Trios: Death, Deceit, and Politics is a gripping exploration of a family’s treacherous labyrinth of deceit, a veteran’s struggle with trauma, and one woman’s relentless pursuit of truth amidst political corruption. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

The immediate inspiration was the general tenor of current American politics, which seems hopelessly embroiled in accusations and counteraccusations, court proceedings, anonymous sources, whistleblowers, and the like. A truly bipartisan brew of political poison.

The more distant literary inspiration, however, was a novel that I’ve always admired—Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men, Warren’s 1946 novel about Lousiana Governor Huey Long. I suppose every state in the nation has had at least one (more likely a lot more than one) political family that turned to corruption to enhance its political power. I am intrigued by just how this rise to power and subsequent fall takes place.

Your characters are intriguing and well-developed. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?

My original thought was to have no truly honorable characters, not even the protagonist—in this case, Rita Collins. Clearly, none of the immediate members of the Collins family are honorable—certainly not Dolf, who aspires to become governor of Pennsylvania at any cost; not his wife Marla, who recognizes the corruption but enjoys its benefits in the form of her lobbyist-paid vacations, sports car, and luxurious tan; and not their son Brian, who aspired to be just like his father. Then there is the Machiavellian character Mark Garret presiding over the entire sordid affair.

And so, I didn’t intend to let Rita escape either. But I’ve found that a magical thing often happens in the process of writing a story—namely, the characters take over. And when they do, it’s because they have a different understanding of just what turns the plot this way instead of that and just where its jagged edges are located. They start talking back, saying, “I wouldn’t do that. I wouldn’t say that. That’s not my voice. What you’ve written is not really my story. Rewrite it this way.” And I do. So, Rita became the truth-seeker (as befits a journalist) who attempt to expose deceit instead of allowing it to rule her. And in this endeavor, she is inspired by the USAF veteran Kurt Sillinger.

What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?

The tangled web theme most of all. Once deceit begins it requires additional acts of deceit to maintain and/or capitalize on the original deceit. Soon deceit becomes the norm for those who practice it—not  a desperate final response but a first response. I’m afraid that’s what has happened in much of American politics at all levels. We’ve never had so much access to information and so little assurance of its veracity.

But the novel shows that truth-seekers still exist and can triumph over deceit.

What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?

I’m now about two-thirds of the way through the first draft of a dystopian novel set in the not-so-distant future. The working title is SHANTYBOAT: AMERICAN DYSTOPIA. Where I grew up in the Mid-Ohio Valley, people who were down on their luck often turned to living in makeshift shantyboats along the Little Kanawha River. I am using the shantyboat in this novel as a symbol of individualism and resistance to the forced conformity and economic depravations that the future world of this novel explores.

I’ve found that most dystopian novels focus greatly on world-building and the author’s world-view projections. Think of the novels of Ayn Rand or Margaret Atwood, for example. Too often, I believe, the characters populating these novels are unrealistic, little more than mouthpieces for the author’s viewpoint. In this novel I’m trying to keep the focus on what the characters themselves experience and how they react as realistic human beings to social tragedy, rather than representatives of an ideology. At least, that’s my intention. Early 2024 is probably the best estimate for publication.  

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