PART 2 – 2ND INTERVIEW WITH DERRICK HOFFMAN — MY CRIMES MAGAZINE — EDITOR

Book: Mask of Bone

DH: All right, Janson, we’re back for Part Two.
JM: Nice to be back, Derrick.
DH: So now that Mask of Bone is on the shelves, how does it feel to be the author of a crime trilogy? Not just one book, but three?
JM: Relieved. Writing the third book was very stressful. I had to tie in everything from the second book into a nice tight bundle, round it back to the original book, and have it all make sense. But I’m happy with the ending. I think it came out all right.
DH: That it did. Very tense scenes with both the chase through the Belgian countryside, and then with Cale returning back to Green Bay . . . everything seemed to come full circle for him, didn’t it?
JM: That’s what you hope for. Beginning, middle, end . . . that sort of thing. Just like real life. But it was a very exhaustive trip for Cale, as well as for the writer. (laughs) So now we’ll hope Cale can get back to normal. Although as readers will know, he still has a few irons in the fire to deal with.
DH: I won’t give anything away, but you’re talking about with Maggie, right?
JM: She will be the primary source of his “issues” in the fourth installment. I think as a couple they will grow stronger together from this whole experience.
DH: So there’s the news, right? That there will be a fourth book coming out? Anytime soon?
JM: Well, it’ll be awhile, I’m afraid. I’m formulating the plot now. I had to take some time off from the three-part story and do something completely different.
DH: That brings me to your upcoming book. I’ve read some of the chatter. This is a departure from Detective Cale Van Waring and the crew, right?
JM: Yes. The new book should be out in February, the end of. Hopefully. I mentioned it before, it’s called Shoot For the Stars.
DH: That’s the one that won the award, right? In Writer’s Digest? I saw it listed.
JM: Yes. Last December’s issue—the one with George Martin on the cover. Author of The Game of Thrones. I felt honored to be in his presence, even though we weren’t in reality. But yeah, Shoot For the Stars finished seventh nationally in the screenplay category. It’s a work of historical fiction set mostly in Green Bay.
DH: Historical fiction. Interesting. That’s where you take real people from the past, right, and fictionalize their lives into a story?
JM: Essentially, yes. I took a number of old football players, Curly Lambeau, Jim Crowley, Tom Hearden, Johnny Blood McNally . . . and also Dominic Olejniczak—he played a very big role—and put them into a story where we can follow their lives from the early years going forward. The foundation of the Green Bay Packers, on into the Depression and then the War Years.
DH: Excellent. So it’s not going to be a run of the mill football story?
JM: No. As you know from my first three books, all of my stories are character driven. But this story, Shoot For the Stars, is pretty much my dad’s story from when he was growing up.
DH: Yes. You told me. And your father—Al Mancheski—is still alive and kicking, correct?
JM: He’ll be 93 in February. When the book comes out. And as a birthday present, I listed him as a co-author of the story. I think that’s better than simply dedicating the book to him.
DH: Very cool. I’m sure he’s getting a kick out the whole process.
JM: Yes, he’s griping about everything, but when you’re over 90 I think you’ve got license to be a little cantankerous now and then. The latest thing now is getting his photo taken for the book cover.
DH: (Laughs) OK, Janson, anything else you’d like to add before we sign off here?
JM: Just to thank all the people who’ve read the first three books. And have given me support to keep on going. I used to read that it took writers three to five books being published, before a writer began to achieve any success.
DH: Kind of like singers, I guess. It takes about three or four hit albums before people begin to take them seriously.
JM: In my own case, it’ll probably take about ten. But time will tell, I guess.
DH: Excellent. What that means is with four books published, you’ll still have six more to go before you’re not too famous to do these interviews with me.
JM: (Laughs) I’ll never be that famous, Derrick. You know that.
DH: Awwww.

INTERVIEW: TRAIL OF EVIL

SIX QUESTIONS WITH DERRICK HOFFMAN — My Crimes Magazine — Editor

Book: Trail of Evil 

DH: Janson, after breaking onto the crime fiction scene with your first novel The Chemist, what challenges did you face as a writer with your follow up book?

JM: Hi Derrick. Yes. Good question. And it’s one every writer faces. The Chemist was very well received and the reviews were fabulous. When it won first place in the Sharp Writ international fiction contest, that was very exciting. So the challenge of a second book—or follow up—was to decide if I was going to go a different route completely with Detective Cale Van Waring, or somehow continue the story line from the first book.

DH: And you decided to feature Cale again, right?

JM: Yes. The Chemist had left open a perfect story line to pursue a second book: that of the still missing pair of kidnapped victims. This plot hole was never resolved, and I had done so purposely. So I decided that being the dogged detective Cale is, it would make perfect sense for him to pursue any leads he had to see if he could locate them.

DH: Thus the Trail of Evil. Right?

JM: Right. Only we immediately ran into a huge logistics problem. The method devised by the human traffickers was to transport their victims out of the country. So both Green Bay girls were long gone. And there’s no way the Green Bay PD can afford to send one of it’s detectives off on a search and rescue adventure of this magnitude. The budget wouldn’t allow it.

DH: But a suspended detective? That’s another matter?

JM: It was a convenient way to get Cale off on the pursuit trail. Albeit on his own dime. But the problem is he’s only suspended for one week. So the timeline is tight, and flying to Europe, locating the missing girls, dealing with some very evil bad guys, it all creates a huge amount of stress on Cale Van Waring—especially with the clock ticking down.

DH: Not to mention his situation in dealing with Maggie. I’d think being pregnant with—potentially—someone else’s baby, would add just a pinch of additional stress to anyone?

JM: Yes. And while Cale’s away on the case, no less. He gets blindsided by this. On top of everything else, it adds an even greater degree of pressure on a personal level.

DH: All right. One more question. In The Chemist, Cale had to face down Tobias Crenshaw, who is a pretty nasty serial abductor. How do the bad guy human traffickers in Trail of Evil measure up? On the bad guy scale, I mean?

JM: We certainly like our bad guys, don‘t we? (laughs) Well, we’ve got a sociopath in Kinsella, a thuggish brute whom Cale is tracking. Then we’ve got a sadistic pervert in Prince Mir Al-Sadar—he’s the guy who likes to collect females as trophies for his private harem. Then finally Tazeki Mabutu, a powerful witch doctor—one who doesn’t seem to care much for Cale at all. I think that combined they provide a pretty formidable trio. 

DH: Not to mention that they’re all cannibals, right?

JM: Yes. Just a minor point to their winning personalities. They do have slightly exotic tastes in nutrition, so it seems.

DH: And on that note, we’re out of time Janson. Just in time for lunch, I might add.

JM: And after that last note, Derrick, all things considered, I’d consider you order a nice chef’s salad.

THE TOPPER

We were sitting around our family gathering over this past holiday season, and the discussion turned to revealing some of the famous people my family members have met in person during their lives. This all was prompted by my gazing at photos of my brother-in-law, Nubs DeCleene, who passed on a few years back. Nubs had been president of the Village of Ashwaubenon at the time of his illness, and a few of the photos showed him greeting President George W. Bush at the Green Bay airport, when the president arrived for a visit. So I asked my nephew Chase (26) who the most famous person he met to-date was? He informed us how he’d almost met President Bush that day with his dad, but didn’t make it. We told him “almost” didn’t count, and he had nothing after that.

Next we asked my father, Al Mancheski (currently age 92). My dad is a former Wisconsin HS football Coach of the Year (1965). He showed us the photo of him receiving his award from the former Ohio State head coach and football legend, Woody Hayes.

Next came my turn. Having worked with the Packers for over a decade, I had met a lot of high-profile football players and coaches, (including Reggie White, Mike Holmgren, et al.) Thus my answer was easy: Brett Favre. I imagined Brett trumped my dad’s Woody Hayes encounter, so I felt pretty confident about winning.

Finally came my mother, Dawn (currently age 87). In her meek voice, she recalled a story from her younger years. It was 1943, and she had just graduated high school. The national World War II war effort was in full swing, and Dawn had traveled to Washington D.C. to do her part. There she’d been hired by the FBI, and had the occasion, as a newly hired member, to meet the Bureau’s head: non other than J. Edgar Hoover, himself.

The contest win of course went to my mother. Mr. Hoover, I’m sure you know, is the founder of the FBI and considered one of the most influential United States icons of the 20th century. Pretty hard to top that one, Mom.

OF NOTE: I do plan to have Dawn reveal details of her encounter with Mr. Hoover as an adjunct in my upcoming novel SHOOT FOR THE STARS. I can’t wait to hear her actual version of meeting such an amazing and influential man.

Until next time…

UPDATE

UPDATE: The third part of THE CHEMIST trilogy is nearly complete. I spent the weekend going over the initial edit of the manuscript entitled: MASK OF BONE. It is coming out quiet well, and my editor seems to enjoy it greatly. Not an editor’s primary job, by the way. Still, I find that encouraging because she has read neither the initial “Chemist” book, nor the follow up TRAIL OF EVIL. And that was my goal: not only to make the 3rd book a conclusion of the story loop, tying everything back to the Chemist back story, but to also make “Mask” strong enough to stand on its own as a complete work of fiction.

Fortunately, it appears as if we’ve accomplished both tasks.

What this means, moving forward, is that with three Cale Van Waring, Green Bay detective stories in the books (as it were), I’ll be able to complete the novel SHOOT FOR THE STARS in the upcoming few months. Then we can go back for the next installment of another Green Bay homicide story.

I’m also pleased to report that the screenplay for “Shoot For the Stars” finished 7th in the latest international Writer’s Digest Fiction Contest (December 2012 issue). It doesn’t mean much, and no one’s clamoring to bring the story to the big screen, but winning awards is always nice because a complete stranger (i.e. judges) who read a lot of fiction, is/are telling you that your story is well-written and enjoyable. So I’m hoping the novel version of “Stars” comes out just as entertaining.

Leaving you with: Who’s the most famous person you’ve ever met in person? I’ll come back Wednesday (2 days from now) to tell you my own answer.

Until…

THE PAIN OF WRITING A TRILOGY

Alright, here’s the weird thing. I was finished with my second novel at this time a year ago. Because my first publisher closed their doors, I was searching for another publisher. An enterprising young editor suggested, Hey! Your book’s pretty lengthy. Why don’t you cut it in half?… Alright. It seemed like a good idea at the time. So I tried it. Oh my God! The problem was I simply couldn’t just stop the action and write “To be continued,” like some tv soap. I had to rewrite things like character arcs, plot development, and lay down character back story in the final book… all in order for the 3rd book to make sense as a stand alone title.


Anyway, it’s now completed. I’m sending it in to my editor/publisher today. It’s called “Mask of Bones” and it should complete the 3 part “Chemist” trilogy. They will still have to design a new cover, etc… but it should be hopefully out in 6 weeks or so.


To anyone ever planning on splitting a story in half? Two words: good luck!