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Today, Norm Goldman Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com is pleased to have as our guest, J. C. Hager author of Hunter’s Choice: A Matt Hunter Adventure.

Good day J.C. and thanks for participating in our interview.

Norm:

When and how did you decide you were ready to write Hunter’s Choice: A Matt Hunter Adventure?

J.C.

Call me John.

In 2001, after retiring from 28 years with IBM- all on quota- and before that as a science teacher and coach, I needed an activity that kept the pressure on me- or my brain might explode. I tried to combat mental atrophy with a regimen of research and writing.

I’ve always had a good imagination. I’ve read thousands of novels- many of which I would have written differently. I felt I could write an interesting, fast paced action thriller. I think one day I threw a Jack Higgins paperback across the room- uttering some profanity about the totally stupid ending and my wife said, “Write your own book then…”

The story had been in my head for many years. I dove on a plane wing in a lake where I worked at a Boy Scout Camp. It was just some metal and the rubber gas tank. Another time I found a crash scene of a small plane deep in the woods. Most of the pieces were gone or scattered. Both experiences spiked my imagination. 

I love to find things and build a romance around them. I found an old clay pipe bowl beside a stream near my home, exposed by spring rains eroding the bank. While I cleaned the sand and mud off the clay, I pictured an Indian encampment along the trail leading from the shores of Lake Michigan to Grand Island on Lake Superior. I could see the camp, the fires, the people using the stream and the little clearing.

In 2002 I finished research and started writing the story.

The hunter having a plane crash on his land is a plot I’ve envisioned for many years. Finding drugs in a plane would make a dilemma if not temptation for a person. Legally and morally it should be reported immediately to the authorities- however, it is worth big money. Adding a beautiful woman to the plot helped tilt the moral needle to – “Let’s think about this.”

Norm:

Are some of the experiences in your book based on someone you know, or events in your own life?

John:

Any reader who's hunted, fished, and boated is likely to recognize
hunters and outdoorsmen they've known in my character Matt Hunter. But
they're also likely to learn new things about the drug trade and the
Coast Guard, thanks to the input I received from so many experts.  

I used vocations, places and things I knew about because it was easy to stay believable.  I’ve been to almost all the places used in the book. Again, I could put my characters in places I could picture, even smell.

Norm: 

What are the preponderant influences on your writing?

John:

My wife, Ann, is my main influence on my writing. I’m such a poor speller that my spell checker has signed off in disgust. Ann reads everything first. It was the fourth or fifth revision that tended to try her patience and exercise my salesmanship.

A fellow IBMer and excellent writer- Steve Hamilton gave me solid coaching and encouragement.

My favorite writers were all major influences on my efforts: I would need to mention 20 if I mentioned one.  My web site has the whole list.  I can’t say any one author was a model, but I consciously avoided writing styles I didn’t like.

Hunter’s Choice is almost all third person, from Matt Hunter’s personal perspective, no flashbacks, multiple plots or interrupting chapters that don’t move the action.  The whole book covers only one month of time.

My acknowledgment section mentions all my many wonderful helpers for the five or six major edits the book went through. Walt Shiel was my major coach, typesetter, editor and friend. He brought the book up several levels of professionalism and taught me a great deal.

Norm:

How do you approach the work of writing?

John:

I wrote, edited and researched every day while working on the book: generally in the early morning, at my IBM ThinkPad in my heated garage, looking out at Little Bay de Noc. I have two filing cabinets of research, a workbench of reference books, hot coffee in a VacuCraft mug, and my brain.

Writing at night has been an adventure for me.  Three times I’ve lost track of time, writing for four or five hours that seemed like an hour or so. I’ve analyzed the efforts of long sessions and short sessions and couldn’t find much difference in quality, just quantity. (See news release:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/02/prweb721344.htm )

Editing is the real work of writing. I am too much the teacher- ask me the time and I’ll tell you how to build a watch, construct a sun dial, use a stick and a compass, explain the seasonal diurnal changes or a myriad of too much information. So, most of my editing is removing extraneous factoids and plot wrecking pontificating.

I have great friends who read my work- Jana at the library, Sharon wife of Jim another retired IBM peddler, Augie- 86 year young super smart golfing friend, best friend Archie- retired State Policeman and USCG Master Chief, my wife and major editor Walt. I also hired a PhD in English to edit, but the work he saw and the finished copy are vastly different.  We spent six months just changing passive verbs to active and then threw out 10,000 words and two chapters.  Editing is like mowing a huge lawn with a hand mower, it seems an impossible task at first, but it looks so good when you’re done. I have rewritten some areas ten times, only to realize I reverted to one of the original versions. 

Norm:

Can you tell us how you found representation for your book? Did you pitch it to an agent, or query publishers who would most likely publish this type of book? Any rejections? Did you self-publish?

John:

I was rejected over twenty times by agents who wouldn’t even read my work. Steve Hamilton introduced me to his agent- who did read part of my early, single spaced, very amateurish work- she rejected me for cause.  I hate rejections.

I joined the Upper Peninsula Publishers and Authors group. At a meeting we had a speaker that talked about coaching and another speaker (Walt) that talked about Lightning Source Press and the mechanics of self publishing. I persuaded Walt to help me with editing, typesetting and coaching. A wonderful partnership formed.  Working with Walt has resulted in a very solid self published novel.  His wife Kerrie did the cover and his daughter Lisa did my web site.

Norm:

What challenges or obstacles did you encounter while writing your book? How did you overcome these challenges?

John:

I like details, they can be boring. I work hard at giving enough details to gain the readers trust without killing the plot or the reader’s attention span. Good editing by good people overcomes the detail monster. I still put in more details than some folks wanted- but hey- it’s my book.

Let me illustrate my philosophy about details. I meet a person on an airplane, we talk, he or she says they play tennis, (I played good tennis for 42 years), I ask- “What kind of racket do you use?” The person answers, “My racket is blue.”  So we talk about something else.

The marketing effort is an obstacle I’m battling now. I could sell IBM products very well, but getting my book known is another issue. I’m into contests, scores of free books went to New York and to anyone else that might help publicity.  I haven’t hired a publicity agent yet.

Norm:

What was your main focus when you created your protagonist Matt Hunter?

John: 

Matt is a retired person, still robust and yearning for new experiences.  Someone with whom people could identify. He is smart and tough, stubborn yet can view himself, laughing at his failings. Matt is not me.  We share backgrounds but he is twenty years younger and a lot tougher.

Norm: 

As a follow up, how did you develop the plot and other characters? Did you use any set formula?

John: 

The plot developed outside my outline as I was writing. I was going to have the whole book in the UP. One February morning with 30 MPH winds and minus 26 degrees F. outside- I sat down to write and all my characters went south…I ran into Ann with the news that all the characters had gone to the Florida Keys. She said to write about what they were doing down there. So I researched a Hatteras Yacht in the used yacht listings, used the Holiday Inn I used to stay at on Islamorada, made Matt get in his Yukon and head south.

The Russian, Webb- is a blend of several real and alive crime bosses. I always pictured Anthony Hopkins as the crew cut Russian. Tanya and her parents were developed from several Cuban friends I knew. I tried to keep the main characters down to four or five.  (One of Ken Follett’s advice to writers.)

I don’t think I used a formula, but I’m sure I’ve been influenced by all I’ve read- for good or bad. My goal was a product that would please and satisfy the reader. I’m very happy when a person comes up to me at the Golf Club and says they really liked the book.

Norm:

Do you agree that to have good drama there must be an emotional charge that usually comes from the individual squaring off against antagonists either out in the world or within himself or herself? If so, how does it fit into your novel?

John:

Yes. The strength of the drama is in proportion to external and internal conflict. I probably spent more lines on the external conflict than the internal forces affecting the characters. Future writings will try to improve this balance. Matt kills several people, he shows thought and remorse but the real depths of these acts were not developed in his character.  Maybe we (I) have been too conditioned to killing. A point to ponder. A person can think too much.

Norm:

Where can our readers find out more about you and Hunter’s Choice?

John:

My web site is:

http://www.jchager.com

I have lots of information and pictures. I cover research and many egotistical parts of my life.( Kind of an early epitaph.)

Norm:

What is next for J.C. Hager and is there anything you wish to add that we have not covered?

John:

 Book two is at chapter four. I should finish it this winter. It called Hunter’s Trail and has Canadian Ecoterrorists, a ship wreck find in Lake Superior, and more romance between Matt and Tanya. Romance writing brings up another thought…

I had discovered an intimidating factor that I didn’t think about before the book published- it’s called, “The ladies from church.”

I have some sexy parts- not too hot- about like those found in a Travis McGee novel by J.D. MacDonald- but many books were bought by the good folks at the local Lutheran Church where my wife plays organ and piano and I serve on the council.

They all liked the book and commented on some of the spicy aspects. I countered with a salesman’s technique of emphasizing what some could find as a weakness- saying, “If I knew you were going to read it I would have put in more sexy parts.”

Everyone snickers. But the truth is I now have to think about an 80 year old grandmother reading the book I wrote for a man on a plane, a hunter or a truck driver (truck drivers are good readers). I never envisioned my readers would include so many women. (They buy 86% of the books sold- so I should have been smarter.) I’m into chapter four of book two- so far my sex scenes are small and limited- partly because they are diving in the cold water of Lake Superior…

With that last thought, Norm, thank you for this format and your kind attention.

Thanks once again and good luck with all of your future endeavors.

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