Avalon Books - Author! Author!


	Read some interviews from past editions:
		Zelda Benjamin April, 2008
		Shirley Marks December, 2007
		Donna Wright December, 2007
		Carolyn Brown August, 2007
		Roni Denholtz June, 2007
		Tara Randel April, 2007
		Sydell Voeller February, 2007
		Sheila Robins December, 2006
		Ann Holt October, 2006
		Cynthia Danielewski July, 2006
		Jane McBride Choate March, 2006
		Kathryn Meyer Griffith January, 2006
		Mel Taylor November, 2005
		Kathleen Fuller September, 2005
		Tracey J. Lyons July, 2005
		Ludima Gus Burton May, 2005
		Holly Jacobs March, 2005
		Sandra D. Bricker January, 2005
		Kathryn Quick November, 2004
		Cheri Jetton September, 2004
		Heather S. Webber July, 2004
		Karl Fieldhouse May, 2004
		Shelley Galloway March, 2004
		Ilsa Mayr January, 2004
		Kathy Carmichael November, 2003
		Dorothy P. O'Neill July, 2003
		Joani Ascher May, 2003
		Patricia DeGroot March, 2003
		Nancy J. Parra January, 2003
		Barbara Meyers November, 2002
		Christine Bush September, 2002
		Debby Mayne July, 2002
		Jean C. Gordon May, 2002
		Charles E. Friend March, 2002
		Norma Seely January, 2002
		Glen Ebisch November, 2001
		Gina Cresse September, 2001
		John Paxson July, 2001
		Terri Alcock May, 2001
		Clifford Blair March, 2001
		Amanda Harte January, 2001
		Kent Conwell November, 2000
		Carolyn Brown September, 2000
		Annette Mahon July, 2000
		Marjorie McGinley May, 2000
		Amanda Harte January, 2000
		Joyce and Jim Lavene November, 1999
	Return to the current Author! Author! interview:
		S.J. Stewart April, 2008


Author! Author!: March, 2000
Click on images to learn more about these books. An Interview with Jack Lewis

How did you get started in writing?
	I was in the fourth grade, when we were assigned to write a short story in English class. I don't even remember the subject matter at this late date, but my submission was posted on the class bulletin board as the best. I didn't make any friends out of that, but it led me to do a lot more reading, usually adult novels supposedly far beyond my reading level. I remember reading a hard cover Western series by an author named E.B. Mann. Some 35 years later, when I was publishing outdoor magazines, he was one of my columnists! At age 14, I had borrowed a pulp magazine published by long-gone Street & Smith. I believe it was called Wild West Weekly. They had a contest for short stories under 500 words. I sat down and wrote a saga called "The Cherokee Kid's Last Stand." This was in the height of the Great Depression and I won first prize for the week: $5! That was more than grown men were making in a week on the farms and ranches in my home area. I was hooked and kept writing and submitting. I didn't sell anything again until I was 21. Some of it has been recycled and sold since.
What do you look to for inspiration in your writing?
	That's a tough question. I have always been a people-watcher; I almost enjoy sitting in airports between planes, watching those who pass by. I may recall one of them later and fashion a character after that particular person. As for inspiration, I often get an idea, but do nothing about it. I don't even write it down. Instead, I think about it for up to a year before I ever sit down to put it on paper. Often, I'll write the last chapter first, then try to figure out how to get there 50,000 to 60,000 words later. That period of extended thinking seems to solve most of the plot problems subconsciously. During the Korean War, I commanded a public information unit made up of odd and unusual characters. I later used them ( with names changed, of course ) in two humorous novels, "Tell It To The Marines" and the "Sandtrap Marines." During my days as a crime and/or military reporter for newspapers, I again ran into interesting characters and often situations that loaned themselves to novelization. I also spent some time writing for motion pictures and television, mostly Westerns. The plots for these were pretty basic, but I always tried to get a different twist no one else had tried. In those days, I knew several writers who sold the same script four or five times. All they did was change the names. I considered that totally dishonest.
Why do you find the mystery genre so intriguing?
	For the mysteries I've had published, I find myself looking at an unusual incident or locale, then build upon it. Immediately after World War II, I was stationed in the Mojave Desert with a small guard detachment. I got to know the people in the nearby towns and watched what they did to eke a living out of the sand. A lot of that was used in "Face Down." As for "Double Cross," I spent time as a stuntman and horse wrangler in Hollywood when I couldn't find a writing job. A lot of that background is included in the book and tended to lend itself to a mystery. (On that one, I didn't write the last chapter first and wasn't certain about the identity of the killer until the last four chapters!)
Your heroes always seem to be in-between things, etc. Why is a man in transition so fascinating for you?
	I guess it's because I have been a wanderer a great deal of my life. I left home at 18 to join the Marines and served in three wars before I finally was retired from the military. I didn't care for the peace-time military, however, and always served as a Reserve when there was some action. There was plenty of transition in all that. Along the way, I've had many and varied careers. Some were brought about because I wanted experience in a certain field; others were because the money was good and I would have funding to settle down and write when the job ended; and I took some of the jobs because I was hungry. Fed up with discipline after World War II, I became a hobo, because I wanted to know what it was like and what the people were all about. From that came a bunch of character sketches I called "The Hobo's Handbook." I never tried to sell it as a book, but did manage to peddle each of the sketches to a magazine for $50 apiece years later. All of the various jobs, of course, were a means to an end: so I would be able to write what I wanted to write. As for my fascination with transition, I guess it's because it seems most of my life has been in transition.