DAVID PUTMAN

First, let me thank you for allowing me to send some questions regarding your latest. I enjoyed it, and I am sure my readers will, too.  
 
Bruno Johnson in your Bruno Johnson Thriller Series is a popular, highly recommended series but such best-selling authors like Michael Connelly and William Bernhardt. Why the slight turning of the corner in writing by bringing Fearsome Moonlight Black to your readers?
 
Couple of reasons. First, my Bruno Johnson publisher only takes one book per year. I write two books a year. And I have always wanted to write a book that told about my first couple of years as a street cop.
 
I read that you always wanted to write a memoir about your career, and I found this book a great read. But, I wonder, Part One offers an excited young man eager to learn the business, and Part Two provides an older man slightly jaded—yet still clinging to the profession's honor. You have stated Part One is basically real, and Part Two blends a bit of fiction. Are you making a statement about the police profession with the two parts?
 
Wasn’t my intention. I wrote the first part exactly as I remembered it. What it was like, the fear the vunerability, the violence people can perpetrate on others. In the second part I just wanted to show the contrast from brand new cop to veteran. How the thought processes are entirely different.
 
Personally knowing you, I heard "you" in Part One of the book before I read you wrote it as a memoir. However, I find Bruno Johnson in your series also very much like you—passionate about justice. How invaluable is your career to your writing? Can someone without this experience create believable crime or mystery novels? What would be your advice to them?
 
I loved my job chasing crooks. I still dream about it. Details are an intricate part of creating the “Fictive Dream,” giving the story credibility. Author’s who write police procedural just have to do a little research. There are some great authors out there doing a great job at it. One tip: If a person wants to get the true flavor Most police agencies have Citizens on Patrol that can give a totally submersive experience.
 
 
I liked William Kent Krueger's quote about your work: "Reading a novel by David Putnam is almost as good as riding shotgun in a patrol car." I agree. How do you keep your audience in mind while writing?
I don’t think about the audience when I’m writing. I write a story I would be interested in. That’s my only criteria. I also follow sixteen precepts of writing that I’ve designed as template which keeps me on track and my structure consistent.
 
Will you share your writing disciplines? Do you write every day? So many words per day or hours in the chair?
 
I write everyday. I start by going back twenty pages editing forward to get the same pace, the same cadence and tone. Then I write forward four pages. In this way I go over everything four times before moving on. I only write on draft.
 
A best selling Bruno Johnson series, now a great read, Fearsome Moonlight Black, will you venture into other genres?
 
Before I sold my first Bruno Johnson novel I was on my 38th manuscript. I had tried writing in multiple genres and styles. It wasn’t until I shortened the conflict (in conflict, complication, crisis, conclusion) that I started selling books. Moonlight is going to be three novels (min.) in the series. The next one is completed and I its tighter and faster than the first one. I think its even better.
I just finished another novel a first in another series (hopefully), its called The Blind Devotion of Imogene. It’s a mystery construct instead of a thriller which is a little more difficult to write than the thriller. I had a lot of fun writing this one.
 
 
THANKS, David!

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