Do you have any kind of writing routine? I do. I get up, have breakfast, and write until lunch. I find listening to Enya while I write frees my thoughts. I try to get some writing in before bed too.

Where do you get your ideas? 20% are things that happened in my life. 70% are just ideas that pop into my head (usually in the shower, sometimes in bed). The remaining 10% are courtesy of my sweetie, Martha. If a female character is saying something funny, the odds are very good it was a Martha-ism first.

Who do you see as your target audience? - I’m writing for readers who might not have a ton of time to pour into reading a book. I always imagined people on a plane, heading to a vacation, looking for a quick distraction as my target audience.

Will there be another Ramsey County Sheriff book? I don’t have one planned right now. I have some other stories I want to write first, like my fantasy anthology, “Tales From Lethikkor”.

What were some of your literary influences? - Stephen King is the main one, Ken Follet and John Irving were also among the firsts. Joseph Wambaugh had a big impact on me as well.

I hate gimmicks, like the ALL CAPS voice in “A Prayer for Owen Meany” and the abolishing of quotation marks in “No Country for Old Men.” Both are great stories, but painful reads. To me.

I absolutely love David Cronenberg. One of the very few great directors who was great in front of the camera as well (Nightbreed). Viggo Mortensen has been a muse for him like Scorsese and DeNiro or Ang Lee and Chow Yun-fat. Just superb!

Do you ever see people as your characters? - I do see some of them. Others I never really ‘see’ in my mind’s eye. I can ‘feel’ all of them, though. In my head, Sheriff Glenn Campbell looks like Sandra Bullock. Jan, the Dutch hitman, looks like Jason Statham. Gail Peterson looks like Edie McClurg, the actress that told Steve Martin “You’re fucked.” Waiting in a Holiday gas station parking lot, I saw a guy walk out and thought, ‘That’s what Peter looks like!’ Unremarkable in every way, and completely forgettable. Josh looks like Eddie Redmayne, and even though the character is Finnish, when I picture Tom Maki, I see Chakotay from ST: Voyager. It doesn’t make a lick of sense, and I am okay with that.

In Tales from Lethikkor, I see Big Tak looking and sounding like Clancy Brown. He’s based on my friend, “Grave”.

Do you get help from folks in the real world with your books?

Absolutely! My sweetie Martha is an artist. She helped turn my descriptions of book covers, fonts, and illustrations into reality. The website for her work is DreamingDragonflyStudios.com When I needed advice on legal ideas, I turned to William Schmitz Law Offices. Local to Minnesota and one of the good ones. SchmitzLawOffices.com The actual Ramsey County Sheriff’s department was very helpful and forthcoming about regular details in law enforcement life.