What I write.
When I was younger, I lost myself in just about anything written by John D. MacDonald. Favorite of all his works was the series featuring Travis McGee, the loose-jointed, barked-knuckled salvage consultant who resided on The Busted Flush, his party barge houseboat docked at slip F-18 at the Bahia Mar Yacht Basin in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
My books are not anything like his, but MacDonald's work inspired me. I became infected with a desire to develop a contemporary series of stories that would feature someone who bucked the system and believed his way was better than anything the Badges could come up with. I did not want a Mickey Spillane character, though. Nor did I want this to be a stand alone character like McGee or Spillane, or even Patterson's Alex Cross. It took me a few years to come up with a husband/wife pair that for me, had "legs". For those who enjoy some of the really good series-movies often shown on TCM, think of the team of William Powell and Myrna Loy portraying Nick and Nora Charles in the Thin Man series. They were a silver screen inspiration for me, as well. However, all of the great characters I loved are from another age. Simply put, the chauvinism, heavy handedness, alcoholism, unfiltered smokes and over-the-top, beat-it-out-of-them interrogations would not work today for the good guy protagonist. Imagine Bogey being delicate and understanding with any hood...even a "broad".
So, with that, may I introduce you to Willam (no i) Johnson, P.I. and his wife, Kathy. Willam is ex-beat cop who gave up on playing the good old boy game in and around Asheville, North Carolina and started his P.I. practice there in their hometown, with Kathy's blessing, of course. Kathy, many readers have commented, is the true hero(ine) of the stories since her uncanny perception of immediate dire and/or imminent harm coming Willam's way. She has a delicate way of inserting herself when ego-sensitive guidance is needed for her man on a mission. This may come from her respected position as one of the regions most admired advertising creative minds. The stories have also been described as Mysteries surrounded by a love story, thus providing readers with a not-so-saucy (privacy, please) insight into a loving relationship blended with a non-CSI, forensic-wrapped mystery. Maybe they are just plain old yet contemporary mysteries with a fallible, likable gumshoe with an intuitive broad (forgiveness asked) always there for the rescue.
My books are not anything like his, but MacDonald's work inspired me. I became infected with a desire to develop a contemporary series of stories that would feature someone who bucked the system and believed his way was better than anything the Badges could come up with. I did not want a Mickey Spillane character, though. Nor did I want this to be a stand alone character like McGee or Spillane, or even Patterson's Alex Cross. It took me a few years to come up with a husband/wife pair that for me, had "legs". For those who enjoy some of the really good series-movies often shown on TCM, think of the team of William Powell and Myrna Loy portraying Nick and Nora Charles in the Thin Man series. They were a silver screen inspiration for me, as well. However, all of the great characters I loved are from another age. Simply put, the chauvinism, heavy handedness, alcoholism, unfiltered smokes and over-the-top, beat-it-out-of-them interrogations would not work today for the good guy protagonist. Imagine Bogey being delicate and understanding with any hood...even a "broad".
So, with that, may I introduce you to Willam (no i) Johnson, P.I. and his wife, Kathy. Willam is ex-beat cop who gave up on playing the good old boy game in and around Asheville, North Carolina and started his P.I. practice there in their hometown, with Kathy's blessing, of course. Kathy, many readers have commented, is the true hero(ine) of the stories since her uncanny perception of immediate dire and/or imminent harm coming Willam's way. She has a delicate way of inserting herself when ego-sensitive guidance is needed for her man on a mission. This may come from her respected position as one of the regions most admired advertising creative minds. The stories have also been described as Mysteries surrounded by a love story, thus providing readers with a not-so-saucy (privacy, please) insight into a loving relationship blended with a non-CSI, forensic-wrapped mystery. Maybe they are just plain old yet contemporary mysteries with a fallible, likable gumshoe with an intuitive broad (forgiveness asked) always there for the rescue.
