What's New With John G. Bluck

• What inspired you to start writing?

I was born in Chicago, and I spent my first years of life on the South Side. When I was five, my family moved to an eight-hundred-square-foot, two-bedroom house that sat between two suburban towns. One was Glen Ellyn, Illinois, and I went to excellent schools there. During my youth, I saw and felt the contrast between the haves and the have-nots. Though English was my worst subject, by the time I graduated from high school, I wanted to become a newspaper reporter to right the wrongs I saw in society.

Though the Vietnam War raged, and my draft number was low, against all odds I earned two degrees from the University of Illinois. But I couldn’t attend graduation to collect my second degree because I was drafted into the U.S. Army. I became an Army journalist stationed at Ft. Lewis, Washington, where I wrote news stories and hosted a weekly, local Army radio program.

After my military service, I became a TV news cinematographer filming daytime crime. I worked for WMAL-TV (now WJLA-TV) in Washington, D.C. I covered homicides, bank robberies, the Watergate scandal, and every other kind of story you see on television. Working three or more incidents a day, it was an exciting life. But I soon realized I could not change the world.

Next, I joined NASA and wrote and produced documentaries for TV. I also wrote press releases and news stories among many other tasks. After working for the agency for thirty years, I retired. Now, I’m writing novels and short stories, and my new goal is to entertain.

• What is your latest series about? Where did your inspiration come from?

My Luke Ryder seven-book mystery-thriller series follows the life journey of Luke, who first works as a Kentucky game warden and then becomes a deputy sheriff while battling a drinking problem. He solves crimes across the country and the world involving murder, drugs, and espionage while learning more about life and what motivates all sorts of people.

I was sitting in my younger daughter’s living room in Versailles, Kentucky, talking with my son-in-law. He’s a deer hunter. I asked, what if on the first day of hunting season, a man is shot dead. How would you know if someone had murdered him, or if he’d died in a hunting accident? I wrote Death in the Holler based on this question, and Luke Ryder came to life.

• Which character in the series was the most fun to write?

Of course, Luke Ryder is the most fun to write about. Not a superhero, he’s an average guy who needs to deal with challenging situations. At times surprised at where he finds himself, he’s often unsure how to solve problems, but he does so anyway. He’s modest, and like many of my characters, he has a mind of his own. It’s as if he and the other “people” in my stories guide my fingers as I type. They tell their own stories. I’m just their agent.

• What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
  

If you want to write fiction, don’t be afraid to do it. Think of something that grabs attention to start the story. A person dies. There’s a robbery. A wedding takes place. A guy wins the lottery. Write a sentence to describe this “inciting incident.”

Then visualize how the story ends. A sleuth solves the murder; a man marries a woman; a thief is caught. Jot down a sentence summarizing the book’s end.

Grab a pad of Post-it notes and write a few words on each one to plot the tale from the beginning to the end. Each note represents a scene or a chapter. Stick the notes in order on a wall or a big cardboard sheet.

Begin your manuscript by writing the beginning scene. Then write the scene that ends the book. Finally, write the scenes to fill in the story from the beginning to the end. If you stray from your plot, that’s okay. If the story changes as you go, that’s good. Then edit, edit, and edit the manuscript. Anyone can write a good book. Don’t give up.

• What can readers expect from you next?

I’m writing Book 8 of the Luke Ryder series, set in the Hawaiian Islands (I traveled there with my wife last fall). A tiger shark attacks and kills a scientist who works for the CIA. The death is not an accident. Espionage is involved.

Dive into the tantalizing, action-packed Luke Ryder series from John G. Bluck today!