The Killer Half follows a dispirited military veteran who stumbles across a plot to invade America and is forced into action to stop it. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?

I read a magazine story, with pictures, of a horrible thing that happens to some women when they are being led illegally across the border. The leaders will take some of the women to a predetermined spot and gang rape them, and leave the undergarments of the women hanging on a tree that the whole company would pass by—and the article included a photo of one such tree. I wondered if I had been there would I be able to stop it. The answer was probably not because those men are armed. Then I asked myself who would be able to stop it, and that’s when the character of Hawk was born. I dreamt about it every night for two years, building on the story of Hawk. I reached a point when I decided I must write it down before I forgot it. When I wrote the story from my mind it was like taking dictation—I didn’t have to stop writing to think what would come next. It was about 50,000 words on that first pass. I continued to reread the book and more sections came into my mind as completely finished scenes. When I finally decided to find a publisher, the story was slightly more than 93,000 words.

Hawk is a fun character to follow. What were some driving ideals behind his character’s development?

Hawk would need expert combat skills and a good support group of operators around him. He would be conflicted about who he was: a killer, or someone who could love. He would be a leader that others with similar skill sets would follow. He would not take for granted the feelings of those who were close to him. His relationship with women would be conflicted because of his experience in seeing the horror of rape on the psyche of women who were caught in the middle of a war.

This seemed like a fun book to write. What scene in the book did you have the most fun creating?

There are so many it is difficult to pick just a few, but I’ll try.

I love dogs and I know their body language very well. The scene of canine separation anxiety makes me laugh when I read it. The dogs are alone on base without Hawk’s supervision. They drag loose stuff from around the base and make a big debris pile outside of Hawk’s hooch. Then, they accidently set fire to the debris pile in the middle of a large military base. His conversation with them, and their resulting shame is a classic for all dog lovers.

The rescue of Sarah Stuart, a beautiful British MP, from the Miss-Tique night club is a big scene involving Hawk’s team. That’s all I’m going to say about it—except to say that Hawk walks in looking like a very big Don Johnson from Miami Vice.

Hawk delivering a baby in the middle of a battle and wanting to name it “AK” because of the rifle fire he hears around them.

The rescue of Heidi Lothbrok, a beautiful, young, inexperienced FBI agent. Hawk refers to her as a Viking Shield Maiden.

Any scene with Uncle Peter, the degenerate gambler and Night Stalker pilot.

Hawk meeting the beautiful Mossad operator, Rachel.

Hawk having Leah Parker, a young actress, literally fall into his arms.

The big scene with the wolf attack and how Hawk and his dogs resolved it.

The final battle scene.

Do you have future books planned featuring Hawk and his exploits?

With a large wink of my eye I will say that it is possible that there is more to the story of Hawk. I’ll reply in the best practice of a covert operator, who would say, “I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of a Part 2 of The Killer Half: The Legend of Blackhawk 6 Deuce.” Try not to notice that I’m winking again!

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