After twenty-six years in the fire service, you might think that when I finally decided to write a novel, I'd write about firefighting.
Nope.
Twenty-six years of fires and emergencies was enough.
Besides, thrillers were always the books I wanted to read. Political thrillers, action thrillers, conspiracy thrillers, crime and suspense. Give me a story where something doesn't quite add up, somebody is hiding something, and the main character suddenly finds himself caught up in something much bigger than he expected, and I'll probably keep turning the pages.
Long before I ever seriously thought about writing an actual novel, I was already playing with stories in my head.
I'd read somebody else's book and start imagining different outcomes. What if this character had made a different decision? What if the bad guy got away? What if something the author mentioned almost in passing turned out to be much more important?
Sometimes my imagination would take one small piece of someone else's story and head off in an entirely different direction.
And sometimes I wrote those ideas down.
I'd start a story. Maybe I'd write a few pages. Sometimes I'd get considerably farther than that. Then another idea would start floating around in my head.
That one sounded pretty good too.
So I'd start writing that one.
I had plenty of beginnings.
Finishing was another matter.
Maybe I Could Actually Do This
As I got closer to retirement, writing a novel started feeling less like something I'd mess around with and more like something I might actually be able to accomplish.
I had a bucket list, and one of the things on it was pretty straightforward:
Publish a novel.
My expectations weren't particularly complicated.
I didn't need a publishing contract. I wasn't thinking about bestseller lists or book signings. I figured I could write a book, self-publish it, order one copy and put it on my bookshelf.
Then I could look at it and say, I did that.
Bucket-list item checked.
Of course, that still required me to do something I hadn't managed with all those other stories.
Finish one.
Around that time, as I was approaching retirement, I watched an interview with thriller author Jack Carr. Carr had been a Navy SEAL before becoming a successful novelist.
I remember thinking:
If he can do it, I can do it.
I should probably clarify that statement before somebody gets the wrong idea.
Being a Navy SEAL and being a firefighter are not the same job by any stretch of the imagination.
But I do think the two professions attract some of the same types of people.
People who value teamwork and loyalty. People willing to accept responsibility for the person beside them. People who can function when things aren't going according to plan. People who sometimes have to make decisions without having all the information they'd like.
And people who tend to develop a slightly questionable sense of humor.
Spend enough time in a firehouse and you'll understand that last one.
Watching that interview didn't suddenly make me a writer. But it did make becoming one seem possible.
Maybe the experiences I'd accumulated during one career could help me build something completely different in the next one.
Someone Wanted the Next Pages
There was another important difference this time.
A coworker wanted to read what I was writing.
I'd give him some pages, and he'd want to read more. Then I'd write some more, and he'd ask what happened next.
That might not sound like much, but it was.
Remember, I was pretty good at starting stories. I was also pretty good at abandoning them when the next interesting idea came along.
This time, somebody was waiting for the next pages.
That became frequent encouragement to keep going.
Then other people started reading pieces of the story.
And something unexpected happened.
They were all telling me pretty much the same thing:
You need to get this published.
Not that's pretty good for a firefighter.
Not that's a nice hobby.
They wanted me to publish it.
More importantly, they wanted to know what happened next.
For someone trying to write a thriller, I suppose there are worse signs.
So when the next shiny idea came wandering through my head, I didn't chase it.
At least not right away.
I kept writing this one.
Eventually, I finished it.
That story became my first novel, Programmed to Win.
Why I Started Writing Thrillers
Looking back, I'm not sure I ever really made a conscious decision to become a thriller writer.
I'd already made that decision years earlier as a reader. I just didn't know it.
Thrillers were the stories that interested me. They were the books that kept my imagination working after I'd finished reading them.
They also gave me the freedom to ask the question that has probably become the starting point for almost everything I write:
What if?
What if something we trust isn't as secure as we think?
What if new technology gets into the wrong hands?
What if the people responsible for protecting us have their own agenda?
What if powerful people are able to hide something because nobody believes it could actually happen?
And what happens when one person who wasn't looking for the fight suddenly finds himself standing in their way?
Those kinds of questions eventually gave me Derrick Driver.
And once Derrick showed up, apparently he wasn't leaving.
What the Fire Service Gave My Thrillers
Derrick isn't a firefighter.
The Derrick Driver series isn't about firefighting.
But there's no way I could spend twenty-six years in the fire service and not bring some of that experience with me when I started writing.
I've watched people on some of the worst days of their lives.
I've watched people deal with fear, tragedy, uncertainty and loss.
I've watched people make decisions under pressure when there wasn't time to sit around discussing every possible outcome.
I've seen what loyalty looks like when it matters.
I've also learned that people are complicated.
Good people sometimes make bad decisions. Smart people occasionally do incredibly stupid things. Tough people can fall apart. Quiet people can surprise everyone when they're suddenly the ones who need to step forward.
And sometimes humor shows up at completely inappropriate moments because that's how people deal with things they can't otherwise control.
Those observations probably influence my characters more than any fire or emergency I could recreate on a page.
I didn't need to make Derrick Driver a firefighter to bring twenty-six years of the fire service into my books.
I just needed to make him human.
The One Book Plan
There's one part of this story I find particularly amusing now.
I only wanted to publish one book.
That was the bucket-list item.
Write a novel. Publish it. Put a copy on the bookshelf.
Done.
Instead, Programmed to Win introduced Derrick Driver.
One story became another. Characters grew. Derrick's world got bigger. Ideas that originally seemed like they might make an interesting scene became entire books.
And those new ideas floating around in my head?
They never stopped.
There are still more of them than I'll probably ever have time to write.
The difference is that now I know some of them will actually get finished.
What started as an item on a bucket list became the Derrick Driver series and a second career I never really planned on having.
All because I wanted to put one book on my bookshelf.
Now there are already two.
Apparently, I should have been more specific.