Q. Please give us some of your personal background.

A. I was born in 1947 in Whitefish, Montana and grew up on a small farm and ranch. At age 18, after graduation from high school in 1965, I enlisted in the US Army. I served three years, including a year in Vietnam at such lovely oriental locations as Bien Hoa, Cu Chi, Dong Tam and Vinh Long. In the Army I was an air traffic controller and after my military service I worked for the Federal Aviation Administration as a controller. I was fired from my FAA position in 1981 during the PATCO strike – for those old enough to remember.

For the following 13 years I worked as an auto and truck mechanic. Eleven years of that time was spent as a fleet mechanic for the city of Fort Collins, Colorado. In 1995 I moved over to the city's purchasing department and have been there ever since. My wife and I are about to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. I have two grown children, two grandchildren, and two Schnauzers. The dogs are pretty much in charge. Anyone reading this who owns a Schnauzer knows of what I speak.

Q. Tell us about your writing experience?

A. I started writing stories when I was in junior high. You can imagine how awful those were. For the next thirty years of so, I wrote occasionally, though few of the works I produced during that time period were ever finished. I have written poetry for some time – mostly short works written for my wife. In 2000, during a high school reunion, a classmate encouraged me to do more poetry. Shortly after that I began writing mostly military oriented 'forum stories' for an online forum oriented toward military flight sims like European Air War and IL-2. Over a five year period, I wrote nearly a million words of stuff for the forum – short stories typically between 3,000 and 10,000 words, though a few were 25,000 words or longer.
 

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In 2005 I published a volume of poetry entitled "Brushstrokes." You can see samples from the book at my website. About two years ago, I started writing less for the forum and more for myself, concentrating on military SF, fantasy, and historical fiction. One of the results is "Gehenna Station". I also have a prequel to that novel nearly finished. Next up is a military fantasy novel called "Pawn's Gambit", [now] completed and being reviewed by a publisher. Probably the next one after that will be "Pursuit Pilot", a nearly complete novel featuring US Army Air Corp pilots stationed in the Philippines at the beginning of WW2. Different genres, all military in nature.

Though I always wanted to write fiction, especially SF, I never got serious until after I became a buyer, responsible for producing written bid packages, reports, etc. The business writing sort of pushed me forward. It was also good practice. Business documents are often lengthy and have to be formatted much like any other kind of writing. Consistency of tone and style is also important in such work.

I think the best thing I did in the first few years was write all those stories for the forum. The practice alone was worth a great deal, but I also had to produce material rapidly because I usually posted the tales as serials and wrote them as I went along. There's nothing that will make you plant your butt in the chair and type than 25 guys clamoring for the next chapter!

Q. Why science fiction and what inspired you to write Gehenna Station?

A. I've been reading SF since I was about 12 years old. Yes, that's a long time. My introduction to fantasy began with The Lord of the Rings, which I read while in Vietnam. Talk about your surreal experience! Since I've been in the military and seen far too much military-related historical fiction and science fiction done badly and because I enjoy reading that sort of thing when it's done well, I naturally gravitated toward combat SF and fantasy. "Pawn's Gambit" is really just a fantasy tale involving combat between men with repeating arms and swords -- not unlike the American Civil War period. It's only a fantasy because an ancient civilization figures in part of the story and because there are the requisite magicians – though they aren't very good at magic.

I try to write with a sense of humor. Soldiers don't talk seriously all the time and war has a way of being very, very dull – except when it isn't. "Gehenna Station" grew from a story idea of a small unit made up of men sent to a "punishment platoon" on a dangerous desert planet. The original tale was written for the forum and, due to the constant cries for more, I produced it very rapidly -- about 80,000 words in six weeks. The book, as published, has much material added to it.

Q. When did you first conceive of the idea to write Gehenna Station and when did you begin your initial work on it?

A. The first installments of the story were written in early 2005. I finished it six weeks later and began a serious rewrite a couple months later. It reached its present form in about December, 2005. So, I guess it took around 8 months to write. Publishing took a couple months, via Lulu.com, a self-publishing service which can be quite useful to a new author. I planned to evaluate the novel's reception and then look for a regular publisher. The reviews I've seen so far are very heartening. I am looking for an agent now.

Q. You were in the army and you even served in Vietnam. Did you draw from any of your military experiences as source material for your book?

A. Sure. No particular event shows up in "Gehenna Station". What you'll see in it is realistic interaction between military men in a dangerous environment. I've drawn on stories told to me by other veterans in various ways. What I hope to provide is a military scenario with characters who feel real and right for the situation. I also want to give an accurate impression of how the military works – and doesn't work.

Q. How did you come up with the characters? Are any of them based on people you personally know?

A. My Imperial Marines are not modeled on particular people but I'd be surprised if they don't display habits derived from people I have been in contact with, in and out of the service. I made a conscious decision to limit the number of characters to squad size, though the number expanded slightly as the novel moved ahead. Mostly, I produced a character where one was needed.

Q. When you were writing your book, did you already have a rough idea about how it would come together or was the end result completely unexpected?

A. As I wrote the story I also produced a character sheet and outline, often extending the outline ahead of the story – then completely changing things as I did the actual writing. In any event, the Marines encounter and overcome a series of problems on their way toward the climactic battle, then have to instantly regroup in order to handle the unlooked-for crisis that occurs thereafter. I did not have a clear picture of this from the start. But each situation required action of some kind. I kept going until nothing remained to be done – except lay the ground work for a sequel!

Q. The front cover of Gehenna Station is some good art work. Please tell us how that came about and who drew it up.

A. Ah, yes. The cover is very nice. It was produced by an outfit called Best Book Covers. Check out their website at BestBookCovers.com. They're going to do the cover for "Pawn's Gambit" and it's even better.

Q. Some authors experience major obstacles when writing a book such as family issues, writer’s block, etc. Was there anything that interrupted your work on Gehenna Station?

A. No. As I mentioned, I wrote the original for the forum and the writing went very fast. Later, when I started the rewriting process, the work went right along but at a slower pace.

Q. What do you think has been your greatest satisfaction now that Gehenna Station is in print and people are reading it?

A. Well, the favorable reception of the book has to rank right up there. I am especially gratified by the response I've had from people who do not normally read SF. Several of them have told me that they liked the story very much, even though it was SF, because the science and military stuff takes a back seat to the characters and the story. That's very good to hear.

Q. Now for your fans that want to know more about the planet Inferno or about the characters of Lieutenant Cord and the wily Sergeant Radix, what can you tell us about any sequels or prequels?

A. There is a prequel to the current novel called "Marine Recruit", which is nearly finished – at the first draft level. It takes place about 25 years prior to "Gehenna Station" when Sergeant Radix was still a human. I plan at least one sequel, with Cord and Radix dealing with the conspiracy and treason that got them to Inferno in the first place. My website has information on Scrag, the card game the Marines play. Eventually I intend to produce a lexicon of terms and possibly add a page to my website explaining the future events which led to the Empire.

Q. There are a lot of people who love to read military and action books but they have never really read much in science fiction before. What would you like to say to such readers about giving Gehenna Station a chance?

A. To those who read military and action fiction, but not science fiction, I'd say that a good military SF novel will have everything they like to see – plot, characters, danger, suspense and action of a military nature, but set in an imaginary future. This isn't really much different than inserting fictional characters into historical situations or reading action books set in an environment which only loosely parallels reality. Military SF is a different and [has a] somewhat exotic flavor of time-honored storytelling tradition.

Q. And finally, there are plenty of people who enjoy reading science fiction. What would you like to say to such sci-fi readers about giving Gehenna Station a chance?

A. For those who already enjoy military SF, I'd just say, "Give me a try." Read the reviews at Lulu.com. One thing you will see over and over is that the military parts are done right and that the story is worth reading.

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