Interview J. D. Webb

by

William H. Russeth

1) First; how about a little background?

I live in Illinois with my wife of 40 years and our toy poodle, Ginger, losing all family votes 2 to 1. In 2002 I became a full-time author following 25 years in corporate management. A company purge promoted me to cobbler and I owned a shoe repair and sales shop for 11 years. During these careers, I wrote short stories and suppressed an urge to write a novel. After making a conscious decision to live at the poverty level, those novels began forcing their way out.

2) What brought you to the detective/ mystery genre?

Fer-De-Lance by Rex Stout. It introduced Nero Wolfe, rotund orchid grower and genius at solving crimes, and Archie Goodwin his wisecracking PI partner. Archie did the legwork and Nero ate a lot. I thought it was hilarious and at the same time a wonderful mystery. I still have the book. I now go back and marvel at what a great writer Stout was.

3) Specifically, how did you end up writing Her Name Is Mommy?

The story takes place in a Chicago mall at Christmastime. My PI spots a tiny tot sitting alone on a bench across from him, silently crying. No one is around for over 15 minutes. He finds out her mother has been kidnapped and the kidnapper did not spot the little girl. I was thinking about my next novel while sitting on a bench at Christmastime and saw a child in those same circumstances. Fortunately her parents were not far away but I began to wonder, what if the parents hadn’t come back. From there my brain took over, and a year later I had finished my book.

4) In your mind, what makes for a good read?

A good read is when you are catapulted into the story, pulling for the likeable characters and wanting to stomp on the bad ones. You can’t stop turning pages and you feel you’ve lost some good friends when you get to the end.

5) Every year there are thousands of books published in your genre. What makes yours different and worth reading?

I hope it’s for the answer I gave in number 3.

6) Do you pull your characters from people with whom you have interacted?

Rarely. Most of the time I imagine the type of person I need in the book, then I develop a short story about each of the main characters. That way I can get to know them better. And by then I have a great word picture of them.

7) When you write, do you have the story pre-outlined or do you find inspiration as you develop the story?

I hated doing outlines in school so, no I don’t outlines. I have in mind the general plot or story. And the basic direction I want my characters to follow. Seldom do they follow it. They take over and I wrestle with them to stay on plot. Sometimes I win and sometimes I don’t.

8) What writers or books have inspired you the most?

I love mysteries. Well, not just mysteries. I love books but am most happy when I’m inside a who-done-it. The classic writing of the masters; Agatha, Chandler, Hammett, Stout, et al and the newer masters; Elmore Leonard, Janet Evanovitch, Jeffery Deaver, Lawrence Block, James Lee Burke, James Patterson, and many, many others inspire and entertain.

9) When you are writing a book, how many pages do you average per week?

I’m more of a word count person. On a good week I’ll do 2,500 or so. Uh, it may take me 5,000 words to pare down to an edited 2,500. I do some editing as I go along.

10) Now that Her Name is Mommy has been released, what is next?

Right now I’m working on the third in the series titled Aftermath. It opens this way: “The remnant of the happy birthday balloon fluttered around the room until it came to rest on the baldhead of the late Jashu Magli, who had refused to open his cash register. The shotgun blast still echoed through Magli’s Corner Grocery. The weapon’s pellets deflated nine of those balloons, perforated an entire display of candy bars and one of the bullets opened a hole in the store owner’s chest. Pieces of litter rained down as I huddled in front a pyramid of Coors Lite cases, with two other customers, waiting for the next action from the goateed shooter. The smell of ammonia overpowered my nostrils as a river of Windex flowed toward us.”