The notion of an otherwise normal, exceptionally smart and attractive guy who kills people intrigued me. Something I’ve heard from readers is that they find themselves liking Stone (I do too) and feeling a bit guilty pulling for him.
JC Norton – 16 October 2020
The Back Flap
After a complicated, but successful mission to Antarctica, Stone Ayers spends two glorious weeks skiing the Alps with his beautiful new girlfriend, Gudrun, a naturalist whom he met on the ship. When he returns to San Francisco, the boss, Dominic Balducci, has a new challenge for him. It may be that his brother-in-law, Peter, who is also Stone’s friend is stealing from him. If he is, the consequences will be dire and it may fall on Stone to put Peter down. Killing strangers is one thing, but killing a friend? Stone doesn’t like that idea at all. His first task though, is to discover the truth and the process leads him down a tortuous path of deceit and violence, testing him in ways he’s not been tested before. Never Scot-Free is the second of the Stone Ayers Novels, with more to follow. Set in the City by the Bay, it explores Stone’s relationship with Dominic and his family, and his evolving connection with Gudrun, a connection complicated by his need to keep from her the truth about what he does for Dominic.
About the book
What is the book about?
Never Scot-Free is the second book in the Stone Ayers series of crime novels. Stone is an interesting guy – handsome, charming, athletic, and super smart with a degree in mathematics and computer science, but he’s got a quirk. While deployed to Afghanistan as a Special Forces operative, he discovered that killing people was easy for him. In fact, he liked doing it, the strategy involved in tracking an asset, the adrenalin rush he felt at the critical moment, and the profound satisfaction that followed when a job was done. That he might make a living doing this he had not considered at the time, but then he met Dominic Balducci, a San Francisco based restauranteur with a number of illegal side ventures including the drug trade. On occasion for personal or business reasons, he needs someone eliminated, and Stone Ayers, with his cover as an IT specialist in Dominic’s legitimate businesses, does it for him with great skill and finesse. In Never Scot-Free, the potential mark is Dominic’s brother-in-law, Peter, someone Stone knows and considers a friend, and that creates a situation he’s not faced before. In the past, his victims were just assets that needed to die, not people he knew. The story tracks his investigation into what Peter has done and what he and Dominic should do about it. Complicating Stone’s life though, is his relationship with a beautiful scientist he met in the previous novel, Orca. In that one, he’s on an adventure cruise to Antarctica, during which he is to kill a man who made the mistake of defrauding Dominic Balducci, and kill him in a very specific way. During the trip, Stone meets Gudrun, one of the scientific experts onboard, and they immediately form a romantic attachment. The relationship is explored in both books and the dilemma Stone faces is that she does not, and cannot, know what he does. A generally honest, straightforward person, this deceit plagues him, but how to resolve it, he does not know.
When did you start writing the book?
I began Never Scot-Free right after I finished Orca in 2019. It was published in the summer of 2020.
How long did it take you to write it?
Not sure, exactly, but between six months and a year.
Where did you get the idea from?
That’s a good question. It started with the Stone Ayers character. He’s an amalgam of people I’ve met in terms of both his physical and psychological attributes. The notion of an otherwise normal, exceptionally smart and attractive guy who kills people intrigued me. Something I’ve heard from readers is that they find themselves liking Stone (I do too) and feeling a bit guilty pulling for him. The plots are devices to explore what he’s like. In Orca, I used the adventure cruise because I had done one a few years back. It tracks my experience almost exactly, so is a sort of travelogue as well as a thriller. Never Scot-Free is set in the Bay Area, where I grew up.
Were there any parts of the book where you struggled?
I needed help with the technical aspects of Stone’s IT based investigations into what Peter was doing. Other than that, not really.
What came easily?
Both Orca and Never Scot-Free flowed pretty easily. As mentioned, the template for Orca was my own experience of an Antarctic expedition, but I did have wonderful help from a merchant seaman I meant on another expedition trip, that one to Svalbard. He was hugely helpful in getting the operational details right in terms of the operation of the vessel. In Never Scot-Free, I know the turf, so moving Stone and the other characters around in it was not hard to do realistically.
Are your characters entirely fictitious or have you borrowed from real world people you know?
Well, I certainly don’t know any hired killers, at least I don’t think I do, but I think all fictional characters are based in part of people the writer knows, or characters he/she has met in books or seen in films and TV series. Characters from the Sopranos influenced my creation of Dominic, for example, though he is not portrayed explicitly as a mobster. The staff on the ship in Orca are variations on expedition leaders and experts I’ve met on such trips. Stone and Dexter share some attributes, both smart, both handsome, but for Stone, it’s not the killing itself that he likes, it’s the challenge. For Dexter, it’s a compulsion, but for Stone, it’s not. He’s not driven to do it, he just likes doing it. In that sense, Dexter is perhaps a more psychologically damaged character than Stone.
We all know how important it is for writers to read. Are there any particular authors that have influenced how you write and, if so, how have they influenced you?
I have been in the process of reading one novel or another for as long as I can remember and, I’m sure my writing in influenced to some degree by most of them. One of my books, Dieter Haus, is a riff on Patrick Suskind’s Perfume, so the influence there is quite obvious and is acknowledged in the front matter. Beyond that, though, it’s hard to say. I like to weave humor into my stories, and T C Boyle is a model for that. My subjects often are very dark, so Ian McEwan comes to mind there.
Do you have a target reader?
For the Stone Ayers books, people interested in crime fiction would be the target.
About Writing
Do you have a writing process? If so can you please describe it?
I don’t write in a disciplined way. The ideas are sort of percolating around in my head all the time and when I feel like it, I write, sometimes for hours, sometimes much less. I also edit continuously. When I sit down to work on a chapter, I usually reread what’s gone before and make modifications.
Do you outline? If so, do you do so extensively or just chapter headings and a couple of sentences?
I don’t. Maybe I should, but I just start at the beginning and keep going. The chapter structure evolves as the story develops. I begin with a general idea of what’s going to happen and why, then start writing it down. That big picture doesn’t usually change, but the path to the conclusion evolves during the process.
Do you edit as you go or wait until you’ve finished?
As mentioned, I edit continuously, but once the book is finished, I go through it again and again, tweaking things.
Did you hire a professional editor?
I have a couple people who read everything I write and make suggestions and grammatical edits, but they are not professionals.
Do you listen to music while you write? If yes, what gets the fingers tapping?
No, I don’t, which is interesting, now that I think about it, because I do listen to music a lot, but not when I’m writing.
About Publishing
Did you submit your work to Agents?
No.
What made you decide to go Indie, whether self-publishing or with an indie publisher? Was it a particular event or a gradual process?
I have been writing fiction off and on for decades, but never really tried to get things published. I had a long career in academic medicine, still do in a small way, and just didn’t have the time or inclination to pursue publishing outside of professional content. Then, along came KDP and I could do it myself. Presto, there the books were! The challenge is getting people to read them.
Did you get your book cover professionally done or did you do it yourself?
I do all the covers myself. It’s part of the fun of this for me.
Do you have a marketing plan for the book or are you just winging it?
Winging it, pretty much. I’ve begun exploring options, though, which brought me to you.
Any advice that you would like to give to other newbies considering becoming Indie authors?
Don’t sell the farm. Write because you love doing it, creating people and worlds for others to see. For me, there is huge satisfaction just in completing a book and seeing it in print. On the other hand, if that’s not enough, if you are writing primarily to make money, stop now, because creating stories is one thing, getting people to read and buy them is quite another.
About You
Where did you grow up?
San Francisco Bay Area
Where do you live now?
Lexington, KY
What would you like readers to know about you?
I’m a nice guy and the books are good reads. Try one.
What are you working on now?
I am deep into the third Stone Ayers novel. It is set here in Lexington and revolves around horse racing and the thoroughbred industry. Just who will be killed and why, I’m not sure yet, and I have a ton to learn about the industry, so this one will take a while. I’ve completed the first of two books about a sexual psychopath who is a lot less sympathetic than Stone. At the end of the first one, Jeff, he begins, with the help of a wealthy man he’s seduced, the process of changing his identity to escape the consequences of his crimes. The crimes are financial, not sexual, but he uses his intense sexuality as a manipulative tool to get what he wants. That’s what he’s about. The second book, Fuma, follows his career as a Russian. I’ve started it, but it’s on hold, because Stone has taken over my writing life.
End of Interview:
Get your copy of Never Scot-Free from Amazon US or Amazon UK.