B. J. Borug

 But Not Forgotten: a Clint Wolf Novel. “Clint Wolf, chief of police here in Mechant Loup.”Wow. By the end of Act I, I was exhausted. You left each chapter at a point where I had to turn to the next chapter. I was breathless to have my emotional ending chapter’s question answered. Where did you learn to write such an emotional, impactful structure?
 
If I’m being completely honest, I don’t really know how I do what I do, and it gets scary. Like, if I don’t know what I’m doing, how can I replicate it? I know the exact steps I need to take in order to throw a straight punch, or put three bullets in the same hole with my sniper rifle, or process a murder scene. However, as far as writing goes, I have no actual formula. I just do what feels right at the moment, and hope it works.
 
What I immensely appreciated was your ability to handle the clues laid out in the novel. You didn’t give me twists and turns that I would need to double back-read to see how you got to them. No, as soon as you were about to twist or turn, I did so with you. Structure again? 

Thank you for your kind words. For me, writing is like waking up in a strange cabin and trying to feel my way through the darkness. I think the thing that saves me is I know how to investigate a murder, so I just have my characters going through the logical steps of a homicide investigation. As they work, I try to imagine what real detectives would say and do in similar circumstances, and how they might react to what’s happening around them.
 
Which is better? To surprise your reader or lead them to the turn or twist? 

I love building up to a twist or turn. Since the late nineties, I’ve written about 100 short stories and more than forty novels, yet I still get very excited when I’m close to revealing something huge in a story. During these times, I have to force myself to settle down and not rush through it.
 
You have an extensive background in law enforcement. As a reader, I felt I was in safe hands through reading the novel: step-by-step processes, objectivity, and observation. How do you think your background aids in giving your stories a good reality base and in bringing your reader along for the ride? 

Without my law enforcement background, I would never be able to do what I do, and I certainly wouldn’t be able to write as fast as I do. For me, the hardest part is coming up with a plausible storyline. Once that’s done and I know who’s doing the killing and why, I just walk my characters through their investigative duties, while trying to make them grow as individuals. I also try to make each book a little different, which means I’m constantly dreaming up new ways to kill people.
 
I have friend writers who spend lots of time researching the investigative part of mystery writing, and this cuts into their writing time and slows them down. I don’t take for granted how much my background benefits me, and I share what I know with any author who reaches out to me. If I don’t have an answer to a particular question, I usually have reference materials on hand that might help, or I know where they can look to find the answer.
 
Offering a broken protagonist provides sympathy for your readers and takes them on an emotional journey. Clint Wolf is broken, which is the basis for this first novel in the series, but you also give him high moral integrity. Are both paramount to you when creating a protagonist?

I do tend to write protagonists with high morals, but they don’t necessarily have to be broken. Clint happens to be struggling in the first few books, but he eventually gets his act together. As a reader, I would be annoyed if a character remained in a broken state throughout the course of 33 books, and I’m guessing other readers might feel the same.
 
Could you write a protagonist without one of these traits? Or have you? 

I have written protagonists who weren’t broken. London Carter is one example. While he suffered a great loss as a child, it only served to harden him and motivate him to get revenge, rather than breaking him.

How much of you is in the character Clint Wolf? 
 
Not much. While he shares my same passion for hunting down criminals and doing it the “law” way (a reference from Young Guns), he’s a bit more diplomatic and reserved than I am. I’m pretty rough around the edges and I don’t have much of a vocal filter.
 
What genres do you prefer reading? What authors? And which has most influenced your work? 

Louis L’Amour has influenced every aspect of my life. I grew up a poor kid in a fatherless home, and I tell anyone who’ll listen that L’Amour—through his protagonists—raised me to be the man I am today. I learned about hard work, honor, respect, courage, and doing the right thing regardless of the obstacles. I don’t know where I’d be today, or what I’d be doing, had I not discovered his work at such a young age.
 
I also believe he’s had an influence on my work, but it’s not something that happened on a conscious level. For instance, an editor once told me that he liked my pacing, and he likened it to Louis L’Amour’s books. I hadn’t given it any thought up to that point, but since I’ve read everything he’s written many times over, it made sense that I learned a lot from him.
 
You have written a large volume of mystery, police procedural, and thriller. How do you label your work? 

Hardboiled mysteries. I also place them in the police procedural categories on Amazon, but they seem to do better in the hardboiled category.
 
What do you hope your legacy speaks to? 

I’ve not given any thought to legacy, but I did have to do some soul-searching when I retired from law enforcement.
 
Ever since I first became a cop in 1990, I’ve felt like I was making a small difference in the world. I was very passionate about seeking justice for the victims of crime, especially those who had been murdered or violently assaulted. While I have no clue if I’m a good writer, I have no problem saying I was very good at my job—and I say that with humility. I cared a lot, and it showed in my work. I solved a lot of cases, put away a lot of murderers and other violent criminals, recovered a lot of stolen property, and protected a lot of people. It was a very fulfilling job.
 
Fast forward to the summer of 2021. I had retired a year earlier at 49, bought a home and property in Tennessee, and was enjoying two of my lifelong dreams: being a fulltime writer and living in the mountains of East Tennessee like Louis L’Amour’s Sacketts. Over the coming months, I began feeling guilty. I felt like riding off into retirement and enjoying my life had been a selfish act. I felt like I had more to give, and I even considered getting back into law enforcement here in Tennessee.
 
These thoughts quietly plagued me for a few months, until I received two messages. One came from a man I didn’t know. He thanked me for writing the Clint Wolf series, and he cited some historical quote from history that talked about the importance of an author’s work. (I spent two days trying to find the email to share the quote, but I haven’t had any luck.)
 
The second message came from a mother from Louisiana who had lost her daughter in a car crash. She told me that she would read my books to her daughter while she lay in the hospital bed, and that my books had been a safe place of distraction. This came at the right moment for me. It was the first time since retiring that I felt a sense of fulfillment out of what I was doing, and I finally realized that being an author was not some casual pastime, but rather, an important responsibility.
 
Getting back to the question of legacy. I’ve accomplished a lot of things in my law enforcement career and also in my life, but if I were to be remembered as anything, I’d want it to be as a good dad to my kids, a good husband to Amanda, and a good pepere to my grandkids.
 
And last question: New book coming out?
 
Yes! But Not For Sacrifice, which is Book #33 in the Clint Wolf Mystery Series, is set to come out on March 21st.

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