AN INTERVIEW WITH DEBUT HISTORICAL FICTION AUTHOR GEORGE CRAMER

Today we sit down for a chat with debut historical fiction author George Cramer, who also writes police procedurals and thrillers. Learn more about George and his writing at his blog.

When did you realize you wanted to write novels?

In early 2012, I was laid off from a high-technology company. Even with forty years of investigative experience, I could not get a job. Age discrimination is alive and well. It was for the best. I signed up for a writing class at the Dublin Senior Center I thought was technical writing. I was wrong, the class was an introduction to creative writing. I was hooked.

How long did it take you to realize your dream of publication? 

Eight years, and after a couple dozen rejections, I went with a small indie publisher. I never realized how much work goes into publishing.

Where do you write? 

My preference is a public library or senior center. When I’m on motorcycle trips, I try to take a day off and visit the local senior centers. I can sit in a corner and work for a couple of undisturbed hours. However, my absolute favorite place is in a library aboard a cruise ship. I can sit there and work for hours on end. Of course, my wife is not overly thrilled. So I can only do this on the days we are at sea.

Is silence golden, or do you need music to write by? What kind? 

No kind. The music draws my mind away from my work and into unwanted lulls.

How much of your plots and characters are drawn from real life? From your life in particular? 

I have to admit, except for The Mona Lisa Sisters, there are events and characters in my thrillers and many of my short stories.

Describe your process for naming your character? 

Why did you have to ask that? Finding names that fit the character is one of the most difficult chores I face. I begin writing, and if I’m lucky, a name pops into my head; if not, I think of someone I like for protagonist and dislike for the antagonist. I always change the names later, but it makes it easier to attribute good and evil for the moment.

Real settings or fictional towns? 

I use both. With robbers and cops, I used real locations, which required a great deal of research. In an early manuscript, I used a newspaper that did not fit into the proper location. My wife caught it and has never let me forget. Every time I try to work in reality, I remember the newspaper and work extra hard on my research.

I’m working on a police procedural/thriller that I placed in a fictitious city so I could avoid some research time. However, I love how it allows me to create events, scenes, and characters that fit my story.

What’s the quirkiest quirk one of your characters has? 

It’s not really a quirk, but in one of my novels, a bad guy loves to play cribbage. He carves a cribbage board while on a Georgia chain gang. He carries it through several visits to prison, and even on the Bataan Death March, and as a slave-labor POW in Japan. He carries it until he dies while serving a life sentence at Folsom Prison.

What’s your quirkiest quirk? 

I doubt I have any, but I asked my wife and oldest daughter. Wife: “You mean besides being stubborn.” Daughter: “Stubborn.”

If you could have written any book (one that someone else has already written,) which one would it be? Why? 

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway. This work always comes to mind when I am asked this question. When I write the title, my body fills with emotions, love, fear, hope, bravery, and a wish to be a man like Robert Jordan.

Everyone, at some point, wishes for a do-over. What’s yours? 

I regret all the years that I neglected my family to devote more time to my work.

What’s your biggest pet peeve? 

People who puff up and talk loudly, sometimes verging on shouting.

You’re stranded on a deserted island. What are your three must-haves? 

My wife, food & water, a library

What was the worst job you’ve ever held? 

I was hired as an investigator by a company with over six-hundred stores. After a month, I discovered that almost all of my assignments were distasteful. The aim was to catch management employees at anything that gave the company cause to fire them. I gave notice, and less than thirty minutes later, I was escorted out of my office.

What’s the best book you’ve ever read? 

You already know it was For Whom the Bell Tolls. After that, it is a toss-up: Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, Ramona Ausubel’s No One is Here Except All of Us, or Perma Red by Debra Magpie Earling. I know that is more than you asked for, but I’ve read so many great books, it’s hard to choose.

Ocean or mountains? 

That’s a tough one. I grew up living on the beach. Now, if I can’t see mountains, I get a bit claustrophobic.

City girl/guy or country girl/guy? 

I’m stuck in the suburbs but want to move to a small country town, or a house on a mountain overlooking the sea.

What’s on the horizon for you? 

My first novel, The Mona Lisa Sisters, comes out this month. After that, I’m looking forward to a long motorcycle ride, and finishing my Liberty trilogy.

Anything else you’d like to tell us about yourself and/or your books?

My first attempts at fiction told stories but not much else. Now my goal is to move my readers and make them think.

The Mona Lisa Sisters

Lura Grisham Myer lives a perfect life until her world is ripped apart. Reborn, forged of pain and misery, she battles to recapture happiness with the help of two orphans and a mysterious stranger.

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