A: "One afternoon I dropped off a friend at the bank and was waiting outside in a pickup as these two guards loaded cash bags into an armored car. I began thinking, ‘I could get that cash away from them if I really wanted to. They’re not going to risk their lives for money that doesn't belong to them. And they’ve probably been told to let anyone who threatens them to just have it, rather than risk a shootout in public.’ But in reality, the chances of getting away with the cash were about zero. Anyway, that became the catalyst for the story: how to get away after the robbery."

Q: "What makes your story special?"

A: "I’ve read a lot of action novels and they’ll have maybe two or three good scenes in them. Izard County Badlands has so much action, I almost don’t know where to start in describing what happens, and often forget everything that does. The definition of drama is conflict, not a lot of talking heads. That's why the lead character, deputy sheriff Darrell Flippin, is going up against a ninja in the first scene."

Q:  "Who was your book written for?  What audience?"

A:  "I wrote what I like; lots of action, some humor and an element of mystery.  Authors have to write what they love first and foremost.  If you write for an audience, and not necessarily what you want, how can you be happy?  The closest I come to writing for an audience is looking at the book and asking myself, 'Is this something my parents could read without being embarrassed, and is it something my niece and nephew could enjoy?'  That in mind, there are a lot of words characters can use without taking God's name in vain and there are plenty of substitutions for the F-word and in certain circumstances, adults will be adults, so there comes a time for the characters to close the bedroom door and have their privacy.  The last thing I want is a teen reading my novel and the parents being outraged.  But it is packed full of people doing bad things and is definitely a PG-13 read."      

Q: "Women are by far the largest group of book purchasers. Would they enjoy Izard County Badlands?"

A: "That was one of the first things that hit me when I began writing it. So I talked with as many women as I could and got their opinions. The feeling was, that if it’s a good story they’ll read it, that was primary, even if the lead character was a guy. They were all open to an action story as long as it was well done."

Q: "Is there anything in the book that women in particular would enjoy?"

A: "I believe women will enjoy the mystery in the book. She'll know these folks are going to rob an armored car, but how they’re going to do it is a mystery until the end, when they actually pull it off--it's an engaging aspect, you can't help but try to figure it out. And the story has a sense of humor that I think women will enjoy. In addition, there’s a romance between the young deputy Darrell Flippin and his wife, Amy. Their relationship is thrown into jeopardy in a deadly love triangle. But I wanted the triangle to be different, so instead of another man going after her, it’s a woman. A really vicious woman."

Q: "You say it’s a drama, but it’s also a humorous story. How do you work the two together?"

A: "I begin with a story outline; beginning, middle and end. As I’m writing I’m not trying to make a funny story, but I’m watching for what pops up and strikes me as funny. If there’s no humor in a novel, to me it doesn’t seem real, because life is full of laughing at ourselves. I have a good sense of humor, but it’s a dry, dark sense.  Any time you try to force humor into writing it's going to read silly--like that's what you were trying for--but when you develop what happens naturally, it seems more authentic. I do admit to pushing what I get though. The movie Fargo by the Coen brothers is the perfect example of the writing I enjoy."

Q: "Did you try to get your book published through a New York agent or publisher?"

A: "Absolutely. That’s the best way to go. A major publisher can give you an advance that can keep you writing, as well as get your book into locations all over the world. They can also generate great publicity. But there are so many folks trying to get books published that I finally decided to self publish. The biggest part of not getting an agent was my query letter. Izard County Badlands is such an unusual work, that I couldn’t get the point across in a one page letter. Did you ever finish a book and say to yourself, ‘Nothing really happened in the whole story.’ That’s because the book was sold to a publisher with a snappy ‘pitch paragraph.’ One well-thought-out paragraph sold the book and that’s all there ever really was. I needed 300 pages to explain Izard County Badlands."

Q: "What’s so unusual about your novel?"

A: "First, it’s written in the omniscient point of view. That means in any scene the reader may know what multiple characters are thinking. I love writing this way because criminals often have more exciting things to say and do than the good guys. So why not let the reader enjoy those characters to the fullest? Most publishers want a one character point of view that the reader can latch on to and follow through the story. I think it’s more exciting to have multiply view points, because it offers the opportunity for more entertainment. All things being equal, two or more good view points always beat one."

Q: "Writing in the omniscient point of view isn’t totally uncommon, was there anything else that makes the book stand out?"

A: "The main character, deputy sheriff Darrell Flippin, isn't in every scene. A lot of publishers don’t like for the main character to disappear for any amount of time. But Izard County Badlands is about a place full of nutty characters, so I have to let Darrell go sometimes in order to show what the criminals are doing. Also, there are two subplots running below the main story that all the characters crisscross. I love stories where you have multiple characters crossing different storylines, showing how they affect each, then converging at the end."

Q: "What are the two subplots about?"

A: "One is about Darrell’s wife, Amy, who’s being hit on by another woman at the nursing home where they work. When Amy rejects the woman’s advances, one thing leads to another and Darrell becomes involved. The woman eventually plans to kill him in order to get Amy (she’s totally nuts). The second subplot is about a group of outlaw bikers called the Diamondbacks. They’ve hired one of the armored-car robber’s brother to build a custom motorcycle for them. Well, their motorcycle disappears and they spend the whole story trying to get it back. One thing leads to another and pretty soon people are turning up dead."

Q: "Where did the title of the book come from?"

A: "One of my favorite titles of all time is Macon County Line, from a movie written and directed by Max Baer, the guy who played Jethro on The Beverly Hillbillies. That title does two things; it has a Southern sound, 'Macon County.' And the word 'Line' gives the impression of something you shouldn’t cross. The first title that I came up with for the novel was Baxter County Line. But that didn't sound cool, and it’s borrowing too much from Max’s title. So I changed it to Baxter County Badlands, but that still wasn’t cool, but I liked the Badlands part. So I started thinking of cool county names and came up with Izard. Hence the book became Izard County Badlands."

Q: "But the story takes place in a fictional Izard County, why?"

A: "I wanted to write a crime story that takes place in the Ozarks, because I can draw a lot form the country. And the local names were really cool sounding: Izard, Flippin, Cotter, Gassville. But I didn’t want the story to literally take place in Izard County, because then you get folks debating the locations and names of roads, buildings, history. It made more sense to say from the beginning, this is a work of fiction that takes place in northern Arkansas and I simply borrowed some names from here and there."

Q: "What will be your next book?"

A: "I’m going to write a sequel titled Izard County: Full Auto. The story will be a complete stand-alone work about a pizza delivery boy who becomes a bounty hunter. I want to sell this one to a major publisher, so I’m going to write it in the third person (non-omniscient). Some of the characters from the first novel will be mentioned, but the story won’t rely of having read the first Izard County novel. I want to write something that can reach a lot of people and at the same time be something that I want to do. Even though this story will have the main character in each scene, I have so much in mind for him to do, that you’ll never have to worry about it being a talking-heads book."