Hi Tim!

I have to say, I am a huge reader of crime fiction, so doing this interview is a pleasure. Thanks for taking time to come share a little bit about yourself with the Fallen Angel Readers.
Can you tell us what brought you to writing?

I have been writing almost my entire life. However, I started writing fiction about ten years ago. I find writing addictive. I am most happy when I am in the world I am creating through my writing.

I see that you are a member of several writing organizations: Mystery Writers of America, The Private Eye Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and the National Writer’s Union. What brought you to these organizations? Do you think writer’s organizations are beneficial to writers both unpubbed and pubbed?

I’ll answer these two questions together. I enjoy hanging out with fellow writers. I have gained very useful information from panels and talks sponsored by writers groups. The networking has been invaluable to my development as a professional writer. For example I joined both MWA and PWA before I was a published author. Their support helped me through the process of getting published. Then I was able to achieve full membership.

Please tell us about your latest release, NO TIME TO MOURN?

This book is the first of what I call my “Time Trilogy.” These stories feature Jim Wolf, a private eye who lives on a boat at Jack London Square in Oakland, California with a pet python called Monty. They are contemporary noir stories. Each in a different way explores how the past can effect the present with murderous results. The book is published by Quiet Storm Publishing and is available through Amazon or in can be order by your local bookstore.

How about a small bit of information on your dollar download, EAGLE DOWN!?

EAGLE DOWN! features Victoria Renard, a local TV crime reporter. Victoria is twenty-six years old, beautiful, brilliant and has yet to see a murder she didn’t relish. Crime for her is a way to get TV face time, to advance her career. Yet her commitment to story can collide with her desire to advance herself. And so it does in this tale of the killing of a American Indian by forces linked to Nevada gaming. It is one of three Victoria Renard stories I have written. Another, HO! HO! HO! Is also available from www.echelonpress.com.

On your website www.timwohlforth.com I see that you have several books, anthologies, and shorts available and in the pipeline. Are there any you would specifically like to talk about?

I have a second book in the Jim Wolf series, RUNNING OUT OF TIME, due out from Quiet Storm later this year. Jim Wolf, a private detective, meets Harry, his best friend in the Sixties, a man he hasn’t seen in thirty years. A wild radical then, Harry has become even more radical now, an eco-anarchist and terrorist. He seeks to recruit Jim to join his plot to carry out a horrific act. Jim must stop Harry. But Harry’s a fanatic. To stop him may mean to kill him. How can Wolf kill his old best friend?

What are your plans for future projects? Only what is listed on your site? Anything you can talk with us about? Give us a sneak peek?

I am presently marketing a novel, also entitled EAGLE DOWN!, based on my three Victoria Renard short stories. The novel is as much the story of Victoria and her efforts to understand herself as it is the solving of the three crime stories. She needs to know why she feels no empathy towards the victims of crime, what is driving her to get to the bottom of her stories even when her career and her life are at risk, why she fears the love she begins to feel. Victoria seeks answers from a Mexican mother who has never known love and a French father who hides behind a philosophical edifice.

How do readers find out more about you and your books?

I suggest people go to my website www.timwohlforth.com

How can the readers contact you?

They can e-mail me at tim@timwohlforth.com

Have you received feedback from any readers yet that just blew your mind?

I wrote one story about a man who retired and went camping with his Bichon dog. The dog is a bit of a hero in the story. A Bichon owner discovered the story and forwarded to a network of Bichon owners around the country.

Do you have a favorite comment or question from a reader or reviewer?

I love this comment on NO TIME TO MOURN: “Like a great twelve-bar blues – the comfort of a familiar form jazzed by a fresh key and an exciting new voice.” – Lee Child, New York Times best-selling author

And this one on my short stories: "Wohlforth is always worth the time." -- James R. Winter. Review of Hardbroiled featured in New Thrilling Detective.

How much of your personality and life experiences do you put into your writing?

Jim Wolf, my fictional private eye, was adopted. He felt he was parachuted into an existing family, always the outsider. I was also adopted and feel much the same way. But then I am not a woman, or 26, or beautiful, or a TV crime reporter.

Generally, how long does it take you to write a book?

I can write a book in three to four months. However, there are books I have rewritten over and over again covering a span of several years.

How did you become involved in so many anthologies? Are you friends with the other authors?

Anthologies are usually by invitation only. That does not mean you have to depend on friends or sit and wait for an invitation to arrive. I will give you two examples of how I landed inclusion in two upcoming prestigious anthologies. MWA publishes an anthology almost every year. It is edited by different best selling MWA authors and is open for submission by all members. However, a number of slots are reserved for well-known members to help sales. The current anthology, RELATIONSHIPS CAN BE MURDER is edited by best-selling thriller author Harlan Coben. It includes stores by Lee Child, Laura Lippman and Ridley Pearson. It also includes my story, “The Masseuse.” They received almost 300 entries. I am also included in an anthology published by Dennis McMillan of the best of PLOTS WITH GUN. In this case Anthony Neil Smith who ran the site for six or seven years chose his favorite stories and luckily included one of mine.

Have you worked on any collaborative stories?

I have co-authored a non-fiction book entitled ON THE EDGE: POLITICAL CULTS RIGHT AND LEFT. The other author was living in Belfast at the time and the entirely collaboration was done over the Internet.

What is your writing routine?

I generally write in the morning for three-four hours every day, seven days a week. I have lunch, swim, nap, and put another hour or so in before supper. I rarely write at night.

Do you have a set schedule for writing or do you just go with the flow?

I normally start on chapter one and plow through to the end. Sometimes it screams to come out. Other times it is a battle to get the flow going. The trick is to enter the world on the novel or story completely. Everything outside the writing is blocked out. If someone touches my shoulder I jump.

What do you do to relax and recharge from a long day?

I swim or hike every day. I read and/or watch TV in the evenings.

Can you share with us where do your ideas come from?

I am really not sure. I will tell you one technique that I have used frequently, especially with short stories. I start with a scene. For example in a story called KILLER FOG I purposely started with a “classic” set-up. Foggy night, door to bar opens, in walks a woman with large brown eyes wearing a trench-coat. She says… At this point I haven’t the foggiest (sorry) idea what she is going to say, what story she brings with her out of the fog, where that story will lead, except back out into the fog. I stumble along not knowing how the story will end until it ends. That way, I figure, neither will the reader.

What kind of research do you do? How much do you think is necessary?

I do not like to do research. I feel it gets in the way of the creative process. However, I do like to visit every scene where any action takes place. To me it is critical that every scene be concrete and specific. No talking heads floating in a generic background.

There really isn’t a bio, per se on your website. Please tell us about yourself (family, hobbies, education, etc.)

I was adopted as I have mentioned previously. I had three mothers my first three years (birth mother, foster mother, adopted mother.) I suppose it is therefore no accident that I have been married four times. I have two sons. I went to Oakwood, a Quaker boarding school in Poughkeepsie, New York, as well as Buxton School a progressive boarding school in Williamstown, Mass. I went for four years to Oberlin College. I cook, hike, swim and kayak.

Who are some of your favorite authors?

Michael Connelly, Ian Rankin, Lee Child, Tony Hillerman, Colin Dexter, Sara Paretsky, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Georges Simenon, Rex Stout, Martin Cruz Smith, John LeCarre.

Among your own books, have you a favorite?

It is hard to make an objective judgment. I love the books most I am currently working on. I have just finished EAGLE DOWN! And I am very proud of it. I am working an a revision on a historical thriller, based on the Haymarket bombing, DYNAMITE, that means a lot to me.

Favorite hero or heroine?

Sam Spade

What book for you has been the easiest to write?

EAGLE DOWN! Sections of it came to me faster than I could write them down.

What are the elements of a great mystery for you?

For me a great mystery needs vivid characters and to be about something beyond “who done it?” The protagonist needs to be driven and to drag the reader along with him or her. There needs to be action, adventure. I am quite critical of a mystery where a murder takes place somewhere close to page one and then for another 250 pages our detective wanders around interviewing suspects. The protagonist needs to be placed in danger. New murders executed or threatened. And it all has to mean something even if that something is that there is no meaning to existence.

What is the most rewarding thing about being a writer?

The act of writing. Next comes someone bothering to read what you write.

If you weren't writing, what would you be doing?

Hiking, swimming, cooking, eating, and … reading.

Any words of encouragement for unpublished writers?

I can’t add much to the common sentiment: keep writing and submitting. Then after a period of time go back and look at what you wrote three years ago. Compare it to what you just wrote. You should see progress. If you can write better over time then over time you will get published.

What question would you love to answer that I didn't ask?

Just one point: I want to stress the importance of critique groups. It is extremely difficult, especially for a new writer, to see your own work as others see it. I suggest finding a critique group that is both encouraging and critical. If three others agree that something is wrong with your story then it is probably wrong. All the time you need to be developing your own internal critical self. You can and must learn over time to assess your own work as an editor would. So don’t just correct your manuscript on the basis of external criticism. Try to figure out what the critic sees that you do not see. Then train yourself to see this element.

Thank you.

Interviewed by: Izzy