Hunting the Red Fox follows an aspiring writer who is collecting interesting life stories, who winds up interviewing a smooth-talking Southern gentleman with a lifetime of secrets to tell. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

I decided early on that I wanted the story to revolve around a fictional character during the 1950’s who was first and foremost a gentleman in the traditional, grandest manner in which that term used to exist.  I also wanted him at his core to be one of the “strong, silent types” as they used to be called.  I wanted a guy who was recognized by others as a “man’s man” and “ladies’ man,” in a non-piggish sort of way, without a hint of ego or self-promotion.  Above all, Perry had to be likeable.

Also, I wanted in the character of Perry someone who was very good or above average at virtually everything he did without being the best at anything.  At the same time, I didn’t want everything he did to necessarily be good.  I wanted him fundamentally to be principled and seek to do good and right even if that was not technically the legal course of action.  In other words, I wanted the internal struggle between the right thing to do and the legal thing to do.  The last thing I wanted Perry to be was someone who was flawless.  Quite the contrary as it turns out.

Lastly, I wanted a character who seemed by circumstances mostly out of his control to plausibly meet the most bewildering array of real folks or pop up in the oddest of places throughout the 1940’s and 1950’s.

Was there anything from your own life that you put into the characters in your novel?

Let me start out by saying that no character in the book is a take-off of anyone in real life.  They are all figments of my imagination.  I’m sure most of them are cobbled together pieces of real folks from my own life experiences but I didn’t take any one person in my life, change the name and insert them into the fray. 

I did, however, use the name of a few deceased family members sort of in tribute to them.  For example, my mother’s maiden name was Mace.  Hence, Roger Mace, the aspiring writer.  My father’s father was named, believe it or not, Solomon Goldsborough Tyler.  Hence the jeweler in Savannah named Solomon Goldsborough.

Having said that, to a limited extent my father served as a partial inspiration for Perry Barnes but only as it relates to the time in which he lived.  My father was born in 1925 which coincided almost exactly with Perry’s age because that was the time frame I wanted to cover in the book.  Using my father as a reference for timing made it easier in affixing dates to the happenings in the book.  My father was a great man in my mind.  However, Perry is not at all based on my father.

There were no other real-life figures who inspired Perry unless you consider where I got his first name to be “real life.”  I have always been a tremendous fan of the old Perry Mason series.  I suppose I borrowed the main character’s first name from this fictional television character.  The rest of the traits or characteristics of Perry Barnes are an amalgam and/or composite of qualities and features contrived in my mind.

When you first sat down to write this story, did you know where you were going, or did the twists come as you were writing?

In a big picture sense the direction of the narrative from the beginning was always intended to be a work of fiction.  Plain and simple. I was going to make it up.  All of it.

Gradually, over the course of an hour, before a word was committed to paper, this morphed into a work of historical fiction.  As such, by definition, the totality of the story was going to involve mistily melding fictional characters, times and places with real people, times, events and localities in a plausible way so the reader can’t immediately discern fact from fiction.  On some level the book was successful at this because I have had more that one person relay to me that they spent more than a little time researching while reading to figure what was real and what was made up.

I think it’s important to understand that this was my first attempt at writing a book.  I didn’t know how to write a book.  So, I made an outline of about three or four ideas for character names and a potential story line in the briefest of terms.  I don’t know about others, but I found out quickly that’s not how I write.  It’s not really a conscious thing with me.  I can’t sketch out a story in advance then try to write to that plan.  I sit down at a computer and simply type and attempt to describe the movie that is playing in my mind.  My fingers often have a difficult time keeping up with what I see in my brain in picture form. 

When I start typing at the top of a page, I literally have no plan or idea as to what may fall out of my head by the end of the page.  This often results in characters, events or places that had not previous come to mind on any prior level.  I can’t explain it more simply than that.

Oddly enough, the thing I was most concerned about in the beginning was my ability to write dialogue between characters.  Once I started typing the motion picture scenes playing in my head the conversations were simply there and seemed to write themselves.  I just tried to write how people speak in real life.  I think my second book benefits from this “technique” even more because it is more dialogue driven.  I’m only a third of the way through book number three and I think that may be true for that one as well.

Back to that very first day.  I sat down to start this book I stared at the first line of the first page and eventually, without any other preconceived plan in place, typed out “The last jewel heist of my career was the biggest and best by far – the Mecklenburg Diamond.  Ever hear of it?”  It was an effective attention grabber.  To this day I don’t know where that came from.

I liked it.  That one line led me to create a conversational narrative between Perry and Roger Mace whereby the story was going to be revealed more or less in a confessional style.  It was also going to involve at least one jewel theft from which I thought I could build some action and tension in the story.

This sentence also gave the impression that Perry was something he really was not in the end: a bad guy, desperado, rogue, habitual criminal, etc.  The eventual story would set the record straight on that score and Perry was later revealed to be more of a Robin Hood type thief, not that it makes things any better I suppose but I think the readers think otherwise.

From that first day forward I ditched any preconceived plans or ideas and just typed the movie playing in my head.  I don’t consciously feel inspired, happy, melancholy or any host of other emotions while I write.  I don’t try to include any messages, hidden motivations, build tension or have an agenda of any kind.   My head fills with ideas while my fingers struggle to get it all down on paper before the thoughts and pictures vanish, which they eventually do. I do go back numerous times to edit the text naturally but it’s less about content than grammar, word choice or phrasing.

What is the next book that you are working on, and when can your fans expect it to be out?

I have written a second book that has been completed since November 2024.  My publicist wisely told me to let it sit on a shelf until Hunting the Red Fox has had a chance to run its course.  It most likely won’t be out until this time next year for that reason.

This second novel, called “An Invitation to My Past,” is a time travel story taking place back and forth mostly between current days and the late 1970’s.  At the time I shelved that novel this past November, I felt the narrative was at least as captivating as Hunting the Red Fox.  It is mostly a love story with a palpable level of tension related to the consequences of the time travel.  I believe I got better the second time around and the writing is tighter, and the relationships are compelling and entirely believable.

A third novel is about a third of the way done.  I can’t exactly tell you yet what this is about because my brain hasn’t yet shown my fingers the entire movie of the story.

I have also received numerous requests from readers of Hunting the Red Fox for a sequel.  Significant consideration is now being given to a potential sequel which is going to wreak havoc with my tee times and ongoing retirement.

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