I write. I don’t answer the phone, I don’t gaze out the window at the birds, I don’t get up and grab something to eat or drink. I don’t even use the bathroom, unless, of course, it’s imperative. At the end of those 30 minutes, the timer goes off. If I’m on a roll, I press the restart button and keep going. I find it a great tool to eliminate procrastination.
BMH: How do you put yourself into the skin of someone of the opposite sex to write a strong character who is not of your gender?
MB: I think that’s part of being a writer. Cross-gender writing can be challenging, but basic emotions are pretty much the same for everybody. The key is knowing how the opposite sex looks at a situation, how they express themselves, and how they think. For instance, a woman doesn’t sit in a chair the same way a man does, nor do they cross their legs in the same manner. (Well, I guess some do.;-) A man takes his T-shirt off differently than a woman takes hers off. Now don’t get me started on the subject of women’s shoes. You have to be aware of these subtle differences, which many times are based on the physiological differences between the sexes. Having been a “girl watcher” for the majority of my life, I think I’ve got a lot of these distinctions down pat. I still have a female reader go over the passages to make sure I got it right and didn’t make any glaring mistakes. In short, men and women look at things differently. As they say, boys and their toys and women and their shoes
BMH: It has been said that there is a little good and a little evil in all of us. Do you believe that? If so, do you believe you pull a bit of the bad out of you and put it into your villains?
MB: I suppose I could wax philosophical and bring up the yin/yang, which basically suggests that same thing. I’ve always liked that symbol. Remember that the villain is the hero of his own story, so it’s important to give your villains a few positive qualities to make sure they aren’t cardboard. It’s easier for the reader to identify with the character if the villain isn’t one dimensional. An agent once suggested that I give my villain a bad dental problem or a dog to which he was fiercely loyal. So I gave him a set of shiny porcelain veneers so bright that each time he smiled, his Chihuahua would get scared and urinate on the rug. <Grin.>
BMH: What do you consider the most important thing in writing a good plot?
MB: In the creative writing classes I teach, I stress that the plot runs on conflict. You have to figure out what the essential conflict is, and how it’s going to play out. I plot things out and outline before I start writing, so I know exactly where I’m going. I find this to be a big help. I also stress that every word must advance the plot.
BMH: Has your writing ever gotten you into any trouble?
MB: A few times it has. One time I wrote a training article about handling hostage and barricaded suspect incidents. I included a couple of pictures from the local newspaper that were taken during a botched incident involving a few of the higher-ups in the department. Although I didn’t mention anybody by name or department, someone faxed a copy of the article to the administration. The article did point out the total disregard of good tactics and procedures as well as how the lives of the hostage and police personnel were unnecessarily endangered. This commander who specialized in making my life miserable called me in and presented me with a letter ordering me to write an explanation of who gave me the permission to release information regarding the incident. It was a violation of a loosely applied General Order. It was a Catch 22 situation. If I failed to respond in writing, I would be in violation of disobeying a direct order, yet writing the letter would be acknowledging that I did not ask for permission. I was sweating it, until I realized if they brought me up on charges and tried to suspend me, the stupidity of their actions during the incident would be widely exposed. I wrote the reply saying that I was simply writing a training piece. In the end, they tried to hold me feet to the fire, and then backed off. Of course, I didn’t get any plumb assignments while they were still in charge and worked a lot of midnight shifts.
BMH: What are your hardest scenes to write?
MB: They’re all pretty hard to write at times. I think the hardest scenes to write are the ones you have to grind out when you don’t feel like writing. If you’re battling a deadline, like I am now, you have to write every day. If I don’t do at least 2000 words a day, I won’t finish. If I miss that mark, then I have to make it up the next day.
BMH: What is your favorite thing about the writing process?
MB: I love being able to create stuff. Writing is my joy.
BMH: What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?
MB: As I previously stated, it’s having to write every day, even when you don’t feel like writing. I have a system to overcome this. I sit down and force myself to write two pages. If at the end of those two pages, I realize it’s not working, I stop and take a break. Sometimes after writing those two pages, I realize I’ve written myself into the mood to write, and I continue. Even if you only do two pages a day, look at how many pages you’ll have written in a year
BMH: What is the best encouragement/advice you’ve received in your writing journey?
MB: I went through at least ten years of getting rejection after rejection on my submitted work. In those days, they’d send a form letter with your manuscript in the return envelope. These letters would usually start with Dear Author … Yeah, they were pretty generic. I began to doubt myself, and then one day I got one of my stories back and on the envelope the editor had scribbled a handwritten note of encouragement to me. I was ecstatic and knew my story had legs. I revised it and it subsequently became my first professionally published work.
BMH: When did you first know you were going to be a writer?
MB: I wrote my first story back in the sixth grade. I was asked to contribute to a Writer’s Digest anthology titled, How I Got Published a number of years ago. I wrote about the experience of writing my first short story. The essay is called, “A Sixth Grade Education.” You might be able to find it on Amazon in the ancient book section. 😉
BMH: What is something you wish someone would have told you before you became an author?
MB: Be prepared for a lot of disappointments, but never stop believing in yourself. I remember early on in my writing career I’d had some short stories published as well as some articles, but I really wanted to sell one of my novel manuscripts. I’d sent off what I thought was my best work and was working on a new project. It was my day off and I’d just sat down at the computer to begin a new manuscript. I typed the first line: It had been a year of ups and downs … Then I heard some scraping sounds and realized the mail delivery had come. I got up and went to the door only to discover the manuscript I’d sent out weeks before had come back with a rejection slip. I was crushed because I really felt that the manuscript was my best work. I went back to the computer and sat there wondering if I should just stop writing altogether. Maybe I’m fooling myself, I thought. After a few minutes my fingers found the keyboard and I typed the next line: More downs than ups … The two lines resonated with me, and they also reflected my experience. I took a deep breath and swore to myself that I was going to keep writing this book. I was going to finish the manuscript, no matter what, and I was going to make it my best effort, even if I was the only person who’d ever read it. Well, I finished it, and later it became my first published novel.
BMH: Why crime fiction?
MB: I spent my entire adult life in police work, so the old adage, write what you know, sort of comes into play here. I grew up reading mysteries and crime thrillers and I’ve always loved the genre. It’s also one of the hardest genres to write well. You have to be able to plot as well as write with vibrancy and style
BMH: What is something you’ve never written about, but hope to some day?
MB: I’ve been published in a lot of different genres, which has always been a goal of mine. I suppose I’d have to say romance is one genre I’d like to try one day. But because I’m a romantic at heart, I try to imbue a little bit of romance in almost all of my stuff.
BMH: How big a part did your upbringing have on your writing?
MB: Both my grandfather and my father were inveterate readers. My dad always had a book and would read on the weekends and even while watching TV. When I was in grammar school my grandfather, who was basically self-taught, gave me a Roget’s Thesaurus and told me to keep it for my later studies. Inside the cover he’d written, A man’s thoughts are, by necessity, limited by his vocabulary. It inspired me and I still have that book today. It’s one of my prized possessions.
BMH: In real life, who is you hero/heroine? Why?
MB: My hero/heroine is that person who steps up and raises his or her hand to take the oath to defend our Constitution and our country, whether it’s as a police officer or in the military. They’re willing to put their lives on the line for the sake of what they believe. But those of us who’ve been there know that the real heroes are the ones whose names end up on the wall. I’ve got two friends whose names are on the National Police Memorial. All gave some, some gave all.
BMH: What two words best describes your writing style?
MB: Gee, I don’t know, but I hope that one of them might be “Entertaining.”
BMH: What are you working on now?
MB: I signed a contract to do four books this year, and this suddenly became five. I’m closing in on finishing number four right now. It’s part of a new series that will be launched in October with Trackdown: Devil’s Dance. It’s about modern-day bounty hunters, but there’s a lot of action, mystery, and a dash of romance thrown in. Please keep your eyes peeled for it. I’ve finished Trackdown: Devil’s Fancy, and am currently working on Trackdown: Devil’s Brigade.
BMH: Where can people find out more about you?
MB: My website is currently down, but I do have an author’s page on Amazon.com. I’m also featured on the author pages of Crossroad Press and Wolfpack Press.
